I witnessed ‘something like a phenomenon’.

PHOTO: I felt compelled to define the experience (similar to Richard Dreyfus obsessive character Roy in the movie ‘Close Encounters of a 3rd Kind’.) This pic is still off the mark, as the orb was not as bright, more opaque and translucent.

Approximately 8pm Friday 16/06/2017 driving south, about a third  along the Broadwater – Evans Head Road, travelling through the Broadwater National Park NSW Australia:

I suddenly noticed, out of nowhere in my rear view mirror a light.

In reality it seemed abnormal but in increments of a seconds trying to apply normal logic, my initial reflex response was “WOW, how fast is this car travelling to make such ground on me?”

This road is unlit and dark, reasonably straight, fairly flat terrain, with scrub and heath. Thus you can notice approaching vehicles from hundreds of meters, if not kilometers away.

Applying logic: I thought if a car it must have problems with its headlight/s, only one light was visible, quite present but dim. The best I can describe is: I once owned a 1967 VW Beatle and the old 6 volt power source headlights in those older models were not very strong, both in low or high beam.  The shape of the light was kind of similar as well (about 30 to 60 cm max. in diameter.)

Applying logic: I also figured maybe a motorbike as the light was directly behind and centered.  And if anything, a motorbike possibly could have the ability to sneak up so quickly and unsuspectingly.

I slowed up and the light now came closer, following say, 1 car space distance.

Within the increments of a few more seconds I was looking for any other logical explanations, while at a deeper level I was yet to accept something illogical had occurred.

Under these circumstances, with a non-blinding headlight, there should be a possibility of making out some shape, volume or ‘presence’ of a vehicle. Perhaps even an engine or road sound, a glimpse of a red tail light. But no, it just seemed to be that one single light.

I was thinking what is going on here? This orb of light followed me for what was (I think) say a minute, maybe two…

But just like that, the light vanished. Gone.

This was no motor vehicle. It didn’t pull over or turn (there was nowhere possible for that). Nor, if a vehicle, did it show any sign of an accident, as I would have noticed erratic directional changes of the light.

I was really now having a battle with the logic of all this.

Looking back in the mirror there was now nothing, no light, no shape, (no sound), no ‘presence’ of a vehicle car / bike or otherwise. !!!NOTHING!!!

The realist in me, now having run every logical (motoring) scenario through my brain, had to face a fact: what just happened was beyond normal! This was extraordinary. This orb of light had just appeared from nowhere (it didn’t ‘COME FROM’ anywhere) and it disappeared the same way (it ‘DIDN’T GO’ anywhere) … As suddenly as it just instantly appeared, it had just instantly vanished.

Reflex now took over and it was petal to the metal. I made my way into Evans Head continually questioning and repeating to myself, literally out aloud loud “W.T.F. was that!!!???!!!”

Around midnight (after I finished my DJing gig at the pub) I had to drive back over the same stretch of road. I was both fearful and excited as to the prospects as to what might be install on the way home???

But, after a pretty nerve racking and uneventful return trip I made it home safely. I then took to the driver’s seat of the Google search engine and burned the midnight oil into the early hours of Saturday morning looking for answers.

While not totally ruling anything out (perhaps not even a U.F.O.) but it seemed not at all mechanical, material or of any real solid matter. My encounter happened near an area of local Aboriginal significance, so this led me to research about what I had already heard about before in the Australian outback, and what Aboriginals call:

‘Min Min lights’;

A University of Queensland neuroscientist Professor Jack Pettigrew in his research of 2003 mentioned how “these mysterious lights seem to follow travelers for long distances. The Min Min light seems to have magical qualities, sometimes following observers, even as they speed away in vehicles, while at other times seeming to retreat shyly.”

His research explains “The Min Min light occurs when light, from a natural or man-made source, is refracted to an observer who is tens, or even hundreds, of kilometers away, by an inverted mirage, called a ‘Fata Morgana’.

A cold, dense layer of air next to the ground (or sea, or sea ice) carries light far over the horizon to a distant observer without the usual dissipation and radiation, to produce a vivid mirage that baffles and enchants because of its unfamiliar optical properties.

Fata Morgana can be terrifying at night when a single light source gives no hint that it is actually part of a mirage emanating from a great distance. Even hardened Outback observers can break down (that includes me shitting myself) when they are unable to interpret the unusual optical properties of the light in terms of their own, very different, past experiences.”

Here is a link to Professor Jack Pettigrew’s very interesting scientific explanations: 

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2003/03/uq-scientist-unlocks-secret-of-min-min-lights

I did at a later date contact the Professors for a discussion but he stood by that his research satisfactory explained my own encounter…

But to some extent I am still not sure…

I do understand and accept that Professor Pettigrew’s research and scientific explanation, can and does happen in certain circumstances. However, it would be more feasible if the object was a static where the viewer was focused on one projection point in front of them.  But in my case the orb was not far in the distance only a few meters behind me. So unless it was a ‘Mitsubishi Mirage’… how can a mirage from hundreds of kilometers away follow the exact same path and movements of my car for over a minute?!?

I also accept there are other feasible scientific explanations which I also researched, such as trapped underground gases rising up to the surface as a bubble, spontaneously combusting and igniting for a period of time. Perhaps, even caught in my van’s slipstream and thus giving an impression of ‘following me’???

In fact I can buy both scientific explanations in any certain given circumstances. But, I still have my doubts about just those two explanations (each claiming) being definitive?  Just by there being two possible explanations, don’t they each cancel out the other as definitive?? Don’t they both have to prove that there still can’t be any other possibilities???

As a final note: the Min Min lights exist in Australian Aboriginal people’s folklore over thousands of years, so precede any period of white settlement and powered or electrical lighting.

Aboriginals say the Min Min lights can be the spirits of the ancestors. Just a bit of a coincidence I guess, that the very date of my encounter, (should my dad  had till been alive) is my parents wedding anniversary… ??? hmmmmm…???