Would Psychic Powers Really Cause Nosebleeds?

You've seen the trope: a character strains their psychic powers and gets a nosebleed to show for it. But would this actually happen if psychic powers were real? Learn the hypothetical science in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and you've seen the trope. A
mental battle rages between a heroic character and her nemesis.
As the struggle wears on, we see the first signs
of the toll. It must be taking a trickle of blood.
Ruby red appears at one nostril. The strain of invisible

(00:23):
psychic abilities is admittedly difficult to illustrate in a visual medium.
Perhaps that's why so many authors of comic books, television shows,
and movies turned to this tried and true trope, the
psychic nose bleed. When blood comes from a character's nose,
it signifies that the character is exerting themselves. After all,
blood vessels can rupture things to physical exertion as many

(00:44):
a weight lifter nose, So perhaps psychic powers could cause
some sort of cranial pressure build up. It's concise and
visceral in a way that a mere facial twitch, drop
of sweat, or vein throb can't cover. It's become such
a common way to imply a mind push to its
limits that the Comics meets Medicine blog Polite Descent has
been tracking its appearance in comics for nearly a decade.

(01:06):
The site even gave the fictional phenomenon a name, epistaxis telepatheca,
the medical term for a nosebleed being epistaxis. The psychic
nosebleed has appeared in more than just comics, of course,
beyond comic book adaptations like the two thousand five film
Fantastic Four and the TV series Smallville, and media directly
influenced by comics like Heroes and Chronicle to other genre

(01:29):
media like The Fifth Element, Star Trek and Carnival. It
also features prominently in the Netflix series Stranger Things, in
which a mysterious girl called Eleven escapes a creepy government laboratory,
then uses her telekinetic powers against her former captors and
some trans dimensional creepy Crawley's The internal severity of these
psychic abilities is evidenced by the blood that trickles sometimes

(01:52):
from Eleven's nose. Stranger Things pays homage to pop culture
from the nineteen eighties, with the Spielberg meets Carpenter meets
even King sort of vibe, So it's fitting that one
of the earliest cinematic instances of the psychic nosebleed appears
in the four film adaptation of Stephen King's fire Starter.
A seven year old girl named Charlie starts fires using

(02:13):
the power of her mind evidence to not only buy flames,
but by the occasional nosebleed. But for some of the
earliest psychic nosebleeds, we're going to have to go back
to the paranormal thriller Scanners from David Cronenberg. It's the
first film to clearly connect nasal bleeding with psychic exertion.
In the movie, Scanners are people born with telepathic and

(02:34):
telekinetic powers, the extreme use of which makes them subject
to nosebleeds and more. But if psychic powers really existed,
how might this work. There's a theory that using psychic
powers could raise the pressure of your cerebro spinal fluid.
But pressure in this fluid, which surrounds the brain and
spinal cord, would not cause a nosebleed. It would cause

(02:55):
a coma. It's actually more likely than nosebleed would be
brought on by enthusiastic nose picking. The scientific term for that,
by the way, is epistaxis digitorum. While the appearance of
nosebleeds adds to the nostalgic eighties drama of stranger things.
Actual nosebleeds can be dramatic and horrific on their own.
Anytime a body part starts spouting copious amounts of blood,

(03:15):
it's bound to cause a ruckus. It seems but a
small leap to connect nosebleeds to fictional worlds, but that's
all it is. Fiction. Nosebleeds are not caused by how
hard we use our brains. If that were true, think
of all the situations would need to choose for tests,
job interviews, presentations. Surgeons might bleed more than their patients.
The majority of nosebleeds in real life are caused by

(03:37):
fist versus nose or finger versus nose collisions. Infections, allergy
and irritations, and foreign bodies can also be to blame,
and high blood pressure can cause one, although it's lower
on the list of dangers than strokes or heart attacks.
Most nosebleeds occur during winter months and are exacerbated by
climates that are dry and cold. The vast majority about

(03:58):
of nosebleeds are of the and or variety, caused by
the rupture of a blood vessel at the front part
of the nose. These nose bleeds are relatively easy to
control and usually stop within a few minutes. Posterior nose
bleeds are a different story and are caused by an
arterial rupture at the back of the nose. A most
common and elderly people. Posterior nosebleeds are difficult to stop

(04:19):
and usually require hospital admission. Of course, all of this
isn't to say that we're not prepared to suspend our
disbelief just in case fiction starts bleeding over into reality.
We wouldn't want to think about it too hard. Today's
episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by
Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other

(04:41):
Bloody Pool topics, visit our home planet has stuff works
dot com.