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The Paulding Light Mystery

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schticknz

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Really interesting story from Michigan: a light that shows up at night every day (as far as I can garner) for the last 40 years.

Watch as the (stupid) people come to see the pretty light ... but don't seem to bring telephoto lenses, infra-red cameras etc etc etc. with them.

Video here: http://www.wluctv6.com/news/video.aspx?id=185121

Sometimes the human race gets an amazing chance at studying something 'paranormal', and they're too stupid to do anything about it ... grrrr makes me screaaam :eek::cool:

This has been yet another in a ever-continuing series of "aren't people extraordinarily stupid sometimes" threads (tm).

schtick
 
Why dont they, you know, WALK UP THE VALLEY towards the light? Am I missing something?

Also doesnt it seem odd that its right near power lines? Could it be some sort of electrical discharge or something?

edit, reading wikipedia it seems that it was explained as lights from the nearby HWY.
 
Hi Schticknz!

I would say that the fact that the news clip didn't show anyone using or apparently even carrying a camera (other than the TV videographer, of course), doesn't necessarily mean that people don't take cameras out there; it just means that none of the footage the videographer took that day, or at least none of the footage that wasn't edited out, happens to show people having them.

I admit it seems odd at first thought that the folks there didn't seem to be filming it, but if they're locals who knows how many times they've seen it before? After a while it would be like filming the laid-off factory worker who delivers your paper each day. And as strange as it might seem I think some people, particularly in poorer or "less wired" areas, just aren't big picture-takers, even when going out to see something like weird lights in the sky. I think that for a lot of people (myself included) the focus of their excitement is more on the idea that they are going to experience something and see it with their own eyes, and if they think of bringing cameras along at all it's only as an afterthought.

Granted, probably there's going to be at least one person who brings a camera or a cellphone and takes a million pictures, but at the same time I've heard this argument of no picture-takers used as a debunking technique to dismiss group sightings of paranormal phenomena out of hand (not that I'm lumping you in with debunkers) and it's always seemed to me that it's not quite as damning a point as they seem to believe.

But, all this being said, even if some well-supplied person did happen to bring telephoto lenses, infra-red cameras, or the like, what would it effectively prove to science? Only that the photos are either faked, or else show something perfectly mundane for which any old explanation can be tossed off from an armchair.

A great example of this is the Brown Mountain Lights in North Carolina, which were investigated by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey who actually bothered to go on site several times during the first half of the twentieth century. The first investigation explained them away as train headlights, either not knowing or not caring that the lights had been seen by whites since before the Revolution (when there were no trains) and by Native Americans before that; the second explained them away as marsh gasses, either not knowing or not caring that there are no marshes on or around Brown Mountain (although, curiously enough, the report did state that the light from combusted marsh gasses would be to weak to be seen from miles away, which the Brown Mountain lights can be).
 
Thanks for your reply, The Staggering Priestess. I'm in no way trying to debunk the light or this story. I'm just a bit baffled why noone has (seemingly, unless someone knows otherwise) actually tried to investigate this light. I sort of threw my post at the paracast discussion forums to see if anyone else was as perturbed as to why no real investigation has been done regarding the light(s), since it/they seem(s) to be a frequent event. An ideal subject for study you would think.

There's always the possibilty that nothing would appear on camera, or that the pictures would be subject to ridicule by supposed sceptics ... but still other things could be taken ... measurement of gases coming from the earths crust for instance (as someone purported the lights to be!!). At least this would start to narrow the causes down a bit.

Oh to live in Michigan :D. I'd be out there like a shot and trying at least to get some data (if possible) on this light. And the first thing I'd do is walk towards the bloomin thing to see what would happen :p. Seemingly another thing that noone has even thought of??? :D

schtick ... remaining baffled by you earthlings since 1967
 
Hi Schticknz, I sure didn't mean to imply that you were debunking it and I'm sorry if I conveyed that impression. My mind just went off on a tangent on the "no photos taken" idea.

I agree with you -- it does seem bizarre that no one would investigate it, though I checked on Wikipedia as per GSB's suggestion and this is what it says:

Several amateur studies have been conducted, all of them concluding that the lights are the result of the mid-1960s rerouting of US 45, giving the viewing spot a slightly angled view of sporadic traffic along the new highway. The colors then match headlights, tail lights, and the warning lights of the occasional emergency vehicle.

One of those amateur studies' reports is available here, if anyone wants to take a look.

So I guess this mystery can be considered closed (though I wonder why people are still going out to look at it, unless news travels slower in that community than it does on Wikipedia, or maybe the locals were just playing it up for the reporter, or maybe they're just bored out of their skulls), but at the same time, I have to wonder: how hard is it for the average person to identify car headlights and flashing ambulance lights moving down the road? Would it really mystify that many people on and off for 40 years? But then again, I watched that video and it sure didn't look like car lights to me, more like a single bright star or fixed point of light. So it looks like rational observation will have to come from someone other than me :)
 
Raevenskye said:
here's an interesting youtube on it ...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Raevenskye. I shall peruse this shortly :D

Well I never. I wrote a fabulously witty to The Staggering Priestess' last post, and it seems to have wandered off into the ether somewhere than turn up here. Oh well. I suppose I had better write another one, then.

Soooo ... yeah, ummm The Staggering Priestess ... I didn't think you were implying anything ... so no problem there. I am schtick ... devourer of worlds ... or something :D ... so am not easily insulted or anything like that. No offence taken.

As for the explanation for the lights. It is rather reminiscent of the explanations the USAF and friends have been putting out for years. Some of them are so utterly ridiculous they beggar belief.

Pilot: I just saw a ufo ... a structured craft about 30ft in diameter that kept up with my plane for a while before zooming off at a ridiculous rate of knots.

USAF MIB Bloke: Oh that old thing ... nahh it wasn't a structured craft of some sort ... it was Venus, you were a bit confused ... so go away ... nothing to see here.

Pilot: Oh ... ok then.

So I will take the car headlights explanation with a pinch of salt for the moment, and maybe see what other people have written about it. From the descriptions of it so far, I cannot believe that it is headlights of any sort. Besides if it was the traffic to blame, they must have a continuous flood of cars in that part of Michigan exactly at the same time people are there to see the lights ... hmmm.

Anyway I shall keep my ears peeled and see what else I can dig up on this rather interesting phenomenomenon :p

schtick
 
I've never heard of the Paulding Lights. How many mystery lights are there in this country!? There must be a lot I don't know about.

Even here in Texas there is at least one place with them...Marfa. Some theories I have heard also involve head lights and all that mentioned above. Maybe more people will investigate them now that Marfa is becoming a place to film some kinds of movies.
 
I've seen the Brown Mountain Lights a few times, but they didn't look like the Paulding Light. There's supposedly another one in NC at Maco Station, but I'm not sure you can get to it anymore. I've never seen that one. Lots of places have lights. I looked at Paulding for a long time yesterday. There are some really cool vids out there! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!:)
 
Rob Riggs's book, <i>In the Big Thicket,</i> ch. 2, describes mystery lights around the world, and persons who investigate them scientifically, such as prof. Yoshi-Hiko Ohtsuki, who is chairman of the Int'l. Comm. for Ball Lightning/Fireball Research.
 
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