SLIders and Electric/Magnetic People

A strange and somewhat recent phenomenon that I sometimes see come up is that of SLIders.  The SLI stands for "street lamp interference."  People that are SLIders report street lamps spontaneously going out when they pass near them.  This apparently happens so often that it leads them to believe it's something about them rather than just coincidence.  Some SLIders even report that watches stop and credit cards have their magnetic strips erased while in the SLIder's possession.

I can't help but wonder if perhaps this phenomenon isn't something that has existed since ancient times, going unnoticed because of the lack of electrical contraptions being literally everywhere.  Tales of electric or magnetic people are not uncommon and in my mind these phenomena are very similar to psychokinesis.  An example is that of Jennie Morgan of Sedalia, Missouri who in the 1890s was so highly charged with electricity that sparks would jump from her to nearby objects, animals would avoid her, and people that touched her were often knocked unconscious by her charge.  A similar case is that of Caroline Clare of London, Ontario.  She became charged after falling ill in 1877 and objects that came in contact with her became magnetized.  Clare was also capable of sticking cutlery to herself similar to some modern reports of "magnetic people" with the difference being that she needed another person to pull the objects off of her.

Over the years many people, both male and female, young and old, have been studied because of their extreme electromagnetic properties.  I find it peculiar how many of these cases at first resemble classic poltergeist activity and eventually develop into what would seem to be psychokinetic or telekinetic powers.  I think that this implies a connection between psychokinesis and electromagnetism.  Of course, looking into the data available on both psychokinesis and electromagnetism, one encounters a number of difficulties with this explanation.  The primary problem being that it seems impossible for people to emit, let alone control, that much electrical energy.

It's interesting to note that some SLIders report that their incidents occur during times of stress or emotional upset.  In the classic cases of electric people and magnetic people we find those that acquired these abilities after falling severely ill and then recovering.  These correlations, while interesting, do very little to reveal the secret of what's actually going on here.  This problem is made even more unassailable by the usual difficulty of these phenomena typically being beyond the conscious control of the person.  This obviously makes it very hard to study under laboratory conditions.

I like to think that I've had some SLIder experiences of my own, but they are sporadic and could very well be coincidences.  This doesn't deter me from trying to figure the whole thing out though.  If you've ever had a SLIder experience let me know in the comments.  Your input is welcome.