Positive qualities of OOB Mercury include extremely innovative thought processes; especially in fields such as literature, business, media, communications, broadcasting, technology, engineering, science, medicine, and math. There is eloquence, charisma in communication style, ability to engage an audience, very high intelligence and talent for communicating via the written word. Louis Pasteur is an excellent example of OOB Mercury. It should be noted that Louis is the one person in the famous people sample to have four OOB planets and thus is definitely one of the most creative, out of the box thinkers in our history. He is a world famous microbiologist and chemist whose accomplishments included: discovering molecular asymmetry, saving the wine and beer industries from collapse with his discovery of pasteurization, providing persuasive evidence to refute the theory of spontaneous generation, solving France's silkworm crisis by devising a method to preserve healthy silkworm eggs and using germ theory to create vaccinations for anthrax, TB, chicken cholera, and and rabies. He was the first person to recognize variability in virulence, this has immensely contributed to our understanding of the emergence of several serious diseases. He is celebrated for his tenacity, the practical significance of his theories and his unwavering devotion to science. He said "science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence". With his ground-breaking ideas, penetrating observations and rigorous research methods, he has vastly improved quality of life and greatly reduced humanity's mortality rate. Among his many distinctions, he received the Legion of Honour and numerous institutes, hospitals, schools, buildings and streets bear his name.

When Mercury goes OOB there is also the potential of extremely distorted/ twisted thought processes, hearing voices that aren't real, tendency to grossly misconstrue/ blow wildly out of proportion what other people say, weird/ disturbing obsessions, fixations, compulsive thinking, inability to read signals from other people, and speech impediments. Peter Sutcliffe has four out of bounds planets and is a prime example of what can happen when the extreme energy of OOB planets go in a negative direction. He is also known as the Yorkshire Ripper because he killed 13 prostitutes and attacked 7 others in West Yorkshire, England. He had an obsession with prostitutes and spent a large portion of his time in red light districts. He claims that he spoke with God frequently and that God ordered him to kill the prostitutes. His Venus is also out of bounds which also contributes to his violent hatred of women and the fact that his crimes were sexual in nature. His distorted thought processes are reflected in his statement "the women I killed were filth - bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. I was just cleaning up the place a bit".
Charles Starkweather is another good example of Mercury OOB. As a child he had a speech impediment and was a slow learner. He blew comments out of proportion; a notable example being that as an adult he recalled that he had "built up a hate that was as hard as iron after being called the bowlegged, redheaded woodpecker" in kindergarten. When he got older he developed a James Dean fixation after watching the movie "Rebel without a Cause", he identified with the defiant, misunderstood character and even patterned his hair and clothing to look like him. He was deeply disturbed at his family's low social status (his mom was a waitress and his dad was a carpenter who was not regularly employed) and while doing a series of unskilled, menial jobs came to the conclusion that he would never rise above his current station in life. As characteristic of the distortion of thinking processes of OOB Mercury, he thought the only way that he could ever be equal with the middle and upper class society he felt alienated him, was to kill them! He coldly remarked "dead people are all on the same level". He also concluded that the only way to get money and respect was to resort to a life of crime. He later went on to murder 11 people during a 2 month road trip with his girlfriend.
Mark David Chapman is a very memorable example of OOB Mercury. He was convicted of killing John Lennon. He had an obsession with the book The Catcher in the Rye, fancying himself as Holden Caufield, the protagonist, he later claimed that this was his "statement" in killing John. He remained at the scene after the killing and was found reading this book by the police. When in trial, he claimed that God told him to plead guilty and that he would never appeal. When asked if he had anything to say he read a passage from the book. As found frequently in people with Mercury OOB, Mark blew comments out of proportion and misconstrued their meaning. In 1966 Lennon made a remark that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, consequently Mark and his Christian prayer group sang a twisted version of Imagine referring to Lennon being dead. In one song Lennon sang "imagine no possessions", Mark was resentful and angry because he felt that Lennon shouldn't have millions of dollars and luxurious possessions if he was sincere in his words.
John Hinckley attempted but was unsuccessful at assassinating Ronald Reagan. Similar to the other criminals with Mercury OOB, he had a strange obsession with the film Taxi Driver in which the protagonist Travis Bickle plans to assassinate a presidential candidate. He became infatuated with Jodie Foster and actually moved to a new state to stalk her. He tried extreme tactics to impress her but failed to get her attention. As a result, he reasoned that if he killed the president, it would impress her.