SLIders
The Enigma of Streetlight Interference (SLI)

by Hilary Evans

Trade Paperback, 194 Pages

$16.95, ISBN: 1933665475

Genre(s): Paranormal Fortean Psychic Abilities

A young man of Dublin walks past a row of streetlights at night–and they go out, one by one, as he passes. 

An engineer in Woodville, Washington, is stopped by police and his car searched to find out what he's doing to their streetlights. 

An Australian in the entertainment industry parks his car in a parking lot, and the light above him goes out–until the following evening when he parks in precisely the same space and the light comes on again. 

And that's not all. When a guest in a restaurant in Athens, Greece, asks that the music be turned down, they refuse–whereupon she "kills" the restaurant's electricity and they eat the rest of their meal by candlelight. Other people affect traffic lights, computers, railway crossings... 

This is Street Light Interference (SLI). Once considered to be folklore–something that happened to a friend of a friend–today it is recognized as a scientific enigma with implications for our knowledge of the universe, including ourselves. In this, the first full-length book on SLI, we hear from some of the hundreds of SLIders who have reported their uncanny experiences, and consider the wider implications of this fascinating phenomenon.

About the Author:

Hilary Evans, now deased, was a writer on anomalous topics; he had authored books on UFOs, ghosts & apparitions, and many other subjects. His most recent publication, co-authored with Robert Bartholomew, is Outbreak: An Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. He was once a policeman in Palestine and a private tutor in Turkey, and thoroughly enjoyed his early career in advertising. Twice a Council Member of the Society for Psychical Research, he helped to found ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena), which has pioneered research into the SLI phenomenon and to which all proceeds of this book will go to fund further research. Aside from his writing, he helped his wife found the Mary Evans Picture Library, a leading historical picture archive. His favorite occupation was browsing in antiquarian bookstores. Even his bathroom was lined with books.

CONTENTS

Before you begin
Streetlight interference: a definition. Abbreviations. Other notes.
Acknowledgements.

1 – What happens when SLI happens
What happens in SLI; what it is and what it isn’t. A selection of case histories showing representative types of experience. Here and throughout, SLI-experiences are narrated in SLIders’ own words.

2 – Easy answers, hard questions
Initial attempts at explanation are inadequate. Illusion/delusion? Coincidence? Simple explanations such as malfunctioning lights, car headlights, etc.? But none of the “easy” answers are convincing, the hard questions remain.

3 – How to switch off a light
Different kinds of streetlight: how they work, and how they could be interfered with.

4 – The many ways of SLI The diversity of SLI.

5 – Tinker, tailor, soldier, SLIder
All kinds of people, worldwide, do SLI. No typical profi le emerges, or correlations with other attributes.

6 – Alternative states of mind
Most SLIders are in an unusual state of mind when it occurs, but it varies from elation to depression, anxiety to calm.

7 – From radios to railway crossings
Many SLIders aff ect other appliances, machines, and instruments.

8 – Electric girls and glowing nuns
Many phenomena exhibit similarities to SLI: “electric girls,” psychokinesis, poltergeists, machine-busters, ball lightning and BOLs, healers, luminous people, force fi eld theories, anomalies and curiosities, the power within.

9 – ‘Things are against us’
Far-out explanations: Jennings’ “Resistentialism,” Barrington’s JOTTs. Séance-room and other paranormal phenomena.

10 – Making sense of SLI
Attempts to study SLI scientifi cally blocked by the lack of witnesses who can perform on demand. Questions we would like answered. Ultimate speculations about SLI, including suggestions that it may have a deeper significance.

Endnotes

Appendix: SLIders
Names of informants with councitations in the text.

What they're saying:

"As strange as it sounds--people being able to turn street lights off at a distance-- this excellent book by Hilary Evans shows that it is a very real phenomenon. As this is the first full length book on the subject, this is destined to become a classic.” — David Taylor, Northern Earth

“…one welcoming quality about Evans’s book that I found in particular is the almost ‘comfort-reading’ it provides through the recollection of a variety of collected accounts and stories throughout the text. In doing so, Evans evokes a story-telling element somewhat reminiscent of the styles of greats like Clark, Steiger and Sanderson; but with his diverse experience and long-held interests in Fortean subjects, Evans’s own unique style emerges with vibrant character and the familiar contemplative nature of his previous works. Though managing to capture the reader’s mind with his tales, there remains very much to be explored with regard to SLI phenomenon, to which Evans at one point pauses to describe as ‘a rogue force, a loose cannon, neither understood or controlled.’” — Micah Hanks, The Gralien Report

 “Anomalist Books have carved for themselves a first-class niche in the field of publishing thought-provoking and near-unique titles on anomalies of the mind, the physical world, and those strange realms beyond. And, SLIders is a great addition to [their] ever-expanding list of titles.” —  Nick Redfern, Reviews of the Mysterious Kind