ok city ok

There is little doubt that Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) is one of the most pressing social concerns of our time, yet the misconceptions and prejudices surrounding this phenomenon (actually a related set of phenomena [see below]) conspire to keep SHC shrouded in ignorance. Too often is the sudden bursting into flames and subsequent reduction to cinders of a neighbor or colleague shrugged off as a social faux pas or mere janitorial problem to be (literally) swept under the carpet and later discreetly sifted for jewelry.

The ok city ok research team rejects the prevailing description of SHC as "people simply bursting into flames for no reason." Rather, we began the Elaborate Process by positing that there is a reason, just one that we didn't understand.

In fact, we discovered evidence of a number of factors that could cause an otherwise well-adjusted man or woman to explode into flames. After finding that stress deriving from pet injuries and relationship issues (see Chapter 1: she's literally on fire) appears to play a role in a significant number of suspected SHC cases, our exploration into these relationship issues (e.g. Do external factors make SHC more likely in certain individuals? Are well-meaning friends and family unwittingly enabling the "escape-from-your-problems-by- bursting-into-flames" mentality?) led us to consider mental disorders like histrionic personality disorder (Ch.8: skeleton kiss), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Ch.9: self-starter & Ch.10: dume), borderline personality disorder (Ch.5: min & Ch.11: I'll give you money) and love (Ch.2: I wanna be your lawyer & Ch.4: ferocious) as important factors in the manifestation of SHC.

The Elaborate Process investigation yielded evidence that could have profound resonance in other areas of research, most notably the development of a "surveillance theory of love" (Ch.3: whirlybird) and the (we believe) definitive debunking of the alien abduction hypothesis (Ch.6: someone's been reading my horoscope). The investigation detailed in Ch.6 led to the single most surprising finding in the Elaborate Process study, which is that while believing oneself to be persecuted by aliens is indeed a symptom of paranoid personality disorder, the disorder itself is probably caused by demons. This will be explored in future investigations.