Ghost Orbs

MODIFIED

09
Jul
2020

Ghost Orbs Fact or Ficton

Ghost Orbs, Vortexes, Funnels, and other such names are banded around for what is quite possible an explainable and natural photographic artefact. In some forums, anything that the photographer cannot explain usually gets labelled a Ghost Orb or other such paranormal phenomena. In most of these cases what the camera has captured is something far more mundane.

Belief in Ghost Orbs is one thing, but it can get in the way of paranormal investigations and can discredit all paranormal investigators in the eyes of the general public. To add validity to your investigations you need to know what you have captured. This five-part series offers insight and information to ghost hunters, helping you explain what you have captured. It will also give you a sort of checklist to look out for and some general advice on how to avoid false positives in your investigations.

“It’s fairly common to find an orb, or a glowing circular speck of light in a dark area of a photograph you’ve taken — and yet many of us aren’t really sure about what it means. If you turn to the internet to find out what the orbs in photos are, you’ll likely be directed down a trippy metaphysical hole that will have you believing that the spirit world is responsible for the presence of light matter in dark places. But, you’ll also find the word “backscatter,” which is a term used in the photography world to describe the way that light can capture particles in the air that are nearly invisible to the naked eye. So which explanation makes the most sense? Are orbs inexplicable pieces of evidence proving there’s an afterlife, or are they just technicalities that though mystical in appearance, are logical in reality?” – Kaitlyn Wylde (2018) – Here’s The Real Reason You Sometimes See Ghostly Orbs In Your Pictures. [2]

General Ghost Orb Theories

The phenomena of Ghost Orbs took off sometime in the mid-1990s around the time digital camera prices dropped. The masses could get their hands on a camera with near-infinite photo opportunities, chaos ensued as most people have little training in photography. Many of these new cameras came with a flash and thus the mass capturing of Ghost Orbs began. [2]

Backscatter artefacts are the main cause of this phenomena, where the flash bounces of microscopic particles in the air and reflects directly back into the camera. Sometimes these objects are invisible to the naked eye, so the bright spot might appear as a blur or smudge. Moisture, hair, bugs, and fine fibres look weird and often can be exciting as they sometimes look otherworldly. Especially with moisture, as this looks like some otherworldly light, or what you see through a microscope. The microscope look being the most obvious clue that it’s moisture.

Ghost Orbs are Real?

There is much debate about if Ghost Orbs, Vortexes, Funnels, and other things that get caught by your camera are a form of paranormal phenomena. There are many ways to debunk the vast majority of these images, and little evidence supporting that there is something paranormal going on. As Carl Sagan said in his book The Demon-Haunted World (1997), “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” The debate will probably wage on for many years to come, between those that believe and those who do not. Any investigator with an open mind will look at all logical a natural phenomena before the jump on the supernatural. If you evaluate all options and use the principle of Occam’s Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct on.

Read On…



[1] Kaitlyn Wylde (2018) – Here’s The Real Reason You Sometimes See Ghostly Orbs In Your Pictures https://www.bustle.com/p/what-are-orbs-heres-the-real-deal-behind-those-ghostly-apparitions-in-your-pictures-according-to-professional-photographers-12605425
[2] Maurice Townsend – Paranormal photos and analysing them http://www.assap.ac.uk/newsite/articles/Paranormal%20photos.html


More News

  • Pre-Assessment: Road of the Dead / Llandaff Cemetery August 3, 2020
    Part of our methodology relies on a pre-assessment of the locations we are planning on investigating. Knowing what is there before we even start is a great way of removing ...
  • Covid-19: ParaDocs Files Update July 2, 2020
    It has been a while since we updated, as there was nothing really to do or that we could do. Due to the Worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic, we stopped all our ...