We all fancy having the superpowers of all those superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, Spiderman, Hulk, Black Widow and Black Panther from Marvel or Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aqua Man from DC. Interestingly, we have some people with real life superpowers that maybe not exactly similar to those fictional superpowers but wonderful enough to drop your jaws. You won’t believe the amazing feats performed by these men and women.
People with Real Life Superpowers
The Samurai
Japanese Iaido Master Isao Machii is known for his unusual ability to drive a sword with apparently superhuman speed and precision. He also holds many world records, including the fastest 1,000 martial arts sword cuts and the fastest tennis ball cut by a sword. If you want to witness and appreciate Machii’s superpower yourself, check out this video, which shows him cutting and dicing a tiny plastic pellet fired at him at more than 200 mph.
The Flying Woman
As a BASE jumper, Norwegian Karina Hollekim jumps off cliffs for an existence. Wearing what’s perceived as a wingsuit, a full-length jumpsuit with extra fabric between the legs and under the arms, BASE jumpers “fly” for a couple of seconds before opening a parachute to slow their fall. Hollekim has committed more than 400 jumps, including from the Hand of Fatima in Mali.
The Blind Man Who Can See
Daniel Kish, 53, can’t see with his eyes as he had both of them removed during a childhood fight with retina cancer, but he has so precisely harmonized his hearing that he can drive his bike through heavy traffic, climb trees, camp alone, and dance smoothly. His “power” is echolocation. To position himself, Kish clicks his tongue and hears attentively as the sound bounces off objects around him and returns to his ears at various volumes. Bats, dolphins and beluga whales practice a similar method, biosonar, to navigate the ocean. Kish is so skilled at going from place yo place using echolocation that other blind people hire him to help them get around. “That tongue click is everything to me,” says Kish. He also explained the method he used to navigate the world on TED Talks.
The Man with Photographic Memory
All it needed for British artist Stephen Wiltshire to memorize and draw complex details of Tokyo, Rome, Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York City skylines was a concise helicopter drive over each city. Wiltshire, who is autistic and didn’t speak until age five. It is said that his first two words were “paper” and “pen” and has a much sophisticated photographic memory. In his panoramic drawing of Rome, he recreated the exact number of columns of the Pantheon.
The Man Born to Live in Freezing Temperature
Applying the Buddhist meditation technique Tummo, Dutch stuntman Wim Hof retains his body temperature uniform while enduring exceptionally cold conditions. Hof, whose stunts has earned him the nickname Iceman, has completed many marathons and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in sub-freezing temperatures wearing only shorts, Hof holds twenty cold-endurance world records, including, at one hour, 13 minutes and 48 seconds, the record for the longest ice bath. If you are fond of swimming and chill baths, don’t forget to checkout these best hotel pools to visit in 2019.
The French Spiderman
In our childhood, we used to believe that the only way to get the powers of Spiderman was to endure a radioactive spider bite. Well, that’s not the case. A 54-year-old Alain Robert, also known as the “French Spider-Man,” is known for his hair-raising stunts in urban climbing. Without any safety devices to prevent him from falling, Robert lifts himself hundreds of feet into the sky, climbing multistory buildings in broad daylight. Among his death-defying feats, Robert has scaled the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Canada Square tower, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, and the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. If you are traveling freak, checkout these best places to visit in different states of the USA.
Although urban climbing is not generically unlawful, Robert has been arrested over 100 times for trespassing and creating public troubles. Most lately, the thrill-lover was arrested after successfully summiting a skyscraper in London, the 662-feet-tall, 46-story Heron Tower. Though Robert teases death each time that he climbs a slippery, sleek building, he seeks compassion in the knowledge that he is pursuing his passion and using his superpowers to do so.
The Man Who Doesn’t Stop Running
Dean Karnazes, named by Men’s Fitness as one of the fittest men on the planet, is the real-life version of The Flash, simply with better stamina. As an endurance athlete, Karnazes has submitted himself to some of the most physically and mentally exhausting athletic tests possible. Most prominently, Karnazes has surmounted a 350-mile run without stopping (even to sleep!), a scorching sprint through the 120-degree-heat of Death Valley, and a marathon to the South Pole, where temperatures drop to negative 40-degrees-Fahrenheit.
Though Karnazes has already made quite a running reputation, he continues to search for new ideas to test his mind and body. Recently, the super-runner completed 50 marathons one in each state over 50 consecutive days.
