In his books Mutants and Mystics, Jeffrey J. Kripal offers an insightful account of how comic book heroes have helped their creators and fans alike explore and express a wealth of paranormal experiences ignored by mainstream science. What if the same heroes had influenced the narratives chosen by modern psychics? It may be the case of Gustavo Rol from Turin, Italy. Here is a confession given by the parapsychologist Giorgio Di Simone in a book about Rol:

During one of our conversations, Rol told me – although I know that, in fact, goes beyond incredible. One time, in one afternoon … yes, it was an afternoon, quiet and calm. He said to me, almost confessing, that his most daring, bold “plan” was to get out of his house, on the third floor – if I remember correctly – that house in Via Pellico, walking on the side! … And he smiled, as he often did after pronouncing incredible words. I do not know if Gustavo did it, but I do not think so. Besides, what would happen if the unsuspecting passers-by had seen him crawling down in that fantastic way? This, among other things, is a fact that Rol has always kept into consideration, with his constant sense of ethics. He has saved many people, avoiding to shock them with some of his most traumatic experiments! (1) 

Wasn’t this a typical Spiderman stunt?

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