An odd occurrence

[SRock]

Freudian Slip much?

Well, I'm one of those folks that doesn't really care how odd someone finds me. I mean, who's more ignorant, the guy who out of the blue has an unplugged, non-functional lamp light up and is seeking a rational explanation for it, or the guy that goes "huh huh, what an idiot, ghosts aren't real" ?

+1 Rob!

 

[Kratos]

There ya go!



You can believe in ghosts, spooks, Heaven, aliens, whatever you want to. You'll never hear me calling you any of those names or labels you applied. Those are your words, not mine.

ignorant: lacking in knowledge or training. Unlearned.

By sheer definition, the inquisitive one admits to being more ignorant about a subject than the one who claims to know the "answer." Thus, he asked who is more ignorant, and the inquisitor is. If you choose to call someone who claims they have an answer "closed-minded" and condescending," that's on *you.* But please don't lump me in with your judgmental attitude.

Did you happen to come upon "disingenuous" while going through your definitions? "Ignorant" rarely has a positive connotation. I wasn't trying to apply any of the descriptions to you. I used those labels because it was easier than typing out 4 or 5 more words to describe what I was talking about.
I just failed to see how Guy A calling Guy B an idiot for having an open mind made Guy A less ignorant. Just because you claim to have an answer doesn"t make you less ignorant, especially if you are calling someone else an idiot for having an answer you don't agree with.

 

[FrankPoole]

ROB!
Did you experience a sensation of lost time?
Were any modern electronics in your home destroyed?

 

[FrankPoole]

I've had some strange occurrences myself. When I was in high school I had just come back from the movies and was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, when I heard the TV come on. I thought it was my little brother sneaking a late night cartoon-fest, so I didn't take much notice. I walked out of the bathroom 2 minutes later, and the sound had stopped as soon as I entered the living room. No lights, the TV wasn't on, and my brother was sound asleep in his room. I became a little freaked out and simply walked to my room, and tried to forget it.

Another time, when I was about 14, I was walking down my hallway to my room when I saw a 'arm' waving from behind the corner to my room. Well, I hurried to my room thinking it was a sibling playing around, and found nothing at all. Again, I simply tried to forget it.

I've also had windows open on their own, and doors slam shut whenever there's no wind or anything rational to explain it around. Am I haunted?

Perhaps some people are more or less 'magnets' to the absurd or paranormal activities of this world...

You describe a Poltergist to a tee

 

[Chuakar]

Sounds like Great Gandma stopped by to say hi.

Take some pictures and see what shows up.

 

[Baloosh]

Did you happen to come upon "disingenuous" while going through your definitions? "Ignorant" rarely has a positive connotation. I wasn't trying to apply any of the descriptions to you. I used those labels because it was easier than typing out 4 or 5 more words to describe what I was talking about.
I just failed to see how Guy A calling Guy B an idiot for having an open mind made Guy A less ignorant. Just because you claim to have an answer doesn"t make you less ignorant, especially if you are calling someone else an idiot for having an answer you don't agree with.

Wow, I admit you've completely lost me. I didn't call anyone an idiot, nor did I stoop to generalizing and dismissing others.

It feels like you have some sort of personal thing against me. I hope I'm off base on that one.

 

[ClubmanRob]

ROB!
Did you experience a sensation of lost time?
Were any modern electronics in your home destroyed?

No, like I posted on the page before: "Between the light flaring up and me inspecting it and sitting back down to my desk, a whole minute had passed. 12:00 am - 12:01 am."

I have noticed no change in any of the electronics nearby.

 

[OldSaw]

Well, if someone can attach a thread to a pack of cigarettes while it resides in my pocket, that's pretty impressive. The pack went directly from my front pocket to the table, while in plain sight not thirty seconds later it rose in the air, paused, and shot straight out across the room. Of the seven other lifelong friends and family members that were there are some sort of masters of illusion I'm pretty sure that I would have known about it somewhere along the line.

As far as the lightbulb, I'm not ruling out a metal anomaly, but it just seems strange that something that hasn't been touched in five years would all the sudden decide to grow hot, especially when there's no filament to house a current.

It can actually be done quite easily with "magicians wax", probably bees wax. The invisible thread is amazing stuff.

Check this out.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3RJ4jHSXE&feature=PlayList&p=D1C38D5D85D85A8E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=27[/YOUTUBE]

 

[adonnellyr]

I should start with the disclaimer that I don't believe in ghosts, so anything that comes in this post is tainted with such prejudice (not that I scoff at those who do believe in such things--to each his/her own right?).

Now, my first thought is that it was your "mind playing tricks on you." I completely understand that this may not be the case, but I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, and if I saw that, part of me would wonder, since I was the only witness, if my brain was messing with me a little bit. I have a tendency to distrust my own brain over things that seem surreal, because I realize that any reality it knows is subject to the limits of my physical body and can be altered by any little glitch along the way, similar to a computer I suppose--one slight physical change and the memories that my reality is composed of are changed. Sorry, I'm digressing. What I'm saying is, it's possible that I would wonder if my brain was feeding me images for a moment that seemed real. In the aftermath, once the bright light went out I could have been left bewildered for a moment, almost stunned, as if from a real bright light or from a momentary daze where my brain was making its own little dreamlike tale. That's certainly a possibility, but then the part that gets me is that you smelled something on the light. That seems like a sort of physical proof of the reality of the event. Have you since smelled it again to se if it is in fact just the smell of the bulb, or if it was a scent specific to the "occurrence"?

So, I guess the previous paragraph is my leading thought, but then I also entertain the slight possibility of something like ball lightning. The reason being, it's such a poorly understood phenomenon that we couldn't pinpoint whether or not what you saw could be one. Also, wikipedia says that ball lightning can "hover"...so perhaps it's possible. A quote refers to ball lightning as sometimes "being attracted to houses, cars, persons, or other objects". So perhaps something in the light attracted it and it hovered there briefly (the few second window you give is consistent with the length of ball lightning as well). Who knows, maybe that old lamp attracted the ball and saved you from the fate of 18th century physicist Georg Wilhelm Rchmann who was killed from ball lightning to the forehead. Still, this possibility seems less likely to me than the previous suggestion.

Perhaps it's just..."one of those things"...whatever that means

EDIT: Or it's just a glitch in the Matrix.

 

[ClubmanRob]

It can actually be done quite easily with "magicians wax", probably bees wax. The invisible thread is amazing stuff.

Yes, I love magic and have seen similar exploits many times over the years. A parlor trick was not what happened in my instance. I suppose since I went into great detail about my "lightbulb" incident, I owe it to you to explain what happened with the cigarettes in greater detail.

It was New Year's Eve 2006. It was around 10:00 or so. I had a small to-do with my family and a couple of friends. My father, mother, myself, my brother, my sister, my first cousin, my best friend, his wife, and my girlfriend (soon to be wife). Now, keep in mind, with the exception of my best friends wife and my girlfriend (soon to be wife), I have known every individual there for my entire life. My friend's wife was in the restroom at the time, leaving seven people, including myself, in the kitchen. My brother was layed out on the couch in the adjacent room watching the New Year's Eve Dick Clark special.

I, my mother, my father, and my sister were sitting at the table. My cousin was on his cell phone in the corner of the room. My friend was across the room near a bookshelf leafing through a book about Vikings. My girlfriend came over and sat in my lap with her arms around me. Her shoulder started digging into my chest and I said "Hold up baby, you're crushing my smokes." I reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out my Camels and tossed them haphazardly into the middle of the table.

My dad, at the other end of the table, glanced down at the pack I had just thrown down. "I see you're still smoking Ca..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the pack rose straight into the air, about six inches. It stayed transfixed in place for a solid two seconds. We were dead silent. It shot straight across the dining room and into my den (I have a wooden bar partition about four feet high that separates my TV den from my dining room) where it came to rest against a wall. Total distance traveled was about twelve feet.

Now, the pack was directly in front of me. When it rose up and shot away from the table, it traveled behind me. The wind I felt as it narrowly cleared my face was like the gust of wind coming off a 90 mph fastball. It actually made my girlfriends hair blow back as it sailed past. When it hit the wall in the den, my brother thought that one of us tossed it in there. He rose up off the couch and asked what had happened. My friend was the first one to speak up. "Did I just see what I think I saw?" His wife had just made it down the hall and popped in the dining room wondering why we were all stone silent. Needless to say, when 12:00 rolled around we weren't all feeling as festive as before.

Now, in order for me to accept that this was a magic trick requires such a suspension of disbelief that to even entertain that notion would render null and void everything I know about my family, friends, and gravity. I think it would be more of a leap of faith to try and chalk this up to a practical joke or mass hallucination than it would to just accept that it was a freak psychic anomaly that science has yet to explain.

So, I guess the previous paragraph is my leading thought, but then I also entertain the slight possibility of something like ball lightning. The reason being, it's such a poorly understood phenomenon that we couldn't pinpoint whether or not what you saw could be one. Also, wikipedia says that ball lightning can "hover"...so perhaps it's possible. A quote refers to ball lightning as sometimes "being attracted to houses, cars, persons, or other objects". So perhaps something in the light attracted it and it hovered there briefly (the few second window you give is consistent with the length of ball lightning as well). Who knows, maybe that old lamp attracted the ball and saved you from the fate of 18th century physicist Georg Wilhelm Rchmann who was killed from ball lightning to the forehead. Still, this possibility seems less likely to me than the previous suggestion.

Perhaps it's just..."one of those things"...whatever that means

Ball lighting is a weird subject. Based on what we know of ball lightning (which isn't much, simply because it's so danged weird) I can't rule it out, but I've witnessed ball lightning in action twice, and both times were similar to one another, and neither of those incidents were at all like what I witnessed the other night. I saw ball lightning shoot through a stove and burn a hole through the wall as it exited. I once observed it traveling down the side of the highway, keeping pace with my vehicle, until it shot out towards a sign that became aglow with electrical current. Both incidents were hard to comprehend as I experienced them, but don't believe that I ever mistook them for what they were- a completely explainable (though highly mysterious) form of natural phenomena. This, though? This was... different.

You asked about the bulb itself, if it still gave off a burnt smell. Yes it does. Everyone that comes over to view my "spirit lamp" takes a big sniff and remark about how "creepy" that is. I like to point out that the bulb may have always smelled scorched, though- I don't make it a habit of sniffing vintage lightbulbs.

It's the same exact scent I smelled the night of the incident, though it is not as intense as it was then. There's no denying that there is an actual scorched scent on the bulb, though; everybody notices it, without prompting.

 

[JimBow]

You describe a Poltergist to a tee

Uh-oh. Should I start the music from Jaws now?

 

[Kratos]

Wow, TWO ball lightnings? And here I thought I was special because I almost got struck twice in the same day.

 

[ClubmanRob]

Wow, TWO ball lightnings? And here I thought I was special because I almost got struck twice in the same day.

Now that sounds like an interesting story!

 

[citizensoldierny]

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCHFVTQKqdQ

 

[Brodirt]

You describe a Poltergist to a tee

In that case, in the case of Rob's incident, all I can say is stay out of the light....or run to the light...or stay out of the light....or run to the light.

 

[SlyGI]

Very interesting story and thread.

It could be anything really. I'm one to believe in ghosts. Though, not the normal Casper type of ghost. I believe one's soul goes "to the great beyond," for lack of a more PC expression, when we die. But I do believe that sometimes a piece of the soul will stay around a bit, or come back for a visit.

I've had dreams of my grandmother on my mom's side and my grandfather on my dad's side. I believe that these dreams were them coming back to visit me after they had died. I'm sure some people would call this wishful thinking. And, if it is, who cares-- unless it adversely affects my life. But the dreams were always good experiences.

I even had a dream of an old lover, the night she died. But, I did not find out she had died until a mutual friend called me and told me my old lover (Christy) had committed suicide. That creeped me out but it also made me feel good because I thought it was her way of saying goodbye.

I've had some weird experiences in my grandfathers old house, when he was still alive. And, when I was a kid, I had some funny experiences in the house I grew up in. In both cases, I don't consider the experiences positive.

I've never head of ball lightening, so I can't comment. I've only heard of a poltergeist, but I really don't know what one is. Looks like I must check out the net tonight!

If it pleases you, maybe it was grandma, or a piece of her soul, coming to check up on you.

Now, all of that being said. It may be, just thought of this, that, if a person is in a heightened state of awareness, maybe they can be more attuned to "the other side"--what ever that means. Maybe more attuned to the paranormal.

In my current job, I do a lot of night work, and I must be super aware of my surroundings. So I think I get a little freaked or paranoid or over cautious or something. It could be that, but you said you were relaxed. So.... my vote goes to grandma.

 

[instpasr]

Have a CT scan lately? Sometimes when someone has a brain tumor they see weird things. I'm not saying you have one, it was probably just your friendly ghost trying to say hey dude fix the light it's dark in here.

 

[TstebinsB]

Very weird stuff. Thank goodness it happened in your house and not mine. I hope to hear a good explanation soon.

"The feverish manhunt has finally ended. Local resident, Wendy, who had been reported missing for four days, has been found three miles away in an abandoned building, wearing of all things, black sunglasses. She is reported to be physically well. Local officials are not sure what happened but an anonymous source close to the investigation said that she kept muttering, 'The light! It was the light!' Stay tuned to Eyewitness News for more updates to this developing story."

 

[Groundhog]

Very weird stuff. Thank goodness it happened in your house and not mine.

I selfishly thought the same thing when I started reading this thread. All I could think of was the Amityville Horror house with the voices saying "Get Out!".

I'd have hauled a**.

 

[Kratos]

Now that sounds like an interesting story!

Well, I was in high school, and I was running my usual 4-mile route out in the country where we lived, when the sideways rain hit. It felt like sand, and I wisely didn't wear a shirt. This was about 2 miles in. The rain had let up for a bit, and suddenly I see a streak of whitish-blue lightning hit the ground about 15 feet to my right, slightly ahead of me. The thunder at that range is deafening. And simultaneous. I took off running, like that would help, and the calmed down and resumed my pace. And couldn't hear for a minute or two.
Just under a mile out from my house, I was running in a section with a lot of power lines, about 5 feet from the street or so. I had to run to either side, because you never knew when some country-boy was gonna come flying through. So another bolt comes down, and hits the box on top of the pole next to me, showering sparks all over the road. This time I hauled *** the rest of the way home. If I was old enough I'd have bought a passel o' lotto tickets.