January 19, 2018 • 55 mins
For centuries people in countries across the planet have reported seeing mysterious, glowing lights that appear to move of their own volition through the darkness. Whether you call them Ghost Lights, Spook Lights, Will o' the Wisps or any other number of names, chances are there's a local version of this legend somewhere in your region. So what exactly are these things?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. M Hello,
(00:25):
welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, My
name is Neil Spooky Brown. They call me Ben and
various other things. You are you that makes this stuff
they don't want you to know. A relatively spooky episode
for us today. Yeah. I'm not sure if I'm just
getting old and like sentimental or something, but I was
writing around yesterday listening to Thriller really loud in my car,
(00:46):
and it made me cry how good that song is,
Like how perfectly done that song is, and how it's
like you think it couldn't get any better, you think
it couldn't getty better, and then Vincent Price boom. Fun fact,
I used to know the core biography of the Thriller dance. Yeah, this,
I mean been My experience is separated from the video,
the video as a whole, another layer of like shocking
(01:07):
onto that thing that is a piece of piece of
art right there. It is, So we are doing one.
We are delving into one topic that is particularly spooky,
so spooky in fact, that they use the word spook
in the name. It's correct, and it was. We were
hipped to the attention of this topic by a listener
(01:28):
named Megan, who wrote to us. She says, Hey, guys,
I started your podcast couple of weeks ago, and I'm
greatly enjoying it. It's been a great way to help
me get through the workday. Though my coworkers might be
getting a little annoyed with me randomly laughing or bringing
up odd conversations, we understand that completely, Megan, the laughing part,
you know, maybe the odd conversations for sure. Uh. She says,
(01:49):
I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the Joplin
spook Light, but I thought it might be something that
you'd have an interest in. I've been fascinated by it
since I was little, and I always liked the various
theories that I hear. Yeah, thank you for writing in, Megan.
Our first response. I don't know about you, guys, but
my first response when I read the phrase Joplin Spooklight
(02:10):
was what a great band name. Yeah, like I would go.
I would go see them, only if you can get
Janis to front it, though I think that, well, you know,
you could do stuff with holograms or ghost maybe uh
never holograms. Never, never holograms. All right, we'll see that
(02:30):
freaks me out. We could get the old pentagram back out,
see what we can conjure, conjure the janis alright cool.
So I think we've we've just started a band, and
before we before we get to our album, which is
pretty clearly going to be a concept album, right, Okay,
as long acause we're all on board. Oh and we
(02:50):
need to introduce our super producer, Alex Williams. On the ones,
twos and threes, he pointed out, Scott Joplin could be. Yeah,
that'd be a different kind of band. But I get
we could make it like space jazz. What about just
the two of them, just the two Choplins that would
probably cancel each other out, double job of like dark
matter explosion. I mean, that'd be dangerous. There is sort
(03:12):
of a crossing the proton beams Ghostbusters vibe going on
with that. Yeah, but maybe that's why it would be incredible. Yes,
and we'll put a we'll put a we'll put a
pin on this, and we want to hear your opinions
through what sort of band Joplin Spooklight would be. It
turns out that the Joplin Spooklight, in addition to being
a fantastic band name, is a phenomenon that is widespread
(03:38):
and relatively well known in the Joplin area. This is
an example of something that is also called, you know,
a ghostlight, spooklight, a willow the wisp. And how have
we not made an episode on this? We haven't, right
because we've not been through the other We've been to
the feed and it's it's okay. I think we're good.
(03:59):
I think are good. We've talked about ghosts a lot,
and I think this has come up come up in
the periphery before, but we've never actually delved into it.
I will say, for for a fact, stuff to blow
your mind, our sister podcast, what do you call it, compatriots,
what's pure podcast? Stuff to blow your mind? Are pure,
part pot part pure. That's hard to say, stuff to
(04:20):
blow your mind. Our colleagues who also a podcast, they
did do an excellent episode on Willow the Whip, So
I recommend checking that one out in addition to what
you're about to hear here. Fantastic Yeah, and you can
also if you're a stuff to blow your mind fan,
you can catch a couple of those guys on appearances
on this very show. Last one in particular on the
Bicameral Mind was one of my favorite discussions we've had,
(04:43):
you know, in a minute, it was. It was really fun,
So do check that out. But first, in this episode,
we're going to examine spook lights or willow the Whisp
in general, the one in Joplin in particular, and see
whether we can determine some sort of common cause or
best guests, right, and we are going to delve into
some folklore and hopefully a little bit of science as well.
(05:06):
Joplin and this is in Missouri, right, Yeah, yeah, that is,
and it is near uh, it is near Joplin. It's
not actually in Joplin, Missouri. But yeah, kind of how
kind of the way that, uh, people in the US
tend to just describe themselves as being from the closest
big town in their area. So what what the heck
(05:29):
is a spook light? You've heard the term or will
of the whisp. Definitely, It's one of the common names
for a thing called an atmospheric ghost light, and these
have been documented numerous times in folklore. Will of the
whisp is still probably the most common term. It comes
from wisp, which meant a bundle of sticks or paper,
(05:50):
sometimes used as a torch and uh. The name will,
meaning will of the torch, Jack lantern Jack of the
lantern has a similar meaning. They're also called ghost lights.
You'll hear folklore's call them orbs. Paranormal enthusiasts have names
for them as well. My favorite, though, is ghost candles.
(06:10):
Ghost candles about dead lights, like like in it related.
I think that's more red balloons, but I'm not sure. Well,
dead lights are an other worldly manifestation of the macro verse,
in which you know, which is everything that exists outside
of reality as we understand it in the Stephen King universe.
(06:32):
Oh my gosh, I'm making this a different show, okay,
but yes, spooky lights seeing Allegedly, when they're in graveyards,
they're called ghost candles. But they're across the planet. This
phenomenon is known, and the name might change depending on
the location or the culture that you hear them reported in,
So they might be called onebi or Hitodama in Japan,
(06:56):
or the men men Light in Australia and the men
men Light. You said men light I like how when
you do that impression, you just like clench your teeth. Yeah,
you might also hear people differentiate between types that and
(07:18):
that's largely based on what the light is doing, how
it's changing or moving the shape essentially um. And so
to people who believe there's some kind of supernatural reason
behind or occurrence behind these um, they might be thought
to move in ways that would be naturally occurring to
some animal or something that has a will, something that
(07:40):
can choose to move in a way, or something that's essentient. Right,
So maybe there would be, for instance, a legend about
a jilted lover who was murdered and the spooklight traces
the path of they're they're dying steps, or it's searching
for something, or it's a militia is spirit which is
(08:01):
trying to lure you further and further into the ball. Yeah,
someone got killed on a road at a certain place
and then all the way down on the other side
of the road miles away, you can still see like
the spirit of the person just going on their path
down the road as they died. And this, I I know,
this sounds like it went morbid really quickly, But these
ghost lights. Yeah, their ghost lights, and these things have
(08:22):
been around for a long long time, and when mortality
rates were much higher or distributed differently, it was much
more plausible to think, well, people die all the time,
and childbirth or below the age of thirteen, so you
would also hear will of the whisp being like parents,
mothers or kids, and so you can hear them called
(08:44):
wandering spirits or the work of devils in Japan, or
fairy pranks in Europe. And the Japanese word is yoki, right,
which is there's the there's a cartoon called Yokai Watch.
Have you heard of this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's sort
of like Pokemon, but they like live in a watch
or something. Maybe that's just a branding tie in. I
don't know, the Yokai in um there's also a takashimik
(09:08):
a fantasy film called like the Great Yochai War, which
is all about like these kind of like grim leinny
like Japanese monsters and like living in the underworld, and
it's kind of like a rollicking Gooney style adventure by
a pretty schlocky horror directors. So it's always fun to
see them go in different directions and they're also these
lights are also feared by some humans as a portent
(09:31):
of death, similar to the old stories about hearing a
banshee and uh, this the version of this would be
entirely visual, like, I know, you saw the flickering blue light,
it means your time is nigh. And then in other
parts of the world, there are folk beliefs that supernatural
fires of some sort of here where treasure is buried
or hidden somewhere away from a regular view, but with
(09:54):
this fire, maybe you can you can figure out where
it is. And uh, with this, sometimes the fires are
said to be spirits of the treasure itself, or maybe
even spirits of the people who buried the treasure, or
you know, maybe spirits who are searching for the treasure
with like that kind of like buried forgotten treasure. Isn't
there always sort of a sense of like ominous and
(10:16):
ominous kind of dread surrounding it where if you know,
they don't want you to find it. Yeah, cursed treasure. Sure,
that shows up a lot in folklore pretty often. And
it's weird because already just listing out some of the
big folklore themes for ghost lights, we're seeing contradictory explanations
right in the cannon. Should you should you run away
(10:37):
from this thing? Should you chase it for treasure? Does
it just mean you're going to die at dawn? Yeah,
you throw the dice there, I guess because right now
there's no one explanation or one reason behind it. But
they do have commonalities, that's correct. One is that all
of this book lights do seem to share. Um, this
(10:59):
tendency to occur in humid conditions, like said Bogy, so
there isn't there is a provable atmospheric thing, right. Uh.
Even more bizarre part maybe that they're ubiquitous. They've been
reported almost everywhere. We mentioned Australia in Japan, and we
(11:21):
mentioned the US right Missouri specifically, but these lights have
also been reported in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Bangladesh, Pakistan.
The list goes on India, Sweden, Finland, lot Via, Estonia, Lithuania, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Canada, Norway,
and many many more. And we couldn't find any reports
(11:42):
of them occurring in Africa, but are in the African
continent rather, But um, if you have had personal experiences
with any of this in any kind of African country,
or a good story about deciting at all. We would
absolutely love to hear from you at Conspiracy at House,
the first dot com nice smooth, send us your stuff. So,
if these lights are widespread and they're well known and
(12:05):
they've been around for such a long time, have we
as a species actually figured out what ghost lights are? Well?
Maybe And we'll get to that right after a quick
word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy. Nice
(12:27):
cliffhanger before they add there, Man, Yeah, I just wanted
to do one of those. I think it worked. Okay,
cool the great To get to the crazy part, let's
look at some specific examples of these atmospheric ghosts. We'll
start with Megan's suggestion the Joplin, Missouri spooklights. The spooklight
occurs in Oklahoma and it's near a small town residents.
(12:50):
Please be forgiving of my pronunciation quapaapa papa copa q
u a p a w. However, because it's most often
seen from the east, it's been quote unquote attached to
the tiny hamlet of Hornet, Missouri, and the larger area
(13:12):
of you know, in a in a larger context the
better known larger town of Choplin. Yeah, and just for
some simplicity there, it's occurring in Oklahoma, but you're mostly
seeing it, or where it's mostly reported from is across
the way in Missouri. Just for an understanding, and I
just want to throw this out there for using family
guy rules. The town in their show is called co Hog,
(13:33):
but it's spelled qua Hog. Maybe it's Copa. Oh yeah,
that's nice. I also could have entirely invented that pronunciation.
I don't know. I have a feeling we'll find out
in the listener mail. Yeah. According to the legend, this
is pretty interesting. It dates back a while. You'll hear
people say that this light was first seen by Native
(13:54):
Americans along the Trail of Tears in eighteen thirty six,
so from a folklore perspective, it's tied to that great tragedy. However,
the first official, you know in print report occurred in
eight one in a magazine called the Ozark Spook Light. Well,
not really a magazine, like a printed pamphlet. It typically
(14:19):
travels east to west along the four mile stretch of
road with a really cool name that I suspect is
not official. The devil's promenade? Can you can you do
that in the Australian voice the devil um, I'd have
to get this. I don't know how. How do you
say promenade? Is such a devil's the devil's promenade? See
(14:42):
that now we were taking all that back. That's why
the promenade is such a weird word, like there was
only one way to say it. It's like a Southern gentleman,
the devil's promenadee devil's promenade. So I think all of
those pronunciations are great, Okay. According to the witness's descriptions,
(15:04):
and there are quite a few witnesses, this light looks
like a sort of ball of orange colored fire, and
its size changes and it moves down the center of
the road at high speeds, and then it will also
rise and hover over the treetops before it retreats and disappears.
And retreating is a really common thing with with the
(15:28):
belief of ghost lights. Yeah, and others say it moves
from the side like side to side, kind of like
a lantern. Someone swaying a little bit as they're carrying it. Uh,
you know, someone invisible being or spirit perhaps the light
has also been reportedly appearing nightly for over a hundred years,
So you know, every night for a hundred years. It
(15:49):
seems like there's something going on that's common enough to
occur every night and to be visible. I don't know. There,
We're going to get deeper into this. Yeah, And if
you are listening to this and you happen to be
in the area of Jobla, Missouri, you can head over
to Hornet to check out the light for yourself. The
(16:11):
locals say the best time to see it is later
in the evening, between ten and midnight, So don't show
up at three am and get disappointed. Please don't do that.
So they are all these proposed explanations over the years, right,
One of them would be natural gas. Another would be
the reflection of car lights and billboards, which sounds super
(16:34):
mundane but could be an explanation for at least some
of these so escaping natural gas that's common in marshy areas.
But the hornet light is seemingly not affected by wind
or rain. So how would it you know, how would
it spark? How would itself ignite? Hold on, are we
(16:54):
calling it the hornet light? Now? Is it the hornet light?
Or is it the Joplin light You got those two
talents have been in a bitter rivalry. Are they beefed up?
They're like, no, no, man, it's the hornet lights. Like, no,
it's not as a light. Well, Megan called it the
Joplin spook lights. So I think we know where she
stands on this debate. All right. I think we should
(17:15):
oscillate back and forth just to see who wins in
the end. Okay, deal, just to make things as confusing
as possibly. Yes, yeah, yeah, let's make sure that we
are super unclear about So people who are I guess
true believers, maybe we call them, um, we will call
them true believers because they think that there is some
(17:36):
other explanation that is not mundane about this causing this light.
So these believers will tell you that the headlight explanation
or the billboard explanation or just easily dismissed because the
light was seen years before automobiles or billboards were made
and before a road existed in the area. Yeah, but torches, man,
(17:58):
torches were all over the place. You had to have
fire and light, you know. Ever since that time, I'm
telling you, I think maybe there's something going on with
light there and again I feel like I'm jumping the
gun here, but no jumping once. No, Well, we'll talk
about it towards the end. Uh the foto we're going on.
You're gonna tease the jump, teach the jump. There's some
(18:20):
interesting things that occur on the horizon with your eyeballs.
Jump tease. Yeah, like the Aurora borealis and stuff like that.
Not really okay, okay, Well we'll get into it. But
one possible explanation that has been put forward is that
the lights are somehow electrical atmospheric charges. And it gets
(18:42):
a little weird here. So in areas where rocks deep
below the Earth's surface are shifting and grinding together, there
can be an electrical charge created depending on what the
makeup of those rocks is pieco electric activity, right, that's
what it is. So this area lies on a fault
(19:02):
line that runs east from New Madrid, Missouri, westward to Oklahoma,
and it was the site of four earthquakes during the
eighteenth century. So keep that in mind. There's activity going
on beneath the surface, and these types of electrical fields
are most commonly as associated with earthquakes. So when you
have an earthquake. Perhaps you're going to get one of
(19:22):
these electrical fields above the surface of the ground. I
have a completely unhelpful sidebar. The only reason that I know, uh,
the only reason I pronounced that town of Missouri as
New Madrid from the video it's because of will of
a Wilco song. Oh where they know it's not Wilco,
it's Uncle Tupelo, the predecessor of Wilco. Where they have
(19:45):
there's a part of the lyrics where are section of
lyrics where they say roll me under New Madrid? And
I had no idea what that meant. And for years
I thought he was saying roll me under the mattress,
and I thought Uncle Tupolo is a little dark than
the those jaunty country twang rhythms would have you believe. Well,
do you some pathos in there? My friend there? Do
(20:07):
you remember when we made the video on the New
Madrid fault? We called it the New Madrid fault the
whole time? Yeah? Yeah, sorry, how the internet take to that?
Um people are very helpful, sure, and pointing out things
like that, Nat, did you just roll plus one on diplomas? No? Uh,
(20:27):
yeah that was that was a YouTube video. You can
check it out. I that's on me. I mispronounced the
name of the town. I didn't catch it either. So
we have another example, though, just to increase our sample
size a little bit over in Marfa, Texas, there's something
called the Marfa Lights. So the Marfa Lights are near
(20:48):
US Roots sixty seven on Mitchell Flat East in Marfa, Texas,
in the United States these United States, and the first
published account of this sighting appeared in the July nine,
teen fifty seven issue of Coronet magazine. So in nineteen
seventy six, Elton Miles Tale of the Big Bend included
stories dating to the nineteenth century and a photograph of
(21:12):
the Marfa Lights taken by a local rancher. According to
Cecilia Thompson's book History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas,
the earliest alleged report comes from cowboy Robert Reid Ellison.
That is a good cowboy name. That was in March
of eighteen eighty three. Um. The Marfa Lights have also
been given an official viewing area, which is cool. Um
(21:35):
is I picture it as being like almost like one
of those like scenic overlooks of the Blue Ridge Mountains
or something only creepy here, and that is at the
site of Marfa Army Airfield where there are tens of
thousands of personnel who are stationed there between forty seven
who were training American and Allied pilots. Yeah, and this
is a very important details. So the Marfa lights here
(21:58):
in the u S are one of the most well
known examples of this phenomenon. So that means that these
are probably the lights that are seen most often by
the most people. I mean, the fact that they have
a viewing area itself speaks volumes. But here's here's a
detail that's important and maybe throws the paranormal allegations a
(22:20):
little askew. So it's this massive field, like Noll said,
and it had been used as an airport at daily
airline service, which means there was a constant patrol schedule,
you know, the flow of human beings going through that area. Right,
So if there were anything super duper unusual, we you know,
(22:40):
something supernatural, this would be the place where it would
have been most likely to have been seen, acknowledged reported.
You know, if someone actually say found treasure or they
followed a ghost light to a grave or something, well
maybe it was covered up Man or there may be
(23:00):
some other explanations in play. So now we're now we're
kind of putting folklore and science in opposite corners of
the boxing ring. Yeah, that's always tough because there are
all these great stories that have, you know, believe explanations
that are out there, and that's why they're fun, right,
(23:21):
And what we're going to try and do is find
the space where do these things connect Somehow is there
a little space in the middle. We'll find out after
a word from our sponsors. Alright, So of the explanations
that have been proposed by various scientific minds, we have
(23:46):
chosen the top contenders and let's explore them a little bit.
One is super fascinating is the idea of bioluminescence. The belief,
the concept is this that the light we see, the
ghost lights, this bootlights, might be the result of insects
swarming that have taken on bioluminescent characteristics, maybe because they
(24:08):
were contaminated by some agent in local fungus, local fung fungi,
or maybe there is a species of owl with their
own naturally occurring source of bioluminescence. That that one I
don't buy bioluminescent owl. Well, owls are also the was
(24:29):
some of the quietest birds in terms of the noise
they like when they fly. Yeah, so I don't know
if that one measures up. So maybe okay, let's say, wait, wait,
what about what about just lightning bugs? Yeah? What about fireflies? Right? Insects?
Jish jellyfish? What about hm, what are you talking about?
(24:49):
You know, like airborne jellyfish? Okay, so jellyfish that are
just like floating yes, yes, I mean understood, understood, alright,
So case solved, right, guys, case solved. I'm just thinking,
I'm thinking of that scene in Life Aquatic where like
they go out in the middle of the night and
the beach is covered in those bioluminescent jellyfish and someone
(25:11):
asks him, like, what's what's the source of their glowies?
Like it's the moon reflecting off of their skin. That's
the one thing about that movie I really thought was funny.
The rest of it kind of boared me a little bit.
I tried. I tried to like it. I tried to
rewatch it and get into it, but I couldn't do.
It's very deliberate, it's very yes, just so, what's that
(25:32):
what's that old? It's a joke from family Guy that
got stuck in my head years ago when they're trying
to argue in pretentious terms about The Godfather, and Peter
ends up saying, because it insists upon itself, it insists
upon itself, which sounds intelligent, but makes no sense when
you say that about a film. That's mine. So whenever
(25:53):
we're talking, like if we go see a film together,
which you know listeners Matt Nolan, I uh, and our
crew go out and watch films when we can find
time because we're nerds. But if we ever walk out
and you hear me say that I didn't like something
because it insists upon itself, it probably means I wasn't
paying attention and I want to sound smart, That expression,
to me means that something was pretentious. There we go, Well,
(26:16):
thank you for giving some meaning to it. Just how
it hits me. Let's started accusing people of insisting on themselves.
How would you even do that? You just walk up
to them and like, hey, it's me, it's me, It's
really me. Oh the time, you mean, how would somebody
insist upon themselves? You just kind of like insist that
(26:36):
you're important, in the situation. I think it's with me.
I think that's what it is. We've solved it, and
you slam your fist down on the table. We've solved it,
as well as solving the mystery of spooklights or have
we hang ty chemosaba, because to date, no one has
captured or observed an animal that has all these characteristics
(26:58):
that would make get, you know, a one on one
comparison with a ghost light. And there's also at this
point no bioluminescent source that we know of that's bright enough. Yeah,
it's overwhelmingly unlikely for these lights to be produced by animals. Correct,
But what if the Earth is doing it itself, you guys, Yeah, yeah,
(27:21):
remember the thing of piezoelectrics that been mentioned before, where
the Earth itself is creating it or perhaps even that
favled marsh gas. Yeah, so okay. The idea is that
the tectonic strain moving faults in the Earth would also
heat up the rocks, vaporizing any water content, and rock
(27:44):
or soil containing something like quartz or silicon or arsenic
can also produce electricity that would be channeled up to
the surface through the soil via the water as a
medium and then somehow appear as these lights. This, if
it were piezoelectric in origin, would also explain why the
(28:06):
lights appear to be erratic or even intelligent in their behavior,
because there's some kind of flow that's occurring there that
maybe is moving it in a way that you would
think as you're watching it, they're choosing to do that. Yeah,
because we like to anthropomorphize things, right and describe agency
to them. You know, but what about marsh gas? What
(28:27):
about marsh gas? So this guy Alessandro Volta, who discovered
methane in originally put forth this idea that these ghostly
orbs of light were somehow tied to marsh gas. He
believed that lightning mixed with the swamp gases and caused
the ghost lights. His theory um was pretty controversial at
(28:50):
time and initially was just, you know, disregarded wholeheartedly due
to two pretty important factors. One is the unlikeliness of
spontaneous combustion. Okay, that's a good one, that's not likely,
not super likely, And two is the his failure to
explain why these phenomena appeared to retreat when approached, as
(29:14):
if they knew something was kind of as if tobeccon
you into the void like a swamp siren. Yes or
no no no, no, no, no, no, no, don't don't
fall don't see how confused are you supposed to go
into the light? Are you not supposed to go into
the light? Really depends on the context. Are you dying
(29:37):
and you're ready to go then yes? Right, that's the
whole point. That's the only time you go into the light.
Wasn't there a Poulter guist thing or just don't go
into the light? Yeah, because the the actual Poulter guyst
the Dead Cult Leader is trying to take Carol Anne's
enormous power. You know, I've never seen Poulter guys. Ben,
you just spoiled poulter Geist for me. No, I didn't
even tell you. The coolest part Dead Cult Leader, though,
(29:59):
is they don't get to that until like poulter Geist
two or three. I see, you've spoiled the whole franchise
for me, dude, Yeah, let me go ahead, let me
make it worse. The guy who is that guy had
a show called Coach. He's the dad. What the hell
is his name? The only thing you need to know
about Poltergeist is that braces sometimes attack you. Your own
(30:20):
braces sometimes attack you, and that's terrifying. Everybody knows that. Yeah,
and I feel like I must have done braces me horrible, horrible,
malicious things. I feel like I may have done you
a disservice, my friend, because I went through that period
where I was just sending images screen caps from Poultergeist
in response to work emails like creepy old dude with
(30:41):
the hat. This is like pre emoji. This is probably
pre emoji. Yeah. The first time I ever saw meat
in a like a decomposing state where there are maggots
and everything is from Poltergeist. And I was a little kid,
and it has scarred me ever since. Yes, I'm glad
you're talking about decomposition because this, this idea that Volta
(31:03):
proposes says that. All right, So the normal way that
organic stuff decomposes in open air is called aerobic decomposition.
It sounds like a lazy fitness program. It means they're
affected by air around them. And like all organic matter, plants, animals,
what have you, are mostly made up of carbon and
(31:25):
oxygen and hydrogen, and when decaying in the presence of oxygen,
the byproducts of the decomposition process are going to be
carbon dioxide, energy, or heat water. But in swampy or
marshy areas, which would also happen to be very humid,
aerobic decomposition often doesn't take place because the dead matter,
(31:48):
the organic stuff, gets buried beneath water or water saturated
soil and it continues to decompose in the absence of
air anaerobic decomposition, and that would mean that the matter
gets broken down by anaerobic bacteria. And here we go.
This is why it matters because when the bacteria are
(32:08):
decomposing this stuff or breaking it down, they produce carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphenes,
other chemicals, including methane as byproducts. Now methane, what do
we know about methane? Uh? Have Well, is anyone out
there ever attempted to um light a toot on fire? Toute? Really?
(32:37):
This is like that time. So it was a while back.
When would you called something to know? No place? Yeah? Yeah,
should we take a break and go tinkle? I mean,
you know, if you got a tinkle tinkle, But you know, alright,
so uh toots, yeah, toots and methane it's flammable. That's
why it's important. That is important. Yeah. Uh, phosphenes are
(33:00):
so flammable and they can burst into spontaneous flame, uh
in the presence of air. As it burns, it produces
this dense white cloud which could seem to give more
substance to the flame, right, especially from far away, mixed
with methane. Uh. This these gases functioning in concert, would
(33:24):
you know, would be the explanation for willow the wisp,
at least according to the Volta, Especially if you get
a pocket of the gas that's just on fire for
a little bit and burns for a little while and
then dissipates or you know, begins burning in a direction.
It sure sounds like it needs some pretty specific circumstances
to generate this effect. Though, you know that's correct when
(33:45):
you hear the way it's described, it's it's all got
a very similar look, right, or they're bobbing and weaving
and kind of like you said, retreating, especially to see
it every night. I mean, what there's like a National
park style you know, scenic overlook for the damn things.
I mean it's like, you know, it's not a made
up phenomenon, but we know how the northern lights work right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(34:10):
we know, you know what the cause of that phenomen is.
It's pretty interesting that we have we've accepted this visual oddity,
but we don't really know what causes. It's pretty neat. Well,
I mean, there are a lot of people will say
they have figured out the cause of a specific one
or a specific area, right, But you're right, there are
people who would still disagree with this because the folks,
(34:33):
again i'll call them true believers, who I think that
these explanations are okay, but they don't really encapsulate or
demystify the thing. They would say, in a lot of cases,
lights are reported from areas without these favorable conditions. And
I agree that it sounds like a set of pretty
complicated specific things. There's almost a Rube Goldberg feel to this, definitely.
(34:58):
But there is another explanation that was what did we
call it? It was like a quick hint at It
was a quick you were jump. It was a jump tease.
We jump teaes that guess what we're jumping in right now.
It's called fata morgana first or head first. Well, I
like to go belly, you're a flopper first. Yep, that's
(35:22):
generally my life just flopping after I like the flop
toots to the tanks. All right, So what's a thought
of Morgana. So this is a third hypothesis, and that's
this is that the lights are a result of optical
(35:43):
illusion occurring in the observer, or at least it happens
to the observer from what's happening into your eyes the
way the light enters your eyes over the horizon. Right.
The idea that the whole thing is a mirage for
swamp gas, forget some kind of earthquake based electricity. People
are just somehow making this up consistently over decades, centuries
(36:09):
and so on. Fata Morgana is pretty interesting, but it
has one big problem, at least in this case. So
the idea is that there has to be a thermal
inversion such that the curvature of light rays within the
inversion becomes stronger than the curvature of the earth. I
(36:30):
know this sounds like a lot of gobbledygook, but essentially
means the rays will bend and create arcs. So if
you are seeing this, what you're what you're seeing is
a distorted erect or inverted image. And because of the
changing nature of the atmosphere at the time of fata morgana.
(36:53):
This type of mirage can change within just a few seconds.
Uh so it can seem to be very dynamic. But
here's the big problem with fata morgana. What they are
most commonly seen in polar regions really so not Missouri,
not Texas. Oh Man. See, so I was banking on
(37:13):
this one because we're talking about humid conditions right where
you've already got some optical stuff going on, and there's
moisture in the air. You've got four miles of roughly
flat terrain that you're looking all the way down and
seeing some light way on the other end of that
four miles. And you know, if you've got lights, even
(37:33):
if you're way back in the day and you've got
torches during the Trail of Tears and it's way way
way down there and you've got those human conditions, you've
got that distance. I was thinking that is what would
end up happening. You could, you know, it might look larger,
it might look to be moving differently than it actually
is because of this Fata morgana. But dang it, I
(37:55):
really thought I was onto the figuring it out right there. Well,
I mean, don't don't dismiss entirely yet. It could be
some kind of mirage. But my issue with that is
if it were a mirage, right, if it were some
sort of optical illusion, then why would it be consistently
the same. It seems much more likely that maybe there
(38:17):
would be a busy road that somehow is reflecting light,
you know. But then if these are moving cars on
an interstate or a road, wouldn't that affect the behavior
of the light. Yeah, But if it's a smaller road,
then maybe you only have a couple of cars on
(38:37):
there at once. But there's usually a car, but only
a few at a time. I don't know. I mean,
the closest thing I can say that I've seen to
this sort of like this and super common is just
when it's really really hot and you're driving and like,
you know, the street is really hot, and you kind
of see this like faint shimmering in the air right
(38:58):
above the horizon kind of and I think, you know,
that's that's the closest thing that like a visual disturbance
that I've personally witnessed. So, but that happens all the time,
and it all it takes is it being really hot? Yeah,
so okay, what about heat? We didn't even really talk
much about temperature. We haven't. Yeah, could the temperature be
affecting this and and that? That weird heat wave that
(39:21):
Noel's mentioned is something that I think we've all seen,
friends and neighbors. I mean, you can just walk out
in a hot area and look into the distance. But
would that could the heat create just heat alone create
the sustained ball of creepy light? I think anything any
true explanation for one of these, And I think you
(39:44):
probably have to take each one case. Yeah, I think
you probably do, because all the conditions in the different
areas are going to be slightly different. Um, But yeah,
I think maybe it's a combination. You guys. At this point,
mainstream science probably agrees with you, and Fields is adequately
explained this phenomenon through the following the following causes, or
(40:06):
a combination thereof naturally occurring atmospheric conditions, misidentification by eyewitnesses, right,
and so the same thing as you know, you think
it's a UFO, but it's a secret government spy plane,
still creepy, or you know the Chinese lanterns they go
up I've I have tricked myself into believing there's a
(40:26):
UFO with the Chinese lantern a group of Chinese lanterns.
Really was it from the lantern parade or something? It
wasn't the lantern parade. It was off lantern parade time,
but it was for sure that's what it was. And then,
of course we would be remiss if we did not
mention the likelihood of purposeful hoaxes, which I still don't understand.
I guess it's this sort of hoaxing came along before
(40:51):
it was easy to just troll people on the internet.
A few years ago here in Georgia where the show
is based. Uh, we heard tell, as they would say
in Tennessee. Will you heard tell of someone who claimed
they have found the corpse of a sasquatch? Remember that?
And they had it in a cooler and they have
pictures of it and they said they were getting DNA analysis.
(41:13):
And I think it was just a gorilla costume. Is
that what it turned out to be? Yes, it definitely
wasn't a sasquatch. So we do have to at some point,
or anyone who looks into this has to at some
point acknowledge the possibility or even plausibility of someone purposefully,
you know, pulling a fast one on friends and neighbors.
(41:36):
But here's the thing. Yeah, even if there is a
perfectly good explanation for one of these things, or we
can explain it away somehow through science, it doesn't make
the physical viewing of one of these things any less spooky.
Which makes me think, Uh, it would be wonderful to
see pictures of ghost lights or will of the wisps.
(41:59):
Would they be wills of the wisp? Yeah, they would
have to be wills will of the whisps. Wills of
the wisp? Yeah, all because each one is a different will.
Can we call them? The wisp is the thing that
these are the wills of, So there would be only
one whisp is the great whisp. The individual items are
the wills of said great whisp. What if it's one
(42:20):
will controlling all of the will, Well, there's a will,
there's a whisp. Yes, if you are a will of
the whisper, then we would like to hear your first
hand experience, friends and neighbors. We ourselves, like anybody else,
have seen certain phenomenon that we can't completely explain right
(42:40):
without careful research but I don't believe we have in
this room actually seen ghost slider spooklight for ourselves. Is
that correct? I have not seen one. I have watched
tons of videos online of people showing it, and I've
seen things that were very strange. On a mountain road
(43:01):
in the Blue Ridge Mountains where out in the distance
it looks as though there is a light shimmering or
shining and floating a little bit, And after a little
bit of investigation, I found out that it's this specific
road that wraps around the mountain in this one way,
and when when cars go around it, for some reason,
it just looks very strange and not like headlights. And
(43:24):
it's true that even though different proposed explanations might sound
i don't know, highly unlikely or maybe even to a
degree condescending when people talk about misidentification, it's it's still
true that it's easy for this sort of stuff to happen. Uh.
If you believe that you have proof of a supernatural
(43:46):
will of the Whisp, by the way, please right to
us post haste before it gets you. I Oh, I
had one other thing I wanted to put in here
to the question about why these lights seem to retreat. Yes,
I want to know what Depending on how close people
get before the retreat occurs, is it possible that it's
a disturbance in the air of the person approaching or
(44:08):
from the person approaching. Interesting, I'm waiting for someone to
write in and say, that's not how air works. What
do you call someone that's an expert in an air uh?
A weatherman or or or a woman? Uh well, I
guess it would be a meteorologist the weather that yeah,
that's but whether whether men or woman is a diminutive
(44:31):
not mean any disrespect to the meteorological community. They're very
powerful here. You don't wanna get a big meteorology mad
at I think about it. They're only a couple of
clicks away from controlling the weather. So yeah, that's true.
And do check out our episode on weather modification while
we're While we're here, we've been talking so much about
(44:51):
you friends and neighbors, and we've been asking for you
to write in, and that reminds us what better time
for corner our first shout out today subject daughter of
a psychic. Hey, conspiracy dudes, I'm a new listener and
you guys have expressed some interest in psychic people. My
(45:12):
mom has made a few predictions in her lifetime, mostly
around death. Back in the nineties, my family went to
New York and we're going to visit the World Trade Center.
They're on their way to cross the bridge when my
mom starts completely freaking out, saying she doesn't want to
go and something bad is going to happen, and she's
freaking out so bad my dad asked a police officer
to help them turn around. A few weeks later, World
(45:32):
Trade Center blew up for the first time. Also, she
predicted the death of my grandmother. She had a dream
that my grandma was sitting at the edge of my
father's brother's coffin. He had died a few years prior.
She sat there just looking at my mom and talking
to her. When my mom woke up and asked my
dad to take her to his mom's house. By the
time they got there, she had already passed away. There's
(45:54):
some other stuff about how she gets bad vibes about
people and things, and I'm not a big believe in
this stuff, but I am a big believer in her predictions.
She hasn't had one in a while, but I guess
that's a good thing. Thanks for doing what you do.
Signed Elena. You know I want to say at the
very top of this reaction that I absolutely do not
(46:16):
care what people ascribe a bad vibe too. I would
listen to it because there's you know, there's any combination
of cues that your subconscious might pick up on that
your conscious mind does not acknowledge, and sometimes that could
translate as a bad feeling, you know, like someone just
walked over my grave, or I just shook hands with
(46:38):
that guy. Now it feels weird and I don't trust him.
You know, I think there's nothing wrong with following your
gut in that regard. I mean, don't don't you know,
go out and try to murder someone because you've gotta
vad vibe off of them. Yeah, but even though I mean,
like not not to oversimplify it, but haven't you ever
had I had a thing where, like you, we're thinking
(47:00):
about a song and then that song came on or
like you know, I mean, so I know that's like
confirmation bias or what is it where you say bad
or mine hoff syndrome or whatever, but like it is
a very very powerful feeling, you know what I mean,
And especially when you connect it with something that ultimately
does come to pass. It's it's it's very easy. Even
(47:20):
like something as simple is like hearing a song, you
could almost you know, your brain could very you could
very easily be convinced by your brain, which is very clever.
You know, piece of machinery that you made that happen,
or that you somehow had for knowledge that was going
to happen, and then it was like an inclination or
something like that. I I I have never really experienced
the phenomenon in the way that she's describing like that.
(47:43):
I don't think I've ever really known anybody that was
just spot on repeatedly. But for me to really believe it,
I think it would have to be like repeatedly, repeatedly
and specific. Yeah. Well, you know, full disclosure I have.
It is a belief in this stuff. This widespread in
my extended family, and they will insist to you that
(48:04):
they have had precognitive dreams or that they have had
you know sience, Yeah, that they've had the site. It's
big in Appalachia, so my in laws are right there
with you. Oh yeah, But I would love to hear
more of these stories. I am fascinated by this yes,
please send them in if you've got them. I am too,
and I am not downplaying these stories at all. I'm
(48:27):
just kind of like filtering it through my own experience,
in my own jerky skeptic brain, I guess. But you know,
I have experienced things like this, but not quite this intense.
And if it was, if it had happened to me,
I might feel completely differently about him. That's true. That's true.
Now I'm now I'm going to be paying close attention
to every song I hear for the next day because
(48:49):
we mentioned bait or mind off. It's gonna follow me
like a curse. I used to dance alone my own valition.
That's a good one. That's Alex's favorite one too. So
thanks for writing in, Lena. We've got a We've got
a short recommendation from the been. Randall on Twitter says,
(49:13):
conspiracy stuff. Please call your drunken after show cons beer
se hashtag do it for the kids. What have we decided?
That's a thing. I don't think we've decided that yet, Ben,
but you know, we're um, we're definitely just trying to
decide whether we're going to record it or not. That's true.
(49:36):
I heard a funny Halloween beer pine last night it
was would you'd care for a Miller Frite? You know
it is, after all, the Shampain of fear. Oh. I
am so delighted. Thank you for bringing that into my life. Yeah,
my girlfriend told me that, and she she'd heard some
(49:57):
friends say it. I'm not going to name names, but
shout out to Jezz Press and Uh and to you
as well, Ben Randall. We have not we have not
officially decided whether we're going to foray into recording this,
but we appreciate all the suggestions that we found on Twitter.
Who you know, people asking us if we wanted to
film it. I don't know if we wanted to record it,
(50:18):
but I can't argue with a good pun and conspiracy
is pretty solid, So thank you the Ben Randall. Our
final shout out goes to Damon from Indiana. Damon says,
I've been listening to every podcast so far, and I
have to say it's quite the feat to get to
the newer stuff. There's just so much of it. Well,
you're welcome, Damon, and sorry, but I do also have
(50:41):
a suggestion for you guys to research. I don't know
how easy it would be for you to do a
topic on this due to how mysterious it is. The
Great Attractor. That's a good one, right. There are so
many speculations on what this thing could be. No one
really knows what it is other than a strange anomaly
that's pulling everything in the universe towards it. I think
(51:03):
it would be a cool episode. May be fun for
you guys as well. We all love looking into deep space. Agreed.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Guy's
keep doing all the awesome stuff you do for all
of us listeners. Oh that's really cool. Thank you Damon
and the Great Attractor. I don't know that I know
this besides maybe a supermassive black hole. Is that what
Damon's talking about? Or is it something even bigger, some
(51:25):
other force. Right now, science is referring to it as
a gravitational anomaly. It's at the center of the Lana
Kia super cluster. Uh, and it has it's a localized
concentration of mass that is tens of thousands of times
more massive than the entire Milky Way. Wow, so what's
(51:51):
going on with that? That does sound like a great
idea for an episode. Yes, we just need to get
somebody on the phone with us or in the studio,
I think who and just go, here's the science, true
and fair enough. Thank you so much, Elena, Thank you
so much the Ben Randall, and of course thank you Damon.
This concludes our but not our show. Matt Noel, super producer,
(52:18):
Alex and I will be back next week with some
things that might surprise you, some things that might disturb you,
but definitely hopefully fascinate you as much as they fascinate us.
So if you have any stories about ghost lights or
any other kind of paranormal activity, really we love hearing
that kind of stuff. Anything from psychics, you know, and
(52:39):
maybe a premonition that somebody in your family had, or
somebody you know or maybe you had, all the way
to just a glowing red orb that appeared to you
um on top of your cat once. I want to
know about that. I think these guys do too. He'll
just tell us about your cat. We're very interested in
your cat stories, yes, especially if your cat sits on
(53:02):
your chest at night and tries to steal your breath.
Why you gotta make it all sinister man, Why can't
it just be about the cats or a sweet cute
little kitty cat that is only a serial murderer on
the side. As someone who is uh, as someone who
is unreasonably popular with cats, I can't say that. I
believe they are inherently sinister. I don't love them. I
(53:24):
don't think that's a criticism. Agreed. Have you guys seen
that movie Cat People. Yeah, it's like sort of like
a skin of Max, like like softcore erotica film from
the eighties. Away, Oh, I'm you're thinking of cats. I
was thinking of Sleepwalkers that was later Cat People. I
think in Sleepwalker is very similar. They're basically about, you know,
(53:47):
these very sexy people in the eighties that turned into cats.
I only bring it up because we're talking about cats
and sinister things. And I recently bought the soundtrack and
it rules. It's Georgio Moroder does the score and then
got the like the Cat People. UM title track is
by David Bowie and it was featured in that scene
in Um Inglorious Bastards where the character sets a fire.
(54:11):
I'm not gonna do any spoilers, but there's a really
intense Bowie track and that's totally like the theme to
Cat People start a fire. With guessole and what better
way to inspire you to write to us. I I
cannot imagine a better note, musical or conceptual to set
(54:32):
you on your digital journey. While you're on the internet.
You can also find us on Instagram, and you can
find us on Facebook, and you can find us on
Twitter and not tumbler. Tumbler. Yeah, we're conspiracy stuff on
most of those or conspiracy stuff show. Just typing in
you'll find us. If you don't want to do any
(54:52):
of the social media, just send us an email. We
will get it. We are conspiracy at how stuff works
dot com. I
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. M Hello,
(00:25):
welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, My
name is Neil Spooky Brown. They call me Ben and
various other things. You are you that makes this stuff
they don't want you to know. A relatively spooky episode
for us today. Yeah. I'm not sure if I'm just
getting old and like sentimental or something, but I was
writing around yesterday listening to Thriller really loud in my car,
(00:46):
and it made me cry how good that song is,
Like how perfectly done that song is, and how it's
like you think it couldn't get any better, you think
it couldn't getty better, and then Vincent Price boom. Fun fact,
I used to know the core biography of the Thriller dance. Yeah, this,
I mean been My experience is separated from the video,
the video as a whole, another layer of like shocking
(01:07):
onto that thing that is a piece of piece of
art right there. It is, So we are doing one.
We are delving into one topic that is particularly spooky,
so spooky in fact, that they use the word spook
in the name. It's correct, and it was. We were
hipped to the attention of this topic by a listener
(01:28):
named Megan, who wrote to us. She says, Hey, guys,
I started your podcast couple of weeks ago, and I'm
greatly enjoying it. It's been a great way to help
me get through the workday. Though my coworkers might be
getting a little annoyed with me randomly laughing or bringing
up odd conversations, we understand that completely, Megan, the laughing part,
you know, maybe the odd conversations for sure. Uh. She says,
(01:49):
I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the Joplin
spook Light, but I thought it might be something that
you'd have an interest in. I've been fascinated by it
since I was little, and I always liked the various
theories that I hear. Yeah, thank you for writing in, Megan.
Our first response. I don't know about you, guys, but
my first response when I read the phrase Joplin Spooklight
(02:10):
was what a great band name. Yeah, like I would go.
I would go see them, only if you can get
Janis to front it, though I think that, well, you know,
you could do stuff with holograms or ghost maybe uh
never holograms. Never, never holograms. All right, we'll see that
(02:30):
freaks me out. We could get the old pentagram back out,
see what we can conjure, conjure the janis alright cool.
So I think we've we've just started a band, and
before we before we get to our album, which is
pretty clearly going to be a concept album, right, Okay,
as long acause we're all on board. Oh and we
(02:50):
need to introduce our super producer, Alex Williams. On the ones,
twos and threes, he pointed out, Scott Joplin could be. Yeah,
that'd be a different kind of band. But I get
we could make it like space jazz. What about just
the two of them, just the two Choplins that would
probably cancel each other out, double job of like dark
matter explosion. I mean, that'd be dangerous. There is sort
(03:12):
of a crossing the proton beams Ghostbusters vibe going on
with that. Yeah, but maybe that's why it would be incredible. Yes,
and we'll put a we'll put a we'll put a
pin on this, and we want to hear your opinions
through what sort of band Joplin Spooklight would be. It
turns out that the Joplin Spooklight, in addition to being
a fantastic band name, is a phenomenon that is widespread
(03:38):
and relatively well known in the Joplin area. This is
an example of something that is also called, you know,
a ghostlight, spooklight, a willow the wisp. And how have
we not made an episode on this? We haven't, right
because we've not been through the other We've been to
the feed and it's it's okay. I think we're good.
(03:59):
I think are good. We've talked about ghosts a lot,
and I think this has come up come up in
the periphery before, but we've never actually delved into it.
I will say, for for a fact, stuff to blow
your mind, our sister podcast, what do you call it, compatriots,
what's pure podcast? Stuff to blow your mind? Are pure,
part pot part pure. That's hard to say, stuff to
(04:20):
blow your mind. Our colleagues who also a podcast, they
did do an excellent episode on Willow the Whip, So
I recommend checking that one out in addition to what
you're about to hear here. Fantastic Yeah, and you can
also if you're a stuff to blow your mind fan,
you can catch a couple of those guys on appearances
on this very show. Last one in particular on the
Bicameral Mind was one of my favorite discussions we've had,
(04:43):
you know, in a minute, it was. It was really fun,
So do check that out. But first, in this episode,
we're going to examine spook lights or willow the Whisp
in general, the one in Joplin in particular, and see
whether we can determine some sort of common cause or
best guests, right, and we are going to delve into
some folklore and hopefully a little bit of science as well.
(05:06):
Joplin and this is in Missouri, right, Yeah, yeah, that is,
and it is near uh, it is near Joplin. It's
not actually in Joplin, Missouri. But yeah, kind of how
kind of the way that, uh, people in the US
tend to just describe themselves as being from the closest
big town in their area. So what what the heck
(05:29):
is a spook light? You've heard the term or will
of the whisp. Definitely, It's one of the common names
for a thing called an atmospheric ghost light, and these
have been documented numerous times in folklore. Will of the
whisp is still probably the most common term. It comes
from wisp, which meant a bundle of sticks or paper,
(05:50):
sometimes used as a torch and uh. The name will,
meaning will of the torch, Jack lantern Jack of the
lantern has a similar meaning. They're also called ghost lights.
You'll hear folklore's call them orbs. Paranormal enthusiasts have names
for them as well. My favorite, though, is ghost candles.
(06:10):
Ghost candles about dead lights, like like in it related.
I think that's more red balloons, but I'm not sure. Well,
dead lights are an other worldly manifestation of the macro verse,
in which you know, which is everything that exists outside
of reality as we understand it in the Stephen King universe.
(06:32):
Oh my gosh, I'm making this a different show, okay,
but yes, spooky lights seeing Allegedly, when they're in graveyards,
they're called ghost candles. But they're across the planet. This
phenomenon is known, and the name might change depending on
the location or the culture that you hear them reported in,
So they might be called onebi or Hitodama in Japan,
(06:56):
or the men men Light in Australia and the men
men Light. You said men light I like how when
you do that impression, you just like clench your teeth. Yeah,
you might also hear people differentiate between types that and
(07:18):
that's largely based on what the light is doing, how
it's changing or moving the shape essentially um. And so
to people who believe there's some kind of supernatural reason
behind or occurrence behind these um, they might be thought
to move in ways that would be naturally occurring to
some animal or something that has a will, something that
(07:40):
can choose to move in a way, or something that's essentient. Right,
So maybe there would be, for instance, a legend about
a jilted lover who was murdered and the spooklight traces
the path of they're they're dying steps, or it's searching
for something, or it's a militia is spirit which is
(08:01):
trying to lure you further and further into the ball. Yeah,
someone got killed on a road at a certain place
and then all the way down on the other side
of the road miles away, you can still see like
the spirit of the person just going on their path
down the road as they died. And this, I I know,
this sounds like it went morbid really quickly, But these
ghost lights. Yeah, their ghost lights, and these things have
(08:22):
been around for a long long time, and when mortality
rates were much higher or distributed differently, it was much
more plausible to think, well, people die all the time,
and childbirth or below the age of thirteen, so you
would also hear will of the whisp being like parents,
mothers or kids, and so you can hear them called
(08:44):
wandering spirits or the work of devils in Japan, or
fairy pranks in Europe. And the Japanese word is yoki, right,
which is there's the there's a cartoon called Yokai Watch.
Have you heard of this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's sort
of like Pokemon, but they like live in a watch
or something. Maybe that's just a branding tie in. I
don't know, the Yokai in um there's also a takashimik
(09:08):
a fantasy film called like the Great Yochai War, which
is all about like these kind of like grim leinny
like Japanese monsters and like living in the underworld, and
it's kind of like a rollicking Gooney style adventure by
a pretty schlocky horror directors. So it's always fun to
see them go in different directions and they're also these
lights are also feared by some humans as a portent
(09:31):
of death, similar to the old stories about hearing a
banshee and uh, this the version of this would be
entirely visual, like, I know, you saw the flickering blue light,
it means your time is nigh. And then in other
parts of the world, there are folk beliefs that supernatural
fires of some sort of here where treasure is buried
or hidden somewhere away from a regular view, but with
(09:54):
this fire, maybe you can you can figure out where
it is. And uh, with this, sometimes the fires are
said to be spirits of the treasure itself, or maybe
even spirits of the people who buried the treasure, or
you know, maybe spirits who are searching for the treasure
with like that kind of like buried forgotten treasure. Isn't
there always sort of a sense of like ominous and
(10:16):
ominous kind of dread surrounding it where if you know,
they don't want you to find it. Yeah, cursed treasure. Sure,
that shows up a lot in folklore pretty often. And
it's weird because already just listing out some of the
big folklore themes for ghost lights, we're seeing contradictory explanations
right in the cannon. Should you should you run away
(10:37):
from this thing? Should you chase it for treasure? Does
it just mean you're going to die at dawn? Yeah,
you throw the dice there, I guess because right now
there's no one explanation or one reason behind it. But
they do have commonalities, that's correct. One is that all
of this book lights do seem to share. Um, this
(10:59):
tendency to occur in humid conditions, like said Bogy, so
there isn't there is a provable atmospheric thing, right. Uh.
Even more bizarre part maybe that they're ubiquitous. They've been
reported almost everywhere. We mentioned Australia in Japan, and we
(11:21):
mentioned the US right Missouri specifically, but these lights have
also been reported in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Bangladesh, Pakistan.
The list goes on India, Sweden, Finland, lot Via, Estonia, Lithuania, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Canada, Norway,
and many many more. And we couldn't find any reports
(11:42):
of them occurring in Africa, but are in the African
continent rather, But um, if you have had personal experiences
with any of this in any kind of African country,
or a good story about deciting at all. We would
absolutely love to hear from you at Conspiracy at House,
the first dot com nice smooth, send us your stuff. So,
if these lights are widespread and they're well known and
(12:05):
they've been around for such a long time, have we
as a species actually figured out what ghost lights are? Well?
Maybe And we'll get to that right after a quick
word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy. Nice
(12:27):
cliffhanger before they add there, Man, Yeah, I just wanted
to do one of those. I think it worked. Okay,
cool the great To get to the crazy part, let's
look at some specific examples of these atmospheric ghosts. We'll
start with Megan's suggestion the Joplin, Missouri spooklights. The spooklight
occurs in Oklahoma and it's near a small town residents.
(12:50):
Please be forgiving of my pronunciation quapaapa papa copa q
u a p a w. However, because it's most often
seen from the east, it's been quote unquote attached to
the tiny hamlet of Hornet, Missouri, and the larger area
(13:12):
of you know, in a in a larger context the
better known larger town of Choplin. Yeah, and just for
some simplicity there, it's occurring in Oklahoma, but you're mostly
seeing it, or where it's mostly reported from is across
the way in Missouri. Just for an understanding, and I
just want to throw this out there for using family
guy rules. The town in their show is called co Hog,
(13:33):
but it's spelled qua Hog. Maybe it's Copa. Oh yeah,
that's nice. I also could have entirely invented that pronunciation.
I don't know. I have a feeling we'll find out
in the listener mail. Yeah. According to the legend, this
is pretty interesting. It dates back a while. You'll hear
people say that this light was first seen by Native
(13:54):
Americans along the Trail of Tears in eighteen thirty six,
so from a folklore perspective, it's tied to that great tragedy. However,
the first official, you know in print report occurred in
eight one in a magazine called the Ozark Spook Light. Well,
not really a magazine, like a printed pamphlet. It typically
(14:19):
travels east to west along the four mile stretch of
road with a really cool name that I suspect is
not official. The devil's promenade? Can you can you do
that in the Australian voice the devil um, I'd have
to get this. I don't know how. How do you
say promenade? Is such a devil's the devil's promenade? See
(14:42):
that now we were taking all that back. That's why
the promenade is such a weird word, like there was
only one way to say it. It's like a Southern gentleman,
the devil's promenadee devil's promenade. So I think all of
those pronunciations are great, Okay. According to the witness's descriptions,
(15:04):
and there are quite a few witnesses, this light looks
like a sort of ball of orange colored fire, and
its size changes and it moves down the center of
the road at high speeds, and then it will also
rise and hover over the treetops before it retreats and disappears.
And retreating is a really common thing with with the
(15:28):
belief of ghost lights. Yeah, and others say it moves
from the side like side to side, kind of like
a lantern. Someone swaying a little bit as they're carrying it. Uh,
you know, someone invisible being or spirit perhaps the light
has also been reportedly appearing nightly for over a hundred years,
So you know, every night for a hundred years. It
(15:49):
seems like there's something going on that's common enough to
occur every night and to be visible. I don't know. There,
We're going to get deeper into this. Yeah, And if
you are listening to this and you happen to be
in the area of Jobla, Missouri, you can head over
to Hornet to check out the light for yourself. The
(16:11):
locals say the best time to see it is later
in the evening, between ten and midnight, So don't show
up at three am and get disappointed. Please don't do that.
So they are all these proposed explanations over the years, right,
One of them would be natural gas. Another would be
the reflection of car lights and billboards, which sounds super
(16:34):
mundane but could be an explanation for at least some
of these so escaping natural gas that's common in marshy areas.
But the hornet light is seemingly not affected by wind
or rain. So how would it you know, how would
it spark? How would itself ignite? Hold on, are we
(16:54):
calling it the hornet light? Now? Is it the hornet light?
Or is it the Joplin light You got those two
talents have been in a bitter rivalry. Are they beefed up?
They're like, no, no, man, it's the hornet lights. Like, no,
it's not as a light. Well, Megan called it the
Joplin spook lights. So I think we know where she
stands on this debate. All right. I think we should
(17:15):
oscillate back and forth just to see who wins in
the end. Okay, deal, just to make things as confusing
as possibly. Yes, yeah, yeah, let's make sure that we
are super unclear about So people who are I guess
true believers, maybe we call them, um, we will call
them true believers because they think that there is some
(17:36):
other explanation that is not mundane about this causing this light.
So these believers will tell you that the headlight explanation
or the billboard explanation or just easily dismissed because the
light was seen years before automobiles or billboards were made
and before a road existed in the area. Yeah, but torches, man,
(17:58):
torches were all over the place. You had to have
fire and light, you know. Ever since that time, I'm
telling you, I think maybe there's something going on with
light there and again I feel like I'm jumping the
gun here, but no jumping once. No, Well, we'll talk
about it towards the end. Uh the foto we're going on.
You're gonna tease the jump, teach the jump. There's some
(18:20):
interesting things that occur on the horizon with your eyeballs.
Jump tease. Yeah, like the Aurora borealis and stuff like that.
Not really okay, okay, Well we'll get into it. But
one possible explanation that has been put forward is that
the lights are somehow electrical atmospheric charges. And it gets
(18:42):
a little weird here. So in areas where rocks deep
below the Earth's surface are shifting and grinding together, there
can be an electrical charge created depending on what the
makeup of those rocks is pieco electric activity, right, that's
what it is. So this area lies on a fault
(19:02):
line that runs east from New Madrid, Missouri, westward to Oklahoma,
and it was the site of four earthquakes during the
eighteenth century. So keep that in mind. There's activity going
on beneath the surface, and these types of electrical fields
are most commonly as associated with earthquakes. So when you
have an earthquake. Perhaps you're going to get one of
(19:22):
these electrical fields above the surface of the ground. I
have a completely unhelpful sidebar. The only reason that I know, uh,
the only reason I pronounced that town of Missouri as
New Madrid from the video it's because of will of
a Wilco song. Oh where they know it's not Wilco,
it's Uncle Tupelo, the predecessor of Wilco. Where they have
(19:45):
there's a part of the lyrics where are section of
lyrics where they say roll me under New Madrid? And
I had no idea what that meant. And for years
I thought he was saying roll me under the mattress,
and I thought Uncle Tupolo is a little dark than
the those jaunty country twang rhythms would have you believe. Well,
do you some pathos in there? My friend there? Do
(20:07):
you remember when we made the video on the New
Madrid fault? We called it the New Madrid fault the
whole time? Yeah? Yeah, sorry, how the internet take to that?
Um people are very helpful, sure, and pointing out things
like that, Nat, did you just roll plus one on diplomas? No? Uh,
(20:27):
yeah that was that was a YouTube video. You can
check it out. I that's on me. I mispronounced the
name of the town. I didn't catch it either. So
we have another example, though, just to increase our sample
size a little bit over in Marfa, Texas, there's something
called the Marfa Lights. So the Marfa Lights are near
(20:48):
US Roots sixty seven on Mitchell Flat East in Marfa, Texas,
in the United States these United States, and the first
published account of this sighting appeared in the July nine,
teen fifty seven issue of Coronet magazine. So in nineteen
seventy six, Elton Miles Tale of the Big Bend included
stories dating to the nineteenth century and a photograph of
(21:12):
the Marfa Lights taken by a local rancher. According to
Cecilia Thompson's book History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas,
the earliest alleged report comes from cowboy Robert Reid Ellison.
That is a good cowboy name. That was in March
of eighteen eighty three. Um. The Marfa Lights have also
been given an official viewing area, which is cool. Um
(21:35):
is I picture it as being like almost like one
of those like scenic overlooks of the Blue Ridge Mountains
or something only creepy here, and that is at the
site of Marfa Army Airfield where there are tens of
thousands of personnel who are stationed there between forty seven
who were training American and Allied pilots. Yeah, and this
is a very important details. So the Marfa lights here
(21:58):
in the u S are one of the most well
known examples of this phenomenon. So that means that these
are probably the lights that are seen most often by
the most people. I mean, the fact that they have
a viewing area itself speaks volumes. But here's here's a
detail that's important and maybe throws the paranormal allegations a
(22:20):
little askew. So it's this massive field, like Noll said,
and it had been used as an airport at daily
airline service, which means there was a constant patrol schedule,
you know, the flow of human beings going through that area. Right,
So if there were anything super duper unusual, we you know,
(22:40):
something supernatural, this would be the place where it would
have been most likely to have been seen, acknowledged reported.
You know, if someone actually say found treasure or they
followed a ghost light to a grave or something, well
maybe it was covered up Man or there may be
(23:00):
some other explanations in play. So now we're now we're
kind of putting folklore and science in opposite corners of
the boxing ring. Yeah, that's always tough because there are
all these great stories that have, you know, believe explanations
that are out there, and that's why they're fun, right,
(23:21):
And what we're going to try and do is find
the space where do these things connect Somehow is there
a little space in the middle. We'll find out after
a word from our sponsors. Alright, So of the explanations
that have been proposed by various scientific minds, we have
(23:46):
chosen the top contenders and let's explore them a little bit.
One is super fascinating is the idea of bioluminescence. The belief,
the concept is this that the light we see, the
ghost lights, this bootlights, might be the result of insects
swarming that have taken on bioluminescent characteristics, maybe because they
(24:08):
were contaminated by some agent in local fungus, local fung fungi,
or maybe there is a species of owl with their
own naturally occurring source of bioluminescence. That that one I
don't buy bioluminescent owl. Well, owls are also the was
(24:29):
some of the quietest birds in terms of the noise
they like when they fly. Yeah, so I don't know
if that one measures up. So maybe okay, let's say, wait, wait,
what about what about just lightning bugs? Yeah? What about fireflies? Right? Insects?
Jish jellyfish? What about hm, what are you talking about?
(24:49):
You know, like airborne jellyfish? Okay, so jellyfish that are
just like floating yes, yes, I mean understood, understood, alright,
So case solved, right, guys, case solved. I'm just thinking,
I'm thinking of that scene in Life Aquatic where like
they go out in the middle of the night and
the beach is covered in those bioluminescent jellyfish and someone
(25:11):
asks him, like, what's what's the source of their glowies?
Like it's the moon reflecting off of their skin. That's
the one thing about that movie I really thought was funny.
The rest of it kind of boared me a little bit.
I tried. I tried to like it. I tried to
rewatch it and get into it, but I couldn't do.
It's very deliberate, it's very yes, just so, what's that
(25:32):
what's that old? It's a joke from family Guy that
got stuck in my head years ago when they're trying
to argue in pretentious terms about The Godfather, and Peter
ends up saying, because it insists upon itself, it insists
upon itself, which sounds intelligent, but makes no sense when
you say that about a film. That's mine. So whenever
(25:53):
we're talking, like if we go see a film together,
which you know listeners Matt Nolan, I uh, and our
crew go out and watch films when we can find
time because we're nerds. But if we ever walk out
and you hear me say that I didn't like something
because it insists upon itself, it probably means I wasn't
paying attention and I want to sound smart, That expression,
to me means that something was pretentious. There we go, Well,
(26:16):
thank you for giving some meaning to it. Just how
it hits me. Let's started accusing people of insisting on themselves.
How would you even do that? You just walk up
to them and like, hey, it's me, it's me, It's
really me. Oh the time, you mean, how would somebody
insist upon themselves? You just kind of like insist that
(26:36):
you're important, in the situation. I think it's with me.
I think that's what it is. We've solved it, and
you slam your fist down on the table. We've solved it,
as well as solving the mystery of spooklights or have
we hang ty chemosaba, because to date, no one has
captured or observed an animal that has all these characteristics
(26:58):
that would make get, you know, a one on one
comparison with a ghost light. And there's also at this
point no bioluminescent source that we know of that's bright enough. Yeah,
it's overwhelmingly unlikely for these lights to be produced by animals. Correct,
But what if the Earth is doing it itself, you guys, Yeah, yeah,
(27:21):
remember the thing of piezoelectrics that been mentioned before, where
the Earth itself is creating it or perhaps even that
favled marsh gas. Yeah, so okay. The idea is that
the tectonic strain moving faults in the Earth would also
heat up the rocks, vaporizing any water content, and rock
(27:44):
or soil containing something like quartz or silicon or arsenic
can also produce electricity that would be channeled up to
the surface through the soil via the water as a
medium and then somehow appear as these lights. This, if
it were piezoelectric in origin, would also explain why the
(28:06):
lights appear to be erratic or even intelligent in their behavior,
because there's some kind of flow that's occurring there that
maybe is moving it in a way that you would
think as you're watching it, they're choosing to do that. Yeah,
because we like to anthropomorphize things, right and describe agency
to them. You know, but what about marsh gas? What
(28:27):
about marsh gas? So this guy Alessandro Volta, who discovered
methane in originally put forth this idea that these ghostly
orbs of light were somehow tied to marsh gas. He
believed that lightning mixed with the swamp gases and caused
the ghost lights. His theory um was pretty controversial at
(28:50):
time and initially was just, you know, disregarded wholeheartedly due
to two pretty important factors. One is the unlikeliness of
spontaneous combustion. Okay, that's a good one, that's not likely,
not super likely, And two is the his failure to
explain why these phenomena appeared to retreat when approached, as
(29:14):
if they knew something was kind of as if tobeccon
you into the void like a swamp siren. Yes or
no no no, no, no, no, no, no, don't don't
fall don't see how confused are you supposed to go
into the light? Are you not supposed to go into
the light? Really depends on the context. Are you dying
(29:37):
and you're ready to go then yes? Right, that's the
whole point. That's the only time you go into the light.
Wasn't there a Poulter guist thing or just don't go
into the light? Yeah, because the the actual Poulter guyst
the Dead Cult Leader is trying to take Carol Anne's
enormous power. You know, I've never seen Poulter guys. Ben,
you just spoiled poulter Geist for me. No, I didn't
even tell you. The coolest part Dead Cult Leader, though,
(29:59):
is they don't get to that until like poulter Geist
two or three. I see, you've spoiled the whole franchise
for me, dude, Yeah, let me go ahead, let me
make it worse. The guy who is that guy had
a show called Coach. He's the dad. What the hell
is his name? The only thing you need to know
about Poltergeist is that braces sometimes attack you. Your own
(30:20):
braces sometimes attack you, and that's terrifying. Everybody knows that. Yeah,
and I feel like I must have done braces me horrible, horrible,
malicious things. I feel like I may have done you
a disservice, my friend, because I went through that period
where I was just sending images screen caps from Poultergeist
in response to work emails like creepy old dude with
(30:41):
the hat. This is like pre emoji. This is probably
pre emoji. Yeah. The first time I ever saw meat
in a like a decomposing state where there are maggots
and everything is from Poltergeist. And I was a little kid,
and it has scarred me ever since. Yes, I'm glad
you're talking about decomposition because this, this idea that Volta
(31:03):
proposes says that. All right, So the normal way that
organic stuff decomposes in open air is called aerobic decomposition.
It sounds like a lazy fitness program. It means they're
affected by air around them. And like all organic matter, plants, animals,
what have you, are mostly made up of carbon and
(31:25):
oxygen and hydrogen, and when decaying in the presence of oxygen,
the byproducts of the decomposition process are going to be
carbon dioxide, energy, or heat water. But in swampy or
marshy areas, which would also happen to be very humid,
aerobic decomposition often doesn't take place because the dead matter,
(31:48):
the organic stuff, gets buried beneath water or water saturated
soil and it continues to decompose in the absence of
air anaerobic decomposition, and that would mean that the matter
gets broken down by anaerobic bacteria. And here we go.
This is why it matters because when the bacteria are
(32:08):
decomposing this stuff or breaking it down, they produce carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphenes,
other chemicals, including methane as byproducts. Now methane, what do
we know about methane? Uh? Have Well, is anyone out
there ever attempted to um light a toot on fire? Toute? Really?
(32:37):
This is like that time. So it was a while back.
When would you called something to know? No place? Yeah? Yeah,
should we take a break and go tinkle? I mean,
you know, if you got a tinkle tinkle, But you know, alright,
so uh toots, yeah, toots and methane it's flammable. That's
why it's important. That is important. Yeah. Uh, phosphenes are
(33:00):
so flammable and they can burst into spontaneous flame, uh
in the presence of air. As it burns, it produces
this dense white cloud which could seem to give more
substance to the flame, right, especially from far away, mixed
with methane. Uh. This these gases functioning in concert, would
(33:24):
you know, would be the explanation for willow the wisp,
at least according to the Volta, Especially if you get
a pocket of the gas that's just on fire for
a little bit and burns for a little while and
then dissipates or you know, begins burning in a direction.
It sure sounds like it needs some pretty specific circumstances
to generate this effect. Though, you know that's correct when
(33:45):
you hear the way it's described, it's it's all got
a very similar look, right, or they're bobbing and weaving
and kind of like you said, retreating, especially to see
it every night. I mean, what there's like a National
park style you know, scenic overlook for the damn things.
I mean it's like, you know, it's not a made
up phenomenon, but we know how the northern lights work right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(34:10):
we know, you know what the cause of that phenomen is.
It's pretty interesting that we have we've accepted this visual oddity,
but we don't really know what causes. It's pretty neat. Well,
I mean, there are a lot of people will say
they have figured out the cause of a specific one
or a specific area, right, But you're right, there are
people who would still disagree with this because the folks,
(34:33):
again i'll call them true believers, who I think that
these explanations are okay, but they don't really encapsulate or
demystify the thing. They would say, in a lot of cases,
lights are reported from areas without these favorable conditions. And
I agree that it sounds like a set of pretty
complicated specific things. There's almost a Rube Goldberg feel to this, definitely.
(34:58):
But there is another explanation that was what did we
call it? It was like a quick hint at It
was a quick you were jump. It was a jump tease.
We jump teaes that guess what we're jumping in right now.
It's called fata morgana first or head first. Well, I
like to go belly, you're a flopper first. Yep, that's
(35:22):
generally my life just flopping after I like the flop
toots to the tanks. All right, So what's a thought
of Morgana. So this is a third hypothesis, and that's
this is that the lights are a result of optical
(35:43):
illusion occurring in the observer, or at least it happens
to the observer from what's happening into your eyes the
way the light enters your eyes over the horizon. Right.
The idea that the whole thing is a mirage for
swamp gas, forget some kind of earthquake based electricity. People
are just somehow making this up consistently over decades, centuries
(36:09):
and so on. Fata Morgana is pretty interesting, but it
has one big problem, at least in this case. So
the idea is that there has to be a thermal
inversion such that the curvature of light rays within the
inversion becomes stronger than the curvature of the earth. I
(36:30):
know this sounds like a lot of gobbledygook, but essentially
means the rays will bend and create arcs. So if
you are seeing this, what you're what you're seeing is
a distorted erect or inverted image. And because of the
changing nature of the atmosphere at the time of fata morgana.
(36:53):
This type of mirage can change within just a few seconds.
Uh so it can seem to be very dynamic. But
here's the big problem with fata morgana. What they are
most commonly seen in polar regions really so not Missouri,
not Texas. Oh Man. See, so I was banking on
(37:13):
this one because we're talking about humid conditions right where
you've already got some optical stuff going on, and there's
moisture in the air. You've got four miles of roughly
flat terrain that you're looking all the way down and
seeing some light way on the other end of that
four miles. And you know, if you've got lights, even
(37:33):
if you're way back in the day and you've got
torches during the Trail of Tears and it's way way
way down there and you've got those human conditions, you've
got that distance. I was thinking that is what would
end up happening. You could, you know, it might look larger,
it might look to be moving differently than it actually
is because of this Fata morgana. But dang it, I
(37:55):
really thought I was onto the figuring it out right there. Well,
I mean, don't don't dismiss entirely yet. It could be
some kind of mirage. But my issue with that is
if it were a mirage, right, if it were some
sort of optical illusion, then why would it be consistently
the same. It seems much more likely that maybe there
(38:17):
would be a busy road that somehow is reflecting light,
you know. But then if these are moving cars on
an interstate or a road, wouldn't that affect the behavior
of the light. Yeah, But if it's a smaller road,
then maybe you only have a couple of cars on
(38:37):
there at once. But there's usually a car, but only
a few at a time. I don't know. I mean,
the closest thing I can say that I've seen to
this sort of like this and super common is just
when it's really really hot and you're driving and like,
you know, the street is really hot, and you kind
of see this like faint shimmering in the air right
(38:58):
above the horizon kind of and I think, you know,
that's that's the closest thing that like a visual disturbance
that I've personally witnessed. So, but that happens all the time,
and it all it takes is it being really hot? Yeah,
so okay, what about heat? We didn't even really talk
much about temperature. We haven't. Yeah, could the temperature be
affecting this and and that? That weird heat wave that
(39:21):
Noel's mentioned is something that I think we've all seen,
friends and neighbors. I mean, you can just walk out
in a hot area and look into the distance. But
would that could the heat create just heat alone create
the sustained ball of creepy light? I think anything any
true explanation for one of these, And I think you
(39:44):
probably have to take each one case. Yeah, I think
you probably do, because all the conditions in the different
areas are going to be slightly different. Um, But yeah,
I think maybe it's a combination. You guys. At this point,
mainstream science probably agrees with you, and Fields is adequately
explained this phenomenon through the following the following causes, or
(40:06):
a combination thereof naturally occurring atmospheric conditions, misidentification by eyewitnesses, right,
and so the same thing as you know, you think
it's a UFO, but it's a secret government spy plane,
still creepy, or you know the Chinese lanterns they go
up I've I have tricked myself into believing there's a
(40:26):
UFO with the Chinese lantern a group of Chinese lanterns.
Really was it from the lantern parade or something? It
wasn't the lantern parade. It was off lantern parade time,
but it was for sure that's what it was. And then,
of course we would be remiss if we did not
mention the likelihood of purposeful hoaxes, which I still don't understand.
I guess it's this sort of hoaxing came along before
(40:51):
it was easy to just troll people on the internet.
A few years ago here in Georgia where the show
is based. Uh, we heard tell, as they would say
in Tennessee. Will you heard tell of someone who claimed
they have found the corpse of a sasquatch? Remember that?
And they had it in a cooler and they have
pictures of it and they said they were getting DNA analysis.
(41:13):
And I think it was just a gorilla costume. Is
that what it turned out to be? Yes, it definitely
wasn't a sasquatch. So we do have to at some point,
or anyone who looks into this has to at some
point acknowledge the possibility or even plausibility of someone purposefully,
you know, pulling a fast one on friends and neighbors.
(41:36):
But here's the thing. Yeah, even if there is a
perfectly good explanation for one of these things, or we
can explain it away somehow through science, it doesn't make
the physical viewing of one of these things any less spooky.
Which makes me think, Uh, it would be wonderful to
see pictures of ghost lights or will of the wisps.
(41:59):
Would they be wills of the wisp? Yeah, they would
have to be wills will of the whisps. Wills of
the wisp? Yeah, all because each one is a different will.
Can we call them? The wisp is the thing that
these are the wills of, So there would be only
one whisp is the great whisp. The individual items are
the wills of said great whisp. What if it's one
(42:20):
will controlling all of the will, Well, there's a will,
there's a whisp. Yes, if you are a will of
the whisper, then we would like to hear your first
hand experience, friends and neighbors. We ourselves, like anybody else,
have seen certain phenomenon that we can't completely explain right
(42:40):
without careful research but I don't believe we have in
this room actually seen ghost slider spooklight for ourselves. Is
that correct? I have not seen one. I have watched
tons of videos online of people showing it, and I've
seen things that were very strange. On a mountain road
(43:01):
in the Blue Ridge Mountains where out in the distance
it looks as though there is a light shimmering or
shining and floating a little bit, And after a little
bit of investigation, I found out that it's this specific
road that wraps around the mountain in this one way,
and when when cars go around it, for some reason,
it just looks very strange and not like headlights. And
(43:24):
it's true that even though different proposed explanations might sound
i don't know, highly unlikely or maybe even to a
degree condescending when people talk about misidentification, it's it's still
true that it's easy for this sort of stuff to happen. Uh.
If you believe that you have proof of a supernatural
(43:46):
will of the Whisp, by the way, please right to
us post haste before it gets you. I Oh, I
had one other thing I wanted to put in here
to the question about why these lights seem to retreat. Yes,
I want to know what Depending on how close people
get before the retreat occurs, is it possible that it's
a disturbance in the air of the person approaching or
(44:08):
from the person approaching. Interesting, I'm waiting for someone to
write in and say, that's not how air works. What
do you call someone that's an expert in an air uh?
A weatherman or or or a woman? Uh well, I
guess it would be a meteorologist the weather that yeah,
that's but whether whether men or woman is a diminutive
(44:31):
not mean any disrespect to the meteorological community. They're very
powerful here. You don't wanna get a big meteorology mad
at I think about it. They're only a couple of
clicks away from controlling the weather. So yeah, that's true.
And do check out our episode on weather modification while
we're While we're here, we've been talking so much about
(44:51):
you friends and neighbors, and we've been asking for you
to write in, and that reminds us what better time
for corner our first shout out today subject daughter of
a psychic. Hey, conspiracy dudes, I'm a new listener and
you guys have expressed some interest in psychic people. My
(45:12):
mom has made a few predictions in her lifetime, mostly
around death. Back in the nineties, my family went to
New York and we're going to visit the World Trade Center.
They're on their way to cross the bridge when my
mom starts completely freaking out, saying she doesn't want to
go and something bad is going to happen, and she's
freaking out so bad my dad asked a police officer
to help them turn around. A few weeks later, World
(45:32):
Trade Center blew up for the first time. Also, she
predicted the death of my grandmother. She had a dream
that my grandma was sitting at the edge of my
father's brother's coffin. He had died a few years prior.
She sat there just looking at my mom and talking
to her. When my mom woke up and asked my
dad to take her to his mom's house. By the
time they got there, she had already passed away. There's
(45:54):
some other stuff about how she gets bad vibes about
people and things, and I'm not a big believe in
this stuff, but I am a big believer in her predictions.
She hasn't had one in a while, but I guess
that's a good thing. Thanks for doing what you do.
Signed Elena. You know I want to say at the
very top of this reaction that I absolutely do not
(46:16):
care what people ascribe a bad vibe too. I would
listen to it because there's you know, there's any combination
of cues that your subconscious might pick up on that
your conscious mind does not acknowledge, and sometimes that could
translate as a bad feeling, you know, like someone just
walked over my grave, or I just shook hands with
(46:38):
that guy. Now it feels weird and I don't trust him.
You know, I think there's nothing wrong with following your
gut in that regard. I mean, don't don't you know,
go out and try to murder someone because you've gotta
vad vibe off of them. Yeah, but even though I mean,
like not not to oversimplify it, but haven't you ever
had I had a thing where, like you, we're thinking
(47:00):
about a song and then that song came on or
like you know, I mean, so I know that's like
confirmation bias or what is it where you say bad
or mine hoff syndrome or whatever, but like it is
a very very powerful feeling, you know what I mean,
And especially when you connect it with something that ultimately
does come to pass. It's it's it's very easy. Even
(47:20):
like something as simple is like hearing a song, you
could almost you know, your brain could very you could
very easily be convinced by your brain, which is very clever.
You know, piece of machinery that you made that happen,
or that you somehow had for knowledge that was going
to happen, and then it was like an inclination or
something like that. I I I have never really experienced
the phenomenon in the way that she's describing like that.
(47:43):
I don't think I've ever really known anybody that was
just spot on repeatedly. But for me to really believe it,
I think it would have to be like repeatedly, repeatedly
and specific. Yeah. Well, you know, full disclosure I have.
It is a belief in this stuff. This widespread in
my extended family, and they will insist to you that
(48:04):
they have had precognitive dreams or that they have had
you know sience, Yeah, that they've had the site. It's
big in Appalachia, so my in laws are right there
with you. Oh yeah, But I would love to hear
more of these stories. I am fascinated by this yes,
please send them in if you've got them. I am too,
and I am not downplaying these stories at all. I'm
(48:27):
just kind of like filtering it through my own experience,
in my own jerky skeptic brain, I guess. But you know,
I have experienced things like this, but not quite this intense.
And if it was, if it had happened to me,
I might feel completely differently about him. That's true. That's true.
Now I'm now I'm going to be paying close attention
to every song I hear for the next day because
(48:49):
we mentioned bait or mind off. It's gonna follow me
like a curse. I used to dance alone my own valition.
That's a good one. That's Alex's favorite one too. So
thanks for writing in, Lena. We've got a We've got
a short recommendation from the been. Randall on Twitter says,
(49:13):
conspiracy stuff. Please call your drunken after show cons beer
se hashtag do it for the kids. What have we decided?
That's a thing. I don't think we've decided that yet, Ben,
but you know, we're um, we're definitely just trying to
decide whether we're going to record it or not. That's true.
(49:36):
I heard a funny Halloween beer pine last night it
was would you'd care for a Miller Frite? You know
it is, after all, the Shampain of fear. Oh. I
am so delighted. Thank you for bringing that into my life. Yeah,
my girlfriend told me that, and she she'd heard some
(49:57):
friends say it. I'm not going to name names, but
shout out to Jezz Press and Uh and to you
as well, Ben Randall. We have not we have not
officially decided whether we're going to foray into recording this,
but we appreciate all the suggestions that we found on Twitter.
Who you know, people asking us if we wanted to
film it. I don't know if we wanted to record it,
(50:18):
but I can't argue with a good pun and conspiracy
is pretty solid, So thank you the Ben Randall. Our
final shout out goes to Damon from Indiana. Damon says,
I've been listening to every podcast so far, and I
have to say it's quite the feat to get to
the newer stuff. There's just so much of it. Well,
you're welcome, Damon, and sorry, but I do also have
(50:41):
a suggestion for you guys to research. I don't know
how easy it would be for you to do a
topic on this due to how mysterious it is. The
Great Attractor. That's a good one, right. There are so
many speculations on what this thing could be. No one
really knows what it is other than a strange anomaly
that's pulling everything in the universe towards it. I think
(51:03):
it would be a cool episode. May be fun for
you guys as well. We all love looking into deep space. Agreed.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Guy's
keep doing all the awesome stuff you do for all
of us listeners. Oh that's really cool. Thank you Damon
and the Great Attractor. I don't know that I know
this besides maybe a supermassive black hole. Is that what
Damon's talking about? Or is it something even bigger, some
(51:25):
other force. Right now, science is referring to it as
a gravitational anomaly. It's at the center of the Lana
Kia super cluster. Uh, and it has it's a localized
concentration of mass that is tens of thousands of times
more massive than the entire Milky Way. Wow, so what's
(51:51):
going on with that? That does sound like a great
idea for an episode. Yes, we just need to get
somebody on the phone with us or in the studio,
I think who and just go, here's the science, true
and fair enough. Thank you so much, Elena, Thank you
so much the Ben Randall, and of course thank you Damon.
This concludes our but not our show. Matt Noel, super producer,
(52:18):
Alex and I will be back next week with some
things that might surprise you, some things that might disturb you,
but definitely hopefully fascinate you as much as they fascinate us.
So if you have any stories about ghost lights or
any other kind of paranormal activity, really we love hearing
that kind of stuff. Anything from psychics, you know, and
(52:39):
maybe a premonition that somebody in your family had, or
somebody you know or maybe you had, all the way
to just a glowing red orb that appeared to you
um on top of your cat once. I want to
know about that. I think these guys do too. He'll
just tell us about your cat. We're very interested in
your cat stories, yes, especially if your cat sits on
(53:02):
your chest at night and tries to steal your breath.
Why you gotta make it all sinister man, Why can't
it just be about the cats or a sweet cute
little kitty cat that is only a serial murderer on
the side. As someone who is uh, as someone who
is unreasonably popular with cats, I can't say that. I
believe they are inherently sinister. I don't love them. I
(53:24):
don't think that's a criticism. Agreed. Have you guys seen
that movie Cat People. Yeah, it's like sort of like
a skin of Max, like like softcore erotica film from
the eighties. Away, Oh, I'm you're thinking of cats. I
was thinking of Sleepwalkers that was later Cat People. I
think in Sleepwalker is very similar. They're basically about, you know,
(53:47):
these very sexy people in the eighties that turned into cats.
I only bring it up because we're talking about cats
and sinister things. And I recently bought the soundtrack and
it rules. It's Georgio Moroder does the score and then
got the like the Cat People. UM title track is
by David Bowie and it was featured in that scene
in Um Inglorious Bastards where the character sets a fire.
(54:11):
I'm not gonna do any spoilers, but there's a really
intense Bowie track and that's totally like the theme to
Cat People start a fire. With guessole and what better
way to inspire you to write to us. I I
cannot imagine a better note, musical or conceptual to set
(54:32):
you on your digital journey. While you're on the internet.
You can also find us on Instagram, and you can
find us on Facebook, and you can find us on
Twitter and not tumbler. Tumbler. Yeah, we're conspiracy stuff on
most of those or conspiracy stuff show. Just typing in
you'll find us. If you don't want to do any
(54:52):
of the social media, just send us an email. We
will get it. We are conspiracy at how stuff works
dot com. I
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