Who took my picture?

[Shinysquirrel]

In December of last year, 2015, my family and I encountered many strange situations in our home. This one I can't think of any way to explain that makes sense. It was December and about 3:30 a.m. and I wanted a snack, something sweet. I went upstairs, as I was sleeping in the basement, and into our dining room to grab a cupcake from our snack cabinet. It was very dark in the room with only a street light in front of the neighbor's house to provide any illumination.

As I reached up and into the cabinet a sound, very bright, flash, came from behind me! It was clearly the flash from a camera. I'm 41 years old and have had my picture taken hundreds of times, I know what a camera flash looks like! I whirled around and no one was there. I stood stock still for two to three full minutes, and nothing else happened. I went back downstairs and told my boyfriend, he said," No way! I didn't think you'd believe me so I didn't tell you but the same thing happened to me a few weeks ago."

In the same situation, going back not the same cabinet for a snack, in the middle of the night it also happened to him. Unbelievably, it happened to me the next time I went to get something out of that cabinet in the predawn hours. It has happened twice to me, once to him and once to my 13 year old son who knew nothing about our incidents.

My boyfriend tore the area we believe it came from (it was behind us each time) apart and there's no hidden camera or anything. Yes, there's a bay window there but it's pretty high off the ground and has a series of plant holders built into it, it would be hard to see anyone trying to take a picture through that window. Plus I have a 140lb. pitbull and 90lb. boxer and live on a dead end street with only five houses on it. I don't think many peeping tom,s would cone inside our 6'fence to risk taking a picture knowing we have big dogs.

And they would have to be inside the fence to get to the window. I don't for a second think there was a person at the window and there is no hidden camera. Neither were we drinking, drugging or asleep. We are not so pathetic we need to make up stories to get attention.

Without going into detail many other paranormal type incidents gave occurred in the thirty years we've lived here. I hesitate to label this as paranormal but I am stumped as to what else to call it. I hope I've put this in the right catagory, this is only my second day on the site, I apologize if not. Any and all suppositions are appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[Shady]

Hello dear and welcome
Could it be a faulty street light?

 

[rynner2]

Welcome to the board! Like a lot of newbies here, you are in such a hurry to tell your story that you forgot to put any line-breaks in it! They not only help others read and understand your posts, they may help you get your own thoughts in order when posting.

A wall of text on a screen can be difficult to read.

But your title seems to pre-judge the issue. All that was experienced was flashes similar to those made by a camera - there's no evidence of any photos at all.

 

[PeteByrdie]

Welcome Shinysquirrel! Although I've had the experience of walking outside and experiencing an anomalous flash of white light (as well as a similarly confusing blackness a few times), which could have been some kind of camera flash, it's hard to explain three people experiencing such a thing in the same spot in a house at different times. I sort of hope you're having a genuine supernatural experience rather than being spied on by an astoundingly inept agent who consistently uses flash photography rather than investing in light enhancing equipment. It's a puzzling experience and thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'd invest in some curtains if it was me...

 

[Maviself]

I'd invest in some curtains if it was me...

Me too!

Any railway tracks nearby? The power flashes that trains cause can be pretty bright....

 

[Shinysquirrel]

I am sorry for not including any line breaks (I take it you mean breaking my story into paragraphs), I can see where that would be more pleasing to the eye . Just a couple of points: It couldn't be the street light malfunctioning as it is very far away across our yard and the street and this flash was directly behind me. Secondly, I do have curtains on all my windows and don't think the flash came from there, I just wanted to explain what, in theory, it could have been. And lastly, I don't think someone took my picture, not at all. The only thing I can relate the sudden, overwhelming light to is the flash from a camera. I should have created a different title but I was more worried about getting the story down. So, no I don't believe for a minute some stranger took my picture thru our bay window. It definitely came from inside of the house and no lights were on at all. I don't own a camera outside of what is on my phone and it was in my bedroom in the basement at the time. Thank you for the welcoming words.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Do you have anything electrical over there?
Might be worth checking it out in case there's an electrical fault.

 

[ramonmercado]

I am sorry for not including any line breaks (I take it you mean breaking my story into paragraphs), I can see where that would be more pleasing to the eye . Just a couple of points: It couldn't be the street light malfunctioning as it is very far away across our yard and the street and this flash was directly behind me. Secondly, I do have curtains on all my windows and don't think the flash came from there, I just wanted to explain what, in theory, it could have been. And lastly, I don't think someone took my picture, not at all. The only thing I can relate the sudden, overwhelming light to is the flash from a camera. I should have created a different title but I was more worried about getting the story down. So, no I don't believe for a minute some stranger took my picture thru our bay window. It definitely came from inside of the house and no lights were on at all. I don't own a camera outside of what is on my phone and it was in my bedroom in the basement at the time. Thank you for the welcoming words.

I broke your post into paragraphs.

Welcome to the Board.

 

[Frideswide]

Yes, welcome Shinmysquirrel!

 

[hunck]

In December of last year, 2015, my family and I encountered many strange situations in our home. This one I can't think of any way to explain that makes sense. It was December and about 3:30 a.m. and I wanted a snack, something sweet. I went upstairs, as I was sleeping in the basement, and into our dining room to grab a cupcake from our snack cabinet. It was very dark in the room with only a street light in front of the neighbor's house to provide any illumination.

As I reached up and into the cabinet a sound, very bright, flash, came from behind me! It was clearly the flash from a camera. I'm 41 years old and have had my picture taken hundreds of times, I know what a camera flash looks like! I whirled around and no one was there. I stood stock still for two to three full minutes, and nothing else happened. I went back downstairs and told my boyfriend, he said," No way! I didn't think you'd believe me so I didn't tell you but the same thing happened to me a few weeks ago."

In the same situation, going back not the same cabinet for a snack, in the middle of the night it also happened to him. Unbelievably, it happened to me the next time I went to get something out of that cabinet in the predawn hours. It has happened twice to me, once to him and once to my 13 year old son who knew nothing about our incidents.

My boyfriend tore the area we believe it came from (it was behind us each time) apart and there's no hidden camera or anything. Yes, there's a bay window there but it's pretty high off the ground and has a series of plant holders built into it, it would be hard to see anyone trying to take a picture through that window. Plus I have a 140lb. pitbull and 90lb. boxer and live on a dead end street with only five houses on it. I don't think many peeping tom,s would cone inside our 6'fence to risk taking a picture knowing we have big dogs.

And they would have to be inside the fence to get to the window. I don't for a second think there was a person at the window and there is no hidden camera. Neither were we drinking, drugging or asleep. We are not so pathetic we need to make up stories to get attention.

Without going into detail many other paranormal type incidents gave occurred in the thirty years we've lived here. I hesitate to label this as paranormal but I am stumped as to what else to call it. I hope I've put this in the right catagory, this is only my second day on the site, I apologize if not. Any and all suppositions are appreciated. Thanks for reading.

That's a weird one allright. A flash from inside the room is a new one for me & one that's hard to imagine an explanation for, especially on 4 occasions with 3 different people.

Lightning with no thunder could cause a sudden flash but external source rather than internal & that this could happen on 4 separate occasions is stretching things to say the least.

Nothing further to add other than welcome & maybe you could tell us some of the other weird occurrences over the 30 years you've lived there.

You also said that many strange situations happened in December 2015. More than usual then? Has it died down a bit since? Care to elaborate?

 

[GNC]

You say there was a sound, what was it like? Like a camera sound, or more like an electrical buzz?

 

[Ulalume]

Hi Shinysquirrel,

I don't have any solid explanation for you, but just wanted to say that I've seen something similar happen a few times over the years. Once I'm pretty sure it really was a camera flash through the window (Having a pervy neighbor and me being a teenager changing clothes at the time probably explains that ) The other times it's been more mysterious. I have migraine headaches which can cause a person to see odd lights, even in the dark, so I've wondered if that had something to do with it. That wouldn't fit in your situation though,not with three different people experiencing the same thing.

Just recently I saw a couple of similar flashes of light through a window from an apparently clear sky, but since this was daytime it was likely to have been sunlight reflecting off an unseen airplane.

All I can suggest is keep an eye on the area until something happens that gives a clue to the source.

 

[gellatly68]

Didn't John Keel in The Mothman Prophecies write something about unexplained bright flashes? It's been YEARS since I read it, so I might be wrong.

 

[fudgetusk]

I've encountered strange flashes too and strange nanoseconds of darkness like I was blinking yet my eyes did not move.

 

[Tribble]

Doing a search for unexplained bright flashes returns a LOT of results. Seems to be a pretty common phenomenon. Nobody's pinned it down to a particular cause - people have suggested spirits, angels, static electricity/ball lightning, transformers shorting out, power surges...

Could it be related to temporal lobe simple partial seizures? A sudden, brief electrical ping in the brain that gives a weird, short-lived visual hallucination?

 

[Tribble]

Didn't John Keel in The Mothman Prophecies write something about unexplained bright flashes? It's been YEARS since I read it, so I might be wrong.

There's several mentions of bright flashes in that book. Some come from "burglars with flash guns", some from MiBs with cameras with bright flashes (likely the inspiration for the neuralyser gadget in the MiB comics/films), quite a few associated with UFOs/abductions :

If you review the thousands of UFO contact reports you will find that many of them begin
with the appearance of an entity holding some kind of "flashlight" which is shone directly
at the witness. In cases in which the percipient was taken aboard a saucer, a light flashes
and he is told his picture has just been taken. In other instances, some of which have
already been described, the entity approaches the witness and suddenly flashes a light at
him which causes paralysis.
Woodrow Derenberger was among the very few contact claimants who did not describe
such flashes.
In trying to nail down the exact chronological order of events in the contactee experience,
I found that the witnesses observed the flash first and then they saw the entity
approaching with some kind of flashlight. A second flash paralyzed them or rendered them
unconscious.
The phenomenon takes yet another form. The witness is stepping out his door, or getting
out of his automobile, when there is a sudden burst of light "like a flash gun going off." No
photographer or camera is visible. There is no sudden paralysis or ill effects. The witness
just scratches his head in bewilderment and goes about his business. However, those who
see these flashes have usually had psychic experiences previously. They have seen a
UFO, a monster, or a ghost, or they are gifted with ESP or precognition.

http://www.galaksija.com/literatura/Mothman.pdf

 

[Ermintruder]

Nobody's pinned it down to a particular cause - people have suggested spirits, angels, static electricity/ball lightning, transformers shorting out, power surges...

I'm going to expand upon this point. I've been meaning to mention my experiences of a potentially-causitive effect for ages: ideally, some others here will recognise what I'm about to describe.

If an electrical thermostat cuts in (or out) of the type fitted inside a room heater, or if a fuse / light-bulb blows I tend to see/feel a brief bright flash, especially if my eyes are closed, and the room is otherwise dark.

I'm unsure as to whether this is:

• just a physiological flinch, in reaction to the audible crack/pop, that is causing a pressure-generated overblink, which my optic nerve perceives as light (rub your eyelid, and see what I mean), or...

• the optical fore-brain detecting a close-by collapsing electromagnetic field, which it interprets as if it were a visually-sourced signal.

I could be blindfolded /earplugged tested, in order to confirm/deny my uncued true abilities.

Any common ground here?

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm going to expand upon this point. I've been meaning to mention my experiences of a potentially-causitive effect for ages: ideally, some others here will recognise what I'm about to describe.

If an electrical thermostat cuts in (or out) of the type fitted inside a room heater, or if a fuse / light-bulb blows I tend to see/feel a brief bright flash, especially if my eyes are closed, and the room is otherwise dark.

I'm unsure as to whether this is:

• just a physiological flinch, in reaction to the audible crack/pop, that is causing a pressure-generated overblink, which my optic nerve perceives as light (rub your eyelid, and see what I mean), or...

• the optical fore-brain detecting a close-by collapsing electromagnetic field, which it interprets as if it were a visually-sourced signal.

I could be blindfolded /earplugged tested, in order to confirm/deny my uncued true abilities.

Any common ground here?

I get the same thing when I hear a loud crack and my eyes are closed.

 

[Tribble]

I could be blindfolded /earplugged tested, in order to confirm/deny my uncued true abilities.

It should be simplish enough to test experimentally. We just need a large grant (non-sequential, unmarked bills), a stack of local takeaway menus, a friendly psychology department and some Ermintrude-shaped guinea pigs. I have a load of blindfolds and earplugs (don't ask) already.

 

[PeteByrdie]

Some of the explanations mentioned so far are certainly very interesting but fail to account for three individuals experiencing the flashes at different times but while in the same location. If we're to rule out supernatural phenomena (which obviously we should to begin with) these qualities suggest to me something external to the experiencer as the cause. There's no doubt we live in a world of constant flashing lights as well as noises because of the various devices that surround us in this age, but something as bright as a camera flash is still difficult to account for. I would suggest to Shinysquirrel that she turn off all the devices in the room at night, just in case one is giving out a bright flash to indicate its pixie dust is running low or the compartment it goes in has been left slightly ajar or some other thing a manufacturer thought a stupidly bright and very occasional flash would be an obvious indication of, and be careful to check there are no sensor alarms on the walls of nearby houses. But we're grasping at straws.

 

[Ermintruder]

But we're grasping at straws

Certainly.

But: if there's anything substantive behind my putative theory that there can be a non visually-originating "occular flash" internally perceived by some (such as @Mythopoeika and myself, resulting from an experimentally-verifiable extended propioceptive sensing of transient EMFs), that 'straw' becomes a plank.

Does anyone else in addition to @Mythopoeika and myself recognise this effect? I'm trying and failing to convince myself one way or the other, regarding the causal trigger, here.

Using the spirit (if not quite the method) of @Tribble 's experiment, it should be easy to establish whether or not individuals can genuinely non-visually/non-audibly perceive externally-generated electromagnetic flashes and/or sparks.

A question for @Shinysquirrel ....does your house have an air conditioning unit or central heating boiler located (in)/above/below/near the room in which you experienced this 'flash' effect?

Or (and yes, this one is a straw @PeteByrdie ) is there any way in which there could be an arc / MIG metal welding workshop under or near your room? Again, I'm postulating about the possible non-visual sensing of sparks and flashes: so, I do mean outwith any photovisual path, I mean inside a nearby enclosed, walled remote-but-close location?

As a reductionist alternative theory with some elements of crossover: what about static electricity as a vector? New carpets, dry atmospheres, PVC window-frames. People can see sparks when they remove nylon/polyester clothing, in darkened rooms (to the extent that such sparks can detonate gas-leak explosions or ignite forest fires). Might this have an agency in what was experienced, even in some semi intra-occular sense?

 

[Ulalume]

Does anyone else in addition to @Mythopoeika and myself recognise this effect? I'm trying and failing to convince myself one way or the other, regarding the causal trigger, here.

I don't know if it's exactly the thing you mean, but I have perceived a "flash" when hearing a loud noise, especially, as Mythopoeika says, when eyes are closed.

What also comes to mind are the times we've had a power outage and I perceived a flash of light just at the moment the lights went out. This sometimes has led me to believe that a fuse has been blown when it hasn't. I used to think that the lights must have momentarily brightened just before the outage, but upon asking, it turns no one else had seen it.

Don't know what that means, if anything.

 

[MadameB]

Just recently I saw a couple of similar flashes of light through a window from an apparently clear sky, but since this was daytime was likely to haithaveeen sunlight reflecting off an unseen airplane.

Of course! I have had this happen now and again and it puzzled me. Planes go over us constantly so it makes perfect sense.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

I live in a second floor flat and I've had the 'reflection' type of flash several times on sunny days. It's not always obvious where the reflection has come from (car, plane, whatever) but I'm sure that's what it is in my case.

In Shinysquirrel's case though, it was at night, so probably not applicable. Shiny, can you try to close your eyes and visualise exactly what you saw? Were there any shadows cast by the flash? If so, which way were they pointing? Did you yourself cast a shadow, for example?

I know that your experience was only momentary, but it may be that your visual memory has still retained some details that might help. Try to just 'see' in your mind's eye, rather than consciously thinking it through.

 

[living-in-ithilien]

In December of last year, 2015, my family and I encountered many strange situations in our home. This one I can't think of any way to explain that makes sense. It was December and about 3:30 a.m. and I wanted a snack, something sweet. I went upstairs, as I was sleeping in the basement, and into our dining room to grab a cupcake from our snack cabinet. It was very dark in the room with only a street light in front of the neighbor's house to provide any illumination.

As I reached up and into the cabinet a sound, very bright, flash, came from behind me! It was clearly the flash from a camera. I'm 41 years old and have had my picture taken hundreds of times, I know what a camera flash looks like! I whirled around and no one was there. I stood stock still for two to three full minutes, and nothing else happened. I went back downstairs and told my boyfriend, he said," No way! I didn't think you'd believe me so I didn't tell you but the same thing happened to me a few weeks ago."

In the same situation, going back not the same cabinet for a snack, in the middle of the night it also happened to him. Unbelievably, it happened to me the next time I went to get something out of that cabinet in the predawn hours. It has happened twice to me, once to him and once to my 13 year old son who knew nothing about our incidents.

My boyfriend tore the area we believe it came from (it was behind us each time) apart and there's no hidden camera or anything. Yes, there's a bay window there but it's pretty high off the ground and has a series of plant holders built into it, it would be hard to see anyone trying to take a picture through that window. Plus I have a 140lb. pitbull and 90lb. boxer and live on a dead end street with only five houses on it. I don't think many peeping tom,s would cone inside our 6'fence to risk taking a picture knowing we have big dogs.

And they would have to be inside the fence to get to the window. I don't for a second think there was a person at the window and there is no hidden camera. Neither were we drinking, drugging or asleep. We are not so pathetic we need to make up stories to get attention.

Without going into detail many other paranormal type incidents gave occurred in the thirty years we've lived here. I hesitate to label this as paranormal but I am stumped as to what else to call it. I hope I've put this in the right catagory, this is only my second day on the site, I apologize if not. Any and all suppositions are appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[living-in-ithilien]

Theres a particular neighborhood in Pittsburgh that has many surviving beautiful Victorian homes that have been restored. There are lots of associated haunting stories with these homes, ghost tours etc....maybe due to the spiritualism movement and seances that flourished there during the time these homes were built, after the trauma of the Civil War. One house in particular was notorious for arc lighting and light flashes like you described. In fact, Thomas Edison visited it when he was developing his machine for communicating with the dead. So there is maybe a paranormal explanation for these repeated light flashes,

however, i would put a bizarre neighbor peeping tom at the top of the list and investigate that possibility thoroughly first. there are inexpensive security cams that can be installed in your window and on the fence area to photograph interlopers. People do bizarre and unaccountable things.

A friend of mine had a weird and very loud sound that used to occur every evening at the same time outside her living room wall. It sounded like a giant condor was hangng on the side of her house and flapping his wings against the house if you can imagine that. She Was very passive about the whole thing despite it happening at a regular time.

Later we found a chair outside her bathroom window in the walkway between the houses. Was someone climbing up and down a rope ladder into an upstairs apartment? Was someone banging brooms and baseball bats on the house as they cut thru the walkway just to be obnoxious? Was it connected to the accidental suicide in the third floor apartment ? Was the peeping tom chair in the alleyway related to these bizarre and very loud noises or was it just additional weirdness?

She never knew because she didnt investigate. People are weird and do weird Things. Check it out before you aaccept it as a paranormal event, esp because theres a child in the home. People dont do things expecting to get caught. If this is a person, they are doing it regardless of dogs and a fence. Lock the fence and leave the dogs out, or install a security cam.

 

[rynner2]

I don't know if this helps, but it's unlikely anyone outside the window would attempt to take a flash photo. This is because, generally speaking, the flash itself would reflect from the window, washing out any detail in the picture.

 

[Cherrybomb]

Welcome to the board! Could it have been lightening?

 

[Tribble]

I don't know if this helps, but it's unlikely anyone outside the window would attempt to take a flash photo. This is because, generally speaking, the flash itself would reflect from the window, washing out any detail in the picture.

Some people accidentally leave flash to Auto or On. You see a lot of them at sporting events or concerts when people take photos from the far side of the venue, where flash will have zero positive effect. Peeping toms are probably not the sharpest tools in the box. Although if such a perpetrator took a photo outside your window and the flash went off, you'd probably hear the mad scramble as the perp realises their mistake and tries to flee the scene.