Real Life Examples of Superpowers?

I have done a Hub on developing psychic power and I have researched and written about real human super powers.
Like a great many other things, this is a subject that has fascinated me for years.
Are we capable of way more physically than we think?
Is it some kinda Pavlovian thing that keeps us down?
Are we told we can't do something our whole lives until we believe it?
Then in a moment of crisis, we transcend "The Matrix" and do what we are really capable of ?

History is full of super powered beings.
Samson and Hercules spring to mind first, but there is a whole list of beings with "powers far beyond those of mortal men".

The Berserkers from Old Norse literature are said to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury.
The Moro tribesmen in the Philippines went into their "Amok frenzy" which gave them similar abilities as the Berserkers.
The Spartan warrior Aristodemus was said to have gone beresrker at the Battle of Plataea.
In the Iliad, warriors "possessed" by a god or goddess showed superhuman powers.

And while these are old stories, there is no lack of modern day counterparts that show similar attributes (though admittedly under different circumstances).
Comic book writer Grant Morrison has stated, that in the near future, super beings will appear.
People with psychic powers like pyrokinesis, telekinesis and super strength.
(Yes super strength could be related more to telekinesis than real physical power)
And that may have already started happening.....

1982, Lawrenceville, Georgia: Fifty-something Angela Cavallo lifted a 1964 Chevrolet Impala (curb weight around 4,000 pounds) off of her son Tony, when it fell off the jacks that had held it up while he was working underneath the car.
She held it loong enough for Tony to be pulled from underneath the car, and the jacks to be replaced.

1999, New Mexico's Sandia Mountain: A 500 pound boulder falls on mountaineer Saint John Eberle. Eberle lifted the rock off of himself as his partner Marc Beverly watched in amazement.

2006, Tucson, Arizona: When eighteen year old Kyle Holtrust was hit by a Chevrolet Camaro (curb weight around 3500 pounds) and pinned underneath it, Tim Boyle saw the accident, ran over and lifted the Camaro off the teenager, while the driver of the car pulled him to safety.

2009, Ottawa, Kansas: Nick Harris lifted a Mercury sedan off of 6 year old Ashlyn Hough pinned underneath.
Nick is five foot seven and weighs 185 pounds.

Date Unknown, High Island, Texas: When Marie "Bootsy" Payton's young granddaughter, Evie was knocked underneath and pinned by a running riding lawn mower, Payton grabbed the mower and easily tossed it off her granddaughter.
Evie lost four toes, but she lived.
Later Marie could not budge the riding mower.

Of course most of you will say that it's just adrenaline.
We maybe so, but if a 50 something mother can exhibit that strength, shouldn't we all be able to?
Imagine having the ability to toss a car out of the way (if needed) on command.

And are there other examples of super powers?

Little Liam Hoekstra was hanging upside down by his feet when he performed an inverted sit-up, his shirt falling away to expose rippled abdominal muscles.
It was a display of raw power one might expect to see from an Olympic gymnast.
Liam is 19 months old.
But this precocious, 22-pound boy with coffee-colored skin, curly hair and washboard abs is far from a typical toddler.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070530/strong_toddler_070530/20070530

Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.
DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-23-baby-muscles_x.htm

In my psychic powers Hub, I mentioned the Russian housewife Nina Kulagina.
Nina had forty Russian scientists (two of them were Nobel laureates) study her and they said she exhibited psychokinesis.

On March 10th, 1970, Nina succeeded in speeding up, slowing down and finally stopping the beating of a frog's heart floating in a solution.

Of course some think that the Nina Kulagina experiments were just Russian propaganda.

If such abilities were available, wouldn't the Governments of the world have weaponized it by now?
Wouldn't we see our own Captain Americas walking around?

Well they have tried.
And possibly succeeded.

Take the unusual case of Andy Pero or "Project Superman".
Andy said that he was created through a combination of genetic manipulation, trauma based mind control and Silva Mind Control training.
This allowed him to perform superhuman feats and gave him psionic abilities.
You can read more about Andy here:
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/andyperointerview13jun00.shtml

And we have the movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats" starring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey.
The movie is listed as a comedy, but is based on the book of the same name by author, journalist, documentary filmmaker and radio presenter Jon Ronson.
Since the book is based on facts (it's listed as non-fiction) , you wonder if maybe making the movie into a comedy is some type of disinfo project.
Of course I do hang out a lot at conspiracy sites.
But the book is based on real government operations like Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS), First Earth Battalion, Project MK-ULTRA (MKULTRA) and the work of U.S. Army scientist, Frank Olson.

So are all of these tales just Urban Legends?
Or is the entire human race on the verge of developing psychic powers?
Let's just hope if there is a Professor X out there, that he's on our side.

I saw this online and thought it was pretty wild....

Device could create real-life Spiderman

Engineers at Cornell University, in New York, have invented a palm-sized device that uses the adhesive power of water to create a reversible adhesive bond capable of sticking to glass, wood and even brick.

The researchers, whose work was funded by the US military, hope to use their invention to develop gloves and shoes that will allow the wearer to climb up even the blankest of walls.

You can read the full story here

Maybe Superman's vision powers aren't all that far off....

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - 04/05/10) - Noted psychiatrist and author Colin A. Ross, M.D., has published experimental data that supports his scientific hypothesis that the eyes emit energy that can be captured and measured. Dr. Ross' paper, "The Electrophysiological Basis of Evil Eye Belief," is published in the current issue of Anthropology of Consciousness, a journal of the American Anthropological Association. The full paper is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123310535/PDFSTART.

Although nearly everyone has experienced the sense of being stared at only to find that a person or animal really was looking, Western science has long rejected that the human eye can emit any form of energy. Dr. Ross says his findings move "human ocular extramission," which he also refers to as an "eyebeam," from the realm of superstition to science.

Good and Evil Deeds Stimulate Surprising 'Superpowers'

The mere act of kindness, or one of evil, can boost willpower and physical strength, a new study suggests.
The results, based on three experiments, show that those who performed good deeds, or envisioned themselves acting charitably, were able to hold a weight or squeeze a hand grip significantly longer than those who didn't perform or think about such deeds.
But evil acts appeared to confer similar and perhaps even greater superpowers.
"When you think of superheroes or super villains, [you think of people] that can possess huge amounts of willpower and are relatively unfazed by pain," said study researcher Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "And because of your stereotype of heroes and villains, you kind of embody that, or transform yourself into your perception of hero and villain," when you perform good or evil acts, he said.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/good-deeds-willpower-100504.html

Daredevil?

Patient TN was, by his own account, completely blind.
Two consecutive strokes had destroyed the visual cortex of his brain, and consequently, his ability to see.
Researchers began examining him and discovered that despite his blindness, he had maintained the ability to detect emotion on a person’s face.
To further test the extent of TN’s abilities, researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands devised a simple yet decisive experiment: an obstacle course. They arranged boxes, chairs, and various other objects down a long hallway. The team then asked TN to navigate the course without any sort of assistance. TN was skeptical, as he required the aid of a cane and a guide to get around. But eventually, he decided to participate. Researchers recorded the result in their recent paper: “Astonishingly,” the report reads, “he negotiated [the course] perfectly and never once collided with any obstacle, as witnessed by several colleagues who applauded spontaneously when he completed the course.”

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/seeing_in_the_dark/

Cyclops?
 
Researchers have engineered a human kidney cell able to produce a directed green laser beam when struck by weak blue light. Don't get your spandex out just yet though, it might be some years before you're able to shoot lasers out of your eyes.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/genetically-engineered-human-kidney-cell-shoots-laser-beam-50004111/

Going back to the "A blind man shocks researchers with what he sees" story above, did you know that there actually is a thing called Human echolocation?
Wikipedia says that it is:
"the ability of humans to detect objects in their environment by sensing echoes from those objects. By actively creating sounds – for example, by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their foot or making clicking noises with their mouths – people trained to orientate with echolocation can interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects, accurately identifying their location and size."
Not only is it an ability, it can be taught as well.
Daniel Kish (who has been blind since the age of 13 months) is the President of World Access for the Blind and has taught over 500 blind children how to develop this ability.