Last updated at 21:04, Saturday, 29 November 2008

THE truth is out there — but it might only be revealing itself to people who live on Walney.

Readers of Tuesday’s column will know that strange lights were observed in the sky over Barrow at around 7.45pm on Friday.

The witnesses are two middle-aged Walneyites, who have been granted anonymity for fear of being ridiculed by their mates if their names are published.

The duo — who had not been drinking — were standing at the bus stop near Vickerstown Institute waiting to catch a Stagecoach into town when they saw the unexplained lights.

“We saw coloured balls of light coming from the north,” said one of the witnesses.

These spheres — blue, purple and green — zoomed over the Devonshire Dock Hall and were going in the direction of Piel Island when they were lost from view.

Since Tuesday’s article was published, a Walney woman who has also asked to remain anonymous, because “people will think I am mad” experienced another strange light phenomenon.

At 1.30am on Tuesday, the woman and her husband were woken up by flashing lights coming through their bedroom window on north Walney.

“We have Venetian blinds and lined curtains at the window,” said the woman.

“But these lights — like two blue lasers — virtually lit up the room.

“We were both shocked. We wondered if it was an ambulance, but when we looked outside there wasn’t anything anywhere.”

A new survey commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment found that a greater percentage of people from the North West than anywhere else in England claim to have witnessed something paranormal.

New research, commissioned to mark the DVD and Blu-ray release of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, shows that 17 per cent of people from the north west claimed to have had something supernatural happen to them compared to the national average of 13 per cent.

Almost 60 per cent said they were open-minded about ghosts and aliens and over a third said they would turn to a medium for guidance and to garner information about the future or their loved ones.

In spite of more than half of the UK describing themselves as cynical, people in the North West — just like FBI agent Fox Mulder — are inclined to believe in the supernatural and think that the truth really is out there.

The usual Corny offer remains on the table.

Namely, if anyone can produce any concrete evidence of UFOs landing or communicating with anyone in Cumbria, Corny promises to perform a certain activity that might involve Burton’s shop window.

First published at 11:48, Thursday, 27 November 2008
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk