Аннотация:Estimates of the electric field strength near charged spheres with the parameters of the observed high-energy ball lightning (BL) raise the question of why there is no realization of a discharge to the ground and its runoff. A similar question arises in the study of the corona discharge. Such studies show that at high fields near the tip of the charged electrode, fields of the order of 10^8 V/m are created, comparable to fields near the surface of the BL, and the discharge begins to pulsate (Trichel pulsations), and there is no breakdown to the Earth. The, so-called, impossibility of this, is often used to show that BL is an uncharged or weakly charged object. The presence of a high electric field on the sphere allows one to explain its levitation at high values of its own weight.