A Scarily Long Flash Of Light At Night: Ever Experienced One?

[Ermintruder]

Back in 1987 I was driving with my future spouse very late at night down from the highlands of Scotland, and was passing a loch side into a long quiet village that we both knew well.

We'd become used to the street lighting, as opposed to the total darkness that we'd been driving through previously, and we were moving very slowly. There were absolutely no other cars about the place, no people, and the area was hemmed-in by mountains that were completely void of roads or houses.

Suddenly, as we left the village, we were both completely blasted by the brightest light I have ever experienced in my life, white and literally painful. It was so bright, I could see red through my reactively-closed eyelids. It was exactly how I would've imagined the flash would be from a nuclear weapon, but it lasted a lot longer than a flash. I've no way of telling exactly how long for, but the entire inside of the car was lit to the extent that it was hardly possible to see the interior. This was no mid-day yellow sun, it was white, like...an arc-light, but everywhere.

Both of us experienced exactly the same effects at the same time. It was extremely frightening, and left us both sitting in the car, stalled, half in a ditch, long after it stopped.

There have been very few times in my life when I've personally experienced something that has been totally inexplicable, but this was much more frightening than I'm describing. As I type this, it brings it back to me as if it just happened a few minutes ago.

A few other entirely-subjective observations:

- we both agreed that the light was a bright inside the car as outside, and it almost felt like it filled us up (but not in any pleasant way at all)

- it was the same brightness eyes open/eyes closed/eyes open

- it lasted for longer than a car travels two or three car lengths at 30miles an hour, and was so physically disturbing/frightening, I was unable to brake to a stop, my knees were up in the air in sheer terror

- there was no moon in the sky, and the sky was clear

- no shooting stars or other astronomical happenings were taking place

- it was entirely non-directional, it seemed to come from everywhere

I'd love to know what happened to us that night, even just to exorcise the memory. I cannot over-emphasise how genuinely scary this experience was, despite sounding trivial. It still gives me the shakes, now, almost three decades after the event.

 

[Old_Shoe]

Wow! Maybe a test of some military weapon?

 

[feinman]

Later, but still interesting:

On August 8th 1996, Andrew McMichael of Mortonhall in Edinburgh woke up at 2.15 am.

A fox had been coming into the garden and so Andrew decided to poke his head out of the bedroom window and see if their nocturnal visitor had eaten the food left out for him. He had.

The plate was clean. As Andrew looked up he was just in time to see an object move in an undulating path across the trees and houses at the edge of Frogston Road to the south of his house. It was completely silent and had a slight round bright red emission at the centre. The UFO was oval in shape with a small dome. He estimated its size as around 30 feet long and 15 feet from top to bottom. When it first caught his attention it was hovering at around 200 feet, directly above the houses opposite.

The object moved away in 'a slightly wavy pattern' then 'rose up as if to clear a clump of trees'.

To Andrew, it seemed to change direction twice, as though searching for something, before disappearing behind some sycamores bordering farmland.

It was not the first strange incident Andrew experienced. A week earlier, on 2nd August, he woke early at around 3.15 am., Disturbed by the movement of his wife and her exclamation, 'What on earth's that....! Together they looked out of the window and were almost blinded by 'an unearthly dazzling white light' which as Andrew recalls, 'was so bright that I couldn't see anything else outside the bedroom window'. He describes a 'slightly buzzy feeling' as if static charge was present. The light moved off silently in a westerly direction.

About a month later, in casual conversation with neighbors, Andrew learned that they too had been woken by a strong white light, bright even through thick bedroom curtains. The sensation of an electrically charged atmosphere was also present

From: http://www.uforth.com/scotland.htm

Perhaps similar thing came right down on your car and then left.

Sounds like it could be the same object from this earlier sighting:

Rugby Ball
Location: Ramsden Heath (Essex) - Skies over Hanningfield Reservoir
Type: UFO
Date / Time: February (?) 1985
Further Comments: A zigzagging rugby ball shaped object, larger than an aircraft, was reported by a witness. The ufo was surrounded by red and orange lights.

Ever notice any missing time, strange psychological issues?

 

[Ermintruder]

A weapon? Certainly not any form of conventional pyrotechnic/flare etc, that's something I'm quite familiar with. The main weapon similarity, we felt, was to a long, extended nuclear-style flash.

We never saw any other objects that night, nor did we feel that the car was physically hit by something.

...'slightly buzzy feeling'....
Ever notice any missing time, strange psychological issues?

A buzzy feeling? Oh yes, but probably just a physiological reaction to the light itself. As far as regards any classic 'lost time' effects, no, nothing like that. But I reckon both of us were more shaken by the experience than we should've been. By that, I mean the sheer scale and duration of the experience isn't getting properly conveyed by my words. It might have been some form of lightning (it could have been the right colour and intensity, but not duration nor weather type or repetition/flicker. It felt like it was internal, physically, beyond the bone, and external at the same time. Total immersion.

There was no ozone/static type 'feel' to it, and yet I believe it must've been electromagnetic in some way. Perhaps a very near miss from a meteorite? But it lasted such a long time (well, genuinely felt like it did, anyway)

 

[linesmachine]

I think the meteorite suggestion is plausible. I myself have witnessed one that one lit up the countryside around me in quite an unexpected way. Admitedly not to the extent that Ermintrude describes.

That recent big Russian one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Omh7_I8vI certainly had a flash to it!

 

[Fanari_Lloyd]

About a month later, in casual conversation with neighbors, Andrew learned that they too had been woken by a strong white light, bright even through thick bedroom curtains. The sensation of an electrically charged atmosphere was also present

My mother experienced the same thing, I am guessing about 1994/95. I was in the next bedroom and was asleep. She said the whole bedroom was lit up by a bright white light for (she judged) about half a minute. She was too afraid to go to the window. No accompanying noise before, during or after.
The same year, prior to this, she heard something like a 'giant tuning fork' (her words) in the night and above the house, which began loudly (again, I didn't wake up - I am bloody useless! And a light sleeper. You would think I would wake!) gradually receded as if rising and going away.

We talked about it quite a lot and going through everything possible or probable rather than UFO's, etc. I did wonder if kids were creeping around and playing with a mag-light or something, but she said the light 'bleached the room' as if shining directly in, and kids were unlikely to be able to get into the back garden without a ladder. (There was no sound of any-one, and it was a quiet summer night).

I too have seen a very bright meteorite years ago, which did light up the sky for several seconds.

Ermintrude -- That's all I have really, but I can, I think, imagine how you felt. But this startles me:

'it almost felt like it filled us up (but not in any pleasant way at all)'

You did not suffer any after-effects of any kind?

 

[Ermintruder]

The meteorite explanation might serve for colour, and conceivably duration, but not (I think?) for the lack of directional shadows. If it had been so close to us, and the ground, to have been an isotropic source of light, it would've been a short-lived long flash. You follow my reasoning? Had we been outdoors, or in an open-topped car, that might have been a possible solution...an astronomical 'star-shell' drifting down to us. But again, I stress, this had no ray-traceable aspect, no point of origin outwith the car that was descernably-different from the car, or us.

It was that intimate closeness that would make me wonder about vague explanations such as earthlights or ball lightning (I will say that I am a hardened skeptic, moderated solely by a few inexplicable personal experiences, as per the above)

You did not suffer any after-
effects of any kind?

Fanari_Lloyd, no, not that I am aware of. No 'damascus gnosis', hair loss or flashbacks of forgotten segments.

And nothing like

...he's just one lab accident away from becoming a super-hero

...if anything it made me feel more mortal and tiny. An ant within the candle >shivers< (but at least I can attempt redemption via analysis)

 

[oldrover]

This reminds me of a story that I was told by a colleague back in the late 1990s although the story took place back in the 60s or 70s I think, none of which is relevant.

This person along with two mates were driving through the Welsh countryside, hilly area but not mountainous exactly as I recall it. Anyway this person told me that as they drove into a small valley the entire place was illuminated by a very bright green light. As far as I remember it lasted as long as they were in the valley but disappeared as they left.

Not exactly the same I know but still a long lasting inexplicable light in the countryside.

I've always believed that what these people experienced was some sort of Earth light. As per the Berwyn incident. Frankly #I'd be inclined to go for this explanation with your incident too.

 

[Human_84]

This exact thing is on occasion known to correspond with UFO encounters. I've come across this bizarre occurrence several times in my research and so, at least for me, it's somewhat apparent that you were in close proximity to some unknown craft that night. Obviously there's no way to be certain, but it's my hunch. I would have been knocking on doors.

 

[feinman]

Thank you Human_84!

 

[Mythopoeika]

I've always believed that what these people experienced was some sort of Earth light. As per the Berwyn incident. Frankly #I'd be inclined to go for this explanation with your incident too.

Yes! I've read this whole thread thinking this, but you beat me to it.
I reckon it was an earth light caused by piezoelectric activity in the rocks...

 

[feinman]

I've always believed that what these people experienced was some sort of Earth light. As per the Berwyn incident. Frankly #I'd be inclined to go for this explanation with your incident too.

Yes! I've read this whole thread thinking this, but you beat me to it.
I reckon it was an earth light caused by piezoelectric activity in the rocks...

But UFOs are more fun! No that does seem like a perfectly reasonable Occamesque solution.

 

[Ermintruder]

I reckon it was an earth light caused by piezoelectric activity in the rocks...

I understand the physics behind this concept, but am curious as to why it doesn't happen more often? If it is a repeatable geological event, I mean.

I'm unsure if we drove into it, or it enveloped us (the white light, that is).

(Mythopoeika, may I ask if you are a Woodroffe fan, because of your forum name? I certainly am, since his first artwork in the early '70s)

 

[Mythopoeika]

(Mythopoeika, may I ask if you are a Woodroffe fan, because of your forum name? I certainly am, since his first artwork in the early '70s)

Yes! I derived the name from Woodroffe's 'Mythopoeikon' - a great work.

 

[Ermintruder]

Yes! I derived the name from Woodroffe's 'Mythopoeikon' - a great work.

Excellent! One of my all-time favourites, haven't seen my copy for years, though. And it means something like the lifetime's flashback final view captured in the eye of someone, as they leave this plane of existence?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Yes! I derived the name from Woodroffe's 'Mythopoeikon' - a great work.

Excellent! One of my all-time favourites, haven't seen my copy for years, though. And it means something like the lifetime's flashback final view captured in the eye of someone, as they leave this plane of existence?

Does it????

I thought it was simply a merger of 'mythopoeic' and 'icon'.

 

[Ermintruder]

Does it????

I thought it was simply a merger of 'mythopoeic' and 'icon'.

I'm paraphrasing slightly, but from memory there's a quote in the frontpiece that's very close to what I've said. What an amazing Fortean artist Woodroffe is, a total genius of a man.

[And at the end (?) of this topic/thread/tale, I have another experience that's worth recounting, to the FTMB. Much less frightening than the uberflash episode, but perhaps even a bit more mysterious. I wonder if it'd qualify as an IHTM? Possibly...but it was witnessed, rather than experienced.]

 

[Mythopoeika]

[And at the end (?) of this topic/thread/tale, I have another experience that's worth recounting, to the FTMB. Much less frightening than the uberflash episode, but perhaps even a bit more mysterious. I wonder if it'd qualify as an IHTM? Possibly...but it was witnessed, rather than experienced.]

Ooh! Ooh! Do tell, please.

 

[Ermintruder]

Ooh! Ooh! Do tell, please.

Tomorrow...almost certainly, I shall relate the tale, as today has been too much.

 

[feinman]

[And at the end (?) of this topic/thread/tale, I have another experience that's worth recounting, to the FTMB. Much less frightening than the uberflash episode, but perhaps even a bit more mysterious. I wonder if it'd qualify as an IHTM? Possibly...but it was witnessed, rather than experienced.]

Ooh! Ooh! Do tell, please.

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

 

[XBergMann]

I had a similar but much shorter in duration event happen to me back in the early 1980s.

Back then the teenage me lived in the fenlands of Cambridgeshire. The terrain there is very flat with numerous small villages spread about in a rural arable farming environment.

One night I was riding my Honda 250 home from visiting friends it would have been around 2am and the roads were deserted. In between villages of course there were absolutely no streetlights and sitting on a motorcycle gave me quite a high position compared to say a car driver, so I had a good clear view of the surrounding countryside which was illuminated by starlight and a milky glow from a quartermoon (or at least the moon was nowhere near full).

As I reached the top of a slight incline the entire sky horizon to horizon was lit up in an intensely bright light for no more than a second or two. It was extremely bright and I clearly remember trees, bushes and the surrounding farmland lit up in full colour for the duration. The effect can only compared to an enormous camera flash going off. I bought my motorcycle to a stop at the side of the road as I had short term effects to my eyesight, again the sort of symptoms one gets if a camera flash goes off right in your face.

When my vision returned to normal I was able to ride home with no problems, my journey home seemed to take no more or less time than usual.

I fully expected to see some comment about this is the local newspapers but there was nothing and no one else ever commented on seeing such a thing.

I know I didn't imagine it as I had to stop my motorcycle as the flash blinded me for a few seconds, I remember hoping I didn't run off the road onto the verge as I was slowing down as I temporarily couldn't see. I remember sitting there waiting for vision to return to nightview mode and I remember riding off again afterwards.

This happened to me at the end of Summer 1981, mid September or thereabouts.

Has anyone else experienced an enormous camera flash like this?

 

[henry]

momentary optical in-eye aberration ?

 

[Human_84]

XBerg, thanks for the story! I gather your account is a bit different because it wasn't near as bright as the original poster's incident.

I've seen multiple lightning flashes occur at near the same time, making a 2-3 second duration in total, but I suppose you wouldn't have posted if it was at all similar to lightning.

When you use words like intensely bright or extremely bright, would that mean brighter than daylight? Keep in mind with no period of time for your eyes to adjust to daylight, a regular daytime brightness might seem about 50% brighter than normal. Considering this, I'd be curious if you and the original poster (Ermintrude) would agree on the same intensity of light or not.

 

[Ermintruder]

When you use words like intensely bright or extremely bright, would that mean brighter than daylight? Keep in mind with no period of time for your eyes to adjust to daylight, a regular daytime brightness might seem about 50% brighter than normal. Considering this, I'd be curious if you and the original poster (Ermintrude) would agree on the same intensity of light or not.

My subjective impression is that the light that hit us was brighter than just visible, it was like an painful extended impact from a hard liquid.

I do take the point regarding the relative sensitivity of the human eye, and the effect of after-image bleaching, but this was totally beyond normal levels of perception via the senses >as well as< being sensed conventionally.

And yet- XBerg, there is some resonance between our tales. Driving, countryside, night, after-effects. Interesting.

 

[feinman]

Reminds me of this:
http://scienceandtheufocontroversy.blog ... ience.html
Hope I didn't post it here before.

 

[amarok2005]

This thread brought back memories of something that happened to me around the age of 8 or 9 (late 1960s). One afternoon a storm was approaching; wind and leaves and big raindrops were all around. My father had my brother and me scrambling around the yard to drag lawn furniture, bikes, rakes, etc., into the garage so he could close the big door and keep things from blowing away or getting soaked.

While my dad and brother were in the back, I ran through the garage and out onto the concrete drive to grab up some last item. I straightened up with whatever it was, looked at the houses across the street, and suddenly I was totally engulfed in white light, so "dense" it was like being submerged in an ocean of milk (yet I suspect it would actually be dark down in a sea of milk . . .)

There was rain and lightning in the distance, but I didn't panic or think that I'd been hit by a thunderbolt. I didn't think anything as a matter of fact; I couldn't figure out what was going on. One second I could see the neighborhood, the maple tree in the front yard, the grass and the driveway; the next I saw white in every direction.

Then it was gone, and I just blinked and withdrew into the garage. I've been told this was "heat lightning" or "sheet lightning," but there was absolutely no sound for the few seconds I was engulfed. I wondered later if I had been so stunned by thunder that I didn't remember hearing it -- but surely my brother and dad would have made some comment if they had heard a clap -- or seen the white light, for that matter.

Again, I always thought it was some sort of meteorological event, for there was a strong storm approaching, and there was lightning in the distance. It was quite light outside, also, like noon under an overcast (perhaps it was).

This was the first time, also, that I realized that when I'm presented with something I absolutely can't figure out, I'm not afraid or curious or angry or disturbed. I don't think "WTF?" or anything else. Conscious thought seems to shut down and I just stare at it.

 

[XBergMann]

Thanks for your replies people.

Definitely not lightning, just a sudden flash that lit up the entire landscape around me. It is very flat in the fens and I was also just coming to the top of a small rise in the road, so sitting on my motorcycle I could see the fields around me in a dim late summer moonglow / starglow.

Then suddenly this huge flash, I was wearing a crash helmet and riding a motorcycle so I have no idea f there was an accompanying sound but for a second or so it seemed to be daylight on a bright simmer's day.

Although as you rightly point out my eyes would have been more accustomed to darkness as it was 2am. Bear in my mind though that riding a motorcycle with 12 volt lights and a very effective high beam I was looking into light as I rode along so the flash would have been very bright to cancel out the headlight beam momentarily.

The only explanation is some sort of lightning but if it was it was like no lightning I had ever seen before so I still find that hard to accept.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

This happened in the village of Witheridge, Devon in the winter of 1984, when I was 16.

It was dark (8pm) And there was few inches of snow on the ground (not unusual as the village is over 600 feet above sea level). I was mucking about with friends in the village square, throwing snowballs and whatever, when a massive, brilliant white flash lit up our surroundings like daylight. It was so bright that people came out of the Angel pub to see what was going on!

It was seen again, later that week, and temporarily blinded some teenagers who were walking past a building site. They said the source was close, and low. It was the talk of the village for days after (amongst us kids, anyway).

The light was not lightening, it was an artificial white. This was during the Cold War, and the village is underneath a military flight path, so we were used to seeing all manner of RAF jets and transports. My money is it being military in origin, although it was a very still night and no sound whatsoever was to be heard.

 

[bobandterry]

flash in east cleveland uk

When i was away visiting relatives. My wife phone to tell of a flash of light and bang in east Cleveland uk. This was in 2003. Never found out what this was. Other neighbours heard it too.[/quote]

 

[Old_Shoe]

A meteor could cause a bright flash like that. Maybe that's what these (or some) of the flashes could've been?