The Great 'Orb' debate.

We find it a sad state of affairs that currently, no serious researcher can investigate the paranormal without covering the subject of ‘orbs’ as part of their CV, despite the fact that they are as paranormal as the nine o’clock news.

It is also a disappointment to us that, despite the ‘truth’ being in the public domain since the launch of digital photography in the 1990’s, there still persists the common belief that ‘orb’ photographs are absolute ‘proof’ of the afterlife and beyond.

To us, investigation employs the process of research and elimination, that is nothing can be accepted as paranormal based upon little more than blind faith, which, if people are totally honest with themselves, is the only thing supporting ‘orbs’ as genuine paranormal phenomena.

But, despite this, many so called paranormal investigation groups still view ‘orbs’ as evidence of the paranormal without question. Why is this?

Paranormal?

From our own observations, the support for ‘orbs’ appears to be solely based upon the following ‘facts’:

a. ‘Orbs’ are paranormal, because someone pointed out a spirit and, via a camera, an orb was captured at the same spot (give or take a couple of feet).

b. The way ‘orbs’ move is different to flies and the like and displays intelligence (all this gleaned from a single still image); and

c. Someone that you have never heard of has posted on a ‘paranormal’ forum that they were.

Is this good enough? A rhetorical question if there ever was one.

The truth?

So what exactly are ‘orbs’ and how are they created?

At this point, just a quick house rule before we continue, please note that when we use the phrase ‘dust’, we are covering a multitude of sins, it covers a variety of items that could cause orbs, including pollen, moisture and airborne fibres.

It is a matter of fact that each and every lens has a focal point, usually situated a centimeter or so in front of the lens.

In basic terms, this means that a camera will be unable to focus upon any ‘object’ that is closer to the lens than the focal point. Conversely and, at the risk of being obvious, the camera is able to bring into focus objects at or beyond the focal point.

Therefore any ‘objects’ such as dust that appears between the lens and focal point at the time the photograph is taken will obviously be out of focus.

This doesn’t usually cause a problem for traditional film cameras, for digital SLR’s (where the flash gun is further away from the lens) or indeed for digital compact cameras where no flash is used.

However, should the flash be employed when using a digital compact, the close proximity of the flash to the lens will highlight any dust caught between the lens and its focal point.

This dust, in turn, highlighted by the flash and out of focus, will be captured and translated by the camera’s CCD circuit (the part of the digital camera acting, in effect, as the negative plate). The software used by the CCD will then do its utmost to translate what it ‘sees’ to a viable image, resulting in the ‘orbs’ that we all love and cherish.

So from this, we can see that the majority of ‘orbs’ are caused by a combination of necessity of design (the closeness of the flash on digital compacts) and the imaging technology used.

Quite simple and straight forward when you reflect upon it.

Other points to consider

In addition to these facts, we also know that:

1. ‘orbs’ are captured 99.9% (recurring) where a flash is used; and

2. Flashes on digital cameras are not particularly strong, with a range of 10 feet or so.

So, bearing all this information in mind, we feel that any claim that ‘orbs’ are paranormal to be suspect, especially from those claiming to have captured an ‘orb’ 40 feet or so away.

For an ‘orb’ to be captured at this distance it would need to generate its own light source, which at this distance, it’s more than reasonable to conclude that it will be visible to the naked eye.

Anyway, we digress.

The challenge (1) ………………………

Now the challenge is not to prove if something is paranormal or not, but something far simpler.

Take a moment and think of the millions of ‘orb’ pictures in existence.

If we are expected to go with the theory that these things are whizzing around the room, darting between furniture, people and other objects, a fair percentage of these ‘orbs’ will be captured being partially obscured by a table leg, persons head or whatever object is in the vicinity.

We think that you will all have to agree that this is not an unreasonable expectation in the circumstances. Indeed, we feel that, if ‘orbs’ are flying around the room it would not be exceptional to find that over 30% of ‘orbs’ captured on camera are over-lapped by another object.

If anything, perhaps this figure is a bit on the conservative side.

However, as all ‘orbs’ are a product of dust appearing between the lens itself and its focal point, we suggest that such an image does not exist.

So, the challenge is therefore, to provide us with just a single example of an ‘orb’ that is over-lapped and make us eat humble pie.

L&M

(1) Some may be familiar with this challenge elsewhere on the internet where it has appeared as ‘Baruc’s Challenge’ on a variety of paranormal discussion forums since 2004.