Bizarre photography produced by young Dutch man

June 6, 1:10 AMParanormal News ExaminerRoger Marsh

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Robbert van den Broeke

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Robbert van den Broeke is an unusual man. This late-20s Dutch man seems to sense energies around him and he produces some rather odd photography.

Nancy Talbott of the BLT Research Team, Inc, Cambridge, MA, has been visiting Robbert annually since he was a teenager and studying his abilities.

Talbott produced a five-part web series - with lots of photography. The following is the beginning of part 1.

Robbert van den Broeke Photographs: "Light" Phenomena - by Nancy Talbott.

Beginning in the early to mid-1990s, when Robbert van den Broeke was just a teenager, he began to regularly record strange objects and light phenomena in his photographs. In some instances he would see something unusual prior to taking photos, but often the anomalies were only apparent on the developed film (or, since 2002, on the LED screen of his digital camera). By now (Spring, 2009) Robbert has taken literally thousands of bizarre photographs?using many different cameras--most of which have been catalogued by date in an archive which I estimate must contain a minimum of 10,000 photographs.

I have been visiting Robbert and his family for 10 years, usually spending 2-3 weeks each summer with them in their home in Hoeven, Holland. During this time I have personally witnessed a variety of amazing incidents, most of which have included the production by Robbert of hundreds of anomalous photographs. I have observed him closely as he has taken an enormous range of very strange photos, using several different cameras in both daytime and at night?and I have never seen any indication that he has deliberately manipulated either the cameras or the physical environment to produce these bizarre events or the photographic images.

Since I am aware that photographic images can be manipulated and because I am not technically sophisticated myself, I have enlisted the expertise of an MIT-trained analyst in evaluating many of Robbert's images and have also carried out some control experiments myself. At the end of each section I've provided the relevant results from these exercises.

Additionally, although I have seen many of the thousands of photographs taken by Robbert when I have not been present?and although those photographs are every bit as curious as those contained in this report?it seemed sensible that, in this introductory report, I use primarily those photos taken by Robbert while he was in my presence and using my camera. During the early years I paid close attention to everything he did, and didn't, do. In recent years I have sometimes been less rigorous, although I have continued to devise new strategies in my attempts to figure out what is going on.

The majority of photographs in this report were taken with my Pentax Optio 33WR digital camera, which was donated to BLT Research in 2002. Because I am an amateur photographer the camera is always set in "auto" mode, although it does have many other capabilities. Robbert, who also has very little technical inclination, has always used the Pentax in the "auto" mode (as he does with all other cameras he uses). Photos taken by anyone other than Robbert, or with any camera other than my Pentax, are so labeled.

Because Robbert has consistently throughout the years I have known him reported his awareness of an external "energy" or "presence" when these photos occur, and because he also reports a similar awareness when crop circles are occurring in his area of Holland and/or when he subsequently visits these crop formations, I suspect there is a connection between the anomalous photographs and the crop circles themselves?and most likely a connection with many or all of the other highly unusual events which are a continuing part of his life experience.

The knee-jerk reaction of some people to this idea that an invisible, external energy may be influencing physical events, particularly individuals who consider themselves to be "well-educated," is to dismiss it -- without any real investigation. Robbert has been accused of using a computer to create or manipulate images and entire TV production units have been similarly indicted as having been his confederates. Charges such as these would have been recognized as superfluous had any of these critics bothered to find out whether Robbert even had a computer. [Which, until recently, he did not.] Further, the general intensity of such attacks suggests their high emotional content ? a reaction to a perceived challenge or threat to the "status quo" (in conjunction, in my opinion, with a real feeling of helplessness) ? rather than an intellectual or analytical assessment.

Of course these critics may now accuse me of duplicity also, thus adding emphasis to the need for each reader to decide for themselves the reliability and import of this report. For the record I assert that, during the years when most of the photographs included here were taken, Robbert did not have a computer and had no access to a computer?nor even the faintest idea of how to operate one. Further, he took the majority of these photographs using my camera when I was present with him, and I saw the images immediately after he had taken them. THERE WAS NO COMPUTER.

However, a fact which may be quite relevant is emphasized in my Pentax's Operating Manual (p. 1). Here it clearly states that "?the camera may not function correctly when used in surroundings such as installations generating strong electromagnetic radiation or magnetic fields." I suspect that these energies may also impinge upon the operating systems of many, if not all, modern cameras.

And, since evidence of unseen energies around Robbert is accumulating elsewhere, I have to ask ? why should we not believe Robbert when he says he is aware of an unusual "energy" or "presence" when these strange photographic images begin to appear? In 2009, in a world where physicists work on theoretical models of "reality" in terms of light waves and quantum particles and biophysicists discuss nonlocal effects of biophoton emissions, isn't it actually archaic not to consider the possibility that invisible influences ? of whatever origin ? have something to do with the creation of these strange photographs?

More of the story

You can read the rest of Talbott's part 1 at her web site - and parts 2 through 5. There is a lot more of this photography as well. Follow the links near the top of this page.