There was no mistaking it – a distinct circle of light was shining around her head!

The setting was not some historic place, but in an open plan office in a business park. We had recently moved positions in the office, and so were now upstairs where there were windows which the light of the afternoon sun could shine through and not only reflect off the shiny hair of the people sitting there, but also bounce off the angles of the sloping roof.

However, while my reasoning provides a scientific explanation of how this effect could have come about, it did not explain why the same effect was not created for anyone else seated in the same area. Maybe it was something to do with her copper red hair, and how certain colours bend the spectrum so the colours split out into their component parts. Still, what I saw was not a rainbow – but a circle of light, like a ring, around this girl’s head.

I itched to take a photo, but was not sure whether it would be PC to do so – but then I had the feeling that the lighting effect would not show.

It did get me to thinking though: about not only what’s the significance of a halo, but also about how much we reason such things away in this modern age.

In early times, this would have been seen as a sign – the mark of a saint or a mystic. However, nowadays, we’d just call this “a trick of the light” – but is that reasonable?