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Street Lamp Interference & Me

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realtegan

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I was reading in FT219 about SLI in the Letters when I remembered an incident that happened to me and a friend in college (Western Washington University, Bellingham WA, probably in winter 1993). As I recall, my friend had an argument, a nasty loud argument, with someone else and stomped off in a rage. He was just angry enough that night that I decided someone ought to follow him to make sure he didn't do harm to himself or someone else. So I followed him a few feet back as he walked down from the dorm to campus. He knew I was following him, but was so angry he ignored me, and we walked in silence for a bit. There was no one else around, and I started to notice a strange phenomena.

As he walked around campus, every time he got near a light, it would go out. After he passed, usually as I approached the same light following behind him, it would turn back on. After a few minutes and maybe five or six lights doing this, he turned to me and asked, "Do you see that happening?" I said yes, and told him the lights were probably scared of his temper. While he was still too angry to loosen up with the humor, he did look a little thoughtful, and walked some more, with more lights going out and coming back on as he did so.

I don't really remember more than that. It was over ten years ago. But I do know for sure that lights were going out as he approached, and that he and I spoke about the strangeness of it. I'm sure if I called him up today he would remember. I'm glad that letter jolted loose my memory.
 
Wow, I hadn't read that issue, but this is something that happens to me, when I'm in a bad mood - or a very happy one, streetlights can go off as I pass. Not happened lately, but it got regular enough for me to not think about it. It isn't all lights usually just one in any given incident. I actually had a 'pet' one on my cycled route to work at an Off-licsence in Didsbury - South Manchester - that I actually used to try and turn off on purpose, rarely worked but it was interesting to try!
 
Hi realtegan, :) You probibly haven't had as many replies to your thread as usual as I'm sure there have been at least two others of the same subject matter. IIRC, one was called 'Street Light Interference', I don't know if it's still around or if it has been gobbled up at the end. I'll have a quick search.

EDIT: Here we go:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=238&highlight=street+light
Have fun reading, there are a lot of pages! :)
 
I first experienced this phenomenon around November, 1997, during regular nighttime walks along Cincinnati McMillan Street (and only when walking westwards). This was two or three years before I realized that the condition actually had a name and that it was experienced by others.
 
This used to happen to me all the time when I was away at school. I don't know if there was something wrong with the streetlights around there, or if it was because I was always so stressed and tired, or what, but it was pretty weird. Kind of funny too actually, used to make me laugh.
 
There's a couple lights in Savannah which seem to be prone to turning off.. they only seem to do it when someone's in the right mood, but as long as they are, it will.
There was another light behind a shop which took a while to figure out, but it just seems to turn off whenever anything around it moves.. which is kind of illogical, but sadly not too odd.
Now if only it worked when I paid attention to the thing..
 
Would that be something to do with mood swings disrupting electromagnetic forces? Putting enough energy into an emotion and it affects something nearby? A bit like Scanners just without the head popping?

:lol:
 
There are several streetlights in Janesville which turn off every single time I pass them; though this is not new to me, I have developed a theory about these ones in particular....

Perhaps, because it is always these certain lamps which go out, they are slowly burning out. This could be why particular moods or emotions affect them; that is, they aren't running at optimal performance, so are more prone to "interference".

If you haven't found it yet, there was a thread about SLI somewhere on the board; try searching for "Streetlight Interference".
 
MercuryCrest said:
If you haven't found it yet, there was a thread about SLI somewhere on the board; try searching for "Streetlight Interference".
Click to expand...

Do you have me on 'ignore?'

akaWiintermoon said:
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:38 pm
Hi realtegan, You probibly haven't had as many replies to your thread as usual as I'm sure there have been at least two others of the same subject matter. IIRC, one was called 'Street Light Interference', I don't know if it's still around or if it has been gobbled up at the end. I'll have a quick search.

EDIT: Here we go:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... reet+light
Have fun reading, there are a lot of pages!
Click to expand...
 
I find it difficult to believe that the operation of modern streetlights is dependent on the emotions of people passing beneath them.

And even if that was the case wouldn't the lighting industry have come up with a solution over thje past decade?

But might it be that they are picking up reflections from pedestrians passing near them? Perhaps a reflection from something as minor as a belt buckle or a purse?
 
I certainly would love to put some EM-sensors on one of these people and try to piss them off.
I don´t find it that unlikely some people have a very large EM-field, though how emotions should affect it I don´t know. But it might also be related to people who get struck by lightning 7 times.
 
But there seem to be a lot more individuals (including me) who experience SLI than who get struck by lightning seven times!
 
Yes, but I´m just saying there might well be a connection. Perhaps something to do with the supposed Pauli effect. Some people are also supposed to continually break any watches they wear.
 
But there's surely a difference between breaking a watch constantly worn on one's wrist and turning off a light 25 or 35 feet over one's head during a brief passage under.
 
Well, certainly a difference in magnitude.
 
I know it's not street lights but last night every time I turned off my light in my living room it turned over the satelite channel! When I turned it back on the channel changed again back to what I was watching! I did it a few times. Don't think it was Fortean but it was a bit weird. Mind you they are the lights that whenever they do flicker I always say hello to the old lady who use to live there.
 
When I was a teenager we had a TV at home which always had interference with the reception, but if I stood next to it it was OK. So I had to stand there if the family wanted to watch but was unable to watch it myself :?
 
There´s a good Mr Bean episode about that.
 
plusk said:
When I was a teenager we had a TV at home which always had interference with the reception, but if I stood next to it it was OK. So I had to stand there if the family wanted to watch but was unable to watch it myself :?
Click to expand...

That's very common, and I used to be assigned the same "job."

"Hey, look, there's some use for the kid after all."
 
Matalosse said:
....last night every time I turned off my light in my living room it turned over the satelite channel! When I turned it back on the channel changed again back to what I was watching! I did it a few times.
Click to expand...

The weird voices with Marching Orders from the Aliens will begin within two weeks. <ggg>
 
I used to experience street-light interference a few hundred yards from where I live, in a secluded spot with all sorts of liminality going on (county border, parish border, railway, stream, bridges over both, allotments, a service road, a main road, a crossroads, a church, a graveyard, some copses etc.) which should make it the most haunted place in England but, as far as I know, doesn't have any local folklore or forteana attached.

Before the streetlamps were upgraded to LED streetlights, they were the normal amber street lights that used to be everywhere. One of these was just the other side of the railway bridge from my home, on the opposite side of the road (which doesn't have a pavement) and I pass it regularly when going to my family's house from my flat. If I was coming home I would be able to see it for about a hundred yards before I passed it and it would invariably be on, but without fail would turn off when I got near it. If I was walking to my parents', it would be concealed by the arch of the railway bridge until I was practically under the bridge, but would also turn off when I got near. Because of the secluded location, this would leave a pit of darkness just by the railway bridge, unless there were cars passing. The light would not turn back on while I was there. If I was visiting my parents, I would walk down the hill to the railway bridge, go under, the light would turn off, I would carry on and even if I looked back from a hundred yards past the light, it would still be off. When I came back later from my parents, it would be on again but would turn off as I got close to it. It was only this lamp that fluctuated, all the others along the road were unaffected. It never happened again once the lights were upgraded to LED lamps.
 
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I bought this book on SLI after witnessing it happen to a young guy in front of me as I walked down a lane at night:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SLIDERS-Streetlight-Interference-Hilary-Evans/dp/1933665475/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1680702136&refinements=p_27:Hilary+Evans&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Hilary+Evans

He was aware it was happening to him as I could hear him telling the girl he was with what would happen and so it did, with the lights flickering off and then on again as he passed under all but one of them (he was unaware I was following behind at that point). As @SimonBurchell states, unfortunately many of these streetlights have now been upgraded and I have to say I have no idea what caused it.

My mum had some sort of odd magnetic field as she couldn't wear analogue watches without them going a bit haywire and losing time/showing the wrong time. Trips to the shops to have them checked out, and in later years to replace batteries, had no affect. Ultimately, she had to wear a digital watch despite disliking the modern watch face.

So perhaps there was some sort of personal magnetic field at play here interfering with that particular design of streetlamp? Or was it all a coincidence involving lights that often flickered off and on?
 
I'm a SLIder as defined by Hilary Evans in the above mentioned book. There were several lights close to where I live that when I walked past would regularly extinguish and then come back on as I passed.

I remember telling this to a friend in a pub and he was commenting on how it was all just coincidence etc. As we walked out of the pub the streetlight outside went out... The look on his face was priceless and yes it doesn't seem to happen at all with the new LED lights.

Now in all honesty I am happy to put it all down to coincidence but to be honest the frequesncy of it happening was quite staggering.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
My mum had some sort of odd magnetic field as she couldn't wear analogue watches without them going a bit haywire and losing time/showing the wrong time. Trips to the shops to have them checked out, and in later years to replace batteries, had no affect. Ultimately, she had to wear a digital watch despite disliking the modern watch face.
Click to expand...
I used to work for a guy who couldn't wear watches as they would just stop.
I suspect though, that this was down to him being full of all sorts of metal (he raced motorbikes and after a few serious crashes and hospital stays he was like the bionic man internally).
 
Floyd1 said:
I used to work for a guy who couldn't wear watches as they would just stop.
I suspect though, that this was down to him being full of all sorts of metal (he raced motorbikes and after a few serious crashes and hospital stays he was like the bionic man internally).
Click to expand...
My husband couldn't wear quartz run watches and could only wear wind ups. He'd ruin them. No, he had no metal gear.

I did see the effect myself. I had a quartz watch with a second hand, on my wrist. He only had to hold my wrist and within a minute, the second hand visibly started to slow and then it started to go backward. I didn't try this for long as I didn't want my watch ruined.

He was able to wear a solar powered watch.
 
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