Min Min lights.

[Lonley knight]

 Hi it has been awhile since I have posted anything and I have another story about my fathers experiences in outback Queensland that I thought you guy's might like. As I have said in the past that my father was not one who believed in a whole lot of stuff but family and honour and speaking his mind that sometimes got him in a lot of trouble with my mother. He also liked the odd drink or seven . Deep down he was a extremely honest man and did have a good heart but was at times hard on cheats or thieves . You earned your keep in his house and as a kid you new your boundaries and how far you could push them until all hell broke loose. Don't get me wrong it was a safe house and we never went with out food or cloths and he was always there to help us out and did give a lot of advice that was great for growing up. I remember that when you asked him a question about girls or being a teenager or about bullies or about building extensions on your house as I got older he always said he would get back to me. He used to go down into the chicken shed and have a smoke and think about and try to nut out the problem and come up with different answers to help you out. Ok just a in site to the guy who told me this story.

My father often spoke about riding the boundaries on his fathers sheep station many years ago and about the different things he saw and encountered there. He has always said he has seen many Min Min lights over the years and had his own views on them and what they could be. They are very common and many people see them on nightly trips outback across a lot of Australia all the time and I have read and seen youtube clips about them but they all fall short from what my father told me.

He has seen plenty and the things he told me was that horses and dogs went crazy and did the bolt when they were about. The older dogs that had bonded with him and new he was the pack leader stayed but didn't leave his side and didn't sleep but the younger working dogs left until daybreak . He also said that you felt the bush go quite before they appeared and they always followed the same path. They varied in size from a candle light to a cricket ball of flame when he saw them and floated about 4 feet above the ground. ( 1 metre ). They didn't threaten him at all but he felt uneasy when they were about.

As a young man he did go out and explore these lights and said that you could get with in three to four metres form them and they would disappear and reappear about the same distance  from you . He even tried to quickly charge them but the same thing happened and they would appear further away from him. He said that it was the strangest thing he has seen but they were very common in outback Queensland.

It was in the 1940's that he can remember that because that Americans had a air force base at Charleville and some of the yanks had been out at night and that they had seen the Min Min lights that they took notice.  So they investigated and did samples and took photo's and did and that and said it was just gases . My father always said that gases don't react to people that the way Min Min lights do . My mother also has seen these lights and all of my fathers brothers who are all but one is alive did see these lights.

Min Min lights are true and out there are they gases or are they some energy that animals pick up on. Chris.

[Torey]

I had to Google Min Min Lights to find out more.

They seem to be similar to the Will-o'-the-Wisp, yes? 

Where I'm from, in Louisiana, we would often see Wills-o'-the-Wisp which behaved in a similar fashion to what you're describing here.  I've also always heard them dismissed as "swamp gas".  I personally believe that they're something like land wights - and I think it's probable the same is true for at least some instances of the Min Min Lights.

[deka]

Thanks for sharing, Lonley knight. Your dad has some fascinating stories, I hope you are able to keep sharing more of them. I love stories that are told by people like your dad. People who worked out bush generally had to be strong, robust men, not easily scared by much which is why when they do open up and share these experiences, I tend to put a lot of faith into them. I'd love to see the min min lights, and maybe for no other reason than that they are just so iconic. Thanks again

[Christine]

Ah the good old Min Min lights. I think we have a couple of posts on here about them.

[Lightbook]

Thanks for the story. Im facinated by the min min lights but have never seen them. I live far from the areas these are seen.
I read an article recently about a scientist from University of Queensland who reckons that the min-min lights  are just a light refraction from far away. The article is at http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2003/03/uq-scientist-unlocks-secret-of-min-min-lights
I think the refraction phenomena he talks about in the article is feasable, but from accounts I have read I feel very strongly that  there is a much more spiritual reality to many cases phenomena.
I would love to hear if anyone with good clairvoyant vision has encountered the Min-min.

[Saturn]

I'm with the UQ scientist on this one. As part of my Ham radio hobby, the same phenomena that causes the min min lights  is responsible for some forms of long distance VHF/ UHF radio communication. Both light and radio waves get refracted in the troposphere by a ducting effect created by a temperature inversion. It can make for some pretty bizarre sights that I have personally seen, like ships that are actually over the horizon but can be seen hanging in midair up side down! I've also seen distant islands, again inverted. I've got photos somewhere on my old hard drive.

This same tropospheric ducting causes VHF and higher radio (and TV) signals to venture further than line of sight, sometimes for hundreds of miles.

Because of this, I'm satisfied that most, if not all min min lights are the lights of distant camp fires or vehicle lights being caught by the mirage effect. That's why they are always elusive and never approachable. 

[catseyes]

I agree Saturn......I think this is an example of how the 'paranormal' becomes 'normal' when science and technology catches up with nature.

[GaryTheDemon]

It sounds very plausible except that min min predate the technology we use and would have to have been (camp) fires which don't seem to me to be bright enough for this effect ...  it is curious also that Australia seems to be the only country that have reported them.

[Lightbook]

The science may be correct in many instances of this phenomena, but i cant see how it can explain the instances where animals have reacted weirdly to their pressence, or where the lights themslves have reacted to people interacting with them such as in the story above. I think those instances may actually be some kind of spiritual phenomenon. Im relying on the stories of both sceptics, scientists and people who have seen them though as I am not likely to get the oportunity to investigate myself.
I think the light bending phenomena is responsible for many reports of cars being chased by headlight like lights in the night in outback parts of australia.

[catseyes]

There are earth lights all over the world.  They sound similar to the Min min to me.  They are believed to be some sort of electro-magnetic phenomena.  Animals do re act and they are believed by some to be related to earthquakes or at least the release of pressure from with in the earth.   

[catseyes]

Remember the Corpse light guys?  That turned out to be swamp gas in most cases.