Famous rock formations in the mountains of Pachuca

Are you familiar with the Brown Mountain lights? Are you familiar with the infamous Marfa lights? Do you know that there exists reports of spontaneous fires breaking out in the middle of nowhere, but only to appear as bonfires and disappearing within minutes?  You’re probably reading this and saying something clever like:

“It’s called methane gas, Javier…jeez. Screw this post, I’m going to Youtube and searching for ‘Man showing his Neo Geo collection‘ “

Now before you spend the better part of your Sunday watching that YouTube video of the dancing man, hear me out. I think the theory of methane gas being responsible for the reports of these spontaneous and eerie lights existing is fairly logical. Makes sense to me. What does not make sense is the eyewitness descriptions of these fires. Let me start with a brief introduction to the more famous cases.

The Brown Mountain lights. Aptly named because these strange lights appear in and around Brown Mountain, North Carolina. The lights have been seen and reported for hundreds of years. Appearing suddenly in the distance, moving about freely as if they were bonfires transported from a location to another and then disappearing.  My good friend Micah Hanks from L.E.M.U.R Paranormal Investigations, along with his team members have recorded these unusual lights. Many theories exist for a possible explanations for these lights. From pockets of methane gas escaping the earth, to headlights from All Terrain Vehicles off in the distance. Bottom line is that these lights come and go quickly.

The other famous case of these phantom lights is in Marfa Texas. I’ll let Wikipedia explain these:

The Marfa lights or the Marfa ghost lights are unexplained lights (known as “ghost lights”) usually seen near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States.

The first published account of the lights was written in 1957, and this article is the sole source for anecdotal claims that the lights date back to the 1800s. Reports often describe brightly glowing basketball sized spheres floating above the ground, or sometimes high in the air. Colors are usually described as white, yellow, orange or red, but green and blue are sometimes reported. The balls are said to hover at about shoulder height, or to move laterally at low speeds, or sometimes to shoot around rapidly in any direction. They often appear in pairs or groups, according to reports, to divide into pairs or merge together, to disappear and reappear, and sometimes to move in seemingly regular patterns. Their sizes are typically said to resemble soccer balls or basketballs.

Sightings are reported occasionally and unpredictably, perhaps ten to twenty times a year. There are no reliable reports of daytime sightings; the lights seem to be a nocturnal phenomenon only.

According to the people who claim to have seen the lights, they may appear at any time of night, typically south of U.S. Route 90 and U.S. Route 67, five to fifteen miles east of Marfa, at unpredictable directions and apparent distances. They can persist from a fraction of a second to several hours. There is evidently no connection between appearances of the Marfa lights and anything else besides nighttime hours. They appear in all seasons of the year and in any weather, seemingly uninfluenced by such factors. They sometimes have been observed during late dusk and early dawn, when the landscape is dimly illuminated.

It is extremely difficult to approach an ongoing display of the Marfa lights, mainly due to the dangerous terrain of Mitchell Flat. Also, all of the land where the Marfa Lights are observed is private property, and access is prohibited without explicit permission from the owners. There are only a very few accounts of success in moving very close to observed lights, but those that exist generally describe objects resembling fireworks lacking both smoke and sound

So what are these strange lights? Headlights? Methane gas or “Swamp gas” ?

Like many events in the annals of the paranormal, there are no simple answers. Yes, some theories make sense, but until they are fully applied and solve a mystery, they are just theories. Not Answers.

When I was younger (In my late teens) I found myself staying with family in the remote mountains of Pachuca, Hidalgo. Mexico. I spent 2 nights and 3 days there. I think my time was short because while there, the family had prior engagements with the nearby townsfolk in preparing for some celebration that I don’t remember the reason for. The family left on the second day of our (Myself, an Uncle, Cousin and Aunt) arrival. In fact, I remember why we bailed out so quickly. There was no food. We resorted to eating animal crackers on the last day. I mean, they had chickens and cows, but I was not about to butcher any of those animals. Don’t get me wrong, I like meat, but like many, I don’t care much about knowing how the cow goes from the farm to my grill.

Right. So back to my story.

Maguey plant

This place was so remote that we had to park our car on some lot in a nearby highway, then trek down the mountains about an hour or so until we reached the small commune. While on our way down, we stopped by this other small house. It was situated on the side of the trail. There lived about 8 or 10 people in the small home. My Uncle and his relatives stopped by to chat. They offered us Pulque. Which is a viscous-milky looking alcoholic drink taken from the Maguey plant. I think the drink dates back to the Mesoamerican period. Sour to the taste. One drink and I was tripping and stumbling about down the trail.

When we reached the commune, we sat in their kitchen, which was a separate building. We started eating corn and some bean soup. Then we watched the fog roll down from the dark and creepy forest.  I couldn’t help but ask about these lights that I’ve heard so much about.

The men start to talk about their eyewitness sightings of these things.

[Paraphrasing]

“They look like bonfires. They come up quickly and travel through the mountains. They are witches.”

They native believe is that “witches” are responsible for these lights. They are also blamed for many of the infant deaths that exist in the area. What we attribute to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) they attribute to witches.

I always hate using the word “witches” in context like this. Because the many people give the religion of Wicca a bad name. Mainly due to ignorance.  In keeping with the story, I’ll use the word “witches”.

The men continue to tell of accounts in which they have personally ran across said witches. One told me that there was his cousin was coming home from a party and had a bit too much pulque to drink. His cousin then claimed that he came across and old hag, a witch, that had stripped him off his clothes and put him up in a tall tree. He was found that way in the morning. Confused and scared.

The other men recounted times of where they would be working late in the fields and they can observe these lights come up. They would be really tall and burn bright. After a minute or so they would seem to hover from one end of the mountain to the other. All this, without sparking any forest fires.

I was getting the feeling that maybe they were just trying to put on a show and scare me a little. My feelings went away when I noticed that they took the threat of witches seriously. They had the horns of several steer hanging on the outside of their doors. These were placed there to ward off the witches.

As my Cousin and I retired to our room (Again, it was a standalone room in the middle of some field. Kinda reminded me of a village.) we remember this room being decorated with lassos and hats. Boots and belts draped the 2 chairs and single bed in the room. When we fell asleep, I woke up to sounds of kids talking. I say kids because I distinctively remember giggling and thinking that the youngsters were trying to scare us. The giggling faded and next we heard footsteps circling our room. It sounded like whatever it was, was running. There were no windows, but the door had a glass pane. I got up and looked outside. Nothing but cold air and fog. The outside was lit by a single bare light bulb hanging on an extension chord from a tree. Swaying in the breeze and creating shadows that I did not need to see.

I went back to bed and tried falling asleep. Hours later, I hear this tapping on the door. My cousin wakes up and asks “What the fuck is that?”

I have no clue. The tapping comes and goes. I figured it was either one of three things.

1. A dog laying by the door and wagging its tail. Hitting the door as the tail wagged

2. Some chickens pecking at the door

3. A branch scratching at the door. After all it was windy.

None of those things were present. There was no dog, no chickens and no branches near the door when we checked. We tried to fall asleep, but the tapping kept happening for a bit. I was thinking of the giggling children and footsteps from earlier so I couldn’t sleep. After a few hours, the tapping stopped. I fell asleep and all was well.

In the morning, we made our way across the field to the kitchen where the wood stove was fully roaring. People already inside eating and drinking coffee.

“Morning!” they said.

They asked how we slept. I told them that it was OK.

“We kept hearing some tapping and footsteps around the room…”

They all looked at us and laughed. “Hahaha… we didn’t want to tell you but that was the room of our uncle. He passed away in his sleep.”

I looked at my cousin. He looked pale.

“So those were his belongings all over the room and that was his bed? ” my cousin asked.

“Yea. Some say the room is haunted by his ghost.” One of the men said.

The next night I slept in the same room with my uncle.

Now I must tell you that while there, I did not see any of these mountain lights. It was so cold and foggy that all I could think of is going back inside and staying close to the others. I did not want one of these witches stripping me naked and taking me into the dark forest. Unless the witch was hot…