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Orbs Debate: Readers Respond

Readers sound off on the orbs controversy

By Stephen Wagner, About.com

RECENTLY, I POSTED an article entitled Enough with the Orbs Already suggesting that those anomalous orbs turning up in photographs are not good evidence for the paranormal. As I expected, I received a large number of reader responses to that article, some in agreement and some in strong opposition. Although the people who believe orbs are spirit energy haven’t changed my mind, they often made good, valid points, which should be considered in this ongoing debate. Here is a selection of reader responses from both sides of the issue:

It’s about time

“Thank you. It is something that needed saying, clearly and unequivocally, for quite some time. The whole orb thing has been giving the skeptics a big stick to bash us all with.” – Tim D.

“Finally. This has been paranormal stupidity from the get-go, with some people willing to grasp at anything.” – Dennis M.

“I too am tired of the dust orb phenomenon. Photography is not a perfect science and orbs, streaks and general glitches will always pop up. Gimme a break. I want to see some apparitions, not of the digitally created kind.” – Lynn G.

“I agree. I love to surf the web for true ghost pics/stories, but it seems here lately that all you see are grainy, fuzzy pictures of people standing in an extremely dusty room at night and they are passing it off as proof. My favorite line is, ‘We didn’t see anything when we took the picture and none of the other exposures show anything. This also shows up on the negative.” Well, duh! Of course you didn’t see anything; they’re dust particles and it’s dark. Thanks for putting an end to this insanity.” – Brian

“Let the orbs rest in peace.” – Dennis M.

They’re not dust

“I am curious: How many orbs have shown up in every one of your photos lately? The plain fact of the matter is that these ‘dust particles’ are all around the areas where there is documented paranormal activity. I have been in more than a few of these locations myself and I can vouch that some of these places are extremely clean since they cater to visitors and overnight guests. So why are there so many more orbs in these places than other places? If it was the dust that normally flies in the air everywhere, don’t you think they would be in every picture taken by every person holding a camera? At that rate, there should be a serious problem taking photos at outdoor sporting events. There are not many places on God’s good earth that don’t have even one speck of dust! It’s also worth it to mention that the places where the orbs appear also tend to have audio evidence as well. I am talking about clear Class A electronic voice phenomenon. So I challenge you not to ask why orbs show up in photos, but rather why don’t they show up in all photos?” – Clare

“I agree with Clare. I went through a stack (over 500) photos this weekend and came up with 21 that had orbs, many of which had several photos taken at the same event. The irony of it all is that they all have my 10-year-old daughter in them. If she’s not in the photo, no orbs. Research away… something is in those pictures. I might add that she is very receptive to spirits. She (and I) have seen them walking through the house.” – Carla

Experiments

“Who knows if orbs are ghosts or not, but try to figure out this experiment we tried recently. We were experiencing extreme cold one evening where our couch is, and decided to take some photos to see what showed up. First photo, there were several orbs. Next photo, we asked that one spirit join in the photo, there was only one orb. Next photo, we asked everyone to join, and the photo was filled with orbs. Final photo, we asked that everyone leave, and there were no orbs present. We did not clean the lens between any of these shots. Any explanations?” –Anne

Next page: They can’t all be airborne particles

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