Tuesday, 21 June 2011

DUST, ORBS, AND SPIRITUAL ENERGY

 An article I wrote a few years ago when researching orbs and dust.


The most vexing question for any serious ghost hunter or paranormalist concerns the definition of what `orbs` really are.

Often one will read of supposed `informed scientific opinion` that dictates that they are 99% dust or other naturally occurring anomalies.

My response is simply this.

The existence of dust is everywhere. Hold a flashlight at an angle to a dark area and you will see literally thousands of almost microscopic dust particulates.
Dust is so common that in microchip factory laboratories the ambient air has to be carefully filtered to avoid contamination from them.

So naturally the question that arises from this fact is that if orbs are
 dust, why don't they appear en-masse and every time you video?

The answer is that they don't.

Most dust particulates do not show under infrared night video conditions, and even in the most dusty or dirty of locations.
I have carefully researched this phenomena for a number of years, and have concluded that in the majority of `orb` video, dust rarely appears in sufficient quantity to contaminate night video.
On occasions I have deliberately raked up dry dust with a yard brush and videoed the effect.
Real dust `orbs` are quite flat and dull grey in appearance. As you brush they will appear briefly as they are disturbed into the atmosphere, and then they quietly disappear back onto the ground.
A spiritual orb or `sentient energy` will appear in a variety of shapes and sizes, and vary significantly in luminescence.
So for me, the term `orb` is quite misleading and confusing.

The term `orb` was coined in 1996 by Dave and Sharon Oester, when they noticed a higher preponderance of these anomalies which appeared on film and digital formats.
They contended that `orbs` can be spiritual entities and have explored these anomalies on their website at www.ghostweb.com

However, their research doesn't delve deep enough to show how `orbs` can be spiritual, and the resultant photographs are based merely on an opinion rather than some form of hard evidence that can illustrate real `orb` activity as truly spiritual.

The sceptics meanwhile have been far busier maintaining the conspiracy that `orbs` are explainable anomalies, and the weapons they use to defend their views are as follows:

Solid orbs - Dry particulate matter such as dust, pollen, insects, etc.
Liquid orbs - Droplets of liquid, usually water, e.g. rain.
Foreign material on the camera lens
Foreign material within the camera lens
Foreign material within the camera body

To ensure openness to differing schools of opinion, I have experimented to either capture or create anomalies using these principles.

Pollen is probably the easiest to spot as examples tend to maintain a three pointed but rounded shape. Try photographing them during spring or early summer evenings when plants are in flower, or indeed the garden grass is in bloom. You will capture hundreds of them.

Water vapour produces an extreme of `orb` like activity which can fill a photographed area with literally hundreds of them in a swirling mass. These can easily be captured on still cameras during a warm misty evening.

Insects (particularly on video) are very easy to spot. On still cameras they appear as small slightly mis-shapen blobs of white light, and on video their body movement in flight creates a lazy staggered view as they move slightly from side to side as their wings propel them forward.

Regarding photographic or video capturing devices: We always ensure that the camera lenses are always kept clean and without any foreign bodies appearing on them. In truth to capture false anomalies using dirty lenses is quite difficult through normal use.

On video camcorder the presence of any `dirt on the lens` would show a permanently defined shape, and in all seriousness any respectable videographer would have to be quite dumb or ignorant not to clean the camera lens between investigations. But here is the core to the sceptical argument; they often treat those that oppose their viewpoint as being of lesser intelligence to themselves which illustrates their own arrogance to alternative viewpoints.

Another plank in the sceptic's viewpoint is `scientific` experiments.
I have read the results of some `accreditable research` and these are fundamentally flawed.
The majority of these experiments are based upon `controlled` disciplines.

An example would be where the experiment took place and the manner the experiment was conducted. Many tend to pick a location at random and they snap away without regard to the obvious question of whether there is any kind of spiritual activity occurring. As they experimenters clearly do not believe in this notion in the first place the fruits of their labours are flawed. All they generate are either `statistical` reports, or many photographs which they opinionate are explainable anomalies. Hardly scientific, and of course, they prove absolutely nothing.

Fortunately, not all scientists are so negatively minded, and indeed in recent years some have been brave enough to suggest that there are other forces at play which cannot be simply ignored or rubbished.
However, I digress. I decided to re-examine `orb` phenomena in more detail by using two controlled locations for my experiments. The principle locale was my own home in which I have lived for 11 years.
The second locale was a former WW2 Airfield that has been visited by me and other investigators regularly over 3 years.
I noticed that during filming in either location `orb` activity tended to occur just prior to some form of unexplainable activity such as EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), ectoplasmic mist or some type of manifestation such as the appearance of part or the whole of a human figure.
`Orbs` appear in a variety of shapes, the most common being the `orb` shape, but with variations such as elliptical shapes and even `orbs` of different colours and sizes.
After these events occurred the `orb` activity decreased or disappeared altogether. Interestingly in the case of the Airfield the whole area was well covered with dust and fibre which didn't show itself as we walked across the floor stirring up debris. And so I suspected (not unreasonably) that this activity might have a spiritual bias.

An example from the Airfield that I recall was when I was videoing what looked to be a mass of tiny white dots of light which coalesced into the lower part of a human body. I could clearly see through the camcorder viewfinder a pair of glistening trousered legs and heavy shoes. As the figure expanded upwards, it seemed to lose momentum and then collapse like a firework showering sparks onto the ground. I rushed home expecting to see something truly profound and instead was disheartened by the appearance of two `orbs` at the critical moment shooting upwards and around from the point the half-figure appeared. But importantly, although I `lost` this video opportunity, it did illustrate the spiritual connection between `orb` and `ghost`.

My own home was where I decided to try to communicate directly whenever these anomalies appeared. I reasoned that if they were genuinely spiritual they would react quite positively to human interaction, and may indicate perception, intelligence and of course awareness.
My initial forays were not as successful as I had envisaged. Part of the problem was overcoming a natural fear or reticence to speak to someone or something that lay hidden and invisible in my home. Although as a psychic I am used to detecting and sensing paranormal activity around me, I was not used to speaking directly to `orb` activity.At first there was what I felt to be reluctance on the part of the `orb` to appear. I knew that my home had the spirit of a young girl present but until then I had no means of knowing or indeed being able show her responding to my presence. I soon realised that this spiritual being was no different in feeling and attitude than me. The issue seemed related more to trust than anything else. She was initially very wary of me as I was of her, as it was apparent we were both treading a new path into the unknown.

After a while I adopted a more relaxed and friendly approach and this started to produce results that would soon have sceptics and religious extremists in open hostility to my work.

The sceptics tried at first to ignore the fact that the spirit reacted positively towards me by simply maintaining it was dust, whilst the religious adherents accused me of being in league with `demonic` forces. When that failed, I was subjected to threatening emails and even the creation of hoax pages on the `You Tube` video sharing site that were similar to my own or even making their own videos that would show (apparently) how `orbs` were dust.

The whole cycle of events that attacked and condemned me were similar to the abuse suffered in the distant past by those that dared to question the teachings of religion or those that suggested the world was round and not flat ..
In short, I realised that some people today in the modern world, were no different to those of the past.
Another example of what I would regard as being `myopic` when considering the evidence is the attitude of some website forums whose subscribers believe more in the existence of fairies and angels than something far less fanciful as `orbs`.
Again, some refuse to believe the evidence of my work and insist that `real` ghosts always look like people or animals. But in truth, most spiritual activity is more likely to be `orbs` than anything else.

As I discussed earlier, the term `orbs` was appropriate for 1996 as very little was known or understood about this phenomena. Also it was apparent from investigations that many of these `orb` anomalies were anything other than spherical shapes and so I decided to re-define them as `Sentient Energies` to embrace these differences.

Spiritual Energies, or S.E`s for short, display all the characteristics of an intelligent life form. They are aware of the surroundings they are in, and particularly so for the people that they come into contact with.





The above video is of an S.E that `haunts` my home, and has been captured on numerous occasions, and yet always retains a crescent shape.

The majority of S.E`s are quite harmless and seemingly co-exist alongside us. Their perception of the world is essentially no different to our own, and they can come and go as they please. Their energy appears to be based on intellectual thought, and they use this process to move to any location of their choice.

A common fallacy people believe is that S.E`s are indicative by the numbers detected in one location. So if say, 10 S.E`s appear, that must mean there are 10 spiritual presences.

This notion is wrong. To illustrate this point you must remember that a Sentient Energy is essentially an expanding consciousness. When `spirit` enters a room it spreads it's presence by enveloping the room so much so, that many people believe that a number of spirits are present rather than just one. They often emit during this process a cold energy, which is often a pre-cursor to more substantial spiritual activity, and a reason as to why rooms go cold in the event of paranormal occurrences.

S.E`s also come in different colours as well as different sizes or shapes.

Some people believe that colour denotes attitude or emotions. So, if a black S.E is encountered some will believe it represents evil. I personally do not believe this to be true. I have seen and experienced `black orbs` without any apparent ill-effect, and similarly I have been attacked by a presence that appeared as a `white orb`, so colour has no bearing in this whatsoever. Whilst discussing spiritual `attacks`, here are the most common examples: The most common is `over shadowing`. This occurs when a spiritual presence occupies the same space as a living person, or sometimes when a spiritual entity is trying to communicate directly to the brain of the affected individual. The victim will feel nausea or may even pass out. Under such circumstances the remedy is to remove the affected person immediately from the location where a quick recovery always follows.

Another example is when during an investigation someone is pushed or struck by an object. These types of attacks are rare, and are more indicative of a short burst of anger on the part of the spirit which sometimes leads to bruising or mild scratches. I have been present when people have been pushed or struck and quite often the controlling medium has not (in my opinion) handled the presence properly. Fortunately these occurrences are rare, but there is no record anywhere of people suffering serious injury or death.

A common question I am asked by many people is why doesn't S.E`s appear more regularly as full manifestations. The answer would appear to be based on the amount of mental energy they need to perform it. Whenever an S.E has in my experience, attempted a full or partial manifestation a number of strange events can occur to electrical equipment and battery storage devices. I've seen camcorder batteries drained within minutes, and have known people with mobile phones to suffer similar energy drains when the phones are left switched on. On one particular occasion, a man had all the data on his mobile removed, and the phone rang once before completely draining of power. The moral of the story is that during any paranormal investigation all mobiles should be switched off, but from experience many people choose to ignore this advice.

Many S.E`s require additional energy sources to attempt to create any sizeable manifestation, and in order to achieve this, they will drain any power source that is immediately available and yet (as far as I am aware) they seemingly leave mains power sources alone. They may even attempt to take energy from living presences and the outcome of this invariably leads to people feeling very drained emotionally, or feeling very tired. This is quite similar to the effects of `over shadowing`, and may sometimes be linked one and the same.

Does size matter? Well on one investigation an S.E appeared to the naked eye and was sized over 2` in diameter as it moved from the ground up the end wall of a gabled garage. Upon reaching the top it disappeared and seconds later the full figure of a man appeared on the roof and leapt off into the garden.
This type of apparition is extremely rare, but interestingly the spirit in this instance appeared to have a huge ego, and during a subsequent séance demanded we all leave his house immediately!

In addition to these phenomena he also appeared against an interior wall as a jet black shadow, and moved slowly across the wall before disappearing. Such occurrences are extremely rare, but the interesting fact was that he was active not only in the 300 year old part of the house investigated, but also in modern additions recently built. I never felt once that he was mentally unstable but certainly felt the power invested by him in his own egotistical attitude which seemed to propel him into creating more first class spiritual incidents.


This occurred when I was changing a video tape in a static camcorder. I actually felt his clothing brush against me as he moved past me invisible to the eye.
I concluded that real spiritual energy is generated by strong willed spiritual presences and perhaps less so by the traditional view that the more mentally disturbed the spirit was during life, the stronger it will be in spirit. I have investigated many former lunatic asylums in the past but have never captured or experienced anything stronger than the appearance of S.E`s.
In more general terms of experience I have found that small but very bright S.E`s tend to generate more activity than larger S.E`s, so size really doesn't matter.

Another question I am often asked is whether S.E`s can be seen in the dark without the aid of infrared illumination. The answer is yes. As an experiment, place yourself in a dark room that has a history of activity, or indeed try it in your own home which may not have an apparent haunting history. But the important thing is to allow a few minutes to allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

After a while, you should see small red or blue pinpricks of light. These will move around or in front of you. They are S.E`s viewed in their more natural state. I actually videoed and photographed these at the same time and corroborated that these tiny lights show as sentient energies both on camera and camcorder. Try it for yourself; you will be amazed by what may go on unnoticed around you!

One final question is the confusion some people have with bad entities or `demonic` forces. These from experience do not exist. What one may experience is the presence of a spirit that was evil in life, and evil in death. These entities are S.E`s but they are capable of producing imagery or an experience that often confuses people to believe that they are demonic. Whilst their actions may seem `demonic`, the S.E is no different to you and I, they are simply using their power to frighten or affect the victim into believing this. If you ever encounter these phenomena and don't feel you have the strength or will to deal with it, you must leave well alone and break contact.
I've experienced this phenomenon at first hand, and whilst it can be unpleasant, it can produce some amazing imagery or even E.V.P.

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