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Orbs & Digital Cameras

Orbs - Connecting to the spirit world?

During the last few years, orb anomalies have become a common manifestation with the advent of digital still cameras, and particularly digital and non-digital video camcorders.

In truth, I would never deny that scientific opinion is wrong, simply because any of the supported views can be proven to be perfectly correct.
However, these examples are not a `one fits all` excuse for the entire range of reported and recorded orb phenomena and whilst a digital still photograph is arguably contentious, some developments with video camcorder are clearly not, and it is with that view that I set out to prove that a greater percentage of orb related activity is I suggest, spirituality based anomalies.

Before I venture into this realm of orb research, I need to dwell for a while on digital still photography in practise.

I have been using digital still photography on the majority of my paranormal investigations over the last 8 years.
I noticed that some digital still cameras were particularly adept at capturing orb material, whilst others weren't. The argument here is that these cameras with a higher mega pixel were less likely to capture orb activity than those with a lower pixel rating.
From my experience, and again it is my personal opinion, I discovered that with the increase of higher digital quality cameras becoming more accessible the orb count remains the same across the digital spectrum as it tends to vary more from model to model rather than from the quality of the pixels.
Several manufacturers have attempted to modify their products to eliminate orbs, especially those cameras used by professional photographers whose work would be obviously spoiled by the presence of these anomalies in their photographs.
After all, who wants a set of wedding reception photographs covered in orbs?

I have seen examples of these captured at such events, and in many I have noticed that the orbs appear either to the side of a group photograph or above.
Interestingly these pictures have been taken at a variety of locations ranging from modern function suites to older buildings with which one would be more inclined to believe that this type of apparition would earnestly appear.
Also the humidity count has varied from air conditioned buildings to those without, so
this doesn't appear to be a crucial factor here either.

Dust has been the sceptics choice for the majority of reported orb anomalies, and often you will read that the armchair critic dismisses orbs as 99% dust, and will often go on to say that this is scientific fact. The 1% omission is always left firmly in place as so to make this `research` appear unbiased and open to the most miniscule of other possibilities.
Well it may not surprise you to know that I have spent a lot of internet time chasing down these `facts` with absolutely no cast iron evidence to show that it is a statement based more on opinion than fact. Another interesting point here is that sceptics will talk of `controlled conditions`.
The point here is that if photographs were taken 99 times in a modern laboratory, and 99 times in a known haunted location one would at least expect orbs to appear more at the latter rather than the former location.
This is a highly ambiguous testing criteria which I will try and explain.

Firstly, how are they able to determine from a point of physical appearance that the orb is dust? Examples I have seen are again opinion based, and I am at odds with how they can tell the difference.
Secondly, because the control sites are `haunted` and `non-haunted`, how can they determine whether or not that they have eliminated any spiritual presence?
Although a building may be modern in origin the site upon which it rests may have earlier occupations whether it be a house or indeed the site of some earlier calamity such as a murder scene or similar.
So from this premise, the controlled experiment is flawed simply because no one would ever know for certain. So again, an opinion is once again aired rather than some established and conclusive fact.
In truth, taking a range of orb pictures and perhaps using many different types of camera does not actually prove psychic phenomena.
Another point to consider also is that the air contains literally hundreds of dust motes or particulates and if they were the alleged cause, they should appear more or less continuously regardless of where you are, but sadly for the sceptical observer they do not.

From a practical `hands on` perspective, the results are again far from conclusive.
However, I am guided by two factors, and these are my own psychic awareness of spiritual activity, and of course experience.
I have noticed that many events witnessed by me have been precipitated by some other event such as a temperature drop, or a spiritual manifestation such as an ectoplasmic mist or indeed a partial or full blooded apparition.
I have also observed orbs through the naked eye on a number of occasions and that has been day or night.
An example I would like to recount took place a few years ago at an old cottage in East Lancashire.
I was working with a team of paranormal investigators based in Yorkshire at the home of a team medium.
The cottage produced many anomalies such as an abundance of orbs in photographs, the sighting of a jet black shadow of a man moving across an interior wall, and two full apparitions.
During the night's investigation I and a colleague from the team took a break outside being sat in my vehicle in the car park. This area was fully illuminated by a security light, and my car was parked facing the end gable wall of a detached garage.
My colleague noticed what he perceived to be the figure of a man dressed in black moving between two bushes which stood aside the corners of this wall.
I actually missed that, but was lucky to see in full view the presence of a huge orb which was at least 2` in diameter. This was easily seen from the illuminated security light and this entity floated from the ground between the two bushes all the way up to the top apex of the roof before disappearing into the darkness.
We were both dumbstruck by the sight of this apparition and even more so when again the figure of the man in black appeared on the actual roof.
It leapt from the building into the grounds where it was observed for a few seconds literally jumping around the garden before disappearing.

This was my very first encounter of seeing an orb through a naked eye and this made me consider ways of proving the existence of spiritual orbs using the medium of a video camcorder equipped with an infrared illuminator.

My earliest attempts were very much in the vein of what most paranormal investigators perform at investigations. They aim a video camcorder and shoot aimlessly in the dark in the hope of catching anything paranormal on film.
More commonly various orb like entities are captured in some part of some haunted building with a whoop of excitement as one comes into view.
To the amateur videographer this all seems rather scary and exciting, but for the serious investigator or critical sceptic this hardly confirms the existence of life beyond the grave as the event does not generally indicate anything other than a white object cruising aimlessly across a room.
It is because of this and many other similar occurrences across the world that orbs have been largely dismissed by many as mere dust or insect borne anomalies.

Having the experience of the East Lancashire incident firmly lodged at the back of my mind I looked at how I was going to prove my theories by video.

My home is a rather ordinary three bedroomed detached property built in 1952 as a rural police beat office in a village in North Essex.

I have realised for many years of living there that the house has paranormal activity, and that in particular one room is more active than the rest of the property.
This is the upstairs master bedroom which is generally a few degrees colder than the rest of the house.
I have never found it easy to sleep in that room as I am always distracted by events that go on around me.
Quite often I would lie in bed sensing tingling across my face and hands, and although I felt nothing menacing, I was quite aware that there were others in this room besides myself.
Another factor which affected my sleep was waking in the middle of the night to `see` in a half dream-like state what can be best described as videos of strange events unconnected with the modern world.
These `dreams` or visions allowed me to look around them as though I was watching a TV. And in every case I could view whatever appeared as though from the eyes of another person or on one occasion an animal.
From this `remote viewing` incident I clearly recall that I was looking up from the ground floor of an old fashioned kitchen which had worn red pantile floor tiles which were uneven and cracked or chipped. Ahead of me and from beneath a large wooden kitchen table I could see a large open wooden shelves upon which were stacked heavy iron pots and crockery. The walls were off white and dirty, and looked rough and uneven.
Beneath the shelves stood an old fashioned `Butler` or `Belfast` ceramic sink, with a crude wooden draining board next to it.
This appeared so real to me that I could even sense a terrible fear or apprehension of something that was about to unfold, and it did when I saw the baggy trousered legs of a man walk into view ahead of me. I felt positively terrified and as he drew closer to me I tried desperately to bring myself out of this event which I achieved by literally slapping myself across my face.
Was this an image of the old house and was I a cat or a dog cowering under that table?
Fortunately for me I never returned to repeat that incident although I occasionally woke some night's to view faces of men and women in expressions of joy or torment float past my eyes. Again they looked perfectly real and very clear.
Other `remote views` were strangely abstract but again as clear as day and ranged from country views to old towns and villages - none of which were familiar to me.

I then reluctantly decided enough was enough and retired to a spare bedroom where these dreams ceased for good and I was at last able to enjoy relatively normal sleep.
These strange events were not always confined to the master bedroom for beneath that room is dining room which although is generally quite it provided on one occasion a full bodied manifestation of a lady sat motionless in an old fashioned high backed chair.
This apparition was very weird on a number of points.
Firstly, it appeared in daylight at exactly 12 mid day, and lasted a whole 15 or so minutes before it faded away, and secondly it appeared as a wispy grainy green/grey ectoplasmic mist which although defined no features was apparent to me to be my late grandmother who died many years before in the early 1970`s and of course had no connection with my home.
Although I could see her, other family members could not, and it was only the reaction of my two cats which confirmed that I wasn't imagining this manifestation.
They literally walked past staring at her whilst maintaining a low body profile with their ears firmly pinned back.
I felt she appeared at this time to reassure me that whatever was happening in my home she was there to look over me. I felt very positively warmed by the experience and not at all afraid.

Other medium friends and associates then visited this bedroom over a period of some months and they reported that they felt or observed a variety of presences ranging from a man and a woman in Victorian clothing, to even a man dressed in clerical clothing who accompanied them!
Other presences were a former resident and a young child connected to the current house.
This all seemed rather incongruous to the history of the house until one day whilst digging a fish pond I found garden rubble that included broken china and shiny tile fragments which suggested that on least one part of the property there may have once stood another building.
Having set myself a challenge to discover the history and origins of the area I already knew that my home village was constructed in 1928 to provide accommodation at a nearby factory built around the same time.
My home was built in 1952 as a rural police station and indeed was owned and used as such until it was decommissioned and purchased by me in 2001.
Prior to this date the area upon which the village sits was previously virgin farmland which although confirmed its rural beginnings aided nothing to identifying the existence of an earlier farm property or private house.
I later visited the local records office for copies of earlier maps and of course, land registry reports. I discovered on file an old 19th century map which showed the presence of a small house in the middle of an expanse of farmland.
By matching the grid co-ordinates of my house and the indicated property I was able to partially superimpose my home across the site of the earlier house and I wasn't at all surprised to see that the haunted master bedroom clearly touched upon the foundations of the earlier house.

Chris Halton © 2008