| 23OCT2009
Reported by Lynn Taylor
From Steve T: "Hello. Yesterday
afternoon my mother found the exact same crosshair marking on her shoulder
and one half formed on her other shoulder. We were baffled as to how it got
there and researched it the entire night only to find no results or
help. The closest thing we could find was your website. I found it truly
remarkable that it is mostly found on women and on the shoulder region. We
tried every which way to logically explain it. All day today we consulted
with our co-workers and no one heard of anything like it. My sister just got
home from work about five minutes ago and told my mom to look at the metal
piece at the tip of her hair dryer. It was the exact same shape of the
crosshair skin marking on her shoulder. She held the hair dryer too close
and burned herself. It explains all questions about the marking (i.e.
predominantly on women, shoulder region, no clue as to how it got there
because no activities or routines were disrupted). So there you have it, the
answer to the crosshair mystery. Glad I could help!"
-Steve T-
Hello Stephen;
Thank you for writing. About a year ago, I received an e-mail similar to
yours from a man in California who was convinced that he too had solved the
riddle of the cross-hair mark, that women were somehow concentrating their
blow dryers over a given area of skin and self-inflicting these marks. If
that was the case, then we would not be talking about an unexplained
phenomena, we would be looking at a hoax, because the subject would surely
remember the pain associated with holding a blow dryer close to the skin
long enough to affect a burn mark. Further, cross-hair marks have not been
limited to women. Two Italian brothers vacationing in England reported that
one of them woke up with a cross-hair mark on his chest (and no blow
dryers). To top it all off, I just received a report of a woman who had two
cross-hair marks form on her body spontaneously and in front of her
co-workers while at work on August 26, 2009. I have been studying this
phenomena since 2004, and I still do not have so much as a good guess as to
what the root cause is, but I do feel fairly safe in ruling out blow dryers
as the culprit.
You are right, in that many of these marks appear around the shoulder
region, but several have also been found on the breast, right above the
areola. Now that would be a pretty sensitive spot to even accidentally hold
a hot blow dryer for any length of time!
Is your mother absolutely certain about her recall of burning herself with
her blow dryer? I ask this because human memory is very malleable. In fact,
it might be a good idea to have her answer a few background questions if she
would be willing. Let me know.
Best Regards,
Lynn Taylor
E-mail:
Note: After I answered Steve's letter, I received no further
correspondence from him. |
