Just to warn you,
This article is the opinion of the HPIR team based on our research and studies
of digital photography.
The topic of "orbs" is
rather controversial in the paranormal community. Each person is entitled to his
or her own opinion regarding "orbs", and we respect that.
However the Huntington
Paranormal Investigations & Research team for the most part have a similar view
on "orbs", we feel that the vast majority of Orb photographs are not paranormal
in any way.
We do not
buy into the claim that "orbs" are proof of a haunting or even of ghosts. And we are
adamantly trying to educate the public on this not so paranormal phenomena. We
feel
that many paranormal researchers are misleading a lot of people by their claims that
"orbs" are ghosts.
We know not
everyone out there agrees with us on this topic, but we stand firm on our belief
that "orbs" are not paranormal. For anyone who has done enough research on the subject it
becomes very apparent that "orbs" are usually nothing more than particles from the
environment such as dust, moisture and even reflections of light.
Cameras can
greatly distort the size of a particle of dust or moisture and it's brightness
depending on how close to the lens it was at the time the photo was taken. Many
also seem to see faces and other various images within these "orbs" and from that
they assume it has to be a ghostly face.
We urge anyone who believes that
"orbs" are ghosts to try to a few experiments such as this; turn off all the
lights and turn on a flashlight, can you see how many particles of "stuff" is
just floating around in the air? That's right pretty much anywhere you go, no
matter if you are in a brand new building, outside or in a house that is 200
years old, the results are going to be very similar and you will no doubt see
dust all around.
The amounts of air particles you see may greatly differ, but
with all that stuff floating around us you can see how it may easily end up in a
photograph. The idea of seeing faces in these "orbs" is also pretty simple,
particles have different sizes, shapes and textures and that is often picked up
in a photograph. Humans are able to pick out familiar shapes and images in
everyday things "orbs" included, the idea of seeing faces and images in everyday
objects is a term known as Matrixing.
Photographs of "orbs" can vary
greatly, some are bright, some are very large, some look transparent, some
appear to be shooting or moving, and if you think about that it makes perfect
sense. Depending on what kind of particle ends up in your picture and how close
it was to the camera is going to determine the size, shape, color, motion,
brightness or transparency of the orb.
If you have ever noticed airborne
particles of dust in the air, they are not just sitting still you will see that
they are constantly in motion and that means there is a potential to get an orb
in a photograph that appears to be in motion. If an airborne particle is
extremely close to the camera lens at the time of the photo, the orb may appear
to be very large and possibly very bright. If you capture a particle of moisture
you will have a very bright white orb that almost appears to be glowing. So you
can see how "orbs" can greatly differ from one photo to the next.
We may not know exactly what all
"orbs" are, but there is the possibility of energy sources such as power lines and
batteries and other sources of energy that produce photographic "orbs". Even if these
types of "orbs" are captured on camera they still do not represent paranormal
activity. From our point of view there are too many natural causes that can
produce "orbs" in photographs. We feel that the majority of "orbs" can be easily
dismissed. We are in the paranormal research field not the dust in photographs
research field.
