A Adams- I couldn't recall what I had heard about the Brown Mountain Lights , so I googled it and came across this site..  http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/brownplasma.html

It dates back to Nov. of 2004, so if you have already seen it, I apologise, but I found it an interesting read so far.  I haven't finished it yet, but it seems that they believe the lights to be some form of plasma.

This is VERY interesting – thanks for sharing!

My ancestors are "mountain folk" (that-there "billy" word'll getcha hurt if'n y'ain't one o'em) and Mom grew up on a pretty serious slope herself…

She's told a story my whole life about "ball lightning" coming in through her (open) window, basically following the route around the iron bed-frame, and going out the other window.  It singed the sheets, she says they caught on fire and she put them out…  I'll be the first to admit that Mom – though she's my mom and I love her – well…  Let's just say she's got the whole six-pack but seems to have misplaced that plastic thing that holds them all together…    She's not exactly what one might consider a "credible witness" about SOME things…  This, to me, always seemed to be one of them.

Her Brother (my uncle) lived thousands of miles away, I never really knew him until I was in my 20's.  Unlike Mom, he's "wrapped" about as "tight" as anyone could be – a highly intelligent, educated man with a firm grasp on reality.  We've become close in the last half of my life, we talk on the phone often…  He's like I wish my Dad would be, and in a lot of ways I think I'm like he wished his son would be – we're pretty close…

The "ball lightning" subject came up in one of our conversations a while back.  I was suprised when he said she was telling the absolute truth – that it did happen, exactly as she said.  He was there, and described it almost exactly as she had, minor discrepancies IMHO adding credibility to the tale.  He described it clearly, and further said that (with his EE knowledge and career) he has no doubt that it's a plasma phenomenon. 

He said it did come in the window, travelled around the iron head board, up one side of the frame, then around the foot-board of the bed before going back out the window.  Apparently it really burned the bedding, so much so that Grandpa beat him for it – not believing their tale of ball-lightning and instead thinking they'd been careless with a candle/bed-warmer or "playing with fire"…

Knowing these people as I do, it's easy to dismiss Mom's tale (frankly) but when Unc corraborates it, I have no question that it happened exactly as he says.  This man worked on huge hydro-electric dams, and retired as "chief" of the huge .gov agency that runs them in one section of the US.  He's as "credible" as a witness could possibly be, and has seen enough plasma (gigawatts!) in a long career to know what it looks like.

I think the "lemur" folks probably have it nailed, their explanation seems to me to be perfectly credible.  They may be off on some fine detail, but I've no question their explanation would stand up to any further testing.

I hope someone finds something interesting in my rambling, here – Thanks again for sharing!!

DD