Top 12 Ball Lightning Folklore From All Around World

4. The Wandering Souls of Japanese Folklore

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Japanese history ties ball lightning sometimes to the idea of "hitodama," or wandering souls. These ghostly lights are meant to portray the outer expression of a person's soul as it soon after death exits the body. Conventional wisdom holds that hitodama shows as miniature, beautiful blue, white, or even red light spheres softly floating in the air. Usually found at graves, hospitals, or other locations where someone lately passed away, they are In some parts of Japan, the color of the hitodama is said to be symbolic of the type of the departed soul: blue for a peaceful passing, white for a neutral spirit, and red for a vengeful or furious ghost. Usually described as a ball of fire around the size of a basketball, the phenomena moves slowly and may even pass through solid things. Some stories say that people approaching their own death or those with spiritual awareness can see hitodama. More complex myths have soul orbs reported to periodically mingle to create larger, more potent spiritual creatures. Though hitodama are usually not seen as evil, seeing one can sometimes be taken as evidence of restless spirits of the dead or as a warning of approaching death. This link between ball lightning and the human soul catches the fundamental Japanese view in the continuity of life beyond death and the thin layer separating the domain of the living from the domain of spirits. Hitodama has been weaved into numerous Japanese ghost stories, artwork, and contemporary pop culture; it still intrigues imaginations and reinforces the enigmatic quality of ball lightning in Japanese mythology.