IT HAPPENED TO ME...

First-hand accounts of strange experiences from FT readers

Mystery lights

In January-February 2017, in Glazebrook, Cheshire, my wife and I experienced some strange bright lights, which appeared in front of us on different occasions within a two-week timeframe. One night, around 2.15am, my wife saw a brilliant white light that flashed on and then off, lighting up the bathroom more brightly than bulbs in there could have done. Her initial thought had been that it was something in the garden at first floor height.

A second sighting was a week later, around 5–6pm, on the village green. There was a brilliant white flash in front of us that lit up the whole green as bright as day, but lasting for a second at most. I can best describe it as like a massive flash from a camera, but much more impressive. There was no sign of anything that could have caused the light, as the green does not have streetlights and we were using a torch to get across it that evening. We could not say where the light came from, other than that it was in front us and less than 30ft (9m) away, no higher than 6ft (1.8m) off the ground. The weather was just average and slightly cloudy.

A third sighting of a bright light came three days later at Glazebrook station, around 6.15am one morning. There was a brilliant white flash, bright enough to light up the street as if it were a bright summer’s day. It appeared above my head for a fraction of second, with no obvious source. Again, the weather was average and slightly cloudy. About 35 minutes before this event, I had seen a string of bright white lights floating in the sky above a field with a tree-lined edge, on the Moss in the direction of Culcheth (see drawing). I would liken them to the size of a streetlight when observed from around 400m (1,300ft). They did not appear to be moving, rather hanging statically. However, the string appeared to flash out when I spotted it. I later checked in daylight, and there was no sign of any lighting array, or structure, that could have accounted for it. Given the time of day, I was not aware of any other witnesses to this odd sighting.

Jim D

Warrington, Cheshire

Water poltergeist?

Something perplexing happened during my first fortnight as a PhD student at York University in October 1993. I was temporarily staying in St Lawrence Court and after a particularly hard night drinking, I awoke early the next morning to find my desk covered in water. My electric typewriter (undamaged fortunately) was in the middle of a specifically localised pool of water, and some of my blank typing paper was damaged. My TV, also on the table, was out of reach of the pool of water. I mopped up the water, which took great effort.

The pool was definitely water, it had no colour, taste or odour, and only affected the desk, not the floor, chair or wall. There was no patch on the ceiling and my door and window were locked. When I moved into Goodricke College, an identical thing happened. This second event happened in late spring/early-mid summer 1994, and again only covered the desk. My room was facing the university lake and fountain; however, my windows and door were firmly shut, and again, the fluid had no flavour, odour or colour. There was a hell of a lot of it though. My friends and I joked about a water poltergeist trying to stop me drinking so much – again, like the first, the second event was preceded by a night of boozing. In both cases, my desk was about a metre from my bed.

The third event was much less spectacular and happened after I moved into private accommodation. I don’t have an exact date for this (sometime between August 1994 and April 1997), but one morning, there was a small (one-foot radius) area of dampness on the floor at the bottom of my bed, in front of my closet. I was not drinking the night before this latest event. I am at a loss to explain these events, except I know for a fact that I didn’t do them!

Dr Paul Lee Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

Editor’s note: For a similar phenomenon, see “Soaking Alarm” [FT117:51].

Red-Eyed Spirit

My family lived in the suburbs of Glasgow. One night when I was 10 years old, I awoke at around 3am and got up to use the loo. I was fully awake and definitely not dreaming. At that age I found getting up in the middle of the night rather creepy and really didn’t like venturing out of my bedroom. On leaving the bathroom, I thought I would seek some reassurance from my parents, just to ease my fears. I just wanted them to tell me that there was nothing to be scared of, and to go back to sleep. However, when I opened the door of their dark bedroom, something caught my eye underneath the dressing table, which was positioned directly below the window that looked straight onto where I was standing. This table had an arch on the underside for a chair to slide in.

I saw something extremely weird that I cannot explain to this day – it’s even hard to try and put it into words. It was a spirit of some sort, crouched in the arch of the dressing table and it was glowing white. It had its arms wrapped around its legs. Its body was facing to the right, whilst its head was turned facing me. This ‘thing’ was looking directly at me and had glowing red eyes, which looked demonic; this is what captured my attention in the first place. What scared me most about it was the fact that it looked human; this might sound ridiculous, but it looked the spitting image of my mum, only really angry and malevolent.

I looked at this spirit for around 10 seconds, but it seemed like much longer. It didn’t move. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought, what is my mum doing under there? However, I quickly realised that it wasn’t her; she was lying fast asleep in bed. I felt as if the fiery red eyes were staring into my soul as the thing continued to stare at me. Coming to my senses quickly, I screamed at full volume, waking my parents, and then ran to switch on the light.

As soon as I turned on the light, whatever was there had disappeared. I was frantic and told my parents what had happened. They dismissed it as me being half asleep and still dreaming, but I know for a fact that I wasn’t. I fully recall everything that I had done prior to visiting the room (walking through the living room and hall and going to the bathroom) and was awake for 5-10 minutes before the incident.

Since this happened, nobody else in the house has seen anything of the same nature. I have never seen the thing again, thankfully, as it really scared me – and does now, even thinking about it!

Laura-Anne Leddie

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