The general subject revolves around the belief that some lightform phenomena have a source which is "alive" in some sense, and that source is at a minimum conscious with a spiritual foundation of some kind, and that interactions with this "whatever" have been transformative for some humans.
It is quite possible to view the first parts of the hypothesis in the paragraph above as truly related to some reality external to ourselves, but that the transformative aspect of interacting with that reality is entirely our own "invention" following an encounter of astonishment. This is part of the complexity.
The inspiration for my blundering into this topic came from someone pointing towards the book on the left. This book, a very interesting thing en toto, was written by the fellow pictured above. He is Mark Fox, a lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Joseph Chamberlain College, Birmingham, UK.
Fox was doing a study of an unusual, to say the least, scientist named Alister Hardy {pictured below}.
Hardy was a biologist who had a speciality in zoology and evolutionary theory. Unlike most bio-evolutionists however, Hardy was an actively religious and spiritual man, who believed that there was no reason to suspect that Science and Religion should be in conflict, and plenty of reason (in his mind) that ultimately there would be no conflict at all.
Hardy, not content merely to keep these thoughts in silence, began a quest, external to his laboratory and fieldwork, for possible evidence of the spiritual world manifesting in Nature.
He wrote several books about his ideas of God, Spirit, and Nature, getting the nickname "God's Biologist". But these books [pictured below] were not the source of Mark Fox's interests in the "spiritual encounters" ideas nor my own.
What Hardy did, almost as a hobby [like a much nobler form of my own chosen UFO research "hobby" while I was a prof, and closer to the work "outside" their fields by the great late 19th century scientists who founded the Society for Psychical Research], was to begin collecting grass roots peoples' spiritual encounter stories.
This gathering of "real world narratives" about "other worldly things" evolved into something called the Religious Experience Research Centre {RERC}. RERC was originally located at Manchester College, Oxford, and is currently in the University of Wales at Lampeter. The fact that the Lampeter college is the smallest university in the UK, yet willing to house possibly the most important research concept center, is an irony and a modern social/academic buffoonery that I'll drop with no further comment here. Lampeter/Wales IS, by the way, a very well thought of small university, so the quality of the place is first rate, thankfully.
When Mark Fox learned of the RERC depository of "spiritual encounter narratives", he was excited. There were over 6000 on file. Reading through these, he became impressed with the number of the reports which featured an interaction with light in some way, and a [as William James would say] "variety of religious experiences". Fox, absolutely rightly in my humble opinion, felt that these "data" needed an audience, and went about the work that led to the book originally mentioned.
To compose this thing, Fox culled the RERC files [some of this was forced due to how available some of them were to be read {the minority apparently}]. He selected 700 cases, later trimmed to 400, to illustrate the varying themes that he felt that he was discovering. In the book, many cases are thumbnailed, and Fox does the academic thing of surrounding them with comments derived from opinions as diverse as persons buying into old-style mediumship, to "modern orb" speculators, to Michael Persinger's tectonic-stress-makes-our-brains-go-crazy, to UFO lightfield watchers.
Although persons coming after Alister Hardy tended to use his data in a debunking way [a la Persinger], Hardy went to his own reward believing that the lightforms were manifestations of a spiritual presence occasionally showing itself in our own "physical" spacetime
as, with regards to some portion of them, so do I. Fox, for his part, is careful not to speak too strongly, but at the very end of the book seems to end in this same place as well.
So..... what have we to deal with?
The early part of this post was a no-brainer... just "history/biography" clearly known. From here on is a Great Swamp of Possibilities, some of which is doubtless Swamp Gas. I, as I sit here staring at that wonderful Olde Print of...?... Will-o-the-Wisp, have no good path on which to proceed. What I'm going to begin with is a list of hypotheses that different theorists have tossed into the Swamp to see if they'll illuminate anything. Further blundering, pixy-led no doubt, will commence from there.
Hypotheses {An Incomplete Set}:
1). Such things are complete baloney {I have urges to shoot such "theorists" but my Catholicism forbids};
2). Such things are the products of natural physical processes, such as those which produce Marsh Gas "candles" and other natural luminous phenomena;
3). Such things are indicators of some still-unknown mechanism whereby the Earth, probably via geological strains, creates surprising lightform phenomena. These lightforms have much less intensity than Ball Lightning, but somehow persist longer. They are a novel natural discovery waiting to go into the science textbooks if we can ever figure them out;
4). Such things are one of the many aspects of extraterrestrial technology related to the UFO core phenomenon. They are therefore intelligently guided and can have purposeful interactions with humans;
Above this line are physical reductionist theories; below it are "paranormal" theories.
5). Such things are manifestations of God's Will in the world, and are therefore to be regarded as moments of revelation, transformation, guardianship. This action may be regarded as directly issuing from God, or via an angelic intermediary;
6). Such things are manifestations of the Spirit World. By this is meant whatever the source of "common" experiences of "hauntings" or apparitions of a non-religious figure type may be. Such olden-style events as the auguries communicating the death of friends or relatives [glowing figures coming out of the forests et al]. Such incidents are usually connected to "meaning" of some kind;
7). Such things are manifestations of the "Faerie" world. Faerie here would include folkloric entities from all cultures differing from the High God/Creator and his loyal angels;
8). Such things are generated by some powers within ourselves, usually latent unless trained by deep "monastic" commitment, but occasionally released by unusual circumstance. This theory does not view this as some physical [normal energy] release in analogy to a Persinger earthlight. The released light has a spiritworld foundation.
As said... incomplete. Add your own.
I'm going to continue my blunder with something that I know a little more about than some of the others: earthlights// lightfields// BOLs. Let's thrash about a little there, and see if it leads anywhere.....
BOLs and Lightfields: These things are, of course, all over the UFO scene and in the casefiles. Some of the reports are from "consistent" locations {like Goldhill, NC above}, and some are seemingly unique encounters {such as many of the "Stalking BOL" incidents, some of which have been discussed several times on this blog}. The big question is, of course: Are all these sorts of reports about the same things? Some could be natural phenomena of a diffuse plasmaball type, some a type of UFO technology, some denizens of Faerie, some so far Out Proctor we haven't even labeled them yet. And folks.... this is one upon which I haven't a clue.
But I'm going to ramble anyway. My ramble says this: SOME of this pile of mystery IS "intelligent" in some sense of the word. Why?
When we meditate upon the famous lightfield areas [Hessdalen at the top and bottom above, and Marfa in the middle, as examples], it's a pretty comfortable hypothesis that these things are going to ultimately be some sort of physical textbook phenomenon. Look at the bottom picture, for instance: one of the Hessdalen research groups was able to get a fairly spectacular spectrum of the lightform, which looks like a good old physics-in-the-universe type of reading. To my mind, it would be easy to insert some high-technology "underneath" that physics result [i.e. make it a UFO], but going beyond that into the paranormal takes some extra theoretical dancing
do spirits emit lawfully physical light? Maybe they do, but there's suddenly a greater discussion to be had.
But maybe we'll be forced to have such a discussion regardless.
An Italian physicist [I have potential to butcher this name], Massimo Teodorani, became interested in the Hessdalen phenomenon, and went there all powered up with hightech equipment to study the lights. Many results were obtained. This positive experience fired Teodorani up for more. He trekked to several other locations around the planet, again harvesting many results. He came to the strong conclusion that these "traditional" lightfield areas DID produce or harbor light phenomena, the debunkers were full of swamp gas, and any serious scientific observers could see it for themselves. BUT..............
He began to get the creepy feeling that these lightforms were not merely some kind of inert albeit dynamic plasmas, but were, in some way inconceivable, intelligent. Well.... WHOOPS.
One can imagine the Olde Folk chuckling in their Mead. Yep, those youngsters, takes them a long time to see these things doesn't it? And, therefore, is Folk Tradition and its imagery making an inroad into the sacred ground of textbook science?
Mark Fox, RERC, and Alister Hardy would second that.
But whereas Fox and Hardy would like the intelligent lights in the lightfields idea, the RERC files don't seem to include much of this sort of material. A case which vaguely fits our current category is the following:
1968: Irish Hills, MI. Two couples were vacationing in a rented cottage. One couple was sitting in their car, drinking beer [other activities not mentioned], and.....
"Suddenly she got very tense and nervous and said there's something out there. About this time the other couple had come along and asked what was wrong and she told them the same thing. My friend and I said we would go up the road and see if we could see anything. My girlfriend became very upset and insisted that we both stay with them in the car. There were absolutely no noises of any kind from insects or other wildlife whatsoever, which was most unusual as it was a rather warm summer night.
{{ NOTE, MY FELLOW TRAVELERS, THE OZ EFFECT WE SEE SO OFTEN IN THESE REALLY STRANGE EXPERIENCES}}.
"As he and I approached the road to the cottage area, I noticed a pulsating light down the road at a distance, that was the shape of a surfboard and appeared to be hovering about a foot off the ground. Knowing that I was not drunk or hallucinating and not wanting to sound crazy, I said nothing but was greatly relieved when he asked me if I saw that light, and being relieved, said, yes.
"As I stated, the light seemed to pulsate, first dimming and then growing brighter. My friend who was a good deal braver than I, started walking towards the light in spite of my suggestion that we return to the girls and the car. As we approached, or rather tried to approach the light, it would recede from us and only return when we would backtrack our footsteps. Several attempts were made to approach and each time the light would recede."
{{ ALSO NOTE THAT THIS IS CLASSIC LIGHT BEHAVIOR FOR MANY LIGHTFORMS WHICH MANIFEST IN REGULAR LOCATIONS
I.E. REPEATERS}}.
This "dance" with the lightform ended when the two guys heard a sound coming towards them through the brush off the road to their left. This sound approached; then it too seemed to back away. The respondent's friend wanted to penetrate into the bush after it, whatever "it" was. Perhaps fortunately the brush became too thick and pretty much impenetrable, so they quit that idea. They returned to the road and turned towards the car.
Suddenly the noise erupted again much closer. They stopped.
"Suddenly from a bush directly in front of us came a single loud expulsion of air as if someone's dying breath. I was petrified and the knife literally fell from my hand and I couldn't move. I don't know how long I stood there but vaguely remember... my friend pulling my arm and leading me back to the car.
"Upon our return to the car, both girls themselves were in a state of terror, and stated that they felt as if they were being watched and heard heavy breathing. It was at this point that the experience was just too much for me, and I broke down and started crying due to the terror that I had felt".
This incident has features that we have seen before in the great basket of BOL encounters, but is, of course, rather more dramatic [especially on the sounds and terror side] than one gets in those cases. It is also more terror-filled than the typical incidents reported by Fox in his book [which much more often are uplifting and/or consoling in nature]. This one seemed to be included by Fox, 1). because it was there, detailed, and illustrative of variety; and 2). was an impetus for the respondent to open up his mind to both wonderment and to exploration of spiritual practice [he chose Hatha Yoga]. Correctly or not, the respondent connects the shocking encounter as propelling him into a different awareness of and orientation to a larger world.
I'm going to pause here. [Sorry. Typical small gas-tank behavior by me nowadays.] I'll try to pick this trail up when I have something to say.... maybe in a day or two?... with luck.
