Photo: SIMON TERREY / Science Photo Library / Getty Images
While some insist that orbs represent some form of spirit energy, repeated experiments have shown that they are easily explained, 99% DEBUNKED.
THERE IS AN ongoing debate, or at least spirited discussion, among paranormal investigators about the validity of orbs as paranormal evidence. Orbs are anomalous spots that sometimes show up in photographs. Most are white, some are multicolored; some look solid, others appear textured.
Many ghost hunters believe they are evidence of ghosts — that they are some kind of spirit or psychic energy manifesting as these glowing balls of light. A growing number of researchers, however, are concluding that orbs are nothing more than dust particles AND SOME TIMES WATER VIPER illuminated by the camera flash. Actually, researchers will usually say that “most” such orbs are the result of dust, being reluctant to say that “all” are dust, leaving room for the possibility of a paranormal explanation. I AGREE with this as it is 99.9% are dust and water viper. Only if you see them with figures in them. or IF they TALK TO YOU THEN I might ask you to show me and let me see them.
THE EXPERIMENTS
Countless experiments have now been conducted showing that dusty areas do produce orbs in flash photographs.
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Small insects, rain, snow, pollen and other airborne particulates can also produce them. These experiments were designed to show that these airborne elements can be the cause orbs and may not necessarily be ghost phenomena.
I applaud these efforts, but the essential question, it seems to me, is: How did orbs in photographs become associated with ghost phenomena in the first place? In other words, why do they even need to be disproved? Yes, anomalous white spots occasionally appear in photos… How do we suddenly make the great leap to say that they are spirit energy? That’s quite a leap, as Stephen Wagner said.
PARANORMAL ASSUMPTION
I suspect this is how it came about.
Most people do not take photographs in very dark locations, either indoors or outdoors. The people who do this on a regular basis, however, are ghost hunters. Skulking around abandoned buildings and cemeteries at night with their digital cameras, you will hear them announce “Flash” (to warn fellow ghost hunters) as they snap dozens of pictures.
Of course, they did not see any luminous orbs of light with their naked eyes when they took the pictures, but there in many of the photos — plain as day against the relatively dark background – are brightly glowing orbs. The ghost hunters are in a possibly haunted location… the orbs were invisible to the eye… yet they show up in the photos… they must be something paranormal, they conclude. They must be spirit energy.
I belong to a ghost hunting group, so I know how eager members are to find evidence of a haunting. Seeing that unexpected orb in a photo gets them excited proof.
Well, hardly, I’m sorry to say. Real ghost evidence is darn hard to come by and has proved devilishly difficult to document. Orbs, unfortunately, have become all-too-easy things to point to as evidence when they are most certainly nothing of the kind. The experiments with dust and insects have shown that clearly. Many people things that they are angels and they have different meaning and prediction. I tell those who still believe in these dust particle to go and clean your house vacuum and stop this non sense.
A COMMON ANOMALY
“Well, then why do orbs show up in ghost hunting photographs? Why don’t they show up in everyday pictures?” I have heard ghost hunters make that argument.
he fact is, they do show up in everyday pictures — quite frequently. The photos are not from ghost hunts, but from birthday parties, sports events, holidays — the usually things people take pictures of. When there are crowd of people the dust particle increases and the orbs increases with 35 mm camera you can see them. They contain the same wide variety of orbs – white, colored, textured and seemingly moving – as those taken in cemeteries and haunted houses.
It could be argued that these everyday pictures are also capturing spirit activity, but of course there’s no way to prove that. The simpler explanation is that it’s just dust.
Again, these orbs tend to show up more prominently in ghost hunting photographs because they are usually taken in a darkened environment and they stand out more clearly against the dark background. But they do show up under normal lighting conditions, even if more faintly.
And what about moving orbs caught on video? The ones I’ve seen can most easily be explained as flying insects and, yes, floating motes of dust. And water viper and that can be reproducing in the lab setting.
PLEASE, NO MORE