“Mysterious floating blobs of light known as ball lightning might simply be hallucinations caused by overstimulated brains, a new study suggests.
For hundreds of years eyewitnesses have reported brief encounters with the golf ball- to tennis ball-size orbs of electricity. But scientists have been unable to agree on how and why ball lightning forms, since the phenomenon is rare and very short-lived.
Ball lightning is often reported during thunderstorms, and it’s known that multiple consecutive lightning strikes can create strong magnetic fields. So Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl at the University of Innsbruck in Austria wondered whether ball lightning is really a hallucination induced by magnetic stimulation of the brain’s visual cortex or the eye’s retina.
In previous experiments, other scientists had exposed humans to strong, rapidly changing magnetic fields using a medical machine called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, or TMS. The machine’s magnetic fields are powerful enough to induce electric currents in human brain cells without being harmful.
Focusing magnetic fields on the visual cortex of the brain caused the subjects to see luminous discs and lines. When the focus was moved around within the visual cortex, the subjects reported seeing the lights move.”
Read more at National Geographic (thanks, SuZi)
Read that yesterday. Fascinating. But isn’t everything we ‘see’ a trick of the mind..?
Hee hee! Scientists stimulate visual cortex, make people see things! Shock, horror!
I suppose the flip side of the problem is ‘can a ball of plasma/electricity/whatever be produced by simulating the processes involved in a lightning strike or thunderstorm?’. If the answer, both theoretically and experimentally, seems to be ‘no’, then it is more likely to be a type of illusion. If I remember correctly, a lot of the witnesses have reported the ball passing through windows and walls without leaving any marks. Also i remember one report where the witnesses both saw a ball, but described it differently. My knowledge (if such it can be called) comes from The Unexplained magazine, which i used to read when I was young. Filled my head with nonsense and left me wondering for ages.
Whatever it is that makes people see those things, they do seem pretty real to those that see them.
So hopefully they wont see too much of that stuff .. as it will be not possible to see the difference between what the majority sees and what they theirselves see .. and if that what they see causes an active response …
Light balls dont seem to harmfull .. although people with migraine seem to see light effects as well quite often I’ve heard ..
Drunk people, not all, but some, tend to see weird stuff as well at times. My brother once saw a ball of red light in the fields. He felt pretty normal, but as he had been drinking he keeps seeing that on the side as well.
I see a ball of light during the day quite often … very bright .. it hurts the eyes .. so I dont look at it ..
Oh .. wouldn’t people at the poles see things more than others on our planet than as well .. or is that magnetic field not strong enough … What about equipment in hospitals that use magentic fields …
So in the picture all 4 people are looking in the same direction at their hallucinations?
Coincidence?
If a magnetic field was creating an effect, the people in the room would be standing relative to the field and could possibly all experience a similar effect in a similar place due to the location and vector of the field.
Sometimes the experience would be shared and similar, sometimes not.
i fingered ball lightning was similar to st. elmo’s fire…here’s a picture of some actual ball lightning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ball_lightning_appears_cropped.jpg
There is too little information to make a conclusion, discoveries are still being made like with sprites etc. I do find the obsession people have with orbs interesting, if they really are hallucinations this could explain why so many people describe them so vividly.
…i’ve been getting ball lightning in the head for years! I always thought i was a nutter, now i know it’s just science. Thank you science, now i don’t have to worry about my head exploding any more….
I saw ball lightning tonight! My friend and I were driving into a thunderstorm and the light quickly passed over the car. We both saw the same thing and it was very real.