Orbs

[dime_novel_hero]

A few weeks back, I went to an open house of the Thomas Espy Grand Army of the Republic Post at the Carnegie Library in Carnegie. For those who don't know, the GAR was a fraternal order of Civil War veterans (much like todays VFW and American Legion). When the last member of the post died in in 1937 the doors to the room were locked for 50 years. This time capsule, recently reopened and restored, is the most intact post in the US.

And since it's old and veterans are involved, so are the ghost hunters.

While I was there taking pictures, the library director stated that people from the Pittsburgh Paranormal Society had been there, remarked on the "strong vibrations" of the place, took a few pictures, saw orbs in those pictures, declared it haunted and wanted to make arrangements to come back for a more detailed investigation. She also expressed her belief that the building was haunted.

Poppycock.

I say that not merely because I am a skeptic and don't believe in ghosts. I say that knowing that there is no evidence to support that conclusion, plenty of evidence that what they are claiming as evidence is explained by other, natural causes and will focus on what is probably the most commonly used "evidence" for spirits and hauntings: orbs.

Orbs are circular light anomalies that appear in photographs. They are notable because the photographer never sees such a thing when they are taking the picture. Because they are invisible to anything but a camera, paranormal investigators conclude that they are manifestations of spirit energy.

So, I did some research of my own. I have over the years taken thousands of pictures and have most of them archived on hard drive and CD. In sifting though them I found many instances of orbs such that they formed a pattern of occurrence.

1) All of the photographs with orbs had been taken with an inexpensive digital camera.

2) Nearly all of the photographs with orbs had been taken with a flash.

3) The majority of the photographs with orbs had been taken at science fiction, anime or steampunk conventions, although a significant number were seen in photographs of dinosaurs on a trip to the Chicago Natural History Museum.

Conclusion: Dinosaur ghosts like cosplay.

But, really, what is going on is that the inexpensive digital cameras have their flash unit near to the camera lens. When the flash goes off, invisible dust particles near the camera are caught in the flash and the light reflects back into the lens. It's really that simple. Of the scores of pictures I took at the GAR post, or those taken aboard a WWII landing craft ("One of the most haunted places in Indiana")or those at the Air Force Museum ("one of the most haunted places in the Dayton area"), all the sorts of places that paranormalists insist that ghosts reveal themselves, not one of them had an orb because I was using my digital SLR. In those cases, the flash was set high above the lens and was typically angled to reflect the light off of the ceiling. This angle is less likely to illuminate any dust that might be near the lens, thus no orbs.

These people who claim to use the scientific method to investigate the preternatural are not. They have ignored all the scientific steps between observation and conclusion. So, I'll say it again;

Poppycock.
 
 
 

Comments

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

It might be interesting to do the same with film photographs. It will probably be the same reasons in the same cases. The easier to use "instamatics", etc. will probably produce photos with "orbs" where as the SLR type cameras with the flash located further away from the lens will have a lower incidence of "orbs".

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

1) All of the photographs with orbs had been taken with an inexpensive digital camera.

2) Nearly all of the photographs with orbs had been taken with a flash.

3) The majority of the photographs with orbs had been taken at science fiction, anime or steampunk conventions, although a significant number were seen in photographs of dinosaurs on a trip to the Chicago Natural History Museum.

Conclusion: Dinosaur ghosts like cosplay.

Actually, I'd conclude that Dinosaurs like to haunt you.