Who we are, such as our emotions, personality and intelligence, the life force ( soul ) goes on after physical death as energy. Energy cannot be destroyed only transformed. The orb is the basic energy pattern or shape of the spirit world. They have mass and density, they can cast shadows, they are three dimensional. Some skeptics believe the only true ghost photos are those that appear as see through people, or what we would call a full apparition. A full apparition is rarely seen or photographed because they require a great deal of energy. Orbs require far less energy, that is why there are so many of them.

Some people forget to follow some very basic rules about ghost hunting. Don't photograph in the rain, snow or fog and don't expect everything in your picture is a true ghost orb. Remember that even the cleanest home has dust. When doing an in home investigation and someone is walking around shuffling their feet on the carpet, then dust is being stirred up . A lot of digital cameras will pick this up and it will look like an spirit orb. The pictures below are a good example of orbs. Notice how the one on the top taken at a cemetery if perfectly round. The third picture of orbs/dust are slightly odd shaped, some are almost egg shape. A lot of the dust orbs are flat and lack dimension. We have seen many sites that are willing to post anything that is "roundish" and call it a ghost orb. We've even seen one picture of someone on their front porch smoking and all around them were hexagon shaped anomalies. They called these ghost orbs. Orbs can very in size, color and brightness. It is believed this has to do with how much energy the spirit is able to bring through and the distance between you and the spirit. The best advice we can give to someone is to examine every orb photo you get. If it's misshapen, lacks depth and texture you have a natural anomaly such as moisture, dust or even an insect flying past your lens. When in doubt, throw it out. We have hundreds of photos that we do not post because we feel they are not a true ghost orbs. We examine every photo carefully and do our best to determine the true from the false. Spirit orbs will greatly effect the electromagnetic fields and dust will not.

There is an on going debate among investigators. Some investigators believe that since so many people are making mistakes that everyone should just dismiss orbs as evidence.

Sure this would cut back on some misinterpretation but in the end many people are still going to go and take orb photos.

For the sake of debate lets just go with the idea of dismissing all orbs for a moment. What will be next? If you have seen our false photos and video page you will see that all aspects of paranormal evidence can be faked or misinterpreted are we to dismiss all other kinds of evidence as well?. Most people who support dismissal of orbs are ones who are in ghost hunting for the dramatics and do not like the fact that there are hundreds of new people every year starting to ghost hunt.The answer is not to run away from the problem but to confront it. Teach people the difference between spirits and natural orbs.

A few words about "orb" photos:

Everyone in the paranormal field is well aware of the tremendous controversy surrounding so-called "orb" photography. NWPAH is not claiming that any of our photos of orb-like objects are evidence of paranormal activity. We use the word "orb" in the photo descriptions only out of convenience. It is the policy within our group to share all of our potentially anomalous evidence with each other so that everyone has the opportunity to evaluate it and render an opinion. We are able to debunk and reject some things through our group evaluation or through further investigation. A certain amount of evidence, however, cannot be positively confirmed or denied. Many orb photos fall into this category.

While we certainly reject any orb photos taken in rain, snow, heavy fog, obvious dust, etc., some remain in a gray area. Photos where only one orb appears, where the shape or color or circumstance is unusual, where the orb is partially obstructed by another object or where the orb seems to be in motion are a few examples of conditions that make us keep some photos as possible evidence of paranormal activity. We put them up on our web site for the same reason we share them among ourselves--so that you can evaluate them yourself and form your own opinions. We welcome your comments, suggestions and observations. Please feel free to send us an email about anything you see (or hear) on our web site. Here, by the way, is a link to an informative web page on orb photographs: http://ghostgadgets.com/_knowledge/orbs.html .