Orbs Vs Dust & Bugs

Orbs: Just what are they? Are they really spirits trying to manifest themselves, or is it that you needed to bring a dust buster? If you start seeing orbs in pictures or video you take, do you need to call in the investigators, or do you just need to spray for bugs? This is the most highly debated topic in the paranormal circle. It is said that orbs are truly manifestations of energy created when entities are present. There have also claims that in close up views of them, faces can be seen. And of course there is the theory that they are pixies or fairies flying around. Really? I don't believe in fairies.... (Clap Clap Clap Clap)

Even in the celebrity paranormal groups this topic is always in question. The TAPS team in the show Ghost Hunters are always dismissing orbs as some foreign object floating or flying in the air. Then you have the Ghost Adventurers team claiming that they have been attacked just after an orb as appeared. Well, when your shoulders are bigger than your head, you spell your name as "Zak" , and you look more like a "BRO" compared to the other bros out there... I'm getting off topic here...

I for one believe that it is nothing more than dust or bugs. Even the ones that are caught on video. Orbs seem to take on a very significant shape (Duh!), and you can usually determine which is which by its flight pattern. Dust tends to kind of float down, up, or to the side following its path pretty respectively. Then you have the ones that take on their own flight patterns. Half the time though if you pause the video those ones don't have a round shape which leads me to believe its nothing but a bug flying around. I generally have to agree and say it is just something in the air... 99% of the time a bug.  As to there being faces in the orbs proving that they are real spirits seems to just be what is called matrixing.  (I swear I saw Neo's face in that orb!) I'll go over matrixing in another post.

Its hard to debunk orbs in photos because by the time you view the photo the atmospheric conditions have changed and there is no way to say yes or no there was dust or a bug or even a little winged creature for that matter. It could still very well be dust or bugs. I am not an expert in photography by any means but I do have enough common knowledge that if you are walking around an area with a lot of dust, or even a hint of dust, it's there regardless and can be disturbed and picked up. Its even possible for surfaces that may not seem like they could reflect a lot of light, reflect enough to get you a little circular companion.

Here is an extract from Fujifilm's website:

"There is always a certain amount of dust floating around in the air. You may have noticed this at the movies when you look up at the light coming from the movie projector and notice the bright sparks floating around in the beam. In the same way, there are always dust particles floating around nearby when you take pictures with your camera. When you use the flash, the light from the flash reflects off the dust particles and is sometimes captured in your shot.

Of course, dust particles very close to the camera are blurred since they are not in focus, but because they reflect the light more strongly than the more distant main subject of the shot, that reflected light can sometimes be captured by the camera and recorded on the resulting image as round white spots. So these dots are the blurred images of dust particles.

You can reproduce this problem relatively easily by taking a picture right after you put away goods that create a lot of dust, such as feather bedding. In actual photography, this problem frequently arises in shots taken at construction sites, etc. It may also occur when it is raining or snowing. Compact cameras in which the flash and the lens are close together are particularly susceptible to this problem.”



This explanation is preceded by a photograph showing a typical ‘grey blob’ type Orb.



And Thus, you see an orb!

So I have to say that for me orbs are just dust or random bugs. I have yet to see anything that would convince me otherwise. And yes I have viewed enough videos and photos of them to make that assertion and yes I used to believe that orbs were proof of ghosts until I really began delving deeper into paranormal research. Even the orbs that appear to change flight pattern, disappear, or attack humans I still feel are bugs. What? You’ve never been dive bombed by a bug before?