RSS
Home
The Orb Phenomena – Is it or isn’t it paranormal?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
There has been a lot of discussion and speculation in recent years on orbs and they mostly seem to go into 2 categories 1 - all orbs are paranormal or 2 - all orbs are just dust. Did anyone consider that there may be a middle ground with this?
Let me start with a brief story on why I believe there to be some credence to orbs. I have personally seen some compelling evidence on orbs which makes me not want to dismiss them across the board. As time goes on hopefully others may also see something similar for themselves. The sad part of this is that these are now stories; I saw them while they were being filmed with infrared cameras but they did not record properly. Another person witnessed this phenomenon with me but yet it is just more anecdotal evidence now.
We had been investigating a documented haunted museum. We were in a bedroom display of the former owner, which is normally roped off to the public. We notice thru our video equipment that orbs were not present except when one particular investigator entered this one room. We tried to replicate the orb phenomena we witnessed by shaking the pillows and disturbing the rugs, all to no avail. We sent in this investigator and asked him to stand next to the camera; all of a sudden the orb storm began. We had been positioned outside of the room and could clearly see inside the room both on the TV cameras and with our own eyes. As we were watching we began to ask the former owner to come to the camera and show us his face. Almost immediately an orb approached the camera and began to expand, to a point where we could start to make out a body and the formation of a face. As quickly as it started it dissipated. We immediately went and rewound the tape. When viewed it looked like a fresh new tape that had never been recorded on, useless but we had a story. We saw an orb start to transition into a form. This was an orb that was only seen with an IR camera. I have another similar account if you are interested please email me and I will gladly relay that you.
What is this phenomenon? Is it just the backscatter or is it possibly something more. How do you explain the orb’s that are viewed in the IR light spectrum? We all should already understand that on today’s digital cameras the distance between the lens and the built-in flash has decreased, thereby decreasing the angle of light reflection to the lens. That means that you are more than likely to pick up a reflection off a small, before invisible to the naked eye, particle. We all know that walking around can produce orbs and that we should never take photo in rain, snow, fog or high humidity. But aren’t we trying to be as scientific as possible when doing our research? If you are going to an investigation and you’re doing any of these things then you need to find something else to do. You are creating a contaminant in an area where you are controlling, as much as possible, the environment. I believe the "orb" discussion needs to be categorized to get a better understanding of everything that has been said or could be said. By that I mean who is making the statement on what the anomaly is.
I believe there are 3 categories that need to be assigned to groups and individuals that are looking at and quantifying these photographs and they are:
Scientific Researchers – Those that use a scientific approach to research and have an understanding of what could cause these photographic anomalies.
Hobbyist – These are the individuals or groups that get together after reading one or two web sites and decide they will make their judgment and that is what it will be. They don’t completely understand what else could be the cause of these elements.
Pure skeptic – These are the people that no matter what you say or how you it will believe anything but their point of view.
What else should we consider? Yes it is believed that spirit manifestation begins within the invisible infrared light spectrum. Many did not realize at the time when they came out, but digital cameras can see into this light spectrum. We can correlate the "rise" of orb photos to the inception of looking into a previously invisible spectrum of light which the normal researcher could not view before. Does this mean that now orbs are paranormal? Absolutely not, but does it now create a possibility that they could be? Let’s not forget we can also attribute many to the backscatter due to the flash/lens proximity.
Many researchers that keep track of what they do and how they do it can confirm some of what I am going to say here. First is that we all know we will capture some form of "orb" photography on an investigation. Does this make it paranormal, once again the answer is no. But if you start to correlate all you are doing you may see some interesting findings that you didn’t look at before. Now most serious investigators keep track of everything, what time did this occur, weather conditions, etc. Many even keep track of how many photos they have taken. This is an important number and I will explain why in a minute.
We all know there are documented haunted locations, non-haunted locations and those we need to yet look into. Researchers keeping track of their photos along with the locations may see some interesting things. You may notice that the "orb" phenomenon occurs in a higher concentration in a known haunted location. We all know we will see orbs when we take our photos, but why is it that they are in a higher concentration in a known haunted location? On average you may see a number of 4% of your photos containing some orb manifestation. But in a known haunt that number can rise to 5, 6 or even 10% of photos having orbs. Does this mean that the location has a bad house keeper? Or that the investigator is running around causing these dust storms? Once again if you are in control you can answer those questions, however for the prudent investigator that leaves the question of why are there more in these locations?
Should I just submit an orb photo as evidence alone? Within in our group there are many thoughts on orbs; most do not agree they are anything paranormal. That also doesn’t mean they are not. We try to maintain an open mind when reviewing them.
Do get me wrong, this is not an affirmation saying all orbs are paranormal, this is just saying what about these other facts. As scientific researchers move on in this field we have to remember we cannot throw out all of the possibilities yet. We are learning and have to keep an open mind to all possibilities. Keep track of what is occurring on your investigations, keep track of your numbers and start to formulate your own catalog of information. Reading what others have to say is a great start, but your own research must be done to properly formulate your opinion.
Just remember there is more that we do not know out there. We are in this field to study and advance it. Until we can say and prove without a doubt that orbs are just dust we still must keep an open mind to what they could be.
