More Balls O' Fire

 The appearance of glowing orbs or balls of fire, as in the Methodist church parsonage, are a common story among ghost hunters. A Google search will show dozens of photos and videos of orbs in allegedly haunted locations.

                 A photo of allegedly ghostly orbs from a debunker website, "American Hauntings"

I heard a story about phenomena similar to the fireballs in the parsonage from Gretchen Quie, wife of Minnesota governor Al Quie (1979-83). She said that in the upper hallway of her grandparents' Minnesota farmhouse, incandescent balls of fire would briefly appear, bounce off the walls, and then vanish. Her description of their size and the eerie glow they emanated resembled the minister's description--except the former made no noise. Mrs. Quie said that the family had no explanation for the orbs, but since they appeared infrequently and didn't disturb anyone, they were mostly a curiosity. 

Another orb-related story, a more sinister one, came from a young Twin Cities journalist. Between jobs one summer he was staying with a friend, sleeping in the attic room of a early 1900's foursquare in South Minneapolis. He slept in the sparsely furnished room only a few nights, but it was a memorable sojourn.

The first night, as he lay on the mattress on the floor in the sweltering heat, a glowing sphere about the size of a baseball suddenly appeared overhead. He watched it curiously as it circled around the room, vanishing after about a minute. The next night he saw it again, an encore performance he would have preferred to skip. The third night he awoke in the middle of the night to see a shadowy figure standing in the corner of the dimly lit room. Afraid to move or speak, the young man lay there in the darkness, watching the motionless figure. After a few moments, the form disappeared.

The journalist left his friend's house the next morning, deciding that it was time to find a place to sleep minus eerie disturbances.

As I was writing up these stories about orbs, it triggered a memory of an experience I had on a trip to Germany in the 1960s. My dad, my cousin George (who was stationed at an Army base in Germany at the time), and I were touring historical sites along the Rhine. 

One night we stayed at a B&B in an 18th-century house. Mine was a small basement room with a narrow bed set between an ancient armoire and a windowless wall.

                               An early 18th century house similar to the place where we stayed.

I climbed into bed, turned off the light via the pull chain over the bed, pulled up the duvet, and closed my eyes. I was dozing off when something prompted me to open my eyes. There, overhead, was a swarm of little glowing orbs, swirling around in a cloud over the bed. I blinked, wondering if I was seeing things. At first I thought they might be bugs, but as I watched the glowing orbs, I grew increasingly alarmed. I'd never seen anything like this weird swarm of lights. What in the world were they? 

Panicky, I sat up in bed, my hand searching in the darkness for the pull chain. It was probably only a few seconds, but it felt much longer before I found the chain and yanked on it. The "bugs" vanished. Looking around the room with the light on, I couldn't find anything that might be the source of the orbs. Fearing that they might return if I turned off the light, I slept with it on.

The next morning I said nothing to Dad and George about the orbs. In fact, I never told this story to anyone until now.