Quote Originally Posted by pmbguy View Post
Correct. As you have proved for yourself you need to be earthed to get shocked. BUT dam dude you got big balls. This must have been after a bottle of Jack Daniels and a dare from your mate. Clearly your wife was not around or you would have had testicular swelling from her slapping you, trying to prevent you from your dangerous curiosity. Now that I think about it, it’s actually a good thing she was not there. If she was and she slapped your loins while you were touching the wires she would earth, shocking both of you and leaving you with boiled eggs.
Define "Earth" - what about a lightning strike between clouds, doesn't that occur because the potential difference is high enough for a spark to jump?

I suspect that you would have to be earthed if your potential relative to the cloud was neutral. What would happen if you were not earthed but you just played with a Van Den Graaf generator