I've Seen THE{?} LIGHT{s}< post five & last.

I'm going to try to wrap my feeble effort on this huge set of topics up today. Although Mark Fox's book is an excellent one, especially for stimulating curiosity and imagination, it has two "difficulties" when it comes to writing blog posts about it:

1). It covers WAY too many different phenomena; and
2). It [naturally, given the context] covers those phenomena as "religious" or "spiritual" in some way, when those same phenomena appear all over the place without such connotations to the witnesses.

These two qualities of the book make it essentially impossible to "surround" and make any kind of useful general review of the phenomenology contained. SOOOOO..... I'm going to bail out at this time and do something "unsatisfying" but maybe having some entertaining aspects to it, and call it "an internet day".

Fox covers several "light" oriented categories which we've not yet discussed in these posts. Some of these are:

1). Near-death experiences;
2). Other-worldly visions;
3). Strange Illuminations of areas;
4). Persons infused with or enfolded by light;
5). Beams and rays;
6). Flashes of light;
7). Light associated with folkloric themes.

I believe that anyone, particularly of us, cannot read that list without feeling that the list involves many wildly differing things, and that any "pile" of experiences attempting to find any unitary explanation behind this is almost surely doomed. This is, anyway, my own view.

But, ignoring the near necessity for many incidents of things like "beams and rays", "illuminations", "flashes", "visions", "folklore theme encounters" et al being due to matters very marginally "spiritual", I can imagine at least one fragile thought which might bind much of this together. This is quintessential "Out Proctor" behavior by me, so Caveat Emptor.

This raw speculation is based upon one of the few things upon which both Science and The Bible agree: LIGHT is fundamental to Creation.

So, fully Out Proctor for the moment, let's entertain the thought that when the Universe was originated there was an unimaginably powerful LIGHT event --- the Original Outpouring and Expanding {"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"}. In modern terms, this simultaneity of LIGHT creation "entangled" all the "particles" of the Original LIGHT, and, according to Quantum Mechanics, united their natures into a unified system. The Universe is thereby even more properly named than we thought.

LIGHT, the founding LIGHTWEB of reality, is therefore fundamental in some way to everything. Rather than being surprised by unexpected light phenomena, we should expect such things. But still, in the subject matter of this book, and these posts, Consciousnesses, both of witnesses and possible various not-in-flesh agencies, are involved. Should we expect that spectacularly powerful or significant "connections" between consciousnesses be accompanied by LIGHT phenomena??

It is my current prejudice that the sought-after physical Theory-of-Everything will never happen until Science dumps its limiting materialism and includes spirit and the states of consciousness within the theory. Somehow our own --- I'm calling it as I experience it --- Souls experience incoming information from the physical world and by "Will" can influence electrons in our own Brains to choose one action or another. Robert Jahn has proven this in the Princeton labs beyond my capacity to doubt those results.

So, somehow conscious "willing" DOES interact with physical [material] subatomic particles to collapse wave functions and produce effects. Because these efforts act upon those parts of the physical world which are in a constant dynamic "dance" between matter and energy states, the "dance" seems to be taking place between Soul and LIGHT in the end. Does every "action" witnessable in this world, partake, at some deep level, in the Dance of the Original LIGHTWEB?

I'll give all of you your reasonable thoughts that I'm blowing hot air here. This is just intuitive. It seems within the reach of my imagination that, when something powerfully spiritual crosses reality from one consciousness to another, it might "excite" the LIGHTWEB as it does, and ... BOOM! A WOW happens. If anything like this is possible, then in SOME incidents of visions, beams, flashes, etc, we might get "the LIGHT" right along with the spiritual communication, meaning, or even grace. Anyway, spinning this speculative web is just one poor attempt at giving Fox's book an underpinning.

OK. Enough boring "philosophy". What I'm going to do now is try to end this series of posts by giving you a somewhat random group of experiences to stimulate your imaginations of the Possible. If you can combine them to make unitary sense, you're a lot better at that than I am.

Mark Fox doesn't seem to realize that the Jesuit scholar Herbert Thurston walked many of these paths in the early half of the 20th century, or maybe he doesn't particularly value Thurston's work, as he does not include his works in his bibliography. I, on the other hand, value Thurston's works greatly, and think that every real explorer of the spiritual should do likewise.

In the book to the left, Thurston has a chapter entitled " The Luminous Phenomena of Mysticism", seemingly pretty germane to our topic. For the most part, I'll leave it to your own energies to get your hands on your own copy and read it, but I'll outline one of the included experiences here.

This "case" refers to that of the Jesuit theologian Francis Suarez [I believe that these events took place in the late 19th century, but I'm too lazy/disorganized this second to firm that up. The date is, regardless, pretty irrelevant].

Father Suarez lived at a college in Coimbra in a two room simple apartment. As a renown theologian, he worked much in quiet thought and was usually disturbed only when really necessary. One afternoon a "distinguished visitor" arrived to see the theologian, but there was a sign [a stick placed across the door] that he was not to be disturbed. This visitor however was, on Fr. Suarez' expressed desires, to be admitted whenever he might visit, so, disregarding the "do not disturb" sign, he and a layman brother working at the college went in.

The outer room was dark, shutters closed tight against the afternoon Sun. The entry to the inner room was closed, but light was streaming beneath a curtain drawn across it. The lay brother pushed the curtain aside to find Fr. Suarez kneeling before a Crucifix from which blinding light was radiating. The meditating theologian was observed to be floating in this kneeling position "five palms" off the floor.

Subsequently, Fr. Suarez was greatly concerned that no one should know that such "miracles" were happening to him [this appears to be a concern both for humility and the distraction that public awareness would wreak upon himself and his order]. They told only their priest confessor about the dilemma, and the confessor suggested that the lay witness would write his entire experience, seal it "not to be opened until after Fr. Suarez' death". And so it was.

Fox has many interesting "enfolded and infused" with Light incidents. In fact, far too many to retell here [again, buy the book]. I'll give just a few.

Something simple: a curate was silent in meditation when he became "suffused with an internal explosion of light". He said that he felt that he had a "Dame Julian of Norwich" vision of all existence.
  "{It was} a transfiguration with the knowledge that all manner of things would be well. It was an experience during which one's comprehension seemed to achieve a kind of cosmic dimension. My subsequent reaction was to be healthily restored. Life around me was somehow lighter in both meanings of the word. Particularly I found this world to be very gross -- large -- clumsy -- almost unbelievably so."

That experience is classic mysticism expressed more intellectually than most.

Something slightly more complex: In September of 1941, a Church of Scotland minister was wandering in the woods of the Isle of Arran. We have visited this "magickal" faerie-filled isle earlier in this blog's history ourselves. The minister was in a deep crisis of faith. Unable to sleep, he had arisen at 4am and walked into the forest. Many minutes of aimlessness went on until he heard the sounds of a psalm echoing in his mind.
  "With those words a light seemed to envelop me, and there flowed into my desolate heart such a flood of Love and compassion that I was overwhelmed and overpowered by the weight of it. I was stricken by such wonder and amazement that I burst into tears of joy. It seemed to flow through my whole being with a cleansing and healing virtue. From that moment I knew that Love was the nature of reality."

This minister does not specifically "Christianize" the experience despite his profession, but it still is perfectly coherent with many depth theologies [including Christian ones]. This intrigues me.

And "regular folks" too: In 1933 in a rural village in the UK, a lady had suffered a miscarriage. She could not shake the experience and dwelt on it to her despair. She left her home one day to walk down the country road to the village to do shopping.
   "Suddenly I was enveloped (I can only call it that) and lifted high above the high bank and tall hedge on top, as though by unseen and unfelt hands, enveloped in wonderful living brilliant light. I saw a small deserted quarry or cutting below, but everything, plants, bushes, even the stones on the far side were exuding a pulsating life and bathed in an unearthly bright golden light. It seemed an eternity I was held aloft with the most wonderful glow of peace and awareness of the wonder of God.
   "Then I found myself standing on the road and looked to see if anyone had seen me; it was so vivid, no one was in sight. I walked on, to the shops, but with an unutterable feeling of peace within me."

A couple of days later, overcome with curiosity, she climbed the hillside bank so that she could see what was on the side that she had never yet seen [her family had just moved there]. The arrangements of the landscape there were exactly as she had seen them during her "elevation", though, of course, without the living light.

The main thing that I take from these incidents, and which "documented" something that I thought was true but was not featured in typical writings about mystics, is that you don't have to be Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, or St. John of the Cross to have "The Mystic Experience" of Oneness, Peace, and Love. It probably HELPS to be someone who takes their relationship to the Divine seriously and constantly, but we just-plain-folks can be blessed with this too.

A few more from Fox:

The summer of 1945: Brussels, Belgium. A soldier was visiting the church of St Gudule and in silent prayer. A radiant light began to grow inside the church until it filled the entire building. Accompanying it were the strains "of most heavenly music." During his astonishment, the soldier was "transported in joy" and felt a unifying Love for all creatures. Shortly thereafter he asked the verger if anyone had been playing the church organ, which no one had. On leaving the church, he found that the light was still with him in some way --- a "Light of Love" which made everything beautiful. This feeling of loving Creation lasted two days.

c. late 19th century: Glasgow, Scotland. A young man was walking in busy streets, when at one [what should have been jarring and noisy] corner, "the air was filled with heavenly music, and an all-encompassing light, that moved in waves of luminous colour, outshone the brightness of the lighted streets. I stood still, filled with a strange peace and joy, and the music beat on in its majesty and the traffic and the pedestrians moved through the light. They passed on their way, but the music and the light remained, pulsating, harmonious, more real than the traffic of the streets. Then I, too, lingeringly moved on, looking back at times till I found myself in the everyday world again with a strange sense of gladness and love".

August of 1942: Ballantrae, Scotland. A soldier was just through checking inventories in a hut, and walked out and down a tree-lined drive. The day was beautiful. To his left was a valley and further on a hill. As he walked, this valley rapidly filled up with a "great light, a living iridescent rainbow-colored light. The phenomenon was huge, towering in an oval form up into the sky. Its centre was living dense coloured gold, the colours got fainter to the edges, the whole was ringed with a cloud of silver white light ... the 'vision' provoked some very warm responsive feeling in me. It lasted some minutes and faded".

Very large areas of beautiful light, some with heavenly {or faerie} music --- the last reminded me of the Knock, Ireland apparition without the focussed statuary ... but none of these have any close feeling of "UFOlogy" to me. They seem to fit not into the normal physical textbook world [which includes ET], but into the spiritual world [which includes Soul, Will, and Psi].

So, OK. Light in its multiple interactions in our wonder-world is astounding and confusing. Hardy and Fox seem on the hunt of a piece of this Master Jigsaw Puzzle. UFOlogists are on the hunt for other pieces, probably not even in their main subject area. Faerie seekers are romantically following their own Wills-of-the Wisp. Earthlight watchers watch for more. It is a tangled web of light, indeed.

From my "ufo" files: March 1931: Cannes, France. A streetcar conductor sees something odd in front of him. It is a luminous curtain of light with what seems to be rain falling behind it. As his streetcar came near, there manifested a figure of human form, wearing a veil and standing about 5'5" tall. It had a close fitting long white robe and a blue girdle. Hands raised, the figure rose up into a lenticular-shaped [ uh oh... disk] cloud, which then rose further and raced away towards Nice at great speed, leaving a trail behind it. A similar apparition in Nice was then reported in that city's newspaper. Can you say "Knock, Knock, who's there??"

Well, sheesh!!! Get off it with the total confusion of phenomenology would you!!!

A last hurrah from Fox:

An elderly lady, who always had great respect for living things of all kinds, had moved in her last years into a small home. There she "felt" that in some unusual way she had company in that place {She was not particularly lonely, by the way, as her daughter was nearby and visited often}. Shortly before she died, she told her daughter that she had a "strange visitation". She was watching TV when the screen went whacky --- "zig-zaggy" then black. Through her window then came a broad band of silver light. This band was about one foot in length. With both the old lady and her Border Collie in rapt attention, the band proceeded through the TV room into the kitchen and {apparently} away. Once the band left the TV room, the TV came back on and operated normally. There were no rainstorms anywhere about that night, by the way.

Well, thanks again for making our sorting job so easy.

As all of us know, this rough category of Light Phenomena Mysteries is far broader than Fox's coverage suggests, though he is perfectly honest about that. And we also know, that not all light phenomenology is associated with Goodness, Peace, and Love --- that would be nice, but.... no.

I'm going to leave it there.

Buy Fox's book; it's a good read to stimulate mind and soul.

Life here in Kazoo is very busy; hope I'll be back soon to the blog. We'll keep the faith. .

Till then, May all your light allow you to See.

I've Seen THE{?} LIGHT{s}: post four

Hello again, folks. Life has been a bit of a tornado lately [still is] as a house came up for sale which [with a lot of work] meets the characteristics needed to create an urban green-retrofit co-op spiritual community house here in Kalamazoo. The bank didn't misbehave too badly on this, and shortly I'll be $120,000 "poorer", but on the path of my last big contribution to help out in this wrongly-directed "civilization" of ours. Both my bank account and my heart will be lighter --- a fair exchange.

Because of that, it's been tough to focus here. Today I'm going to put something fairly narrow in the blog, nothing particularly surprising to any of us, but something that Fox sees as another important element in his survey of RERC spiritual light encounters book. This subject is specific religious apparitions.

Most of you will recognize, despite the out-of-focussed nature of the picture above, the famous claim of the Marian apparition at Zeitoun, Egypt. This manifestation is supposed to have shown itself several times during the years 1968-1970. For me it is one of the weirdest things in anomalies literature, and maybe some of you can give me the missing information to wipe away the weirdness.

First, though, the claimed phenomenology: during this time period, apparitions related to the Virgin Mary appeared many times, and in certain periods almost regularly, over the cupola of a coptic church in Zeitoun, near Cairo. Some of these apparitions were very distinctly "Mary", some fuzzily so, and some just "flying lightforms" called by some "doves" and by others blobs of light. The two things we see above are blobs. Sometimes these differing forms were part of the same "evening's entertainment", and sometimes only one or the other "sign" would be present.

Such was the phenomenology, now why I say it's weird:

1). these manifestations supposedly went on for nearly two solid years. Where's the flood of evidence? Why weren't camera crews from worldwide news agencies crowding in to get a piece of this story?

2). there are quite a few photos in books in my file on this thing. As far as I can tell, they all go back to just one citation. How the heck is THAT possible? Yet author after author seems to talk about this thing as if there were no doubts whatever as to the basic claims that these light phenomena did indeed take place [regardless of what explanation one wishes to ascribe to them].

I would be deliriously happy to know that the light phenomena took place at all [even just the vaguer "dove-like" lightforms], and then maybe one could begin a thought process.

Whatever's the case with Zeitoun, in theory it would perfectly illustrate what Fox is talking about, and at the same time compound the confusion between "religious" lightforms in the sky and "UFOs".

Whereas Fox doesn't mention Zeitoun, he does mention Fatima, Lourdes, Knock, and Medjugorje. Of these only Fatima has accepted [i.e. fairly well documented] elements in it which might confuse the UFO vs religious apparition separation. Even so, Fatima seems [to me] quite removed from UFOlogy [and, yes, I know there are many who disagree] and more like Zeitoun or Medjugorje. It is more like those in that all of these purport to have "messages" implanted in them of a distinct religious nature. Lourdes is like that without the little fly-around lights, and Medjugorje has its "spinning Suns" which only some people in a group can see. Knock, one of our favorite mysteries on this blog, is completely strange in that it has a vivid in-your-face Marianism-like apparition with no "message" at all.

The various Marian apparitions, with the exception of Knock, can at least be rationalized as some kinds of "moments of Spiritual desperation" [by God or by us] because of those messages. Other than Olde-style contacteeism and channeling, there are very few aerial displays with religious messages transmitted. Fox seems easily happy with the idea that these Marian apparitions/ lightforms are of religious significance and quite separated from almost anything in UFOlogy. And another thing seems to arise while reading of these things in the book: Marian apparitions are the most common "multiple witness" lightform incidents along with some UFO cases. Contrarily, and evading logic, visions of Christ are almost always solitary. This, by the way, has always boggled me as a Catholic who reads a lot of theology, and it has made Marianism a difficult phenomenon [socially as well as theologically] to accept. The Church itself is VERY tough about "approving" these claims, and I might be tougher than they are.

Fox gives several short tales of persons meeting a Light that they interpret as Jesus or generically "God". An agnostic was at a stage in his life when his inability to trust to anything greater was weighing him down.

"I was working in the field one morning... with a horse in a crop of sugar beet; then suddenly the horse stopped and a wonderful light shone around the leaves of the beet and between the horse and myself a lovely pair of feet appeared near the bottom of the gown. And a most beautiful voice said, three times, 'I shall come again'. From then I knew. There is a real God in whom we can trust".

Mundanely as it may seem, the witness was putting the horse's behavior up front in the story to make the experience more defensible as reality.

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A divorced couple had decided to temporarily get back together and at least live in the same house for the benefit of their son having an intact family [at least to a degree]. This was of course awkward, as this was the first night back together after a separation of seven years. That night the wife was awakened.

"In the middle of the night I woke to see a light growing in the cabin. It grew in intensity until it seemed six feet or more tall, with rays shooting out in all directions. I put up my hand to try to pull the blankets off my husband in the upper bunk, to wake him, so that he could see it too. I was not frightened, just full of wonder. I was overcome by a feeling of reverence, and felt obliged to get out of bed and kneel on the floor and bow my head before the brilliant Presence. A voice seemed to say: 'you have made the right decision. A daughter will complete your happiness.' "

The light began to dim and turned all shades of pastels before going dark. These two people apparently re-found what they had originally seen in one another, continued their marriage as a true marriage, and had a daughter later, as the message seemed to promise.

The idea of "shining beings" is common across religions and particularly in Buddhism and Native American tales. These encounters may occur as the expected result of rituals or as accidents "on the path", usually privately. The beings are almost uniformly "humanoid" --- usually precisely so, but at least in the Humanoid Form sense of Head/ Torso/ bilateral symmetry/ normal distribution and numbers of arms, legs, and facial features. When encountered due to ritual, there are messages which seem profoundly important. When encountered accidentally {think Celtic folkloric}, there may be no message at all.

In the buddhist scriptures, the boddhisattvas come down from the Heavens glowing and on lighted clouds. One could stretch the UFO analogy there if one wished, which I do not. Fox's point would be the universality of glowing light in all these things.

That light has one particular element to it which, frankly, fascinates me. This is the presence of the "Aureole" of Holy Light which surrounds the heads of such boddhisattvas as [my favorite, naturally] Qu'an Yin [above], and all the Christian saints as well. I am sure that the literature is rife with diffusionist speculations on why this is so, but this seems an odd "coincidence" nevertheless.

Rumi's quote of course focusses on the issue of the moment. For these spiritual experiences, IS The Light the Same? Or, sweeping away the trivial objection that some of Fox's cases are errors or lies or hopeful wishing, are the rest of the experiences all derived from the same "light"?, and What is it's source?, and What is its profundity?

Of course in this whole bag of experiences we are dealing with some multiplicity. But Fox is on the hunt for some core truth deep within his 400 cases, just as you and I are searching our own "files". Fox thinks that's Something is there. The Dalai Lama thinks that Something is there. The Pope thinks that Something is there.

And I think that Something is there.

But of course, we're all prejudiced.

Blessings to all of you, from the Light --- Whoever It is.

I've Seen THE{?} LIGHT{s}: post three.

Onward..........

Although Fox doesn't list it as a category, one pile of experiences which is large, and potentially of interest both to persons of a spiritual quest and others of a UFO quest alike, can be labeled "bedroom visitations". In UFO case files, these things accumulate, but [to me] almost always stand out like sore thumbs away from the core UFO phenomenon.... yet some people view them as particularly significant. Instead, my gut feelings have always tended towards the spiritual, or folkloric, or paranormal side of things, as long as the BOL isn't sizzling across physical surfaces leaving scorch marks, in which case it's good old kugelblitz.

Most of Fox's examples seem to be what he calls "Crisis Lights" --- things happening at times of death or severe illness usually. And, since much death and illness happens in the bedroom with the caregiver in attendance, this makes great sense.

While these encounters aren't as visually spectacular as the picture I've used to give you something to look at, they are far more "meaningfully spectacular".

A niece, who had done the hard job of nursing her father for several months, was not looking forward to doing the same for her dying aunt, but, good family member that she was, she took the burden on. One evening, sitting in her chair while her aunt rested in bed, her eyes fell upon a spot on the wall. There in a top corner of the room appeared a tiny light, which gradually grew to large size. The niece stood up and inspected inside and out the window, but could find no source. She sat down again and simply stared at the mystery. Then:

"I have never, before or after, felt such a sense of peace and comfort. I felt a powerful presence in the bedroom and knew I would be given Divine strength to carry on with my duty to the end. I felt an exhilaration, a peace and well-being, and I knew that I had been given a manifestation of God's care for me, unworthy though I was. I went to sleep, calm and reassured, knowing that the burden was no longer mine."

The following evening, her aunt, unusually, did not immediately close her eyes for sleep. The niece looked about for what she was looking at. She found nothing, but the aunt was staring at the same corner of the ceiling where the niece had seen the comforting light the previous night. The niece asked what she was looking at, and the aunt replied: nothing. Insisting however, her aunt finally replied: I'm not going to tell you; it's a secret. The older lady passed on to the afterlife a few days later, her niece convinced that they had both in some way experienced Divine love.

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Fox gives other examples. In one, a mother and daughter see a bright light coming down from the corner of the ceiling, and in this light is the image of Jesus. "It was most beautiful and I will never forget it." As this took place in a small town gaslight setting during WWI, alternative hypotheses are limited.

In another incident, a father had a heart attack and was apparently on the brink of death in his bedroom, having just been laid to rest on his bed by one of his children. He suddenly snapped awake and looked towards the corner of the room. There a bright light shone so fiercely which strongly reflected in his eyes. He said: "I have seen the Glory of God and I am not to die yet". He recovered and lived another year able to walk and function. His son or daughter {the reporter is insufficiently described in the thumbnail} said: " I am 69 and can see that light in my memory as if it were yesterday. Never have I seen a light which could compare with it."

And another: Two persons, the mother of a premature at-risk baby and her own mother, had arrived with the newborn at an apartment in the grandmother's hometown. There was a lot of anxiety. The two women had just lain the baby in its bassinette [also "in a corner" by the way] and went to sleep, on a bed and a cot in the same room, themselves. At about 2am, the mother awoke to see a "large blue star" of light hanging over the baby's bed. It stayed 5 minutes and faded out. Unable to sleep, the mother lay awake for another hour, and the light appeared again; once more a blue star. This time the grandmother whispered: "Dolly?" {yes} "Do you see what I am seeing?" {yes} The grandmother then said that she had seen this star an hour ago but didn't want to wake her. The reporter {the mother} wrote in her letter: "To this day, I do not know why either of us saw this phenomenon. The star was right over the cot".

Of course nowadays we are awash with alleged lights from digital cameras, their owners almost never claiming to have seen anything until checking the pictures. My skepticism level on these "orbs" is through the roof, as a general topic, and I would bet a fair amount of money that experts in the digital camera processes know exactly why such "defects" appear under some conditions. The above "orb" is better/ prettier/ more robust than most, however, and would probably need a more "reflective" analysis.

All of that seems relatively tidy until one looks at what a UFO researcher actually has in the case files. My own file drawers are filled with upwards of five hundred things that I could call LITS or BOLs or something similar to Fox's categories. The vast majority of these things are "accepted" by the witnesses with no felt spiritual context whatever. {I, as a Catholic, would like to see some stronger spiritual pattern here, but, George Washington-wise, "I cannot tell a lie".} So, in lieu of revealing some mind-popping pattern unlocking the deepest secrets of reality, I'm taking my football-shaped BOL and punting. This punting is going to take the form of mentioning some of the variety of things which are in the files, which may be relatable to Fox's study.

My excuse for this partly disorganized behavior is that, upon investigating my own resources, the connections which struggled to appear were not along a nice line of search, but rather as if somebody had dropped a huge balloon full of ink from great height, subsequently splattering possible study "opportunities" in every conceivable direction. So, I give up. I'll give you some interesting cases to fire up your own imagination, and take a nap.

A). It is the year 1972; Logrono, Spain. At night a student is trying to get to sleep. A BOL comes through the window of his apartment and floats about. The student is terrorized. The BOL seems to spot the tape deck and shoots out a "solid light beam" into the deck's cassette slot. He, in his one brave moment, had just reached out and pressed the deck's record button in the hopes of getting some data on what this invader was. The BOL's beam entered the deck, paused, and then returned to the BOL like a telescopic lightform. The BOL then rose to the ceiling, moved to the window, and was gone.

This whole thing is one of the higher strangeness things in the case files, plus one of the most "intelligence-driven" sounding cases. But the student made no spiritual interpretation. AND HE WAS A SEMINARIAN.

B). It is the year 1970; Trafford, PA. A woman is up around 9/10pm or so with the rest of the family in bed. She, from her living room window sees a bright light appear across the street. It seems to grow in size as it also drifts nearer. Now close to the window, it changes form into that of her father, dressed in his best clothes. The lightform stooped when at the window and "her father" pressed his cheek against the glass. He was looking towards her and the television set. This image, or whatever it was finally disappeared. It struck the daughter then that this was the time of the evening when she and he used to watch his favorite TV show together.

C). Circa the middle of the 19th century; New Hampshire. During the night a mother and daughter were awakened by a bright light shining in the kitchen area. After discussing this anomaly, the daughter returned to sleep, but the mother rose to inspect the kitchen. She said that there had been a light near the bedroom door, very bright and small, which spun round and round growing to the size of a dinnerplate. It flashed all about the kitchen area three times. {It is not stated how it went out}. The next evening, the mother said this strange light manifested again, and again flashed three times about the house.

Later upon talking with other family members, and deciding that there was no provincial explanation, everyone in the family felt that this was a warning/omen. Sometime later [times unstated, but apparently close enough to convince the mother of the reality] the woman's son, husband, and sister died --- three deaths for the three lightform passes.

D). Well, my caption to my "artwork" tells the tale. 1953; Pocahontas County, WV. A lady is meditating/ praying to see a UFO, and very cooperatively along comes a bouncing BOL.

E). 1895; Choctaw County, AL. People in their home at night hear a rumbling sound. This happens several times, until a beam of light penetrates upwards through the floor of the home, catches a sleeping child in the beam, and subsequently the child seems to glow. When the beam turns off, the child awakes. The girl said that she had been to Heaven and had spoken to Jesus there. He had manifested in the sounds and the light, as apparently part of this apparitional method of "touching" her and her family.

F). Circa 1950; the Bavarian Alps. A German lady is climbing in the Alps and gets lost on the mountain. This is a dangerous perhaps life-threatening situation. A BOL appeared ahead. This lightform slowly shifted until it took on the appearance of a tall Chinese gentleman. The tall stranger spoke a bit to the lady and led her to a pathway, whereupon they walked towards a tourist shelter and safety. He then reassumed the shape of a BOL and disappeared.

Many folkloric sorts of lightball claims show up in UFO case files, and these have regularly "spiritual" viewpoints attached to them. Fox mentions the Mae de Oura {Mother of Gold} light of Brazil. He may or may not have known of Cynthia Luce's reports on the phenomenon and how regularly seen it has been. Some of these encounters were personal and extremely close. This is one of those BOLs which "teases" in getting close without allowing touch. In one instance, Luce's gardener tried to touch it only to see it disappear and reappear 15 feet away.

Also in the files are things like Immanuel Swedenborg's Balls of Light which turn into Angels bearing revelations, the "Bodhisattva Lights" of the sacred mountain of Wu T'ai Shan in Western China, to a pile of British incidents near ancient megaliths. I'd like to add the [to me] VERY strange coincidence that in Hawaiian legend the flying BOLs are called "akualele", a sort of spirit demon, and that in the Niger-Gabon region of Africa, the flying lights are also spirit demons, and are called "aku". This is the sort of thing which I'll admit boggles me a bit.

One case "for the road": 1974, Blacksod, County Mayo, Ireland. An 80 year old farmer is awakened to see a brilliant white light in the bedroom. It then appeared as a "man in white robes" surrounded by smaller beings. He became scared, and the light faded away. Going to the window, he saw a glowing object with windows and large wheels lighting up the area. As it rose to sail away, he saw figures in the windows.

The man's wife died the month following, and he then interpreted the figure as an Angel.

Peace folks.... may all your BOLs be Angels, yet all your Loved Ones stay safe right here next to you.