After The New Yorker published its fascinating in-depth article about why the Pentagon has started taking UFOs seriously, I thought I’d share a personal story.
When I was 17 I was dating a farmer’s daughter. The farmhouse was out in the middle of nowhere on some high land where you could see for miles. One night her father rushed in from finishing milking the cows. He was extremely excited, and he was the most down to earth person you could imagine. He summoned us both outside where he pointed across the dark countryside to the lights of a power station.
Three globes of light were circling the cooling tower. They performed some strange manoeuvres, then, as we watched, they shot off at great speed into the night in different directions.
No idea what I’d seen. I would rule out plasma balls or any by-product of electricity generation. They moved with seeming intelligence and when they went in different directions it was in a manner that ruled out some natural force.
That night has stayed with me ever since. That unconscious sense that this is something unusual. But, as an aside…
The power station was called Drakelow. It’s now been decommissioned, but it had been built on an ancient site where archaeologists have discovered votive offerings to the gods. A sacred site. That makes me wonder if this phenomena has been witnessed across the centuries.
In old English Drakelow means Dragon Mound. In folklore all over the UK any place given the dragon name is linked with lights in the sky. If you want to find out more, read Paul Devereux’s excellent book, Earthlights. He’s a scientist and he looked into historical reports about these kinds of lights which seemed to move with a mind of their own…