Customer Reviews

Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival

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The author of this book makes a valiant attempt at covering the subject of lightning from most angles: the science, the history of thought about lightning, the superstitions, the damage caused and the effects (both physical and mental) on those who have been struck and have survived. The author has conducted interviews with scientists, physicians and several lightning strike survivors; in fact there is much more on the human side of lightning strikes than anything else. On the positive side, this book is written in a clear, friendly and very engaging way. It is a quick, pleasant and easy read. On the negative side, a few passages on the science contain errors, e.g., p. 103: "... the area of positively charged electrons on the ground ....".. However, the direct quotations from scientists seem accurate. Also, there is one entire chapter on tornado chasers where lightning is hardly mentioned; this chapter may have been more suitable for a book on tornados. Finally, three entire chapters are devoted to the detailed play-by-play rescue of a team of mountain climbers, some of whom were struck by lightning; a few pages, as in the case of the many other amazing survivor stories, would most likely have been sufficient. Notwithstanding these minor quibbles, this is an excellent, indeed thrilling, book that can be enjoyed by absolutely anyone.

"OUT OF THE BLUE," John S. Friedman's comprehensive study and report on the frightening phenomenon of lightning is, well, enlightening, to say the very least. It is all here - the history, the pre-history, the theories, the facts and the fables surrounding this timeless subject. Friedman has traveled the land and come back with insights and anecdotes you will long remember, including hair-raising, if not hair-scorching, first person accounts of several multiple-strike lightning survivors. The author is a seasoned journalist with an ear for a good story and he knows how to tell it to us. As perfect a summer read as you will find. Just don't nestle with it under a tree in thunderstorm.

This book is a wonderful surprise. It is inspirational and filled with suspense, adventure, and human interest. It is about religion, faith, and the ways humans cope.

The author writes about lightning in a unique way. Instead of looking at it through a dull, scientific lens, he tells how people have reacted to lightning through the ages. We learn how the Greeks and Romans perceived lightning, about lightning in the Bible, about the conversions of St. Paul and Martin Luther that were possibly caused by lightning, about religious beliefs in the Middle Ages, the criticism of Franklin by clerics, the daring laboratory experiments of Charles Steinmetz and Nikola Tesla, and the latest discoveries by researchers.

But what I found most fascinating in Out of the Blue were the stories of survivors--including an incredible rescue on the Grand Teton. Many survivors describe out-of-body and near-death experiences and how lightning spurred them to greater faith, changed their lives, and made them better people. There are lessons here for all of us.

There is something pointed about lightning that seems to show purposefulness. We have earthquakes, we have tornadoes, we have many other worrisome planetary characteristics, but lightning seems aimed, it seems to pick off individuals in ways that cry out for a reason such a thing ought to befall them. The pointedness of lightning is one of the themes running through _Out of the Blue - A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival_ (Delacorte Press) by John S. Friedman. It has a more-or-less historic run of chapters dealing with how we have come to our current understanding of lightning as a natural rather than supernatural phenomenon, intercalated with the story of a dramatic rescue of climbers struck by lighting on a peak of the Teton Range and with many personal stories about what lightning has done to survivors. Don't call them victims. The Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Victims was founded in 1989, but changed those "Victims" to "Survivors", and the organization thrives with 1,500 members each of whom have insights no non-member will ever have. Friedman, a writer who made the Oscar-winning documentary _Hotel Terminus_ twenty years ago, has interviewed many of the survivors whose stories make up the most arresting part of the book.

Lightning not only seems aimed, it is fast, conducting its devastation literally before those it hits knew what hit them. The gods who use lightning in the stories are the ones quick to wrath. When Benjamin Franklin had invented the lightning rod, priests argued against it, saying that they were impious tools to thwart God's will. Though the folklore described here is amusing, the science of lightning is just as well described, although there are still large holes in our understanding. Forked lightning is the most familiar; it happens on Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, too. On Earth, over a billion such flashes happen every year. An average flash is 25,000 feet long and one to six inches in diameter. It heats up the lightning channel to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, far hotter than the surface of the sun. Plenty live to tell about being hit by such bolts; such strikes are only fatal around 10% of the time. We think of lightning coming down and hitting one target, but it can jump around. In Colorado in 2004, lightning hit the clubs of a golfer who was with a group, but then it jumped from one person to another, resulting in injuries to the group of nineteen, no deaths. Tenacious golfers are at risk for lightning injury, leading to the safety slogan "Don't be lame! End the game!" Boy Scouts also seem to be at risk, and the organization has lost some huge lawsuits because it does not have a good safety record. The most peculiar stories here are of the people who get struck repeatedly; lightning not only does strike in the same place, it seems to prefer particular people. These "human lightning rods" are not always forest rangers or otherwise in locales at risk for lightning strikes, they just get hit more often. There may be a medical reason, something different in their body chemistry, but no one has a clue what it might be. As far as anyone knows, if you survive a lightning strike you are safe from future ones; no one who gets hit repeatedly has ever died from subsequent strikes.

Being struck by lightning has definite, but variable, physiological results. The common ideas that someone who is struck will burst into flames or will be instantaneously reduced to ashes are wrong. There can be burns because of the extreme heat, but there are often few external signs of a strike. Even more serious and puzzling are neurological symptoms like memory or attention problems. There are few doctors who ever get to see a lightning strike survivor, and so there are very few specialists. With the pointedness of lightning, it is not surprising that those who are struck and live take lessons from the experience. Over and over in interviews, they tell Friedman things like "God must have a plan for me", and many have had their personal faith increased. No one mentions why such a plan had to include a lightning strike, and it seems that the greatest inspiration that such victims have gotten is to work devotedly for The Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors. The circularity doesn't seem to register; if lightning strikes were a force for human good, we would not need such organizations, nor would we need National Lightning Safety Awareness Week each June, which is sponsored jointly by organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , the Little League, and the PGA Golf Tour. Friedman's book is an appealing combination of meteorological and medical science, combined with the personal stories of those whom lightning has hit, and the gruesome stories of those who did not live to tell the stories themselves.

I wish I had read some of the reviews here before buying the book, as I agree with some of the other reviewers about the organization and relevance of some of the topics, and also found the technical errors to be problematic.

Most troubling to me, though, is how Mr. Friedman focuses relentlessly on supernatural aspects of being struck by lightning in a book otherwise filled with scientific information. He describes how survivor after survivor "sees God", gets "super strength", has "miraculous cures" of serious ailments, etc etc. But in the book, he doesn't question their claims at all, put their anecdotes into any sort of perspective, or present any sort of evidence to support their outlandish claims. Given that, how can I trust the author's presentation of the actual science in the book?

In addition, many of the chapters were hard to follow without pictures, charts, diagrams, and maps. How can a book on something this visually stunning include only a couple photos of helicopter rescues?

Mr. Friedman is a good writer, but he needed a stronger editor on this book. By the end, I just started skimming because I found it irritating, and I would not recommend it to others.

Out of the Blue is not only jam-packed with fascinating information about lightning, but it also validates the challenges of lightning survivors and allows us share our experiences. Thank you!

Based largely on interviews, this work is a comprehensive study of lightning's human aspects. Friedman, a journalist and documentary film producer, gathers the stories of lightning strike survivors, many of whom are religious and see a divine purpose in their survival. The book also summarizes lightning mythology and folklore, and it recounts the history of lightning science, beginning with Ben Franklin. There are only a few contemporary scientists who study lightning, and they still find some aspects of it puzzling. Much of the book recounts a 2003 helicopter rescue of a mountaineering party struck by lightning atop Wyoming's Grand Teton Mountain, a strike that killed one climber and severely injured several others. Survivors of lightning strikes often have mysterious, long-lasting symptoms that confuse doctors. An organization of lightning strike survivors now exists, and medical science is advancing research on lightning strike victims. Some storm chasers admit they find lightning the most fascinating and feared form of severe weather. Friedman's work is an excellent study of lightning for a popular audience.