Balls of Fire
photo taken from hubblesite.org
Floating balls of light have been in many accounts related to UFOs, marsh gas, ball lightning, and spirits of the dead. Baron Von Reichenbach once referred to these balls of light as an “odic force”, which he described as “a carbonate of ammonium, phosphuretted hydrogen and other products of putrefaction, known and unknown, which liberate odic light in the course of evaporation. When theutrefaction comes to an end, the lights are quenched, the dead have atoned”. Another explanation is that the balls of light are a result of methane arising out of marshes and self-igniting while others believe that the lights were caused by fairies.
A young housewife in August 1975 actually was struck by a ball of light that appeared over her cooking stove. She, fortunately, was not harmed in incident. These balls of light are usually told together with orbs of light and lightning.
(Source: Henshaw, Peter. Strange Phenomena. 2008.)
