Ball Lightning
 

Once when exchanging "creepy" stories with a friend, he related this story:

"I was in my room watching the movie Terminator on my tv in my room. When the movie was over, I turned the tv off and sat on my bed and began to read. Moments later, the television started making a very loud crackling sound. The screen was glowing red and tendrils of what looked like electricity were jumping out and then returning to the screen. A blue body of electricity was beginning to form in front of the screen. A short amount of time passed and the ball moved outwards from the screen to the center of the room where it stood still for about 2 seconds, and then disbursed to all four corners of the room."

When I heard this I thought this sounded a lot like ball lightning, but I have never seen it and there is very little written about it. Does anybody know anything about ball lightning, or has anyone had a similar experience?

I seem to remember hearing about ball lightning in the paper, it was near where my uncle lived in cornwall england so thats what drew my attention to it at first, i cant remember much about it tho :( what i do remember is i think it was said to have gone down the chimney, the people in the house said that metal objects in the rooms around moved towards the room it happened in and the end result was it knocked out the front of the house. I remember a dramatic picture of the front of the house knocked down. I think it has something to do with a strong magnetic field tho this might all be babble, i havnt slept in a bit, ill have to ask around and do some research yeah its a wierd phenomana (sp?)

k did a quick google and it came up with
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/tesla/ballgtn.html
looks like its got some decent info, sounds much like your friend experianced

My mother has experienced it when she was lil.. came through the window and hit the light globe..

I hope your friend got a new tv!!

If i saw ball lightning it would probably scare the shit outa me, i would think it was a ghost or something lol. ...unless of course it was obvious what it was.. during a lightning storm or exploding powerlines.

Yup, that sounds like a classic ball lightning sighting. What's really freaky is when it moves around, following air currents and seeming like it's intelligently controlled.

yup sounds very much like what I've read about ball lightning. My father had an experience with it during his teens at his parents home - supposedly came in a window and traveled up and down a hallway - twice - and then dispersed. freaky stuff!

That would scare the hell out of me. I'm sure you could feel the heat from it. I have almost been struck before and I mostly remember the heat and the smell of buring hair.

i read about it once, there are many oddities in the world that may only happen once or twice ever but are still real and natural tho people dont think so

my aunt once told me that she was sitting in her room and a ball of lighting flew in, I didn't believe her but now i do :)

yet another reason not to sit in front of the tv

yet another reason not to sit in front of the tv

Cool, I'd love to see that. From a safe distance. Behind 10-inch glass. Wearing rubber boots. And being weightless.

I'd go for it, as long as it, you know, didn't kill me.

I wish something cool like that would happen. I almost always have a video camera and/or my SLR near me, and I'd grab them so fast if my TV started acting like a Tesla coil.

Sounds spooky and creepy;could also explain some ufo sightings.

Wow thats pretty crazy. At first I thought it was a load of bs, and then I see all those researched links and all the other members saying they had similar occurences.
Very strange I must say. I think it would be pretty sweet, yet very spooky to see this happen.

Hmmm. . . not sure that I believe it could float up and down hallways but I wont disagree. . . I have been taught in my classes that ball lightening usually follows natural conductors. my advisor has seen ball lightening before when he was in the field chasing tornados. . . he said it was a ball of blue light that raced along the side of the road on a barbed wire fence. . .

Sounds alot like St. Elmos Fire (experienced by pilots).

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/S...Lightning.html

A picture of ball lightning.

Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't appear kneeling naked in his room after that did he? :(

Or better yet - Kristanna Loken. Mmm... Ball lightning COME TO ME!

well i've seen this twice.. once in a swamp and once in the back hills of arkansas.

i must tell you that was the most frightning moment ive ever had.. well the swamp one that is.. see we play dungeons and dragons here. will o' wisp is a creature that varies in color. is made of energy.. i.e. similar to what ball lightning is like and is very very evil..

now imagine my shock at seeing this late at night shroom hunting (no real cooking mushrooms lol) and seeing this with your two friends that play with you..

i was reminded of an old d&d saying
cleric: do you think we can out run it?
thief: out run it all i have to do is out run the dwarf


although the one experience i have had was a moment of sheer awesomness.. you know those whirlwinds that float around the yard picking up leaves and such then die off.. i found one in the back yard when i was around 17. i flew out and stood in the center.. and to my shock it stopped moving.. to this day i can still remember the positive feeling that rushed through my body. was depressed for two days after it was over..

on a side note.. i read before that an elderly couple was sitting on thier porch on night when a ball lightning came a callin.. the (cant remember which now) person swated it with a fly swatter and it exploded in a bang.. didnt hurt either though. weird

Drider: I think your body/arms just stopped the flow of air causing the whirlwind thing. Aren't they called dirt devils?

that is crazy!! i wish i could see one.. or maybe not.... it's kinda scary actually

thats crazy i woulda thrown my book at it and been long gone before the lightning knew what hit it