Fan death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death of those inside (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia). Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
Full Version: Fan Death
that's one of the most retarded things ive ever heard.
QUOTE (samnang @ Nov 5 2009, 05:59 PM) 
that's one of the most retarded things ive ever heard.
That's why its been relegated to urban myth and superstition.
But I sometimes wonder if my last boyfriend believed it. We Texans live with fans on all the time - the weather is hot and it helps keep down the electric bill for the air conditioning. It was my worst habit according to him. Since he voiced the complaint in 95 degree weather, I have to wonder if being raised with this superstition wasn't part of the reason it upset him so much.
banned
Many Koreans I know still believe it (including a lot of my family).
People believe in lots of things....
Am personally not a fan of fans (lol)
but urban legends like this are ridiculous.
Though you'd never catch me saying "bloody Mary" in front of the mirror at night... not even to debunk the myth..
Am personally not a fan of fans (lol)
but urban legends like this are ridiculous.
Though you'd never catch me saying "bloody Mary" in front of the mirror at night... not even to debunk the myth..
Well, I'm a fan of fans! Can't sleep without one on, even in winter - I know, very neurotic!
Maggie
Maggie
Fan death is a myth. Let the word spread. It does not kill you, even if it's a chinese brand fan.
I've had two fans on the entire summer whenever I slept and I'm still alive.
I've had two fans on the entire summer whenever I slept and I'm still alive.
The strangest Fan Death I've ever heard of took place
when Father Thomas Merton, a very famous Trappist monk died from stepping out of shower and walking in path of an electric fan, touching it with his feet.
His death shocked so many people. He was attempting to do his part to bring West and East together, and had this accident only hours before he was supposed to speak.
Rev. Flavian Burns, the new abbot, allowed him the freedom to undertake a tour of Asia at the end of 1968, during which he met the Dalai Lama in India. He also made a visit to Polonnaruwa (in what was then Ceylon), where he had a religious experience while viewing enormous statues of the Buddha. There is speculation that Merton wished to remain in Asia as a hermit. It is also said[who?] that Merton had planned to visit Cid Corman in Kyoto, Japan but never achieved that goal.
Merton died in Bangkok on December 10, 1968 after touching a poorly grounded electric fan while stepping out of his bath. His body was flown back to Gethsemani where he is buried.
"It was DC current and it went into him and he was staying in a cabin with three other people, but it wasn't until about an hour later that they went, and the door was locked from the inside, it was a double kind of door, and there was a little curtain in the upper part and they saw him lying on the floor on his back with this big fan crosswise across his body. The blades had stopped rotating but the current was still alive and it was still burning. He was very deeply burnt, in that angle across the body. ((((--- Transcript of an interview with John Russell on the CBC, 1980.)))
There was a Benedictine nun superior from Korea at that meeting who was, before she became a religious, she was an Austrian physician and a specialist in internal medicine, and a very, very fine one. The word spread immediately, something happened in my research, and she came immediately, thinking that she might be of some help. He was already dead, but she gave him an immediate examination, and she determined that he died from the effects of electric shock. ((((--- Transcript of an interview with John Russell on the CBC, 1980.)))"
“Be good, keep your feet dry,
your eyes open, your heart at peace
and your soul in the joy of Christ.”
Thomas Merton
when Father Thomas Merton, a very famous Trappist monk died from stepping out of shower and walking in path of an electric fan, touching it with his feet.
His death shocked so many people. He was attempting to do his part to bring West and East together, and had this accident only hours before he was supposed to speak.
Rev. Flavian Burns, the new abbot, allowed him the freedom to undertake a tour of Asia at the end of 1968, during which he met the Dalai Lama in India. He also made a visit to Polonnaruwa (in what was then Ceylon), where he had a religious experience while viewing enormous statues of the Buddha. There is speculation that Merton wished to remain in Asia as a hermit. It is also said[who?] that Merton had planned to visit Cid Corman in Kyoto, Japan but never achieved that goal.
Merton died in Bangkok on December 10, 1968 after touching a poorly grounded electric fan while stepping out of his bath. His body was flown back to Gethsemani where he is buried.
"It was DC current and it went into him and he was staying in a cabin with three other people, but it wasn't until about an hour later that they went, and the door was locked from the inside, it was a double kind of door, and there was a little curtain in the upper part and they saw him lying on the floor on his back with this big fan crosswise across his body. The blades had stopped rotating but the current was still alive and it was still burning. He was very deeply burnt, in that angle across the body. ((((--- Transcript of an interview with John Russell on the CBC, 1980.)))
There was a Benedictine nun superior from Korea at that meeting who was, before she became a religious, she was an Austrian physician and a specialist in internal medicine, and a very, very fine one. The word spread immediately, something happened in my research, and she came immediately, thinking that she might be of some help. He was already dead, but she gave him an immediate examination, and she determined that he died from the effects of electric shock. ((((--- Transcript of an interview with John Russell on the CBC, 1980.)))"
“Be good, keep your feet dry,
your eyes open, your heart at peace
and your soul in the joy of Christ.”
Thomas Merton
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