Still perplexed by strange light in the entryway

[ChickenGuy]

"Fatigue or tiredness are often causes of hallucination in the sane. Many experience such sensations as moving shadows, spiders crawling on their bed, fading lights in the corner of their room, or feelings of a presence in the room. These are normally experienced when awoken in the middle of the night, or after waking from sleep — typically before the patient has had enough sleep."

Completely off-topic from me, but thanks for that info, DualPurpose!

I was beginning to worry about why, immediately upon opening my eyes in the middle of the night, I might sometimes see some random pattern on the opposite wall, which disappeared after a few seconds.

I'm glad someone's cleared that up.

 

[gsdx]

But sure that is the point. A hallucination feels altogether real. In fact, straight from my medical textbook is the following:

Boots is not an hallucination. She is a cat. The apartment was dark except for the 'light' in the entryway. Boots walked through that light on her way to the kitchen. She became a very visible, dark-grey cat rather than the usual dark shadow I see when she runs from my bedroom to the back door in the kitchen.

I did not hallucinate it. It was real.

 

[DualPurpose]

Boots is not an hallucination. She is a cat. The apartment was dark except for the 'light' in the entryway. Boots walked through that light on her way to the kitchen. She became a very visible, dark-grey cat rather than the usual dark shadow I see when she runs from my bedroom to the back door in the kitchen.

I did not hallucinate it. It was real.

That proves absolutely nothing. Have you seen your cat in the daylight before? I hope so. If, at the time, you believed the light was real, your mind could easily have created an image of Boots in the light. Often people fail to realise what control our mind has on everything we do. From pain, to hunger, from sight to sound, it goes on and on. This is my favourite example of the power of the mind.

The point I was trying to make is that no matter how much you may want to believe it was real, if it was indeed a hallucination you would not be able to make that conclusion. As I said before, hallucinations seem altogether real. There is often little to suggest what you saw was not there. That's THE POINT.

You came here looking for an explanation as to what it is was. I have given you perhaps the only plausible explantation in this thread; something that we have thousands of cases of examples of, something that has been proved a million times over.

However, if you want to continue off on a paranormal investigation despite the lack of existence of a single shred of evidence for anything paranormal, please do. And those who want to go 'oh there's loads of evidence for ghost, bhla, bhla, bhla'. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, an organisation composed of those who WANT to find evidence for ghosts and the like, those who don't, believers, non-believers, you name it, yes — even they have said that 'there has been no credible evidence to date'. So there.

DP.

 

[seven_sins]

Casper?...

 

[Kyanimal]

Science is a wonderful, fantastic, thing! It has helped us understand the intricate workings of our universe. HOWEVER, when there is no apparent "evidence" of why something has occurred, Scientists often try to explain it with something that can't be "proven" either! Therefore, the "Hallucination Theory". If what you saw can not be proven, with evidence, then it must have been a hallucination! Uh ... sorry ... but that doesn't quite "cut it", either!

I had the great pleasure of having Dr. J. Allen Hynek for my astronomy prof. at Northwestern. Even he admitted there were a few "incidences" that could not be Scientifically explained. He went further in saying that though he couldn't PROVE there are things unknown to us, he couldn't DISprove them either!

Yes! There are things that we simply do not KNOW, yet! And, discounting those things which we can not yet prove, or firmly debunk, through Scientific reasoning, as a "convenient" hallucination, is merely using the "cloak" of Science to enforce our tunnel vision ... which is the exact opposite of what Science is supposed to be about! The purpose of Science is to Discover, not Exclude!

SO ... perhaps what Neil saw was a hallucination. Then again, if it wasn't ... ??

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[Joshua_me]

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, an organisation composed of those who WANT to find evidence for ghosts and the like, those who don't, believers, non-believers, you name it, yes — even they have said that 'there has been no credible evidence to date'. So there.

DP.

Precisely.

I've never seen a ghost or a UFO, so I know they don't exist.

 

[justsimon]

^ I've never seen you in person. Do you exist?

 

[Mitri T]

Bad drugs.

 

[Joshua_me]

^ I've never seen you in person. Do you exist?

Only as a strange light in the entryway.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Because you were in totally familiar territory, I tend to weigh in on the side of "something unexplained" going on.

Because your cat didn't seem to mind, I lean toward the "ho hum" answer.

So, along with you, I perplexed too.

 

[Sausy]

Only as a strange light in the entryway.

Who is,of course intoxicated with hunkiness!

 

[Willie Boy]

Boots woke me up at 5:15 this morning to let her outside. As I swung my legs out of bed and sat there for a moment to wake up enough to get to the back door safely, I saw some lights in the apartment entryway that I've never seen before.

From my bed, I can look through the door to the livingroom and beyond that to the entryway and the open kitchen doorway.

There are two doorways in the entryway: the left one is the front door of the apartment. The right one leads to the basement. There is a small window opposite the basement door which looks out to the parking lot beyond.

I've often seen lights from cars in the parking lot, but I've never seen lights like those I saw this morning. Car lights move and are much brighter. The lights I saw were much dimmer and didn't move.

My first thought was that my roommate was in the entryway turning a small flashlight on and off. My second thought was that he might be in the basement getting ready for work and cracking the basement door open and closed.

I soon discovered him sleeping soundly on the sofa in the livingroom.

Then I thought someone might be outside the window shining a flashlight in, but a quick peek revealed nothing. Besides, light from a flashlight would have been moving.

I have no idea what those lights were. Maybe it was Nearly Headless Nick popping in for a visit.

Was there maybe roadwork or something up (or down) the street where they might have had one of those little flashing lights on a stand to mark an open ditch or something?


Ok. After continuing to read through the thread, my initial suggestion has been proven false. Could it maybe have been a flickering street lamp or maybe a malfunctioning stop light that is close enough to shine like that? Doubtful, but I'm just throwing out suggestion in an attempt to help you think of maybe other things that it could be. It is highly possible it was something unexplainable. But as others said, the cat was no upset by it. It was not likely anything dangerous as loving pets are quick to warn us AND defend us from perceived threats, otherworldly or otherwise.

 

[Fire]

I'd pay it no mind, except perhaps to find a bit of comfort from the experience.

I'm not sure why. That light could just as easily have been energy from the portal opened by a gang of soul-sucking vampire-demons from the lower dimensions come to eat GSDX's persistent ethereal self.

 

[Willie Boy]

I'm not sure why. That light could just as easily have been energy from the portal opened by a gang of soul-sucking vampire-demons from the lower dimensions come to eat GSDX's persistent ethereal self.

Boots would have been all over that like spray cheese on a cracker!

 

[NineOfClubs]

Boots would have been all over that like spray cheese on a cracker!

Hence my suggestion of "no cat reaction--nothing serious".

 

[gsdx]

There is obviously an explanation for what I saw. I simply have not been able to figure out what it is.

There is nothing at the back of the house except an alleyway from the street leading to a small parking lot. Beyond the parking lot is this house which I posted in another thread a few weeks ago. You can see the alleyway leading from the lot behind my apartment to the side street. My apartment is on the corner of an intersection.

There are no lights back there. It's so dark back there that, despite being in the core of the city, you can actually do some stargazing.

I'll never know what it was, but I do know that it wasn't an hallucination.

 

[orton86]

Any updates? I almost forgot about this thread, until I was going through my old posts.

 

[kallipolis]

Science is a wonderful, fantastic, thing! It has helped us understand the intricate workings of our universe. HOWEVER, when there is no apparent "evidence" of why something has occurred, Scientists often try to explain it with something that can't be "proven" either! Therefore, the "Hallucination Theory". If what you saw can not be proven, with evidence, then it must have been a hallucination! Uh ... sorry ... but that doesn't quite "cut it", either!

I had the great pleasure of having Dr. J. Allen Hynek for my astronomy prof. at Northwestern. Even he admitted there were a few "incidences" that could not be Scientifically explained. He went further in saying that though he couldn't PROVE there are things unknown to us, he couldn't DISprove them either!

Yes! There are things that we simply do not KNOW, yet! And, discounting those things which we can not yet prove, or firmly debunk, through Scientific reasoning, as a "convenient" hallucination, is merely using the "cloak" of Science to enforce our tunnel vision ... which is the exact opposite of what Science is supposed to be about! The purpose of Science is to Discover, not Exclude!

SO ... perhaps what Neil saw was a hallucination. Then again, if it wasn't ... ??

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

This is my favourite response for it leaves the door open to the inexplicable.

 

[star-warrior]

Light travels in straight lines in air. It can be reflected and refracted, and sometimes depends on the material it travels through. Your best way to find the source is to trace it back from the entryway.

 

[pat grimshaw]

I had a similar vision.

I was walking along a suburban street after dark and saw flames burning in a window in a block of flats two storeys up.

I ran up and knocked on the door but the person inside said I was hallucinating.