ORIGINAL: Dennis Murawski

A couple of years ago, I was at Sturgis and rode out to Devil's Tower. On the return trip, while still in the Wyoming flat lands, I ran into a sever storm. The rain was coming down so hard all I could do was try to see the road ahead. Then out of nowhere, I saw a collage of images from my past in bright colors, with sparkles and flashes and right in the middle of the collage was an image of Woody Woodpecker (no kidding). I'm not sure how long I was watching this image, but it abruptly ended with a sharp pain in my left wrist and lower back. At the exact moment, a huge lightning flash and clap of thunder happened next to me. The bike continued to run and I rode back to Sturgis. I think I pulled into the Broken Spoke and started talking about the hallucination. People looked strangely at me and walked away.

I asked everyone I could think of about what I experienced. After a couple weeks of searching, the editor of well known motorcycle magazine sent an e-mail telling me he also experienced a lightning induced hallucination. He was on a Gold Wing. When his hallucination ended, he was atop his stopped bike. Every light bulb on the bike was blown and the wire harness was welded to the bike.

From what I can gather, before a lightning strike, a huge electrical charge can build up on the rider's highest point (usually his head). The brain's electrical circuits cross fire. I think the pain was an eddy current that pasted through my wrist and back.

Best advise for when you encounter an electrical storm while riding -- stop the bike, get away from the bike and head for the lowest point around (but don't go into a ditch that has water in it because lightning can travel along ditches filled with water). Then if you experience a hallucination, don't tell anyone, 'cause they won't believe you anyway.