Talk:Street light interference phenomenon

From someone who experiences this...
i'm someone who experiences this strange effect on a very regualar - almost nightly - basis. it is something i've only reluctantly looked up, as i at first thought it must be a random coincidence. however, it has happened so frequently that it is to me more than coincidence. i also regularly experience dead battery on my car, even though it has been changed many times. in regards of 'specific' lights, not sure if they are the same lights that either turn off or on, but they are definitely on the same stretch of road in the same place. - mat, cyprus: unsigned by 213.149.183.223

One thing I noticed in myself is that specific lights go out and come on. There are specific lights that very often go out when I'm near, while most never change at all (I'm trying to point out that the idea isn't based on random lights randomly shutting off). This isn't in the article; if it's in one of the sources, it should be included, as it's pretty significant. 69.221.128.247 (talk) 07:23, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point. I understand what you are saying about "specific" lights going out and coming on. Look at the YouTube video links I have put in that show this and there are additional videos at You Tube that show this point. I think this is described also in the book reference called "The SLI Effect" - and when I find the wording on this I will make a note of it in the article and reference it. Thanks for the ideas and note on this.--Doug talk 15:17, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Found some additional references to specific lamps being put out, not just random lamps. Have made reference to this in the heading. Uploaded 6 videos to You Tube showing the effect on a specific mercury vapor lamp at an apartment complex. They show it doesn't effect lamps randomly as other nearby lamps of the same type were not turned off or put on by the SLIDER person as was this certain specific mercury vapor lamp in the center of a 3 story apartment building stairway several times. The circuit to these outside lamps are all on one light sensing device as a bank of lights, so somehow this one single specific lamp is being affected and seems to respond to the nearness of the SLIDER as the video illustrates. While the videos could have been "faked" it does show that it is on a specific lamp and not just any random lamps in general. --Doug talk 23:37, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I think you've just noticed that not all lamps are near their end of life (and thus turning on and off), just specific ones.  r speer  / ɹəəds ɹ  00:37, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't know much about the life spans of lamps, but the ones in my experience have been in service for years, but continue to exhibit this behavior. It would seem that, if it were a life span question, the lamps would have failed already. 69.221.128.247 (talk) 03:03, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Interestingly this specific mercury vapor lamp at this apartment building is still there in service and has not been replaced since these videos were made over 18 months ago. The maintenance person that held the camera while the SLIder went under the lamp to illustrate his effects on the lamp has since tried to duplicate the event with his coworkers and other tenants of the building with no success. The lamp, while it may be at its life cycle end, has not displayed a consistent "cycling" where it could be put on video. Also the presence of another person under or near the lamp when it goes off or on has not been able to be duplicated. The knowledable maintenance manager that held the camera has been at the complex for years and lives in one of the adjacent buildings and has never seen the effect happen to any other tenant (thousands). The large complex has dozens of identical buildings with the same outside electrical mercury vapor lamps and circuits that control them. The additional reference by 130.101.20.148 is excellent because it also shows several others that have responded to this outside source as the event also happening to them with their stories. Also this reference talks about SLIders generally being shy about wanting to report the event because of ridicule by the skeptics. Even Hilary Evans in his book of The SLI Effect points out that most SLIders would just as soon stay out of the limelight. Most in fact think it is something that is just happening to them and are relieved to find that others throughout the world experience identically the same thing. Most do not even know that this phenomenon is referred to as "Street Light Interference". I even had to ask the Wikipedia science reference desk last year if there were others that this Human "Radio Wave" Transmitter (as I referred to it as) had ever happen where they effected "street lights" (my wording). One Wikipedian then pointed out this article to me which up to that point I knew nothing about.--Doug talk 14:07, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The story about the guy and the apartment building is an interesting anecdote, but far from a scientific experiment. If there were a real cause and effect here, and not just coincidental correlations, then it would be able to be reproduced under controlled settings. Unfortunately, people like ASSAP aren't interested in following the scientific method (many of their criteria for studying Street Light Interference are anti-scientific).  r speer  / ɹəəds ɹ  18:07, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

This is rigoddamnediculous. I hate you guys, seriously.166.214.76.105 (talk) 17:51, 7 November 2008 (UTC)DLM

From someone who experienced this 2
This has happened to me. It is always the same street light, I can give GPS position http://maps.google.se/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=57.72456,12.924959&hl=sv&geocode=&sll=57.724559,12.924954&sspn=0.001302,0.004128&vpsrc=6&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=19&ie=UTF8&ll=57.724561,12.924954&spn=0.001296,0.004128&t=h&z=19&iwloc=ddw1

First time I walked by, the light switched off, I just thought it was random. It turns on again when you've walked away from it a bit. Second time, I thought the same thing. It's just random. It happened a third and a fourth time, and I started to think it was strange and was wondering if someone in the apartements nearby was playing a prank on me. I didn't understand it, maybe it was some sort of interference. That wouldn't be too strange. Once I walked there with a friend, and I said to her "This light is going to turn off when we walk by", at first I was a little worried that it wasn't going to just because I told her, but it did! :D so we walked a little further, she just thought it was random. So she said to me "OK, walk back there again and try again". And I did, and it turned off every time! We just laughed at it, never thought there was something called "Street light interference phenomenon", lol. I definitely don't think it is paranormal though, lol. I have proven to at least one person that it is true so I feel confident, there is some good explanation of course. --Spektrum1983 (talk) 12:01, 12 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Your description fits what's been happening to me for over 20 years, in various parts of the country from California to Florida. I also do not believe it is paranormal. There is an explanation, however science has not proven what it is yet. Someday it will be shown, as this happens to thousands of people in all parts of the world. It has been so predictable for me at times that I have video taped it.


 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okE86VRv9xU
 * --Doug Coldwell talk 12:39, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Page 16 quote
Since you rewrote Hilary Evans' quote it is no longer what he said. What you wrote is not referenced and is just your opinion as to what should be a fact and what should not be a fact. I don't believe this is the intention of Wikipedia articles. I think a statement should be referenced if I am not mistaken. Do you have a reference for your new wording? The quote before you removed it and reworded Evans' own words is on page 16 of Evans' book (Pub: Frome, ASSAP - London, England 1993, 2005 ISBN 0952131102). Can you give me a reason why the quoted wording below should not be put back, keeping in mind that Wikipedia does not determine "fact" but only that a statement should be referenced. The below is referenced at Evans' book on page 16: This, it was suggested, is sufficient to explain the SLI effect; what happens is that the witness just happens to be passing such a lamp during its death-throes, and is led by the synchronicity to imagine that he is somehow responsible. But as the testimony shows, even if we allow the coincidence in place and time, this effect could account for only a small fraction of the reported cases. For one thing, other types of lamp are involved besides sodium lamps. Then again, only a small number of reports describe anything like an SL going off, then on, then off again. And what about when a witness extinguishes a whole batch of SLs: are we to conclude that the whole batch was purchased together, and so shared the same life-span, and such was the perfection of their manufacture, that they all reached their death-point simultaneously? Yet even if we allow that, there is still the fact that some SLIders extinguish a row of SLs in sequence, each one going out as the witnesses nears it: it is asking too much to suppose that a series of lamps would have been arranged in order of their life-span.

Verifiability - The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—that is, whether readers are able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether we think it is true. I believe your rewriting of Evans' quote would not follow this policy of your "rewriting to not claim Hilary Evans' opinion as "fact". I am just using his quote directly, which has been in the article for over 18 months with no objections from others. If you don't object further, or have a reference for your material of Evans' rewording you did to this referenced quote, then I will be putting it back in with the reference on page 16 of his book. --Doug Coldwell talk 15:01, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

It happens to me quite often but most often when I seem to be disturbed about something and deep in thought. In other words my mind is working in over drive and I will notice the street lamps seem to go out as I pass near or under them and return to normal as my distance increases. I reason that I am putting out some form of electromagnetic energy that tricks the lamps into going off as if hit by a sunburst of light. Whether the effect is of the paranormal realm or has a basis in science is undetermined. All I know is that I have experienced it for years and there is a definite pattern to it. An interesting test is to walk down the street and observe the phenomena and allow the street lamps to resume their standard regular luminosity and return back down the same route to observe their dimming in a second occurrence. Magical Thinking is rarely so punctual.


 * Yes, this is the identical description for me also.--Doug Coldwell talk 10:18, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

What about with cars?
I've experienced this effect while driving my car (with probably faulty electrical shielding) near street lights. I notice that as I approach some lights, the bulb fairly reliably dies when I'm about 20 feet from the lamp. I suspect that this is due to the EMI generated by the electrical spark ignition of the car. Would this be a reasonable explanation for my situation? 66.178.138.134 (talk) 02:03, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this is the identical description for me also while driving or riding in a car. Just my opinion, but I believe it to be EMI generated by myself. How and why I have not the foggest idea. The 20 foot range seems to apply to me also, while driving a car or walking underneath the lamp pole structure with no car in site. I don't think it has anything to do with the car itself. Reason being is that I have tested this with my wife with identically the same vehicle at the same time of day. With her alone the lights stay on and she observed closely. I ride with her in the same vehicle another time, these same lights go out one after another as we are going down the street. Can't explain it. All I know is that it happens. Magical power of some kind I do not believe. Controllable, no. Gift, no. Nuisance, perhaps, from the viewpoint when I point it out to people (even before their very own eyes) they do not believe it. In this case, seeing is not believing. I stopped mentioning it to people, mainly because it doesn't make any difference even if I could prove it. Only my wife believes it, since she has seen it happen so many times. Over the years I have received thousands of remarks from others around the world that it happens to them also. It has no "magical" power for them either. Its just a phenomena that happens. Perhaps sophisticated electronics someday will detect the human EMI or whatever it is that sets off these lamps. I believe it is scientific and will be solved someday. That's my opinion.--Doug Coldwell talk 13:28, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Other SLIder "symptoms"
There was an article in the Brit teen magazine Sugar in the late 90s about a girl with this condition. Since publications of this sort occasionally overdramatize stories and sometimes even delve into the tabloid realm, and since my memory of this is not spectacular, take this with a grain of salt.

The girl in the article was alleged to be possibly the most intensely-affected SLIder. The street light bit was a factor, but she caused problems with many other electrical items (I think household appliances and the like). The article suggested it might be familial; the girl stated that her mother and sibling(s) had minor issues. A wristwatch would stop working while they wore it, then function normally after being taken off. The term SLIder was used, and they quoted an expert or two on the nature of the phenomenon and its prevalence in the UK/worldwide.

I probably have this issue packed away somewhere, so if I can dig it up, I'll see if it includes anything worth a mention in the main article here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.26.236.190 (talk) 06:37, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

It happens to me often
It happens to me often If I remain calm I can control it at times. If you think "off and on" it will not work. Too often is the premise here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.87.0.246 (talk) 02:27, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

Happened to me a few times.
Altho i understand the need for this article i want to point out that there can be problems with street lighting that somehow causes them to switch off. I had an experience where i was cycling along a line of streetlights. At a certain point four consecutive lights switched off one by one the moment i passed each of them. That seems a bit high for a random occurence. I have hardly ever seen this effect with one pole at a time. But four poles reacting the same way as i passed? The chance that it is pure random behaviour is astronomically small. So there very propably is something particular about street lights that makes them sensitive to vibrations at times. I think that this should not be excluded as a possible cause for these experiences. Skeptics that just cover the 'confirmation bias' explanation and throw out any correlation are just as guilty of confirmation bias as any other victim of confirmation bias. They are just confirming their own bias that it must be due to confirmation bias. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.87.238.229 (talk) 16:11, 6 December 2012 (UTC)


 * 'Confirmation Bias' is just plain wrong. I'll change it.  Claimants only being able to detect nearby lights is purely a matter of physics.  The prior beliefs or selective memory of Confirmation Bias aren't required.  The actual fallacy here is called post hoc, ergo propter hoc, or "correlation doesn't require causation." 208.38.217.165 (talk) 04:34, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Not just high-pressure sodium
All high pressure discharge lamps can enter a cycling state at the end of their life. It might be more common for HPS lamps, but mercury (and metal halide) lamps also do it. The life of such lamps is in the 15000 to 24000 hour range, or a few years with normal operation. As the electrode materials wear out, the lamp can start, but doesn't have enough voltage to keep the arc going at full pressure. The lamp then goes out, until the pressure drops enough to restart the arc, beginning the process again. Some ballasts have special circuitry to detect it, but most continue cycling pretty much forever. Gah4 (talk) 01:52, 17 June 2014 (UTC)
 * You are correct, all HIDs do it, and the light will continue to cycle for years until the bulb is changed, it doesn't happen when the light is 'nearing the end of its life', it happens when the bulb is essentially dead. A dead HID will cycle forever. And wind, rain, snow, ice and hail storms can send rows of lights cycling. I have advice for people who think they are causing the cycling: time the intervals between the light(s) on and off periods, using your phone. They should be almost identical every time. And try paying better attention, if there is a light you think you are turning on and off when you walk by it, next time you walk that direction, stop a block before where the light is and watch it for five or ten minutes (again, time it with your phone). I guarantee you'll see it cycle. SLI isn't a thing. 64.180.146.10 (talk) 09:26, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Light sensors in street lights
I remember having read an article, maybe in Skeptical Inquirer, about a pro-paranormal radio show where a guest said this happened to him when driving his car, and that it was unexplainable. Several auto mechanics called in and said they were familiar with the phenomenon: the street lamps in some areas have light sensors to tell them when it is day and night - the lamps go out in the morning when the sensors are lighted, and go on in the evening when they aren't. If your headlamps point too high, they hit the sensors, causing all the lamps on the way to go out. The mechanics in areas where the lamps work like this knew about this because they had to adjust the headlights.

But as I said: I don't know where I read that. --Hob Gadling (talk) 07:50, 10 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Not only would they have to be aftermarket spotlights since headlights can't be tilted that high, but the sensors would also have to be installed improperly. The sensors are placed on the back of the light facing away from the road. The people who call into radio shows are experts in BS. 64.180.146.10 (talk) 09:42, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * headlights can't be tilted that high You are thinking too simply. A headlight is not a laser that points exactly in one direction only. And this is not a forum where we discuss our own ideas. See WP:OR and WP:NOTFORUM. I was trying to find a source I remember. If the source is found, we can use it. --Hob Gadling (talk) 10:06, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Here and there within Wikipedia are little backwaters where idiotic ideas are discussed with grave seriousness. This article is one of them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EEng (talk • contribs) 15:05, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * The sensors on street lamps aren't exactly precision components to begin with, they're also not routinely placed at the rear of the fixture, but wherever the engineer decided to emplace the translucent dome or cylinder housing. I've noticed a very similar occurrence when walking at night, a common enough event being that I'm walking on a street at night when it occurs. No magic needed, just recollection of the fact that street lamps are made by the lowest bidder and receive minimal maintenance.Wzrd1 (talk) 13:04, 9 May 2024 (UTC)