Mysterious lights with no discernible source.

About two years ago I was in bed trying to get to sleep when I noticed a couple of lights on my wall kept fading to nothing then reappearing again. It was kind of annoying so I got up to shut the gaps in the curtains as I'd assumed the light must be coming from one of the properties bordering mine. Weirdly though ... no matter what I did with the curtains the lights on the wall never moved and I couldn't see any lights outside that could be causing it anyway.

The lights were longish, orange and triangular shaped. Not unlike the shape that would be made if light were coming through a gap in the curtains. I also have a tv, computer and printer in my room so I checked them to see if they were emitting any kind of light but no joy there either.

Finally I decided I must've been seeing things so I went and woke my teen daughter up to come see if she could see what I was seeing. She seen exactly what I was seeing, freaked out and wouldn't go back to her own room, lol!

I don't recall ever thinking about those lights again ... not even the next morning. Not until last night that is. Last night in a different room I noticed a light appearing and fading and reappearing again on the corner of a door frame which is what reminded me of the incident two years ago. Last night I was a bit tired and stressed and couldn't be bothered checking for possible sources so all I did was turn a light on and went to sleep. So quite possibly last nights incident is explainable but I'm still baffled about the first.

Usually when seemingly weird things happen to me I'm able to figure them out with a logical or rational explanation but this one has me stumped. You guys here at ATS seem good at figuring out this stuff so I thought I'd put it to you to see if your collective knowledge might produce an explanation.

[edit on 2-2-2009 by ll__raine__ll]

my fire alarm has a tiny little LED in it which projects a big long streak of light down one of the walls when its very dark and i can only see it when my eyes are used to the dark, maybe it was a very dim light source? maybe even it WAS ambient light coming though the curtains or reflecting off the top of the window in the tiny little gap aboce the curtains -maybe enough moonlight refracted into a noticable pool?

I work setting up lights for music shows and i can tell you just how hard it can be to work out where a pool of light is coming from, sometimes in the dark a single LED or window light or reflected light from a seemingly screened area will bounce off something a ruin a back drop or mess with a camera. Light is a very tricky little devil sometimes.

I Think thats the bst i can do, i wouldn't worry but if it happens again a simple test is to wave your hand in front of it till you find your shadow in it or you block it out completely, then check and see whats in line with your hand, waving it about in the right area and checking to see your shadow in it can help. If you can't find your shadow and you've had your hand all over it then it's either coming from behind the wall / screen or aliens are sending you the next bible.

oh and when a TV is turned off it shines a very dim light for ages afterwards, well a cathodray tube does anyway, plasma do if they've been on for ages and LCD normally go right out. This could well be what you've seen.

Hope this helps you and your daughter sleep well tonight

oh thank you. i thought i did a pretty good job of trying to rule out any light sources the first time it happened hence my concern.

but i quite believe 'light can be tricky' after seeing it for myself. that explanation is good enough for me! i feel a bit silly for posting now, lol.

I would suggest putting your hand against the wall where the light is hitting and move forward so the light stays on your hand and you should be able to find where its coming from. Even if its reflecting off something I think you would be able to find the source as light travels in straight lines.

reply to post by ll__raine__ll


haha no prob, i get a little ring of light from one of the smoke detectors at the top of the stairs and it always freaks me out, i put my foot near it then recoil in shock before remembering it's ok it's only light The dark can play some funny tricks with the mind.

I think we must have some of our brain leftover from living in the jungle -it would make sense to investigate at a distance or simply keep away from any weird shadows and to hide under the blankets if you hear a rustling in the bushs -so it would make sense if darkness triggered more fear of normal things, also sometimes i see or think i see something in the dark and i just can't get it out of my head -i suppose that could be just in case it's a lion, etc you can never be too careful so in darkness maybe we're more likely to keep worrying about this sort of thing?

oh well, glad it helped - hehe, most people on ATS get really angry if i give a logical explanation of something

[edit on 2-2-2009 by NatureBoy]

reply to post by NatureBoy


lol. i've noticed too some authors get a bit defensive when their mysteries are explained. but personally i'm relieved to know there are no boogiemen under my bed!