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 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.

================================================

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.

I've Seen THE{?} LIGHT{s}?, post two.

Back at this subject... chaotically.

Mark Fox's book is a good one. Despite being less than 200pp long, it's filled with a huge variety of topics, which makes commentary and supplementation on something like a blog close to impossible. We're going to have to put up with both incompleteness and a bit of disorder. But the fact that these ARE subjects of interest will help you forgive those flaws I pray.

I think that beginning with an [incomplete] array of included topics might help understanding here. Fox's book covers his findings from the Religious Experience Research Centre {RERC} files in the following areas [among others]:

A). Lights associated with Shamanism, Kundalini, Buddhism, and Christianity;
B). Lights associated with Mysticism;
C). Lights as Angels;
D). Lights as BOLs in bedrooms, which convey some significance;
E). Lights associated with Near-Death Experiences {NDEs};
F). Lights associated with Marian Apparitions;
G). Lights with folkloric linkages;
H). Lights experienced by multiple witnesses;
I). Lights experienced alone;
J). Lights which enfold the witness, or infuse through the witness;
K). Strange illumination of areas large and small;
M). Lights associated with "visions";
N). Strange beams or rays of light;
O). Strange flashes of light.

These categories, sometimes overlapping, are what stood out to me, and they are often chapters or subheadings in the book. Of the 400 cases studied, the category "unusual lightforms experienced solitarily" constitute the greatest number {86}, and with all of our UFO-type history, this comes as no surprise, whether any of this has anything to do with core UFOs or not.

To "progress" on this [I'm using "progress" with a LOT of humility], I'm going to stagger down through the above list and just try to give you some interesting tastes of these things.

Though it is far from my deeper knowledge base in UFOs and folkloric entities and BOLs et al, I'm going to start with a phenomenon that interested Fox greatly --- what we might call an "infusion" of light, possibly even leading to an eruption from the person infused. Fox gives almost a page to this interesting claim by a modern-day famous practitioner of Kundalini Yoga, Gopi Krishna.

It is a tenant of Kundalini practice that meditation brings about transformations of consciousness, and that these transformative moments are accompanied by spectacular experiences of light phenomena [whether this is purely "internal" or can be witnessed by others is a point of scientific interest, but perhaps not the real point of such illumination for the individual]. Gopi Krishna said this about such a personal moment:

"Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain through the spinal chord. Entirely unprepared for such a development, I was completely taken by surprise; but regaining self-control instantaneously, I remained sitting in the same posture, keeping my mind on the point of concentration. The illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring louder. I experienced a rocking sensation and felt myself slipping outside of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light. It is impossible to describe the experience accurately."

GK goes on to speak of his consciousness "spreading wider" while his body receded. As his body became insignificant, his consciousness seemed immersed in a Sea of Light, which took on the nature of a general consciousness into which his own individual consciousness lost its individuality in any ego-centered way, but was rather in some profound communion. For him it was "a state of exaltation and happiness impossible to describe".

I vaguely recall, long ago in the late seventies or early eighties, once listening to Gopi Krishna speak in person. At the time he seemed to me to be an unorthodox Hindu. He seemed almost "experimental" or semi-scientific in nature, as if exploring this business without too much dogma [though there was some of that]. His view, if memory serves, seemed to be: "I believe what I've found". Now, whether that was/is legit I can't say; but it seemed a bit more open-minded than most.

GKs experience seems to me the experience of mystics worldwide when they achieve the relatively selfless, total communion state that IS the "mystic experience". So, I doubt that this requires a very precise "recipe" of contemplation or meditation type --- but I am no mystic so what do I know?

There were quite a few examples where the claimed light phenomena were associated with Christian themes of course. Prominent stories like the "bolt from the blue" which knocked Saul off his anti-Christian "horse" and turned him 180 degrees into an early fanatic for the movement were featured as context materials. Somewhat more modern incidents like Fatima were likewise. Fatima, as most of you know, has been fingered by theorists such as Vallee as a UFO series of events [though I don't see it myself, the Spinning Sun and a few other lightball-like observations seem to give it a justified place among Fox's mysteries --- just not as "core UFO"].

There was a conversion story in the RERC files which Fox thought significant enough to tell. There was a young follower of Hinduism who was [counter to Hindu principles] rather violent towards Christians. He was a stone-thrower and a Bible-burner. But this fellow obviously had deeper issues, as, once he had become disenchanted by his own religion, he began to become suicidal. After a 3am awakening, he challenged the Universe with: "O God, if there is a God, wilt thou show me the right way or I will kill myself". As a Hindu, poor one that he was, he still thought that if he killed himself he'd go back into the Wheel-of-Life and come out for another [better?] try.

So, he was praying for a sign to go on or literally go out and lie on the railroad tracks. An hour and a half into this weird prayer session this happened:

"In the room where I was praying, I saw a great light. I thought that the place was on fire. I looked around, but could find nothing. Then the thought came to me --- 'Jesus Christ is not dead but living, and it must be He Himself'. So I fell at His feet and got this wonderful Peace which I could not get anywhere else. This is the joy I was wishing to get. This was Heaven itself. When I got up, the vision had all disappeared; but although the vision disappeared the Peace and Joy have remained with me ever since."

Though this technique of threatening the Universe with your own suicide seemed to work for this guy, I'd seriously not recommend it. My version of Jesus said: Blessed are they who have NOT seen, yet have believed. Still, Fox's point is that this was a transformative experience involving an anomalous light manifestation.

Fox speaks of various mystics and scholars of the Mystic Experience, and these situations often involve anomalous light. One of the most famous is Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard says of her experiences:

"This light which I see is not located, but yet is more brilliant than the Sun, nor can I examine its height, length, or breadth, and I name it ' The cloud of the living light'. And, as Sun, Moon, and Stars are reflected in water, so the writings, sayings, virtues, and works of men shine in it before me.
"Sometimes I behold within this light another light which I name The Living Light itself. And when I look upon it, every sadness and pain vanishes from my memory, so that I am again as a simple maid and not an old woman".

Oliver Sachs, the brain health psychologist [and an atheist], has decided that Hildegard's visions are nothing but migraines. Ummmmm..... yes...... every sadness and pain vanishing in the midst of a migraine....... very sufficient hypothesis.

Fox also had many incidents from the RERC which the percipients identified as Angel Encounters. [As this enjoyed a remarkable flourish of interest not long ago, readers seeking more tonnage of case reports can purchase some of the recent books which collect them. Fox seems to like Emma Heathcote-James' Seeing Angels [a book that I do not own, but I believe that I was hunting once], and my own mediocre resources contain a book [Meetings with Angels by HC Moolenburgh], which seems pretty good to me.

Most of these experiences contain, almost by definition, "beings of light" and many do not look like the angels of mediaeval/renaissance paintings, but merely as communicating lightforms. Readers of the blog may also remember the case from the Timmerman files, where a BOL repeatedly forced an Alaskan wilderness policeman into the lefthand lane while he was driving on an emergency late at night. Suddenly a moose appeared in the normal righthand lane just around a curve. The trooper's position in the "wrong" lane was all that saved him. He interpreted this BOL experience as angel protection.

And to illustrate the endless convolution inherent in all these matters, long ago [1975], Billy Graham wrote a book describing UFOs as "Angels" and "God's Secret Agents". No doubt THAT blew several tires on the Rightwing Christian Juggernaut at the time.

One angel story from RERC and then quit for the day:

The incident reporter's great-grandmother was in her last days. Visiting her were her two daughters, the reporter's grandmother and grand-aunt. The two daughters were walking together well away from the house, commiserating with each other about their mom's impending passing, when suddenly appearing before them were two shining winged people escorting another person away. Though the vision was short, it was indelibly burned into both women's memory. On their way returning to the home, they learned that their mother had just passed into the afterlife.

If it was a UFO experience, we would say: High credibility [multiple witnesses], and High strangeness [no need to defend that].

So.... where do YOU think that this is leading? Just Out Proctor??

Till next time folks ... I promise you, I don't know.

I've Seen THE{?} LIGHT{s}?

Preliminary comment: Tough topic today. Very complicated. The core realities here are probably many different unrelated things. What I'm going to do is to walk into this subject, throw some facts and ideas around, which will, hopefully, illustrate the complexity, and then let it go to your hands.

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;
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Above this line are physical reductionist theories; below it are "paranormal" theories.
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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.

Peace, and may all your BOLs be Christmassy.