Naked-Eye Sightings of Mysterious Orbs (Part 2 of 4)

A recent article on the Daily Mail site (www.dailymail.com) has this headline:

"NASA holds historic UFO hearing: Agency unveils first findings from study into unidentified craft in our skies AND oceans - as Pentagon chief FINALLY admits 'metallic orbs' have been seen 'all over the world' "

But don't conclude from this that all the strange orbs seen are metallic. At the 32:00 mark of the video here, a 4 -hour video of the NASA conference, we see a conference screen that has the visual below. The UAP refers to "unidentified aerial phenomena." I have circled the word "translucent" on the screen. Translucent orbs are not metallic. 

At the 32:33 mark in the clip we hear a narrator saying "the vast majority of what has been reported on and what we have data on -- a little less than half now -- are orbs, round spheres." The choice of words is careless, because if you have a little less than half that is not a "vast majority."

Mysterious orbs mainly show up in photographs, as if they were fleeting manifestations appearing too quickly to be seen with the naked eye. Translucent orbs have been photographed for many years both in the sky and indoors, with there being thousands of good photos in colors such as blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and red. In my photos I have got more than 800 mysterious striped orbs, which have often appeared in repeating stripe patterns.  But in many cases people will report seeing a mysterious orb with the naked eye. I quoted many such accounts in Part 1 of this 4-part series.  Below are some more. 

Netflix has a version of the Unsolved Mysteries series much more recent than the original version. I recommend anyone watching it use the Netflix feature allowing you to choose particular episodes based on their content. Most of the episodes are rather boring cases of missing persons. But there are some interesting episodes dealing with paranormal mysteries. In the "Berkshires UFO" episode, we have eyewitness testimony of incredibly strange UFO activity occurring on September 1, 1969 in the western part of Massachusetts, near Great Barrington. At the 16:35 mark a woman named Nancy gives this narrative:

"And as we exited the bridge...I can remember this like yesterday. There was a light ball hovering, maybe about two stories high. We were amazed. I mean, we'd never seen anything like it. It was glowing."

Then at the 16:56 mark another witness of this event says this:

"And then as it rose, it fired these rods of light...My brother saw this orange orb, and it seemed to have this roll to it."

At the 12:35 mark of the video interview here, we have Travis Taylor PhD state this about an observation at the mysterious Skinwalker Ranch: " We had a sphere fly over the ranch that was unmistakably an unidentified flying object, not just some aerial phenomenon." 

On page 258 of a 1906 publication we read the following:

"It is well known amongst psychic investigators that many spirits manifest their presence by globes of light floating in the air, so I naturally concluded that the strange light I had seen had some connexion with the suicide committed there. Similar lights have been seen in churchyards, especially over newly filled graves, and are vulgarly termed ' corpse candles.' They are often a sign that the spirit of the deceased is still attached or attracted to its old tenement of clay."

In an Edge Science publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration, we read quite a bit about people seeing orbs with their naked eyes. You can read the publication by using this link. 

On page 19 we read this:

"Within five months of the AAWSAP start date in 2008 a team of 50 PhD and Masters level scientists, technicians, engineers, analysts, military intelligence professionals, program managers, and security officers had been recruited, hired, and were being assigned security clearances. During the program’s 24 months duration plus a three month no-cost extension, BAASS delivered over one hundred technical reports on different aspects of UFO performance, as well as reports describing medical, psychological, and physiological effects of UFOs and associated phenomena. Skinwalker Ranch One area of investigation initiated by AAWSAP involved the (in)famous Skinwalker Ranch where multiple UFO sightings had taken place over decades as well as a plethora of anomalies that included cattle mutilations, sightings of orbs of different colors, discarnate entities, and poltergeist activity (Kelleher and Knapp, 2005)." 

Later we read this:

"Journalist George Knapp made several visits to Skinwalker Ranch before and after the AAWSAP/BAASS investigations on Skinwalker Ranch, some lasting overnight. Subsequent to the trips, Knapp reported that his wife experienced multiple apparitions in their home, including sightings of blue orbs outside the window of their place in Las Vegas." 

Later we read this: "Other scientists and their families saw orbs and black shadowy forms in their homes."

The article mentions a "Hitchhiker Effect" that may come after visiting Skinwalker Ranch. We read this:

"Future research could also allow us to test various hypotheses on the mechanism involved in the Hitchhiker Effect. The common denominator with people who experience the effects of bringing something home is not respiratory distress, hemorrhagic fever, or other symptoms of viral infection. Alterations in a person’s perceptual environment appears to be the most common manifestation. Symptoms include waking up with black shadow humanoids standing over their beds; various types of poltergeist activity; colored orbs flying through people’s bedrooms and homes at night; apparitions of dead children or adults; unexplained loud noises around the house; and much more."

The book Seeing Angels by Emma Heathcote-James is a very interesting compilation of accounts of people who claim to have seen angels. On page 211 we have this account by a soldier:

"He described being in bed one night and was startled to see 'two balls of light appear and "hover" over his bed, moving about in a figure-of-eight-style pattern, after a few minutes the light metamorphosized into an angel', which looked down on him, smiling before slowly disappearing."  

The book Experiencing the Soul is a very interesting book about paranormal phenomena and life after death. An example of its very interesting accounts is on the page  here. According to the account, a woman hit by a hit-and-run driver was found on the side of a highway by a man trying to help. Dying and apparently drifting in and out of normal  consciousness, she said that she was happy because she was with her father, and asked the man to tell this to her mother. After contacting the mother, the man found that the woman's father had died an hour before the woman died, 700 miles away. 

On page 76 we have an account by a man using a mirror device called a psychomanateum to try to communicate with his deceased son Stephen.  We read this:

"One night as I looked in the mirror, a sphere of Light appeared in the darkened room and came outside of the mirror about 12 inches in diameter. Stephen appeared in three-quarters view, moving just as he did when alive." 

Here are statements from a news story:

"ANOTHER US Navy sailor has come forward to speak out after he witnessed a 40 ft ball of light UFO hovering over deck of the USS Ronald Reagan. Dozens - or even hundreds - of crewmen are reported to have witnessed the object hovering over the flight deck of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the strange episode from 2004....Derek witnessed it alongside another sailor, who also confirmed she saw the object in an interview with Mr Beaty. She described the object as an 'orange globe floating over the flight deck' that was keeping pace with the ship - which is believed to have been moving around 22 knots."

A mysterious orange orb? That sounds familiar. You can see hundreds of my photos of mysterious orange orbs by using the link here, and continuing to press the Older Posts link at the bottom right. 

 At www.politico.com, we read a reference to Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher: 

"Gallagher also raised eyebrows by asking about a high-profile report of a 'glowing red orb' that was reportedly observed over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in 1967, 'in which 10 of our nuclear ICBMs were rendered inoperable.' ”

 In an interesting book by Aleksandr Aksakov, we have the following account:

"About the end of July, 1896, Madam d'Esperance came to Paris for a brief visit. In the presence of five persons [Madam Aksakof, Madam Boutlerof, her friend the Baronne de Zeidlitz, Madam Cauvin and myself], she tried to see how much of her mediumistic power she had regained. She sat upon a sofa, we upon chairs ; the lights were extinguished and we waited in silence, without forming a chain. After a few moments we all saw a luminous ball in the direction of the medium, at about the height of her chest, as it seemed to us. The ball looked like mist, or a luminous fog. It spread out towards the floor, then contracted, assumed the most various shapes, and at times displayed very brilliant points, like small stars. Finally, Madam Cauvin, who seemed to be entirely unfamiliar with such manifestations, thought she recognized the form of an infant. She became alarmed, wished to get away, cried out, and made so much trouble as to put an end to the manifestations. The luminous vapor diminished in volume, and finally disappeared."

 A news report says this (referring to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs):

"Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testified that reports of UAPs are 'frequent' and have been on the rise for more than a decade. He showed lawmakers previously classified video of a spherical object zooming past an F-18 fighter jet."

The book Man's Survival After Death by Charles Tweedale is a book of astonishing narratives, many being eyewitness accounts of the paranormal by the author.  You can read the book for free at www.archive.org. On page 278 we have this account of an orb growing in size, one seen by the author's wife:

"I now lit  a candle,  and  my  wife  informed  me  that  shortly  before she  awoke  me  she  was  herself  awakened,  and  perceived  a bright  globular  light  at  the  bed’s  foot,  just  at  my  feet,  but apparently  projected  upon  or  enclosing  the  brass  rail. At  first  it  was  the  size  of  a large  orange,  but  began  to  increase in  height  and  breadth  until  at  the  lapse  of  a minute  it  had the  diameter  of  a man’s  body,  and  stood  up  three  feet  above the  brass  rail."

Robert Crookall's book What Happens When You Die has some fascinating accounts of out-of-body experiences. On page 28 we have an account in which a woman says she floated through a wall during an out-of-body experience. She says that she then saw a gray orb "stationary over the roof-tops."  She said she got the impression of being watched by the orb, and then "returned to her body."  She says that twenty-three days later she again saw the orb, which she described as a "globe." 

I read the book "Materialisations-Experimente mit M. Franek-Kluski," which is not easy because it is available only in German. Luckily I can use Google Translate to get English versions of the pages. The book is an astonishing record of seances with a medium. The most remarkable thing about the sessions described is that the observers (Gustave Geley and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing) were able (using paraffin wax) to get plaster casts as permanent physical evidence of what they had seen. On page 58 we read the following astonishing account: 

"I asked him if he could see my sister in the 'Astral' who has been dead for 3 years. Answer: Yes. At the same moment I felt a woman's hand gently placed on my forehead, making the sign of the cross there and encircling it with a circle, as my sister always did when she was alive when she said goodbye to me. I recognized her hand, dimly lit, against the edge of the fluorescent screen that lay on the table in front of me. It moved several times before my eyes, and more and more I thought I recognized it. She squeezed my hand, patted my face. I can no longer doubt that it is her hand that I feel. A short time later a glowing orb forms in front of my face and moves away; then she comes very close to my face and to my great astonishment and also to my great joy I notice the fully recognizable facial features of my sister, who smiles at me as in real life. However, she seems much younger to me, about the way she was when she was 25. She died at the age of 54. The upper part of the head is surrounded by cloudy veils."

On page 128 of the very interesting book "Parting Visions : an Exploration of Pre-Death Psychic and Spiritual Experiences," we have an account by by a woman named Anne who was diagnosed with leukemia at age four.  She says at age six she saw a "ball of light" appear in her bedroom, and her pain went away. She says the ball of light transformed until she could see a beautiful glowing woman inside the light. She says the woman guided her on a journey to some ethereal realm, and then took her back to her room, promising that things would now be easier for the child. Hospital tests the next day indicated the leukemia was starting to reverse. Within two weeks the child's blood tests were normal. 

In volume 2 of the work Phantasms of the Living, page 76, we read the following account of an orb seen at the hour of death. 

"About  the  year  1841,  I  was  in  a  room  with  my  father  in  our house  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  when  he  exclaimed,  'Good  God,  what  is  that?' starting  up  as  he  spoke,  and  apparently  looking  at  something.  He  then turned  to  me  and  said  that  he  had  seen  a  ball  of  light  pass  through  the room,  and  added,  'Depend  upon  it.  Nurse  Simonds  is  dead.'  This  was  an old  servant  in  London,  to  whom  he  had  been  sending  money,  in  illness. In  course  of  post  came  information  that  she  passed  away  at  the  very  time in  question."

The page here allows you to search accounts of near-death experiences at the site www.nderf.org. Using this search page tool, I found some interesting references to orbs in accounts of near-death experiences.

Nick S. (2006-03-11, ID #767): 

"In front of me was something that's hard to describe, almost like an orb or a spirit of some kind, but I heard someone say, 'You're not supposed to be here yet. Come with me and go back to your home. It's not your time.' I asked, 'Am I dead?'"

Debra C. (2008-02-03, ID #1542): 

"I was floating in place, colored orbs of indescribable color were coming toward me and all around me a feeling of peace and calm that you cannot describe, beautiful!"

Daniel T. (2008-03-02, ID #1565): 

"As I was floating, I saw orbs of light and as I passed, I saw people's faces, which I did not recognize. As I got to the end of the tunnel, the only face that I recognized was my Granny Wilson's. My Granny Wilson had died in the mid-1940's and I had seen her picture on numerous occasions."

Cam (2008-12-01, ID #1759): 

"First came absolute darkness, then a bright orb of light. The light was more than light; it had a hexagonal tessellation of radiant yellow/orange, but mostly white."

Vicki P (2011-07-04, ID #1788): 

"The next thing I knew, I was going rapidly through a tunnel toward a light. I saw small, bright orbs of light accompanying me and I said to myself, 'Angels!' Before I could reach the light, I returned to my body and came to."

Michael G (2010-02-26, ID #2178): 

"Then I saw this large, golden orb in front of me, suspended in the blue. It was close enough to touch, but I didn't. Its surface undulated, like the sea - rising and falling. Immediately, I thought, 'This is the sun,' but then remember saying, 'I am so sorry.' Instantly, without word, I was corrected. This 'orb' in front of me was no 'thing,' it was a personality. I don't know what it was. It didn't speak to me. It just was so beautiful to look at and be with; I didn't want to leave its presence.

Joshua B (2015-08-02, ID #3982): 

"Wherever this somewhere was, I had no human form. I was like a small ball of yellow light. Though in darkness, I knew I could see in all directions at once. Around me appeared other orbs of light. The orbs were other people who had passed away. We all glowed with different shades of light. Some were more pink, some were blue and I was yellow. I remember that all of our thoughts flowed into and out of each other simultaneously. Despite this, I could still process my own thoughts."

Lewis D (2007-12-16, ID #1391): 

"At that time everything went black, so black it was as though I could feel it. Then I saw a ball of light that seemed to be moving closer to me, it seemed to rouse interest in me at the time. I was moving closer to the ball it was perfectly round with twinkles in it."

Wendi (2008-01-02, ID #1461): 

"After leaving my body I was pulled into a void or darkness. In the distance, I saw a white ball of light come close and closer to me. I couldn't really make out what it was until I got closer.... It was a deceased friend of mine who had committed suicide the previous year. I was very close to this person in life, we went to High School together and he was a support to me in life as well as in death. He told me that I needed to return there was a strong sense of needing to return."

Robert C (2010-01-02, ID #2072): 

"I tried to assure them I was going into the light but they denied my passage. They were adamant it was not my time. Then I noticed I was a ball of light. I no longer had the shape of a human being. My consciousness was spherical in all directions at once and I had a god like knowing. Then all at once, I saw my entire life pass before me in minute detail."

Laurie L (2008-03-15, ID #4489): 

"I could hear the most beautiful music and I could feel it moving through me. The breeze blew against the tall golden wheat stalks, and as it did I could feel the spirit of all things living around me: animals, plants, the elements. I was one with them. I looked up and saw a huge ball of light that cast the purest, warm light all around me and felt God touch my skin."

A book on ball lightning quotes a case of a stewardess reporting a mysterious orb inside an aircraft

"Suddenly a bright golden sphere of about 40-50 cm in diameter [about 15 inches] appeared amongst the three of us...It shot down the aisle toward the rear of the plane. We three saw it for sure...There cannot have been a thunderstorm outside, because then we would have been sitting with the seat belts fastened."

A case like this should be classified as a mysterious orb rather than ball lightning,  because a lack of any thunderstorm, lightning storm, explosion, high voltage or outdoor location 

Below from 2015 is a photo I took of a speeding pink orb in Grand Central Terminal in New York City:

I have got this "string of pearls" effect shown here in 100 different photos, as you can be using the link here, and continuing to press the "Older Posts" link at the bottom right.  Check back on June 6 and June 10 for Part 3 and Part 4 of this series, which will be as long as the first two parts. 

Naked-Eye Sightings of Mysterious Orbs (Part 1 of 4)

People seeing things with their eyes that they cannot explain is a common experience, much more common than the average person realizes. For example, a scientific study of apparition sightings by widows attempted to interview all of the widows or widowers in a small area of Wales. It found that 14% of widows or widowers reported seeing an apparition of their deceased spouse, with 39% reporting feeling a presence of their deceased spouse, and 13% hearing their deceased spouse. Then there are people who report seeing with their own eyes mysterious orbs. 

Mysterious orbs mainly show up in photographs, as if they were fleeting manifestations appearing too quickly to be seen with the naked eye. Orbs of many colors have showed up countless times in my photos, in which there have been almost 1500 mysterious blue orbs, and more than 800 mysterious striped orbs.  For example, below is a photo I took showing two mysterious striped orbs, one orange:

But in many cases people will report seeing a mysterious orb with the naked eye. Let's look at some of the very many such cases I have collected. 

The site www.nderf.org and the site www.iands.org are two of the main sites presenting accounts of near-death experiences. Looking at  some of the most recent accounts at the first of these sites, I quickly found the account below:

"This is about my wife, Vera Gonzalez, who passed on May 7th, 2016, and the attending physician assistant/NP-C and I witnessed a light orb leave her body within minutes of dying. A concentrated white orb-light came out of her chest through the sternum, rose and hovered momentarily and then departed the room while accelerating. I thought I was imagining things until the physician assistant asked me if I saw the light. He said he had seen it before and that it was Vera's spirit."

The book Beyond the Impossible is a fascinating read about mysteries of the unknown, told in chronological order. On one page we read this:

"Glowing spheres have startled many travellers along the lonely stretches of road that criss-cross the vast expanse of Alexandria Station....Mysteriologists have uncovered several locations around the world where balls of light variously labelled will-o-the-wisps, ghost lights or spook lights, are regularly seen....The most famous examples are probably the American varieties, the Saratoga and Marfa lights of Texas, the Brown Mountain lights and Maco lights of North Carolina, and the Hornet spook lights of Missouri." 

On the page here we read that some of these "ghost lights" are associated with reports of ghost sightings.   I was surprised to read of a "Spook Light Road" near Neosho, Missouri, where my late  grandmother lived most of her life. On the page here we read this account:

"In November 1977, a married couple climbing Mount Snezka...lost their way and found themselves in serious difficulties when it began to snow heavily. Realising their position was becoming serious the two climbers were suddenly confronted by a large blue globe which floated several feet off the ground, shining with a clear, warm light."

We are told the strange globe guided the two to safety.  At the page here we read this:

"Bobbing and bouncing along a dirt road in northeast Oklahoma is the Hornet Spook Light, a paranormal enigma for more than a century. Described most often as an orange ball of light, the orb travels from east to west along a four-mile gravel road."

In the video here, a young PhD candidate describes a near-death experience during a very severe medical problem. Around the 2:55 mark, she describes encountering three colored orbs that seemed to her like guardian angels, having colors of ruby, amethyst (purple) and emerald. It's quite an astonishing tale. 

At this link you can read "Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense" by Abraham Cummings, which has some astonishing testimony. On page 38 Cumming gives the following story of an orb "in the air" turning into the form of a woman:

"Sometime in July, 1806, in the evening, I was informed by two persons that they had just seen the Spectre in the field. About ten minutes after, I went out, not to see a miracle, for I believed that they had been mistaken. Looking toward an eminence, twelve rods distance from the house, I saw there, as I supposed, one of the white rocks. This con­tinued my opinion of their spectre, and I paid no more at­tention to it. Three minutes after, I accidentally looked in the same direction, and the white rock was in the air ; its form a complete Globe, white with a tincture of red, like the damask rose, and its diameter about two feet. Fully satisfied that this was nothing ordinary, I went toward it for more accurate examination. While my eye was constantly upon it, I went on four or five steps, when it came to me from the distance of eleven rods, as quick as lightning, and instantly assumed a personal form with a female dress, but did not appear taller than a girl seven years old. While I looked upon her, I said in my mind, 'you are no tall enough for the woman who has so frequently appeared among us.'  Immediately she grew up as large and as tall as I considered that woman to be. Now she appeared glorious. On her head was the representation of the sun diffusing the luminous, rectilinear rays every way to the ground."

Many of the testimonies in this case are dated, particularly following page 41, where we have dated witness statements from quite a few people who give their names. On page 31 we read this summary about the same apparition:

"Sometimes she appeared to two or three ; then to five or six ; then to ten or twelve ; again to twenty, and once to more than forty witnesses. She appeared in several apartments of Mr. Blaisdel’s house, and several times in the cellar. She also appeared at other houses, and several times in the open field, as already observed. There, white as the light, she moved like a cloud above the ground in personal form and magnitude, in the presence of more than forty people. She tarried with them till after day-light, and vanished : not because she was afraid of the sun : for she had then several times appeared when the sun was shining." 

A Brown University professor of philosophy (Curt John Ducasse) said this about the case, mentioning some experience of his own:

"Several of the witnesses report, as does the Rev. Mr. Cummings, that the apparition begins as a formless small luminous cloud, which then grows and in a moment takes the form of the deceased Mrs. Butler. (This incidentally, was what occurred when, over fifty years ago in New York, the present writer witnessed in red light but not under test conditions a purported gradual materialization of a man’s body.)"

At the site Stan Gordon's UFO Anomalies Zone, there is a very long post on recent sightings of UFOs and other anomalies. We read this:

"The year 2022 will be remembered, however, for the unprecedented increase of reports of low level encounters with mini-UFOs- those small orbs or balls of light reported close to the ground, or on the ground, and in some cases approaching within feet of witnesses....Over the years, I have interviewed numerous witnesses and I have received information from widespread areas on cases concerning observations of these smaller objects on the ground or just above the ground. These objects have ranged in size from a few inches to about a foot or two in  diameter. They are often described to be about golf ball to baseball size. The shape is commonly spherical. However, other configurations have been reported. These objects often are light sources of various colors. They sometimes look solid, while in other cases they look transparent or translucent. There have also been some reports of a swirling mass inside of the sphere. There have been other encounters where these objects appeared to be made of metal. For many years, there have been encounters with these objects pacing vehicles and entering them through open windows. There have been other cases of these objects also entering homes through open windows or hovering in front of windows and even tapping on the panes".

On page 109 of the 2007 book Ghost Worlds,  Melba Goodwyn states this:

"My first experience with orb phenomena came at the age of twelve...Suddenly, from seemingly out of nowhere, a huge orange sphere appeared before me. It was a little above my direct sight and as large as a big beach ball. It was pulsating and its very distinct color would fade and deepen in intensity as I watched it....I was astonished as it gently floated right through my midsection! I gasped as I felt it pass through my body...Deep down I knew that I had experienced a spiritual visitation of some sort." 

My Facebook page "Spirit Orbs" now has over 2000 followers, and consists only of photos I took myself. You can see the photos here:

https://www.facebook.com/GhostlyAppearances/photos_stream

Replying to a recent album I published at that site, one Facebook user states this: "An orange orb entered my room and turned my whole room orange. I'll never forget it."

A book offering some startling evidence for the paranormal is the book "Materialisations-Experimente mit M. Franek-Kluski" by Gustave Geley and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing M.D.   The title can be translated as "Materialization Experiments with M. Franek-Kluski." The book is in German, but with the help of Google Translate it is fairly easy to get an English translation of any page. 

On page 58 we have this remarkable account, which may be of great interest to anyone getting mysterious orbs in photos:

"I asked him if he could see my sister in the 'Astral' who has been dead for 3 years. Answer: Yes. At the same moment I felt a woman's hand gently placed on my forehead, making the sign of the cross there and encircling it with a circle, as my sister always did when she was alive when she said goodbye to me. I recognized her hand, dimly lit, against the edge of the fluorescent screen that lay on the table in front of me. It moved several times before my eyes, and more and more I thought I recognized it. She squeezed my hand, patted my face. I can no longer doubt that it is her hand that I feel. A short time later a glowing orb forms in front of my face and moves away; then she comes very close to my face and to my great astonishment and also to my great joy I notice the fully recognizable facial features of my sister, who smiles at me as in real life. However, she seems much younger to me, about the way she was when she was 25. She died at the age of 54. The upper part of the head is surrounded by cloudy veils."

Was the idea here that the orb turned into an apparition of the narrator's sister?  It is hard to tell whether that was seen or whether the orb was a kind of harbinger of such an appearance. 

 At www.archive.org, readers who have done the free registration with the site can read the very interesting book Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry Into Wondrous Phenomena by D. Scott Rogo, who died an untimely death at the age of only 40. On page 227 Rogo describes events of September 13, 1917 at Fatima, Portugal, a month before the more famous October 13, 1917 event involving a disk-like sky anomaly. We read this account of September 13, 1917:

"The sun began to dim mysteriously around noon, stars could be seen in the sky, and an orb of white light appeared and settled in the tree. One of the witnesses was Monsignor John Quareman....He was one of many observers who actually saw the mysterious orb of light that had often appeared when Lucia claimed the apparition was arriving at the oak tree. 'To my surprise,' he later testified, 'I saw clearly and distinctly a globe of light advancing from east to west, gliding slowly and majestically through the air.' "

On page 106 of the same book we read this about someone having out-of-body experiences (OBEs): "Blue Harary usually perceives himself as an orb of light or as a speck of awareness free-floating while undergoing his OBEs." On page 209 we read this:

"Maximin Giraud (age eleven) and Melanie Mathieu (age fifteen) were playing when suddenly they saw a large orb of glowing light approaching them from the heavens. As it neared a small stream bed, it opened to reveal the figure of a beautiful woman."

Rogo's research work with Blue Harary (Stuart Blue Harary) is described in Chapter 8 of his book Mind Beyond the Body: The Mystery of ESP Projection, which can be read here. 

A web site documenting reports of the paranormal tells us "encounters with small spheres low to the ground and in some cases approaching near witnesses have reportedly been taking place for months from various areas of Pennsylvania." The site's latest report on orbs is entitled "More Mysterious Close Encounters with Ground Level Orbs of light (Mini-UFOs) Reported In Pennsylvania-October 23, 2022."  One witness says he saw a "glowing white ball of light" outdoors 10-12 inches in diameter, and another witness reports seeing indoors a strange blue sphere about a foot and a half in diameter.  

A poll by YouGovAmerica surveyed 1000 Americans about any paranormal experiences they may have had. More than two-thirds reported having some type of paranormal experience. Some of the most common experiences were:

"Feeling a presence or unknown energy": 37%

"Hearing a voice of someone who wasn't there": 29% 

"Feeling an unexplained change in temperature": 28%

"Seeing lights or other devices turn on or off without explanation": 25%

"Seeing an object move without explanation": 22%

"Seeing unexplained orbs of light": 22%

"Seeing a door open or close without explanation":  20%

"Seeing a ghost or spirit": 20%

"Seeing an angel": 13%

The page describing the poll gives one interesting bit of testimony from one of the people polled:

"I was in a 100-year-old hotel in Brazil with abandoned floors that were accessible. As my friend and I explored, the temperature dropped and we saw orbs of light."

In his "Mysterious Universe" post "Strange Lights in the Sky: Secret Experiments or Living Beings?" Nick Redfern discusses some visual sightings of orbs:

"It didn’t appear to be a solid, nuts-and-bolts aircraft of some sort. Rather, it was a ball of light, around five times the size of an average traffic light...He could only sit and stare as the pair of lights bobbed in the air, like floating beach-balls. Suddenly, there was a development; an astounding one. As Angelucci looked on, a voice emanated from one of the balls....Running through the heart of the Big Thicket is a long, thin, and incredibly sandy old road called Bragg Road. That’s not what the locals call it, though. To them, it is known as Ghost Light Road. There is a very good reason for this: for at least three centuries, people have reported seeing weird, small balls of light flitting through the trees late at night. But, we’re not talking about anything quite as down to earth as fireflies. These particular lights vary in size from – approximately – a tennis ball to a beach ball. They also exhibit evidence of intelligence: witnesses describe the lights approaching them, even circling them, in what is occasionally perceived as a playful fashion."

The strangest part of the article is below:

"A small body of individuals have sworn that the large cats and the hairy humanoids – when spotted by the astonished and sometimes terrified onlookers – vanished before their eyes. We’re not talking about them making hasty getaways into the woods. Rather, we are talking about the 'animals' – in an instant – changing form from big cat and Bigfoot to a small, brightly-lit globe of light."

On the page here we have this headline: "UFO Activity Ongoing in Pennsylvania- Encounters with Small Spheres of Light Close to the Ground Increasing-August 13, 2022." We read the following:

"What I consider to be even more fascinating are the increase in reports of smaller generally spherical objects that are low to the ground and reportedly have been approaching within feet of witnesses in some cases. These encounters with mini-UFOs as I have called them for many years, are taking place in daylight as well as during the night."

The author reports that the objects range in size from a few inches to about a foot or two in diameter. He says, "In some cases, the objects appear to be solid metal, however most witnesses describe these objects as luminous globes of various colors." 

Page 194 of the Volume 2 of Phantasms of the Living tells us this:

"In  another,  a  luminous  ball  was  seen  in  a  corner  of  the  room. A  fourth  very  remarkable  instance,  of  the  brilliant  illumination  and then  sudden  darkening  of  an  empty  room,  is  described  to  us  by  the Rev.  Edward  Ram,  of  Norwich,  as  a  personal  experience  of  himself  and his  wife — but  this  was  in  a  house  where  other  unaccountable  phenomena have  been  observed ;  as  was  also  the  case  in  a  fifth  instance, where  a  light  is  described  by  one  percipient,  Mrs.  W.  B.  Richmond,  as  a  glow  over  the  whole  room,  out  of  which  (according  to  her recollection)  two  bright  little  balls  of  light  seemed  to  flash  out ;  and by  the  other  (her  mother)  as '  flickering  about'  specially  in  a  particular part  of  the  room.  In  none  of  these  cases  does  it  seem  possible that  the  light  was  in  any  way  cast  or  reflected  into  the  room  from outside." 

I have very many additional accounts of this type, which I will include (over the next 12 days) in a Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this series, each of which will be as long as this post. There are many cases of mysterious orbs seen during thunderstorms or lightning storms and called "ball lightning." But none of the cases I have cited or will cite in this series are orbs seen during thunderstorms or lightning storms. Some papers reporting the sightings of mysterious orbs outside of thunderstorms or lightning storms will use the term "ball lightning," but such a term seems to be inappropriate whenever neither thunder nor normal lightning is observed. An example is the paper "Ball Lightning and Strange Phenomena in the Po Plain Valley (Near Rovigo, Italy)." We read that for "many years" a scientific research group has reported seeing two types of light phenomena: (1) bubbles of yellow-orange light about two meters in diameter, and (2) red floating spheres about two meters wide, lasting between seconds and minutes. There is no claim that such things were observed only or mainly during lightning storms or thunderstorms, and only in one case was the group able to pick up an anomalous electrical reading. The authors resort to implausible speculating about a "possible relationship with lunar cycles" and that "the Anomalous Luminous phenomena in the Po Valley may be related to tectonic activity."

A scientific paper entitled "The Ball Lightning Controversy – Empirical Case Studies " states this:

"The main observational and object parameters of six national BL [ball lightning] datasets show more similarities than differences. Although their BL data come from places 3,000 km distant with different climatic conditions, basic features like thunderstorm association, duration, distance from observer, size, color and brightness form a cluster with defined range. One out of three BL events happen indoors with a wide spectrum of possible object relations. 30-50% of the objects terminate with an audible explosion."

There is no basis for calling mysterious transparent or glowing balls observed indoors "ball lightning." Lightning is not an indoor phenomena. It would seem that the author quoted above is conflating different phenomena, trying to call diverse types of phenomena "ball lightning." None of the very many reports that I cite in this four-part series will be reports of something terminating with an explosion or reports of something occurring during thunder storms or lightning storms. Below is a flowchart giving a reasonable algorithm to follow in classifying such reports of mysterious ball-shaped phenomena:

A page in The Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical  Phenomena describes a red orb passing through a closed window. We hear no mention of a thunder storm or lightning storm:

"In the summer of 1960, as Louise Matthews of South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania lay on her living room couch, she looked up to see a huge red ball coming through a window and the Venetian blinds, both closed and neither damaged in any way by the object's passage. When the ball, which was making a sizzling sound, passed by her, Mrs. Matthews felt a tingling on the back of her neck...The ball went through the living room and into the dining room, exiting -- again without damage -- through a closed window. She called her husband, who came home from work to find the back of her hand burned. The hair at the back of the head fell out, leaving the skin there as smooth as that in the front of her face."

Was this ball lightning? Lightning is electricity, and glass is an electrical insulator, not a  conductor. Glass stops electricity, just as rubber does. The rule about lightning and glass is that lightning will only pass through a closed window if it shatters the glass. So it would seem to make no sense to call such a sighting ball lightning.