Human behavior in extreme situations. Extreme situations

Ticket 1. Question 1. Psychology of extreme situations and conditions as a psychological discipline and the reasons for its occurrence.

Psychology of extreme situations - This is one of the areas of applied psychology. It explores problems associated with assessing, predicting and optimizing human mental states and behavior in stressful situations. The complication of modern production caused by the scientific and technological revolution, the constantly increasing pace and rhythm of our life, the constant saturation of it with various information, the increase in production and non-production contacts between people, various types of natural and man-made accidents and catastrophes, and an unstable socio-economic situation in the country often give rise to people have mental tension. The extreme form of its manifestation is stress. Situations and factors leading to its occurrence are called extreme.

When using the concept “extreme” we are not talking about normal, ordinary conditions of activity, but about circumstances significantly different from them. Extreme conditions can be created not only by maximization (overload, overexposure), but also by minimization (underload: lack of information, communication, movements, etc.) of existing factors. Therefore, the effect on a person’s activity and condition in both cases can be the same.

Workers in many professions operate under extreme conditions; pilots, astronauts, firefighters when extinguishing a fire, military personnel when performing combat missions, law enforcement officers during special operations, etc. These professions initially involve working in extreme conditions. However, representatives of many other professions also work in such conditions: drivers, workers in “hot” shops, fishermen, steeplejacks, dispatchers on various types of transport, specialists whose work involves high-voltage currents and explosives, representatives of many operator professions, etc. Moreover the number of such professions and the people employed in them is steadily increasing.

In extreme conditions, a person’s usual mode of work and rest is often disrupted. In severe extreme situations, mental and other overloads reach limits, followed by overwork, nervous exhaustion, disruption of activity, affective reactions, psychogenia (pathological conditions). Extreme situations are dangerous to the life, health, and well-being of people. Extreme situations are increasingly occurring in normal work activities, resulting in so-called occupational stress.

Stress is a concept used to refer to a wide range of human conditions and actions that arise as a response to a variety of extreme influences (stressors). Stressors are usually divided into physiological (pain, hunger, thirst, excessive physical activity, high or low temperature, etc.) and psychological (factors that act through their signaling value, such as danger, threat, deception, resentment, information overload and etc.).

Regardless of the type of stressor, psychologists study the effects they cause at the physiological, psychological and behavioral levels. Usually these consequences are negative. Emotional shifts occur, the motivational sphere is deformed, the course of perception and thinking processes changes, motor and speech behavior is disrupted. A particularly strong disorganizing effect on human activity is produced by emotional stress that has reached the level of affect in one form or another (impulsive, inhibitory or generalizing). The power of affect is such that they are capable of inhibiting any other mental processes. Moreover, affects impose on a person certain stereotypical methods of “emergency exit” from an extreme situation, corresponding to the form of manifestation of affect. However, such methods, formed over millions of years of biological evolution of the species “Homo sapiens” (flight, numbness, uncontrolled aggression), justify themselves only in typical biological conditions, but not in social ones!

Extreme situations in our lives are inevitable, so psychologists in many countries have recently been intensively studying the characteristics of human behavior and the patterns of their activities in extreme conditions. This allows us to draw practical conclusions regarding the training of such people and the organization of their activities.

All this led to the creation of a new scientific direction, which was given the following names by different authors, depending on specific circumstances: psychology of activity in extreme conditions, psychology of work in special conditions, extreme psychology.

Extreme psychology - a branch of psychological science that studies the general psychological patterns of human life and activity in changed (unusual) conditions of existence: during aviation and space flights, scuba diving, staying in hard-to-reach areas of the globe (Arctic, Antarctic, highlands, desert), underground and etc.

Extreme psychology arose at the end of the 20th century, synthesizing specific research in the field of aviation, space, marine and polar psychology.

The object of study is a person whose professional activity takes place in special (complicated, unusual) and extreme conditions of his environment.

The subject of study of the discipline is the psychological patterns of human activity, mental processes, states and personality traits in their relationship with objects and means of activity, with the physical and social environment.

Research in the field of extreme psychology is aimed at improving psychological selection and psychological training for working in unusual living conditions, as well as developing measures to protect against the traumatic effects of psychogenic factors.

Ticket 1. Question 2. Psychological consequences of terrorist attacks.

The problem of terrorism is an acute problem of our time, because... terrorism poses an extreme danger to all humanity. In a peaceful life, people are focused on sociocultural development and strive for peace with each other. Terrorist acts interrupt the usual rhythm of people's lives and cause massive casualties, entail the destruction of material and spiritual values ​​that sometimes cannot be restored, sow hostility between states, provoke wars, mistrust and hatred between social and national groups, which sometimes cannot be overcome during the life of the whole generations.

Terrorist act - a special type of emergency event. One of the main goals of a terrorist act is to spread terror and fear among as many people as possible. Events in recent years show that this goal is most often achieved. It has become obvious that one of the most pressing problems of the modern world is living under the constant threat of a terrorist attack: it can happen at any time and in any place. Chronic feelings of insecurity lead to poor mental and physical health. The possibility of a terrorist attack, along with human exposure to a number of toxic, biological substances and radiation exposure, can be classified as “invisible stress” factors.

terrorist act, Firstly , is characterized by the fact that it has an extreme, sudden, life-threatening nature, breaking almost all the basic illusions of a person. Most often, this entails disorientation of a person to one degree or another, both in psychological and social space.

Second characteristic feature This type of event lies in its violence, in the fact that it occurred due to the “evil intent of certain people.”

Under psychological consequences of terrorism the negative impact on a person’s emotional and mental health should be understood. Victims of a terrorist attack are primarily susceptible to this type of consequences.

Victim of a terrorist attack - a person (or group of persons) who has directly suffered an attack on their fundamental rights by another person (or group of persons) acting consciously.

The psychology of victims of terror consists of five main components. They can be arranged chronologically.

This is fear, replaced by horror, causing either apathy or panic, which can give way to aggression.

Men and women behave differently as victims of terror. Certain behavioral differences are associated with the level of education, the development of intelligence and the level of well-being of a person (the less he has to lose, the greater the tendency to chaotic, unproductive protest). Some time after a terrorist attack, its victims and witnesses retain psychopathological symptoms - primarily in the form of delayed fear, as well as various kinds of phobias and regular nightmares. It should be noted that 40% of terrorist victims have deteriorating mental health. Psychological assistance is required by 20% of rescuers. Also, the consequences of terrorism differ in that several years may pass before the victim realizes that he has mental trauma as a consequence of a terrorist act and seeks help.

Classification of consequences experienced by victims of terrorism :

Uniqueness of the experience: there are few situations in life in which a person experiences the same thing;

The thought of being a pawn in a game beyond their control, beyond their understanding is terrifying.

The victim feels humiliated and worthless;

Sometimes a dependence is established between the victim and the terrorist, and the victim sees his protector in the terrorist (“Stockholm Syndrome”). For the victim, such a connection serves a protective function, alleviating feelings of fear and helplessness. However, after the incident, this addiction can turn into a source of guilt, which can undermine all attempts at treatment;

The situation includes an element of complete surprise, which cannot but cause a strong feeling of helplessness and anxiety.

The consequences of traumatic stress in victims of terrorism are of a different nature and manifest themselves in different ways.

Psychological - decreased self-esteem, level of social adaptation and frustration tolerance; the most characteristic mental state that develops under the influence of traumatic situations, including after a terrorist attack, is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The recent increase in the number of terrorist attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation is associated both with an increase in the number of victims directly affected and with an increase in the number of people indirectly related to this, i.e. who witnessed what happened thanks to the media. Developing psychological disorders as a consequence of experiencing the growing threat of terrorism in recent times can acquire the character of a mental epidemic. Along with the “Vietnamese”, “Afghan” and “Chechen” syndromes identified and recognized by psychologists, psychotherapists and doctors, the totality of psychological consequences from the perception of the threat of a terrorist act can be combined into the “threat of a terrorist act” syndrome.

A survey of Russians on the anniversary of the events at the Dubrovka theater center in Moscow confirmed that the fear of terrorist attacks does not leave the population: 30% are “very afraid”, and another 48% are “somewhat afraid” that they or their loved ones may be victims terrorists. Only 28% to one degree or another hope that the Russian authorities will be able to protect the population from new terrorist attacks, 64% do not hope so.

To the question: “WHAT ROLE DID THE MEDIA PLAY IN THIS SITUATION?” 47% of Russians responded that the media “informed people, helped them understand the situation,” 20% said they “willy-nilly interfered with the intelligence services and helped terrorists,” and 17% said that the media “confused people and aroused unnecessary passions.”

Constant coverage of disasters, tragic and criminal events creates a general negative background of uncertainty and anxiety, which is the basis for neurotic and stress disorders. In addition, excessive fixation on negative information in the media creates a certain psychological state, which consists in a feeling of loss of control over circumstances that are significant for one’s own life, which again is the reason for the development of maladjustment. The positive role of the media, in addition to its main task - timely, accurate and objective information about current events - is informing about the possibilities of obtaining medical and psychological help in extreme situations.

Ticket 2. Question 1. Extreme situations.Examples of classifications of problematic, crisis, emergency and traumatic situations.

Situation – a real set of objective-subjective circumstances of a person (group, community), characteristic of his life at some point in time. The structure of the situation includes: situational components (what surrounds the person), personal components (what the person in the situation is like), active (behavioral) components (what the person did, what he is doing, what he intends to do and what the person achieves) .

Extreme situation - a sudden situation that threatens or is subjectively perceived by a person as threatening life, health, personal integrity, and well-being.

Extreme situation - this is a situation in a certain territory that has arisen as a result of an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, a catastrophe, a natural or other disaster that may result in human casualties, damage to human health or the environment, significant material losses and disruption of people’s living conditions.

An extreme situation has the following characteristics:

1) suddenness of the onset, 2) a sharp departure from the norm of habitual actions and states; 3) the developing situation is full of contradictions that require prompt resolution; 4) progressive changes in the state of the situation, conditions of activity, elements, connections and relationships, 5) increasing complexity of ongoing processes, 6) transition of the situation into a phase of instability, reaching limits, criticality; 7) the generation of dangers and threats by changes (disruption of activities, death, destruction of systems); increasing tension for the subjects of an extreme situation (in terms of its comprehension, decision-making, response), etc.

Types of extreme situations:

1) objectively extreme situations (difficulties and dangers in them come from the external environment and arise objectively for a person);

2) potentially extreme situations (danger is expressed as a hidden threat);

3) personally provoked extreme situations (the danger is generated by the person himself, his intentional or erroneous choice, behavior);

4) imaginary extreme situations (not dangerous, threatening situations).

Extreme conditions - these are conditions in which a threat to a person’s life, his health or property arises from external objects due to an unplanned (unexpected) change in their condition, leading to the appearance and action of maladaptive factors.

Conditions that place increased demands on a working person are called special (extreme) operating conditions (for example, work in unique conditions associated with danger to life; high “cost” (responsibility) of decisions made; processing large volumes and flows of information (i.e. n. information overload); lack of time to perform required actions; complicated work environment factors)

General signs of an extreme situation:

1. The presence of insurmountable difficulties, awareness of a threat or an insurmountable obstacle to the realization of any specific goals.

2. A state of mental tension and various human reactions to the extremity of the environment, overcoming which is of great importance for him.

3. A significant change in the usual (usual, sometimes even tense or difficult) situation, parameters of activity or behavior, i.e. going beyond the “usual”.

Thus, one of the main signs of an extreme situation is insurmountable obstacles to implementation, which can be considered as an immediate threat to the implementation of a set goal or planned action.

In an extreme situation, a person is confronted by the environment. Extreme situations are associated with noticeably and dramatically changing conditions in which activities take place. There is a danger of failure to complete a task or a threat to the safety of equipment, equipment, or human life.

Extreme situations represent the extreme manifestation of difficult situations and require maximum strain on a person’s mental and physical strength to overcome them.

Human behavior in extreme situations

A person’s life is a series of all kinds of situations, many of which, due to their repetition and similarity, become familiar. Human behavior is brought to the point of automatism, so the consumption of psychophysical and physical forces in such situations is minimized. Extreme situations require a person to mobilize mental and physical resources. A person in an extreme situation receives information about its various elements:

About external conditions;

About your internal states;

About the results of your own actions.

This information is processed through cognitive and emotional processes. The results of this processing influence the behavior of the individual in an extreme situation.

Threat signals lead to an increase in human activity. And if this activity does not bring the expected improvement in the situation, the person is overwhelmed by negative emotions of varying strength. The role of emotions in an extreme situation is different.

Emotions can act as an indicator of extremity and as an assessment of the situation, and as a factor leading to a change in behavior in the situation. And at the same time, it is necessary to remember that emotional experiences are one of the important factors of human behavior in an extreme situation.

As a rule, an extreme situation is generated by objective reasons, but its extremeness is largely determined by subjective components. So:

There may not be an objective threat, but a person or group of people mistakenly perceives the current situation as extreme. Most often this happens due to unpreparedness or a distorted perception of the surrounding reality;

There may be real objective threat factors, but a person does not know about their existence and is not aware of the extreme situation that has arisen;

A person can realize the extremity of the situation, but evaluate it as insignificant, which in itself is already a tragic mistake that can lead to unpredictable consequences;

Finding himself in an extreme situation and not finding a way out of the current situation, having lost faith in the possibility of its resolution, he escapes from reality by activating psychological defense mechanisms;

The situation may be objectively extreme, but having knowledge and experience allows you to overcome it without significant mobilization of your resources.

Thus, a person reacts to an extreme situation depending on how he perceives it and evaluates its significance.

There is another specific human reaction to an extreme situation - mental tension. This is the mental state of a person in an extreme situation, with the help of which a person, as it were, prepares for the transition from one psychophysical state to another, adequate to the current situation.

Forms of tension.

Perceptual (occurs when there are difficulties in perception);

Intellectual (when a person finds it difficult to solve a problem);

Emotional (when emotions arise that disorganize behavior and activity);

Strong-willed (when a person cannot control himself);

Motivational (related to the struggle of motives, different points of view)

Problem situation - this is an intellectual difficulty of a person that arises in the case when he does not know how to explain the emerging phenomenon, fact, process of reality, cannot achieve the goal by the method of action known to him. This prompts the person to seek a new way of explaining or way of acting. A problematic situation is a pattern of productive, cognitive creative activity. It encourages the beginning of thinking, active, mental activity that occurs in the process of posing and solving a problem.

A cognitive need arises in a person when he cannot achieve a goal using the methods of action and knowledge known to him. Thus, the psychological structure of a problem situation includes the following three components: an unknown achieved value or method of action, a cognitive need that motivates a person to intellectual activity, and a person’s intellectual capabilities, including his creative abilities and past experience.

Crisis situation (from the Greek krisis - decision, turning point, outcome) - a situation that requires a person to significantly change his ideas about the world and himself in a short period of time. These changes can be both positive and negative.

Among the events that can lead to a crisis are the death of a loved one, serious illness, separation from parents, family, friends, change in appearance, change in social situation, marriage, sudden changes in social status, etc. Theoretically, life events qualify as leading to a crisis if they “create a potential or actual threat to the satisfaction of fundamental needs...” and at the same time present the individual with a problem “from which he cannot escape and which he cannot resolve in a short time and in the usual way.” ".

4 successive stages of crisis: 1) primary increase in tension, stimulating habitual ways of solving problems; 2) further increase in tension in conditions where these methods are ineffective; 3) an even greater increase in tension, requiring the mobilization of external and internal sources; 4) if everything turns out to be in vain, the fourth stage begins, characterized by increased anxiety and depression, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and personality disorganization. A crisis can end at any stage if the danger disappears or a solution is discovered.

Emergency (Emergency) is a situation in a certain territory that has developed as a result of an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, a catastrophe, a natural or other disaster that may result in human casualties, damage to human health or the environment, significant material losses and disruption of people’s living conditions

People, being in extreme conditions of an emergency situation, experience psycho-traumatic factors. There is a disturbance in mental activity in the form of reactive (psychogenic) states.

Classification emergency situations:

according to the pace of development

Each type of emergency situation has its own speed of danger spread, which is an important component of the intensity of the emergency event and characterizes the degree of suddenness of the impact of damaging factors. From this point of view, such events can be divided into: sudden (explosions, transport accidents, earthquakes, etc.); rapid (fires, release of gaseous highly toxic substances, hydrodynamic accidents with the formation of breakthrough waves, mudflows, etc.), moderate (release of radioactive substances, accidents on utility systems, volcanic eruptions, floods, etc.); smooth (accidents at wastewater treatment plants, droughts, epidemics, environmental deviations, etc.). Smooth (slow) emergency situations can last many months and years, for example, the consequences of anthropogenic activities in the Aral Sea area.

by scale of distribution

When classifying emergency situations by scale of distribution, one should take into account not only the size of the territory affected by the emergency, but also its possible indirect consequences. These include severe disruptions of organizational, economic, social and other significant connections operating over considerable distances. In addition, the severity of the consequences is taken into account, which even with a small area of ​​emergency can be enormous and tragic.

Local (private) - do not extend territorially and organizationally beyond the boundaries of the workplace or site, a small section of road, estate or apartment. Local emergency situations include emergencies that result in no more than 10 people being injured, or the living conditions of no more than 100 people being disrupted, or material damage amounting to no more than 1 thousand minimum wages.

If the consequences of an emergency are limited to the territory of a production or other facility (i.e., do not go beyond the sanitary protection zone) and can be eliminated by its forces and resources, then these emergencies are called facility-based.

Emergencies , the spread of the consequences of which is limited to the boundaries of a settlement, city (district), region, territory, republic and is eliminated by their forces and means, are called local. Local include emergency situations that resulted in more than 10, but not more than 50, people being injured, or the living conditions of more than 100, but not more than 300 people, being disrupted, or material damage amounting to more than 1 thousand, but not more than 5 thousand minimum wages labor.

Regional emergencies - such emergencies that extend to the territory of several regions (territories, republics) or an economic region. To eliminate the consequences of such emergencies, the combined efforts of these territories, as well as the participation of federal forces, are necessary. Regional emergencies include emergencies in which from 50 to 500 people were injured, or the living conditions of 500 to 1000 people were disrupted, or material damage amounted to from 0.5 to 5 million minimum wages.

National (federal) emergencies cover vast territories of the country, but do not go beyond its borders. The forces, means and resources of the entire state are involved here. They often resort to foreign assistance. National emergencies include emergencies in which more than 500 people were injured, or the living conditions of more than 1,000 people were disrupted, or material damage amounted to more than 5 million minimum wages.

Global (cross-border) emergencies go beyond the country and spread to other states. Their consequences are eliminated through the efforts and means of both the affected states and the international community.

by duration of action:

may be short-term or protracted. All emergencies that result in environmental pollution are protracted;

the nature:

intentional (intentional) and unintentional (unintentional). The former include most national, social and military conflicts, terrorist attacks and others. Natural disasters, by the nature of their origin, are unintentional; this group also includes the majority of man-made accidents and catastrophes.

By source of origin:

– emergencies of a man-made nature; – emergencies of natural origin; – Emergencies of a biological and social nature.

It is advisable to initially divide the entire set of possible emergency situations into conflict and non-conflict situations. Conflict types include military clashes, economic crises, extremist political struggle, social explosions, national and religious conflicts, terrorism. Non-conflict emergencies, in turn, can be classified (systematized) according to a significant number of characteristics that describe phenomena from various aspects of their nature and properties.

Psychotraumatic situation - this is a long-term situation in which many negative impacts accumulate, each of which in itself is not so significant. But when there are a lot of them and they act for a long time, their effect seems to be summed up, and a disease arises.

Psychotraumatic stress - a special form of general stress reaction caused by psychologically traumatic life events for an individual. This is stress of increased intensity, accompanied by mental trauma.

Not every event can cause traumatic stress. Mental trauma is possible in cases where:

The event that occurred is conscious;

The experience disrupts the usual way of life, goes beyond ordinary human experience and causes distress in any person.

Psychotraumatic events change the self-image, value system, concept of the world around us, and change established ideas about ways of existing in the world. These events can be sudden, shocking, or have a long-lasting, hard-to-bear impact, and also combine both of these properties at the same time.

One of the consequences of traumatic stress is mental trauma.

There are different classifications of mental trauma and the situations that cause them. G.K. Ushakov (1987) proposed a classification of mental trauma in terms of their intensity. He identified the following types of psychotrauma:

Massive (catastrophic), sudden, acute, unexpected, stunning, one-dimensional: a) highly relevant for the individual; b) not relevant to the individual;

Situational acute (subacute), unexpected, multifaceted involving the personality, associated with the loss of social prestige, with damage to self-affirmation;

Prolonged situational, leading to a conscious need for persistent mental overstrain (depleting): a) caused by the very content of the situation; b) caused by an excessive level of aspirations of the individual in the absence of objective opportunities to achieve a goal in the normal rhythm of activity.

V.A. Guryev (1996) divides psychotraumas according to the strength of their impact on the individual, highlighting the following grounds.

Super strong, sharp, sudden: a) presence at death; b) murder; c) rape.

Subjective, super-strong, acute (super-significant for the individual): a) death of close relatives (mother, father); b) unexpected departure from the family of a beloved parent (for children);

3. Sharp, strong, super strong, following one after another. For example: the death of a parent, the departure of a spouse, adultery, criminal prosecution of a child.

4. Psychogenic traumas underlying post-traumatic stress disorders, which are distinguished by a certain originality. This is a stressful event (short-term or long-term) of an extremely threatening or catastrophic nature, which can cause a state of distress in almost any person (natural disasters, war, accidents, being a victim of torture).

5. Defined as key experiences in relation to any personality characteristics (anxious, suspicious, hysterical, sensitive, etc.).

6. Combined with deprivation (emotional or sensory). Deprivation (English deprivation - deprivation, loss) - insufficiency of satisfying any human needs.

7. Chronic mental trauma (dysfunctional family, closed institutions, army conditions).

8. Combination of acute and chronic psychogenic injuries.

EAT. Cherepanova classified psychotraumatic situations according to the degree of increase in symptoms of pathological grief and the development of post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome:

1. Expected loss for which a person is prepared;

2. Sudden expected loss;

3. Information about unexpected loss: a) sudden death, illness; b) accident, catastrophe, war; c) murder, suicide.

4. Presence at an unexpected loss: a) sudden death, illness; b) murder, suicide.

5. Unexpected loss in situations where a person injured in an accident, disaster or war survives.

The nature of mental trauma and the level of stress of a traumatic situation depends on the strength of the traumatic impact.

Psychotraumatic effects on Yu.A. Alexandrovsky - impact caused by weakening of the activity or integrity of the individual barrier of mental adaptation. If the individual barrier to mental adaptation is weakened, a decrease in its level leads to psychogenic disorders.

Ticket 2. Question 2. Psychological characteristics of the debriefing method.

Debriefing, psychological debriefing - psychological conversation with a person who has experienced an extreme situation or psychological trauma. The purpose of debriefing is to reduce the psychological damage caused to the victim by explaining to the person what happened to him and listening to his point of view.

The term “psychological debriefing” refers to a crisis intervention designed to reduce and prevent trauma-induced stress reactions in normal people who are in an extremely stressful situation. The goal is to prevent the development of persistent consequences of emotional trauma by creating opportunities for conscious assessment at the cognitive level and emotional processing of the traumatic event.

Debriefing after terrorist attacks, as well as in natural disaster sites, is part of the first aid program and helps victims survive situations of extreme fear, trauma, extreme discomfort, property damage, or the loss of friends and loved ones. The purpose of the psychological interview is to reduce the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological problems by providing an opportunity to talk, “rejecting memories by verbalizing them.”

Methods and structure for crisis debriefing vary depending on the nature and scale of the tragedy. For example, in places of terrorist attacks, catastrophes and natural disasters, multi-level debriefing is used, in which psychologists and rescuers working directly at the scene of the event subsequently receive psychological help from their colleagues at the “second level”, etc. In another example, debriefing released prisoners of war with signs of Stockholm syndrome will be different from debriefing hostages of a political terrorist attack with the same signs of Stockholm syndrome.

Debriefing is most effective if it is carried out before the administration of tranquilizers and before the victims are given the opportunity to sleep (that is, on the first day), if there are opportunities for this and a sufficient number of qualified specialists capable of conducting debriefing. In cases where debriefing is postponed for one reason or another, consolidation of memory traces occurs, accompanied by a number of psychopathological phenomena. However, this does not reduce the independent importance of methodologically sound debriefing at subsequent stages. One specialist can competently conduct no more than 5-6 (maximum 10) individual debriefings per day, which determines the calculation of the forces and means of psychological emergency response services.

Debriefing is one of the most common forms of group prevention of professional stress among extreme specialists. I would like to note that in many departments of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations there are intuitively found forms that resemble debriefing. This is the practice of “debriefing”. To most effectively minimize the undesirable psychological consequences of occupational stress, strict adherence to the debriefing procedure is necessary.

The debriefing process usually consists of three main parts: “ventilation” of feelings in the group and assessment of stress by the leader; a detailed discussion of changes in perception, behavior, well-being during the work process, then psychological support; providing information and mobilizing resources, and planning further work.

Traditionally, the debriefing is conducted by a psychologist; in some cases, the leader can be an authoritative and trained psychologist.

Debriefing as a method of psychological intervention is gradually becoming a routine procedure in many countries, although its effectiveness has not yet been proven. In fact, there is much evidence that such psychological surveys are not only ineffective, but also harmful. In March 2007, the American journal Perspectives on Psychological Science added crisis debriefing to the list of procedures that can cause harm to victims.

Optimal debriefing start time – no later than 48 hours from the moment of the emergency. It should also be noted that debriefing is a preventive method and its purpose is to minimize possible symptoms of stress disorders or PTSD. The optimal group composition is no more than 15 people.

Debrief structure:

Incredible human abilities (Video)

The human body has a large reserve of capabilities. It has been established that the human spine in extreme conditions can withstand a load of ten tons! The reserve of safety that Nature has endowed a person is used extremely rarely, once or twice in his entire life, and sometimes this reserve may be completely unclaimed. Safety margin is a guarantee of human survival, biological protection, and is used only when it comes to life and death. Fear and a sense of self-preservation in extreme situations “allows” the human body to fully use this reserve, but most people use their emergency reserve extremely rarely.
But having used the entire reserve of his capabilities at least once, a person then throughout his life never ceases to be amazed at how he managed to do it. Being in mortal danger, when the threat to life is colossal, and death seems inevitable, the human body is capable of performing miracles. There are many examples of this.

There was a car accident on a winter road that resulted in casualties. To save her injured forty-year-old son, a seventy-year-old woman put him on her back and walked thirteen kilometers through deep snow with such a burden, never stopping or lowering her precious burden. When rescuers on a snowmobile got to the scene of the accident, following the woman’s tracks, they saw only her footprints all along the way.

St. Petersburg - a 2-year-old child fell from a seventh-floor window, his mother barely managed to grab her baby with one hand; With her other hand she grabbed the brick of the cornice. At the same time, she did not hold on with the whole hand, but only with the index and middle fingers, but with a “death grip”. When the woman was removed, the rescuers had to make great efforts to unclench her fingers. Afterwards, for several more hours they calmed down and persuaded the woman to let go of her child’s hand.

A rather elderly man, when an angry bull began to chase him, literally flew over a 2-meter fence, although he had never been an athlete.

The polar pilot was repairing his plane and suddenly saw a polar bear behind him, who lightly pushed the pilot on the shoulder with its paw, as if inviting him to look back. The next moment, the pilot found himself standing on the wing of an airplane located at a height of about two meters above the surface of the earth. Later, the pilot could not explain how he did it.

A child is under the wheels of a car, and his mother, in order to save the baby, lifts the car as if the car had no weight.

During the flight, a bolt got under the pedal in the cockpit and jammed the control. To save his life and the plane, the pilot pressed the pedal so hard that he cut off the bolt like a blade of grass.

The Nedelya newspaper published an interview with pilot I.M. Chisov, whose plane was shot down by a Messerschmitt during an air battle in January 1942 over Vyazma. “...the plane began to fall belly up. I had to leave the car. The astro hatch, through which you can get out, was below my head (and I myself was upside down). Well, the altitude began to take its toll: the hoses leading to the oxygen apparatus were broken. And the hatch cover latch got jammed!
If someone had told me earlier that the astro hatch could be knocked out with a blow of a fist, I would never have believed it; but I discovered it in just this way (I still don’t understand how I did it), - said I.M. Chisov.

There was a fire in the house, and the old woman, “God’s dandelion,” saving her lifelong possessions, dragged a huge chest from the second floor of the burning house. After the fire was extinguished, two young, healthy guys hardly carried this chest to its original place.

1997 - two fairly tipsy Belarusians climbed into an enclosure with bison in Belovezhskaya Pushcha; they wanted to pet the bison. Either she didn’t like the alcoholic smell, or she wasn’t in the mood for a lyrical wave, she didn’t accept the tenderness of her fans. Literally after a few minutes of their acquaintance, one of them was sitting on the fence, and the other, less agile, was slightly touched by a horn. The hop passed away instantly; all hope was left on my feet. He found himself on the other side of the 3-meter fence in the blink of an eye. And because there were no witnesses to their record, the super-fast running and jumping over an obstacle were not included in the Guinness Book of Records.

1998 - the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” talked about an incident that happened to a carpenter from the taiga village of Bazhenovka, Kemerovo region. A carpenter was walking through the taiga and came across a sleeping bear. His fear was so great that he grabbed a log lying nearby and rushed with it about three kilometers to his home. Only in the courtyard of the house did the carpenter throw down the log and catch his breath. Later, when he wanted to remove this log from the yard, he could not even lift it. To this day, the carpenter cannot understand why he needed this log, because without it he could have run much faster.

A person’s hidden capabilities are revealed not only in a stressful situation. But also as a result of long-term training, for example, among athletes. Previously, athletes could not even imagine that they could reach a height of 2 m 35 cm, that they could jump 8 m 90 cm in length, that they could lift a 500 kg barbell in three movements: snatch, clean and jerk, press. 1985, August - 23-year-old track and field athlete from Kiev Rudolf Povarnitsyn cleared the 240 cm bar in the high jump.
And literally a few days later, another athlete Igor Paklin conquered a height of 241 cm. The javelin throwers overcame the 95-meter mark. 2005, June - 22-year-old Jamaican runner Asafa Powell set a new world record in the 100 meters - 9.77 seconds. Now athletes dream of jumping in height over 241 cm, long jumping 9 m, and lifting half a ton in two movements. Over the course of their entire lives, most mortals will never take advantage of their hidden capabilities, but each of us is pleased to know that somewhere deep within you lie enormous forces, that you have a colossal memory, which in a moment of mortal danger can save your life.

It is known that people have incredible abilities, but they do not use them in everyday life because they are not able to control them at will. However, sometimes, in extreme situations, these forces unexpectedly manifest themselves. And then a miracle happens, which they cannot explain.

Fear with a sense of self-preservation in extreme situations “allows” the human body to fully use its “reserve”, but the majority resort to this “emergency reserve” very rarely. Although, having once used his hidden capabilities, a person spends the rest of his life wondering how he managed to do it.

This happens most often in the face of terrible danger, when the threat to life is enormous, and death seems inevitable. At this moment, the body works miracles.

There are plenty of examples of this. So, in the city of Lawrenceville, Georgia, a woman managed to lift a powerful Chevrolet Impala that fell on her son. The car fell off the jack and crushed her son Tony while he was repairing it. The mother lifted the car in a second and held it until her son was pulled out.

Adrenaline allows a person to do more than just lift cars. In 2006, in Quebec, a woman had the opportunity to fight a large bear. He approached the place where her son and several other boys were playing hockey. The woman grabbed the bear and struggled until help came running to her. In an unequal fight, the woman received only a few small wounds, while the predator was simply knocked out. At the same time, the neighbor shot at him as many as five times, and only then the bear died.

So, what kind of forces appear at the moment when logical thinking is turned off, since people perform such miracles without thinking whether they can or not, and some do not even remember what happened?

Where do these supernatural powers come from? Is it possible that the alter ego of a superman awakens in people? Or maybe people really have superpowers given to them by nature?

Some believe that a person does not use the capabilities of his muscles to their full potential, however, at the moment when he is faced with a threat, he “destroys” these restrictions. Something similar happens when a person is subjected to electric shock. After all, it is known that a person who has been shocked by an electric shock is able to run a fairly long distance in an incredibly short time. But the process taking place is not at all similar to the effect of electric shock. Actually, the electric charge, acting from the outside, causes the muscles to contract, and due to this they become elastic. But if there is no source of excitation, the muscles “live” in their normal state, and therefore people do not have super strength - they cannot run long distances in the blink of an eye or lift heavy machines into the air.

Science is able to explain such attacks of “hysterical” force, manifested only in a stressful state. The fact is that this force rises “without warning,” but to reproduce such a situation in laboratory conditions is not only unethical and dangerous, but also impossible.

When a person encounters trouble or experiences fear, changes immediately begin in his body. For example, when a parent sees that his child is in danger, this source of stress immediately irritates the hypothalamus - the part in the brain that is responsible for emotionality. When a “message” about danger is received in the hypothalamus, a signal is transmitted to the adrenal glands that activates the sympathetic system. Adrenaline and norepinephrine are released from the adrenal glands, which help the body to “pull together” in extreme situations. These hormones increase your heart rate, increasing your breathing rate and dilating your pupils, causing your muscles to contract. They seem to “prepare” a person for the upcoming danger, making him stronger. It seems that a valve with additional energy is opening.

At this moment, adrenaline is released, regulating vascular tone. More blood and oxygen enter the muscles, helping to improve functional muscle efficiency. Skeletal muscles, which are attached to bones, begin to contract. Because of this, a person becomes noticeably stronger and more resilient.

But why can’t a person always have supernatural power? The answer is clear - it could kill him.

A long-term state of excitement, according to scientists, can lead to very negative consequences. Thus, the Austrian Hans Selye, a pathologist, studied the human body’s response to stress for a long time. He identified several reactions in the body, which he called adaptation syndrome. The scientist called the first stage the alarm reaction, i.e. the body’s reaction to unexpected stress, when, faced with danger, the human body prepares to fight to the end, to victory, or, conversely, to flee. He called the second reaction the stage of resistance. At this time, a person is fully prepared for danger. At this stage, his pupils are dilated, his heartbeat and breathing are rapid, and at the same time his muscles are contracting. It is at this stage that people can rush like the wind, lift incredibly massive objects, etc.

There is, of course, the opportunity to improve the functional abilities of muscles as a result of special training. If you lift the barbell many times every day, your muscles actually become more elastic over time. But if muscle contraction constantly occurs as a result of the release of adrenaline, then sad consequences cannot be avoided. This nature of surges in functional muscle capacity leads to tissue rupture.

In almost all cases, including the woman lifting a car and the woman fighting a polar bear, the resulting stressors do not last long. In just a few minutes, the human body, having recovered from the shock, returns to normal life. The parasympathetic system comes into play, the effect of which is absolutely opposite to the sympathetic one. As a result of the work of the parasympathetic nervous system, the heartbeat slows down, breathing and pulse are restored, muscles relax, and many functions, for example, digestion, begin to function again. The hypothalamus, which is responsible for launching the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, maintains an optimal state that scientists call homeostasis.

At the same time, being in a tense state for a long time, the body enters the third stage in Selye’s general adaptation system - the stage of fatigue. At this stage, the human immune system gradually weakens. As a result, the human body can no longer resist many infectious diseases. And if this condition lasts for a long time, the person becomes easily ill and may have a heart attack.

Therefore, it is obvious that if a person were always in a state of excitement, he would simply exhaust all his strength.

Arthur C. Clarke also said that the only way to define the boundaries of the possible is to go beyond those very boundaries. But, unfortunately, such situations are always accompanied by great danger and risk to life.

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The performance of muscle cells is truly amazing, but it also obeys the strict laws of physiology. The imbalance between lactic acid accumulating in myocyte cells as a result of intense work and its elimination (destruction) leads to a decrease in muscle performance, not to mention the neuromuscular block, which also serves as a kind of “safety valve” when the musculoskeletal system is overloaded.
The system of levers of the limbs provides far from complete freedom of movement of them relative to each other. Almost only the shoulder joints and joints of the proximal phalanges of the upper extremities of humans are spherical in shape and have the ability to provide rotational movements. The remaining joints, tightened into the corset of the muscular and ligament apparatus, are much less mobile, not to mention the joints of the spinal column.
Of course, special training allows gymnasts and acrobats to achieve amazing flexibility of the musculoskeletal system and perform movements of amazing beauty and swiftness, but this is achieved through years of hard work on oneself using the entire arsenal of sports training. It is clear that an ordinary “average” person cannot do this, especially in a matter of minutes or seconds of a critical situation.
Of course, the physical state of the musculoskeletal system, its fitness, and the ability for “explosive” reactions play a vital role in a critical situation, but an equally important factor is the activation of the instinctive cortical-subcortical programs movements following decision making.
Diagram 10 shows the organization of a motor act in any response to a signal from the external environment. The signal enters the central nervous system through sensory channels and first triggers a system for assessing the biological significance of the signal. In the motor zones of the cortex, a program for a motor act arises, then efferent signals from Betz’s pyramidal cells enter along the descending pyramidal tracts into the anterior horns of the corresponding segment of the spinal cord, where they activate motor neurons, leading to the transmission of motor signals directly to the muscles that implement a specific motor act.

Scheme 10
Organization, regulation and control of movements

At the same time, proprioceptors of muscles, tendons, and ligaments are activated by muscle contraction itself and changes in the position of the limb (joint) in space.
Signals from the muscular-articular apparatus along the ascending tracts enter the subcortical structures, and then into the visual zones of the cortex, where signals simultaneously arrive from the organs of vision that control the motor act.
A similar picture occurs with signals coming from muscle proprioceptors to the cerebellum, which coordinates the movement of a limb in space. The vestibular apparatus also takes a direct part in organizing and controlling the execution of a motor act.
It is quite clear that the organization of even a relatively simple movement (for example, an upper limb picking up a pencil) requires time, during which afferent and efferent signals pass along the axons of neurons, switch in numerous synapses, converge, excite a mass of relay and intercalary cells, etc. d.
It would be difficult for an organism to survive in extreme situations if, when the next or each of them occurred, it was forced to re-form and calculate all stages of the development of the response.
But over millions of years of evolution, organisms have managed to develop not only that complex of responses that are based on instincts, but also to create (especially in vertebrates, mammals and primates) more advanced mechanisms for the perception and operational processing of signals that build an adequate response of the body in the minimum possible time. periods of time.
An outstanding physiologist of our time, student of I.P. Pavlova - P.K. Anokhin developed in detail the mechanism of operational functional systems that are formed in the central nervous system when solving each specific problem for the whole organism. In Diagram 11 we show a somewhat simplified diagram of constructing a functional system (according to P.K. Anokhin).

Scheme 11
Functional system structure

Scheme 12
Man in an extreme situation

Summary of section contents

Adaptive and protective reactions of humans to various, including extreme, environmental factors were formed over a long period of evolution.
The human musculoskeletal system, sensory organs, central nervous system, cardiovascular system and endocrine glands are involved in any response to environmental signals. The capabilities of these systems may vary depending on how unusual or extreme the external signal (or package of signals) is for a person in each specific situation.
The range of a person’s normal, reserve or transcendental capabilities is determined, on the one hand, by the entire structure of the soma and mental status of a person, and on the other hand, by the body’s ability, as a result of certain training, to shift the above triad from ordinary to reserve or even transcendental capabilities of the body.
Extreme situations can be prolonged, but can develop in limited time intervals, when sometimes there is not even a few seconds of life left for reflection. This leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to systematically train the musculoskeletal system, the sensory system, and develop skills and techniques that allow the central nervous system to form functional systems that quickly and adequately respond to an emergency situation, to make the only correct decision and implement it in the shortest possible time.
This is the strategy and tactics of survival in extreme situations.

2. Extreme factors

Extreme (emergency) situations haunt not only humans, but also life as a phenomenon from the very beginning of its appearance on Earth.
Terrible and initially incomprehensible natural phenomena - fires, volcanic eruptions, thunderstorms, floods and earthquakes - all this instilled horror in the consciousness of primitive man. To this we should also add encounters with aggressive manifestations of animals and people, who already in those distant times showed animal instincts in the struggle for prey, for habitat, for a place in the sun.
Gradually, as human communities and the noosphere as a whole formed, new factors were added to the above factors, caused by man’s mastery of increasingly advanced tools, labor and mechanisms and, finally, the creation of powerful technologies and industries on Earth.
In addition to natural extreme environmental factors, man-made factors caused by human activity have been added. It should be emphasized that factors of the latter kind began to have, over time, much stronger, and sometimes destructive, effects on the biosphere and on humans than natural factors. The concept of not just catastrophes arose, but man-made disasters, the cumulative effect of which, especially over the past century, has threatened the existence of both the noosphere and all life on planet Earth.
Here it would be appropriate to define the essence of extreme situations and disasters in order to further classify models that will demonstrate the mechanisms of development of extreme and catastrophic situations.
Emergency is a situation that arises in a local or extensive focus (volume of space) under the influence of natural or artificial, anthropogenic factors that have a destabilizing, destructive effect on nature, living systems or objects created by man.
In this case, a special role in the occurrence of an extreme situation belongs to time factor, since this situation can grow over a long period of time and this gives a chance for a successful solution to the problem, or an extreme situation arises and unfolds in a limited period of time and a person often has to deal with the consequences of such a situation.
Surprise factor also plays a big role in an extreme situation, since the expected event allows you to take more adequate measures or avoid it altogether.
A disaster It is generally accepted to consider an emergency event caused by a natural phenomenon or as a result of human activity and resulting in extensive destruction of natural objects, civilization, death of people, flora, fauna and, as a result, disruption of biosphere ecosystems.
For example, according to the modern classification, disasters include events that lead to the injury of 10 or more people, from 10 to 25 people with injuries of varying severity, and from 15 to 50 or more people in need of subsequent treatment (WHO, Ministry of Health of the RSFSR, 1990).
Of course, combinations of the above factors in different situations can be extremely diverse, as well as the consequences, but it is important to clearly understand that in any case the role of the human factor (passive or active) is the most important component of the mechanism of occurrence and formation of an emergency or disaster. When classifying an emergency or disaster, the most important criteria are the scope of occurrence and development of the event, its scale and consequences. Quantitative criteria for assessing the scale of disasters in different countries differ somewhat, but in general they are identical, since the basis combines the socio-economic factor, the environmental factor and the health factor.
In table Table 1 shows the main destabilizing factors of a natural and man-made nature. But it is quite obvious that these factors in real cases can form various combinations. Therefore, the diagram shows the connections between individual blocks of emergency situations.

Table 1
Structure and classification of emergency situations (by qualitative criteria)

Scheme 13
Classification of emergency situations (according to a set of characteristics)

Scheme 14
Human factor in an emergency

People have always been interested in what lies beyond ordinary perception, what is inaccessible to the majority. However, along with interest, there was also fear due to the lack of reliable information and the unknown. Recently, paranormal or unusual abilities of people have become the subject of social and scientific research, philistine gossip and newspaper publications. What kind of abilities are these? Where do they come from?
Despite the fact that the human body has already been well studied by doctors and scientists, mysteries still remain that are beyond our understanding. There are many amazing cases that happened to ordinary people and were published in the press. Some events simply cannot be explained by modern science.

So, perhaps the most famous case occurred when a mother was walking with her little son and got distracted. The child ran out onto the road and was hit by a car. Seeing this picture, the baby’s mother rushed to his aid and lifted the car. It is this case that in our time is most often described by scientists as proof that the human body has hidden abilities.

Another fairly famous incident occurred during the war. The pilot's steering became jammed due to a bolt caught in the mechanism. Fearing death, the pilot began to pull the handle with all his strength and miraculously was able to right the plane. After landing, the mechanics carefully examined the controls and found a sheared bolt. As a result of the examination, it turned out that in order to cut such a bolt, a force of 500 kilograms would be required.

One man was walking through the forest and accidentally came across a sleeping bear. Out of fear, he grabbed a log lying nearby and rushed to run towards the nearby village. When the danger was over, he threw the log to the ground, caught his breath and looked at it. It turned out to be a huge tree trunk, which he later could not drag alone from the road. The man could not even explain to himself why he grabbed this log.

But such incredible stories happen not only when it comes to one’s own salvation.

There is another case. When the child fell out of the 7th floor window, his mother managed to grab him with one hand, and with the other she held on to the brick of the cornice, with only two fingers - the index and middle. She held on like that until the rescuers arrived, and then with difficulty they unclenched her fingers.

A 70-year-old woman carried her 40-year-old son, who was involved in an accident, for 13 kilometers on her back, never stopping or lowering him to the ground.

Some researchers claim that a person uses only 10% of his abilities. And this applies to both the body and the brain.

The hypnologist Vul demonstrated an amazing ability - he had the ability to suggest at a distance. Wool sent a letter by mail, in which the word was written in his handwriting: “Sleep!” If the patient had already been to see this doctor before, then upon receiving the letter he immediately fell asleep.

The French pop artist Michel Lotito had an amazing ability - he can eat anything he sees. When he was still a child, he “ate” a TV, and from the age of 15 he began to entertain people for money, eating rubber, glass and metal. Because Michel ate the plane (although it took about 2 years to eat it), he was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Biologist K. Richardson can spend an entire night in a cage with lions. For unknown reasons, the lions accept Richardson as one of their own. Thai Ngoc from Vietnam has not slept at all since 1973 - it started after he had a fever.

The phenomenon of Monica Tejada.

There are many such inexplicable phenomena in our world. An amazing phenomenon is demonstrated to scientists by Monica Tejada from Spain. Even metal objects bend under her gaze.

There are no tricks here. The scientists placed steel wire in a sealed glass vessel. However, this did not stop Monica from bending the solid thread into the shape of a dinosaur with a closed mouth. During this process, instruments recorded an increase in the girl’s body temperature and a decrease in her blood pressure. This combination leads doctors to a dead end. At the same time, the electroencephalograph showed biocurrents characteristic of a sleeping person. Monica has another gift - she can diagnose diseases.

In New Jersey, on the outskirts of Trenton, in the 40s, there lived a 90-year-old man named Al Herpin. There was neither a trestle bed nor a bed in his shack - Al Herpin had never slept in his entire life. The old man, who lived to that age, outlived the doctors who examined him. Al Herpin's appetite and health were good, and his mental abilities were average. Of course, after a day's work he was tired, but he could not sleep. The old man would simply sit in a chair and read until he felt rested. After regaining his physical strength, he returned to work. Doctors were unable to explain their patient’s chronic insomnia, just as they could not explain the source of his longevity.

There is a known case that occurred in a Russian village. There lived an old sick woman named Matryona. She could not hear well, could not see, and could hardly walk. One night her house caught fire. The whole village ran to the fire. Imagine the surprise of the people when they saw this old woman climbing over the high fence. Moreover, she was holding a large chest in her hands, which several men later could not lift. Where are the limits of human capabilities? And do they exist at all?

In Mexico City at the Olympic Games in 1968, an athlete named Robert Beamon was able to jump almost 9 meters. Of course, it seems impossible, but Robert's record was broken. And the record, which was set in 500 BC in Ancient Greece, looks absolutely fantastic - the athlete Fail then jumped almost 17 meters in length.

In New York in 1935, an absolutely normal-looking child was born. However, he lived only 26 days. After an autopsy, it turned out that the child had no brain. Although it is known that even the slightest damage to the cerebral cortex can lead to death.

The fact that there are people in the world who live with foreign objects in their bodies does not surprise anyone now. But an incident that occurred in one of the New York hospitals seems simply incredible. A person came to the hospital with a slight illness. Doctors conducted an examination and found more than 250 objects in his body. There were only 26 keys in the patient’s body. The man did not say where there were so many objects in his body.

An equally striking case occurred with a 12-year-old Russian boy who went to the hospital in a small town with complaints of dizziness and weakness. Upon examination, doctors discovered a bullet wound in the heart area. It is unknown how the boy received such a wound, and most importantly, how he survived. X-ray determined that the bullet was in the solar artery. The boy was urgently sent to Moscow, where the bullet was removed from his body. She made an incredible journey in the body - she punctured the lung and entered the heart, which pushed her out into the aorta. The bullet moved along the vessel until it hit the solar artery.

The famous psychiatrist and neuropathologist Cesare Lombroso had a very solid reputation in the scientific world. In his book “What After Death,” he told an incident that happened to a 14-year-old girl. She became blind, but at the same time she had a completely new and amazing ability to see.

Dr. Lombroso conducted research, which revealed that the girl sees through her left earlobe and nose. To exclude the slightest possibility of the girl’s eyes being involved, during the experiment the doctors covered them with a bandage so that peeking was completely excluded. However, despite the measures taken, the girl could easily read blindfolded and distinguish colors perfectly.

When a bright light flashed near her earlobe, she blinked, and when the doctor wanted to put his finger to the tip of her nose, she jumped back screaming that he wanted to blind her. There was an astonishing shift in the senses that affected more than just vision. When the experimenter brought a solution of ammonia to the girl’s nose, she did not react. But as soon as he brought the solution to her chin, she jerked in pain. She could smell scents with her chin.

It must be said that some people are able to completely control the abilities of their body. These include primarily Indian yogis. Perhaps the most amazing ability of yogis is that they can stop the beating of their own heart. Yogis can put themselves into a state of “death” - the heart’s work and breathing slow down, and other vital processes stop.

A yogi can remain in this state for quite a long time. So what powers are hidden in a person? Based on the above, we can assume that the capabilities of the human body are limitless. You just need to learn to control them.

Diamond tears

A woman named Hanuma, living in Africa, earned the nickname "Diamond" for her unusual ability to cry diamonds. Since childhood, Hanuma has not cried. The first time this happened was at the age of nine, when the girl peeled onions for the first time. Imagine the surprise of the girl’s parents when hard crystals began to fall from her eyes instead of tears.

The girl's father was a jeweler and, having examined the small crystals, he easily determined that they were real diamonds. The parents decided to keep Hanuma's unusual abilities a secret, and the father used his daughter's crystals to make jewelry, which was in great demand. One of the clients suspected something was wrong and submitted the diamond for examination, as a result of which it turned out that the stone was of organic origin. The girl became famous throughout the world. But scientists have not yet been able to uncover the secret of diamond tears.

Man is ice

Dutch resident Wim Hof ​​is not sensitive to any cold. Thanks to his unusual abilities, the Dutchman conquered mountain peaks in only his underwear, swam for a long time in icy water and performed many similar feats.

Doctors carried out examinations of the body of an amazing person, but the results of the studies did not show any deviations from the norm in Vim’s body after cold procedures. The Dutchman's unusual abilities allow him to feel comfortable in conditions that would be fatal for any other person.

"Perpetual motion machine"

The baby, named Ret Lamba, who is three years old, has never slept in his life. He is awake around the clock. Ret’s parents, of course, were not delighted with their son’s abilities, but most of all they were concerned about the child’s health. However, as repeated medical examinations have shown, lack of sleep does not affect Ret’s health in any way; the boy is absolutely healthy.

Recent research has cleared up the picture a little. It turned out that the brain and nervous system of the amazing child are arranged in a special way, thanks to which the boy does not need sleep, his brain rests while awake.

Man is a reptile

History knows of cases where people had the ability to replace their skin with a new one, just like reptiles do. Born in 1851 in Missouri, S. Buskirk began changing his skin as a child. The most amazing thing is that this always happened on the same day - June 27th. The skin began to become rough, and then fell off in large pieces. She came off her arms and legs like gloves or socks.

After the old skin fell off, one could see in its place young, pink and tender skin, similar to that of newborn babies. Over the course of several years, Mr. Buskirk assembled a “leather” collection.

Glowing patient

Anna Monaro, who suffered from asthma, began to look like a fluorescent lamp in 1934. During her illness, a bluish glow emanated from her chest. This phenomenon lasted for several weeks and was documented by doctors. Sometimes the color of the glow changed to red and green. No one has been able to explain this phenomenon.

One psychiatrist suggested that "the phenomenon is caused by electrical and magnetic organisms that have become quite developed in this woman's body and are therefore emitting a radiance" - in other words, another way of saying, "I don't know." Another doctor proposed the theory of electromagnetic radiation, linking it with certain chemical components found in the patient’s skin, which was close to the then fashionable theory of bioluminescence.

Dr. Protti, who made a lengthy statement regarding his observations of Signora Monaro, suggested that her poor health, together with fasting and piety, had increased the amount of sulphides in the blood. Human blood emits rays in the ultraviolet range, and sulfides can be made to luminesce by ultraviolet irradiation, which explains the glow emanating from Signora Monaro's breast (The Times, May 5, 1934).

Anna Monaro

The proposed theory did not explain the strange periodicity or localization of the bluish flashes, and soon the confused researchers fell completely silent.

Gould and Pyle's 1937 book Anomalies and Curiosities in Medicine describes the case of a woman suffering from breast cancer. The light emanating from the sore area of ​​the chest was sufficient to see the dial of a clock several feet away...

In Hareward Carrington's book Death: Its Causes and Related Phenomena, there is a mention of a child who died of indigestion. After death, the boy's body began to emit a bluish glow and spread heat. Attempts to extinguish this radiance led to nothing, but it soon stopped on its own. When the body was lifted from the bed, it was discovered that the sheet under it was burned... The only case of light emission by a practically healthy person (not counting, of course, saints) was described in the journal “English Mechanic” dated September 24, 1869:

“One American woman, going to bed, discovered a glow on the top of the fourth toe of her right foot. When she rubbed her leg, the glow increased and some unknown force pushed her fingers apart. A stench emanated from the leg, and both the light emission and the smell did not stop even when the leg was immersed in a basin of water. Even soap could not extinguish or reduce the glow. This phenomenon lasted three quarters of an hour, and was observed by the woman’s husband.”

The Church views the phenomenon of “firefly people” approvingly. Pope Benedict XIV wrote: “...It must be recognized as a fact that there is a natural flame that sometimes becomes visible around the human head, and it also seems true that sometimes fire can emanate from the whole body of a person, but not like a fire rushing upward, but rather in the form of sparks flying in all directions.”

People are lightning

The body of an ordinary person is capable of generating small amounts, but not storing electricity. However, there are people whose unusual abilities are that they can accumulate electricity within themselves, and, when appropriate, release it onto surrounding objects.

For example, the journal Prediction published an article in 1953 that talked about a baby who electrocuted doctors. For another whole day, he retained tension within himself and was dangerous to others.

But it also happens that unusual abilities awaken in people only with age. A Chinese worker in 1988 began to notice some changes in his body, but could not understand what it was until he accidentally shocked his colleague, knocking him down with a shock.

Rif Mukharyanov is one of those people who were able to survive a lightning strike.

Back in 1965, Reef was struck by ball lightning, and he miraculously survived. Over time, he began to see strange dreams, which soon began to come true - his psychic abilities began to awaken.

When he had completely recovered from his illness, his good friend fell seriously ill. The doctors did not know what to do and just shrugged, and it was then that Reef decided to take advantage of his new opportunities. Literally two weeks later, the friend stood firmly on his feet.

Living magnet

There are also people who have magnetism. The most amazing case of manifestation of magnetic abilities is the case of the American Frank McKinstry. His body was pulled towards the ground. Magnetism manifested itself especially strongly in the mornings. Frank had to move very quickly, without stopping, because his body would stick to the ground if he stopped for a couple of seconds, and then the man could no longer continue moving without outside help.

Often people do not realize that they have some unusual abilities. A resident of Germany, Erika Zur Strindberg, discovered the magnetic abilities of her body after watching a TV show that talked about the magnetism of a Russian woman, Natalia Petrasova.

Just for fun, the German woman put a spoon to her chest and it “stuck” to the woman. Then Eric was hung with almost all the cutlery to make sure he had an unusual ability.

Unusual abilities remain to be unraveled

Many scientists agree that this kind of ability is potentially inherent in every person, but they manifest themselves only in extreme situations or after severe life shocks. An example of this hypothesis is the fortuneteller Vanga, who, having lost her sight, gained the ability to foresee the future, the present of people and their past.

Also, the famous German clairvoyant Wolf Messing became the owner of his unusual abilities after spending a long time in a state of clinical death. This happened when Messing was eleven years old.

There are many cases where people, having recovered from clinical death, acquired the ability to read minds and speak in previously unknown or even dead languages. An amazing incident happened to the polar explorer pilot Grigory Popov. While repairing the plane, Gregory heard some rustling behind him, and turning around, he saw a polar bear - one of the most dangerous predators. The pilot did not have time to understand anything, as he already found himself at a two-meter height - on the wing of the plane. He climbed there in one leap.

Does every person have some hidden abilities or are they possessed only by exceptional individuals? Why were these abilities given to them? Do these people have some kind of purpose from above? Modern science is not able to provide answers to the questions posed, since they lie in a plane that is not yet within the scope of serious scientific research.