Hello everyone

I figured I would post this message here rather than the Star Chat forum, as it pertains to me seemingly creating my own delusional reality. So let me tell my short story here, will you please?

Late last year, in the autumn, I occasionally took a walk down a street near my house that leads to a dead end after about 30 minutes, there is a small park there and what have you. Rarely would I walk down this street when it was dark, not because it's dangerous or anything, but because there's no point going to the park to read a book or whatever in the dark. Now, there are not a whole lot of street lights that are burnt out on this street, and one night when I was talking a walk on this street, as soon as I passed one of the street lights, it instantly died, it never came back on, and even afterwards it was still dead for many days, it probably still is today (I haven't walked down there for a while). Now, a few weeks later, on the same street, the EXACT same thing happened with a different light, as soon as I walked by it, and it never came back on again.

Now, this never happened again for a few months, until last night when I was walking to my friends house. This is on a different street, a highly active one. I was actually staring at the street lights and started to wonder about those two that went off before, and I was actually expecting one of them to go out. I eventually stoped thinking about it, and that was when, when I was about 3 steps in front of the telephone pole, this street light just died all of the sudden. I was a little spooked, and I kept on walking, every 15-20 steps or so I would turn around to look if the light had come back on, after the 4th or 5th time of turning around, to my surprise, the light *was* back on, and on my walk home it was still on as well so I know I didn't just think this one came back on. I told my friend about this at his house, and he has claimed it has happened to him before, only the lights never came back on, I don't know if he was just yanking my chain or not though, but he is an honest guy and had no reason to lead me on about this.

Anyways, on my walk back home that night, my thoughts started to spiral, in regards to my natal chart and my role in this life, etc., but that is sort of "far-fetched" what I came up with, and I will save that for later hehehe.

So I am curious, has this sort of thing, with the street lights (and I don't mean traffic lights btw, I mean those giant street lamps on the telephone poles) happened to anyone else? Am I just paranoid? What does this all mean? I'm not freaking out about it or anything, I am just very curious.

Hi Blas,

Actually, that has happened to me too. It was several years ago, but it happened enough for me to notice it, and then when I did notice it, it got really intense for about three days, when like every street I would drive down would put out at least one light per block, right as I passed.

I remember trying to look into it and figure it out too, and it seemed like I did come up with some reasonable understanding having to do with ordinary electric company procedures (like they'd replaced those bulbs all within a couple of days some time before, and they were all wearing out at the same time?). I have completely forgotten what exactly it was, but it was something that made me think it wasn't me. Even so, I also remember that feeling of approaching a street light and thinking, "Now that one is going to go out," and then it does. Pretty wild, eh?

Maria

Hello Blas,
Ever since I was little, electrical machines would do weired things that they have never done before. When I was little, I would get blamed for tearing something up or latter in life a machine at a job would go haywire. I found something in Dell Hooscope about Uranus causing that type of occurence.

I have my Moon is Aquarius, Uranus conjunct Pluto in my sun sign of Virgo w/ Chiron opposite Uranus. When I found this out it all made sense. Uranus is electrical and I guess depending on the natal chart can affect electrical equipment.
Try to explain that to someone who wants an explaination why something broke and doesn't understand astrology.
I do understand your situation

Woody

Hi guys,

Check this out -- from
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa012400a.htm

In reply to:

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SLIders & the Streetlight Phenomenon

Do streetlights suddenly go out when you pass beneath them? Do watches or credit cards stop working in your possession? Perhaps you are a SLIder.

A reader writes:

In reply to:

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Around five years ago, I have noticed that at times while I am driving down the road at night a street light will go out as I am passing below it. It happens frequently and seems to be happening more.

It has been giving me the creeps. If it happened only once or on very rare occasions, I don't think I would have given it a thought. However, it happens about once or twice a week. Could it be some electronic thing or could it be something less explainable?

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The phenomenon is known as street lamp interference, or SLI, and it possibly is a psychic event that is just beginning to be recognized and studied. Like most phenomena of this type, the evidence is almost exclusively anecdotal. I have received several stories like the one above from readers.

Typically, a person who has this effect on streetlights - also known as a SLIder - finds that the light switches on or off when he or she walks or drives beneath it. Obviously, this could happen occasionally by chance with a faulty streetlight (you've probably noticed that it's happened to you once in a while), but SLIders claim that it happens to them on a regular basis. It doesn't happen every time with every streetlight, but it occurs often enough to make these people suspect that something unusual is going on.

Very often, SLIders also report that they tend to have an odd effect on other electronic devices. In letters I've received, these people claim such effects as:

- Appliances such as lamps and TVs go on and off without being touched.
- Lightbulbs constantly blow when the SLIder tries to turn them off or on.
- Volume levels change on TVs, radios, and CD players.
- Watches stop working.
- Children's electronic toys start by themselves when the SLIder is present.
- Credit cards and other magnetically encoded cards are damaged or erased when in their possession.

What's the Cause?
Any attempt to pinpoint a cause for SLI at this point would be mere speculation without a thorough scientific investigation. The problem with such investigations, as with many forms of psychic phenomena, is that they are very difficult to reproduce in a laboratory. They seem to happen spontaneously without the deliberate intention of the SLIder. In fact, the SLIder, according to some informal tests, are usually unable to create the effect on demand.

A reasonable speculation for the effect, if it is a real one, might have something to do with the electronic impulses of the brain. All of our thoughts and movements are the result of electrical impulses that the brain generates. At present it is known that these measurable impulses only have an effect within an individual's body, but is it possible that they could have an effect outside the body - a kind of remote control?

Ongoing research at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab is suggesting that the subconscious can indeed affect electronic devices. Subjects are able to influence the random generations of a computer far more than would occur merely by chance. This research - and research being conducted at other laboratories around the world - are beginning to reveal, in scientific terms, the reality of such psychic phenomena as ESP, telekinesis and soon, perhaps, SLI.

Although the SLI effect is not a conscious one, some SLIders report that when it does occur, they often are in an extreme emotional state. A state of anger or stress is often cited as the "cause." SLIder Debbie Wolf, a British barmaid, told CNN, "When it happens is when I'm stressed about something. Not really manically stressed, just when I'm really mulching something over, really chewing something over in my head, and then it happens."

Could it all be just coincidence, however? David Barlow, a graduate student of physics and astrophysics, suspects that the phenomenon might be attributed to people seeing patterns in "random noise." "It is unlikely that a light will turn itself on when you walk past it," he says, "so it is a shock when it happens. If this should happen a few times consecutively, then it appears some mechanism is at work."

SLI Research
A research project into SLI has been started by Dr. Richard Wiseman at the University of Berkfordshire in England. Wiseman recently made the newspapers with a project to test ESP with a kiosk-type machine - called The Mind Machine - that he set up in various locations around England to collect a large amount of data about the possible psychic abilities of the general public.

Hillary Evans, an author and paranormal investigator with The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), is also studying the phenomenon. She has established the Street Lamp Interference Data Exchange as a place where SLIders can report their experiences and share those of other SLIders. "It's quite obvious from the letters I get," Evans told CNN, "that these people are perfectly healthy, normal people. It's just that they have some kind of ability... just a gift they've got. It may not be a gift they would like to have."

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??? ???

I went to bed way too early. And now I'm up way too early.

Maria

This is a really interesting conversation. This has happened to me a few times, too, although not enough in connection with street lights in particular for me to make a close association there. What most resonates with me is the feeling Maria described of "knowing" a street light would go out, then having it happen. That state of mind has happened enough that I feel very confident it is something real to do with mind interacting with "external reality." It's a state of mind that I think of as "expectant" ... not exactly the same thing a will-power, but not the same as passive ESP or clairvoyance either; it feels like a middle state between actively willing something to happen and passively knowing that it's "destined" to happen.

When I was a private detective many moons ago, I used to believe that I could make myself invisible ... sounds wacky, but the thing is that I could count on it to actually work most of the time. I don't mean invisible in the sense of becoming transparent so that you could see through me like the invisible man, but invisible in the sense that I could sit or stand somewhere in plain view and "expect" that no one would notice me - and no one did! Most of my detective work at the time was surveillance work for insurance companies, so this was a very practical skill that I actually came to rely on quite heavily, and it rarely failed!

There's no doubt in my mind that there is a real connection between the mind and the physical world that cannot be explained by known laws of physics, and for me it has something to do with that idea of "expectation." Like when Linda says "expect a miracle," that's not really the same thing as WILLING a miracle to happen ... it's more subtle and gentle than that. When you WILL something to happen, it's like you are using force and setting up a challenge; but when you expect it to happen, you don't have the feeling that you personally are MAKING it happen ... even though there is definitely a connection between your expectation and the outcome. This probably isn't making much sense, it's very difficult to describe in words. But anyway, I can relate this to the streetlight phenomenon - once you begin to notice something like this, a part of you starts "expecting" it to happen ... and therefore it does!

Actually I think the most interesting thing is that engineers from Princeton and other universities are studying this stuff seriously. Not too long ago it ws only psychologists who would be caught dead experimenting with PSI phenomena in the university!

Love,
Greg

Hey guys, interesting stuff. Woodchiro, that Uranus stuff makes a lot of sense, just a few days ago on the Uranus in Pisces thread, and on the the Chiron thread, I mentioned how I can "feel" my Uranus very strongly. Also, I just learned that another friend of mine, who has Uranus tightly conjunct his ASC, has this stuff happen to him all the time, more than enough to be coincidence. The power supply on his computer had to be replaced twice within a year now because of burning out too, stuff like that.

It was only a few hours after I posted this message that I started to look for info on the net myself, and I came across that exact same article that you found, Maria, although I don't think street lights go out enough around me for me to be a "SLIder." Although, when I left my house last night, about 2 minutes after, one of the first street lights I see, that was across the street from me, as soon as these two kids on their bikes passed underneigth it, it went out, so perhaps one or both of them were SLIders. In any case, it doesn't seem to be an extremely rare occourance or anything, this seems to happen to a lot of people.

This probably isn't making much sense, it's very difficult to describe in words.

It made sense to me, Greg, actually, during that walk I had the other night, before the light went out, when I was thinking about the street lights going out, I was willing it to happen by staring at some of the lights and pretending I had some sort of power to make them go out. Of course, none of them went out until I stoped thinking about it and totally forgot and got immersed into the music playing from my discman. Now I've been willing them to shut off every once in a while to no avail. So, expecting, you are right, is a much wiser approach.

I came across some other interesting links regrading SLI, just thought I would share them...

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_047.html
http://www.geocities.com/eel_411/sli101/

Blas,

Ahh, the G.E. guy's explanation -- in that first link --must have been what I ended up with before. But I'll be interested to see what the research shows too. It's a funny phenomenon of our time, anyway.

Greg, I've been invisible too!

Love you guys,
Maria