Floating Balls of Light in Photos & Video; Orbs, Spirit Balls, Spirit Energy
Orb Theories
Many a layman, as well as experienced Ghost Hunters have captured or been presented photo or video evidence commonly referred to as "Orbs". Many speculations are made about these little anomalies; What are they? This is the the million dollar question when it comes to orbs, and surprisingly this question has been quite divisive among those in the paranormal community.
An orb is often captured on video or in a photograph, it shows up as a phantom ball of light in the photo or video that was not perceived by the naked eye at the time of the picture or film being taken. Orbs on video can exhibit many different types of behavior, some of them float gingerly down, up, left, or right. Others speed around changing direction in mid flight giving the appearance that they have a mind of their own. Many orbs can be found to have a nucleus that withhold shapes, and even faces, tiny smiley faces have been popular.
The erratic, elusive, and almost ethereal qualities of these little critters has lead many to believe that they are the embodiment of residual spirit energy. They are believed to be able to jump around at will, because an intelligent force has control of them. The spirit energy appears as a ball of light because the life force of a deceased individual has left the human body and now has no vessel to contain it. The pure life force energy is now free to move and roam about the Earth at will. Many notice more orbs to appear in photos or video at a time when they may have been attempting to contact a spirit, giving further fuel to the spirit energy theory.
The other side of the coin says that Orbs are bugs, dust, and any other particulate matter that may be floating around. All of this material is normally not visible to the naked eye. The orb effect is caused by light, usually a flash or light source emanating from the camera or recording device. This light reflects off of the particulate matter giving it a halo effect, or making it appear as a large ball of light. The strange movements of the "orb" can be attributed to small changes in airflow in the area where the orb was captured it does not take much to blow around dust particles. The Orb in some cases could be a bug, bugs do have minds of there own, and will move accordingly. Seeing more Orbs appear when trying to contact a spirit has a great possibility of being caused merely by the power of suggestion, if you are looking to see something and tell yourself you will see it then you will. Also most commonly people on investigations will begin to take more photos and video at the time that contact attempts are being made, giving greater likelihood to capturing something, anything, at that critical moment.
Orbs
Orbs; according to personal experience.
In my experience with photos and video of Orbs all have proven to be dust or insects up to this point. Any photos that I have captured even the most puzzling, or convincing. Have turned out to be spiders hanging down from the ceiling, moth flitting about, or dust doing what it does best. Any questionable photos that I have taken, I have had analyzed by a photo expert who can enlarge and define what that orb is made of, and as I mentioned to this point all have been debunked. I have yet to truly capture any Ghostly phenomenon.
As of right now I would say that orbs are dust, bugs, and floating particulates, but my mind is not closed to the possibility that one day I may capture or may be presented with the orb that can not be debunked, "Pure Spirit Energy".
Orbs what are they?
Have You Captured Any Orbs?
Stevie Girl on November 10, 2019:
So, I have been looking all over the internet for what my husband and I have been experiencing. Find nothing that is the same. We live on 4 acres of land off a dirt road. Closest neighbors are a mile away to the west and 1.5 miles away to the east. We live in PA so the road is winding and hilly. At 5:30 am my dogs wanted out. They were up because my husband was up and getting ready for work. I was watching them in the shadows, as they 'did their business' on our side lawn. I could make out their forms. As I watched, a round white ball of light with defined edges appeared. I thought it was someone coming down the road but there was no vehicle sound. Before I could formulate another thought, the light moved up the hill, slowly, in the woods. It was about 10 feet off the ground. And then it disappeared. All this was within about 30 seconds. The light was the size of a flashlight when you point it to the ground. It moved very smoothly. Because a human mind first computes something logical, I called out to my husband who was outside at the garage then, and told him that I thought some hunters were in the woods. He said he doubted it. I did not think anything more of the event at all. UNTIL...a few days later my husband said this to me when he got home from work "I don't know how to tell you this because I don't want to scare you, but..." He then told me that he was standing outside that morning at about 5:30 (same time as me) and he saw a round white light move across the woods, slowly and then disappear. I reminded him of my statement the week before. We both were speechless. The next morning we both got up at the same time to take the dogs out. At first we saw nothing, but then we saw the light across the road at the bottom of the woods (high hill there) It was in one spot, not moving, and then, in another spot. We saw nothing else. We are going to get a hunting camera and set it up to see if we can capture some stills. The dogs by the way did not react in any way to the light or to any sounds that we may not have heard but that they may have heard. They do bark at things a lot in that area during the day. We never see what they are barking at. However, we have bears, bobcats and deer here. Neither of us tend to believe in things that cannot be explained. Well, I believe more than he does, perhaps. Anyway, I just hope that this is nothing demonic. It is NOT an orb in the sense that, as I stated, it had defined edges and was not translucent but a sold white light.
ISYParanormal from North Carolina, USA on May 11, 2019:
Enjoyed reading your works!
Nicole on November 21, 2017:
I was overseas sitting in my room watching tv one night when I saw an orb flying around the room. It wasn’t moving very fast so it wasn’t like it was something I saw out of the corner of my eye. In fact, it started to fly around me in which I proceed to swat at it like a fly to make it go away, however; my hand went right through the orb. So I sat there in disbelief trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then it started to move around my arm and then went through my arm. At this point, I started to get scared because I know that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. This annoying “bug” wasn’t going away and I couldn’t physically swat it so I noped the heck out of there. To this day, I still can’t explain what happened but I do know that it didn’t hurt me nor did I ever experience anything like it again.
Geoff B on May 27, 2017:
I was recording a video today of my toddler dancing While watching the video, there are orbs flying around him and one in particular seems to come from the floor area about 5 feet away from me and fly up at an angle toward the camera then then divert past me. I am interested in someone else looking at this video.
Karcy on January 08, 2015:
What a joy to find somenoe else who thinks this way.
Kristi on October 07, 2014:
I have about 20, 8 hour video tapes. It all started innocently enough. I began having flat tires, always in the same placement on my car, the right front. I rotated tires after having the flat fixed. I decided to put a camera outside, & chose a night vision, due to low light in our parking area. The first thing odd that I saw was the person I suspected of vandalizing my car. He walked down the sidewalk, at the end of which, sat my car. He looked around, turned, & walked back the way he came. Just as he was about to walk out of camera range, a ball of light came from somewhere, & swooped down the sidewalk behind him. That opened the proverbial door to literally 100's, possibly 1000's of these balls of light at a time. I know what you're thinking, bugs, dust. I video taped my car for a year or more. Mostly at night, but also a couple of times during daylight. I became obsessed watching these strange things. They are there, rain, sleet, snow, 90°, or close to zero. In fact, they seem to be more active during bad weather. Sometimes they float by slowly, sometimes, they flit by as if they're chasing each other. They never appear to be affected by wind. The cameras I used were equipped with microphones. If there was the slightest breeze, the volume would have to be muted to alleviate mic noise. The majority of the time, there is little to no wind heard on the tapes. Insects look like insects. For one thing, they don't appear round, & wings can clearly be seen as they fly. When I had a mentally impaired, if not criminally inclined neighbor move into the rear apartment closest to my car, there was a dramatic decrease in the amount of orbs on camera. In two or three days, they were gone completely. I missed them! I continued to hope they'd return, but they never did. That lovely neighbor subsequently turned my camera facing west into the setting Texas sun, which burnt out the lens.
I've also filmed these things inside my apartment. I've lived here for over 13 years.
I'd love to find out what these things are. I still have plenty of aging video tapes.
Rose Ann on December 26, 2013:
Some years ago, I was in the basement of my "not quite" finished house. The house is located on the edge of a field, that borders on the edge of the woods. The basement has stairs leading down from the main floor of the house. I was sitting, reading, when a large(beach ball size)ball of light green came down those steps. I watched, in amazement , as the ball slowly came down. It stopped at the bottom. I said "Hello there!" and the "orb" jumped about two feet into the air and shot out the door. I wasn't afraid but I sure wanted to tell someone about it. So...was it gas? Was it an alien? Was it the ghost of my grandfather? I think any of those answers will do. It sure was fun
