Debbie's smashing love life

6:40pm Thursday 31st January 2008

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The right spark between two people can be mind blowing - but for Debbie Wolf it can be bulb blowing.

She has startled a few partners for keeping them in the dark about her bedroom antics because it is literally lights out when she is aroused.

Debbie's presence causes street lamps to flicker, freezers to defrost, TVs to change channel and household appliances to pack up.

The 38-year-old's electrical powers have earned her international fame, becoming a star in Japan where they compare her to the magical Manga comic book characters.

She said: "It happens when I'm stressed or if I'm chewing something over in my mind but not if I'm annoyed.

"It has never been full on whammy all day but it happens frequently, such as when I'm excited or feeling frisky.

"Once I was on the back of a motorbike with a partner getting in the mood and the street lights along a road were turning off and on again as we were driving past.

"On one occasion I was lusting after someone in a bar and actually saw a blue jolt of electricity travel from my foot to theirs."

Debbie's mother was aware of her daughter's powers growing up, refusing to take her in big electrical stores and refraining from touching her when she turned on a light.

The pathology support officer at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton often sees repair men fixing the street lamp outside her home in Central Avenue, Telscombe Cliffs, Newhaven.

Debbie said: "The light has been faulty outside all the homes I have lived in and I'm always draining the batteries in remote controls.

"I often come back home to find a pool of water on the floor because the fridge-freezer has defrosted.

"I have to use a wind-up alarm clock because my reaction waking up in the morning scrambles digital ones.

"My mum noticed it before me because I thought it was natural. My brother is deaf and she used to say 'I have one electric and one deaf child'.

"It affects everything you can imagine. I don't really see the effects as anecdotes because for me it is an everyday reality."

Hilary Evans, who studies the phenomenon, calls Debbie a "slider," which is short for Street Lamp Interference Data Exchange. Debbie wrote to Mr Evans when she saw him speaking about the subject on television and she has since appeared on chat shows across the globe as well as American news station CNN.

Mr Evans said: "What happened to Debbie has happened to a great many other people, though her experience was more dramatic than most.

"This is some as yet unidentified power of the mind, a power which perhaps we all possess but some - and Debbie is a prime example - possess it more strongly than the rest of us."

Have you ever experienced anything similar? Tell us your unusual stories below.