The Big Orb Thread

[Doctor_Occupant]

well...that's bizarre. I seem to have discovered my original profile somewhere along the way.
8)

 

[OldTimeRadio]

I'm not convinced that the universe gives a care what we want to do with eternity, Mr. Radio."

You're probably right. And there may be some of the congregation who really, really want to bounce through Eternity.

Anyway, the orb is only the semi-visible extrusion into our space of a much larger ectoplasmic soul-body existing simultanously on 14 different planes tangential to our reality...

I hear your tongue in your cheek, but that's a hypothesis actually worth some quite serious ruminations, at least in its very general outlines..

What I've always wondered is this: Why don't orbs appear on the photos I put into the reports at work? Appraisers with various amounts of skill have been using digital cameras of various qualities and sizes under all kinds of atmospheric and lighting conditions to take pictures of subject properties and comparable sales, and I don't remember ever spotting an orb. I've seen thumbs, bad focus, lens flares, and water drops, but no orbs. Seems to me that we ought to be getting them, whether dust specks or ghosts, in at least a few.

I've seen orbs on wedding photographs but assumed that these were - once again - affects of the digital camera.

 

[PeniG]

I hear your tongue in your cheek, but that's a hypothesis actually worth some quite serious ruminations, at least in its very general outlines..

I've seen orbs on wedding photographs but assumed that these were - once again - affects of the digital camera.

Ever notice how jokes aren't funny if they aren't a little bit true? If you accept the premise that any photo orbs are manifestations of discarnate entities, it follows that they don't represent the entire reality of the entity, but only the bit of it that can register on the camera's sensors. And if they represent such entities, and these entities are dead people, and they have some conscious control over where they go and what they do - why, then weddings are logical places to find them. They presumably are the dead relatives of one of the wedding parties, wanting a part in darling Grandkid's big day. If I were going to use orbs in a story that's probably where I'd start, anyway.

I have read claims, and compared photos, by people who distinguish between "real" mysterious orbs and dust motes/lens flares. I can't tell the difference, myself, but I can't see most family resemblances, either. My major problem with orbs, frankly, is that they're boring. They don't interact with the living world and therefore have no story hooks. If anyone could find the OP's story about the screen penetration and the radiation, that'd be a start.

 

[crunchy5]

Here's a story from CBS about orbs with video.

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_052195939.html

CBS 11 News) HALTOM CITY Last year, many people responded to reports of strange light orbs appearing at Haltom City's Riverwalk Fellowship Church. One year later, more evidence has come to light, this time with international implications.

Riverwalk Church is lead by Senior Pastor Steve Solomon, a Messianic Jew. A Messianic Jew is a Jew who believes that Jesus is the messiah.

The orbs appeared while people worshiped inside the church. "Almost everyone would just take a picture, and these orbs of light would show up," Solomon said.

In the interest of fair and balanced science, a CBS 11 News photographer took a new photo inside the church. Just like last year, a large blue orb of light appeared. The photo was taken to physics professor Dr. Randall Scalise at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Scalise teaches a class on recognizing pseudoscience.

After careful analysis, Dr. Scalise said, "It appears that the smaller of the two is a reflection of the larger one inside the camera elements." In other words, the smaller orbs could be seen around the bright blue one due to a reflection.

Background lighting, the flash on a digital camera and particles of dust in the air all played a role in tricking the eye, he said. This was all easily explained by science.

This may have explained the photo, but what about video taken at the church? The video had been taken by a teenage boy. An orb of light appears to be traveling from a woman's feet, through her body and out of her head.

Many of the photography and paranormal experts who viewed the video also found it interesting. Last year, the evidence was taken to the Office of Paranormal Investigations in Berkeley, California. There paranormal psychologist Lloyd Auerbach said it appeared, "energy from the person or energy between the people, if it's a healing situation, affected the film." In other words, the orb represented psychokinetic energy.

"Just because you can't explain something, does not entitle you to invoke the paranormal," warned Dr. Scalise. He says all related phenomena should be approached with equal parts of skepticism and fact.

Dr. Scalise then put a plastic blade on top of a retractable lead pencil. He moved his hands in a circular motion above the blade and it rotated. When someone else tried to make the blade move, it would not rotate.

"It is not paranormal. It is not telekinesis. It is just physics," Dr. Scalise said about the magic trick. In order to find out if the orb of light is a camera trick or spiritual occurrence, he explained, two different cameras would be needed. The cameras would have to take the picture simultaneously in the dark with no flash.

Pastor Solomon proposed another challenge for science to explain. Since 2003, Kenya has been suffering from a catastrophic drought. In January 2006, Solomon went to Kenya prophesying rain. In a video taken from his trip, he prophesized the drought's end.

Thousands of people in Kenya prayed every day. They waved their hands and yelled out their pain. The sounds went from whispers to loud cries. They prayed on a promise from Solomon, "The day that I leave, the deluge will start."

The day Solomon and his mission team left Kenya, the thunder and lightning arrived. It rained every day for more than a year until January 2007.

Kenyan native and now Texas resident Steve Mathuku and his 75-year-old father were there when the rains began. "He had never seen so much rain in his lifetime," Mathuku said about his father. "It was just amazing."

Now, Mathuku said, Kenyans no longer refer to Solomon as Pastor Steve Solomon. They call him Solomon the prophet.

Still not convinced? You can see the photos and video taken by the 13-year-old boy and the video taken on the Kenyan mission trip by clicking here.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Ever notice how jokes aren't funny if they aren't a little bit true?

Indeed. One of the first things I noticed on the various Fortean and Paranormal boards is that silly jokes, screwballs puns and even anagrams are never ruled off-topic if they even obliquely touch upon the subject at hand. That's because each of these forces us to look upon the original topic from a slightly different angle.

]My major problem with orbs, frankly, is that they're boring. They don't interact with the living world and therefore have no story hooks.

Agreed. And while I love good horror novels, I find most "parapsychological" novels really rough going, for the same reason. You're investigating a reputedly haunted house and you've brought along this test-model radio direction-finder you've built that's supposed to locate ghosts? Been there. Done that. A long time ago. And I didn't care much for it the first time.

 

[Waylander]

MORE ORBISNESS WHEN WILL IT END!!!!

I See the next Issue of the Fortean times is actually going to do a Piece about ORBs and Photographic anomolies! AAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGH!!!! How many times do we have to go through this!

Now to be discussed by a professional photographer!? Who's going to tell us all about, Dust... and Smoke trails, and hair strands, and thumb smudges, and light refractions, and glass reflections and.... Man easy work if you can get it?

I say an end to Orbs, and the Orbites! Let us smite them all, and no longer here of such twaffle!!!

I just hate actaul time given over to this sort of thing.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: MORE ORBISNESS WHEN WILL IT END!!!!

I just hate actaul time given over to this sort of thing.

So much so that you devote a thread to the subject!

Please DO NOT FEED The Orbitals!

 

[Waylander]

Re: MORE ORBISNESS WHEN WILL IT END!!!!

So much so that you devote a thread to the subject!

It's like it's not worth saying anything, but someone has to say something! It just makes my blood boil, especially seeing official coverage of the phenomenom formaly know as Dust.

Besides, there's little action in the UFO world this week. And I broke my camera last week while boating on the Shannon. So no anomalus photos from me.

 

[Jerry_B]

What is interesting perhaps is how the belief in orbs came about - the source may be mundane, but what it's sparked off could hold some interesting details about belief, etc.. After all, evidence for other alleged ghostly phenomena isn't what anyone would call strong - perhaps sometimes it's the belief in something that tells us more than anything else.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

What is interesting perhaps is how the belief in orbs came about - the source may be mundane, but what it's sparked off could hold some interesting details about belief, etc.. After all, evidence for other alleged ghostly phenomena isn't what anyone would call strong - perhaps sometimes it's the belief in something that tells us more than anything else.

Good point, the Fortean interest in Orbs isn't in the phenomenon itself, any longer, but in how people have come to believe in it and perhaps, even persist in that belief.

However, there's always the possibility that at least one photo will show a real Orb anomaly, even if it turns out to be ball lightning, or even an example of what are called, 'Earthlights.'

 

[liveinabin]

People believe Most Haunted where orbs are often shown to be ghosts.

 

[cassandra78]

Yea I blame MH too.

 

[lupinwick]

So are all orbs explainable as dust etc.?

 

[Waylander]

So are all orbs explainable as dust etc.?

Yes.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

So are all orbs explainable as dust etc.?

Yes.

No.

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

The next generation of digital cameras along with anti -shake, anti red eye etc will have an anti -orb setting.


Oo-er :shock: I'd pay extra to be protected from the spirit world.

-
-

 

[Anonymous]

So are all orbs explainable as dust etc.?

Yes.

No.

The problem now is that if the dead come back as 'dust' and / or out of focus 'fingers and camera straps' then no-one but the 'crazies' will ever take any notice!

When you die, make sure you come back as something more substantial! Like a misty cheese buffet or a flickery flak jacket. Or even a floating underpant.

 

[dannycheveaux1]

Light anomalies are often seen by the human eye in "haunted locations", so it's not just down to camera technology.

In still photos I've taken in places such as Yorvik or the London Dungeon it is fairly obvious that dust particles have caused orbs. There are usually lots of them in the picture.

I can't say I've ever had a picture with ONE orb caused by dust. I've had pictures with one orb caused by a light reflection, but again they're obvious - there is usually a light fitting on the wall somewhere nearby.

I've recently taken one with a solid white tennis ball look to it, which I'm fairly sure isn't dust, insects or a light reflection.

What about moving orbs in video?

In MH we've seen on many occasions light anomalies come from the direction of the medium as he is describing a spirit. Is this just co-incidence?
Though I suppose he could be letting loose a pet wasp he keeps hidden about his person!

In some cases, the cameras pick up 2 or three lights coming one after another in heading different ways. Surely this can't be dust blowing in different directions?

Personally, I think the jury is still out - sorry!

Cheers Dan

 

[cassandra78]

OK OK so I would love to think they are just dust and I'm sure 99% of them are.
But I see flashes of light that look like orbs too sometimes. I think it's probably my medication..... but who knows? They do seem more regular when I'm thinking about the other side, or worshipping- maybe it's the angels joining in?

As for those ones on MH well, there have been one or two that seem to move strangely.

A friend and I were filming ourselves 'saying hello to' the other side (the best way I can put it- we like to say hi occasionally, I usually spend the time praying instead) and when he said "and finally open your crown chakra" an orb shot out the top of his head when we checked the footage after :lol: But it was summer and the window was open, so could easily have been a fly.

 

[Waylander]

n.

What about moving orbs in video?

In MH we've seen on many occasions light anomalies come from the direction of the medium as he is describing a spirit. Is this just co-incidence?
Though I suppose he could be letting loose a pet wasp he keeps hidden about his person!

In some cases, the cameras pick up 2 or three lights coming one after another in heading different ways. Surely this can't be dust blowing in different directions?

Personally, I think the jury is still out - sorry!

Cheers Dan

Movement of convectional air currents, can be very random, dust traveling on these currents can seem to be moving as if in control, but really they are just moving in random motion with the convection.

 

[Waylander]

[

When you die, make sure you come back as something more substantial! Like a misty cheese buffet or a flickery flak jacket. Or even a floating underpant.

I like the idea of the 'misty cheese buffet', there's nothing quite like a good smaorgesboard of fine cheeses, however returning as an underpant tosser, well the less said about that the better. :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

...returning as an underpant tosser, well the less said about that the better. :shock:

I'd be happy (ish) to come back at all. And what else is one supposed to do with a used underpant, but toss it? :shock:

(I've tried frying but it stains the pan. Nylon Y fronts are the worst. Sticky as hell. And in the pan too!)

 

[OldTimeRadio]

So are all orbs explainable as dust etc.?

Yes.

At least 99.9 percent of the orb photographs I've so far seen are pretty clearly dust motes or water droplets suspended in the air.

I've seen no more than one or two orb photos which genuinely disturbed, even frightened me.

Still, there are those one or two.

 

[liveinabin]

OK OK so I would love to think they are just dust and I'm sure 99% of them are.
But I see flashes of light that look like orbs too sometimes. I think it's probably my medication..... but who knows? They do seem more regular when I'm thinking about the other side, or worshipping- maybe it's the angels joining in?

As for those ones on MH well, there have been one or two that seem to move strangely.

A friend and I were filming ourselves 'saying hello to' the other side (the best way I can put it- we like to say hi occasionally, I usually spend the time praying instead) and when he said "and finally open your crown chakra" an orb shot out the top of his head when we checked the footage after :lol: But it was summer and the window was open, so could easily have been a fly.

The flashes of light you see are caused by low blood pressure. (or your retina detaching but you would have known if it was that as you would be blind now!)They can often be seen when you stand up suddenly or if you've been very still for a while and then start to move.

Also, I'm sorry but I don't think we should hold up Most Haunted as an example of any phenomenon as so much of it is just made up lies I think anything they did film would be by coincidence.

 

[UsedtobChrisFord]

It's been shown time and time again on tv how to create your own "orbs" with a dirty rug and a properly placed light source. Anyone that believes that orbs are something more than dust are just advertising their lack of knowledge about light refraction through a series of lenses in conjunction with apertures.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Anyone that believes that orbs are something more than dust are just advertising their lack of knowledge...."

Chris, as stated above I agree with you concerning about 99.9 percent of these images. But if we automatically and arbitrarily dismiss all spherical or globular anomalies caught on photographic film, we also have to defenestrate all photos of ball lightning.

 

[lupinwick]

It's been shown time and time again on tv how to create your own "orbs" with a dirty rug and a properly placed light source. Anyone that believes that orbs are something more than dust are just advertising their lack of knowledge about light refraction through a series of lenses in conjunction with apertures.

Still not proof that every orb is dust or similar though - just proof of one of the mechanisms for creating them. Now a photo of an orb in clean room would be interesting.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Now a photo of an orb in clean room would be interesting.

But a "clean" room is still going to have a dust mote or two around.

 

[_Lizard23_]

I assumed that was 'a clean room' rather than a 'clean' room - a high level clean room used for manufacturing or research will have an extremely low, known and controlled concentration of airborne particles.

 

[lupinwick]

Sorry, I did mean "clean room". The kind of area they IC manufacturing etc. The point I was trying to make (however poorly) that it seems very close minded to assume every orb on a photograph is dust.