There are many throughout the world who believe we are being visited by…Extraterrestrials. Local as well as National news networks are reporting on objects and lights seen in the sky. For the uninformed it is easy to dismiss these occurrences as delusional experiences by the observer.

On March 13, 1997…the state of Arizona hosted an event that has come to be known as The Phoenix Lights. The event was witnessed by an estimated 10,000+ observers over a period of several hours. The basic story is that an object…more than a mile wide…with five to seven glowing lights…shaped in a V…swept from the North to the South of the state. The object was very low to the ground…moving extremely slowly…and made no sound whatsoever.

Was this a delusional mass hysteria event? Let’s examine the three key words: delusional, mass, and hysteria. I will rearrange their order for the purpose of this article.

• The definition of mass is to assemble or cause to assemble a large body of people. For those who have studied this event, there is evidence that suggests more than 10,000 people observed this phenomenon on the day of March 13, 1997 in the state of Arizona.
• The state of being delusional is holding a false belief. A delusional disorder is an ongoing psychological experience in which a person relates to the world while holding false beliefs about reality. Some would suggest that this mass of people are clinging to a false belief or interpretation of what they believe they saw.
• Hysteria is the state of operating with exaggerated or uncontrolled emotion or excitement. Within an individual or group…there would be high levels of fear or panic. Irrational emotions would take over the calm and reasoning mind.

The question remains…was The Phoenix Lights phenomenon…a delusional mass hysteria event? My short response would be no…by definition. And this is my reasoning for making that assertion.

This event was witnessed by many people over a period of time. It wasn’t a snapshot moment. It was a progressive event. People were going about their daily routine…when the event began to unfold. And documentation indicates that more than 10,000 people witnessed a similar experience. So it was a mass event.

However, to suggest it was a delusional experience doesn’t fit the facts. There were thousands of everyday people involved. It is hard to imagine that all of these people were drawn into a hoax all at the same time. And that the end result of that experience was that a false belief of reality was somehow forced upon them.

It is a fact that highly competent and respected community leaders witnessed the same event. These were not backwoods people who others think are easily swayed by superstition. There were government leaders, police officers, medical doctors, owners of businesses, trained psychologists…and the list goes on…of people who observed this event.

And lastly, there remains the question of hysteria. It is interesting that in the following months…community leaders and volunteers organized themselves in a calm manner to discuss what had happened. They were orderly and methodical in their approach. They all had witnessed an event. Their question was…What did we experience?