The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 127: Ghost Lights or Alien Tech? Signals from Beyond the Grave or Beyond the Solar System?

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

Here’s the scene. You’re driving down a secluded road. The only lights come from your headlights. The only sounds you hear are crickets and the hum of the engine. Suddenly, a mysterious orb of light appears in the distance, floating a few feet above the ground. You get the sense that the light is aware of your presence. It darts around, beckoning you closer. It can’t be another car. There’s nothing around for miles. As you get closer to the light, it vanishes. Finally, you arrive at a small town and stop at a diner for a bite. You mention your experience to the waitress. She smiles and says, “You saw a ghost light”. She tells you the story of someone killed on that dark road many years ago. The light has been seen ever since. Ghost lights, or spook lights, are seen all over the world. In some places, they’re thought to be spirits of the dead. Other places say they’re portals to another dimension. And others say they’re signals from another world. Whatever they are, ghost lights are real. They’ve stumped scientists, skeptics... even governments for a long time. They’re seen by thousands of people every year. There are even cases where people have followed a ghost light into the darkness, never to be seen again. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our Tread Experts. Toyo's open country family of tires will get you through tough weather in a variety of terrains. Until May 31st, save up to $100 in rebates on select Toyo tires. Find a Toyo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca slash locations. Here's the scene. You're driving down a secluded road. The only lights come from your headlights. The only sounds you hear are crickets and the hum of the engine. Suddenly, a mysterious orb of light appears in the distance, floating a few feet above the ground.

You get the sense that the light is aware of your presence. It darts around, beckoning you closer. It can't be another car. There's nothing around for miles. As you get closer to the light, it vanishes. Finally, you arrive at a small town and stop at a diner for a bite. You mention your experience to the waitress. She smiles and says, you saw a ghost light. She tells you the story of someone killed on that dark road many years ago.

The light has been seen ever since. Ghost lights or spook lights are seen all over the world. In some places, they're thought to be the spirits of the dead. Other places say they're portals to another dimension, and others say they're signals from another world. Whatever they are, ghost lights are real, and they've stumped scientists, skeptics, even governments for a long time. They're seen by thousands of people every year. There are even cases where people have followed a ghost light into the darkness, never to be seen again.

On December 4th, 1931, a trail of blood almost a quarter of a mile long was found in the small town of Gurdon, Arkansas. It led to the body of Will McLean. A railroad spike hammer and a shovel covered in blood were found near his body. It was clear that the cause of death was four severe blows to the head. But there was one detail of the murder that would haunt the town forever. McClain's lantern was still clutched tightly in his hand. Shortly after Will McClain's death, people started reporting seeing a strange light. The light was appearing along a four- mile stretch of railroad track near the town. It was described as yellowish white

and moved like someone searching the tracks with a lantern. And researchers have been trying for years to explain the Gurdon light. Obviously aliens. A popular theory is that people are seeing headlights from Interstate 30. Now this makes sense at first. I-30 is only a couple of miles away from the train tracks, close enough to trick the mind into thinking those headlights are

floating orbs. But there is a problem with this explanation. People started reporting the light in 1931. Interstate 30 wasn't built until the late 1960s. The light starts coming on and going off, coming on and going off. And it went off when it got about 10 feet from us. The next time we saw the light, it was behind us. Another theory is that the light is swamp gas. Gurdon Railway is surrounded by dense woods and swamps. Oh, it's sweet. Swamp gas happens in marshlands and bogs when gases from decomposing organic matter combust.

It's like Mother Nature lighting her farts. That's tacky, but accurate. But the gurney light has been seen in all kinds of weather, including on windy nights, and wind prevents swamp gas from igniting. It floats about that high up off the ground, just ball of, just a light, white ball of light, about like that. Though many people have seen and photographed the Gurdon Light, it's hard to find. You have to walk on railroad tracks in the dark a few miles from the nearest road or

town. Now, even if you take that dangerous walk, there's only a small chance that you'll see the light. But there's a town that has so many ghost light sightings that they actually built a large observation deck. The lights there have been featured on countless TV shows. They've been in movies. They've inspired songs. If you want to see some of the most spectacular ghost lights in the world, you have to go to West Texas. In 1883, Robert Reed Ellison was working on a ranch just outside the newly founded town of Marfa, Texas. One night, he saw a distant light that he thought could be from an Apache campfire or from another rancher. But there was something

about the light that was strange. He tossed and turned all night, unable to shake the odd feeling that the light, whatever it was, was aware of him. The next morning, Reed went out to explore the area and found no sign of people. Soon after, Ellison learned an Apache legend about the land. Many years ago, a great battle took place between two warring tribes. The conflict was brutal and the death toll was in the thousands. The legend says that the Marfa lights we see today are the spirits of restless warriors still wandering the desert trying to find a way back home. The lights are described as glowing basketball-sized spheres. They hover about shoulder height off the ground and have been known to shoot around rapidly

in any direction. They appear in pairs or in groups, but sometimes single lights divide into pairs. They've been seen merging, disappearing, and then reappearing. And sometimes they seem to move in regular patterns, like there's an intelligence at work. They're a mystery and I want them to remain a mystery. Many towns known for paranormal activity don't advertise it. But like Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has embraced the Mothman, Marfa has embraced the Marfa Lights.

In 2003, the town built a Marfa Lights viewing center. There's even a Marfa Lights festival held each September on Labor Day weekend. There's a street parade, food, and live music. But not all ghost light experiences are so positive. In fact, some are downright terrifying. Surrency is a small town in Georgia located about 90 miles southwest of Savannah. And that's where you'll find the Surrency lights, which are bright yellow or white orbs of light. And like the Gurdon lights, these also appear near train tracks. Again with the train tracks! Well, seeing lights near train tracks is pretty common, and there are a couple of theories for this. One is that the lights are ghosts of dead workers. In the 19th century, working on a

railroad required fearlessness and a little bit of recklessness. Railway workers had long shifts, and the work was physically demanding and dangerous. In the early days of the railroad, one out of 35 workers were injured every year, and in many cases, the injuries resulted in missing limbs. And almost one out of every 100 workers died on the job. Maybe the lights seen around the tracks are spirits haunting their place of death. Another theory for lights around train tracks is that the tracks are liminal spaces. A liminal space is a threshold between two worlds,

existing in neither world and both at the same time. Hello? Hello? Hello? It's a place of transition, of waiting, and not knowing what's just beyond that door or right around that corner or just a little further down the tracks. And some believe that liminal spaces can act as portals to other dimensions,

including the spirit world. The Serenity Lights are often considered to be spirits of the dead because of the town's dark history. The town of Surrency gets its name from its founder, Alan Powell Surrency. In 1852, he built a two-story home for his family on land next to the train tracks. For the first 20 years, things were pretty normal. But then things went from normal to not normal. One evening, Cerncy's daughter, Clementine,

was waiting by the train tracks for her father to come home. And as the sun set, she noticed a dark figure approaching. With an uneasy feeling, she headed back home. As she reached her house, she felt a stone land near her. When she turned to look where the object was thrown from, the dark figure was gone. She quickly went inside, where several of her father's friends were gathered. It wasn't long before everyone heard what Clementine experienced outside. Heavy items were falling all over the property.

When Clementine walked into the kitchen, small pieces of brick rained down everywhere. When her father's friends came into the kitchen to see what was happening, they saw pots and pans jumping around and knives sliding around the floor. Alan Cerenci finally got home and saw the damage. At first, he thought there'd been an earthquake, but nobody felt the tremor, and none of his neighbors were affected. Then things escalated. Soon the entire family witnessed furniture and objects moving on their own. Pictures fell from walls. Plates, cups, books, and bottles shot from their shelves with violent force.

Allen wrote down what he witnessed and sent a telegraph to the Savannah Morning News, who published it a week later. A few minutes of my arrival at home, I saw the glass tumblers begin to slide off the slab and the crockery to fall upon the floor and break. The books began to tumble from their shelves to the floor while brick bats, billets of wood, smoothing irons, biscuits, potatoes, tiny pans, water buckets, pitchers, etc. began to fall in different parts of my house. Nearly all of my crockery and glasses have been broken. There The paper sent out an experienced reporter to verify the story. The reporter couldn't believe it.

Clocks in the home were going haywire. They were spinning rapidly forward and backward in time. A mirror exploded into a rain of glass, and strange noises were heard all over the house, like footsteps and banging. At night, you can hear disembodied voices, laughter, and sometimes screaming from empty rooms. Alan was a leader of the community

and tried to take this all in stride, but then the house started targeting his daughter. Some unseen force would yank her covers off of her at night and pull her hair and sometimes throw her across the room. At that point, Alan called it quits and the family moved out. Five years later, Alan P. Surrency passed away and the haunting stopped.

Shortly after Alan's death, orbs of light were seen hovering over the train tracks near his home. All Cerenci residents know the story of the Cerenci House haunting and the Cerenci lights. And while the story is spooky, they'll tell you that the lights are harmless. But that isn't always the case. Some ghost lights are very, very dangerous. We'll get you through tough weather in a variety of terrains. Until May 31st, save up to $100 in rebates on select Toyo tires. Find a Toyo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. Treadexperts.ca

You searched for your informant who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace.

You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. Worldwide, millions of people go missing every year. Some get lost and can't find their way back home. Others run away and don't want to be found. But there are plenty of missing persons cases that can't be explained. In Australia, almost 40,000 people are reported missing every year.

That's one person every 18 minutes that just vanishes. And more than a few of these disappearances have been blamed on the Min Min Lights. Min Min. The Min Min Lights get their name from the now abandoned settlement of Min Min, which is about 70 miles from Booyah. And Booyah is in a remote western region of Queensland about a thousand miles northwest

of Brisbane. Stories about the lights predate the European colonization of Australia. And some ab lights predate the European colonization of Australia, and some Aboriginal people believe the Minmin lights are the spirits of their elders. And before the town was destroyed by a fire, it was known for being a watering hole. Among the buildings burned to the ground was the Minmin Hotel, which had a graveyard out back. Now, a hotel with a graveyard out back might seem surprising, but Min Min wasn't your average hotel. In 1947, a daily newspaper described it. with a big check, drank himself to death at the infamous hotel, or was killed in a drunken brawl,

or was murdered for his money. The corpses were tossed into the backyard. It sounds like every hotel in Portland these days. The first popular report of a Min Min Light sighting was in 1918, and the story goes like this. Around midnight, a farmer shows up at the Booyah police station in hysterics. He's going on about being chased by a strange light. As he was riding past the Min Min Hotel's abandoned cemetery, he saw an orb of light appear right above a grave. The light hovered for a few seconds. The farmer had the eerie feeling that the light was aware of him.

Then suddenly the light shot right at the farmer. He panicked, jumped on his horse, and started riding as fast as he could. When he looked over his shoulder, the light was following him. No matter how fast he rode, the light kept up. It finally disappeared when he got into town. Since that night, there have been countless sightings of the Min Min Lights. And there's one thing that almost everyone says after being confronted with the Min Min Light. The puzzling thing is that so many people say that it seems to have a mind of its own.

It follows them, or it goes away from them. Now, if this is so, it could be a psychic phenomenon all i know is that there is something there which needs to be explained the light seems to have intelligence and it's not friendly i couldn't say for one minute what it is but it's got to be something alive because i've chaps have said to me you you on a driver say that he can ride up and see it here then within a few seconds it's behind him somewhere else sometimes the light will chase witnesses other times it tries to get people to follow it it was terrifying to see like this and see it coming towards you it

used to come up came up come up close close, and if you went towards it, well, it would just dance away from you. According to the legend, anyone who follows the lights disappears and is never seen again. Newspaper columnist Bill Boyang found this out firsthand. One night, Bill was camping in the outback with some friends when a strange light appeared. We were all sitting looking into the darkness, well away from the dying campfire and enjoying the cool air after the heat of the day, when suddenly I saw a light. At first I thought it was someone waving a lantern, but it suddenly rose higher in the air, danced a few jigs and hovered about, first high and then low, but always keeping at about 50 yards distant. It was clear that whatever was controlling the light was not a person. It looked

like a huge ball of glowing embers. Bill was intrigued and urged his group to go after it, but the men in the group knew the story about the Min Min lights, and they knew that no matter what, if you see one, you don't follow it. Bill wasn't impressed. He got up and went off to find who or what was behind this mysterious light. Bill walked slowly through the darkness, brush and twigs snapping beneath his feet. The light hovered in place, and Bill could swear it was waiting for him. Finally, Bill was far away from camp, and the light was only a few yards ahead of him. Then suddenly the light bounced in the air, emitted a flash, and shot down into the ground. Bill took another step when he heard panicked voices yelling at him from camp. He turned around, and he could see his friends by firelight waving their arms and shouting for him to stop moving.

Bill froze in place. The light then floated up, still a few yards ahead. It hovered about shoulder height, waited for a second or two, and then shot back down through the ground. But then Bill noticed something. The light wasn't shooting through the ground. It was diving into a deep chasm that went down hundreds of feet. Bill looked down and saw he was one, maybe two steps from the cliff. If he kept following the light, he would have fallen to his death. The light then traveled back to him a couple of times,

and Bill felt like it wanted him to follow. When Bill turned and headed back to camp, the light disappeared. James Birch from the nearby town of Kimberly had a Min Min Light sighting while driving home from a hunting trip. He was with a few friends when the light appeared in the distance. They were awestruck by the light and like many other witnesses,

said they felt like it was aware of them. Suddenly, they weren't driving toward town anymore. They were now following the strange light through the bush in the complete opposite direction. Nobody remembered turning around, but there they were following this light into the darkness, mesmerized. They stopped the car, gathered themselves, and the light disappeared. Oh, missing time? That doesn't sound like ghosts.

No, it doesn't. And like the Apache in Texas, the local tribes claim the Minman Lights are wandering spirits. But there are some people who believe they're from someplace farther away. Well, how much farther away can you get than heaven? Well... Wait, you mean... Mm-hmm.

Aliens? Ghost lights or spook lights are seen all over the world. Some places have become famous for them. Marfa, Texas, Girton, Arkansas, Surrency, Georgia. There are also the Brown Mountain Lights in North Carolina and the Joplin Spook Light

on the border of Missouri and Oklahoma. It's a long list. But can these be explained by science? Well, sometimes. Ghost lights are usually attributed to one of a few natural phenomena. One is swamp gas, which is... Mother Nature lighting her farts.

That's enough. Decaying organic matter is flammable, and under certain conditions, it can ignite. Now, it's possible that some ghost lights are swamp gas, but in places where lights appear during different weather conditions, it's not swamp gas. Another explanation is the piezoelectric effect. And when quartz crystals are placed under stress, like from tectonic activity, they can produce an enormous amount of electricity. Girton, Georgia sits on top of a large quartz deposit and is on a fault line.

Plus, an earthquake was felt about the same time Will McLean was murdered on the train tracks. But this doesn't explain why the light appears as a ball and hovers, or why it appears frequently, even when there's no seismic activity. Another explanation for ghost lights is when certain atmospheric conditions create optical illusions. There's a phenomenon called a superior mirage, which occurs when the air near the ground is colder than the air above it. This bends light rays so that objects look like they're floating above the surface. A superior mirage is pretty rare,

but the best place to see one is where you can view a long distance unobscured, like over large bodies of water or over a large swath of flat terrain. Terrain, for example, that you can find in Marfa, Texas. It had long been suspected that the Marfa lights are actually car headlights coming from Highway 67 and Highway 90 in the area. Well, in 2004, a group of physics students went to Marfa to try to solve this. Over a three-day period, they found that the number of Marfa lights directly correlated to the amount of traffic on Highway 67. To further prove their point, they sent a car out to the highway and had it flash its lights.

They were able to generate a Marfa light every single time. Those nerds didn't prove anything. Those lights were seen by a cowboy 100 years ago, before highways. Well, that's true. Robert Reed Ellison said he spotted the lights in 1883. Right. Except he didn't. Oh.

There's no record of him ever saying it. He even published memoirs of his life in 1937, and it didn't come up. The story comes from his daughter, Julia. And they thought they were probably a campfire, Indians or other travelers. But they just kept seeing them. The next night, they were there. And the next night, and were there. And the next night. And the next week and year.

And I'm sure they began to wonder, what on earth were those lights? Now, to be fair, the lights do merge and spread apart and disappear and reappear. This could still be light bending in different ways, but it would be unusual for a superior mirage to behave this way. Now, most Marfa lights are definitely headlights, but locals swear that you can still see the lights when looking in the direction away from the highways.

And you don't argue with Texans. The Cerensee light is a tricky one. In 1985, scientists did discover a pocket of liquid nine miles below the surface in the area. Now, this doesn't directly explain the light, but it is something strange. The truth is, most of the ghost lights around the world can be explained, but not all of them. The lights in the Hessdalen Valley are the strangest of all.

Daniel Gross outlines the technology and methods that could be used to create the exact phenomenon we see in Hessdalen, that there is an alien probe high in the Earth's orbit sending laser pulses into the atmosphere. technology, and methods that could be used to create the exact phenomenon we see in Hessdalen. That there is an alien probe high in the Earth's orbit, sending laser pulses into the atmosphere. His theory could explain all the lights we're seeing around the world. Now, the paper is highly technical, but his hypothesis is the only explanation that answers every question and solves every puzzle associated with ghost lights. Ten years ago, a theory about an alien probe firing bursts of energy into our atmosphere seemed improbable, but not impossible.

When you eliminate the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Right. With whistleblowers coming forward and Congress demanding answers, Dr. Gross and his improbable galactic neighborhood theory could be the answer. And it may turn out that the truth is out there after all. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's Michael Fish.

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And if you need more Y-Files in your life, because who doesn't, check out the Y-Files Discord. It's free to join. There's thousands of people on there, and they're on there 24 7. and special thanks to our patrons who make the whole channel possible every episode is dedicated to you and i can't thank you enough for your generosity and if you'd like to support the channel consider becoming a member on patreon for as little as three dollars a month you keep the white files going get early access to videos without commercials early access to fun products like the Talking Hecklefish Plushie,

t-shirts just for Patreon members, and two extra live streams a week just for you. Another great way to support is grab something from the Y-Files store. Grab yourself a Hecklefish t-shirt, or a Hecklefish coffee mug, or a crab cat mug, or a Hecklefish Talking Plushie talking stuffed animal fish plushie toy. That's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated. Oh, oh, oh, yeah I played Polybius in Area 51 A secret code inside the Bible said I was I love my UFOs and paranormal fun

As well as music, so I'm singing like I should But then another conspiracy theory Becomes the truth, my friends And it never ends No, it never ends I feel the crab cat and I got stuck inside Mel's home With MKUltra being only two away Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone

On a film set with the shadow people there The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man I'm told, and his name was cold And I can't believe, I'm dancing with the fishes Had to fish on Thursday nights with AJ too And the wild boars have been beat all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the world falls on my feet all through the night The Mothman sightings and the solar storm still come

To a god, the secret city underground Mysterious number stations, planets are bold too Project Stargate and where the Dark Watchers found. We're in a simulation, don't you worry though. The Black Knight said a lot, he told me so. I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Heck, we'll fish on Thursday nights with AJ2. And the weapons will make beat all through the night

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the wild boars love to beat all through the night Heckle fish on Thursday nights when they chase you And the wild boars love their feet all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the wild birds have their feet all through the night Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance Gertie loves to dance on the dance floor, because she is a camel Camels love to dance when the feeling is right, I'm wasting time. Getting lost in love.

Getting lost in love.