My Somerset holiday took a strange turn

[ColdHands]

So l visited Glastonbury Tor with a camera and a half decent zoom lens.

Sure enough someone had stuffed a football into one of the windows of St Michael's Tower (the tower at the top of the tor), and the tower was descrated with graffiti, just a load of names, some within love hearts. I can't think of a better way to jinx onesself.

That said, l'm not into mystic Christianity and all the New Age meditation and occidental dharmic practises l saw going on there. 

There was also a woman with a pale hat, probably white or very light yellow.

 

Ok the point is, I later checked my pics and saw something odd. Seemingly sat on one of the stone benches within the tower was an object, it sort of looks shaded in the original pic, indicating it's dead and subject to light cast on it from all around (the tower is open top, roofless, but the skylight doesn't infiltrate very far down into the tower).

However, it's rather bright compared to the surrounds.

I'm 50:50 on it being .... incandescent?

It definitely wasn't the previously seen football, that was there even as l left (l took some parting shots). It wasn't the woman's hat. Any opinions on what it was? I have processed the image to intensify the colours and there appear to be faint blue veins running through it in one of my processed edits. The sepia edit is to show how bright it is compared to the surrounding countryside basking under open skies on the hottest June day recorded.

The lady in front of the sphere was either reading the memorial inscription within the tower, or she was doing some New Age prayer (as l had witnessed her doing on a few occasions).

 

Edited 17 hours ago by ColdHands
Forgot the sepia one, pressed wrong button and posted topic instead of adding sepia pic

[ColdHands]

I could also add, I momentarily heard a small male choir singing a single note, two or three times within the space of about 1-2 minutes, whilst in that tower. I thought it was about 10 male voices but then l checked and 3 monks were hung drawn and quartered there. Maybe it was 3 voices singing in unison? I swear it happened just like that.

[Rob]

For as long as I have been on this planet and certainly in the past 5 and a half decades, Glastonbury has had more than its fair share of weirdos. From the nobility to the peasantry, it has somehow found itself bound into an annual religious schedule. Just the latest incarnation of the out of mind experience seemingly required by a group of questionable sanity. I blame the son of the then Marquis of Bath for being an integral part of the ensuing chaos, with his wifelets and copious quantities of dope.

Those attracted to Stonehenge invariably made their way down to Worthy Farm for the music a couple days after the summer solstice. I could never understand why many didn't wear shoes, given the levels of dogs**t on the pavements in those days. And passing through prime agricultural land, the chance of being hit by a flying cowpat was high. 

Moving to the current day, you may have dodged a bullet, as it would have been quite possible for Trump to make an appearance too, given his position as President, God,  and a total belief in all things narcissistic. I heard he had gained copyright over the word Trump. The strange sounds you could hear was probably his personal choir of disciples, perfecting their flatulence for his appearance as God at this year's non-festival. 

[Paddy]

I am naturally very sceptical of reported supernatural experiences. The crescent in the side of the picture could be a stray light beam, a common anomaly, particularly when using a telephoto lens. The singing voices could be a breeze striking a resonant note in the upper reaches of the tower. I was not there, so I cannot confirm one way or another.

However, I appreciate that for some the presence of supernatural forces is important to their way of viewing life, and if such experiences help them make sense of this crazy world, then good for them!

[jelida]

Looks to me like someone standing to the left of the window holding a panama hat beside their bum.

Jerry

[Peckris 2]

Some years ago the music industry changed over to digital, and invented this thing called a 'compact disc'. The CD partly shown in the picture is clearly of a small male choir singing a single note...  

[Michael-Roo]

3 hours ago, jelida said:

Looks to me like someone standing to the left of the window holding a panama hat beside their bum.

Jerry

I agree with Jerry; it's a hat.

[ColdHands]

Hi there, some more images. The one in the OP is at 10am, as is the final image in this post.

I too am skeptical of others' paranormal experiences except when they align with what l have experienced. I actually made this post to seek out explanations.

So:

1. Hat:

i) The image showing the lady with the hat: I think she was the only such lady.

ii) The winds at the top, though veeeery welcome, were quite gusty and they took my own hat off but l had one with a chin strap. That was a relatively calm day; in a gale l can imagine being blown all the way to Oz. It's a no-hat zone.

iii) I don't think that object was a hat. Note how it's too bright, and how it has a veined pattern on the intensified edit. Also look at the immediate entryway, that is nowhere near as bright as the hat, yet it is reflecting the sky, perhaps the stone is less reflective than a bright straw hat, l don't know.

iv) However, note the position: the object is clearly sat on top of a stone bench, as if it indeed were a hat. So l'm open to it being something, placed on the bench.

 

2. Sunbeam:

i) the edges are too sharp, a sunbeam would be more diffuse

ii) you'd think the sunbeam would highlight the deeply-grooved (what's the word?) stonework of the tower walls.

iii) Also, as l say, the sun could not penetrate that far down, we're not in the tropics - the sun would have to be directly overheard to shine all the way down to the floor of the tower. I've included a photo of the top of the tower - you can see how far the sun was coming down. I was photoing almost everything l could set my sights on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ColdHands]

5 hours ago, Paddy said:

The singing voices could be a breeze striking a resonant note in the upper reaches of the tower

Well, as l explained over chess, l'm into music, l recently spent good money on some choir samples to use in my own productions (male, female and childrens' choirs). I can appreciate a human voice from the shrieking winds, but note: I heard the male voices singing in unison at the height of the wind shrieking (if l remember correctly). I didn't go up there expecting any of this. As l say, l am not into Christianity, mystic Christianity, or New Age. I am spiritual though, l believe in God.

[ColdHands]

Another thing that piques me:

Note how well formed the disc of the object is. Seen at my side-on angle, it conforms well to an ellipse draw in one of my art programs (in this instance,  Pinta) - see attachment.

So, was this a flat object that caught me perfectly side on as if it were perched at a perfect 90 degree angle to the stone bench, so as to present a perfect disc to me? As opposed to a skewed disc that a hat slouching on a bench would present?

Or ... was it a sphere? A sphere presents a perfect disc no matter the angle.

 

 

[Rob]

If you want a scientific answer, how about persistent luminescence from a hat that has been washed in a detergent with luminescent ingredients, which most have. Think discos. That can last for tens of minutes after exposure to UV light and will be accentuated by the relative darkness inside the tower. You did say the day was the hottest one of the year when levels were 7-9 (high to very high), and whilst not necessarily at maximum, there would have been a fair degree of exposure to UV getting there. You also have to consider the light sensor response curves for various wavelengths if the camera tries to compensate for these or has a sweet spot for maximum enhancement when capturing the image.

Note to self. Need a life.

[ColdHands]

interesting. But what about the perfect angle of the disc? As if it were a sphere? 

If it were a supernatural object, maybe my high shutter speed caught it, it must have been at least 1/1000s if not faster. 

Also, people don't tend to wash hats. Especially straw hats, which it would have been were it a hat. 

 

However, continued phopsphorescence of an inanimate object is definitely scientifically grounded. I just don't feel the object could have been a hat.

As for my camera's sensitivity, it was a pro-sumer product in its time and as  you can see, the shot covers the a wide range of colours and intensities. I was using a standard sRGB colour space, which is used to standardise the representation of colours across electronic devices. 

[alfnail]

That looks like my hat, it fell off yesterday in a gust of wind. 

[ColdHands]

Note: if you take the OP image, and turn down the brightness (my main monitor is dim) you can see it has blatant shading, as if it is indeed, to an extent, reflecting light, i.e. it's an inanimate object, not incandescent.