http://inamidst.com/lights/selobs

Observations regarding a light that I saw on 15th June 2009. Makes for
interesting
reading, I hope. This is perhaps the strangest light that I've seen, and the
most likely
candidate for being an earth light or one of the associated phenomena.

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/sbp/

Hello People,

I have a website that might interest members of this group. It is
called www.fireballhistory.com. I plan to set up a page on the Will-o-
the Wisp when I get a chance.

At 8:15, after attempting to find a place to report this, I went back
outside and the flashing had terminated.

No ideas here; I doubt it was a plane, pulsar, satellite or other
normal, common phenom.  Very high altitude, not orbital.

Ideas welcome!

--- In mysterylights@yahoogroups.com, "Ed Golinski Lesperance"
<spirit7aloha@...> wrote:
>
> At 7:45 Hawaii Standard time, we observed a repeating, stationary
> (or very slowly moving) flash.  As bright as Bootes, but sometimes
> dim (as if rotating, directional light?)  It has a period of about
> seven seconds.
> I have never seen it's equal.  There is no sun reflection, just the
> flash every 7 seconds.
>
> Any ideas?  Where do I report this?
>
> email: spirit (at) hawaii (dot) RR (dot) Com
> phone: 808-239-6990
>
> (Am I over-reacting?)
>

At 7:45 Hawaii Standard time, we observed a repeating, staytionary (or
very slowly moving) flash.  As bright as Bootes, but sometimes dim (as
if rotating, directional light?)  It has a period of about seven seconds.

I have never seen it's equal.  There is no sun reflection, just the
flash every 7 seconds.

Any ideas?  Where do I report this?

email: spirit@...
phone: 808-239-6990

(Am I over-reacting?)

First Contact

by Jean Michel , Author, Speaker, Free Journalist.

Beside being the title of a Star Trek movie, it is also the same concept
in this reality that a first contact

with an advanced civilization from outerspace is possible and at hand.

Time to time there are some news or initiatives regarding this
possibility, mostly coming from New Age

or UFO communities. Of a lesser standard are those coming from
channeling circles, such as the last announcement

of contact or a big UFO show in the skies in October 2008 over Alabama,
where nothing happened, once again, as each and every time such a big
event is trumpeted.

This does not mean that the subject is not serious, at the contrary. I
know better for having had over the years colleagues speakers in
International Congresses such as American and Russian astronauts, many
civilian and air force pilots, ex-intel officers, scientists, police
officers, Native American Elders and some of the most credible
contactees.

With these colleagues we made clear statements in pannels in the 90's
that "first contact" would be the fact of negative aliens first, that is
a contact on a global basis with public coverage.

This has not prevented the new age and channelings circles to continue
to produce less-then-credible and less-then-genuine material and to
flood us with promised un oncoming big news in the medias.

This situation necessitate some clearings, that I will try to make
short, while being considered as one (of the many)

representatives of the positive advanced extraterrestrials. If asked, my
colleagues contactees and speakers would probably say the very same.

A first public contact of the positive kind is unlikely since it has
ALREADY HAPPENED. It was performed by the

positive extraterrestrials called the "Nordics" in UFO circles, and
known in spiritual circles as "Confederation of Planets" or "Galactic
Confederation of Light". Millions of people were contacted in the 50's,
60's and 70's, all over the planet, this on a personal basis for humans
of various backgrounds. The very same confederation contacted also
during the same period the leaders of this planet, very much in the like
of "official visits" and offered help. The porposal was quite simple,
help us to solve all health and environment problems, give guidance to
earthlings to develop free universal energy for everything, space travel
included. This was free offering, with the condition that this planet
should desarm all weapons, stop all wars and all research on breaking
the atom, which is contrary to galactic and universal law. Needless to
say, while many humans on Earth responded favorably when contacted on a
discrete and personal level, the public leaders all rebuffed the
proposal of the Confederation. The typical response could be found in
the story of "Val Thor" in this web page :

http://www.galactic-server.com/rune/valienthor.html
<http://www.galactic-server.com/rune/valienthor.html>

When the VP in America at the time gave the official response "It is a
no, because this would put down our economy", it is easy to understand
why : how in hell (planet Earth) could a so-called modern society based
on "free market profits" made using the unbalance between rich and poor,
regions with natural ressources and those with none, where wars have
been and still are fully part of the system to conquer, control and make
huge profits, a civilization where half ot the planet is sick of eating
too much, and the other half sick of not having enough to eat, where
these very"modern diseases" represent in turn great money making
machines, in short how could such a civilization (sic) accept such a
proposal ? Indeed and instead these very leaders chose (on behalf of the
people without their knowledge) to make a deal with the negative aliens,
this in various main industrial nations. The deal

then was more in their habits and regular ways : trade biological
material (humans) for weapons, advanced technologies to control masses
and to develop new "inventions" that would bring profits, unlike the
"free universal energy" offered by the Confederation.

With regard to the above, it is very unlikely that the positive
extraterrestrials would make a "first global contact" with public
appearances all over the medias (controled by the system previously
described). The plan of the Confederation was a contact with the people,
with an adjacent program of spiritual awakening (yes using positive
technologies) with the prospect of the masses of the planet deciding by
themselves to join the Confederation of Planets and their level of life.
For the sake of safety the definition of an "advanced civilization" is
one with equal amounts of technological and spiritual evolution. Such is
not the case with this human society, religions being not synonymous
with spiritual evolution, case proven with the state of the planet
today.

While contactees were hold in ridicule, the majority of the masses
continued to vote for the same system described previous, and there is
NO change in sight, even with very recent events. The point is clear,
the Confederation of Planets has NO economic system, and as long as this
planet has one, there is no way to join the party (sic).

There is alway some hope for miracles, yes. A man named Jimmy Carter set
up a department to reveal the truth about UFO's, as promised, having had
a close encounter himself. The job was done and all reports ready, but
when he was put down, the system drowned the reports. Again a positive
advanced extraterrestrial society and a "pre-warp" society with an
economic system are incompatible.

Now a quick word about the various (insane) initiatives of various
groups to call for exposure and/or for first global contact. Since the
negative aliens organized in a Galactic Federation plan to appear first
in a global contact, and that these are the very same the leaders of the
current system on Earth decided to deal with long ago, the outcome is
clear. It would be similar to ask these leaders to present to the
subliminally controled masses an official contact with "our friends
ancestors from space", to even improve the technologies of control and
bring about a new "universal religion and i.d.", and the (in)famous "big
bro" system all over the Earth. Officially, that is.

I will speak more about contacts with positive extraterrestrials as I
have done for years in conferences, on Radio and TV. This short article
was to fix the "First Contact" story.

Please read my blog on a more conscious "my space" that is worthy to
join :

http://www.superlife.ws/profiles/blogs/contact-with-our-space
<http://www.superlife.ws/profiles/blogs/contact-with-our-space>

Golden Love and Light

Jean Michel/Cmdr.Lyur

cptnlyur@... <mailto:cptnlyur@...>

www.starshiplight.com <http://www.starshiplight.com/>

www.goldenlightfleet.com <http://www.goldenlightfleet.com/>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

NEW BOOKLET PROVIDES THE ANSWER TO A 30 YEAR ENIGMA (published by Dawn
research}in relation to the Persinger/Derr hypothesis.Wich is available
at A&R Douglas Mainstreet West Calder.Including a mssg 2 holland Frits
i am coming over,watch yourself being there.

UFOlogy 101 with Mike DeGroff and SMiles Lewis

Tuesday, November 27th - Austin History Center

Explore the fascinating world of UFOs, Close Encounters and Strange
Entities through a dazzling array of historic imagery; from ancient
cave art, to classical paintings on to the modern era of digital
photography and fakery. How do scientific groups like Austin’s Mutual
UFO Network and Anomaly Archives investigate these mysterious
encounter events?

What do the realms of Cultural Anthropology, Parapsychology,
Ethnopharmacology and other fields tell us about these strange phenomena?

Come join the exploration and discussion of these fascinating topics
being presented by Austin MUFON and the Anomaly Archives lending
library. This IONS-SAI lecture will be at 6:30 PM at the Austin
History Center, 9th and Guadalupe, Austin, Texas. Admission is free.
For more information call 512-258-9878.

Mike DeGroff is the current State Section Director for the Travis and
Williamson County Chapters of MUFON.

SMiles Lewis is a past leader of Austin MUFON and the Austin UFO
Experiencer Support and Study Group and founder of the Scientific
Anomaly Institute’s lending library, the Anomaly Archives.

www.AustinMufon.org / www.AnomalyArchives.org

Sorry for my delay in responding.
Just to share with others interested in Spooklights - there is a
very active Spooklight "Window" near the small town of Cloverdale,
Alabama where large and very bright Spooklights have been seen since
the early 1970s.

They appear in the same locations so they are are not difficult to
watch.  They have been seen 1-3 feet from the ground and others are
much higher.  They move fairly slow in a west to east or east to
west direction and are unaffected by the wind.  They suddenly appear
and disappear and some are in view for up to several minutes.  They
areas to see them are accessible to the public and they are very
impressive to watch.   I and a friend who investigated this
phenomenon have observed about 180 Spooklights.

One of the best places to watch them is north of Florence and a
short distance from Cloverdale where SR 272 intersects the
Cloverdale Highway.  if traveling north - the Spooklights can be
seen about a half a mile west of the intersection and about 1 1/2
miles east.  While their appearance is not predictable - it is rare
to see on after midnight.

If anyone is interested I can share more info.

wyatt cox

--- In mysterylights@yahoogroups.com, "J. K. Dänae Spencer"
<danae@...> wrote:
>
> I have investigated an area in northwestern Alabama
> where there is a very active Spooklight phenomemon.
> They are quite large and yellowish-orange and can be
> seen very frequently. If anyone is intersted, I would
> be glad to provide details.
>
> wyatt
>
>
> By all means, do!
>
> D
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Does anybody know if the Magonia website is down for good? It used to
host, amongst other things, a copy of "Stars and Rumours of Stars", a
good article on one of the prototypical suspected earth lights cases.

Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magonia
and http://www.magonia.demon.co.uk/ (the broken website)

Thanks,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

I have investigated an area in northwestern Alabama
where there is a very active Spooklight phenomemon.
They are quite large and yellowish-orange and can be
seen very frequently. If anyone is intersted, I would
be glad to provide details.

wyatt


By all means, do!

D

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Greetings:


I have investigated an area in northwestern Alabama
where there is a very active Spooklight phenomemon.
They are quite large and yellowish-orange and can be
seen very frequently. If anyone is intersted, I would
be glad to provide details.


wyatt
--- "J. K. Dänae Spencer" <danae@...> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Hasn't been much activity here since the earthquake
> in S. America, although I'm about to start a
> discussion to get some information for my critique
> of "Hunt for the Skinwalker".  Maybe you could post
> something about your experiences?
>
> Danae
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>

Hello,

Hasn't been much activity here since the earthquake in S. America, although I'm
about to start a discussion to get some information for my critique of "Hunt for
the Skinwalker".  Maybe you could post something about your experiences?

Danae

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi
Am new here.  Came across this group while reading about Earthlights.
Have had two experiences of seeing lights in the sky that I can not
explain. One happened at night one during the day.
Have had a quick look and this looks like an interesting site.

All the best

Several people in Peru have contacted me about EQLs [1] that they saw
in advance of the earthquake near Lima [2], and a couple of them sent
me this video of EQL flashes:

Good day,

Thanks for posting--that might've slipped by me otherwise.  One comment I might
offer is that all 3 videos that were posted on this seem to show the exact same
event, i.e. 2 flashes, one small and the other large, a few seconds apart. 
Eventually, when we begin to understand this better, it might be useful to know,
say, wether this business occurs all along the fault line across a wide range of
time or in only one location in a concentrated burst.  Come to think of it, if
someone could get a really good time fix for when the lights happen, we could
compare that to seismometer data and see if anything suggests itself.  Such a
time fix would have to be pretty precise and rely on a clock that's set to a
universal standard time, such as that on a cell-phone (mine's updated by the
network signal and so quite accurate).

Danae

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I now know of two further videos of the EQLs:

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXyv6Eaxy4w
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5qep7TbylA

And I've posted downloadable clipped versions here:

* http://inamidst.com/lights/peru01.mov
* http://inamidst.com/lights/peru02.mov
* http://inamidst.com/lights/peru03.mov

Most people are saying that the flashes occurred during the peak part
of the quake, though some say that they saw them before, and others
during a quieter period in the quake.

In video 1 you can see a white light by the house which is probably a
street lamp but which may be an anomalous light--it's hard to tell
(the moon is a slender waxing crescent, so it's not that). In video 2
the main characteristic is that the flashing light is extremely
bright. In video 3 the power cuts out to the surrounding buildings
whilst the flashes happen, and then gets restored. People who have
written to me have described this happening too. One of them said that
right after the last flash, the power went out entirely.

This might point to some kind of connection with the power supply, but
not necessarily that a power station explosion is what caused the
flashes, which is what the local authorities in Lima are apparently
saying. Nobody who's written to me believes that it was a power
station, and many point out that the flashes occured over the sea, in
the direction of the epicentre.

One responder actually says that they saw the flashes in the sea
itself, and I've asked them for more details. Others say that they saw
the flashes in different directions to the apparently main sea flash
too, and others report seeing red lights and white lights. But the
majority of the sightings are of this huge blue/white flash, and the
majority of the directions place it beyond the horizon towards the sea.

Apparently lightning is indeed very rare in Lima. Fog, on the other
hand, isn't. One reporter says that it was foggy as usual in Lima that
day, and another say that it was unusually clear, so I've asked for
some clarification.

One person said that a friend of his said that he heard sounds
accompanying the lights, like "the ones lasers do in movies". I don't
think anybody else has reported hearing them too, and of course given
the earthquake there would probably be lots of strange noises going on.

Several people in Peru have contacted me about EQLs [1] that they saw
in advance of the earthquake near Lima [2], and a couple of them sent
me this video of EQL flashes:

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=eNy6YQB8nnw

The flashes occur 50 seconds or so into the video. They look very much
like the flashes in the famous Matsushiro earthquake lights picture,
and one informant tells me that lightning there is almost unheard of
("we never experience lightning or thunder" were her exact words),
which would seem to rule lightning out as the cause.

This is the first video of EQLs I've seen. I've asked the various
people who contacted me for further information about what they saw,
so I'll keep you updated.

[1] http://inamidst.com/lights/earthquake
[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6948888.stm

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

The article "Seeing the Lights" by Paul Devereux, recently published
in FT 218, is now on the Fortean Times website:

http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/218_earth_lights_1.shtml

It's a pretty good summary of the Devereux-centric state of the earth
lights art to date; it doesn't mention the International Earthlights
Alliance though, which is odd since it's a good way for people to
donate money to groups like that led by Erling Strand.

Whilst it's nice to have a well written summary of things and a bit of
contemporary exposure, I can't help but feel that it won't perturb the
state of affairs all the much, which is a shame. Lots of people seem
to know about earth lights, but not many people want to do research or
take it further.

It'd be nice to have a high exposure article from someone other than
Devereux for a change!

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

Another day, another transcription. This is closely related to
Chambers's piece from 1830 that I transcribed yesterday, in that it's
a later revision of one of Chambers's sources. William Kirby is known
as the "father of entomology" today, and here's a link to his thoughts
on the subject of the wisp, followed by my usual summary and commentary:

  http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/kirby1843
  - from Kirby and Spence (1843), An Introduction to Entomology

The opening paragraph of the ignis fatuus section contains the
mole-cricket story that's familiar from Chambers. Only it clears up a
mystery that anybody actually following these transcriptions may find
interesting: since whereas Chambers calls the place of the event
Tikleton, that I was unable to find, we find from the original that
its correct name is Ickleton. I'm pleased to report that this is on
the Ordnance Survey map, at TL 495 435 GB near Saffron Walden, and
though it's little (I know, I know...) it has a church.

Kirby mentions Beccaria and Derham, and then talks about the Sheppard
story that once again was repeated in Chambers. He also mentions
somewhat comically that though "so much is said and so little known"
about the ignis fatuus, "it is singular how few modern instances of
their having been observed are on record". If only he knew how much
truer that is for our own modern period than his own.

He mentions Chambers in a large footnote, so clearly this is a
revision of the earlier work which Chambers mentions otherwise we have
a strange loop of citations. Indeed, this work can clearly shown to
have been revised up to and including 1842, possibly even 1843, and
was published in that latter year. Kirby mentions Blesson, Wailes, and
Weissenborn, overall concluding that though some wisps might be
"electrical phenomena" and Weissenborn's "phosphuretted hydrogen",
insects are probably much more likely to blame in the most case.

Chambers doesn't mention George Wailes, so it seems like he might be a
minor entomological figure who, nonetheless, appears to have given a
couple of good descriptions of the ignis fatuus in "Entom. Mag. i.
351". Might be a good thing to track down.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

This transcription is of a talk given in front of the Linnaean Society
in 1830, discussing the possibility that ignes fatui are caused by
luminous insects:

  http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/chambers1830
  - Richard Chambers (1830), Observations on Ignes Fatui

Though the entire piece frames the subject in entomological terms, the
actual reports of wisps given are very objective and interesting. For
example, the first is from the author's father, a Mr. Anthony
Chambers, who used to live around Lincoln. He saw a "Jack-o'-lantern",
as wisps were often called before the term came to be used for the
hollowed out pumpkin with a candle in it, following him through
"Bultham Wood". I've found out that that must be the Boultham Wood
that's now basically just a suburb of Lincoln; so sadly the habitat is
probably all but destroyed, though some woodland remains.

This particular sighting gives credence to the younger Chambers's
claims in that the light *avoided* a gate at the end of the path.
Semi-intelligent behaviour is a characteristic of his other evidence too.

Chambers quotes Derham's famous experience as a typical objection that
the light is caused by insects, and doesn't pass much comment on it.
He then quotes a friend of his called Thomas Stothard, who was a light
near Blandford (Forum, I presume) on his return (to London?) from
Plymouth, in June 1921. The coachman said it was a Will-with-the-wisp,
and Stothard himself describes it as being something like "between
flying and leaping" in its behaviour. Again, the alighting of the
light on "the shrubs or high grass" seems to be evidence of its
intelligent and therefore insect nature. Stothard thinks that what he
saw was a mole-cricket, which intriguingly the map on Wikipedia
doesn't show as belonging now to Britain so perhaps it became extinct
here since the early 19th century:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_cricket
  - Wikipedia on the Mole Cricket

He then tells an intriguing story about a farmer from Tikleton in
Cambridgeshire. The Ordnance Survey says "no such place" when I feed
Tikleton in, and I haven't yet been able to work out what he's
referring to. But the story nonetheless carries on from the
mole-cricket conjecture: the farmer said that someone pursued a wisp,
hit it, and it proved to be a mole-cricket, which he brought to the
curate, the Rev. Dr. Sutton, who identified it. This story is from
Kirby's Introduction to Entomology, which seems to have perpetuated
the craze started by Willoughby et al. through the 19th century.

Chambers then continues to quote another sighting by a Mr. Sheppard of
a wisp between Stamford and Grantham (in Rutland and Lincolnshire
respectively, about 20 miles apart), which exhibits wind-defying
motion. Chambers had even gone to Lincolnshire himself, apparently in
the area of Boston, to try to find some wisps, but without success
according, due to one fisherman, to the draining of the fens.

He concludes his sightings with another from a man called William Day
(unless this was the man who was merely passing the report on), who
saw a wisp in the region of Worcestershire in the spring of 1823. This
is a great report, talking about a wisp that blew apart into "a dozen
or twenty" fragments before recombining and flying off over a hedge
and into the adjoining field before disappearing into the distance.
Sadly, no more information is given about the precise location.

The editor of the magazine, presumably Edward Charlesworth, adds a
footnote saying that there's evidence against the insect theory, and
to see a couple of journal entries for further information.

All in all, then, this is another great but tantalising piece
containing lots of sightings and some good descriptions of
characteristics, but very little in the way of locations and the like.
It seems that apart from the "Tikleton" story, Chambers doesn't really
have any hard evidence beyond what he seems to be indicating is an
intelligent behaviour on the part of the lights, though of course we
could conjure up any of a number of explanations for this behaviour
which are inanimate in nature.

But again, as with all of these theories, there's probably an element
of truth and enlightenment in there: there are bound to be
misidentifications, and the Tikleton story, if it's true, is a very
good example of the imagination running wild on the whole wisp front.
We also learn a little about the cultural milieu that gives rise to
these explanations, just as "UFOs" are the vogue in our technological
age and "ghost rockets" were prevalent during the war, so we have
luminous owls and insects on the mind of the less urban literati of
the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

Yep, it's another transcription. This one is from as far back as 1729,
and in fact one of the sightings therein is from 1674. It's also one
of the most commonly cited observations of the wisp throughout the
19th century, and it's easy to see why--it's very information replete.

  http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/derham1729
  - Derham and Dereham (1729), Of the Meteor Called the Ignis Fatuus

It appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, and was apparently
pieced together by an editor from submissions by the authors, since
they're both referred to in third person throughout.

The main gist is a refutation that the wisp has anything to do with
insects, a subsequently recurring motif of explanation in wisp
literature. The first observation in the piece is by the Rev. Derham,
who recalls seeing an ignis fatuus, though where is not mentioned,
some fifty-five years ago (i.e. in 1674). He says that he was close
enough to observe that it was one continuous light, certainly not
composed of insects; it was "frisking about a dead thistle", and
skipped from place to place.

The sightings from Italy, recounted by Sir Thomas Dereham, are from
the region of Bologna. The locals, it is said, call them "cularsi"
after some kind of bird, which reminds me of Devereux's mention in
Earth Lights Revelation (1989) of the Scots gealbhan or "tree-sparrow"
for some of their unexplained lights. The characteristics of these
cularsi are gone into in some detail, including their altitude,
motion, the terrain in which their appear, their luminousity and
colour, and so on. The comments again remind me of a lot of earth
lights characteristics, such as the lack of effect on them by rain.

Thirdly is the recounting of a story from a "young gentleman" some ten
miles south of Bologna, in March 1728. He saw a wisp there that
changed in colour and diminished to the point where it disappeared as
he approached it, and then reemerged as he went away. A local man said
that he'd seen it many times, and always in the same spot, though once
it appeared from a neighbouring place.

For such an early report, the detail throughout is remarkable, as is
the fact that apart from the ostensible purpose of refuting the insect
theory, nothing much is entered into in the way of speculation about
the mechanism behind the lights. It's no wonder that it's so often
mentioned throughout the subsequent literature on ignes fatui.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

When I first started digging through the archives for Will-o'-the-wisp
information, one of the first pieces that I found was a letter by Dr.
T. L. Phipson to The Times. He mentioned "eight to ten pages" in a
book of his called Phosphorescence devoted to the wisp, and his letter
showed that he'd done a goodly amount of research on the subject. But
though I found out that his full name was Thomas Lamb Phipson, and
that the book had been published in the same year as his letter
(1862), I wasn't able to find the book in my library, and for some
bizarre reason I didn't give it precedent in my list of things to
track down.

So, I was quite pleased to find today that Google have digitised it,
and as is my wont I've turned it from bitmap into ascii by hand.
Here's my thousand word transcription:

    http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/phosphor1862
    - T. L. Phipson (1862), Phosphorescence, pp.63-9

Phipson starts by giving the common theory that ignes fatui are caused
by "phosphuretted hydrogen", but then interestingly adds a skeptical
note stating that nobody has actually been able to yet synthesize the
mechanism. In this manner he prefigures Dr. Allan A. Mills's
observations from 1980 and 2000. He then debunks the secondary theory
of luminous insects (later to rise again in the luminous owl theory of
the early 20th century), citing Derham's observations as proof
against; though he admits that it may account for some percentage of
the sightings.

He also mentions a sighting by Weissenborn who talks of a light that
travelled "half a mile in less than a second", being rather redolent
of the Hessdalen report of the early 1980s, where a light was tracked
at unbelievable speeds on radar.

Betwixt mentions of Blesson and Priestley, common figures in wisp
literature from the 19th century, he talks about the season wherein
the wisp is most likely to show: he thinks autumn, into November. He
notes that Priestley's informant saw it in December, however, and I
know that Allies saw it in mid-winter. The transcription I made
earlier today of Henry Duncan also mentions winter as being the time
for wisps. It might be a good idea to do a more comprehensive survey
about this, on the scant documentary evidence that we have (I already
made a start on this in the form of a characteristics table, which
some of you may have seen).

After mentions of Beccari and Shaw, he returns to an interesting
so-called artificial wisp that Priestly talks about; he says that it
followed the experimenter around, in contradistinction to the natural
wisp behaviour of receding upon approach.

Overall he thinks that the observed phenomena are down to two separate
causes: ignited streams of gas, and something to do with electrically
luminous mists. I think this is quite forward thinking for his time;
we can't really do much better with our theorising now. I'd say that a
small percentage of the sightings were down to misidentifications of
insects and so forth, but the majority of sightings do indeed seem to
settle into "natural lit gas" and "electrical" categories, with
varying levels of dynamic behaviour from the latter category, whereas
the former category (seen by, e.g., Blesson) are always fixed to the
ground. I personally think of these as the ignis fatuus minor and
ignis fatuus major, or Lesser Wisp and Great Wisp.

But again, this is dangerous. All we can say for sure is that the
mapping of observational names to characteristics to phenomena is as
yet very tentative, though we can at least start on the first part of
the mapping (names to characteristics) from the anecdotal documentary
evidence.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

--- In mysterylights@yahoogroups.com, jp_hailey@... wrote:

> I live about 25 miles from the general Rhondda area, its too
> long a main river to know which tributary he refers too...

Yeah, after I sent that message I went looking on an Ordnance Survey
map for the Rhondda Fawr, and pretty much gave up on the map front
when I saw the length. But I did find some more documentary evidence:
someone quoting from the same Rev. Edmund Jones talks about a sighting
of a cannwyll gorff in "Llanboydi", which I take to be Llanboidy.
Sadly, though, that's in Carmarthenshire, quite close to the western
border with Pembrokeshire--nowhere near the Rhondda area.

The same author, this time not quoting the Rev. Jones, talks about
"Caerlleon" too, which is probably Caerleon by Newport, so a little
closer but still not a tributary valley of the Rhondda Fawr as far as
I can tell from the map. If you do manage to ask in a local museum,
that might be far more helpful; let us know how you get on!

I also did a bit of poking around with respect to names, especially
trying to work out how to spell "cannwyll gorff" correctly. That's
definitely the modern spelling, but "canwyll gorff" with one "n" seems
to be an acceptable variant. In the archives, there are dozens of
variants though... it's always funny watching English authors trying
to get to grips with Welsh.

(I'd provide a lot more citations and details were it not for the fact
that Google Books, my main source for all this stuff, is playing up at
the moment, as it often does.)

I also found another snippet of information about Welsh nomenclature
that I've added to my wisp page, though I somewhat suspect it may
refer to star shot rather than wisps:

[[[
E.G.R. in Notes and Queries (2nd S. No 10, Mar. 8, 1856) quotes from
Lewis's Welsh-English Dictionary (Carmarthen, 1805) thus: "Hudlewyn.
An Ignis fatuus. Will with a wisp, &c. Will with a wisp is more
frequent in places unctuous, marshy, and abounding in reeds. They
haunt burying-places, places of execution, and dunghills. Some that
have been catched consist of a shining viscous matter, like the spawn
of frogs, not hot, but only shining; so that the matter seems to be
phosphorous, raised from putrefied plants or carcases." In Daniel
Silvan Evans's An English and Welsh dictionary from 1858, he has the
following entry (p.94): "Ignis fatuus, s. (Ll.) ellylldan, hudlewyrn,
hudlewyn, llewyrn, malldan, tân ellyl, tân llwynog".
]]] - http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/

Nice to hear from you, Paul!

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

--- In mysterylights@yahoogroups.com, "Sean B. Palmer" <sean@...>
wrote:
>
> There was apparently a valley containing a tributary of the Rhondda
> fawr in Monmouthshire/Glamorgan which was well known for the Goblin
> fire, getting it the name "the Valley of glooms or spirits". It might
> be nice to attempt to locate this on a map.
>
I live about 25 miles from the general Rhondda area, its too long a
main river to know which tributary he refers too... there's a major
geological fault listed called the Dinas Fault, and the Rhondda is of
course a coal area... so maybe plenty of gases

The reference to 'glooms' seems a common desription of land, due to
poems of the time or common English usage...

...maybe I'll contact the local museums see if they know of Valley of
the Glooms..

Paul

On Jan 28, 2007, Repisky@... wrote:

> Oddly enough when I share these experiences, my friends are apt to
> say "sprinkle holy water!" or "pray." A priest suggetsed I call an
> electrician!:)

That's hilarious.

Unfortunately, unless you collect some analysable rather than
anecdotal evidence, there's not much that anyone can do except say
"intriguing" and then forget all about it.

On the other hand, it is amusing to go back through meteorological
journals from the early 20th century and see reports of lightning
going straight up in the air, many decades before the "discovery" of
sprites and blue jets in the 1990s.

So if you can get a photo or, better yet, a video of the phenomenon
that'd be nice, but unexplained phenomena such as the ones covered on
this list are startlingly rare. It might be a good idea to have an
electrician check things out just in case, anyway.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

Another transcription, this time of James Motley, Notes to the Canwyll
Corph (i.e. Corpse Candle), from his 1848 Tales of the Cymry:

    http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/motley1848
    - James Motley, Quote from Tales of the Cymry

Motley says that he has himself seen the ignis fatuus often, on "bogs,
and even upon the mountain roads of Glamorganshire". After describing
them, he says that though they're probably caused by phosphoretted
hydrogen (the prevailing theory of the time), he has also observed
some lights attached to riders and horses that appear more to be
electrical in origin. These ignes lambens he says the Welsh call Ellyl
Dân or "Goblin fire".

There was apparently a valley containing a tributary of the Rhondda
fawr in Monmouthshire/Glamorgan which was well known for the Goblin
fire, getting it the name "the Valley of glooms or spirits". It might
be nice to attempt to locate this on a map.

He then quotes Jabez Allies's piece on the subject of
Will-o'-the-wisps, and goes on to say that St. Elmo's Fire ("known
among sailors by the name of Corposants") are probably their
electrical counterparts. Overall, his approach seems both learned an
unpretentious, and generally insightful. It's a great shame that he
didn't write more about his own experiences, &c.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

I've just transcribed an article on the Ignis Fatuus or
Will-o'-the-Wisp by Henry Duncan, in a work of his from 1847:

    http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/duncan1847
    - Henry Duncan, in "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons"

After a brief introduction, he provides an account taken from the
Dumfries Courier about the turn of the century by a farmer who saw
what Duncan characterises as an ignis fatuus, but is more correctly an
ignis lambens or St. Elmo's Fire; basically a "flame" that adhered to
the farmer's whip.

He goes on to talk about the three famous wisp sightings of Boccari,
Shaw, and Priestley, which are often recounted in any article on the
ignis fatuus from the 19th century, but does so in a way which manages
to boil them down to their essentials: Boccari's light was unaffected
by the wind, seemed to drop sparks of fire, and got brighter in the
rain. Shaw's light was variable in its shape, lasted more than an
hour, and could cover acres. Priestley's lights (or Waltire's lights)
played about the surface of a field, often suddenly springing up,
illuminating the surroundings.

Duncan then tries to theorise about what causes the lights. For such a
pretentious writer (his philistinic denunciation of the farmer's style
and turns of phrases such as "in which these qualities inhere" are
awesome), he's remarkably uninformed; but at the same time, gives some
observations that are rare amongst reporters of the time. For example,
he starts off by saying that perhaps heat and light aren't as
intertwingled as is commonly thought, and then after mumbling and
handwaving on electricity and magnetism, gives some examples of light
without heat, including "the beams of the moon".

Then he gets to his actual theory, which is that some "phosphoric
fluid" rises into the atmosphere, gets ignited, and somehow transmits
sparks across its entire body. In other words, he believes that the
air is replete with this fluid, and that it can carry some kind of
spark about it, igniting only certain areas, thus explaining the
ability of the light to flitter about, and their propensity for
appearing in groups. Though crude, it's quite ingenious, and I'm not
sure I've come across anybody else who tries to explain this
particular quality of the lights in such a way.

He then closes with a poem which, though he doesn't say so directly,
is by the legal clerk, curate, poet, and philanthropist James Grahame.
It's actually quite a nice little poem, capturing some of the essence
of wisps compactly and prettily.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

Acutally, my daughter, 11, (very reliable) has seen them. I'd dare say it's
"her" that this blue light light appears to.

However, three days ago: In our kitchen my mother and I were there with my
daughter. It was around 5:30 p.m. (dark outside). Suddenly, there was a huge
blast of light from behind me. I turned around and thought for sure one of my
sons had taken a photograph of us. They didn't. My daughter calmly said, "That
  was the blue light again, Mom." She has witnessed blue lights suddenly
appearing  from the ceilings in our home and disappearing.

The last instances were in the fall in the living room. She has also seen
them in her bedroom.

This one a few days ago I witnessed, although my back was to it. I
DEFINITELY experienced a huge burst of light! As did my mother. I can't verify 
it was
"blue" but take my daughter's word for it.
This one she described as "skinny." There are no burn marks to indicate en
electrical problem.

Oddly enough when I share these experiences, my friends are apt to say
"sprinkle holy water!" or "pray." A priest suggetsed I call an  electrician!:)

What do you think?
Have you looked into other peoples'  accounts?




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I started getting a lot of hits for things like "earthquakes lights in
sky", and eventually traced it back to this article:

http://www.wyff4.com/news/10841468/detail.html

Looks like a meteor over the east coast of America, though there's a
footnote in the article which mentions earthquake lights. More
information:

http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=5987366

Seems like there was a meteor seen over Wales too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/6294099.stm

All of which is not particularly interesting, apart from the fact that
an apparent meteor should be seen as an earthquake light... it's
usually the other way round!

Oh, and whilst I was looking to see what all the meteor fuss was
about, I ran across another mysterious light report in the news from a
week or two ago:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53841

That one is rather more interesting, but as usual there's nothing much
conclusive that can be said about it.

Cheers,

--
Sean B. Palmer
http://inamidst.com/lights/

From the dead silence I gather that was translated as  "we dont know"
which is really odd.




--- In mysterylights@yahoogroups.com, "ozestrangeufo"
<ozestrangeufo@...> wrote:
>
> Last year, I believe Greg Long hosted an earthlight conference
> in the US.
> I was told that there would be a dvd of the conference made up of the
> highlights of the speakers.
> Does anyone know if the dvd was actually made.
>
> Mike
>

Last year, I believe Greg Long hosted an earthlight conference
in the US.
I was told that there would be a dvd of the conference made up of the
highlights of the speakers.
Does anyone know if the dvd was actually made.

Mike