In 1979, Ananda Sirisena, ufologist in the U-K., reported in Awareness, the quarterly journal of the "Contact UK" UFO group, about a close encounter with a luminous ball in Derbyshire, U-K.
Harry White, 17, was a keep-fit fanatic who often went for a three mile run at night, and during such an exercise in October, 1932. He did not remember the exact date but by a process of elimination he was certain that it was the month of October 1932.
He was on a minor road that leads from Bolsover to Sandhills, in Derbyshire, approaching the junction that this road makes with the main road to Rotherham.
The evening was clear with the Moon casting a warm glow. When he was roughly 120 yards from the intersection, at about 8 p.m., he noticed that a bright light was playing tag with him. He stopped still, and the light also stopped still.
The light was hovering three meters away from him, on the far side of the hedgerow which lined his route. Fascinated by the apparently intelligent response of the light, he remained calm, and coolly scanned the entire area looking for a logical explanation. Finding none, he resumed his run.
The light also started up, maintaining a level pace with him, at a height of 3 feet above the ground, For another 50 yards this silent race between them continued, until the light suddenly moved towards him. Not so fast as to be a blur, but a calculated move which he could not follow with his eye. Mr. White said:
"The object left the hedgerow and suddenly moved towards and around my legs and in between my feet as I ran. I felt it had come to investigate - and had become aggressive - but this could have been a nervous reaction on my part. It was, however, very real and no illusion. I began to kick out at the thing, really scared and in a panic".
Seemingly undamaged by this vigorous retaliation, the light remained close to him, evaded his kicking and easily moved around him without making physical contact. On reaching the road junction, the light left him, returning to its position behind the hedgerow and for another 100 meters kept pace with his now fast run. Then it just disappeared.
He described the light as a perfect sphere, 12 inches in diameter. This was somewhat puzzling, because a light that size should be to large to pass between his running legs without touching them. The light must have had a precise sense of timing and reflexes. Mr. White was certain that the light did not touch him; he felt no warmth or pain when it moved around its legs. It made no sound and emitted no smell. It did not change in size, and there were no markings on it, only a uniform non-dazzling glow. It left no trail and did not vary in brightness.
When he reported his encounter, Mr. White was a schoolmaster. He explained:
"I was a captain in the infantry during World War II and saw many horrors and felt intense fear on many occasions - these are now dim memories - but the light is still a vivid memory".
Sirisena - probably thinking of a wisp - noted that the locations are not a marshy area. He noted the night was dry and there was no rain or snow storm later, making the ball-lightning proposition weak. The duration of the sighting was about three minutes.
Mr. White offered no explanation except to say that he witnessed something very unusual: "All I do know is what I experienced, I have not embroidered the account in any way".
When he arrived home that night, his grandfather, sitting in his chair by the fireside, remarked: "You look scared to death". Upon recounting his story, the grandfather proposed a simple solution: the area where he says he saw the light was the traditional burying place of suicides and one must expect to see the occasional tormented soul in such nether regions.
Later, this case appeared as a short summary in a "skeptical" ufology catalogue as being an encounter with an entity.
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[Ref. as1:] ANANDA SIRISENA:
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15. "THE LAMBENT SPECTRE THAT WAS KICKED BY A LONG DISTANCE RUNNER" by Ananda Sirisena Harry White, at the age of seventeen, was a keep-fit fanatic who often went for a three mile run at nights. It was during such an exercise in October, 1932, that he tangled with a light which expressed a curious interest in him. He was on a minor road that leads from Bolsover to Sandhills, in Derbyshire, (map ref. 489713, sheet 112, Nottingham), approaching the junction that this road makes with the main road to Rotherham. It was a clear evening with the Moon casting a warm glow. He does not know the exact date, but by a process of elimination is certain that it was the month of October, 1932. When he was roughly 120 yards from the intersection, he noticed that a bright light was playing tag with him. The time was about 8.0 pm. He stopped still. The light also stopped still. It was hovering three yards away from him, on the far side of the hedgerow which lined his route. Fascinated by this intelligent response, he remained calm, and coolly scanned the entire area looking for a logical explanation. Finding none, he resumed his run. The light also started up, maintaining a level pace with him, at a height of three feet above the ground, For another 50 yards this silent race between youth and light continued, until the light suddenly moved towards him. Not so fast as to be a blur, but a calculated move which he could not follow with his eye. Mr White says: "The object left the hedgerow and suddenly moved towards and around my legs and in between my feet as I ran. I felt it had come to investigate -- and had become aggressive -- but this could have been a nervous reaction on my part. It was, however, very real and no illusion. I began to kick out at the thing, really scared and in a panic". Seemingly undamaged by this vigorous retaliation, the light remained close to him, evaded his kicking and easily moved around him without making physical contact. On reached the road junction, the light left him, returning to its position behind the hedgerow and for another 100 yards kept pace with his now fast run. Then it just disappeared. He estimates the light to have been a perfect sphere, twelve inches in diameter. This is somewhat puzzling: how could a light that size pass between a pair of running legs? It would have to be endowed with a keen sense of timing and lightning reflexes not to have touched his legs. Mr White is adamant the light did not touch him; he felt no warmth or pain when it moved around its legs. It made no sound and emitted no smell. It did not change in size, and there were no markings on it, only a uniform non-dazzling glow. It left no trail and did not vary in brightness. Mr White is a schoolmaster by profession. He further states: "I was a captain in the infantry during World War II and saw many horrors and felt intense fear on many occasions -- these are now dim memories -- but the light is still a vivid memory". The Sandhills is not a marshy area. The night was dry and there was not a rain |
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16. or snow storm later, making the ball-lightning proposition weak. The duration of the sighting was about three minutes. Mr White himself offers no explanation except to say that he witnessed something very unusual. "All I do know is what I experienced, I have not embroidered the account in any way". When he arrived home that night after his eventful run, his grandfather, sitting in his chair by the fireside, remarked: "You look scared to death". Upon recounting his story, the grandfather proposed a simple solution: the area where he says he saw the light was the traditional burying place of suicides and one must expect to see the occasional tormented soul in such nether regions. In June 1932, a similar light was seen on a farm 18 miles south of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA (l). Its reported maneuvres and size make a noteworthy comparison. Other mystery lights of unknown origin, but often performing intelligent or purposeful movements, have been reported from many places around the world (2) and bear comparison in some instances with those encountered by Mr White. Thomas Harrison, who witnessed a similar light at Shuttlewood in 1919 (3), afforded a rather similar description of the thing he saw. Although apparently not common, these lights seemingly appear sufficiently often for one to speculate how many are observed but never reported. Perhaps we will never know. Notes:
* Editor of the Sri Lanka UFO Register", 167 Gladstone Road, Wimbledon. |
[Ref. pr1:] PETER ROGERSON:
October 1932, 2000hrs.BOLSOVER (DERBYSHIRE : ENGLAND) Harry White (17) was running along the road from Bolsover to Sandhills when about 120m from the intersection with the Rotherham Road, he saw a light about 1m from him on the other side of a hedge. When he stopped the light stopped and when he started up again so did the light. After about 50m the light moved towards Harry and moved around and between his legs, causing him to kick out at it without effect. When they reached the junction the light returned to behind the hedge and then continued to pace him for about 100m before just disappearing. The light was in the form of a 30cm diameter sphere. Hanson and Holloway 2016 p392 citing investigation by Anada Sirisena Evaluation - Another story told decades later |
"Hanson and Holloway 2016 p392", the source given in [pr1], maybe the book "Haunted Skies Volume 7" by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway.
There is no "Anada" Siresena as written in [pr1]; but there is an Ananda Sirisena, currently (2018) senior Training Consultant in an IT company in Sri Lanka, who authored articles about Mars "anomalies", such as:
(Etc.)
He also authored some articles in the Flying Saucer Review in the 1970's, such as "The Light At Shuttlewood".
Peter Rogerson is a Bristh ufologist who started an "entity" encounters catalogue in the 1970's called INTCAT. In the 2010, having taken a skeptical position about aliens, he reworked his catalogue and published it on the web. He argues that no CE3 was ever anything else than imagination or misinterpretation. He accused "proponent" ufologists to have included old cases of fairies and ghost stories as being alien encounters, but does the same as a manner to show that stories due to imagination and misinterpretation always existed.
For his cases with an "alien" flavor, he added comments such as in this case, "Evaluation - Another story told decades later".
I think this old case - it is true it is reported late - stands out from the "folklore" stories, "contactees" stories of that year 1932 because:
One question of course is, is this an "entity" or a "craft" or remote-controlled or automatic "device" of some sort? I cannot tell. As it could be one or the other just as well, it is not absurd to put it into a CE3 catalogue, provided this note is made.
The trivial potential explanations were noted by the investigator. One is the marsh gas. But marsj gas does not look at all like a sphere and never chased anybody, and the investigator mentions the place is not marshy.
The other explanation would be ball lightning. everything about the sphere looks like ball lightning, except that I know of no cases where ball lightning would have paced a person or rushed inbetween his/her legs. Also, the investigator who thought about this potential explanation noted that there was no storm then.
To me, this is a case without proven trivial explanation, without likely trivial explanation, with a somehow uncertain credibility bit no sign of invention. The sphere could have been some device or entity, certainly not form our Earth.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ufology | Medium | August 23, 2018 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Color of sphere not reported. | - | - |
| 2 | Ufology | Severe | August 23, 2018 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Single witness case. | - | - |
Extraterrestrial visitors.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | August 23, 2018 | Creation, [as1], [pr1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | August 23, 2018 | First published. |
