Cold case investigation - ball lightning? - South Australia

Following on from an earlier post about green fireballs and ball lightning, I decided to take a look at my listing of South Australian UFO reports to see if there were any that could be connected to ball lightning.

I found the following:

1. 1994 Tailem Bend
A loud whistling noise was heard, and 3-4 seconds later an "electric blue" object passed overhead. Later, a tree on the property was found to have exploded. The event occurred during an electrical storm. Possible ball lightning. (UFORSA94002.)

2. 13 October 1996 Hawthorndene, Adelaide
At 2145hrs local time a loud rumbling noise like thunder was heard. A witness went to her backyard to take a look and saw a glittering or glowing, green light, some 50 metres away and only 10 metres off the ground. The light was initially stationary, and seemed some 30-45cms in diameter. She watched it for a very short time and then called for her brother to come take a look. However, by the time he arrived the light had departed. Total duration 5-6 seconds. (UFORSA.)

Wikileaks and UFOs?

Hi readers

From previous posts you will know of my interest in the work of intelligence agencies and their relationship with the UFO subject.

It was therefore interesting to read a quoted comment from Julian Assange of Wikileaks:

"...it is worth noting that in yet to be published parts of the cablegate archives there are indeed references to UFOs."

The full story is at: http://au.news.yahoo.com

Extrasolar planets

Hi readers

It has been a few hot days here in Adelaide, so time to read science magazines in my local library in the air-conditioning.

In the 27 November 2010 Volume 208 Number 2788 issue of the "New Scientist" I came across:

"Alien worlds"

The number of planets discovered outside our solar system has passed the 500 mark according to the Interactive Extrasolar Planets catalogue (see http://exoplanet.eu/catalogue.php)

The latest discovery, the fourth giant planet found orbiting the star HR8799 is puzzling astrophysicists as current models can't explain how all four formed."

New Zealand Government UFO files

Hi

Has the New Zealand Government released its UFO files?

At the beginning of 2010, it was announced that the New Zealand Government was "to release" its UFO files. This news received widespread publicity, on radio, television, in newspapers, and electronically via the Internet.

The other day, as it was almost 10 months since the announcement, I wondered if I had missed the release of this material?

The New Zealand UFO group, UFOCUS NZ was behind the efforts to get the New Zealand Defence Force to release its UFO files, so I checked with them by email.

Suzanne Hansen, of UFOCUS NZ, responded to my query. The answer was no, the files had not yet been released, and the release when it happens, would be through Archives New Zealand.

To keep an eye out for the release of the files yourself, you might wish to periodically visit Archives New Zealand's website at http://www.archives.govt.nz and search using the abbreviation "UFO." There are currently 13 files listed under UFO.

Near-death experiences and abductions

Hi

For readers who also follow research into near-death experiences, my latest post on http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com may be of interest.

Cold case investigation - green balls of fire

At about 1820hrs local time on the 16 May 2006, a large number of people scattered over Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern New South Wales reported strange lights in the sky.

Sightings:

The website of UFO Research Queensland at http://www.uforq.asn.au/sightings/sightings2006.html recorded the following four sightings:

1. Hervey Bay. "I have just sighted something most unusual. Ten minutes ago at about 6.20pm my mum and I looked up from our verandah and saw a bright light looking like a shooting star, but it was low to the ground and appeared to be breaking up. It lit up the verandah, was bright blue/green and moved east to west, towards Torbanlea. We didn't hear any noise."

2. Marburg. "Sighted a blue/green glow behind clouds in the northern sky above Marburg, Queensland. It looked like lightning glowing, but blue-green in colour. Then a fireball I presume sped/fired through in front of the clouds leaving a sparkling trail as it headed towards the hills behind our hilltop house. I was driving up the hill in a northerly direction. The fireball went in a north-west direction towards the ground. I was amazed at the brightness and colour."

3. Sunshine Coast. "Moving very fast about the size of a helicopter, moving east to west and blue/orange/yellow. I was heading north on the Bruce Highway, in approximately the Beerwah, Landsborough Glass House Mountains area. Unbelievable."

4. South-east Queensland. "On Tuesday 16 May 2006 at about 6.30pm our telephone contact number was locked up for about 40 minutes by people reporting a large, bright green object moving east to west at about 6.20pm. We also received reports via the Internet and a from a member residing in northern New South Wales.

"The sightings were made by people located on a north-south line spanning from about Ballina to Hervey Bay, a distance of about 375 kilometres, and a line west from Brisbane to about Gatton, about 100km. The witnesses were looking to the north or the south (Hervey bay) at an object moving east to west, so it must have been at an altitude of the order of 50km. The duration of the sightings was up to 5 seconds, and sparks came off the object and tended to be left behind. These details are consistent with a piece of space junk or a meteorite burning up in our atmosphere."

The website of the Australian UFO Research Network at http://www.auforn carried the following additional report.

5. Strathpine, Brisbane, Queensland. " They were travelling north when they saw a very bright light, travel east to west. It was about 60 degrees from the horizon and it travelled very quickly, and was "very horizontal," It almost looked like fireworks being shot directly horizontally, but it didn't explode. It just disappeared."

A check of the Victorian UFO Research Society's website and that of UFO Research NSW failed to locate any additional reports, which assists locate the geographic area of witnesses.

Stephen Hughes:

Stephen Hughes of the Queensland University of Technology has just published a scientific paper about this event, titled "Green fireballs and ball lightning" in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. I located the paper's abstract at the society's website at http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/26/rspa.2010.0409.abstract

Abstract:

"This paper presents evidence of an apparent connection between ball lightning and a green fireball. On the evening of 16 May 2010 at least three fireballs were seen by many people in the skies of Queensland, Australia.

"One of the fireballs was seen passing over the Great Divide about 120km west of Brisbane, and soon after, a luminous green ball about 30cm in diameter was seen rolling down the slope of the Great Divide.

"A detailed description was given by a witness indicates that the phenomenon was probably a highly luminous form of ball lightning.

"A hypothesis presented in the paper is that the passage of the Queensland fireball created an electrically conductive path between the ionosphere and ground, providing energy for the ball lightning phenomenon.

"A strong similarity is noted between the Queensland fireball and the Pasmonte fireball seen in New Mexico in 1933. Both meteors exhibited a twist in the tail that could be explained by hydrodynamic forces. The possibility that multiple sightings of fireballs across southeast Queensland were produced owing to fragments from comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann is discussed."

My comments:

Firstly, for more information on the Pasmonte fireball click http://epswww.unm.edu/meteoritemuseum/virtualtour/world.htm

Secondly, all in all, a fascinating piece of research by Stephen Hughes. I am now looking to read a copy of the full paper.

As real as real

Good morning from Adelaide, South Australia

This post picks up one of the points my co-blogger, Keith Basterfield, made in a previous post (click here to read it.)

One of the objections which some UFO researchers make about the abduction accounts of UFO experiencers, is that the experiencer describes the reality level of the abduction as "as real as real." By this they mean that their recollections of the experience did not have, say the quality of an ordinary dream, and was equal to that of any waking experience they would have.

Experiencers and some UFO researchers state that only waking reality could explain the quality of the abduction. That dreams and hallucinatory experiences do not have this level of reality to them. However, I beg to differ.

As real as real

People do report dreams which are "as real as real." I myself, have had dreams that were continuous scenes, where all my senses were active and giving me feedback, i.e. touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing. It was real to me at the time. There was no doubt about it, until I woke up and in retrospect knew that it had been a dream. However, that recognition that it was a dream in no way diminished my conviction that it had been real at the time.

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery can also have this reality level on occasions. I recall reading a piece by my co-blogger Keith Basterfield, in which he described his own encounter with sleep paralysis. He awoke paralysed, in bed, with a sense that there was something "evil" behind him. He describes this experience as "totally real." So much so, that after the paralysis had gone, he had to get out of bed and search the room for the "presence" which had been there. There was no one, or no thing, physically present in the room.

I have been reading a book published in 1984 titled "Visions * Apparitions * Alien visitors" by Hilary Evans. Published by Book Club. London (I couldn't see an ISBN number in my copy.)

The book is a comparative study of "entities" described not only in UFO cases, but in hypnagogic imagery; hallucinatory states; hauntings, and in folklore. It is a very fascinating read, but the one chapter which stands out is titled "Hallucination Under Control." This clearly demonstrates that for some people, hallucinations can be "as real as real."

The story of Ruth

Ruth was a 25 year old, marries woman, who visited psychiatrist Morton Schatzman (click here for more) "... for help with personality problems, which were accompanied by...recurrent sightings of apparitions of her father..." (Evans p189.)

What was unusual about these particular hallucinatory apparitions was that:

* The hallucinated father perfectly resembled the actual still living parent (who was in the USA at the time)
* The apparition fitted the environment. It sat in a chair if there was one present. It moved around real objects in a room. It left the room by opening and closing a door.
* The apparition conducted coherent (to Ruth) conversations with Ruth
* Under the guidance of Schatzman, Ruth learnt to control the apparition. However, and this is a very important point, although she was creating the hallucination, it behaved autonomously, i.e. beyond her conscious control.

An aside

I recall reading that the writer Enid Blyton wrote some of her stories simply by watching her book's characters autonomously playing out scenes in front of her eyes. (Click here for more on this.)

Back to Ruth

Shatzman conducted scientific tests which demonstrated brain wave changes when Ruth said that the apparition was present, which seemed to correlate yo what would happen if a real person was present.

All in all, this comes as close as possible to being able to demonstrate that Ruth's mind was generating an hallucinatory apparition, and was fooled into thinking that her father was actually present (even though at the time he was physically in the USA when Ruth was in London.

So, yes, it does indeed seem that you can get "real as real" hallucinatory entities. By logical extension, it would seem possible to perceive a "real as real" alien entity in your bedroom.