People have discovered strange, luminous sights in the most remote regions of nature for as long as they have roamed the earth. Think of those flickering will-o’-the-wisps—little flames dancing over marshes and through forests—or ball lightning, where the sky’s pressure cooks up an electric sphere. However, there are other mysterious lights that defy our understanding. Across the globe, folks have spotted orbs of light that dodge physics like it’s a game, and no one’s got a solid answer for what they are. Theories? Sure, they’ve got plenty—everything from alien ships to some kind of cosmic energy leak. All we’re sure of is they seem to bubble up from the ground itself, earning them the name Earth Lights.
These glowing oddities come in all shades—blinding white, cool blue, fiery red, and even a spooky black. They might be tiny, like a tennis ball, or big enough to rival a car. Most often they’re round, but people swear they’ve seen them twist into all sorts of shapes—tadpoles being a favourite. If you approach them closely enough, you might experience a strange sensation in your stomach or hear a crackling sound that makes your teeth tense. They dart around unpredictably, sometimes splitting into little gangs of floating spheres. And they love hanging out near lakes, mountains, or jagged ridges—places where the earth feels alive.
One of the wildest sprees of these sightings kicked off in Hessdalen, Norway, back in November 1981. Locals started noticing lights rising from the valley—bullet-shaped, triangular, usually white or yellow. It got so intense that the Norwegian government sent two air force officers to check it out. By early 1984, UFO buffs from Sweden and Norway teamed up for Project Hessdalen, a month-long mission to crack the mystery. They walked away with some data on how these lights behave and even snagged footage of the glowing culprits in action.
Back in the ‘60s, some folks started linking these lights to earthquakes and fault lines, but the idea never got much traction—too many people were obsessed with UFOs instead. The thing is, unlike those elusive flying saucers, Earth Lights have a real tie to the ground beneath us, which has let scientists study them on the down-low. Paul Devereux, the individual responsible for naming them, has dedicated years to investigating these lights globally, distinguishing the genuine from the counterfeit. He is convinced that these lights are genuine and not mere illusions.
Devereux and other curious minds reckon these lights come from the earth’s crust getting all worked up. You know how storms brew when the air’s under pressure? Tectonic plates grind and shift underground, causing energy to shoot out through weak spots such as fault lines or mineral-packed rock. Dig into old stories, and you’ll find tales of weird lights popping up right where fault lines were later found or just before the ground started shaking.
Of course, not everyone’s sold on the science. Some swear these are alien landing pads—abduction survivors have mentioned seeing similar glows. Others go full paranormal, saying they’re doorways to another dimension, complete with ghostly whispers and shadowy figures. It’s possible that the magnetic chaos resulting from those tectonic tussles interferes with your brain, causing you to perceive and hear unreal phenomena. Experts say it’s possible those wild magnetic shifts could spark hallucinations.
Whatever’s behind them, Earth Lights leave an impression. Take the Longendale Valley in Britain’s Peak District—it’s a hotspot for these sightings. Sean Wood, who’s lived there forever, has caught the lights over thirty times in sixteen years. He’s turned his experiences into art, painting the valley’s hills and fields with a little glowing orb tucked into every scene. For him, these lights are a mystery he doesn’t need to solve—just a quirky part of the world he calls home.