Night-Lights of Dr. White

The nearest farmhouse was miles away, and the cold light of the full moon cast its glittering luminescence down on the Vectensian fields surrounding some nebulous country road somewhere in the central regions of the Isle of Wight. It was the 4th of January, 1969 - and Dr. White and his wife were seemingly about to take a brief trip into another world.

## Torch-Lights from Nowhere

Dr. White and his unnamed wife had decided to embark on the lengthy journey across the Isle of Wight in order to reach the small village of Niton - which is situated on the very southernmost reaches of the aforementioned Isle. The full moon in the sky was only vaguely impeded by the presence of several masses of dark clouds floating around in the atmospheric night.

The presumably-fatigued couple were driving past some fields in a secluded central region on the Isle - when they suddenly became aware of a bizarre and spectacular display of '*bobbing lights*' in the fields ahead of them. These lights were initially likened to torches being carried by a large group of people milling about in the fields below. As the couple reached the top of the hill up which they had been moving when they spotted the lights, they could see that all of the fields to their right were coated in these twinkling enigmas - to the extent that it seemed as if a '*great city*' had suddenly become present. They originally rationalised the odd vision as potentially being caused by shepherds carrying lights in the fields, but they quickly rejected this notion in favour of the possibility that they had stumbled upon some kind of agricultural exhibition - but then again, what point would there be for that kind of exhibition on a dark and cold January night?

Confused but likely not panic-stricken, the Whites approached what they were sure would be a small cart track leading to a local farm - but they were thrown for a total loop when they realised that they were now driving down a well-lit city street with buildings on either side of the road. This eerie scene was bathed in red, green and orange lights. Perhaps whispering apprehensively amongst themselves as they drove through the intensely-disorientating metropolis, they were suddenly spat back out of the twilight zone and onto the farm track down which they had originally intended to travel. Looking back at where they had come from under the pale moonlight, they could feel a sense of utter bewilderment start to overtake them as they were greeted by exactly what they had expected to see all along - a perfectly normal farm track with no buildings or artificial light.

The couple was now approaching the *Hare and Hounds Inn* - a landmark familiar to them, which sits at a crossroads just south of Newport, and is coincidentally almost at the exact centre of the Isle - but their hearts presumably sank when they saw that it was bathed in uncanny light. Figures carrying torches ran across the road in front of the car, and the fields to either side of them were once again peppered with anomalous lights. A very tall man suddenly darted into the road ahead of them, and he was described as wearing a leather jerkin and a broad belt. Desperately wanting answers, Dr. White decided to stop the car and ask what was going on.

He was presumably planning to do this at the inn, but these plans were promptly scrapped when the lights and figures all suddenly vanished as quickly as they had appeared just 20 yards from the inn. The inn was left in darkness now - with just the usual lights blearily leaking from its windows. This sight might've been comforting to weary travellers in any other situation - but the Whites were now feeling thoroughly unnerved and so decided not to stop, and carried on to Niton. After getting to the safety of Niton, the couple decided to return to the odd location early the next morning to try and make sense of their experience - but failed to achieve anything comparable to this, as their brief investigation passed entirely without incident.

## Do You Want Answers? Because I Want Answers!

Some paranormal investigators have speculated that perhaps the bewildered couple were actually seeing a mirage formed from a reflection of a nearby city like Portsmouth - but this seems rather unlikely when faced with the close proximity of the witnesses to the so-called mirage. Mrs. White herself jumped on the 'timeslip' bandwagon and suggested that she and her husband had perhaps witnessed events from a different era. Some popular suggestions of this nature suppose that they may have seen a Viking encampment or a Roman camp, and note that the tall man seemed to be more Viking than Roman.

However, we have the perplexing problem of the phantom city to account for in constructing our harebrained theories here. The easiest conclusion to come to might be that the city was from the future - and this is certainly the most appealing option to me - but like my source points out, the lights seemed to be handheld as opposed to fixed like urban lights, and the clothing of the phantom people seems to have been historical in nature. The lights and the urban buildings described alongside Viking-looking men could even suggest that this might've been a several-way timeslip, with ancient Vikings and futuristic dystopian cities appearing in the 20th century at the same location...

## Source

'*The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits*' by John and Anne Spencer