Top 12 Ball Lightning Folklore From All Around World

7. The Soul-Stealing Orbs of Transylvanian Nightmares

Ball lightning becomes somewhat more frightening among the mist-shrouded highlands of Transylvania, a land rich in legendary myth. Local customs hold that these brilliant orbs—which hover silently above the ground as they hunt for naive victims—show up on moonless evenings and are not only natural events but also demonic entities known as "soul stealers." The stories tell of them as throbbing with a terrible, enticing light that would captivate everyone who looked at them too long. Most terrible stories have the souls of the living taken by these spheres and leaving behind empty husks of their former selves. Villagers tell in subdued tones of incidents whereby people were found aimlessly, their eyes empty and their thoughts wiped clean, following apparently an experience with these ghostly spheres. While some variants of the story indicate the orbs are the manifestations of old, malevolent spirits, aiming to gather life power for evil, others believe they are the weapons of dark sorcerers or vampires. Often obtaining amazing powers or suffering from frequent nightmares about their meeting with the supernatural, the mythology claims those who survive an encounter with a soul-stealing orb are forever transformed. Combining vampire folklore, witchcraft, and the always-present dread about the future, this terrible picture of ball lightning catches the deep-seated fears and superstitions that have long permeated Transylvanian society. Ball lightning serves as a tangible form of the invisible horrors that torment our worst dreams, therefore reminding us vividly of the ancestral sins still lurking in the depths of human knowledge.