X-Ray Eyes : Mystery Files

Who at some time in their lives has not wished that they possessed x-ray vision. The things you could do! - See through walls (and underwear), cheat at cards, perform astounding magic tricks - to name but a few.

The concept also gave rise to a seminal horror film (Man with the X-Ray Eyes:1963) in which the hero, Dr. James Xavier (played by Ray Milland), discovers a drug which enables him to see not only through objects, but also through the very fabric of reality itself!

But what about this concept of x-ray vision - the ability to simply look through solid objects as if they were not there - The phenomenon doesn't really exist - It's all simply science fiction... Isn't it?

A chinese surgeon, Dr. Zheng Xiangling claims that she can see right through her patients by looking at them in a darkened room. "I don't know how I do what I do, but it's very useful in my work" said Dr. Zheng who first came to attention here in the west in 1988, when as a young 24 year old, she came over to display her unusual skills.

The doctor states that when she views a patient in a darkened room, she can see their bones, organs and veins in three dimensions, in full colour and glowing brightly and this allows her to determine whether they are healthy or not. She has diagnosed heart disease, cancers, arthritis, bone problems and respiratory ailments - It is claimed that she has never been wrong.

Dr Wang Shen, an Internist at the Beijing Medical Institute said "It is a very simple matter for us to check behind her with modern CAT scans and X-Ray equipment. The fact is that she can diagnose internal problems more accurately than we can with all our machinery. She is truly an extraordinary person"

Ms. Yulia Vorobyeva, a former crane driver from Donetsk in the Ukraine hit the headlines on the 14th June 1987 when her amazing story was reported in the very conservative Izvestia Ukrainian newspaper.

The story told how the then 37 year-old Vorobyena received a massive 380 volt electric shock when she was working in a mine back in March 1978. The medical team that attended pronounced her dead and she was transported to the local mortuary.

Some two days later, her body was prepared for an autopsy, but when the knife was pushed into the supposed corpse, blood spurted out! The body then began to shake and then breathe - Vorobyena had come back to life.

Following her recovery, Vorobyena found that she was unable to sleep properly. However, after six months of insomnia, she eventually fell into an extremely deep sleep which left her feeling relaxed and refreshed - It also appears to have done something else which wasn't immediately apparent, but soon became so.

One day, having run out of bread, she made her way down to the shops to buy some. As she passed a bus stop, she glanced over at one of the women waiting there, and her world changed - "I was paralysed with horror - I could see her intestines and straight through her..."

Although not medically qualified, Vorobyena was given an honorary medical appointment. She was asked to work with doctors at the general hospital in Donetsk where she acquitted herself extremely well specialising in diseases of the pancreas.

One of her colleagues, Dr. A. Svedlerova says that (like Dr. Zheng Xiangling), she "has never made a single mistake"

The reporter from Izvestia was said to be particularly impressed when Vorobyeva told him that she could tell from a red liquid in his stomach, that he had just eaten "Kisel" which is a sort of jellied food popular in the Ukraine.

So, does the ability to see through solid object exist, or are the people who claim to have this talent only deluding themselves (or worse still, conning the rest of us)?

If the two examples sited above are anything to go by, it seems that there might indeed be something in it. If they are confidence tricksters, then they are playing a very dangerous game by living and working amongst the very people who have the equipment and skills to see through them (pun intended).

The truth however seems to be that their medical colleagues hold them in the highest esteem. Indeed they seem to regard them as infallible. Certainly their prognostications have been confirmed by more conventional x-ray methods indicating that they know something - somehow!

So, maybe the time has come to wear lead-lined underwear when we walk down the street - after all - you never know who is looking!