CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Do Fish Dream ?

Monday, December 17, 2007

I don't believe in UFOs, but......

Poodles has tagged me with an interesting MEME about any paranormal events I may have had. This was actually a few days ago now, so everyone is probably well and truly over reading these kinds of stories, but in the interests of playing fair, here goes....

Firstly, "The Rules"

You should post these rules

Recall and relate a time when you experienced a "paranormal event"

Explain it rationally if you can

Inflict this meme on 5 other people

A number of years ago when I was living on a sheep farm in Victoria, I was driving with my mum around dusk on a hot summer's evening. The sky was clear and the air still and my mum and I were heading home after a day of shopping in a town about an hour away. All of a sudden - and it literally happened suddenly - a large, very bright orb of light appeared over in a paddock to our left. It was around 250metres away and around 20metres off the ground. We slowed down to have a look and remarked that it was very early for spotlighters to be out (men who hunt foxes at night to protect their sheep), but as we spoke, the light started moving higher and closer and all the while it was getting brighter. We stopped the car and watched and whilst neither of us mentioned it at the time, we later admitted the hair on the backs of our neck was standing up. It was bizarre; it hovered for probably 30 seconds in place, then started moving higher and further away. Then when it was probably 500metres away, it just vanished. We kept staring at the area, and whilst it was getting darker, we could clearly see that there was nothing there - either on the ground, or in the air. Really, truly freaky stuff. Neither of us believe in UFOs or any type of paranormal activity, but we simply could not explain it then and I still don't know what it was. We discussed the fact that it was too high for a spotlight (usually mounted on a vehicle or held by hand), there were no houses in that area, it was too low for a chopper or plane, wasn't ball lighting - there was definitely something going on. I still don't believe in UFOs, but still, some 25 years later I simply have no explanation for it.

Also, my sister seems to have an ability to know stuff that she just should not/could not know - I suppose you would call her a medium. Whilst she does not see dead people, she claims to speak to them. I say claims because I just can't get with the program and struggle to believe it all. But, somehow she manages to tell my mum things about her childhood that only her long-dead mother would know (like the colour of the dress and shoes my mum wore on her first day at school) and the song that she used to sing to her (my maternal grandmother died when my mother was 9) and myriad other things like that. How to explain it ? Other than suggesting that she has heard these things from my mum before (my mum swears not) I simply don't know. More really, truly freaky stuff that I can explain.

Not sure who else to tag with this, but I'll start with Sarah !

7 comments:

Poodles said...

OOOOHHHH a Foo fighter. I am jealous.

Bettie K. said...

That is incredible; and while I don't know if I believe in UFOs I do believe that there are people that are "sensitive". My cousin is a film maker and did a documentary on mediums after her mom died. She went into the experience as a skeptic and walked out a believer.

If I have learned one thing it's not to question what people believe or don't believe, but rather respect those beliefs.

Anonymous said...

We just googled "Foo fighter" to see what it is. Very interesting. I thought it was just a bay-und.

The description of a Foo fighter sounds a bit like the Min Min lights. Here's a thing I found on a web site:

"Herda Szijarto has been delivering mail to remote stations in the Boulia district for 25 years, travelling the 470km round trip each Wednesday and Saturday.

This district is also home to the mysterious phenomenon of the Min Min light, and Mrs Szijarto has spotted the Min Min may times in her travels through the outback.

She says she first saw it out near an old windmill in an area called Bulla Woolla late in 1978. "I saw a big round ball, a beautiful orange colour - trees standing there and he came straight through, and of course not knowing what it was, I got sort of scared".

At this stage Mrs Szijarto hadn't heard about the Min Min lights and kept very quiet about her experience.

During the many years of driving the mail run in the outback around Boulia after that initial experience she says she has seen the Min Min light heaps of times.

One experience she will never forget was the time she was delivering fuel and was out on the Chatswood road. A friend had suggested she take a gun in case she hit a cow and she says "this Min Min light was coming fairly close and I said right, I couldn't take photos of you, I'm gonna shoot ya, and I know I shot it because it was so big and I couldn't possibly miss it, and all it did was go away as if to say 'well you're a lousy shot.'"

Mrs Szijarto is originally from Austria and she immigrated to Australia with her Hungarian husband who was a refugee, and then moved to Boulia from Mount Isa in 1978. She started the mail run in 1980 and retired on the 30th June this year. She hasn't been looking forward to retirement because she says "the mail run is an interesting job, you get to meet lots and lots of good friends, and it's a day out for us".

Sean Wright said...

TMD,

Hi, came here via tex's blog. Love your story. I am actually trying to find all the meme posts from my original as the stories have been quite interesting.

Sean Wright said...

Sarah,

I have never met a medium and it seems a lot of them turn out to be shonksters.

There is a book whose title escapes me at the moment about critical thinking and perception that challenges these notions of mediums, and sensatives.

I prefer to respect the people rather than their beliefs especially if they are potentially harmful. But I don't know everything :).

I think the thing is to try as much as possible to approach things objectively and scientifically.

Bettie K. said...

Sean---

I agree with you (my statement was half ass backwards)---I believe in respecting the person even though I don't always agree with their beliefs.

Being objective is what I always strive for; not always successful, but it is something to live by.

Sean Wright said...

Sarah,

I think I get what you mean :).

I am led to believe that Alison Dubois of "Medium" fame was studied at an American University, nothing conclusive came of it.

I think our culture is saturated more than ever with Ghost Whisperers and Mediums, which can be highly suggestive even to initially skeptical minds.