Ok, What Was It?

[dlorde]

... what looked like a floating ash. It slowly drifted my way and was undulating, at that point I thought it might be a plastic bag.

As it got closer it looked larger than a small plastic bag...

A medium-size or large plastic bag? or piece of burnt paper or plastic?

It seemed alive but didn't act like it knew I was there. It looked like this as it moved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x4P65EKjt0

It looked like an animated hpyercube diagram? seriously? and you think that made it look alive?

What was it?

Something mundane perceived or recalled through the distorting lens of a hyperactive imagination.

Again, I question why it is that some people appear to have so many more weird stories than usual. I suggest it has to do with their perceptual, memory, and recall processes.

 

[bruto]

...it had a grayish/blue tinge with phosphorescent red balls connected by reddish branches inside of it.

Did you look for a source?

That sounds very much like a description of a burnt piece of paper, such as a magazine page or cover, rising from a fire. Often the coating on the paper will hold it together. It will look grayish blue and have actively burning patches on it, floating away as it becomes lighter than air.

From the description, I'd guess someone out of sight, perhaps behind a fence or wall, was burning trash, and maybe threw in a closed can or an expended aerosol can, which blew up and scattered material skyward. Pieces of paper meeting the description are not at all uncommon when a pile of burning papers or magazines is disturbed.

 

[thaiboxerken]

What is it that makes some people automatically entertain paranormal explanations to mundane ones when something "weird" happens? It's as if Jodie is challenging people to explain away her paranormal experiences in an attempt to prove something.

 

[Reno]

Did you look for a source?

That sounds very much like a description of a burnt piece of paper, such as a magazine page or cover, rising from a fire. Often the coating on the paper will hold it together. It will look grayish blue and have actively burning patches on it, floating away as it becomes lighter than air.

From the description, I'd guess someone out of sight, perhaps behind a fence or wall, was burning trash, and maybe threw in a closed can or an expended aerosol can, which blew up and scattered material skyward. Pieces of paper meeting the description are not at all uncommon when a pile of burning papers or magazines is disturbed.

This.

Jodie, if you'd ever been to a home-made bonfire around 5th Nov in UK, you'd have seen stuff floating around and up from the fire that fit the description you've given.

This explanation is certainly much more likely than a poltergoost. If that's the best you have, then cheerio and thanks for the fish.

/endthread

 

[asydhouse]

I saved the best for last. This was only 3 years ago. I was standing on the front stoop a little after 7pm on February 17th. I happened to be talking to a mortgage person about refinancing my house when I heard a pop to my left.

I looked over and saw sparks going up the side of the building, over an air conditioning unit, then over the roof before they went out leaving what looked like a floating ash. It slowly drifted my way and was undulating, at that point I thought it might be a plastic bag.

As it got closer it looked larger than a small plastic bag so I stepped off the stoop to get a better look. It floated directly above my head and as it stretched out while undulating it was shaped like a square with rounded corners, it had a grayish/blue tinge with phosphorescent red balls connected by reddish branches inside of it.

It flipped up to avoid the corner of the house and continued to undulate away over my roof towards the river. It seemed alive but didn't act like it knew I was there. It looked like this as it moved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x4P65EKjt0

What was it?

That's a telling turn of phrase. You introduce the suggestion here that it was alive, which shows your predilection to imbuing this thing with some sense of mystery or meaning beyond the possibility of it being merely a piece of burning trash on the breeze.

But in fact, this move to "avoid" the corner of the house is just the way light things carried on a light breeze behave, as the air hits the building and moves up: the very light residual matter of the glossy page from a magazine that has just burned on a bonfire, drifting on the air currents, swooping up with a soaring lift/flap of its shape as the air currents hit the house and speed up. You anthropomorphised the quality of that movement and fixated on the "looks alive" response you had rather than on perceiving the elements involved in the situation.

 

[bruto]

I get the impression here that many seemingly unusual events are unusual in retrospect - things that were poorly observed or investigated at the time. Later when you stop and think, "hey how did that happen?" you have lost some context, and later explanations will always be speculative and suspect, because we no longer have all the information that might have been available at the very moment.

Mysteries grow with age, and I think the mistake is in thinking that "I'll never figure it out" means it could never be figured out, when all it really means is that it's too late.

 

[deaman]

Everybody need some attention, every now and then.

 

[Hokulele]

Did you look for a source?

This is the most important point made here. A common thread through all of these stories is that you seem to have simply filed each case in "Weird Things" and moved on, only looking for explanations long after the fact. The absolute best time to try and discover what may have happened is as close to the weird thing as possible. For example, with the door, why not try and see if you can make it happen again? With the dentures, why not ask around and see if anyone noticed something strange, such as grandma on a chair? With the floaty thingy, why not wander around and see what's happening in the neighborhood?

My favorite "What was this?" story on this forum was posted by a member quite some time ago. His family all saw a ghost, and he was curious enough to go see what it might be. When he got to the spot where the ghost was lurking, he found, well, I will let him tell you.

Ah! A chance to tell my own very favorite ghost story.

I was in my teen years when my grandmother (my Dad's mother) died. We went to the funeral, and then later the graveside service. The cemetary was a small one, bounded by barbed wire fences behind a small church in a very rural area. On one side was the church and its gravel parking lot. Opposite that and to the left (if one was at the church facing the cemetary) were pastures, with a few scattered trees and some trees along the fenceline. To the right was a wooded area.

After the service, several of the family members were standing and talking, in the lot behind the church. It was getting late into the afternoon, moving into dusk. I noticed several people off to one side looking into the pasture on the left. Curious, I walked over to see what they were looking at.

The field there rose slightly to a small hill about fifty yards away, topped by a large tree: an oak of some sort. And right there, clear as day, was the image of a woman, completely white, walking underneath the tree. She appeared to have long hair, and be wearing a robe or gown of some sort, hair, skin and clothing hall white as snow. As we all watched, she would walk a few yards, then disappear. She would reappear, walk back, and disappear again. Here it was, proof of ghosts!

Exciting, eh? Undisputably a ghost. Being young and brave (read: too stupid to think of any possible consequences), I decided to get a closer look, and crossed the fenceline to walk a bit towards the hill.

This was when I discovered my ghost was...not.

It was a cow.

A black and white cow...mostly black, expect the front legs were white, connected by a stripe that crossed over its shoulders. In the low light, and under the tree, that white stripe was all that could be seen. When the cow was facing sideways (compared to us onlookers), the white stripe appeared to be a person. When the cow moved the person appeared to walk. When the cow would turn facing us (or away from us) the white was hidden, making the "woman" appear to disappear.

That was one of the defining moments that led me to skepticism. If I hadn't walked closer and looked, this would have been one of those stories that I (and all those with me) were positive could not be explained a way...it was clearly a ghost or image of a person walking, appearing, and disappearing. I doubt that anyone, with any amount of research, would ever have discovered what we were actually seeing. If anyone had suggested I saw a cow instead of a ghost, I would have laughed at them. That incident really drove home the fact that just because we can't explain something, it does NOT mean there isn't a rational, natural explanation. Even if we wouldn't guess that explanation in a million years

 

[Jodie]

Jodie, how would it be if your life was just mundane, boring and unfettered by any supernatural goings on?

Would you feel "less than"?

I hate that I saw something I didn't have a frame of reference for. Plasma ball lightening was what I settled on since it originated over an air conditioning unit, maybe the ground wire malfunctioned? The only you tube videos I saw of it were high in the sky or it was during a storm and followed electrical wire. I never found anything that fit the way this moved slowly across the parking lot, maybe ball or plasma lightening can do that, I don't know.

 

[Jodie]

It looked like an animated hpyercube diagram? seriously? and you think that made it look alive?


Again, I question why it is that some people appear to have so many more weird stories than usual. I suggest it has to do with their perceptual, memory, and recall processes.

I have the same questions, it moved like a hypercube in that it turned in on itself. The bottom appeared like a square with rounded corners when it stretched out as it floated directly above me.

 

[deaman]

I hate that I saw something I didn't have a frame of reference for. Plasma ball lightening was what I settled on since it originated over an air conditioning unit, maybe the ground wire malfunctioned? The only you tube videos I saw of it were high in the sky or it was during a storm and followed electrical wire. I never found anything that fit the way this moved slowly across the parking lot, maybe ball or plasma lightening can do that, I don't know.

You didn't actually answer either of my questions.

Jodie -

Isn't life special enough? Wonderful enough, in all it's inexplicable marvel and curiosity?

 

[Jodie]

What is it that makes some people automatically entertain paranormal explanations to mundane ones when something "weird" happens? It's as if Jodie is challenging people to explain away her paranormal experiences in an attempt to prove something.

Yeah, that there is a rational explanation for these things, one that I am too uneducated to come up with on my own.

 

[Jodie]

That's a telling turn of phrase. You introduce the suggestion here that it was alive, which shows your predilection to imbuing this thing with some sense of mystery or meaning beyond the possibility of it being merely a piece of burning trash on the breeze.

But in fact, this move to "avoid" the corner of the house is just the way light things carried on a light breeze behave, as the air hits the building and moves up: the very light residual matter of the glossy page from a magazine that has just burned on a bonfire, drifting on the air currents, swooping up with a soaring lift/flap of its shape as the air currents hit the house and speed up. You anthropomorphised the quality of that movement and fixated on the "looks alive" response you had rather than on perceiving the elements involved in the situation.

It appeared to avoid running into the corner of the side of my house. Plasma ball lightening can appear to be "alive" although it isn't. However, I think a lot of what's known about plasma lightening is still theoretical. It is hard to say. This did not move fast. It glowed but wasn't on fire or bright like a lightening ball, the red balls were phosphorescent looking.

Here is what Wiki had to say about it:

Buoyant plasma hypothesis

The declassified Project Condign report concludes that buoyant charged plasma formations similar to ball lightning are formed by novel physical, electrical, and magnetic phenomena, and that these charged plasmas are capable of being transported at enormous speeds under the influence and balance of electrical charges in the atmosphere. These plasmas appear to originate due to more than one set of weather and electrically charged conditions, the scientific rationale for which is incomplete or not fully understood. One suggestion is that meteors breaking up in the atmosphere and forming charged plasmas as opposed to burning completely or impacting as meteorites could explain some instances of the phenomena, in addition to other unknown atmospheric events.[77]

Here is why I might have seen it the way it looked to me although it didn't interfere with my cell phone as I was in the middle of a call at the time:

More recent research with transcranial magnetic stimulation has been shown to give the same hallucination results in the laboratory (termed magnetophosphenes), and these conditions have been shown to occur in nature near lightning strikes.[79][80] This hypothesis fails to explain observed physical damage caused by ball lightning or simultaneous observation by multiple witnesses. (At the very least, observations would differ substantially.)[cit

This looked nothing like anything I had ever heard about but did resemble a giant floating bacteria or skin cell. I work in a clinic diagnosing STD's so that would be something I saw everyday under a microscope at my job. Maybe I picked the nearest thing in memory that I could relate to, to make sense out of what I was looking at.

 

[Biscuit]

I once saw a mountaintop shoot a laser weapon at the moon in an attempt to blow it up.

It was actually the whipple observatory testing it's optics. We were camped below the observatory at it was fun to watch while we sat around the camp fire.

 

[Biscuit]

In the middle of winter at 7 PM I am guessing it was dusk or even completely dark out depending on where you live. You witnessed a small electrical shortage or discharge. Maybe even a large bug getting zapped. Your dilated pupils were temporarily "dazed" leaving an impression of continued presence of a floating object. This is common after shining a flash light in some ones eyes or while watching fireworks.

 

[deaman]

It was obviously a pink, rainbow unicorn!!!

Or, a leopluradon.

 

[TjW]

It appeared to avoid running into the corner of the side of my house. Plasma ball lightening can appear to be "alive" although it isn't. However, I think a lot of what's known about plasma lightening is still theoretical. It is hard to say. This did not move fast. It glowed but wasn't on fire or bright like a lightening ball, the red balls were phosphorescent looking.

I fly hang gliders. Occasionally, I'll spot a mylar party balloon or even a plain-old-plastic-grocery bag at altitude. I'm goofy enough to try to catch them.
I never have. Why? As I approach them, they dodge. Up, or down, or to the side. Why do they do that? They're not alive. But air moving around anything sets up a pressure field around that thing. The lightweight objects are moved by the pressure field. Similarly any lightweight thing in the airflow around a building will follow the airflow, which is determined by the pressure fields.
Could be burning paper, or a Mylar balloon -- or ball lightning. They'll all move about the same way.
In my experience, a burning paper ember generally doesn't show a flame.
It doesn't burn very well because it's more-or-less stationary relative to the air.
There will be some unburned paper, charcoaled burnt paper on the outside, which breaks off from time to time, and a blobby orange-glowing line between the two.

My guess is burning paper happens more often than ball lightning.

And while it's true the race does not always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... that's still the way to bet.

 

[Jodie]

I still think it was associated with something electrical related to the A/C unit since it started as a pop, with sparks rising up over the roof of the building to culminate in what looked like this, although not the same color:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LjmS-v0EOs

 

[Jodie]

You didn't actually answer either of my questions.

Jodie -

Isn't life special enough? Wonderful enough, in all it's inexplicable marvel and curiosity?

Yes it is, which is why I notice the things I don't have an immediate explanation for. That doesn't mean there isn't one, just that I'm not aware of it.

I put a lot of research into trying to find a natural explanation for what I saw happen with the glow ball, and the plasma ball theory was the best fit for the circumstances IMO.

 

[chuff8xt]

Based on the information given, a number of people provided thoughtful explanations for each of your scenarios, yet there seems to be a pattern here - you post the scenarios, challenging us to answer, then provide a predetermined explanation which ignores the suggestions that you solicited us to give.

It is not clear what you wanted from this exercise, but your motivations in presenting these questions are truly a puzzle as they do not seem to come from an honest desire to find rational explanations for odd phenomena.