Lights in the sky.

I have had a number of paranormal experiences in my life which spurred an interest in the paranormal when I was younger. However, in spite of all that, I am decidedly skeptical of paranormal claims.

The second paranormal experience (here for the first) I recall occurred when I was 7 or 8 (grade 2 or 3). It was a dark, gray, cold day in December. I was walking home from school with my friend Sheldon. It was probably near 16:00. We had gone up 36th avenue and had turned right on St-Antoine, when I noticed lights in the sky over the golf course (back in the early 70s, Grove Hill park was an open field and north of Provost was a golf course).

They darted about quickly. Sometimes they stopped. Through out the whole routine they would change colours from red to white to orange. I pointed it out to my friend and said I thought someone was playing on the clouds with a coloured flashlight. He replied that it was UFOs.

"What are UFOs?" I asked back.

“Unidentified Flying Objects. Spaceships from other worlds," he replied.

I had never heard of this, so he invited to his house, which was near that corner, and pulled out a number of magazines and showed me pictures. As I think back, they were probably tabloid magazines, but I don't remember.

It spurred my interest in UFO and extraterrestrials and I read all sorts of stuff about them. I read the books by Erich von Daniken (Chariots of the Gods and others similar books), J. Allen Hynek, Brad Steiger and a host of others. Of course, all this led me to reading about the Bermuda Triangle, the Sasquatch, the Yeti, psychic phenomena, auras, astrology, pyramids, and Kirlian fields, spontaneous combustion - among others. Never touched or had an interest in witchcraft though.

Image nabbed from here.

[Updated 31-October-2006 @ 16:26 to correct age and grades.]

Comments

Richard said…
Not at all. I found it very interesting and have even tried to paint a spot on the clouds with a flashlight, but to no avail.
Matt said…
I, too, find this very interesting. Even though I haven't read much about paranormal experiences, I have seen a lot of programs on TV and attended a lecture on the topic once.

I once saw star-like objects fly across the sky, back and forth, super fast (faster than shooting stars), and I pointed them out to my friend who also saw them. There's probably a good explanation for that though as I never cared to look it up.

By the way, that Sheldon guy wouldn't happen to be Sheldon Souray, eh?
Richard said…
Nope, not the same Sheldon (although, I had to look up who he was).

The field of the paranormal is filled with a lot of astounding claims, however, closer examination shows them not to hold up.

I have personally seen a number of "unexplainable" Incan contructions (smooth 50 ton stones dragged kilometres over the mountains from their quarry, Macchu Pichu), but I was not awed by them, nor did I find them only explainable by means of UFOs or alien visitors.

It is usually wise to apply Occam's razor to problems, "The simplest solution, is the most probable."
Who's to know that it wasn't a UFO? Anything is possible and yet, something in me is sceptical and thinking there is a scientific explanation for a lot of it.

Ever read anything about astral projection? All that you read is interesting to me too, just haven't read as much on it. A psyh. prof. at Guelph used to tell us about all kinds of things like that...you can bet I never missed that class!
Cavalock said…
heh. think i know exactly wat u mean n how u feel.
B said…
Interesting. I too witnessed odd lights in the sky one night when I was in high school. We were driving out to this train tressel (no, I was not drinking or on drugs!) outside of the city and there was this purple, blue, white light in the sky. Definitely not just lights from the ground or anything. It is hard to describe but it was definitely odd, even to this day I remember it clearly.
Richard said…
MOI: I also tried astral projection. My attempts were not very successful. I feel asleep, without even dreams to at have given me hope of having travelled.

:cavalock: hmmm ... I don't recall this post as being about feelings. Now I am confused ...

breal: Cool! Nice to know I wasn't the only one to see lights in the sky. There is always the possiblity of seeing phenomena that we cannot explain. Magicians deceive our senses all the time, yet we know there is an explanation to it.
Cavalock said…
haha...was referring to yr interest in the paranormal. Ever since i was child...man, the stories i could tell.
Shirley said…
I saw "something" when I was a kid - maybe a UFO, maybe not. Looked more like a flying carrot than any traditional descriptions of UFO's. Still have no idea what it was (which is sort of meets all the requirements to be called a UFO).
Richard said…
cavalock: much clearer now.

willow: I tihnk a flying carrot fits the description of a UFO. I did have another sighting 2 or 3 years later - two silver shaped objects passing through the sky. I was in the school yard, so I pointed it out to some playmates. Of course, they may have been jets and not UFOs

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