Biomechanical Alien Drones or Spirits from the Other Side? Fascinating Encounters with Spherical Objects and Mysterious Orbs!

Most people, even outside of the UFO community, are familiar with the typical description of a UFO – usually a silver disc or a black triangle, perhaps a cigar-shaped craft. The fact is, however, there have been reports of many different UFOs, and some of the most intriguing of these are encounters with glowing spherical objects or mysterious, plasma-like orbs, some of which are no bigger than a soccer ball, some as large as a small car. Moreover, these encounters have taken place for decades, even before the start of the Modern UFO Era, and very likely much further back than that.

A good place to start would be with MUFON Case File 40667 – a case sometimes referred to as the Home Invasion case - at around 7 am on the morning of March 31st, 2012, in Miami, Florida, a woman given the name “Mary Alvarez” in the report, suddenly heard her dog barking frantically downstairs, behavior that was completely at odds with his usual demeanor. Mary immediately made her way down the stairs and to the living room. Once there, she was more than shocked to see a strange, metallic orb that was “around the size of a basketball” hovering in the air. She remained where she was, watching the object, noting there were flashing multi-colored lights on the underside. Several moments later, her husband walked into the room, stopping immediately as he too noticed the bizarre floating sphere. Then, things turned even stranger.

As the couple looked on in disbelief, the orb began to change shape, first going to a disc shape, and then to a long, cigar-shaped object. Then, the object suddenly moved, speeding toward the living room wall on a direct collision course. However, rather than crashing into the wall and smashing itself into a pile of debris on the floor, the object disappeared directly through the wall. Indeed, it was later described as vanishing how one might imagine a ghost walking through a wall.

In the weeks and months that followed, Mary and her husband began researching as much as they could on the subject of UFOs in an attempt to arrive at some kind of explanation for what they had seen. In fact, by their own admission, they became “obsessed” and “consumed” with it. One particular thing of interest that they did discover was that there were several other reports of strange objects in and around the Miami area on the same day as their living room encounter, and the couple was convinced that these sightings were not only connected to each other but also to their own incident.

If there was any doubt in their minds that what they had seen was something otherworldly, then that doubt was cast aside completely on the morning of July 8th, 2012. On the morning in question, Mary was in her bedroom when she heard the sound of some kind of commotion outside. She made her way to the bedroom window and looked outside. She was more than shocked to see a large, triangular object hovering almost directly over her house, with several onlookers below on the street also watching this monstrous aerial vehicle. Then, a loud-pitched whistling sound suddenly filled the air. A moment later, the object simply vanished right before her eyes. Whether there is a connection between this sighting and the orb encounter in their home several months previously remains open to debate.

Ultimately, both of Mary Alvarez’s sightings remain unexplained. They do, though, raise some interesting and thought-provoking questions as to the nature of the objects they witnessed. These sightings, for example, are seemingly further evidence that we are dealing with something that is solid one minute and then can pass through solid walls the next, or, in the case of the second sighting, simply vanish altogether. We might ask if this is evidence of an otherworldly phenomenon or if we are looking at advanced technology. Our scientists today, for example, are experimenting with “super solids” – solid structures that can pass through each other without compromising their own structures. Could the orb that Mary and her husband witnessed in their house that passed through the living room wall have been a “super solid” object?

Six years earlier, during a hiking and camping trip in northern Minnesota with her parents and her brother in the summer of 2006, writer “Katy P” had a similar encounter that she would describe as “life-changing!” The family had decided to make their campsite deep in the forests where the “closest road was miles away!” By the time they had arrived, it was already beginning to get dark, so they promptly made a fire, cooked something to eat, and went about setting up their tents for the evening. Katy was sharing a tent with her brother, while their parents shared a tent that was around 15 feet from theirs. As it was a particularly hot evening, Katy and her brother had removed the top cover from their tent, leaving just the mesh screen above them, meaning they had a clear view of the night sky overhead.

It wasn’t long before Katy remained the last one awake, and with her family fast asleep around her, she simply lay in her sleeping bag, alternating between forcing her eyes closed in an attempt to drift off to sleep and staring up at the stars. At one point, as she had her eyes closed, she noticed “some sort of pattern under" her eyelids, “something bright” that caused her to immediately open her eyes. She wrote that “what I saw there (above) made me freeze!”

According to her accounts, just above the treetops, which was approximately 15 feet above the ground, was a “bright orb of light!” This light, she claimed, was “perfectly round” and approximately “the size of a softball!” Moreover, it was hovering almost directly over their tent. She watched the orb for several hours, captivated by it. She recalled that “it would slowly follow a straight line about five feet long, and then the light would go out for a few seconds and (then) return!” When the orb returned, however, it was in a different spot overhead. This continued until dawn when the skies were almost light.

In the morning, Katy eagerly told her parents and her brother of what she had seen during the night, with each expressing their mild frustration that she hadn’t woken them. Katy later wrote that this was “a good question, and one that has haunted” her ever since. Ultimately, she stated that she had the feeling somewhere inside that if she had even moved, then the orb would have simply disappeared. She even went as far as to say that, although she couldn’t recall any specific information, she claimed she had the distinct feeling that some kind of communication was taking place between her and the orb.

There were several interesting comments left by readers on Katy P’s article, one of the most recent coming from “Jacob”, who claimed that he and a friend (“Dusty”) had a similar experience one day when they were teenagers. They claimed that they, along with several other friends, had ridden their quad bikes “deep into the woods” to spend the evening and the following day getting stoned (they had told their parents they were simply going on a camping trip). Jacob estimated they eventually came to a stop around an hour’s ride from the nearest dirt road, and much further than that from any modern road or highway. They spent several hours smoking joints and making their way through several beers before most of the group left the clearing on their bikes, leaving Jacob and Dusty alone (interestingly or not, Jacob has recollection of just why the rest of the group left). With the sun beginning to set, the two friends decided to pitch up their tent while there was still enough light to do so.

A short time later, with the hot night air even worse inside the tent, the two friends left it altogether, opting instead to sleep in the open air by the fire. Jacob recalled that as he was tending to the fire, he noticed a strange light appear. He stated that the light reminded him of a flashlight, but it was seemingly coming from above. He quickly got Dusty’s attention, and the pair, as discreetly as they could, sat looking skyward, following the strange light as it moved “almost with a flow” overhead, eventually coming to a stop around five feet from where they were sitting. At this point, Jacob realized how unnaturally silent it was all around them. The pair looked at each other, and without saying a word, they both quickly reentered the tent and zipped it shut. Moments later, through the flimsy fabric of the tent, the pair watched as the light headed in their direction, stopping just above their fire directly outside the tent. Then, without warning, the light retreated into the woods. A moment after that, the pair heard the sound of “engines of quads in the distance!”

With the return of their friends, the pair felt a sense of relief. During the evening, Jacob and Dusty told of what they had seen, with their friends taking the account with a pinch of salt, offering that the pair were perhaps “too high” for their own good. Everyone – including Jacob and Dusty – had a laugh about the sighting. A short time later, though, when the group was beginning to settle down for the evening, events began to turn surreal once more.

As the group was beginning to drift off to sleep, Jacob heard one of them say, “That’s a nice prank, guys!” This caused him, along with the rest of the group, to waken and begin surveying their surroundings. To their shock, a short distance away, they could see “balls of light darting between the gaps in the tree trunks” seemingly getting closer as they did so. The lights stopped only several feet from their campsite, with one of the “blinking” as if in recognition of their presence. Then, a moment later, each of the lights “rose high to the treetops and (then) began going even deeper into the woods!” Interestingly or not, none of the group said a word to each other about the bizarre event; instead, they simply returned to their tents and went straight to sleep. As soon as morning broke, several hours later, the group packed up straight away, a few of them making remarks that the objects they had witnessed “must have been a drone!” For Jacob, though, the drone explanation didn’t ring true, and he felt sure that the orbs they all witnessed as a group were somehow connected to the orb he and Dusty had witnessed earlier that evening, almost as if they had ”returned with more numbers!”

Another comment from an anonymous reader of Katy’s article also recalled a very similar event, one that also shared details with the previously mentioned Mary Alvarez. They offered that they remembered seeing a “white orb the size of a basketball” enter their bedroom through their door!” They continued that this orb-like object appeared solid but was also made of some kind of plasma. Moreover, it moved calmly across the room “in a straight line and went through the wall below the window!”

Around four decades previously, although it didn’t come to light until 2015, with the online report now having been removed, another very similar case unfolded. According to the report, during the day on September 30th, 1968, in Farmer’s Branch, Texas, an anonymous witness – a young man, in his late teens or early 20s at the time - was walking through woodland carrying his pellet gun hunting birds. As they came to a clearing, however, the witness could see a “reflective, silvery metallic football-sized” object seemingly resting on the ground approximately 100 feet in front of him. Instinctively, and in part because of his age, his first reaction upon seeing the object was to raise his gun and fire at it. A moment later, a “ping” sound told him that he had hit it. Within a second of it being struck, the object suddenly rose into the air, rising, at first, at an angle of 45 degrees. Then, without warning, the metallic football-sized sphere “just instantly vanished at the speed of light!” We should note that it isn’t entirely clear from the witness’s report whether the object vanished into the distance or, like the triangular object over Miami, simply vanished into thin air. Interestingly, it was when the witness saw the Home Invasion encounter of Mary Alvarez on a television program that he decided he had to report his encounters, stating that he suspected his sighting was “part of a bigger picture” of UFO incidents and encounters.

Although the exact date is uncertain, during the late autumn and early winter of 1995, in Wedowee, Alabama, a group of churchgoers not only witnessed a bizarre orb-like object as they made their way to a church in Anniston, but were actively chased by it. According to the MUFON investigation and subsequent report, the witnesses, between 10  to 12 people - unfortunately, the exact number is uncertain – were traveling from LaGrange in Georgia as part of a “cross-state bingo trip” organized by the two churches. Their driver was not only a member of the church but also a respected and well-liked businessman in the LaGrange community. It was around 7 pm, with the temperature particularly low, when they were making their way past the poultry plant in Wedowee, that the witnesses first noticed a strange light overhead. To begin with, and in part because they were all slightly distracted by the overwhelming stench from the plant that permeated their vehicle, they thought the light must be part of the building. Then, however, it suddenly moved, causing one of the witnesses to exclaim, “It’s not a light, but some (kind of) flying thing!”

It quickly became apparent to all in the vehicle that the light was heading in their direction, and the driver increased the speed accordingly. Moments later, another realization came – the light was intentionally following them, maintaining a distance of approximately 50 feet. Witnesses later described this strange orb as looking similar to a large lightbulb, and even stranger, several even claimed to have seen the vague outline of a humanoid figure within the light. After several moments, with the light continuing to follow, many of the witnesses began to feel suddenly unnerved, and even began ducking in their seats, as if they expected some kind of attack or other unpleasant interaction. They would, though, keep looking out of the windows, and were even more unsettled when they saw a “strange beam of light” that had some kind of “sparkling effect” emerge from the object on several occasions, a light, incidentally, they claimed “hurt their eyes!”

At this point, the vehicle entered an underpass. The light didn’t follow, and the group thought, whatever it was, it had given up the chase. However, as soon as they emerged from the other side of the underpass, they could see the orb hovering above them, almost as if it were awaiting their arrival. With that, the mysterious light followed them once more, always maintaining the same distance from their vehicle. Then, after several minutes, the bus approached an intersection and they were forced to stop. The light, however, continued past them, heading out over a nearby field before suddenly accelerating and disappearing in a second. The witnesses later recalled that the object had sped up so quickly and suddenly that a “visible streak” was left in the sky for several moments.

Although he had to keep his focus on the road while these otherworldly events had been taking place, the driver of the bus later stated that it seemed as though the object could “anticipate” the terrain over which it moved, including sudden changes, making the witness consider it had been programmed utilizing highly advanced technology. Indeed, this is an interesting detail, and perhaps should cause us to consider if this strange orb might have more terrestrial origins than we might otherwise think. Could it have been, for example, some kind of highly advanced and experimental military drone? Or might it be that the intelligence behind this orb was indeed otherworldly or from another dimension?

The witnesses themselves were largely regarded as credible, not least because of their strict religious backgrounds and respective standings within their community. The suggestion that the incident was some kind of hoax on their part was not ever seriously considered. Nor was the suggestion that what they had seen could have been some kind of natural phenomenon. Apart from the fact that the object showed clear signs of intelligence and control, the encounter played out over a considerable amount of time and distance. Three decades later, the incident remains a complete mystery.

It is also worth our time briefly examining a sighting that unfolded several years later in the Trickum Valley region of Alabama. On the night in question, one evening in the summer of 2003, two Cleburne County deputies were driving on routine patrol when their patrol car was suddenly enveloped in a brilliant, bright light. Although they couldn’t see it, whatever the light was, it was directly over their vehicle. And as their vehicle continued to be illuminated as it careered down the highway, it was clear it was keeping pace with them. After several moments, with the object maintaining pace in sympathy with the car as the deputy purposely sped up and slowed down, they decided to pull the car to the side of the road. However, almost the very moment they stepped from the vehicle, the object vanished in an instant. After several moments, they returned inside the vehicle. However, while they could restart and drive it, all of the other electrics were dead. They decided to return to their station and, by chance, passed a small group of campers on the way. They stopped to ask the group if they had seen anything unusual. All replied they had witnessed a strange bright light moving in the distance before disappearing.

As well as encounters with these orb-like objects that appear to be some kind of otherworldly drone, or even some kind of biomechanical craft, there are also many reported sightings of spherical objects of a much larger variety – essentially, physical objects large enough to carry several occupants.

Perhaps one of the most well-known UFO cases involving a spherical object occurred on the morning of August 29th, 1967, on the Cantal Plateau in the French commune of Cussac. On the morning in question, at around 8 am, 13-year-old Francois and his nine-year-old sister, Anne-Marie, were on the open land herding their family’s ten cows with their dog, Medor. While keeping an eye on their herd, the two siblings passed the time by playing cards. By 10:30 am, the fog that had hugged the ground earlier had largely disappeared, and Francois noticed that several of the cows were attempting to gain access to a neighbor’s field over the low wall. He immediately called out commands to Medor to round up the herd. It was as he was doing so when he first noticed what he thought were four children standing in a nearby field. Due to his sight being partially obscured by a hedge, he stood on a group of large stones so he could see over the top. Upon doing so, however, the scene became even more perplexing to him.

He could now see that these strange “children” were all wearing the same one-piece black clothing that had a “silken look” to them. Even stranger, try as he might, he couldn’t see any facial details, and their limbs appeared longer than they should have been. He stated that two of the figures were around three feet tall, while the remaining two were slightly taller. From what he could tell, the four figures were picking up “samples” from the ground. As intrigued as he was confused, he continued to watch.

By this point, Francois was certain these strange figures were not children. His sister, though, four years younger, seemingly did as she suddenly called out, “Do you want to play with us?” Moments later, the four figures, now aware of Francois and Anne-Marie, suddenly dove towards the ground to hide behind the hedge. As they did so, Francois and Anne-Marie noticed a “brilliant sphere” that was shining brightly close to where the four figures had been standing. The sphere was so bright that neither of the two children could look at it directly for longer than a few seconds. Then, things turned even stranger.

Suddenly, one of the figures jumped up into the air from behind the hedge. However, rather than returning to the ground courtesy of gravity, the figure remained in the air, as if it were wearing some kind of rocket booster on its back. For several moments, it hovered directly over the top of the glowing sphere before it went head-first into it, vanishing inside. Two more of the figures did the same, one after the other. At this point, the sphere had risen slightly off the ground, while the fourth figure had come into view and appeared to be searching on the ground for something close by. Francois watched as the figure reached down and picked up some kind of device that had a “mirror-like” quality to it. The figure then made its way to the sphere and disappeared inside in the same fashion as the first three figures. The spherical object continued to rise into the air, faster now, while a strange “whistling sound” began to fill the air around the two children. Even stranger, both Francois and Anne-Marie noticed an extremely strong smell of sulfur suddenly all around them. As this was happening, the herd was beginning to become unsettled, while Medor barked and barked, clearly agitated at what was unfolding around him. The object now began to move away from the two children, increasing its speed steadily as it did so. Moments later, it began to ascend, and within 30 seconds, it had disappeared into the distance and out of the children’s sight.

Francois, as mystified as he was by the whole affair, had enough presence of mind to round up the disturbed cattle before returning them to the family farm, where he and Anne-Marie would tell their father, the Mayor of Cussac, no less, of the “devils” they had witnessed floating into the glowing sphere. Noticing the genuine unsettled state of his two children, as well as the equally agitated state of Medor, he immediately contacted the local police, who arrived at the family home at around 4 pm. Along with their father, the police accompanied the two children back to the location where the strange events had played out. Upon arriving, they all immediately noticed the smell of sulfur, which was still extremely strong in the air. Moreover, where the children claimed the glowing sphere had rested on the ground, they discovered a patch of grass that was distinctly yellow. The police measured the round yellow patch, recording that it measured 15 feet across. The police made an official report of the incident, and within days, local, then national newspapers detailed the encounter. For all of the publicity, though, just what the object and its occupants might have been remains a complete mystery.

Over the years that followed, multiple UFO investigators and organizations explored and investigated the case. One thing that all agreed on, despite their age, the two witnesses were regarded as reliable and credible, not least as, despite telling of their accounts on multiple occasions, and despite being subjected to a barrage of questions, the two children never once wavered from their version of events. That they witnessed something out of the ordinary was not in question.

Two investigators who spoke with the children only weeks after the incident were Joel Mesnard and Claude Pavy. They interviewed the children only weeks after the encounter, ensuring they did so separately. Each relayed the same account with no contradictions. Not only did they come away feeling that the witnesses were both very credible, but that the case was of “significance and importance” to the overall big picture of the UFO mystery. Moreover, it would also come to light that a “rural policeman” had come forward and claimed to have heard a “strange whistling” sound near the location of the sighting on the morning of the incident. It is also worth mentioning an incident that unfolded at around 11 pm on January 6th, 1967, around eight months earlier, in Aveyron, when multiple residents witnessed “six luminous spheres” moving calmly overhead. Even stranger, now and then, odd bursts of light would emanate from these spherical objects, and stranger still, one witness claimed to have seen a humanoid figure within this column of light.

Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing episodes unfolded during the evening of June 22nd, 1976, over the Canary Islands, specifically, the largest island, Tenerife, as well as La Palma and La Gomera, when multiple residents reported strange lights overhead. Moreover, rather than there just being several people who claimed to have seen something strange, it is likely that hundreds of people witnessed the aerial anomalies that evening, with the newspaper reports that followed even claiming witnesses numbered thousands. These lights, it is claimed, performed maneuvers that all terrestrial aircraft were simply incapable of, and were also controlled, ruling out that they were some kind of natural object. Most striking of all, though, people claimed to have seen the occupants of these aerial vehicles – occupants that were quickly labeled “aliens!”

Although the sightings were actively reported on at the time (largely through a basic report sent from the Spanish Air Force to journalist J.J. Benitez), the full details of that night’s events didn’t come to light until 1994, when the Spanish government declassified all of their UFO files. Following the declassified files entering the public domain, however, a much fuller and more comprehensive timeline emerged.

It was revealed that the Spanish Navy ship, the Altrevida, had been the first to spot something out of the ordinary at precisely 9:27 pm, when they reported seeing “an intense yellowish-bluish light” that was heading in their direction off the coast of the island from the shore. The object suddenly stopped and hovered silently, before a “luminous beam (emerged) from it (and) began to rotate!” This continued for approximately two minutes before the beam disappeared, replaced by “an intense great halo of yellowish-bluish light!” By this point, the entire crew was watching the object, and it remained where it was for around 40 minutes. Then, “the light split into two parts”, the smallest section moving beneath the halo while the larger section “climbed in a spiral, rapid and irregular” high into the air before disappearing. Several minutes later, according to the declassified files, reports began to come in from civilians on the island.

The reports came from all over Tenerife and the surrounding islands; moreover, they came from all sections of society, from everyday seasonal workers in the bars and restaurants, to professionals such as doctors and teachers. It quickly became apparent that the reports separated themselves into two main groups – those who witnessed the yellowish-blue light reported by the crew of the Altrevida, and those who reported seeing a much smaller, sphere-like object, one which, if the reports are accurate, had several strange occupants inside. What’s more, these latter reports came from multiple members of the population, meaning that the military was unable, or perhaps, to their credit, unwilling, to put these reports down to mis-sightings or overactive imaginations. As we might imagine, with such an abundance of reports, some would stand out from the others.

One such report was that of Dr. Francisco Padron Leon, who was being driven in a taxi from his home in Guia to an emergency house call in Las Rosas. As the taxi made its way down the highway, the headlights of the car suddenly fell upon a “luminous spherical object” up ahead. Both men spotted the anomaly, and neither could quite tell if it was hovering just above the ground or if it was resting on it. They later recalled that it appeared to be made of “crystalline-like material” and seemed to be transparent with a blue glow all around it. As the two men continued to observe the sphere, they saw what they stated appeared to be “stars” inside, as well as a control panel of some kind that was made of a material that appeared similar to aluminum. Strangest of all, though, were the two humanoid figures standing on each side of the panel, each dressed in the same red suit, and each around eight to ten feet in height. Then, the surreal moment became even more so.

As the two men looked on, the sphere suddenly began to grow until it was the size of a “20-story house!” Although the sphere grew, the humanoids and control panel remained the same size within its structure. After several moments, the sphere began to rise into the air. By this point, Dr. Leon had arrived at his destination and, with the object still rising, he got out of the car. He ran to the door, banging on it as loudly as he could, eager for those inside to come out and witness the bizarre, otherworldly craft. To his relief, they did, just in time to see it rising high into the air, beginning to increase its speed as it did so. Then, it suddenly shot off into the distance, disappearing from view in a matter of seconds. After they had gathered themselves, one of the residents of the house offered that just before Dr. Leon began knocking on the door, their television set suddenly began experiencing intense interference before suddenly going blank, while at the same time, their dogs began to become agitated and anxious. At this point, the resident walked over to the window and was more than shocked to see the sphere-shaped craft outside, so close that she could also see the two humanoid figures inside. There were several other sightings in the weeks that followed the events that evening, but the sightings of June 22nd, 1976, and the detailed report of Dr. Leon, in particular, are of most importance. It is also interesting to note some of the words from the summary of the military report that stated:

“The fact that a very strange and peculiar aerial phenomenon occurred on the night of 22 June is a true and proven fact, as incredible as its behavior and conditions may seem!”

Interestingly or not, in the early years of the 2000s, several similar sightings were reported over the Canary Islands. In 2004, for example, an Italian national working on the islands reported seeing a “luminous orange sphere” over a little after sunset one evening. The sphere remained visible for around a minute before disappearing into the distance. In the summer of 2006, over the island of Tenerife, a local newsroom received several reports of a bizarre “static white lights” hovering overhead. Even stranger, at the same time as these reports were coming in, multiple residents of the island reported interference with their electrical devices, such as televisions and even fridges. An official explanation, incidentally, stated that the electrical surge and the white lights witnessed were the result of preparations for a royal visit.

Just over two years later, in November 2008, in the Puerto del Carmen region of Lanzarote, a British husband and wife reported seeing two “yellow-orange lights” as they sat on their top patio at the villa they were renting. These strange lights “danced in the sky” as they headed in their direction before they suddenly stopped and changed direction, heading towards Fuerteventura. The husband, who had a career in the British Royal Air Force, later claimed he had never seen anything like it previously. Just short of six months later, in March 2009, another couple witnessed a similar light while holidaying in the Playa Blanca region of Lanzarote. According to their report, at around 8 pm on the night in question, they saw a bright light that they thought was a helicopter heading towards them as they were walking back to their hotel. After looking as though the object was going to “plummet” towards them, the glowing light suddenly came to a stop a short distance above them. It remained there for several moments before it sped off into the distance, eventually disappearing.

It isn’t just reports from the Modern UFO Era where we can find these reports of strange orbs and spheres. According to an article in the Syracuse New Times, in the autumn of 1930, in Waterloo in the Lauderdale County region of Alabama, several young women witnessed a “glowing ball” overhead as they were sitting outside of their high school. The report arrived with the newspaper years later, courtesy of the witness’s grandson, “Jesse”. He claimed that on the night in question, at around 6:30 pm, his grandmother and three of her friends were sitting in a parked car outside the school. They were waiting for a staff member to let them in, as they were there as part of a cast that was performing a play that evening. As they were waiting, Jesse’s grandmother noticed what she described as a “ball of fire” heading in their direction. All four of them watched as this strange glow got ever closer, eventually casting its bright glow all over their car. It eventually came to a stop close to their vehicle. Jesse’s grandmother recalled that the object was approximately “the size of a basketball” and began circling the car, approximately two to three feet away from them. Then, after several moments, it suddenly shot off into the nearby woodland and disappeared.

Arguably, one of the most fascinating encounters involving orbs is that with Stella Lansing, who had multiple encounters beginning in the early 1960s when she began noticing strange “orb-like objects” hovering overhead near her home in Northampton, Massachusetts. On the evening of October 31st, 1966, however, these encounters suddenly escalated. On the night in question, at around 7:20 pm, Stella was driving her car near a lake close to her home. She pulled into one of the parking spaces in front of the lake and sat watching the water for several moments. Then, to her absolute shock and disbelief, there in front of her, a strange figure began to emerge from the water and began to move in her direction. She recalled this figure walked in a strange way and was “wearing a black skullcap!”

She immediately felt a surge of terror run through her and started the car’s engine. A moment later, she put the vehicle in reverse, pulled out of the parking space, and sped away as fast as she could. As she did so, she glanced back, horrified to see the figure had now reached the water’s edge and was standing close to the parking spot she had been in only moments earlier. Seeing this caused her to press down even harder on the accelerator, eager to get out of there as quickly as possible. As her vehicle sped down the road, however, she noticed one of the now familiar spheres overhead, an object she later described as an “orange orb of light!” She watched this orb, noting that it was heading towards where the strange figure, which itself was walking in the direction of the orb. Still glancing at her rearview mirror, Stella could see that a strange mist had suddenly formed around the figure – a mist that appeared to have come from the mysterious orb. Then, out of nowhere, a much larger, red orb suddenly appeared and swooped down towards the ground. A moment later, a bright flash was visible, and when Stella looked again, both of the orbs were nowhere to be seen, and the strange figure was gone.

It was after this bizarre encounter that Stella purchased an 8mm film camera, more than aware that hardly anyone would believe her accounts, and eager to capture the strange orbs on film. What she eventually managed to capture was indeed remarkable.

On the evening of February 19th, 1967, Stella was driving along Route 32 when she suddenly noticed one of the strange orbs once more. She immediately brought her car to a stop, reached for the camera, and began filming. She captured two of the orbs on film, “bouncing like a rubber ball!” Then, a third orb appeared - this one blue. By this time, several other motorists had noticed the strange aerial display and had pulled their respective vehicles to the side of the road in order to take a closer look, all of which Stella also managed to capture on film.

A little under a year later, in April 1968, Stella managed to purchase a professional projector system so she could slow her film down, frame by frame, and study exactly what she had captured – and when she did so, she was shocked by what she discovered. One of the frames, for example, clearly showed three men, who would become known to those who studied Stella’s film as “The Occupants!” With her projector at her disposal, Stella managed to capture the orbs on camera several more times, and upon studying them, she discovered further strange images seemingly embedded within the footage, on one occasion capturing an image of another strange figure, one that began being referred to as “The Monk!”  

Eventually, in the early 1970s, a decade since Stella had first begun noticing the strange orbs, paranormal researcher Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz took an interest in the case, and offered to work with Stella to get to the bottom of what the strange images might be and how they related to the orbs themselves. After all medical, neurological, and psychological tests came back normal, Schwarz concluded that not only was Stella Lansing a credible and reliable witness, but that there was some kind of paranormal connection to what she was capturing. However, it was also around this time that toll of strange encounters over 10 years finally caught up with Stella and, on the verge of suffering a mental breakdown, she admitted herself to the Massachusetts State Hospital for “mental evaluation!” During this time, she claimed she was “in communication with Beelzebub” and was ultimately diagnosed as a Paranoid Schizophrenic who was suffering from intense hallucinations. As we might imagine, Schwarz, as well as many others who had taken an interest in the case, rejected the idea that this diagnosis could explain away the many strange encounters and pieces of footage Stella had captured.

The films Stella had captured had been examined, and there was no evidence that they had been manipulated or faked. Moreover, Schwarz offered that Stella’s claims of being in contact with the Devil were simply her mind, ravaged by a decade of bizarre encounters, trying to find some kind of rational explanation. Despite this diagnosis, Schwarz continued to work closely with Stella, and they would document several more intriguing orb sightings, one of which was particularly thought-provoking. On this particular occasion, Stella and Schwarz had a third person with them and had pulled to the side of the road to film one of the strange orbs overhead. Then, out of nowhere, a car appeared and pulled up in front of them. Even stranger, an orb hovered directly over the top of this suddenly-appearing vehicle. Then, the car’s headlights began to flash, as if it were some kind of attempt to communicate. Deciding events had turned potentially ominous, the group decided to leave. However, no sooner had they pulled away than they noticed the car was following them. After several moments, this mysterious vehicle passed them and headed off into the distance. All three of them agreed – although they couldn’t be entirely certain – that the moving vehicle carried no passengers and was, in fact, completely empty.  

Several years later, on the evening of August 15th, 1981, in La Rochelle near Mutare in Zimbabwe, another bizarre incident involving a mysterious orb or spherical object occurred, one that was witnessed by multiple people. At around 6 pm on the night in question, Clifford Muchena was leading his team of 20 field workers back to the estate where they worked before they went home for the evening. As they did so, however, they noticed a strange “ball of fire” moving at a considerable pace across the fields and open grounds of the estate, appearing to “bounce” as it did so. At one point, this unsettling orb climbed the walls of the control tower, entering the top of the building. As it moved around inside, it gave the impression that the top of the tower was ablaze. Moments later, it sprang out of the control tower and headed towards the tea rooms.

At this point, Muchena headed towards the warning bell, ringing it as loudly as he could. As he did so, the orb rolled past him and climbed the exterior of a nearby building. When it reached the top, there was a sudden flash. As Muchena stared upwards towards the flash, he noticed three strange figures who appeared to have their backs to him. Instinctively, Muchena called out to them, causing the figures to turn around. He could see that each of them wore “shiny whitish overalls” that were shining so brightly that he couldn’t make out any details of their faces. At this point, he suddenly dropped to his knees and realized he couldn’t move. He later stated that there was “a power coming from them!” Now, beyond terrified, he shut his eyes as tightly as he could. Several moments later, he opened them, and much to his shock, not to mention relief, the three figures and the ball of light were gone. Moreover, everything around him was normal, with no damage or scorch marks on any of the buildings. Incidentally, when the route the glowing globe had taken was examined, including the control tower, there was no sign of any damage or burn markings whatsoever. The case attracted many UFO investigators to the region. However, when Muchena was asked if he thought the figures he had seen were visitors from another world, he responded that it was his belief they were “the spirits of my ancestors!”

Perhaps a great place to end our exploration into this realm of the overall bigger UFO picture is with the mysterious Min Min Lights, which have been witnessed throughout the Australian Outback for decades, if not centuries, and, at least according to indigenous legends, also share a connection to the spiritual realm. Although reports of these strange lights come from all over the country, sightings are most intense near the small settlement after which they are named, near the town of Boulia. In fact, as you approach this settlement, a sign greets you stating quite clearly that, “For the next 120 km you are in land of the Min Min Light!” This sign goes on to state that these strange lights will “at times follow travelers for long distances”, as well as that these lights have “been approached but never identified!”

As we might imagine, there have been many explanations put forward for these strange lights, and they have drawn particular interest from many in the UFO communities over the years. Indigenous tribes, however, insist that the lights are the “spirits of their ancestors!” Moreover, as European settlers moved into these previously lonely areas as the twentieth century unfolded, sightings of these lights increased, perhaps due to the disturbance of these spirits. Whether these assertions are accurate or whether such increases in sightings were due to the increase in people in these areas, perhaps remains open to debate. That something strange has been and continues to be witnessed is very real.

One of the most interesting encounters with the Min Min Lights occurred in 1937, when Henry Lamond was riding his horse through the region when he noticed what he thought were the headlights of a car approaching. Given that it was just after 2 am, Lamond questioned who might be out in the wilderness at this time of night. Before he could contemplate that too long, however, the night was about to take another strange turn. He had the sudden realization that he was not looking at a pair of headlights, but one large ball of light. He estimated that this ball was around 10 feet from the ground and was moving around 10 miles per hour, and, of more concern, there was “something eerie about it!” As unsettled as he was by the strange, glowing orb, he continued in the direction he was going, with the light doing likewise. Then, when it was around 200 yards from him, it “just faded and died away!” He later described this fading away as being similar to the “gradual fading of the wires in an electric bulb!”

In the same year, another encounter unfolded, this one involving a newspaper columnist named Bill Bowyang, who was on a camping holiday in the region with several friends. On the night in question, the group suddenly noticed a strange light in the distance that was moving around like “someone was waving a lantern!” However, when the light rose a considerable distance into the air, it was obvious to the group that whatever was behind the light wasn’t a person. By this point, Bowyang had gotten to his feet, eager to follow the light and see what it was. He urged the others to follow him, but none of them wished to do so, stating the light was a “ghost light” that would “lead them to their doom!” Bowyang ignored their warnings and headed towards the light to investigate. The light remained where it was, almost as if it were aware of his approach. Then, when he was around 20 yards from it, it suddenly moved to the side. At the same time, Bowyang heard voices behind him warning him to stop his approach. Instinctively, he stopped. A moment later, he looked in front of him and saw that “the strange light had drifted out over the great chasm!” Only several more steps would have resulted in him falling to his death. Was this strange glow trying to entice him to a tragic end? It is certainly an interesting, if disturbing notion.

In more recent times, it is worth our time briefly examining the equally strange encounter of James Birch, who was driving back home to the town of Kimberley following a hunting trip when he noticed the strange orbs. He was fully aware of the local legends that these lights were “old people’s spirits” that roamed the outback, so when he, along with several other hunters in the car with him, were, to begin with, more in awe at the strange lights than anything else. However, that feeling of awe would soon change to fear and outright terror.

Although none of those in the vehicle could explain how, they suddenly found themselves heading back to Kimberley one moment, and then, a second later, heading back out towards the outback in the opposite direction. Moreover, the strange orb was in front of them, as if they had been following it. None of them could recall turning the vehicle around or making a decision to do so. It isn’t clear from the report exactly how long the window of missing time was that evening, but that something strange occurred is clear. Did their minds block out the episode of them turning their vehicle around? Or did something intentionally block off their minds for reasons unknown? It is interesting that the missing time episode, along with the interaction on an otherwise lonely road, are both similar to encounters of alien abduction.

As we can see, not only are sightings and encounters with strange, orb-like, spherical objects documented around the world, but they have been going on for decades, if not centuries. If we had space to turn our attention to the ancient world, for example, we would undoubtedly find at least hints of such encounters. What is also interesting about these orb encounters is that rather than just being considered UFOs – vehicles from another world – there are compelling reasons to think they very well might have a more supernatural or interdimensional origin. In fact, such encounters perhaps serve well as a great example of how seemingly unconnected areas of the paranormal world are very much connected. Might these encounters we have explored here share some kind of connection to the floating orbs often captured on video during paranormal investigations? Indeed, not only do such encounters add another level of nuance to the UFO and alien mysteries, but they also demonstrate how complex and intertwined the paranormal world as a whole actually is, when investigating one area of interest means investigating several. For now, though, the answer we require to truly connect those dots eludes us.