Phantom lights...real or...???????

[AnjelWolf]

Ok by now I'm sure almost everyone has heard of the phantom lights. You know the legend of where flickering lights move around a graveyard, swamp, woods and/or other "creepy" places at night and when someone follows them they are sure to run of risk of harm on some level (if not death).

 

While it would appear that "somebody" or "something" is holding these lights as they travel towards you (or you travel towards it)...is it really?

 

Or could it as some claim methane gas from rotten vegetation?

 

Ok here are a few questions for everyone to participate and answer...

 

1. Have you ever experienced these lights?

2. What do you think these light really are?

3. What do you think about the legend of the Phantom lights?

 

Myself yes I have experienced this once during a trip to what is known as "The old black cemetery" in Crystal River, Florida. I was there with a casual friend at that time (the Jewish Vampire) and we both saw this! It was around dusk and they were faint at first the n got brighter as they came closer to us. I wanted to stay and find out what they were but my friend got spooked and headed straight for his car (so I had to leave with him).

 

Personally, I don't think it was methane gas from anything. An d there was no one else aorund that would carry a lantern/light so what was it? Not sure...do I want to go back oe day and see if it happens again? I did...a few years later with two of my students. They didn't want to stay long enough to see anything...once out in that cemetery, they got spooked and headed straight for the car as well.

 

Anyone else?

[Grymdycche]

I haven't seen them personally (dang I'm so deprived! :))but I'm familiar with tales of the phenomena.

I would think these might constitute "true" orbs, since they give off their own visible light.

 

The Brown Mountain lights in North Carolina are a well known instance that have been reported for hundreds of years. Joshua P. Warren, the head of LEMUR ( they're based in the Carolinas) wrote about them in his book, How to Hunt Ghosts, it was very interesting indeed.

 

They may be spirits, or some kind of "raw" spiritual energy; or, in the case of the Brown Mountain lights, quite possibly a form of naturally occurring plasma.

[AnjelWolf]

That's a strong possibility :)

[Guest Landieth]

Ok by now I'm sure almost everyone has heard of the phantom lights. You know the legend of where flickering lights move around a graveyard, swamp, woods and/or other "creepy" places at night and when someone follows them they are sure to run of risk of harm on some level (if not death).

 

While it would appear that "somebody" or "something" is holding these lights as they travel towards you (or you travel towards it)...is it really?

 

Or could it as some claim methane gas from rotten vegetation?

 

Ok here are a few questions for everyone to participate and answer...

 

1. Have you ever experienced these lights?

2. What do you think these light really are?

3. What do you think about the legend of the Phantom lights?

 

Myself yes I have experienced this once during a trip to what is known as "The old black cemetery" in Crystal River, Florida. I was there with a casual friend at that time (the Jewish Vampire) and we both saw this! It was around dusk and they were faint at first the n got brighter as they came closer to us. I wanted to stay and find out what they were but my friend got spooked and headed straight for his car (so I had to leave with him).

 

Personally, I don't think it was methane gas from anything. An d there was no one else aorund that would carry a lantern/light so what was it? Not sure...do I want to go back oe day and see if it happens again? I did...a few years later with two of my students. They didn't want to stay long enough to see anything...once out in that cemetery, they got spooked and headed straight for the car as well.

 

Anyone else?

 

I see these, and for me they're life forces. As far as the legend goes.. yes, I imagine you could risk harm if you can't connect with them. Hell, you risk harm stalking a stranger. LOL :D

 

If you've ever felt drained in the head, or a sudden pressure (sort of like a headache) that moves or pulses, it could mean an orb or other life force is trying to connect, or drawing from you to manifest. You can consider this a sort of wives-tale, but this is true for me. :)

 

edit - There are many many reports of these lights in Marfa, Texas.

[SapphireMoon]

In Ridgeland, sc Theres a dirt road called Hap hazzard. Theres a tail of a woman that died a horrible death there at a bridge & if you go out to the bridge at night & yell Bitch three times she'll appear. A little background info for you. Well me & my ex b/friend were out there one night at midnight & thats not what showed up. A lite did. At first I thought it was car lights but it moved into the swamp beside the road. First time I saw the lite it looked like car lites but as it got closer toward us it changed to more like a lantern lite being carried thru the swamp. Tim couldnt see it at all the three times it appeared while we were out there. A few nights later we were out there again with my middle son dean & the light appeared again as soon as I started telling dean about the other night. I stared at the light for a few seconds then heard a voice in my head say thats not the same light. As soon as I said that then it rounded a corner in the road & it was a car. lol

 

The car lights were not exactly where I had seen the other light but close so that at night it took me a few seconds to realise the difference of distance.

 

I dont believe the first night light was a car or swamp gas as some have told me it prob. was. I have been on that road alot over the years starting since I was alittle girl. That night I wanted to see something & feel I made a connection to something out there & that is what it was. As for what it was, well I'm not sure as it didnt feel like a ghost of a person but something bigger & with more energy to it. To me it felt like an entity but a stronger presence like it was tied to the Earth & drew from the Earth a power. Just what I felt.

 

Sapphire

[Guest Rebie]

I have not seen such lights myself. An old man who lived behind my old home (that land had a lot of history and spiritual activity) told me of an experiance he had when he was young. The property my home was on was once a pasture. But this pasture was used by whiskey runners and some other organised crime people from the past. This man was a young boy during some of those times. He once told me that there was a legend about a lantern that would float down a dirt trail in this pasture. The trail went right through my back yard. He said one night cutting through the pasture with his father to get home, he and his father saw this floating light. He said at first they thought it was carlights from one of the whiskey runners, (one headlight, like one was out) then as it got closer it appeared to be a lantern someone was carrying. He said it moved like someone was carrying it. As they hid in the tall grass, they saw it float by. I lived there ten years and never saw that light. I saw a lot of other things, but not that floating light. I did look for it though.

Rebie

[Guest Rebie]

Anjel, if I were you I would try to go back again. But this time with someone who will not get frightened.

Bring your camera.

Rebie

[Thistle]

I've read about this in a novel and I remember the story behind it. I thinks it was something about peoples spirits lingering on after they had died by drowning in the moors.

I don't know if that is what you mean but the swedish word for it is "irrbloss". I googled it and the english translation is "will-o'-the-wisp". I don't know much about them though but I guess that even when things have a scientific explanation I don't always like to believe it. Sometimes things need to be magical or scary and ghostly. So I guess if I was on a moor in the evening I would probably get scared and try to tell myself that it's just methane gas but I'd be freaked out about it anyways and have trouble convincing myself. I have never seen these lights. Of what I have read the methane gas is a possible scientific explanation but there are those that argue against it. Without more information I have to say that I'm not sure what I believe. I'm sure there are many legends I have to read them i guess. I like legends :).

[Mountain Witch]

I've never personally experienced it but I do know that in England some of the bogs are said to be either haunted or occupied by will-o-the-wisps and one can be lead astray by following the lights. Same thing with the Scottish moors. In the case of the bogs, I think some of it could be attributed to methane gas but I've heard other reports that suggest otherwise.

 

A girlfriend of mine used to be into old cemetaries. I remember about 25-30 years ago she was in a cemetary in Colorado somewhere and saw a light that looked like a lantern, not a flashlight (torch)- it bobbed up & down, not side-to-side. She thought it was perhaps the groundskeeper but when she got closer there was just the light. She took a photograph of it and you clearly saw the light but not even a shadow of a person behind it. The next photograph I saw was of the headstone the light stopped by taken the next morning. It was of a groundskeeper for that cemetary that died about 100 years earlier. Wonder if she still has those pics?

[AnjelWolf]

I've never personally experienced it but I do know that in England some of the bogs are said to be either haunted or occupied by will-o-the-wisps and one can be lead astray by following the lights. Same thing with the Scottish moors. In the case of the bogs, I think some of it could be attributed to methane gas but I've heard other reports that suggest otherwise.

 

A girlfriend of mine used to be into old cemetaries. I remember about 25-30 years ago she was in a cemetary in Colorado somewhere and saw a light that looked like a lantern, not a flashlight (torch)- it bobbed up & down, not side-to-side. She thought it was perhaps the groundskeeper but when she got closer there was just the light. She took a photograph of it and you clearly saw the light but not even a shadow of a person behind it. The next photograph I saw was of the headstone the light stopped by taken the next morning. It was of a groundskeeper for that cemetary that died about 100 years earlier. Wonder if she still has those pics?

 

 

That is cool!

[AnjelWolf]

Anjel, if I were you I would try to go back again. But this time with someone who will not get frightened.

Bring your camera.

Rebie

 

I would love too. I spoke about there when my husband comes home and did explain why. We've both been out there, though nothing happened when he was there, it was broad daylight. He did say however that he felt "something active" within the graveyard itself.

[Ancestral Celt]

I have seen these so-called phantom lights up in some wooded hills in Yorkshire. Fascinating, but I didn't get near enough to investigate (they were on the other side of a waterway). :frown:

[Morgana]

Watersmeet, MI (the upper part). They have lights there too. Years ago John and I heard about them, and went for a look. We found them. We actually walked thru the woods towards them. When we couldn't see them anymore we turned around to go back and there they were.

 

The story there is that it was an old railroad for a mine. A man that walked the line at nite with a light, was hit by a train. He still walks the line at nite with his light.

 

It was weird. We walked back and forth several times, and then did the walk toward the light from different directions. Never could get close.

[Anthony]

I have never experienced these lights myself, but I do recall many instances where people would attribute these phenomena with UFO sightings. I personally don't believe in extraterrestrial visits, for reasons I won't bore you with, but it seems die hard alien researchers and believers abound are fixated on these occurrences being not of this earth.

 

I personally lean more toward the idea that these are spirits of those who have passed making trips to the physical world, but the thought recently crossed my head that perhaps, in some instances at least, these could be non human entities all together. A form of land spirit or other ethereal being of some sort.

[AnjelWolf]

I have never experienced these lights myself, but I do recall many instances where people would attribute these phenomena with UFO sightings. I personally don't believe in extraterrestrial visits, for reasons I won't bore you with, but it seems die hard alien researchers and believers abound are fixated on these occurrences being not of this earth.

 

I personally lean more toward the idea that these are spirits of those who have passed making trips to the physical world, but the thought recently crossed my head that perhaps, in some instances at least, these could be non human entities all together. A form of land spirit or other ethereal being of some sort.

 

 

 

Just a wild idea here to throw in...do you think it could be fairies or something related too them perhaps?

[Anthony]

I think I would throw that in with the category of non-human or ethereal beings, so yes.

[Guest Landieth]

Just a wild idea here to throw in...do you think it could be fairies or something related too them perhaps?

 

To me, no.

 

Edit -- Working with your higher self (through aligning and merging) can give a lot better insight as to how and what you perceive spirits. :)

Edited October 7, 2008 by Landieth

[AnjelWolf]

To me, no.

 

Edit -- Working with your higher self (through aligning and merging) can give a lot better insight as to how and what you perceive spirits. :)

 

True...

[wolfjan1]

I think I might be right there with you, checking it out. I am not sure what they are, but I would like to find out for myself.

[Guest Rebie]

Just a wild idea here to throw in...do you think it could be fairies or something related too them perhaps?

 

Of course it is possible. Depending on the place and situation. But I have always notice fairies to look like small tiny lights, like fireflies. At least I think they were fairies.

Rebie

[ValarieAnne]

Finally I'm taking the time to read thru some old threads and add my 2 pennies worth.

 

I was raised to believe that these were either fairies or earth spirits and nothing to fear. I last lived in Scotland for 2 years in '98-'99 and found a house as remote as possible to escape to for a bit. If i saw a car go down the road once a week it was a surprise. The house faced due west toward the Cairngorm mountains, and nightly I could sit by my fire and look out my picture window and see these dancing lights. There was nothing out there to make them, no houses, roads or anything at all. Occasionally there were rescue helicopters hunting for unwise and unwary tourists who felt the need to go walking in sneakers and shorts, unmindful of the cold and fog that could roll in in a matter of moments, but otherwise no human life of any kind. There were no farmers looking for lost sheep or farm implements or loggers or anything.

I've never thought them frightening.

[Guest Nightscent]

The lights have a lore attached to them particularly in East Anglia England where the locals have attributed various folk names to the phenomena e.g The Lantern Man, Jack a lantern, will o the Wisp, Kit with the canstick (candlestick), Jenny burnt arse, Hobby lanthorn and Shiners etc. The modern latin for it is ignis fatuus which means "foolish fire". They are phosphorescent lights seen due to the spontaneous combustion of marsh gas. They were believed to be malevolent due to the number of people they apparently lured into the marshes never to be seen again.

I've not worked such a marsh area as yet. I have experienced though different types of lights that were much larger and less erratic. These came from Woodland. Oaks and Yews.

[Jason]

There certainly is a huge wealth of lore attched to them here in the UK and varies from region to region. If I remember right it was Newton who connected Marsh Gas with the Ignis Fatuus, and hardly any research was done for a great many years. There was some done in the 1980's that challenged th Marsh gas theory as under test conditions they failed to produce the type of will o the wisp type flame of Newtons theory. And they also couldnt find a natural spark that would be capable of igniting the various gases of marshland. Further more the phenomenon is known to be in areas far removed from marshland.

 

The Earthlights theory I belive is the most recent research into this area where its believed a possible cause could be geological faults. Not earth quake type activity but more the earths internal trauma. A build up of elictrical activity rather than gases. Although they haven found a definate way in which this is produced, similar to not finding a natural ignition that would make the marsh gas plausable.

 

Obviously the lights do seem to have a sort of intelligence to them. A way of reacting to the enviroment that they are in which is obviously how the folk lore around them arose. Certainly here where I am in Derbyshire the lights appear in the peaks and caverns and dales. In the high peak areas near me there are the well known longdale lights which have the nickname of Devil's bonfires, which I rather like, and this led to the craggy area they appear being called SHining Clough. Its a wonderful area. Theres also Lantern Pike whose lights are refered to as Peggy wi' th' Lantern. And theres another area with Meg o' th' Lantern, but I cant remember where that is. lol. They are also called the fiery drake in the mining areas here. And one of my favourites which is a short walk away from me is the Fairy tree where lights very frequenty gather. Theres so bloody many here. lol.

 

I personally see these lights as the genius loci of the area. The elemental land spirits who animate the land. I do so much of my workings outdoors and the contact with the land is essential for me. No book can give you that. You only get that when your feet are planted on that patch of earth. You have to be in the area to feel it. And the land spirits of the place are a huge part of that connection. And to me thats what these lights, the genuine ones not just trick of the eye ones, represent.

[Guest Nightscent]

Hi Jason,

 

I totally agree with you. In my personal experience with land workings. The manifestations could be said to be in possession of intelligence rather than just some random combustion of chemicals.

[mcdee2005]

Hi Jason

There are certainly many stories of these lights in the UK.

I also read somewhere that in many of the Wil-o-wisp cases that biolumenesice in certain insects may be the culprit,

as for Anjelwolf's original question I have only once come accross anything like this and like yourself it was in a graveyard, i think i was about 12 at the time and it scared the hell out of me so i did'nt wait around to see what it was, all i can remember was that it appeared to be luminous green and it appeared far to close to me for comfort

Disgression being the better part of valour at that age I legged it