Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 85 · UFO Afrinews No 9, February 1994

Brilliant light outside the window in Johannesburg (Charmaine, second incident)

1984 · Johannesburg, sister-in-law's house, South Africa

What was reported

At fifteen, staying with her sister-in-law in Johannesburg, Charmaine went to bed early, tired from the day, and woke abruptly to an enormous brilliant white light outside the window. The brown curtains were drawn, yet the light came through clearly. Terrified, she found herself too scared to move and remembers lying on her back staring at it; after that she remembers nothing. Next morning nobody else had seen any light and they told her she had been dreaming, which she half wanted to believe but felt it had been too real. Reading Hopkins' Intruders later frightened her so badly she could not finish it.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
Dreaming, according to the family

In their words

  • then woke suddenly to see a huge, really huge, brilliant white light outside the window.

    Charmaine, spread 10
  • I half wanted to believe it was a dream, but it was too real.

    Charmaine, spread 10

Cross references

  • Case No 85 garden incident (09-10-1)
  • Budd Hopkins, Intruders (1987)

Connected

  • Whose Face Wore the Smile?Case fileSame behaviour

    Woken at night by a light so bright it came through drawn curtains: Charmaine at fifteen (brown curtains, paralysed, then nothing), Dave H. on a fourth-floor hotel balcony (thick curtain, opened it). Kerry's orange glow at the window (20-08-1) is a third.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 9 (February 1994), spread 10

Nearby

Stories within 60 km