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Orbs
Written by: Becky
Orbs or light anomalies have come to the attention of the public in recent years thanks to programs such as Living TV's Most Haunted and other paranormal shows. But what are they? Are they as some people believe the spirits of dead people, the first stage of a ghost manifestation (the second being formation of ectoplasm and the third a full apparition) or are they as many camera manufacturers claim simply a fault with the camera, or as many orb sceptics say - a reflection of minute particles, close to the camera lens, from the flash or infra-red light source? Lets look at the evidence.
How are orbs captured?
The widespread apparition of orbs seems to coincide with the widespread acquisition of digital stills cameras and infra-red digital video cameras. Many digital camera manufacturers offer explanations on their websites about orbs:
There is
always a certain amount of dust floating around in the air. You may have noticed
this at the movies when you look up at the light coming from the movie projector
and notice the bright sparks floating around in the beam.
In the same way, there are always dust particles floating around nearby when you
take pictures with your camera.
When you use the flash, the light from the flash reflects off the dust particles
and is sometimes captured in your shot.
Of course, dust particles very close to the camera are blurred since they are
not in focus, but because they reflect the light more strongly than the more
distant main subject of the shot, that reflected light can sometimes be captured
by the camera and recorded on the resulting image as round white spots. So these
dots are the blurred images of dust particles.
You can reproduce this problem relatively easily by taking a picture right after
you put away goods that create a lot of dust, such as feather bedding.
In actual photography, this problem frequently arises in shots taken at
construction sites, etc. It may also occur when it is raining or snowing.
Compact cameras in which the flash and the lens are close together are
particularly susceptible to this problem.
Sony on the other hand says that the anomalies are not camera related and that their digital camera does not create orbs shaped anomalies at night. So again the explanation is that of off focus particles reflected in the infra-red light source.
So Orbs are only caught on digital cameras then?
Although the orb phenomena came to out attention as more and more people capture them using digital cameras they are not strictly a digital camera phenomena. Many people claim to have seen orbs with the naked eye - this of course is impossible to verify objectively - and there are also examples of orbs being caught on 35mm cameras - although these are much rarer than the digital variety.
The evidence
So the 2 main theories for orbs or light anomalies are :
Light anomalies are the first stage of the manifestation of the spirit of a dead person
Light anomalies are caused by the reflection of minute, out of focus particles and/or a fault with digital cameras.
So what evidence do we have for either theory?
Well although the first orb photos appear to coincide with the appearance of digital photography they are not confined to this medium. However since no-one has ever photographed, filmed - or for that matter claimed to have seen - and orb turning into ectoplasm (the second stage) it's difficult to know where the idea that it is the first stage comes from.
Some investigators claim that orbs react in an 'intelligent' way to questioning - this again cannot be objectively examined except on a case by case basis.
Orbs can be replicated using minute particles shaken or sprayed in front of a digital camera - thereby lending credence to the idea that this may be the explanation for most if not all orbs given that minute particles are present practically everywhere - and particularly in supposed haunted locations (being old dusty places by definition).
Conclusion
The opinion of the author is that there is little evidence to support the theory that orbs are ghosts and plenty to suggest that they are the result of reflected particles and/or camera defects. While photos taken with 35mm cameras are more interesting there is still no evidence to suggest that resulting orbs are spirits. An idea for any investigation would be to position several cameras both digital and 35mm to capture different angles of a room - if an orb has it's own independent light source (i.e. not the camera flash) it should be picked up by all cameras ....happy hunting!
İCritical Thinkers 2005
bravenet.com