the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994 MOSCOW
Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the bizarre
death of a chess player whose head literally exploded in the middle of a
championship game!
No one else was hurt in the fatal explosion but four players and three
officials at the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships were sprayed
with blood and brain matter when Nikolai Titov's head suddenly blew apart.
Experts say he suffered from a condition called Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis or
HCE.
"He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the board," says
Titov's opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin. "All of a sudden his hands flew to his
temples and he screamed in pain. Everyone looked up from their games,
startled by the noise. Then, as if someone had put a bomb in his cranium,
his head popped like a firecracker."
Incredibly, Titiov's is not the first case in which a person's head has
spontaneously exploded. Five people are known to have died of HCE in the
last 25 years. The most recent death occurred just three years ago in 1991,
when European psychic Barbara Nicole's skull burst. Miss Nicole's story was
reported by newspapers worldwide, including WWN
"HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance," said Dr. Anatoly Martinenko,
famed neurologist and expert on the human brain who did the autopsy on the
brilliant chess expert. "It is a condition in which the circuits of the
brain become overloaded by the body's own electricity. The explosions
happen during periods of intense mental activity when lots of current is
surging through the brain. Victims are highly intelligent people with great
powers of concentration. Both Miss Nicole and Mr. Titov were intense people
who tended to keep those cerebral circuits overloaded. In a way it could be
said they were literally too smart for their own good."
Although Dr. Martinenko says there are probably many undiagnosed cases, he
hastens to add that very few people will die from HCE. "Most people who
have it will never know. At this point, medical science still doesn't know
much about HCE. And since fatalities are so rare it will probably be years
before research money becomes available."
In the meantime, the doctor urges people to take it easy and not think too
hard for long periods of time. "Take frequent relaxation breaks when you're
doing things that take lots of mental focus," he recommends.
(As a public service, WWN added a sidebar titled HOW TO TELL IF YOUR HEAD'S
ABOUT TO BLOW UP:)
Although HCE is very rare, it can kill. Dr. Martinenko says knowing you
have the condition can greatly improve your odds of surviving it. A "yes"
answer to any three of the following seven questions could mean that you
have HCE:
1.Does your head sometimes ache when you think too hard? (Head pain an
indicate overloaded brain circuits.)
2.Do you ever hear a faint ringng or humming sound in your ears? (It
could be the sound of electricity in the skull cavity.)
3.Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your head?
This is a possible sign of too much electrical activity in the cerebral
cortex.)
4.Do you spend more than five hours a day reading, balancing your
checkbook, or other thoughtful activity? (A common symptom of HCE is a
tendency to over-use the brain.)
5.When you get angry or frustrated do you feel pressure in your temples?
(Friends of people who died of HCE say the victims often complained of head
pressure in times of strong emotion.)
6.Do you ever overeat on ice cream, doughnuts and other sweets? (A craving
for sugar is typical of people with too much electrical pressure in the
cranium.)
7.Do you tend to analyze yourself too much? (HCE sufferers are often
introspective, "over-thinking" their lives.)
Hello! I ripped this off some random website. Scary, but authencity not guaranteed (:
