6 However, all such explanations lack evidence and remain to be substantiated. 5 Many people claim orbs are capable of demonstrating intelligence, able to respond to requests and instructions from investigators. 4 Others propose that it represents energetic emissions of angelic or otherworldly beings. The most common states that it constitutes evidence of ghosts and spirits. Orbs continue to be regularly described as paranormal in the mainstream media and social media.Įxplanations regarding the paranormal or supernatural nature of the phenomenon are extensive and vary widely. The belief has been reinforced by the repeated representation of orbs as a paranormal phenomenon on popular ghost hunting television shows in countries such as the UK, the US, Australia and Canada. Edmonds described these as ‘being little bundles of positive energy’, adding that they ‘look like little round planets but they come in all shapes and sizes’ and that they are only capable of being photographed by digital cameras’. For example in September 2008, television presenter Noel Edmonds claimed during a BBC news programme that his deceased parents followed him around in the form of two melon sized orbs. The belief quickly became widespread within the paranormal community and is often repeated in the mainstream broadcast and print media, occasionally endorsed by celebrity accounts and experiences. Most likely it originated in Internet forums and chat rooms, where people shared their discovery of these anomalies appearing in their photographs and videos. It is not known how or when the belief that orbs represented some form of paranormal phenomenon began. Similar anomalies had previously been observed in photographs taken using film-based cameras, although claims regarding their paranormality was usually restricted to photographs purporting to show phenomena such as the will-o’-the-wisp or ball lightning. The widespread use of digital cameras by paranormal investigators, which began in the latter years of the twentieth century and has now become ubiquitous, has led to claims that the technology can in some manner capture evidence of previously unobserved paranormal phenomena. In addition to the discoid shape, orbs and light anomalies which have geometric shapes (for instance hexagonal) and elongated forms are also commonly reported. Individual orbs commonly appear to have regions of varying brightness, sometimes giving rise to a claim that faces may be seen. White or shades of grey are the predominant presenting colour, but those with a full spectrum of colours from red to blue and including multiple colours, may also be seen. Individual anomalies may appear to have a wide variation in size, overall brightness and colour, and appear either almost transparent, translucent or occasionally opaque. Characteristically these have an overall circular appearance, are of white or grey colour a bright annular ring surrounding the central disc may also be seen. The orb phenomenon most commonly manifests as one or more anomalies within an image. Other terms are sometimes used to describe the phenomenon, such as ‘light-ball’, ‘spirit-orb’ and ‘ghost-orb’. 2 Either is now used to describe the appearance of almost every form of unexpected bright spot and shape, although ‘orb’ is usual with still photographs and ‘light anomaly’ more so with video footage. In the show’s later series ‘light anomaly’ became predominant. Both were employed interchangeably to describe moving discs of varying brightness that occasionally appeared on footage obtained in near darkness using video cameras in infra-red night vision mode. The alternative term ‘light anomaly’ seems to have been first used on the British television series Most Haunted. It is more likely that its widespread acceptance derives from its use in paranormal-focused Internet discussion forums in the late 1990s. The late ‘Doctor’ Dave Oester of the International Ghost Hunters Society claimed to have invented it, 1 but this cannot be substantiated. It is uncertain how ‘orb’ became the generally accepted term for this group of phenomena. The term is now extended to describe the appearance of almost any bright spot, shape or coloured region which may appear within photographs or on video footage, or which are reportedly observed by the unaided eye. It derives from the appearance of white or grey circular anomalies which may be observed in some photographs, predominantly those taken using digital cameras. The term ‘orb’ is widely used by paranormal enthusiasts to describe a wide variety of photographic and visual phenomena.
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