I had the good fortune to accompany my friends, David Griffin and Natasha, on a sky watch last weekend where we spent two hours watching some quite remarkable illuminations over some West Yorkshire moorland on the Pennine mountain range where I live in England.
What I personally found fascinating, beyond the intriguing forms that the phenomena took and the unexpectedly large number of phenomena that we saw, was that both their typology and the bizarre coincidences surrounding their appearance amounted to a corroboration of sorts for the small number of published scientific studies into UFO phenomena that I have been studying recently.
From Dr Harley Rutledge’s ground-breaking study in Piedmont and Cape Girardeau, Missouri through to Project Hessdalen in Norway, the basic form of the phenomena is remarkably similar; and so too are the inexplicable coincidences that pervade throughout these scientific studies into UFO phenomena.
As we drove up a narrow winding road from the bottom of the valley, up a gorge towards what David and Natasha knew to be a good vantage point upon the moor, we found clearer skies than the forecast had predicted. The bright starlight, much more noticeable now we were shielded from the urban glow produced by the sprawling Pennine towns all around us, was accompanied by a quarter moon. Not the best viewing conditions I was told – but at least we would be able to see where we were walking – it wasn’t going to be pitch black on top, whatever we found. Even before we had climbed out of the narrow valley and onto the moorland on top, Natasha called out “there’s one – looks like its flaring up”.
I drove the car to the end of the lane and, at David’s request, I turned around and reversed in, giving us a view ahead towards a dip in the moorland. This was where the gorge we had driven up lay, but we could see no hints of the road in the darkness. Natasha told me that the area in front of us was where they had seen the majority of the activity on previous visits. This window was framed by two electricity pylons and between them lay a dip in the moorland, beyond which was another hill that rose to a plateau to the right.
Almost immediately, David began pointing to an orange light in this vista. I could see it, but I couldn’t tell what it was. It flickered slightly. Yet, I couldn’t tell if it moved. Despite the abundance of reference points in the foreground, it was situated midway between them and I couldn’t tell if its apparent motion was just an illusion or not. I’m familiar with viewing lights on hillsides and this light appeared to be more sharply defined than I’d expect for a farmhouse light seen at distance. However, as curious as it was, I really couldn’t be sure of what I was looking at.
This was the first time I’d visited this particular location and so, after getting out of the car, I left David and Natasha to get on with viewing and filming the, now two, orange lights in the amphitheatre in front of us. I decided that I needed a better frame of reference and began familiarising myself with this environment and the recognisable objects in my panorama. While the nearby towns and villages were mostly hidden from view due to the steep sided valleys around us, homes and farms upon this peat laden moorland were visible to the Southwest, on my right. I looked at the orange lights on these buildings and made note of their more diffused orange glow that I am used to seeing when viewing distant artificial light sources.
In the sky, the moon was quarter full to the South-southwest, accompanied by what looked like a bright planet, possibly Jupiter – I couldn’t be certain. I looked up to find another familiar reference, two lights overhead, an aircraft travelling at a higher altitude, perhaps comparable to the altitude of the transatlantic flights that pass over northern England from Europe. Something caused me to think again – I was perplexed. Are those standard aircraft navigation lights I wondered? The aircraft was travelling in a Northwest direction and, being over to my right it was in the South. I could see the lights clearly enough. Red flashing and a dim white light. On the left, from my perspective, was the aircraft’s right-hand side showing a red flashing light. Yet, it wasn’t really flashing in the usual manner – it was strobing rapidly and irregularly. Was there something strange about this hilltop that made viewing aircraft lights appear to strobe? Some atmospheric phenomena maybe?
Looking back towards the Southeast amphitheatre, I could see that the lights that David had pointed out had now begun to unmistakeably move – jigging up and down, and slowing moving towards the right; a strange motion for a farmhouse light to make. I looked back at the apparent aircraft that was now behind me over my right shoulder. It was continuing on its original trajectory as far as I could tell, still with its strobing red light.
Beneath the Moon in the Southwest, was a broad plateau. I scanned my eyes over the skyline. Nothing unusual. Just an aircraft below and left of the moon, a red flashing light. Strobing again. Are these really aircraft I wondered. This one was moving left towards the point of activity that David and Natasha were talking about – a full 90 degrees of arc. I watched this object’s navigation lights again; perhaps two, red and strobing – an irregular higher frequency flashing. The lights continued on their journey leftward and, after a minute or so, it was approaching the area where the other orange lights had been and indeed still were bobbing around – in the amphitheatre. As it did, the red lights suddenly transformed into a bright incandescent orange – pulsating, flickering, as the other orange lights had done.
Throughout this time numerous cars and vehicles has passed along the road beneath us. No wonder people driving past don’t seem to notice these phenomena when they appeared to me to be hiding in plain sight. David and I spoke about the UFO studies like that of Physics Professor Dr Harley Rutledge whose team of observers would, time and again, discount their sightings of formations of triangular red lights that seemed to make sounds like engine noise – only as their study progressed did they realise their initial mistake.
These orange luminosities were fascinating to watch – their motion, appearance and behaviour appeared to refute the idea of these objects misidentified aircraft or drones of a kind that I’m familiar with. That’s not to say these apparent plasma-like phenomena are not intelligently controlled drones – I’m simply not in a position to know. While on the surface the prosaic explanation of Earthlights does tally with these observations, the coincidences between the occurrence of a number of events that happened that evening is worth mentioning and considering.
I’ve heard from many sources that these type of luminosities display characteristics that cannot be causally disconnected from the observer. Synchronicities with UFO phenomena are rife. On one occasion that evening, we had not seen an orange ball of light become bright, or “flare-up”, for some time – perhaps a quarter of an hour or so. David, who had been sitting in my car for a while sheltering from the bitterly cold night air, lowered his night-vision camera and opened the car door to get out. We spoke briefly about the current quiet spell and David called out “flare-up” and, in less than a second, the dim orange ball of light in the centre of our vista indeed rapidly increased in brightness – to at least as bright as the brightest luminosity seen up to that time.
Another similar coincidence occurred towards the end of our sky watch at about 1.30am. David had fallen asleep in the car and I was standing outside with Natasha whom was looking at the horizon in the view finder of her camcorder. We hadn’t seen much for a while, only a dim, barely discernible light to the Southeast. I suggested that, since it was late and had quietened somewhat, we should probably call it a night and head back. No sooner had I said this, when two orange balls of light became luminous and bright, and rose steadily from the position on the horizon in the Southeast – moving together as if conjoined. Rising steadily and moving gently to the left, they gave the appearance of a single object rotating slightly, pivoted on the lower luminosity on the right hand side, the other luminosity was now much higher than the other yet still equally spaced. To the right-hand side of the lowest orange light a barely perceptible red light became more noticeable – eventually turning into a dim orange light. The whole configuration moved slowly away from us, diminishing in size and brightness as it went.
That this set of phenomena did, perhaps symbolically, what I had suggested to Natasha that we do – pack up and leave – was a conspicuous and perhaps an eerie reminder of part of the phenomenon that often goes unreported. This symbolism and causal connection is inherent in contemporary UFO sightings and has been reported by notable researchers such as Paul Devereux and Randall Jones Pugh; it has also been shown in ancient times by other researchers, such as another friend, Pierre Sabak.
With regards to synchronicities; in Professor Rutledge’s conclusion to his study, in which the apparent coincidences between UFO behaviour and observer acts or intentions had amounted to more than eighty recorded events, he summed it up thusly:
“Possibly a great deal of UFO activity is subliminal – which, if true, could have serious ramifications” – Dr Harley Rutledge, Project Identification, 1980
The following stills of UFOs / Orange balls of light are taken from a video recording made during this sky watch on May 14th, 2016.
Image 1 – Two Orange Balls of Light with lower object showing coloured appendages – © David Griffin 2016 – Reproduced with permission
Image 2 – Single Orange Ball of Light “flaring up” – © David Griffin 2016 – Reproduced with permission
Image 3 – Three Orange Balls of Light in amphitheatre vista above the skyline – © David Griffin 2016 – Reproduced with permission
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to David Griffin and Natasha Acimovic – contact-times.net
Bibliography:
- Project Identification, Harley D Rutledge, Prentice-Hall 1981
- Project Hessdalen, http://www.hessdalen.org/
- Earthlight Revelations, Paul Devereux, Blandford Press 1989
- The Defyd Enigma, Randall Jones Pugh and F. W. Holiday, Faber and Faber 1979
- Holographic Culture, Pierre Sabak, Serpentigena Publications 2016
© Anthony Beckett 2016
