Probably Not A Ghost Story
Something happened to me a few months back that I still don’t have a satisfying explanation for.
I was in a small, 10x10 room, and on my way out. Still a few paces from being within arms-length of the light switch, my partner asked me to “turn off the lights, please.”
The lights immediately turned off and the room went completely dark.
I stood there, shocked, standing in the darkness until the lights came on, probably 3/4 of a second later.
Observations
- When the lights turned off, I had an immediate (and probably visible) “wait, what?” reaction. My partner also appeared confused, though possibly reacting just after me. It’s unclear who displayed their reaction first. There might have been a feedback loop, with my reaction influencing theirs. I immediately went “did you just see that?!” and anchored the conversation pretty hard. Though we both agreed that it happened, this seems vulnerable to influence.
- At all times, I was farther than arm’s length from the light switch. After the lights went out and I recovered from the initial shock, I had to walk about two paces to investigate the switch.
- After the light returned, and I walked to check out the switch, it was still in the “on” position.
- I didn’t hear any “flip” sounds that would indicate the switch being toggled.
- The oven clock in the apartment still displayed the correct time.
- But I don’t have good reason to expect it resets during outages.
- There were no reported outages on PG&E outage center.
- But I don’t have good reason to expect it should’ve been.
- The room was lit by 4 overhead lights, all controlled by the single switch. No lamps or light sources.
- Floor-mates didn’t recall any other outages in the apartment over the past year. Unfortunately, they weren’t home at the time and couldn’t give firsthand accounts.
- You might not usually notice small outages like this (at least enough to recall the memory months later).
- I don’t remember anything this “weird” having happened to me before, and I’m a happy and healthy 20 year old.
Analysis
For a moment, my heart started beating and I felt a bit freaked out. This was quickly replaced with “wait, even if we’re spitting out crazy explanations here, why am I even considering ghost stories before I imagine worlds where someone, like, installed cameras and is toying with me (not a great explanation, but much better than the former).
After a few days, I started thinking about this whole experience like The Pyramid And The Garden, and have now come to a similar conclusion. The best fitting story seems to be that this was just a really weirdly timed blackout.
Some things that could happen immediately before an outage that would elicit a similar reaction:
- Someone yells “God, if you’re real give me a sign!”
- Watching a horror movie during a scary part / saying “Bloody Mary” / playing with a Ouija board / mentioning you’re scared of the dark
- Reading / seeing something about power outages
- Your cat knocks a vase off of a shelf (?)
(Most of these are a lot weirder than the relatively common phrase “turn off the lights, please.” I’d like to think of more examples that match it’s specific weirdness level.)
I’ve had the ability to notice when I observe a really unlikely event for about 10 years (before that, I was pretty young so I don’t think I’ll count it). Searching through memories of “extremely weird things that have happened to me,” nothing comes up besides this.
Additionally, I’ve probably been rolling the dice a lot more than I know, continuously for the last 10 years. If you’re considering the number of times I’ve witnessed any extremely unlikely weird-sounding event, regardless of what it is, I think this rate might make some sense.
If, on average, people observe an event this weird once every 30 years, an exponential distribution (\(P[T\le t]=1-e^{-\lambda t}\)) puts my odds at 28% after 10 years and 86% after 60 years, which doesn’t seem that crazy.
Responding to weirdness
This doesn’t feel unlikely enough for me to start second guessing my mental state, but at some point that line must exist.
If instead, someone was chanting “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, …” before the blackout, would that have crossed the line? There exist some set of observations that are less likely than me being drugged or crazy, in which case I’d hope to realize that my senses should be questioned.
While I’m quite certain that this particular observation is not yet unlikely enough to be in that set, I’m curious where other people draw that line.