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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Naked Eye Sightings of Mysterious Orbs (Part 5)

 Below are some posts I have published about people reporting they saw mysterious orbs with the naked eye:

The late Alex Tanous was a psychic and parapsychologist described in the encyclopedia article here. At the beginning of his memoir Beyond Coincidence: One Man's Experience With Psychic Phenomena, he makes a series of claims that are about as startling as any man has ever made. He claims:

  • That he revealed to individuals many events in their future, including marriages and the date of birth of their children.
  • That he relived crimes in such detail he was able to sketch the faces of the culprits, persons later arrested and convicted. 
  • That he broke cameras of all descriptions without touching them.
  • That he caused lights to go out in public buildings by just willing them off.
  • That he projected images on to walls with only the power of his mind.
  • That he "separated one part of my consciousness from the rest, sent it hundreds of miles from my physical body, observed the surroundings, then returned and reported what I saw with total accuracy"; and that he "duplicated this feat time and time again, in a scientific laboratory, under tightly controlled conditions."
  • That he spoke with spirits and ghosts.
Relevant to this topic of this post are the claims of Tanous that he could create with his mind balls of light.  On page 2 he says "I have created floating balls of light in totally dark rooms." On page 53 he says, "I've been able to project balls of light into my hands or into the room, in otherwise absolute darkness." On page 101 he says, "I discovered I could project not only balls of light, but actual images, images which could be seen by everyone in the room."  On page 110 we read that many witnesses saw a ball of light mysteriously near Tanous. 

In the Daily Mail we have a very interesting story about orbs. We hear that in 2007 Christopher Bledsoe was at a low point, when he kind of cried out for spiritual help.  He says he quickly saw two colored orbs. Bledsoe says that ever since, orbs have appeared over his house every night. We read that  Bledsoe has captured 2000 videos of orbs flying over his home. The article shows a photo of a mysterious green orb looking like one of the 250+ mysterious green orbs I have photographed. Bledsoe says that NASA expressed interest. 

We hear that there will be a TV program discussing Bledsoe's claims. A tip to web video makers or TV producers: my photographic work on orbs (which you can see herehere and here) could fill up a great TV series episode or Youtube video;  and under the terms of my Creative Commons license displayed on this blog, you don't even have to pay me for displaying my photos (but merely need to have a link to this site). 

The writer of the article tells us "there were dozens of UFO sightings over North Carolina in 2022, and all appeared to be the same as what Bledsoe had experienced - glowing orbs hovering in the air."

The article suggests that Bledsoe may be able to summon orbs upon demand.  At the link here we have a long interview with Bledsoe, who sounds like a calm and sincere person.  But alas, I am unable to find online any substantive photographic evidence produced by Bledsoe. It could well exist, but I simply haven't found it. If someone else has found such a thing, please leave a URL link as a comment on this post.  What I'm looking for is photos or videos of his orbs, not just interviews with Bledsoe. 

The US Congress not long had a hearing on UFOs and UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).   At the 1:09:45 mark of the video embedded in the news report here,  pilot Ryan Graves is asked about common characteristics of strange things seen in the sky. Graves says, "We were primarily seeing dark gray or black cubes inside of a clear sphere...and that was primarily what was being reported...That occurred over almost eight years, and as far as I know it still occurred.." Referring to objects traveling at twice the speed of sound (Mach One), later Graves says. "The objects that we were seeing, they were spherical, and they were observed up to Mach Two, which is a very...non-aerodynamic shape."

At the link here you can read a transcript of the entire testimony. At one point in the testimony we read this statement by US congressman Matt Gaetz:

"And they saw a sequence of four craft in a clear diamond formation for which there is a radar sequence that I and I alone have observed in the United States Congress. One of the pilots goes to check out that Diamond formation and sees a large floating I can only describe as an orb, again, like I said, not of any human capability that I’m that I’m aware of. And when he approached, he said that his radar went down. He said that his flir system malfunctioned and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses, and it was not automatic automated."

A 2009 scientific paper by scientist Massimo Teodorani is entitled "Spherical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Scientific Observations and Physical Hypotheses, Danger Evaluation For Aviation and Future Observational Plan." The author is an astrophysicist PhD who has authored or co-authored quite a few scientific papers you can read on Google Scholar using the link here, and the author is a co-author (with Harvard astronomy professor Avi Loeb) of a 2023 scientific paper laying out the framework of the widely discussed "Galileo Project" that will study unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).  

The 2009 paper tells us this: "Spherical unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), of both plasma and solid-like kinds, have often been observed in the world." The author tells us that "most of them have been classified as earthlights," although I don't think that claim is correct. "Earthlights" is a term used only rarely for mysterious spheres or mysterious orbs. We read that "The majority are seen singularly, in other cases they fly in a sort of formation."  We read this:

"The Hessdalen valley in Norway is probably the prototype of these special locations, not just due to the many events that are reported, photographed, and videoed (and sometimes occasionally measured) but because of the existence of a permanent measuring station there and the occurrence of many international missions in the area. This location has become a sort of 'laboratory area'  that is very well suited for the investigations of physical scientists in general (Strand, website). It can now be confirmed that similar recurring phenomena also have been sighted in other areas of the world: for instance the Brown Mountain (Warren, 2004) and Marfa light phenomena (Bunnell, website; Stephan et al., 2009) in the U.S.A. and the Min-min phenomena in Australia (Strand, 1996; Pettigrew, 2003) are quite well known and have been scientifically monitored."

The paper makes these claims about spherical anomalous phenomena:

  • "They are most often of spherical shape, of different colours (mostly white), often of long duration (up to 30-60 min, spaced out by periods of 'off' and 'on' phases), and relatively large dimensions (1-10 meters)."
  • "They are often able to emit a high level of radiant energy. The most credible measurement attributed to them a power on the order of 20 KW in the optical spectrum (Teodorani, 2004a). They are most often unstable in luminosity and are subject to light variability at the rate of a few seconds or less, with no clear periodicity, i.e., irregular. They can remain on for some minutes (while pulsating) and then turn off during a similar duration."
  • "Quite often the light phenomenon presents a radar track (Strand, 1984), and anomalous radar signatures also can be recorded when a luminous phenomenon is not in sight (Montebugnoli et al., 2002)."
  • "Many witnesses report that such phenomena very often tend to approach people and/or animals in a way that goes beyond a simple mechanism of electrostatic attraction."
  • "Some spherical light phenomena have been seen quite often flying close to airplanes (Haines, 2003; Haines, 2007; Haines, 2009). A similar phenomenon was reported during WW-II giving rise to the so called 'foo fighters' repeatedly seen by military pilots. Similar spheres have been seen (and filmed) going from up to down in the streets of some cities. Popular ufology used to call these phenomena 'probes', meaning that they are 'scout devices' sent from larger airships of alleged exogenous origin." 
  • "It has already been said that more classic 'earthlight phenomena' tend to very often occur close to the ground (an example is shown in Fig. 4), but similar light balls also have been seen high in the sky, and we do not yet know if the two represent the same phenomenon or not."
  • "Observations often (but not always) show sudden and sometimes zigzag movements: this is not at all an aerodynamic motion."
  • "Unidentified anomalous phenomena of spherical shape are increasingly reported in many areas of the world. Most of them seem to be a plasma anomaly of some type, others appear to be something technological. The dilemma is to find out if they are two separate kinds of phenomena, two different manifestations of the same phenomenon or some third phenomenon we now know nothing about. In any case we have a precious opportunity to expand our scientific knowledge."
Correct, so why are scientists continuing to follow a "nothing spooky allowed" rule, and continuing to ignore this important phenomenon of mysterious orbs?

The high energies reported do not match anything in my experience, so probably we have a case of different things with different energies. I have never had the slightest worry about being electrically shocked when I photographed a mysterious orb. 

Are you surprised that an astrophysicist PhD has taken a serious interest in mysterious orbs, apparently  regarding them as some important reality? You should not be, given that physics PhD Klaus Heinemann previously wrote the book The Orb Project, and summarizes his views on the reality of mysterious orbs in the article here

By downloading the pdf file version of the SCU Review 4.1 using this link, you can see (on page 10) the full January 2, 1945 New York Times cover page story reporting that US pilots had been reporting for more than a month "balls of fire" called "foo fighters" that flew along with the planes, appearing in colors of red, or in groups of three or fifteen.

The news story begins like this:

"The Germans have thrown something new into the night skies over Germany -- the weird, mysterious 'foo-fighter,' balls of fire that race alongside the wings of American Beaufighters flying intruder missions over the Reich. American pilots have been encountering the eerie 'foo-fighter' for more than a month in their night flights. No one apparently knows what this sky weapon is. The balls of fire appear suddenly and accompany the planes for miles."

We later hear a Lieutenant Donald Meirs of Chicago describe three types of these orbs: "One is red balls of fire which appear off our wing tips and fly along with us; the second is a vertical row of three balls of fire which fly in front of us, and the third is a group of about fifteen lights which appear off in the distance -- like a Christmas tree up in the air -- and flicker on and off." Meirs recalls being chased for twenty miles by one of these strange balls. A Lieutenant Gould said he had seen one of these objects follow his wing tips and says it then "in a few seconds, zoomed 20,000 feet into the air out of sight." Gould said, "We were very close to them, and none of us saw any structure on the fire balls." 

The news story speculates that the strange balls were some kind of German weapon, but they never caused any damage, and no one was ever able to explain them. The strange balls acted nothing like weapons. 

And speaking of major newspapers reporting aircraft followed by mysterious spherical objects, the Washington Post story here from 1987 is entitled "UFO SIGHTING CONFIRMED BY FAA, AIR FORCE RADAR." We read of the case of Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628. We read this:

"The FAA confirmed on Tuesday that government radar picked up the object that Terauchi said followed his Boeing 747 cargo jet. Terauchi, a pilot for 29 years, said he briefly glimpsed the large unknown object in silhouette. 'It was a very big one -- two times bigger than an aircraft carrier,' he saidTerauchi made a drawing of how he thought the objects' looked. He drew a giant walnut-shaped object, with big bulges above and below a wide flattened brim. The captain, who is stationed in Anchorage with his family, was flying the jumbo jet from Iceland to Anchorage on a Europe-to-Japan flight when the crew encountered the object in clear weather over Alaska. Terauchi said the three unidentified objects followed his jet for 400 miles."

On the page here you can see the current totals (by shape) of UFOs reported by  the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). 

Unspecified 6388

Changing 3872

Chevron 1713

Cigar 3688

Circle 14083

Cone 602

Cross 493

Cube 20

Cylinder 2431

Delta 1

Diamond 2087

Disk 8602

Egg 1260

Fireball 9826

Flash 2408

Formation 4784

Light 27207

Orb 5562

Other 9957

Oval 6281

Rectangle 2554

Sphere 7560

Star 146

Teardrop 1222

Triangle 12952

Unknown 9860

It seems reasonable to combine the categories of "Circle," "Fireball," "Sphere" and "Orb" into a single category we may call "orb-like."  Doing that we get a total of 37,031 for orb-like UFOs.  UFOs in this category are more than four times more common than disk-like UFOs (with 8602 occurrences). But for some reason when people think of UFOs they tend to imagine disk-like objects. Maybe it was all that talk of "flying saucers" around 1952 that created such a "stereotype." 

We read here of a sighting of many yellow orbs in India in 2012:

"Units of the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) reported over 100 sightings of UFOs in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir between August and October. Observers described the objects as yellowish spheres that rose from the Chinese side, traversed the sky for several hours, and then disappeared. Despite investigations involving ground-based radar, spectrum analysers, and a reconnaissance drone, the objects remained unidentified."

My previous posts herehere and here report sightings of mysterious orbs in Pennsylvania.  At the site Stan Gordon's UFO Anomalies Zone, we read more of these reports.

In the first report dated July 28 we read this:

"Researcher Kevin Paul received information that two people walking along a river trail in Greene county early that evening observed two beachball sized balls of light about twenty feet apart flying in a diagonal formation. The spheres blinked orange and white and were estimated as moving through the sky at less than two hundred feet altitude."

In another report dated July 28 we read this: "Mysterious sounds, small orbs of light low to the ground have come out of the woods and have approached within a few feet of witnesses, and other odd light phenomena are some of the anomalies reported." A report dated July 29 says, "The researchers heard what appeared to have been a tree pushed over, and a  bright red sphere of light was observed low to the ground." Another report from the same day but involving a different observer says, "He also noticed several smaller bright objects near the spherical object that seemed to be quickly moving around it."

In a recent story in the UK Mirror, we read this: "Ever since that monumental year, countless residents and UFO enthusiasts have openly shared their peculiar experiences in the sleepy town, from hovering lights to oval-shaped flying objects and large 'glowing balls' - earning Bonnybridge the title of the 'Scottish Roswell'." 

An article in the British paper The Sun has quotations by former US Navy pilot Ryan Graves. Some of the quotes are startling. Referring to "Mach 2" (twice the speed of sound), he says this:

"What we were seeing were objects, primarily spheres, that were traveling anywhere from completely stationary and very high winds, to an order of Mach 2...We are seeing these objects on a near daily basis. It would be out there all day. We don't know their origin, [or] what their intent was. We eventually had to start modifying our training so that we wouldn't hit one of these objects and they were getting pretty close."

Netflix has a new four-part series called "Encounters," dealing with sightings of the paranormal. Episode 4 is entitled "Lights Over Fukushima." At about the 28:40 mark, we have an interview with one of the workers involved in the cleanup of the 2011  tsunami in Japan that knocked out the Fukushima nuclear power plant.  He says this:

 "When we were searching for people in the aftermath, usually when we checked cars, we would see these bright blue-white lights kind of hovering above a spot like this. They seemed to be floating over where someone had died....In Japanese folklore there's something called a hitodama, it's like a fireball or a bright ball of light that floats in the air. At the time I saw a number of them out there. It's believed that when a person dies, their soul ascends to heaven as a hitodama, a fiery ball of light. I find it hard to believe that, in the aftermath of catastrophes like these, when so many lives are lost,  most people would see these balls of light as UFOs.  I think most of us would interpret these things as hitodama, the lingering presence of the human soul."

web page tells us this about such hitodama:

"Appearance: Hitodama are the visible souls of humans detached from their host bodies. They appear as red, orange, or blue-white orbs, and float about slowly not too far from the ground.

Behavior: On warm summer nights, these strange, glowing orbs can be seen floating around graveyards, funeral parlors, or the houses where people have recently died. Most often they are seen just before or after the moment of death, when the soul leaves the body to return to the ether. It is most common to see them at night, though they occasionally appear during the daytime. Rarely, hitodama materialize when a person loses consciousness, floating outside of the body, only to return when the person regains consciousness."

The 1874 book Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism (which you can read online for free using the link here) is a very astonishing account of paranormal phenomena occurring around the medium Mrs. Mary J. Hollis. The author N. B. Wolfe MD gives very many reports of the inexplicable appearance of phantom faces appearing near Mrs. Hollis. Some of Wolfe's accounts are corroborated by testimony he quotes from other writers he brought to Mrs. Hollis, such as a newspaper writer named Plimpton assigned to report on the mysterious events. On page 361 he quotes an account by a Colonel Piatt:

"After receiving four or five messages, a luminous ball, very dim, appeared at the aperture, grew lighter, resolved itself into a head, with the features clearly defined, and, for a second, gazed at us from the opening. Mr. Plimpton told me that that was his sister Mary, dead some years, and was very striking in its resemblance."

Below is one of 100 photos I have taken of mysterious orbs that seemed to be traveling so fast they exhibited a kind of "string of pearls" effect in which we seem to see multiple position states of a single object.  The photo is from my 2018 post here.

moving orb

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