SLOW LIGHT & UFOs

Bill Chalker wrote the other day. He's contemplating making a review of so-called "solid light" UFO cases, and I welcome that. Bill's a hard-science-trained UFOlogist and might just be able to make some sense of a real puzzlement in this field. He asked me if I'd scour my files for such cases [since I'd foolishly admitted to having around 44 of such things], and so I did, making a list for him to pursue and build his analysis more robustly [Bill already had a bigger bunch than that].

Since the blog was sitting here drowsing away the time, I thought that it wouldn't be entirely a waste for me to put that list up here and BS a bit about this phenomenon in anticipation of Bill's better ideas. So, like it or not, here it is.

It's of some value to try to define this concept, since it certainly is not obvious what we're talking about.

In my understanding the term "solid light" came from witness testimony--- the light beam seemed "solid"; it was as if the beam extended like a solid tube, etc. This phrase stuck but is probably a bad one. The light effects that we're witnessing in these cases behave not like solids but like "regular" light which is abnormally "contained" somehow. Things don't seem to be "impacted" by these beams, only illuminated by them. The things [generally] seem to be more like spatially-constrained lasers [admittedly of wide diameter] than anything solid, and might well be more like tubes [i.e. hollow] than "full" beams. In the above definition, Keul has a fairly wide net that he throws to encompass many varieties of weird light UFO cases, and the reader may decide for oneself what sorts of things you want to include. In my list, I include mainly cases wherein the light behaves in a severely delimited space, moves slowly, and usually is seen to have a definite ["sawed-off"] end to the "beam".

Here's the first page: As you can see, there are two huge cases in this 14. Red Bluff is bullet-proof and as such anchors the phenomenon unassailably. Trancas is one of the wildest cases in the files by almost any measure. If it is true, then virtually anything is possible with light-manipulation. Bairnesville is a case with a Jim McDonald interview alongside the Ozzie field research. Connersville has a claim of what would have to be a tractor beam. The 1939 claim was reported very late unfortunately, but at least has as its investigator one of UFOlogy's best, Jenny Randles. The Brazil case is a "Light elevator" carrying entities.

The second 14 feature a good Ozzie case [Kiama] about which I wrote a kidding remark to Bill when I made this list for him [so I've covered it up with something slightly more serious]. The famous Scandinavian cases of Haderslev and Imjarvi [light curtain beneath UFO and light elevator, respectively]. Randlett is a great "anchor" case investigated by Frank Salisbury. Newton, GA was investigated by Hynek. Ellezelles is intriguing as it appeared smack in the middle of a concentrated flap on one date. Some "muscle" is accumulating for the phenomenon.

The third 14 offers the powerhouse Colusa, CA case with all manner of very high strangeness electrical activity and multiple witnesses. Bill has another personally-investigated incident which was buried in the 1973 Dundurrabin flap. Gaspesian Park, Quebec is one of my "intuitive" favorites.

The fourth page ended my own files as housed in the "High-Strangeness" category plus a few others. I was quite congratulatory of myself for delivering not only the 44 I promised but a few more. Of these, several seem potentially quite good [Bellevue; Dorset; Irlam; San Diego]. I cannot help but to be fascinated by the Cuba case coming from a secret NSA document.

I then decided to make a final page of some of the other odd light cases in the files. As I re-read the cases, it seemed that some of these should probably have been simply listed with the previous 52. Boyup Brook seems like a hollow lighttube; Burkes Flat "just" a weird bending of headlights; Taize some of each. Over-all the listings give a lot to chew on, and wonder what in the heck could be going on?

So, what is? Guess what? I have no clue. Big surprise, eh?

One thing we might say is that these slow light phenomena demonstrate an ability to manipulate things which we do not have. Since enough of the cases are quite strong, it appears that once again we've "proved" that the UFO phenomenon is both real and beyond our own current technological ability. So, perhaps we're not wasting our time thinking about this, even though we're underpowered.

Notice that I said "slow light" phenomena. I believe that this is getting closer to what's happening than calling this "solid light". Light has a velocity. That velocity is altered by the medium through which it passes, but in normal everyday Earth experience, is REALLY quick in our atmosphere. But "these guys" can slow it way down it appears. Even to stopping it.

Now it IS true that our own guys are finding ways to slow light down [by many factors of ten] and even stop it, releasing it to continue on its way with a later light signal stimulus. These experiments usually involve very cold or very hot plasma matter, using unusual elements to boot. So, we're a long way from what "those other guys" can do, but we HAVE demonstrated that the general concept is possible.

But we're a long way from duplicating this in other ways as well. People have been contacted by the beams, and even engulfed. There is no ultra-cold nor ultra-hot sensations. There is no "damage". The few reports report basically nothing at all sensorily --- just the lighttube. And it may be just that: a tube. In other words the lightbeam may be "empty" of the light which we see from the outside [other than minor scatter] and a true hollow tube. It seems almost like it is a ring-laser type of emission, which is somehow controlled in its speed of radiation [it is "slow"], and can be stopped and reversed. The nature of the tube would then be "seen" if at all in the "substance" of the tube wall.

We have almost no reports of persons observing the inside of the tube nor looking at the wall. In the Boyup Brook case, the witness was surprised that the inside seemed empty and he could look up the tube right into the emitting object. In a very obscure case written to the Colorado Project committee, the witness says that he was engulfed in a lighttube, elevated within it, and watched the tube walls on the way up. The walls were composed of "swarms" of very bright areas of scintillation and dark areas of about similar size, which moved dynamically in a chaotic mix all over the insides. This was a very unsophisticated man, who interpreted all of this in religious terms of being taken to a higher spiritual realm surrounded by both angels [of light] and demons [of darkness].

So we don't know what's going on, but have good reason to suspect that the phenomenon is real and technological. Mother Nature DOES make some light pillars Herself when the atmosphere is cold and calm and micro-ice crystals are just the right size and lying horizontally, but even She would be hard-pressed to extend and retract hollow lighttubes. And, I suppose that it isn't really necessary to say this, but the toy "lightsabers" on sale today are nothing more than jumped-up flashlights with connectable telescopic plastic tubes to "contain" the light. The only useful thought that this gives us is that the light-extension in some cases COULD be a material tube extended from the craft which was translucent. That's OK for some cases but not others which contact the witness, engulf them, or otherwise interact in a way inconsistent with a normal physical solid.

A last random thought in this series of embarrassingly random thoughts [but still somewhat fun, so sue me]: when our scientists work with slowing light and consequently manipulating the propagating medium, they are aware that they are "simplifying" some aspects of the medium and what it is encompassing. They are cutting out "noise", and getting better "control" of the space. Maybe that is what "the other guys" are doing with these manipulable light projections too. Maybe it's "safer". Maybe it allows easier anti-gravity work [tractor-beams or elevators?].

Well, I better shut up before public health service employees show up at the door.

Till next time folks.

Watch out for the Blue One... that's the elevator to Outer Proctor.