What was it?

[passerby62]

My friend and I were both 16 years young, back in 1977, in Columbus, Georgia, and we were sitting outside in this small patch of woods next to my house in the suburbs. There were small wooded areas between the houses in the subdivision where houses would soon be built, but in the meantime, we would use them to build forts and just generally hang out. So we were sitting there, talking about girls as usual, when we looked over and saw a light, like an ordinary floodlight, and not excessively bright (because I could look right into it without any glare) and about two feet in diameter; but it had just suddenly and silently lit up just above the treetops where we were sitting under some pine trees...The treetops were maybe 40 feet high at most, and this light had just suddenly turned on maybe three feet or so above the tops of those trees. I looked at it in disbelief, but then looked over at the ground underneath it, about 15 feet away, and saw where the light was shining on the ground underneath this light, forming a lit circle, about 20 feet in diameter...and when I looked back up, I saw this light just turn off, or go out. Not a sound, nothing. No planes, nor helicopters, nor anyone in the pencil thin branches aat the tip tops of the trees could possibly have caused this thing, whatever it was...My jaw dropped, and my friend hauled *** outta there, terrified...I wasn't as scared as maybe I should have been, because I kept trying to make some sense of what had just happened to us, or rather, what exactly it was that we saw. But at the time, I was in complete and total AWE.To this day it drives me insane to even think about, because I simply cannot explain what it was that we had seen that night. It all happened in less than a minute, but it is etched in my memory as the one and only experience of my life that I have no logical explanation for. We saw no craft, we heard no sounds, just that one inexplicable light just appear, shinee on the ground, and disappear. I could focus on the light itself, so I know that its distance was no more than 40 feet or so away...My question is this: Has this ever happened to anyone else out there, or can anyone offer me some way to logically fit this into some frame of reference that would finally get this thing, this happenstance, to quit gnawing at me? I really hate when I am unable to make sense of something---and this one has me completely flabbergasted.

[orangekea]

Hi, passerby62, welcome to UfoE. What immediately causes me difficulty is that the light shone straight down through pines. Any idea why you saw a circle of light instead of a pattern of light and cast shadows due to the branches it passed through?


orangekea

[Nimue]

Hi Passerby,

Welcome to the site. You said that you were in a developing subdivision. Was it suburban? Outside of city limits? I once was going home and I ran in to get my dad, it was a similar occurrence. He told me that was the farmer starting up his tractor or combine. Or a flood light attached to the barn. He said it's commonly mistaken for a anomalous occurrence. Could it have been this?

Blessings,
Nimue

[Antrikshaadmi]

Since it blinked out of sight it matches the description of the Surrency spook light. Similar phenomenon has been reported throughout Georgia.

[passerby62]

I tried to think of that same thing, only we were too far away from any houses and structures, just open sky above some stubby pines, so, I don't know...

[orangekea]

Originally Posted by passerby62

I tried to think of that same thing, only we were too far away from any houses and structures, just open sky above some stubby pines, so, I don't know...

Thanks for explaining, passersby. I did not have your experience, you did, so you must make the final determination on what happened there. If after going through any and all explanations you believe this is unearthly, some UFO, that's fine.

Imo an earthly explanation is possible (the UFO category should only apply AFTER exhausting all earthly ones!), in that a 'clean' light contour was visible on the ground, while you saw the source, shining down, directly over the tiptop of the trees you were under. Logically, this light ought to have shone through (part of) the branch structure (even if thin) causing some distortion, shadows from trunk/branches seen on the ground. Thus the stationary light source could have been lower than it appeared, avoiding the bulk of branches and allowing for discrete wire suspension.

(I've actually seen this done by Dutch commandos once, and any good climber can create difficult to see wire structures high in trees.)


Just my opinion!


orangekea

[Martin]

Intresting story.