Osha

Summary

The author recounts a personal experience with unexplained phenomena, particularly the mysterious dimming of a streetlight which they interpret as a sign from their deceased husband, Ed.

Abstract

In 1986, the author experienced a series of inexplicable events where light bulbs would frequently blow out when touched, and streetlights would turn off as they drove by. These occurrences were witnessed by others, including their husband, Ed, and were not intentional on the author's part. After Ed's death in 2011, the author noticed a streetlight dimming consistently as they passed by, interpreting it as a possible sign from Ed. This phenomenon, which the author refers to as SLI (Street Light Interference), ceased after they acknowledged the possibility of Ed's presence, an interpretation later supported by a psychic named Wilhelm. The experience has led the author to a personal belief in a form of continuity of existence beyond physical life, though they do not claim it as religious belief or definitive proof of the afterlife.

Opinions

The author is open to the possibility of coincidences and does not believe they intentionally caused the anomalies.
They maintain a healthy skepticism about paranormal events while remaining open to the unknown.
The author feels a sense of continuity of existence, suggesting that life may extend before birth and after death.
The interpretation of the streetlight dimming as a sign from Ed is a personal belief that provides comfort and a sense of connection to the author.
The author references SLI (Street Light Interference) as a recognized phenomenon, though its nature remains unexplained.
The author's experience is not presented as evidence but as a personal narrative that has shaped their perspective on life and death.

Osha

Ed. Photo by the author

In 1986, I went through a period of perhaps six months or so in which I experienced some unexplainable (to me) anomalies, witnessed by my husband, Ed, and others. Repeatedly, when I would touch a light switch to turn it on or off, the light bulb would blow out. At times this phenomenon became disruptive: three or four lightbulbs in a given evening? During this time, also at night, sometimes I would be driving by a streetlight, and it would go out. This happened so frequently that Ed would say: “There you go again!”

I am open to the possibility of coincidences and in no way did I ever “will” them to happen. They would surprise me as much as anyone else, and subjectively there was no sense of my being instrumental or the cause of such occurrences voluntarily at any time.

After this period of intense “activity,” the phenomena lessened and became infrequent. Occasionally still, a street light would go out as I drove by, and Ed would remark on it. But, for the most part, I seemed to either have not been present at as many “coincidences” or flukes. Or, if I were a conduit or causal in any way to these electronic anomalies or paranormal events, I ceased to be.

Ed and I had, in discussing his death, often talked about how he would try to contact me afterward, if he were at all able to do so. So, Ed died May 6, 2011. No contact. No dreams. Not that I’ve ever considered myself the recipient of “messages” from the dead, nor have I aspired to be. I think I have a healthy skepticism, but I try to remain open to the fact that there’s a lot that we don’t know and that cannot be easily explained. And, considering how close Ed and I were, I would welcome any challenge to my skepticism. But none was forthcoming.

Then in late November of 2011, I started noticing as I walked to the garage on Union St. in San Francisco, where I would park my car while working at my office a couple of blocks away, the ambient light as I walked by a restaurant, Osha, would get dim. I looked up at the streetlight in front of the restaurant, and saw that it had dimmed. I thought little of it, except it kept happening. I finally decided that I would pay attention to the light: notice it as I approached this spot on the street, and see what happens.

One evening I looked directly at the streetlight as I approached. There it was, on, bright and lit, and, as I watched it, it went dim! Uh-oh. Still, it could be a coincidence. The following night I experimented the same way: light was lit, bright, steady, and as I was looking at it, it went dim! OMG! I said: “Ed, is that you?” Light stayed dimmed.

This is getting to be ridiculous, especially since now I feel like I have this relationship with this streetlight, and can’t walk by it without checking every time, which seems a little compulsive. For the third night, I stared the streetlight down again, and again it went dim. I walked past, and before going into the building where the garage is, I looked back at the light. It was ON! Aha! I felt like I had caught it! I started going into the building. Snuck a peek back at the light. As I looked at it, it went dim. “O.K. Ed. Now you’re messing with me!”

So. I’ve made up a story that satisfies me and very few others: It is Ed, tapping me on the shoulder, getting my attention. As a friend of mine who is open to these sorts of things said: “How else is he going to contact you?” It makes sense in light (pun intended) of how he always believed me when I had extraordinary experiences, blew out lightbulbs, etc. He was always validating my experience, and it would make perfect sense that, if there is such a thing as an existence after this life that he would contact me, as he had promised he’d try, in a way that I would recognize, in a way that we had shared experience.

Shortly after I had decided that my dimming streetlight was Ed getting my attention (corroborated by Wilhelm the psychic — which either legitimizes my theory or debunks it, depending on your point of view), the streetlight started not dimming and has been shining brightly ever since.

What this experience has given me is not a religious belief nor do I take it as proof or evidence of anything . . . but what I do seem to have now is a sense that there is a continuity of some kind: before we’re born, during our physical lives, and afterward. More than that I don’t know. (I actually don’t “know” that either, but it’s a sense and I’ve come to believe it.) And, oh, yes: the restaurant Osha, in front of which the streetlight is, might refer to the osha root — which is also known as “loveroot.”

(Addendum: I subsequently learned about something called SLI — Street Light Interference. In August of 2021, the Daily Express (U.K.) ran an article about this phenomenon: “Thousands of people around the globe claim to have the ability to turn off streetlights simply by walking by. This bizarre phenomenon, officially dubbed Street Light Interference Syndrome or SLI, has been widely discussed on internet forums and social media sites for decades. Could it be a glitch in the Matrix? Or perhaps a case of psychic interference with the power grid?)