Ball lightning - An electromagnetic hallucination?

Abstract

A common ad-hoc-hypothesis tries to explain ball lightning (BL) as an electromagnetic (EM) brain effect caused by ordinary lightning, i.e. as a lightning-induced hallucination. A critical assessment of this alleged effect has to link the physical properties of lightning and its EM field with the neurophysiology of EM-induced hallucinations, so-called magnetophosphens. Using the clinical field of EM brain stimulation - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and repetitive TMS (rTMS) - with its experimental phosphene data, the authors conclude that EM fields of nearby lightning flashes, because of their spatial configuration and magnetic induction, are unlikely to produce magnetophosphenes. Phosphenes do not appear in lightning accident reports. Phenomenologically, EM phosphenes as elementary hallucinations do not correspond to BL. © The International Journal of Meteorology.