Top 12 Ball Lightning Folklore from Around the World: #7 Will Send Chills Down Your Spine

7. The Soul-Stealing Orbs of Transylvanian Nightmares

Ball lightning takes on a considerably more menacing connotations amid the mist-shrouded mountains of Transylvania, a territory rich in supernatural legend. Local legends hold that these brilliant orbs—which appear on moonless nights, hovering silently above the earth as they hunt for gullible victims—are not only natural events but also evil entities called "soul stealers." The stories tell of them as pulsating with an unsettling, captivating glow that can entrance people who stare at them too long. Most terrifying stories claim that these spheres may extract the souls of the living, leaving behind empty husks of their former selves. Villagers relate in subdued tones of incidents whereby people were discovered aimlessly, their eyes empty and their minds wiped clean, following apparently contact with these ghostly spheres. While some iterations of the myth assert the orbs are the weapons of dark sorcerers or vampires, intended to gather life energy for evil, others say they are the manifestations of old, malevolent spirits. Those who survive an encounter with a soul-stealing orb are permanently altered, frequently developing amazing skills or suffering from recurrent nightmares about their contact with the supernatural, the folklore says. Combining aspects of vampire folklore, witchcraft, and the always-present anxiety about the future, this terrible view of ball lightning captures the deep-seated anxieties and superstitions that have long pervaded Transylvanian society. With ball lightning acting as a physical expression of the invisible terrors that plague our darkest dreams, this legend's ongoing potency reminds us sharply of the primitive horrors that still lurk in the depths of human consciousness.