shaberon
15th April 2016, 22:38
33378
Edit: photo of one during a very dark night.
This happened one summer when I was studying Prajna-paramita for the umpteenth time.
Everyone has seen storms with massive amounts of lightning. I wouldn't bother to write down something like that; this incident was almost exactly opposite. I haven't found a similar story yet.
Most people are familiar with "heat lightning", a non-striking flash usually seen during warmer months. I found out that this is correctly termed intra-cloud lightning, and represents the majority of lightning activity. Most lightning just zaps around inside clouds, and when those are big, puffy storm clouds, you usually won't even notice it, and so heat lightning is usually associated with a fairly clear sky.
So, at first, it was just a regular thing: strong wind builds up and a few minutes later, you get a bunch of rain. This storm only lasted about ten minutes, the wind died down, and there was hardly any rain.
That's when I started noticing pulses of heat lightning, but I wasn't looking. I was just sitting inside, but every window was filling with light. You could look out the window and outside, the pulses made the entire visible area--much brighter than on a clear day.
That started to get my attention, and as I watched, the flickering stopped. That is, the "off" phase of the flickering stopped. It stayed "on" as if the whole sky was a giant fluorescent lightbulb--much brighter than on a clear day.
It just kept staying "on", so what do I decide to do...anything safe, no...I went outside to take it face first, telling myself that all it can really do is kill me faster than I can blink, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
That's when it started to descend and "talk to me".
There were approximately six nodes in the cloud where this bolt of lightning was basically just cruising around in a big circle. You could hear it like a spark plug or live wire. It slowly descended to the bottom face of the cloud. I'm stupidly watching this thing starting to juggle lightning hops in mid-air, it's very seriously close, and I just gawk at it in a telepathic communion, part of which is saying I won't even get mad if it decides to electrocute me.
This effect stayed in one place in the middle of my yard, continuously lighting the whole area brighter than a clear day, for at least 45 minutes. Once it started poking through the bottom face of the cloud, it continued to descend, until I was watching what I could only describe as: a tornado of lightning. It was a point-down spinning cone of electricity doing nothing but dropping lower and lower. Practically right in my face. Probably the wildest thing I have ever seen.
I wasn't able to actually be afraid of it, because it didn't seem interested in my telepathic offer to remove my existence. Moreso, it confirmed the truth of Prajna-paramita and some of the personal issues I was having at the time.
It clocked in pretty close to a full hour of the giant lighbulb; then once the tornado visited it simply...retreated back into the cloud. Then a gentle breeze started to push it out of my yard, and a few minutes later there was a massive blast less than a mile away.
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who has ever seen this, but so far I have not heard anything else that sounds like it.
Edit: photo of one during a very dark night.
This happened one summer when I was studying Prajna-paramita for the umpteenth time.
Everyone has seen storms with massive amounts of lightning. I wouldn't bother to write down something like that; this incident was almost exactly opposite. I haven't found a similar story yet.
Most people are familiar with "heat lightning", a non-striking flash usually seen during warmer months. I found out that this is correctly termed intra-cloud lightning, and represents the majority of lightning activity. Most lightning just zaps around inside clouds, and when those are big, puffy storm clouds, you usually won't even notice it, and so heat lightning is usually associated with a fairly clear sky.
So, at first, it was just a regular thing: strong wind builds up and a few minutes later, you get a bunch of rain. This storm only lasted about ten minutes, the wind died down, and there was hardly any rain.
That's when I started noticing pulses of heat lightning, but I wasn't looking. I was just sitting inside, but every window was filling with light. You could look out the window and outside, the pulses made the entire visible area--much brighter than on a clear day.
That started to get my attention, and as I watched, the flickering stopped. That is, the "off" phase of the flickering stopped. It stayed "on" as if the whole sky was a giant fluorescent lightbulb--much brighter than on a clear day.
It just kept staying "on", so what do I decide to do...anything safe, no...I went outside to take it face first, telling myself that all it can really do is kill me faster than I can blink, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
That's when it started to descend and "talk to me".
There were approximately six nodes in the cloud where this bolt of lightning was basically just cruising around in a big circle. You could hear it like a spark plug or live wire. It slowly descended to the bottom face of the cloud. I'm stupidly watching this thing starting to juggle lightning hops in mid-air, it's very seriously close, and I just gawk at it in a telepathic communion, part of which is saying I won't even get mad if it decides to electrocute me.
This effect stayed in one place in the middle of my yard, continuously lighting the whole area brighter than a clear day, for at least 45 minutes. Once it started poking through the bottom face of the cloud, it continued to descend, until I was watching what I could only describe as: a tornado of lightning. It was a point-down spinning cone of electricity doing nothing but dropping lower and lower. Practically right in my face. Probably the wildest thing I have ever seen.
I wasn't able to actually be afraid of it, because it didn't seem interested in my telepathic offer to remove my existence. Moreso, it confirmed the truth of Prajna-paramita and some of the personal issues I was having at the time.
It clocked in pretty close to a full hour of the giant lighbulb; then once the tornado visited it simply...retreated back into the cloud. Then a gentle breeze started to push it out of my yard, and a few minutes later there was a massive blast less than a mile away.
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who has ever seen this, but so far I have not heard anything else that sounds like it.