"They and Their Families Would See Balls of Light Inside Their Homes"

Veteran UFO reporter George Knapp has co-authored a recent news story making this claim:

"At least five highly experienced intelligence officers who went to the ranch to check things out, came into contact with paranormal phenomena, and then took it home with them. They and their families would see balls of light inside their homes, shadowy figures, even creatures that were physical, not a mere mental image."

From an evidence standpoint a report like that has relatively little strength (although it might be that a different report of the same events could be strong).  On the plus side, the report mentions more than one witness. On the minus side, it is a second-hand account not quoting any direct witnesses. And we have no named witness of these spooky orb events. But many named witnesses have said they saw mysterious orbs with the naked eye, as you can read about by looking at my 180+ posts here (keep pressing Older Posts at the bottom right to read them all). Many of those 180+ posts include the name of the witness. 

There are various factors that can increase the reliability of reports of the paranormal. They include these:

(1) Having a named witness.

(2) Having multiple witnesses.

(3) Having eyewitness testimony directly from an observer, rather than someone else's claims about what someone saw. 

(4) Having an observation account published very soon after the reported events. 

(5) There is some photographic evidence. 

In the account above, we have only one of these desirable features. But very many accounts of the paranormal have more than two of these features, as many as four or five.  The original published evidence for mysterious raps rates highly as good evidence, because we had a published report on the observed phenomenon, with multiple witnesses, and their eyewitness testimony gathered very soon after the original observations, and the relevant document quoting the eyewitness testimony published very soon after the reported events. I discuss the case here. The phenomena involving Florence Cook also meet such a high standard, as I discuss here. 

Many of the reports of spooky phenomena on this blog meet 3 out of 4 or 4 out of 5 of these hallmarks of good evidence. One of the reasons I am good about promptly publishing reports of strange things I see is that I want to meet as many of these hallmarks of good evidence as I can. An "I just saw this" report is usually better evidence than a "let me tell you about what I saw long ago" report. 

Orb Deja Vu

 Photo date: December 10, 2025. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

The stripe pattern is almost exactly the same as the one in my photo from a few weeks ago. The 3 elements are a J-like element on the left, a slanted element on the right, and a little mark on the bottom, slightly to the right of the center. 

See my post here for many other examples of repeating patterns in mysterious orbs. 

The Orb and the US Navy Officer

 At the link here we have a report of a sighting of an orb with the naked eye:

"In November of 1989, while stationed at Newport Naval Station in Newport, Rhode Island, I encountered an orb that entered the Naval Housing house where my wife, son, and I lived with our dog.

I was temporarily assigned as the Pier Master, with a crew of 4 sailors, responsible for the arrivals and departures of Naval ships and supporting them with pier-side services, including tugboat support and scheduling ships for supply store essentials.

One night at around 3 am, I got up, walked over to the bedroom window, and looked out at the housing area as I occasionally did, as a routine habit. I saw a light shining through the curtain, and as I opened it, there was a ball of light, now known as an orb today, moving back and forth over the houses in the neighborhood. It was looking for something or just observing the different front and back yards and cars in the area. The sudden opening of my curtain, I believed, caught the attention of the Orb.

The Orb suddenly started approaching my way and seemed to increase in speed as it got closer to my window. I was in a two-story housing unit, and the Orb's height soon matched the height of the window. It got closer and hovered through the window into my bedroom. When it entered my room, I stepped back and fell into my bed, and my dog started barking up a storm. A computer on my desk made a loud, metallic 'boing' sound. I looked at my laptop as it made a sound, then at the ball of light. The ball of light was a little larger than a basketball, glowing but not shining as brightly as a flashlight. The outer edges were not defined and looked like a frosted light bulb. You could not see through it, but it was not translucent or opaque. The ball of light hovered at the foot of my bed, nearly up against the wall. It hovered there for less than a minute, enough to take a good look at it.

It suddenly flew out of my bedroom, raced down the hallway, took a 90-degree turn down the stairs across the living room, and, I guess, into the kitchen and out through one of the walls. My dog and I ran after it, followed by my son, who had heard all the commotion, and my wife, who had been in bed.

There was no sign of the light, but my dog was staring at the kitchen door and barking at it continuously until I patted her and calmed her down.

I just sat down at my kitchen table and explained to my wife and son what had just happened. We never talked about it after that night. Not even today. Every time a story or conversation comes up about orbs, my son and I look at each other and nod. A few weeks ago, I finally made a MUFON report and told the MUFON investigator about Orb. MUFON Case Report Orb 144650:"

Mysterious Blue Indoor Orbs: A Retrospective (Part 6)

Below is Part 6 of a retrospective showing some of the better photos I have taken indoors of mysterious blue orbs photographed indoors. 

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in Grand Central Terminal in New York.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed indoors.

The photos below show two mysterious blue orbs I photographed in Grand Central Terminal in New York.

The photo below shows two mysterious orbs I photographed in Grand Central Terminal in New York.  

In the photo below which I took in Grand Central Terminal, we see a man and a woman with their heads very close, as if they were telling each other some secret.  Near the woman is a blue orb, perhaps acting as if it were listening in on the conversation.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in Grand Central Terminal in New York.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in Grand Central Terminal in New York.

"Mark, This Is Meredith MacCrae"

 I had a striking dream this morning. In the dream I went into a cafe, On the other side of a table with several people was a pretty young woman, who said, "Mark, this is Meredith MacCrae." 

Lying in bed after awaking, I struggled to remember who was Meredith MacCrae.  Was it someone I had worked with, I wondered? Quickly I recalled that Meredith MacCrae was an actress who had been in the 1960's TV show "Petticoat Junction." An internet search confirmed my recollection. Meredith had died in the year 2000. I had not seen the TV show "Petticoat Junction" in more than 50 years. 

I have recently been watching a series of youtube.com videos about the least popular TV shows of particular years such as 1966 or 1973, shows that were quickly cancelled. Watching this series has confirmed that humans have an incredible ability to remember useless and trivial things they learned more than 50 years ago. 

There was a mention of the 1974 TV show "Get Christie Love," which was cancelled after a single year. Without seeing any face, I recalled that the star was Teresa Graves. Graves basically had no presence in TV or movies after 1975, and in 1983 retired from show business. At the time I recalled her name (November 2025), I had not watched this 1974-1975  show or read or heard any mention of this show or Graves in the past 50 years, nor had I ever thought about the show or Graves in the past 50 years.

In a similar vein, this year I was watching a video on the most unpopular TV shows of 1973-1974. As soon as they mentioned the show The New Perry Mason, I remembered the star of the show was Monte Markham.  The show ran for only 15 episodes, and was never run in repeats after 1974, with there being virtually no mentions of it in the press since about that year. When the video mentioned  the TV show Adam's Rib without showing any of its actors, I remembered that it starred Blythe Danner and a tall blonde person named Ken, who played Thomas Jefferson in the movie 1776. I remembered both of their faces well. I was right about all of those details. The male actor's name was Ken Howard.  The TV show Adam's Rib ran for only 13 episodes, and never ran in repeats after 1974. When the same video mentioned the TV show Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice, I remembered that one of the stars was a short red-haired actress with the last name of Gillette. I was correct. The show ran for only 12 episodes in 1973, and never was seen after then. Upon hearing the name of the 1966 TV show "Captain Nice" (canceled after a single season), without any image shown, I recalled its star was William Daniels.  Upon seeing an unlabeled photo of Judy Carne (an actress I have not seen on TV or heard mentioned in about 60 years), I instantly identified her as Judy Carne. 

Similarly, while watching this year one of these videos I saw a screen merely listing a title of It's About Time, a series that ran from 1966 to 1967, and was never syndicated after then. I correctly remembered that the show was about astronauts who traveled back in time into the Stone Age. I also remembered the melody and most of the lyrics of the beginning of the show's theme song, remembering that it went like this: "It's about time, it's about space, __ __ __ __ __ __ __ place." I had an equally good recollection of melody and lyrics of the theme song of the 1965 TV series Hank, cancelled after a single season. 

People can remember the most useless pieces of trivial information they learned more than 50 years ago, memories that were never reactivated. There is no credible neuroscience explanation or evolutionary explanation for why humans would have such an ability. Neuroscientists are utterly unable to give any credible explanation for any of the main capabilities of human memory. When neuroscientists attempt to give such an explanation, they merely engage in vacuous jargon-decorated hand-waving. Nothing in a brain bears the slightest resemblance to a component for storing or retrieving memories. Microscopic examination of brain tissue of living and dead people has failed to produce any trace whatsoever of anything any human learned -- not even a single word or letter or number has ever been found through such microscopic examination. The proteins that make up brain synapses (the reputed storage place of memories) have a lifetime of only two weeks or less. But many people can instantly recall the most useless and trivial things they learned more than 50 years ago.  The phenomenon of instant recall is beyond any neural explanation.  Our brains have none of the things humans put in things they make to allow instant retrieval (things such as sorting, addressing and indexing).  The failure of brains to explain human minds and their capabilities is discussed at the greatest length in many posts of my blog site here. 

The ability of some humans to instantly recall some of the most useless pieces of information they learned 50 years ago is one of countless reasons for thinking that human minds and human memory are soul realities, not brain realities.  And when I get the type of dream I had today (along with endless similar dreams), I suspect such a soul survives death. 

Mysterious Red Sky Orbs: A Retrospective (Part 1)

 Below are some photos I previously took of mysterious red orbs in the sky. All of the photos were taken in clean, dry air when there was no fog, mist, rain or precipitation.

Below we see a mysterious red orb I photographed in the sky, next to another orb with traces of red. 

Below we see two mysterious striped orbs that I photographed in the sky.

The photo below shows a mysterious striped orb I photographed in the sky.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in the sky.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in the sky.

The photo below shows a mysterious orb I photographed in the sky.  If you rotate the photo, you will see the letter "F" inside the orb.

We see below a mysterious red orb I photographed in the sky.

Which Was Weirder?

 Photo date: December 1, 2025. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

Below we see a mysterious striped orb I photographed indoors. 

On the same day I got this green orb, which appeared on the right edge of a photo.

On this day I also got the strange effect shown below. It is a full photo I took with nothing near the camera lens, one that looks like some burst of light so bright nothing recognizable can be seen. I have put an outside border on the photo so that you can tell it is a photo. It reminds me of an effect I got in February, 2020, one I recorded in my post here.