Encountered a bright light between the ground and the aircraft possibly traveling perpendicular to our flight path.

My father, a retired USAF fighter & test pilot and at that time a fixed base operator, was the pilot in command.  My mother was in the right seat while I rode in the back.
Flying in a Cessna 182 Skylane from Stillwater, Oklahoma to Enid, Oklahoma at approximately 2200 hours, I observed from the rear seat that the under side of the right wing suddenly lit up.
We were at an altitude of 800 ft AGL.  There was no weather or adverse wind conditions.  The farm lights were easily visible below as were the stars above.
As I moved to the right in order to observe what was making the light, the cockpit lit up, then the left wing.  This was as if a search light had passed from the right wing to the left wing.
First, this was in the country.  No towns with search lights were along our flight path.
Second, any search light beam would have been observed.
Third, the 182 cruises at around 120mph and the light traveled perpendicular to our flight path.
There was no unusual sound or turbulence encountered.  There were no fluctuations of the aircraft instruments, navigational or primary flight instruments.
 My father was unusually quite after this incident and refused to talk about it later.