WHAT IS AN ORB?

An orb is a ball of energy thought to be connected with spirits. Whether it is the spirit itself, or a product of the spirit is unknown. If you look at Physics, it will tell you that Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. The human body is primarily made up of water and energy, so when we die, where does this energy go if it doesn't die with us? Some believe it gets reabsorbed into the earth, others believe that strong personalities get imprinted on this energy and creates a free-floating orb, and/or spirit.

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CAPTURING ORB EVIDENCE

Here is where it gets controversial. So many Paranormal Investigators out there positively jump out of their socks at seeing what appears to be a ball of light in their videos or pictures and call them orbs.  The fact is that 99% of the time, all it is . . . is dust in the wind.

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When using IR Cameras or night vision to see in the dark, there is a small

round area in the frame that is illuminated. You can see how this light fades

the closer to the edge of the frame you get. If you've ever used the "Vignette"

filter on your pics, you know exactly what this means. If you look at 99% of

these so-called orbs in videos you see them dance into frame suddenly, float

this way and that, and then fade out.  That is because dust particles that are

big enough enter the frame, are illuminated by the infrared, and once it

moves to the other side of the illuminated area, it fades.  You ever watch

the dust dance in sunbeams? The dust is always there, you just don't see it

until it is illuminated. 

With still frame pictures, it is usually either illuminated by flash, or back lit by

another light source. Then you get into refractions, and other light anomalies. That's a whole 'nother ball o' wax.   Back in the days when I was a Ghost Tour Hostess, one of the things we were trained to do when in the graveyard was to drag our foot along the dirt and kick up as much dust as possible, then ask the tourists to take a picture and keep an eye out for orbs in the pictures. Much like the picture above, the air would be "full of the spirits of the dead". It was a parlor trick and thankfully taught me a valuable lesson at the same time.

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HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DUST AND TRUE ORBS

In order to be considered a true orb, the object in question must fall into 3 categories.

1. It must be spherical.

2. It must emit its own light source.

3. It has to follow a deliberate path (self propelled and doesn't float on air currents) 

 

Typically dust orbs appear a bit amorphous and not solid. That is because the dust itself

is not solid but rather a clump of particles. In IR, a true orb would appear to glow

like a flashlight or a cat eye as apposed to a momentary flash and fade.

True Orbs are incredibly fast. They are faster than we can track with our naked

eye, which is why we typically only capture them in videos and pictures.

Digital recording captures more frames per second (FPS) than we can can process

with our analog eyes and brain. That's why if you happen to capture a true orb in still

frame, consider yourself very lucky that the timing was just right!