1982: Paul Devereux’s Earth Lights

It is not often that new ideas enter the UFO arena, but 1982 saw the publication of a book that caused researchers to take a fresh look at their chosen sub­ject. That book was called Earth Lights, and was writ­ten by Paul Devereux with the collaboration of geo-chemist Paul McCartney.

Although there had been a previous work by Canadian researchers Michael Persinger and Gyslaine Lafreniere, Devereux's book drew together all the pieces of the mystery, and made it directly relevant to ufology.

For years physicists had been aware of lights that manifested prior to earthquakes. Persinger discovered that when crystal-bearing rocks were put under pressure, electrical discharges were created. Devereux discovered that a large number of UFOs were seen over fault lines, and postulated that these were electrical plasma discharged into the atmosphere.

Based on personal experience, he took his research and extrapolated it. Devereux wondered if there could be a relationship between the plasma and an observer. Could the phenomenon interface with the mind? As the brain concluded that the strange light was a UFO, would the plasma structure itself according to the preconceived image held by the observer? Persinger has since taken a slightly different route. Whilst agreeing that a relationship occurs, he believes that the earth light triggers off temporal lobe epilepsy, causing hallucinations. However, this does not account for multiple witness sightings.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed