The Girl with X-Ray Eyes

Natasha Demkina claims she has an extraordinary gift that means she can quite literally see right through people. Her story sounds like it has come straight from the pages of a science fiction comic book, but apparently Natasha is able to look into people’s bodies and correctly diagnose their medical problems, without any help from ultrasound or x-ray equipment. Natasha’s mother, Tatyana Vladimovna, says that her daughter appeared to be like any other child as she grew up, although she was mature for her age. Natasha learned to do things more quickly than other children; she was able to talk at just six months and by the time she was a year old she could recite Pushkin. At three she had learned the alphabet and mastered how to operate a snow mobile.  When she was 10, Natasha went into hospital to have her appendix removed. There were complications and it was discovered that cotton swabs had been left in her abdomen. Natasha had a second operation to remove the swabs and one month later she began to remark on the fact she could see inside people. She told her mother she saw what looked like a vacuum cleaner hose, two beans and a tomato inside her. Tatyana believed that, although Natasha didn’t know the correct words, her daughter was describing her intestines, kidneys and heart. At the children’s hospital in her hometown of Saransk, Western Russia, doctors ran a battery of tests to find out if the little girl really did have x-ray vision. In one case Natasha drew a picture of what she saw inside a doctor’s stomach, apparently marking a dark spot exactly where he had an ulcer. She also disagreed with the diagnosis of a cancer patient, saying all she could see was a small cyst. Further tests on the woman seemed to prove Natasha was correct. Natasha was brought to England by a national newspaper and allegedly spotted all of the fractures and metal pins in a woman who had recently been in a car crash. The woman was fully clothed and had no visible signs of how or where she had been injured. As part of the programme, tests were performed on Natasha by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the affiliated Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH) to scientifically assess the young woman's claims. The tests were intended as a first stage – if she could ‘pass’ this then her claims would merit further research and testing. However Natasha only succeeded in correctly matching four target conditions out of a possible seven, and the scientists required a score of five to warrant continuing their investigations. Natasha’s supporters continue to believe that she does have special powers, and claim the tests were flawed. So is this young woman really able to see directly inside the human body? It’s up to you to decide.