Just what are these shiny spheres that show up so frequently in our homes, graveyards and the night sky?

Orbs have to be one of the most contentious paranormal subjects. They are commonly found in photographs and can easily mislead us. It's hard for us to accept that a photograph taken by ourselves which show such anomalies, can have a natural cause; and so tend to get instantly labled as paranormal. However, most can be accounted for as being natural captures of dust, moisture or even insects. There are very rare occasions when they seem to defy the normal route of analysis, and these will completely convince the masses that it's the genuine article, and can even manage to intrigue the die hard cynic! That said, with the knowledge that is currently available to us, it is an impossible task to categorically identify a true paranormal orb; at best, all we can do is offer educated conjecture!

How do we come to the conclusion that most orbs have a natural cause? Well, there are two main explanations that we can offer:

Firstly, people never used to catch orbs in their photographs; they are a relatively new phenomena. Orbs are extremely rare when using a camera with film. However, since the introduction of digital cameras in the 90's, we have been inundated with orbs! This brings us to a logical conclusion that there is a technical reason why this should occur. By searching on the net and by doing our own experiments, we discovered that some digital cameras could almost be relied upon to produce orbs ... Kodak easyshare is one example of this, and will produce orb multiples. Conversely, a Konica digital will rarely produce any; and with the Pentax 750Z, they are practically non existent! With further investigation, the cause seems to becomes apparent ... The Kodak easyshare has 3.1 megapixels; the Konica digital has 4.0 megapixels; and the Pentax 750Z has 7.0 megapixels. Therefore, the logical answer seems to be that the less megapixels a camera has, the more chance it has of creating orbs!

Our second explanation comes from practical experience. There are numerous ways of conducting experiments in order to purposely 'catch' orbs:

Dust Orbs:
On a bright sunny day when you can see shafts of light streaming through a window, you can often see tiny dust, lint or hair particles flying around in it. Because the flash is situated very close to the lens of a digital camera; when you take a picture using the flash, it picks up these particles very easily. And because the particles are near to the lens, they appear magnified, distorted and spherical. Try flapping a duster or clothing into the air by a sunny window to extract the dust particles and then take a photo. Or waft pet hairs into the sunlight. Remember ... in bright sunlight you will be able to see them; but the camera lens will pick them up in conditions that the human eye can't!

Moisture Orbs:
These in essence are created in exactly the same way as dust orbs, though by moisture in the atmosphere. Because water is reflective, orbs caused by moisture can often appear very bright. It is very easy to capture these images on a dark, wet, night. Rain, snow, mist, even spit, will produce orbs.

Common misconceptions

It's showing movement and has a tail so it must be a true orb! Not so ... dust, moisture droplets, falling rain or snow, flying insects; none of these are static, all move. And when caught in movement can appear to have tails.

There is a face in my orb!
Different makes of digital camera appear to have an inherant flaw, which produce their own trademarks that only seem to appear in Orb photography. Some will produce line filled orbs, some will create a thick defined edge, some will produce a face. As well as accepting that the face may have a technical cause, it also helps to understand the established theory of pareidolia, often erroneously referred to as matrixing. In brief, as humans we are trained from birth to recognize faces. As a baby's sight is still in development it cannot fully recognize facial features, but is able to identify the three dots that are the eyes and mouth. It is a recognized fact of psychology that humans have a need to 'humanize' everything. Our brains are trained to search for the three facial dots, which in turn it translates into a face. It's also worth considering the fact that nothing in nature is pointless. Therefore, it would seem to make little sense that an energy orb would need to be humanized by having a face!

It's glowing brighter than the others so it must be real! Water with its reflective qualities, has enough substance to be able to reflect the light from the flash back to the camera, and in turn can create the bright luminescent appearance so commonly seen. These can also occur due to the camera lens catching the light from a reflective object.

There is only one orb in the picture so it can't be dust or moisture. Why not? It is perfectly possible to catch just one speck of dust or moisture droplet with a digital camera; therefore a lone orb is not conclusive evidence. However, a lone orb logically produces more possibility of having more paranormal validity, and does warrant further investigation.

I caught a single orb and it's glowing; surely there can't be any other explanation?
Although this situation justifies close inspection; this kind of scenario could be explained by a flying insect. Motion blur of an insect can produce an amazingly bright orb!

So all orbs are explainable?
We believe that probably 99% of all orbs can be explained by natural causes. What is more, they can be reproduced in experiments.

Can orbs be paranormal?
Yes we think it's possible. We can certainly never discount this! One reason for believing they can be paranormal is due to the fact that there are accounts from people who profess to have seen them with the naked eye. Another scenario which warrants attention is when paranormal activity is suspected and a photograph is subsequently taken which produces an orb; this could be said to be coincidental and is certainly not proof, but it does add weight to the evidence available. However, orbs are so easy to recreate naturally, and occur so frequently that we feel true paranormal captures are extremely rare. Just like an apparition, we don't believe that orbs come and pose in front of a camera 24/7; and only when all possible explanations have been eliminated should we assume that it may have a paranormal cause.

If orbs are paranormal what are they?
There is much speculation about this, but as yet no one can know for sure. Energy of a spirit, possibly; but it's not out of the realms of possibility that they could be energy emitting from ourselves, or from electrical equipment; or perhaps there is more than one source? We are constantly in the process of learning. And it is only through dedication to study and experimentation that we may finally be able to find irrefutable evidence of their existence and true nature.