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Streetlight Interference (SLI) is an alleged phenomenon in which it is claimed that certain people, passing near a streetlight at night, cause it to spontaneously extinguish (or if off, come on). Although there are hundreds of reports by both SLIders and witnesses, the subject remains controversial. Though trivial at first glance, closer study shows SLI to be a complex process, rich in paradoxes and contradictions. If true, however, the claims carry profound and exciting implications for science and for our knowledge of human potential.
People respond to Streetlight Interference with amusement or amazement, with belief, disbelief, or relief at learning that it happens to others as well as to themselves. SLI takes many different forms, and people react to it in many different ways. The best way to discover what happens when SLI occurs is to have it happen to you. For those of us who have not had the benefit of personal experience, though, the next best way is to learn what SLIders say happened to them. Jane de la R, a SLIder from Surrey, England, reports:
When living in London, I was able to do it almost at will – I have as witnesses my husband and a large group of friends who, over the years, came to regard my ability as an endearing trait.
A ridiculous idea? An endearing trait? SLI experiencers react in every sort of way when it happens to them. A few more accounts:
Jeff F, a self-employed salesman from Illinois:
The most recent event occurred just before Christmas, in a shopping mall near my home. There were a great many lights in the lot: it was snowing that evening. One went out as we got out of the car. My children and I exclaimed, “We got one” as we usually do. On our way out, the same light went out again. We started driving around the lot looking for another “victim”. We would pick out the ones that looked a little dimmer and drive under them. If it did not go out right away, we would wait or yell POW (just for effect, I think) until we were able to knock out around six, including the same one three times.
Another incident occurred in Indianapolis. I just happened to be discussing this phenomenon with a couple of business friends over a drink. One of them had witnessed this on a prior occasion. The other, of course, thought we were nuts. When we went to the parking lot to get to our car, I got one. We all laughed at the “coincidence”. As we were driving to a restaurant and waiting at a stop light, another went out. More laughter from us as we just converted another non-believer!
Not many SLIders get to where they can play games with their ability, but this account brings out the take-it-for-granted attitude that long-term SLIders frequently adopt. Few SLIders are worried or disturbed, even when they come to realise that they differ from most folk in doing what they do.
Dan C, a young man from Harrogate, Yorkshire:
Dan C, a young man from Harrogate, Yorkshire:
My experience of SLI started in 1991, when I was 19. I was walking back from my girlfriend’s house after a night out followed by a smooching session at her house. It was summertime, in the small hours of the morning, and quite cold. I was walking through an open park lit by old-fashioned, ornate streetlights when the nearest light-post to the footpath went out as I approached. I thought nothing of it except “the bulb has gone”. The very same thing happened the following night, and again I dismissed it as a dodgy bulb and thought nothing of it until it happened the next time I passed – at which point I started to think something was up.
Over the months, as I returned home from my girlfriend’s house, the light would always do the opposite as to its original state, i.e. if it was off it would turn on and vice versa. After I’d passed the light-post, it would usually revert to its original state – I would usually be over 100m [330ft] from it when it did this. On the approach, it would vary from 60m [200ft] to 10m [33ft] past the post before it would turn on or off.
I told my friends about the situation, and to silence the sceptics and piss-takers I took them past the light-post one dark evening. Sods’ law! Nothing happened, not even a flicker.
It wasn’t until I noticed I had the same effect on other light-posts that I noticed the conditions for the “light-post thing” to happen. That is, it was usually late at night (after 9pm, say), dark, quite chilly. And my state of mind. Usually I would be quite tired, on edge, nervous of my surroundings (fear of mugging, I suppose) and I reckon my adrenalin levels must have been up. This sort of explains why I couldn’t ‘perform’ in front of my friends, having been in a relaxed situation. I have since shut my friends up as I have shown my ability on more than one occasion. I can only think that the cause is over-active brain waves, a result of my nervous emotions…
This account is typical of the way a SLIder gradually comes to realise that something out of the ordinary is going on. Also characteristic is that it slowly dawns on him that his state of mind is a crucial factor.
Richard M, a professional magician from London:
The moment I saw the header of the article in the Independent I knew exactly what it was about, as I have experienced this on a number of occasions. The first time I realised something was happening was when I was about 17–18. (I am now 32) and I was taking my dog for a walk. I noticed that lights were going out when we walked under them and then flickering back on when we had passed. It was only noticeable because of the number involved. It didn’t frighten me but I became conscious of it. I remember walking under them trying to make them go out but I couldn’t. The moment I stopped willing it to happen, it would start again – like someone catching me out. I sort of anticipated it for a while and didn’t really tell anyone about it. A few years ago, I noticed it happening again – the first time for a long time. Again, I was with my dog and this time we turned out a number of lights in a car park across the road. I told a close friend when I got home and he came out to watch from the other side of the road. As we walked around the park, they all went out as we passed under them, and then came back on when we had moved away. I was so chuffed that it had happened while he was watching. I seem to recall that both periods coincided with stress, some of it quite intense.
Later, he wrote to tell us that he had just been holidaying to New Zealand with his girlfriend and turned out lights in Auckland. As a professional magician, he takes a special interest in the phenomenon, and speculates as to whether it could be anything like the feats associated with Israeli wonderworker Uri Geller, but he still finds them puzzling.
Diana B, an office worker from Texas:
Streetlights dim and go off at night, sometimes very slowly, sometimes very quickly. Streetlights go on in the full sunshine at times, when I come close to them. I have had periods in my life when several appliances broke down, just one after the other. Regular light bulbs will also come on or go off when I am around, either in people’s homes, or in restaurants – same thing with fluorescent lights.
I have had electronic garage doors open on me twice, once at my house in Lexington, Kentucky, another time in my home in Ocala, Florida. The garage doors would open about halfway and then go up and down rather quickly in a crazy way until the energy dissipated and ran out. If I am on really high energy, which I am about half the time, I can hold a compass and the needle will go crazy and just go around and around, until I let go of the compass. I also periodically have a tremendous amount of trouble with my handheld tape recorder. It will stop recording, but is still capable of playing back. I went through about 10 of them over a period of a couple of months. Once it was so bad it even wiped out what was on the tape.
At other times, several of the fuses and lights in my car will blow. Once I was really excited. I was in my travel trailer at the time and when I reached out to turn on a light, there was like blue lightning running through the little bulbs (two of them) and a fuse blew, and all the DC lights in the trailer went out. I also can get very charged with static electricity, so much so that sparks actually fly around me and if anyone else is close by, the sparks will connect with them. I used to have the same sort of problems with an IBM copying machine, and they had to spray the floor with anti-static stuff to keep it from happening. Like everybody else, I have no control over it. It would be quite spectacular if we could, don’t you think?
Here we see an interesting aspect of SLI: that many SLIders also affect other appliances besides streetlights. But they don’t all do so – one of the many puzzling features of the phenomenon. This SLIder is unusual in that her SLI functions in broad daylight. Streetlights being nocturnal creatures, few SLIders get the chance to find this out.
The experience of Jorgen S, a Norwegian SLIder, brings out some other features of the phenomenon:
One time, I was driving in a tunnel in a traffic line (very slowly) and five lights went out one after another as I drove beneath them.
This tells us that the lights do not need to be in the open: a tunnel is fine, so long as the light can “see” the SLIder. The incident is a classic instance of lights going out in sequence, and the fact that he was driving in a traffic line emphasises that it was him, and none of the others, who was affecting the lights.
Most SLI events are spontaneous, but sometimes SLIders can use their will power to dramatic effect:
Margie H, a housewife from Birmingham, West Midlands:
On a visit to Ireland, I was walking with some members of my family, and we were discussing paranormal happenings. I was telling my mother about the streetlights that I turn off outside our home, and she was laughing at me while I was talking, then a streetlight went out. She was a bit taken aback but said it must have been coincidence.
Well, I decided to show off a bit, so I said, “Watch this then.” By this time we had walked on a few yards and the light had gone on again (as they usually do for me). As I walked back and approached the light it went off again. Well, she was incredulous.
I was delighted it happened, as it bore out my story. When we got back to my sister’s house, a bulb went as we walked in the door. You can imagine the reaction.
Some people do SLI only during a brief period of their lives:
Geraldine O, an English electrical design engineer:
In November 1992, it was the first anniversary of my mother’s death. After work, I have to walk about a quarter of a mile from the British Rail station to the car park. The most direct route is down a narrow, well-lit alley which leads to a flight of wooden stairs down to the beginning of the car park. As I descended the stairs and started to walk along the first section of the car park, one of the sodium streetlights illuminating the area winked out. This same light went out on the next four evenings, going out at a greater distance each time, the last two or three times seemingly coincided with me thinking about it going out. I did not wait for the light to restrike. Each time, I left it in an extinguished state. After five days, the SLI effect stopped as suddenly as it had started, although nothing about the weather, time of day, temperature had changed dramatically that I can recall.
An unusual detail of this account is that she believes the extinction coincided with her thinking about it. As we have already seen, SLI generally “refuses” to happen when the SLIder is thinking about it or willing it to happen.
This selection of reports brings out many of the typically recurring features of SLI, but SLIders can pull many other tricks from their bag.
And the cause? Sergio Q, a product engineer from the US, writes:
This has been happening to me for as long as I can remember. At first I thought it was a sign from God or some other spiritual being, but to my disappointment I found the SLI website and a possible scientific explanation.
He should be so lucky! What are we to make of this activity, which our correspondent from Arroyo Grande rightly describes as “ridiculous”, which seems to serve no purpose, which benefits no one, and which is a tiresome nuisance for civil authorities (though not a very serious one)? And let’s add: which doesn’t seem to add to our knowledge of how the Universe works or how people behave? Which appears to happen out of the blue, with no rhyme or reason, no deep emotional repercussions or ill effects? With no meaning, so far as we can tell, yet which, because we have been brought up to believe that everything has a meaning, challenges us for just that reason?
If anything like this has ever happened to you, you are probably curious to know what is going on. If it has never happened to you, you may be curious to know why other people think it happens. If you are of a sceptical cast of mind, you will be intrigued by the whodunit aspect, and look for simple, natural explanations to dissolve the mystery. If you are a tease-the-experts kind of person, you will be entertained by something that seems to be happening even though conventional science says it can’t. For SLI is a fascinating puzzle, as challenging as a Rubik Cube and at the same time as addictive as a detective story.
People experience SLI in many different ways. For some it is a frequent occurrence, for others it is rare, even once-in-a-lifetime. Sometimes only one light is affected; others affect a sequence. The SLIder may be walking, cycling, or in a car; close to the light or at a fair distance; alone or with others. The only common factor is that a streetlight is somehow affected, seemingly by the approach or the presence of the SLIder.
SLI is not a local phenomenon: it happens the world over. We have reports from the Americas and the Caribbean, western and eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Atlantic islands, Asia and Australia. The similarity of these reports shows that SLI follows much the same pattern wherever it occurs. And whether in Boston or Budapest, Manchester or Melbourne, the same question arises: what’s so special about streetlights?
Well, perhaps they aren’t so special. SLI is only one of a range of experiences that take place in the borderland between the physical and the mental. What is happening is unquestionably a physical effect – the switching off or on of an electrical gadget – yet at the same time it seems to be a mental effect, in that though this switching happens spontaneously, it evidently requires the presence of an individual human, often in an exceptional state of mind. There are other types of extraordinary phenomena in which people appear to influence external objects in unusual ways, but SLI is unique in that it involves highly visible objects, located in public places, where any kind of tinkering with the o
bject is so improbable that we can reasonably ignore it. It isn’t something that happens in the privacy of a home or the isolation of a laboratory. SLI is not hearsay or legend or rumour. It isn’t something that happened to a friend-of-a-friend. SLI happens to real people with names and addresses – and is seen to happen.
In this, SLI is unique and can reasonably be regarded as a phenomenon in its own right. Confirming this, we have the testimony of hundreds of people, whom we have no reason to doubt. Even if it should turn out that a few are telling lies, or making up stories, or exaggerating, the fact that so many people have put themselves through the trouble of reporting their experience – people from all walks of life, from many countries – makes it hard to believe that they are deceiving us or themselves.
They could be wrong in the way they interpret their experience, but that something is happening, there is no doubt. Even if the witnesses are deluded, such a widespread delusion would be of interest as a social phenomenon.
That said, we have many reasons to think that those who report SLI are not deluded. What we are studying is indeed a scientific enigma.
But which science? The probable answer is several disciplines working together. What happens to the lights is surely a matter for the engineer or the physicist, but what causes it to happen seems rather a matter for the psychologist. And they will probably need to enlist the services of the anthropologist and the parapsychologist who have direct, first-hand experience of anomalous behaviour. The hard scientists will do well to recognise that they can benefit from the experience of those who have studied magic and folk belief in indigenous cultures and of psychical researchers who have done their best to elucidate anomalous behaviour.
Could it be that this is precisely the message of SLI: that it is trying to tell us that the world of mere matter and the world of the mind are not as distinct as we think? We do not have to suppose that SLI is a psychic happening, or that it is in any way supernatural. But we do have to consider the possibility that SLI is showing us a wider potential of the mind, a deeper interaction between mind and matter.
Adapted and extracted from Hilary Evans: Sliders: The Enigma of Streetlight Interference, Anomalist Books, San Antonio, New York, 2010, www.anomalistbooks.com
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Hilary Evans is the author of numerous books on paranormal subjects, and with his late wife founded the Mary Evans Picture Library.
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