“Transparent beings in Dorset woods”: Scientists weigh a 1970s encounter

“I remember seeing what looked like transparent beings walking towards me”

By Sarah Knapton and Joe Pinkstone

“When I was younger, back in the 70s, I was out playing with a friend... and we went into the woods. I remember seeing what looked like transparent beings walking towards me. It freaked me out and scared me, so I ran back home and my friend followed me. I can still remember it now in my 50s. They were a family, very green and purple and tall and kind of translucent but were moving towards me. I didn’t like it as it was unfamiliar and I still can’t explain it. This was in Poole in Dorset.” — Catherine

Local folklore and modern reports

Britain’s woodlands have long been fertile ground for strange tales. In Dorset, folklore includes figures such as the woodwose—a wild, shaggy “wild man” of the woods—and other local legends intended, historically, to keep children away from dangerous places. Modern interest continues: a 2014 stakeout by the British Bigfoot Research Organisation at Yellowham Wood near Dorchester reported tree knocks, odd howls and a stick structure resembling internet-era “Blair Witch” artefacts.

That cultural backdrop helps explain why people may interpret ambiguous sights in woods as supernatural. Catherine’s description, however, aligns more closely with reports of translucent humanoids that occasionally surface in eyewitness accounts: faint, heat-shimmer-like outlines that appear to move silently through trees. A 2023 video of otters in Scotland briefly prompted similar speculation, though factors such as reflections can produce comparable images on camera.

Psychology and perception: why the woods play tricks on us

Several well-understood perceptual and environmental factors can turn ordinary scenes into uncanny visions:

• Pareidolia: the brain’s tendency to impose familiar shapes—especially faces and human forms—on random patterns (clouds, leaves, gaps in branches).
• Light, shadow and negative space: shifting sun, shafts of light and the dark gaps between foliage can outline human-like silhouettes that seem to move as shadows change.
• Atmospheric optics: mist, fog or heat haze can bend and scatter light, producing mirage-like effects. The Brocken Spectre—where a shadow cast onto mist looks like a magnified, often colourful figure—is a clear example that could have a woodland analogue in the right conditions.
• Bioluminescence and small light sources: foxfire (glowing fungi) and will-o’-the-wisps over marshy ground can create eerie pale lights that distort perception at night or in low light.
• Animals and camouflage: woodland animals (and even camouflaged humans) blend with bark and undergrowth; movement by wildlife or people can be misread as humanoid motion by an anxious observer.
• Camera artefacts: reflections, lens flares and motion blur frequently create ghostly shapes on film that have nothing to do with actual transparent beings.

Memory and emotion

Childhood memories are shaped strongly by emotion. Fear amplifies attention to threatening patterns and can lock an image into long-term memory. Over decades, details—colour, translucency and movement—may become more vivid or stylised when recalled, especially if filtered through local stories, media or later conversations. The green and purple Catherine remembers could be an effect of coloured light, foliage hues seen through mist, or a post-hoc embellishment of a frightening moment.

Putting the pieces together

Taken together, pareidolia, shifting light and shadow, atmospheric effects such as mist or heat haze (with possible Brocken-type projections), and ordinary woodland life provide several plausible, natural explanations for Catherine’s sighting. Cultural expectations and the emotional intensity of a childhood fright make the memory enduring and dramatic.

Verdict: Partly explicable. A combination of optical and psychological factors offers a convincing explanation, though the nature of personal memories means a small element of uncertainty remains.

If you have an unusual experience you’d like science and scepticism to examine, write to us — sometimes the most baffling stories lead to interesting facts about how we see the world.