The Earth's Anomalous Lightforms
This site is a collection of articles and other material regarding anomalous luminous phenomena. It covers a range of natural but mysterious lights which for various reasons are seldom investigated as mainstream science:
- Earth Lights — balls of light
that appear to issue directly from the earth, and often appear repeatedly in
specific locations. The term was coined by Paul Devereux in 1982; but prior to
that they had been known as spooklights.
- Lights in the Taurus Mountains - a report by Ellsworth Huntington in 1900 about mountains exchanging balls of light in Mesopotamia.
- Spooklights in America - with locations, links, and notes.
- The Hornet Spooklight - as seen in the Tri-State area.
- Will-o'-the-Wisps — lambent
flames that flicker over marsh and fen. Though often explained as marsh gas
ignited by phosphene, there is evidence to question this, and the associated
folklore is interesting.
- John Brand on The Wisp - an article from the 1777 publication of an antiquarian clergyman, reprinted in 1888.
- Earthquake Lights — startling lightforms associated with earthquakes, acknowledged by science since a series of famous photographs taken of the Matsushiro earthquake between 1965 and 1967.
- St. Elmo's Fire - a discharge phenomenon associated with masts and spires
- Foxfire - luminescent fungi that light travelers' ways in the forest
For a complete contents and to see which files have changed recently, see the directory list.
Other Miscellany
Some works in progress:
- Mysterylights Group
- Site Images
- General Notes - newspaper clippings, &c.
Why Anomalous Lightforms?
This site started out in around the turn of the millennium when there wasn't much information available online in the field of anomalous lightforms. As one of the few sites dedicated to the spooklight phenomenon at the time said (a site which has now disappeared), there are plenty of sites about specific places and sightings, but very little bringing it all together.
The purpose of this site, then, was to bring lots of information about anomalous light forms together in one place. It serves to bring awareness of these phenomena to the public's attention. In general, this site mainly covers earth lights (i.e. spooklights, ghost lights, nocturnal lights, geophysical meteors), and the Will-o'-the-wisp (i.e. the ignus fatuus, the foolish fire). Earthquake lights are also covered, along with some other rare phenomena such as foxfire, St. Elmo's Fire, and so on, but these are really sidelines to the main theme.