Comments on: The History of the Psychic Nosebleed

By: Prisonbreak Season Opener | Rey's A Point

Prisonbreak Season Opener | Rey's A Point — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:22:20 +0000

[...] Michael tries to telepathically read into the future and has a nosebleed. [...]

By: Bob Mozark

Bob Mozark — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:06:58 +0000

I linked your posting to the Wikipedia article on Scanners & an unidentified poster
has since come along and identified an earlier movie with a psychic nosebleed.

It is The Fury (1978). “psychic-induced nosebleed that quickly progresses
into bleeding from the eyes and ears.

See: http://www.terrortrap.com/supernatural70s/fury/“

By: mike

mike — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 03:14:01 +0000

butterfly effect anyone

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:52:03 +0000

Google book search offers this tantalising snippet:

“… Siberia consider children who bleed at the nose or mouth to be destined by the gods to the profession of shamanism.”

The Origin of the Inequality of the Social Classes by Gunnar Landtman (1938)

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:38:50 +0000

Here’s what I can find in Firestarter:

“Well, he’s overdone it before and wound up in bed. He’s doing something to his brain . . . God knows what. Giving himself pinprick hemorrhages, maybe. It could be a progressive thing. The computer figures there’s slightly better than a one-in-four chance he’s dead, either of a heart attack or, more probably, a stroke.”

AND

Suppose the push had come back. That was no universal cure-all; he of all people knew that. He could give a lot of little pushes or three or four wallopers before he tipped himself over. He might get to Charlie, but he didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting them out of here. All he would succeed in doing was pushing himself into the grave via a brain hemorrhage (and as he thought of this, his fingers went automatically to his face, where the numb spots had been).

By: The Tensor

The Tensor — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:52:59 +0000

Aha! Try this example on for size. It’s from Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. The main characters, futuristic soldiers on their first mission, have just accidentally killed some alien herbivores. They’re puzzling over the bodies’ lack of any apparent sensory organs when suddenly someone notices that one of their comrades, Ho, died at the same moment as the animals:

“Massive cerebral hemorrhage. No…” He watched the dials. “No…warning, no indication of anything out of the ordinary; blood pressure up, pulse up, but normal under the circumstances…nothing to…indicate—” He reached down and popped her suit. Her fine oriental features were distorted in a horrible grimace, both gums showing. Sticky fluid ran from under her collapsed eyelids, and a trickle of blood still dripped from each ear. Doc Wilson closed the suit back up.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s as if a bomb went off in her skull.”

“Oh, fuck,” Rogers said, “she was Rhine-sensitive, wasn’t she.”

“That’s right,” Cortez sounded thoughtful. “All right, everybody listen up. Platoon leaders, check your platoons and see if anybody’s missing, or hurt. Anybody else in seventh?”

“I…I’ve got a splitting headache, Sarge,” Lucky said.

Four others had bad headaches. One of them affirmed that he was slightly Rhine-sensitive. The others didn’t know. (pp. 46-47)

OK, it’s an ear-bleed rather than a nose-bleed, but I think you’ll agree that this is the same fictional medical phenomenon. This novel was published in 1974. In fact, it was serialized in Analog starting in June of 1972, though I can’t verify that this passage occurs in the magazine version.

By: The Tensor

The Tensor — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 01:55:32 +0000

This web page says, of the psychic nosebleed, "This trope may have been born with the film adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter, where it was used in place of the original book's far-less-visible 'tiny cerebral hemorrhages'." Since the movie version of Firestarter came out three years after Scanners, Cronenberg can still claim prior art.

By: Matthew E

Matthew E — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:41:36 +0000

I was one of the people who suggested ‘Firestarter’. I meant the book, as I haven’t seen the movie. I’ll check it out and see if I can find an exact reference for you.

By: c rose

c rose — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 01:02:03 +0000

1978’s ‘The Fury’ loosely based on the John Farris novel had people bleeding all over the place due to psychic activity. From noses, eyes, fingernails (iirc). But (again, iirc) those were the normals doing the bleeding, not the psychics under strain. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie for all the details.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:32:13 +0000

Rogert Ebert mentions that the father gets a nosebleed each time he uses his psychic abilities
but I haven’t seen the movie. The link: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19840101/REVIEWS/401010335/1023

I think that father gets migraines when he uses psychic ability in King’s book.

I’m curious to see whether anyone can find a more recent instance. Can the psychic nosebleed come from any fictional source?
For instance, magazine stories or TV shows?