The Unexplained Flash…

[Freerunner18]

The Unexplained Flash…

My sister and I were in the living room when a bright flash emanated from the back corner of the room. The flash was intense and lasted only a fraction of a second, perceptually of course it seemed to last longer (due to visual sensory memory). We were not on computers, nor watching television. Also, there were no electrical devices or light bulbs that blew out. We both looked at each other and confirmed the experience. To replicate the event, I took several cameras and took pictures to create a bright flash in the general direction from where we mutually agreed it came from or was localized at. Meanwhile my sister stood exactly where she had been when the event occurred. Then we rotated and I stood where I was when it happened while she took several shots from various angles. Both of us agreed, beyond all doubt, that what we experienced was both far more intense and “different.” After failing to replicate the flash using cameras, I then decided to use a high-powered flashlight, that has more luminosity than a car's bright beams, and still it failed to resemble the phenomenon. All of this was done moments after the event, we both were eager to solve the mystery then and there. Then....

Approximately a year later (possibly longer) my mother and girlfriend claimed to have seen a bright flash appear out of nowhere in the corner of the living room. I had never told them about the “flash” experience before and thus I can say “4” people have experienced this flash in pairs - with each pair confirming the experience among themselves.

Their stories of the experience were remarkably similar to ours, even where they believed the flashed came from was similar. However, no more insights or clues were gained…

Any clues, insights as to an explanation?

[JustNormal]

The Unexplained Flash…

My sister and I were in the living room when a bright flash emanated from the back corner of the room. The flash was intense and lasted only a fraction of a second, perceptually of course it seemed to last longer (due to visual sensory memory). We were not on computers, nor watching television. Also, there were no electrical devices or light bulbs that blew out. We both looked at each other and confirmed the experience. To replicate the event, I took several cameras and took pictures to create a bright flash in the general direction from where we mutually agreed it came from or was localized at. Meanwhile my sister stood exactly where she had been when the event occurred. Then we rotated and I stood where I was when it happened while she took several shots from various angles. Both of us agreed, beyond all doubt, that what we experienced was both far more intense and “different.” After failing to replicate the flash using cameras, I then decided to use a high-powered flashlight, that has more luminosity than a car's bright beams, and still it failed to resemble the phenomenon. All of this was done moments after the event, we both were eager to solve the mystery then and there. Then....

Approximately a year later (possibly longer) my mother and girlfriend claimed to have seen a bright flash appear out of nowhere in the corner of the living room. I had never told them about the “flash” experience before and thus I can say “4” people have experienced this flash in pairs - with each pair confirming the experience among themselves.

Their stories of the experience were remarkably similar to ours, even where they believed the flashed came from was similar. However, no more insights or clues were gained…

Any clues, insights as to an explanation?

One question, were these seen from your peripheral vision, as in the corner of your eye? Or was it something you were directly looking at, at the time? JN

[misanthrope]

It couldn't have been a brief reflection of light at some odd angle... say, a passing car's headlights coming through a window and bouncing off the glass of a picture on the wall, or something?

[Loonboy]

I have lived in a house where strange phenomena occurred - knocking sounds, objects being moved, dark shapes seen, voices heard et al.

While these things were going on, my sister in her room saw intense flashes of light with no apparent source. They occurred sporadically over a period of about a year then were no more.

Also, flashes of light with no apparent source are often documented in poltergeist cases.

[rikitiki]

So, both flashes occurred in the same room of the same house?

Was there any sound connected with either flash?

Any odor?

[JustNormal]

I have lived in a house where strange phenomena occurred - knocking sounds, objects being moved, dark shapes seen, voices heard et al.

While these things were going on, my sister in her room saw intense flashes of light with no apparent source. They occurred sporadically over a period of about a year then were no more.

Also, flashes of light with no apparent source are often documented in poltergeist cases.

Very true, I have seen them too off and on. THen I find myself rubbing my eyes to see if that is actually what I saw. When I close my eyes the image is still there. Strange things happen..

[coldethyl]

I dunno, ball lightning?

[Freerunner18]

JN, to answer your question, neither my sister or I saw the flash directly, just from peripherals.

Mis, the reason why I don't believe in was from passing headlights or a reflection is because we both felt that the light was centralized, not stray fractures of light. Another reason is because our blinds were semi closed, semi open, and very cloudy from being unclean. The light flash was very concentrated.

Riki, to answer your question, both flashes occured in the same room. My sister and I experienced the light in our dining room while my girlfriend and mom experienced the same except in the living room (same room, there are no walls or barriors between them). None of us remember any strange odors or sounds with the flashes. We thought it was strange there was no smell because at first we thought a light bulb had burned out and expected that sort of burnt odor. We also thought it was weird that there was no sound because our second thought was that someone took a picture and used the kind of retro camera that takes loud snapshots. Shortly after it happened, we both were convinced that it was someone using a camera by checking the backdoor and using our own camera to replicate the intensity of the flash. But nothing provided the same level of light that was experienced. The best analogy I can think of is that it was kind of like a silent explosion of mageniusm.

Cold, we both remember the weather conditions very well. The first experience with my sister and I occured during a late summer night. There were no storms or no cases of lightning -- I remember because we investigated outside fairly intensely (thinking it was a friend playing a practical joke with a camera) before leaving the situation as unexplained. My girlfriend remembers the second time as being in the winter, so it seems unlikely that the conditions were violatile enough.

[coldethyl]

Well there doesn't have to a storm brewing for ball lightning to occur.

What do you suspect it was?

[Freerunner18]

Well there doesn't have to a storm brewing for ball lightning to occur.

What do you suspect it was?

When I looked up info for ball lightning, I was under the impression that it was associated with thunderstorms -- if not, that opens up possibilities. I also read though that ball lightning is witnessed to be seen as lasting for many seconds. Both flashes that occured seemed to last only a fraction of a second, hence the flash. I don't know much about ball lightning -- does it occur with noises? What is the likelihood that ball lightning would occur in the same proximity twice?

[coldethyl]

When I looked up info for ball lightning, I was under the impression that it was associated with thunderstorms -- if not, that opens up possibilities. I also read though that ball lightning is witnessed to be seen as lasting for many seconds. Both flashes that occured seemed to last only a fraction of a second, hence the flash. I don't know much about ball lightning -- does it occur with noises? What is the likelihood that ball lightning would occur in the same proximity twice?

Well according to the link I posted, it doesn't have to be during a storm. Scientists aren't 100% sure on the causes of ball lightning and the exactness of it, so I don't believe anyone could tell you for sure it couldn't appear in the same spot twice. Accounts of ball lightning are of different colors, noises, and times seen.

It's just one theory, it could completely wrong, but at least it's something to go on.

[Loonboy]

I like the analogy with magnesium - from what my sister said, the flash she saw was very intense and very short lived - almost a hundredth of a second (if that's not being too precise).

Also, from the cases of poltergeist hauntings I have read about, the flashes always seem to be in the upper part of a room - or very close to the ceiling.

[fullywired]

Could it have been static electricity ?I admit that it sounds a bit unlikely but who knows ?

fullywired

[Aztec Warrior]

Well there doesn't have to a storm brewing for ball lightning to occur.

What do you suspect it was?

Could have been lightning or passing car headlights. It could also have been some paranoramal phenomenon, like in the Entity case. Lightning was emanating from an unknown source in a room.

The second time Gaynor and Taff visited the Entity house, things began to happen. Although they never saw the apparition, they witnessed visual phenomena. "We were seeing little pops of light," said Gaynor. "They would happen quickly. We would try to shoot the camera, but they were happening too quickly and we just couldn't catch them. We were shooting with a Polaroid and with a 35mm camera." Link

Lightning kills man beneath cloudless sky

A Dade landscaper died after being struck by an unusual type of lightning that's stronger, hotter, lasts longer and strikes from clear skies. Experts said Canales was killed by a weather phenomenon fittingly called a ''bolt from the blue'' or ''dry lightning'' because it falls from clear, blue skies. Link

Edited June 22, 2007 by Aztec Warrior

[boorite]

The flash is probably caused by an electrical discharge that ionizes nearby N2 and O2 molecules. As electrons are driven off the molecules and recaptured at a lower energy level, they emit the leftover energy as photons, which you see.

What caused the electrical discharge, I have no idea.

[JustNormal]

I have lived in a house where strange phenomena occurred - knocking sounds, objects being moved, dark shapes seen, voices heard et al.

While these things were going on, my sister in her room saw intense flashes of light with no apparent source. They occurred sporadically over a period of about a year then were no more.

Also, flashes of light with no apparent source are often documented in poltergeist cases.

I agree Loonboy!!

[JustNormal]

JN, to answer your question, neither my sister or I saw the flash directly, just from peripherals.

Mis, the reason why I don't believe in was from passing headlights or a reflection is because we both felt that the light was centralized, not stray fractures of light. Another reason is because our blinds were semi closed, semi open, and very cloudy from being unclean. The light flash was very concentrated.

Riki, to answer your question, both flashes occured in the same room. My sister and I experienced the light in our dining room while my girlfriend and mom experienced the same except in the living room (same room, there are no walls or barriors between them). None of us remember any strange odors or sounds with the flashes. We thought it was strange there was no smell because at first we thought a light bulb had burned out and expected that sort of burnt odor. We also thought it was weird that there was no sound because our second thought was that someone took a picture and used the kind of retro camera that takes loud snapshots. Shortly after it happened, we both were convinced that it was someone using a camera by checking the backdoor and using our own camera to replicate the intensity of the flash. But nothing provided the same level of light that was experienced. The best analogy I can think of is that it was kind of like a silent explosion of mageniusm.

Cold, we both remember the weather conditions very well. The first experience with my sister and I occured during a late summer night. There were no storms or no cases of lightning -- I remember because we investigated outside fairly intensely (thinking it was a friend playing a practical joke with a camera) before leaving the situation as unexplained. My girlfriend remembers the second time as being in the winter, so it seems unlikely that the conditions were violatile enough.

That is a very common phenomena, I see them too at times. Sometimes they can mess up your vision for quite some time, yet there is no "rational" reason for them. I have seen black and white ones. Now, they are illusions, caused normally by some form of spiritual activity. Many spirits just pop in and pop back out, and can be a loved one who has passed on, especially if it only happened a few times in the same house. You cant replicate it, because its impossible. When we see things out of our peripheral vision that is an indicator or paranormal activity. I will see something, look at it and its gone, yet it comes back out of the corner of my eye. Reason being, they dont want to be seen, and maybe they have not manifested themselves enough to do anymore than just visit here and there. This is my opinion from experience..

[Mark&Lyn]

The Unexplained Flash…

My sister and I were in the living room when a bright flash emanated from the back corner of the room. The flash was intense and lasted only a fraction of a second, perceptually of course it seemed to last longer (due to visual sensory memory). We were not on computers, nor watching television. Also, there were no electrical devices or light bulbs that blew out. We both looked at each other and confirmed the experience. To replicate the event, I took several cameras and took pictures to create a bright flash in the general direction from where we mutually agreed it came from or was localized at. Meanwhile my sister stood exactly where she had been when the event occurred. Then we rotated and I stood where I was when it happened while she took several shots from various angles. Both of us agreed, beyond all doubt, that what we experienced was both far more intense and “different.” After failing to replicate the flash using cameras, I then decided to use a high-powered flashlight, that has more luminosity than a car's bright beams, and still it failed to resemble the phenomenon. All of this was done moments after the event, we both were eager to solve the mystery then and there. Then....

Approximately a year later (possibly longer) my mother and girlfriend claimed to have seen a bright flash appear out of nowhere in the corner of the living room. I had never told them about the “flash” experience before and thus I can say “4” people have experienced this flash in pairs - with each pair confirming the experience among themselves.

Their stories of the experience were remarkably similar to ours, even where they believed the flashed came from was similar. However, no more insights or clues were gained…

Any clues, insights as to an explanation?

Woohoooo! Finally! It took me a long while to find the correct topic to obtain information, even using Google. Now there are two corroborations instead of just one other. Just last evening my wife and I were watching TV in the living room, but I must first explain the layout of the living room. It is more rectangular than square, the TV is against one wall in the middle opposite the couch where we were both seated. At the left end of the wall is the kitchen area, and at the right end of the wall is our bedroom door, which was open. The TV had absolutely nothing to do with it, as our eyes did not either. (There are many Google links to eye flash phenomenon to wade through, but are always with a single subject. We are talking about two people here.) Simultaneously we both saw a white flash lasting about .1 second eminating from BOTH out our bedroom open door on the right, AND the kitchen area from the left. We looked each other and said WTF? I got up to investigate, went out the front door to see if a neighbor was up to something at 11:20 P.M. All was quiet outside, so I investigated both rooms to find everything normal and nothing "abbienormal." We had originally thought the bathroom light burned out next to our bedroom, but that light was off; I turned it on and it functioned normally. And - we also saw the flash from the kitchen area. I told my wife Lyn it could be one of three possibilities. First, a paranormal, psychic, or supernatural phenomenon, an alien burst of energy targeting our house behind the living room wall, or some yet undiscovered natural or scientific and explainable energy phenomenon. As you explained in your recount, Freerunner 18, it is impossible to recreate the exact perceived effect of this phenomenon. So, we remain at ground zero with answers, but welcome and appreciate any and all possible explanations, especially from anyone who has credible credentials. If anyone else has experienced the same phenomenon, please add yourself to this forum. Maybe someone can begin a statistical analysis too... ...

BTW - my wife and daughter smelled strong roses in the living room just one week prior to this event. There were no freshener sprays, no flowers, and no perfumes in use at the time. It was about 9:40 P.M. I have also felt "things" touch me when no one else was around, heard knocks on the bedroom and front doors (always three at a time) when nobody was there. I am thinking the lean is more toward supernatural... So a question posed to Freerunner 18 - have you experienced any other phenomenon that might be construed as supernatural?

(Ain't joshin' neither!) Mark

[MirrorImage]

Woohoooo! Finally! It took me a long while to find the correct topic to obtain information, even using Google. Now there are two corroborations instead of just one other. Just last evening my wife and I were watching TV in the living room, but I must first explain the layout of the living room. It is more rectangular than square, the TV is against one wall in the middle opposite the couch where we were both seated. At the left end of the wall is the kitchen area, and at the right end of the wall is our bedroom door, which was open. The TV had absolutely nothing to do with it, as our eyes did not either. (There are many Google links to eye flash phenomenon to wade through, but are always with a single subject. We are talking about two people here.) Simultaneously we both saw a white flash lasting about .1 second eminating from BOTH out our bedroom open door on the right, AND the kitchen area from the left. We looked each other and said WTF? I got up to investigate, went out the front door to see if a neighbor was up to something at 11:20 P.M. All was quiet outside, so I investigated both rooms to find everything normal and nothing "abbienormal." We had originally thought the bathroom light burned out next to our bedroom, but that light was off; I turned it on and it functioned normally. And - we also saw the flash from the kitchen area. I told my wife Lyn it could be one of three possibilities. First, a paranormal, psychic, or supernatural phenomenon, an alien burst of energy targeting our house behind the living room wall, or some yet undiscovered natural or scientific and explainable energy phenomenon. As you explained in your recount, Freerunner 18, it is impossible to recreate the exact perceived effect of this phenomenon. So, we remain at ground zero with answers, but welcome and appreciate any and all possible explanations, especially from anyone who has credible credentials. If anyone else has experienced the same phenomenon, please add yourself to this forum. Maybe someone can begin a statistical analysis too... ...

BTW - my wife and daughter smelled strong roses in the living room just one week prior to this event. There were no freshener sprays, no flowers, and no perfumes in use at the time. It was about 9:40 P.M. I have also felt "things" touch me when no one else was around, heard knocks on the bedroom and front doors (always three at a time) when nobody was there. I am thinking the lean is more toward supernatural... So a question posed to Freerunner 18 - have you experienced any other phenomenon that might be construed as supernatural?

(Ain't joshin' neither!) Mark

Mark you might never get your answer from freerunner, the original post was close to two years ago

[GreytMuse]

Welcome to the forums, Mark&Lyn.

Interesting experience -- I'm curious to see if anyone will have anything new to add to this thread.

Just as an aside: Do you have a basement? Or sit on pier/beam construction? Not real sure what exactly I am thinking yet, maybe some volatile gases rising? A housebound marsh gas, sort of?

[Mark&Lyn]

Welcome to the forums, Mark&Lyn.

Interesting experience -- I'm curious to see if anyone will have anything new to add to this thread.

Just as an aside: Do you have a basement? Or sit on pier/beam construction? Not real sure what exactly I am thinking yet, maybe some volatile gases rising? A housebound marsh gas, sort of?

Thanks for the warm welcome GreytMuse - to answer your question... no basement, but a crawl space under the house (I have recently been down there for plumbing jobs - unfortunately!) and there would be no sources of any gases rising, either from the gas pipes themselves or the powdery dirt the house is built over. For the sake of the scientific approach, one must come up with "explainable" possiblities before they are all exhausted and disproven. It still, in my estimation, is in the realm of the unexplained. No sound. No odors. Just to reiterate, behind the living room wall is 1/2 of the kitchen, a bathroom right behind where the TV sits, and the master bedroom. The flashes were eminating from both extremes, left and right in our field of view, more direct than peripheral, and the actual sources were behind the wall, we only saw the secondary lighting thrown off from the sources. A description of the length of time and the intensity would be likened to those noisy crackle fireworks from the 4th of July, but only 2 separate yet simultaneous bursts, and close to the same color as the fireworks. I am comfortable with sharing my living space with spirits or entities, as long as they keep it clean - LOL! (Obviously, they were actually there first.)

We're up to 3 or four cases... let's see how long it takes to get to ten! I'm sure there's more out there than we would like to admit...

[Manapool]

When i used to live with my parents, we lived in an old cottage, i will admit that this old cottage didn't have the best of electrical systems, and was prone to shorting out sometimes 4 times a week.

However, all of our family experienced what is explained in this post several times, it was also a thatched cottage, and one time we had the roof "re-thatched", during this time a few of the workers reported seeing a light coming from the attic eminating through the thatch work... For them to see that through several layers of thatch in full daylight kind of explains how bright the light was.

I personally only ever experienced this light 2 times though, i was also very young so my memory of it is a little faded, but i remember sitting on the top landing which was joined by the stairs, dangling lego men over the banister on peices of string (bungee jumping!!) i remember dropping one of the lego men over the ledge, and watching his descent, and seeing a bright flash coming from all the doors in teh hallway, creating a kind of cross shaped light (no biblical reference intended). It was the kind of light that you'd expect to be accompanied by a loud noise, like a firework going off or a thunder bolt or a static charge, but it was completley silent.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Manapool

[Eternal Light]

When i used to live with my parents, we lived in an old cottage, i will admit that this old cottage didn't have the best of electrical systems, and was prone to shorting out sometimes 4 times a week.

However, all of our family experienced what is explained in this post several times, it was also a thatched cottage, and one time we had the roof "re-thatched", during this time a few of the workers reported seeing a light coming from the attic eminating through the thatch work... For them to see that through several layers of thatch in full daylight kind of explains how bright the light was.

I personally only ever experienced this light 2 times though, i was also very young so my memory of it is a little faded,

Yes, I live in a very old house also, around 300 yrs old, altho it is not thatched, but I don't think the age of a dwelling makes any difference when it comes to these types of paranormal events. But, the point is that I have experienced, any number of the phenomenon here that Mark&Lyn and others here describe, and especially the smell of flowers and perfume. Also, very occasionally someone wakes me in the early hours of the morning by sitting on the end of my bed.

But, what I did get from your description was that, as misanthrope questions below tregarding Freerunner18's situation ...

It couldn't have been a brief reflection of light at some odd angle... say, a passing car's headlights coming through a window and bouncing off the glass of a picture on the wall, or something?

...it is possible that the flashes could have been car headlights. You say that you only ever saw the flashes twice in your life, and that would suggest that something unusual had occurred, which could be of a paranormal nature. But, you see, when this sort of thing occurs on a regular basis, and you say that all of your family have experienced this several times, it does tend to indicate that the cause is likely to be something that happens naturally.

Freerunner18 adds to his post:

Approximately a year later (possibly longer) my mother and girlfriend claimed to have seen a bright flash appear out of nowhere in the corner of the living room. I had never told them about the “flash” experience before and thus I can say “4” people have experienced this flash in pairs - with each pair confirming the experience among themselves.

What Freerunner is saying here apparently is that the incident only happened on two occasions, which would suggest sumething unusual happening because, were they car headlights, or anything else of a natural occurrence, he would have seen the flashes many, many times, imho.

What does bother me about his post is the sentence that I enbolded; he and his sister made a big event out of positioning themselves and re-enacting the event, and, apparently taking several photo-shots of the room, so it was obviously a big deal to them, yet, they never spoke of it to his Mother, or Girlfriend? That simply doesn't work for me, sorry.

Many people do add a rider like that, such as he did, in the event that skeptics will say that others already knew of the phenomenon, as in this case, flashes, and therefore 'jumped on the bandwagon.' This doesn't make the sketic's point of view right, or true; nor does it indicate that the narrator is lying about the flashes. It simply indicates that he is afraid that others will not believe him.

Just some thoughts...

Edited May 9, 2009 by Eternal Light

[Freerunner18]

Eternal Light -- To address your concern, the reason why I denied my parents (at that time) the information about the light experience was because (1) their lack of interest in such phenomena [from personal experience, lol] , (2) the fact that we had no real information or data to report, (3) the exhaustion we both felt at the time from talking about this phenomena and having no progress in understanding it, (4) the surrealistic nature of the event which caused us to be in a quasi state of denial about the “flash.” No explanations seemed to make any sense and as time went on and the expectation of a reoccurrence faded from our minds, so did the interest in the phenomena. My only hope was to see if others could find any similarities and/or analogous encounters.

[Freerunner18]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I am glad to know that others have experienced a similar type of “flash.” My undergraduate degree is in psychology from OSU with a concentration is behavioral neuroscience (Psychobiology/Psychophysiology). Additionally, I am a member of the Society for Neuroscience. When I first experienced this “flash” naturally I was skeptical, however its occurrence as a physical stimulus was undeniable, only it’s etiology is a question of contention here…

Here is some information about my sister and I:

I am an agnostic and my sister is a professing atheist We are both strong monistic adherents (the belief in material substance as opposed to dualism). Our outlook on life has always been scientific and we desperately looked for these explanations. I do not know if paranormal events are real, our 4-joint experiences certainly comprise an unexplained phenomena, but not necessarily paranormal. Ultimately the mystery to the flash will remain forever perhaps, but at least I know that I’m not alone. The meaning attached to this (and similar events) may in-part depend on ones own psychological expectations. In other words, if your strongly religious your going to say it was “a guardian angel” or some other theological supernatural entity. If you’re a parapsychologist (Not recognized by actual psychology) you might say it’s a projection of psychic energy. And so on….

For the record no smells were accompanied by the phenomena and the window blinds are always shut (for privacy purposes) and the window panels themselves are always dirty and very nonconductive to light sources. Additionally the yard the windows would see is flooded with trees and high bushes, thus absorbing more light. There is also no clear vantage point of a street at all, especially not from the angel of the window. Whatever it was we got (4) eye-witnesses to the phenomena on two separate occasions -- it has never occurred again to my knowledge.