Old Photographs with Old Orbs

Although I have always loved a good ghost story, for many years of my life, I wrote off all paranormal experiences as part of my overactive imagination.  I was a rationalist.  In many ways,  I still am.  I always look for natural explanations for everything before  I look to supernatural.  It is only when there is no other explanation that I will look to other answers.   When I lived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I was plagued by a series of bizarre occurrences that I explained away with whatever natural explanations I could.  I still explain them away.  I honestly can't believe that house was haunted.

For example, one night I was watching television and the garage door just started opening and closing over and over again.  I couldn't get it to stop.  I mashed the button and yelled at it but it kept going.  I figured the damned thing was broken.  It finally stopped and worked fine after that, but mechanical malfunctions happen, right?   Another night all the electronic toys in the living room started going off at the same time.  Remote control cars buzzed around the room and toy Buzz Lightyear's screamed out about infinity and beyond.  A cow flashlight bellowed "moo"  over and over again.  I laughed.  It was funny.  I don't remember how I explained that one, but it made a lot of sense.  Similar things happened often in that house, but it was a new house and I didn't think it was haunted.  One night I did panic.  The garage door opened and I couldn't get it to close.  Every time I closed it, it just opened again.   It really freaked me out, but what are you going to do?  In the morning it was OK.   We moved,  I forgot about all these oddities and I had wonderful explanations for all of these types of events even if I can't remember them now.

However,  as I went through some old photo albums,  I found a series of wonderful photographs in that house with some lovely orbs.   Orbs in no way prove the presence of the supernatural, but I find their presence interesting and they make me wonder if maybe all my explanations weren't wrong?  Who knows?  They are lovely orbs.  I'm not going to put them all here because I was much better back then and I have them glued in scrapbooks I hate to destroy, but I placed one on the top of this page.  All the photos look similar. Some of the orbs almost have little faces in them. 

Bizarre North Alabama

I have been having a really rough time with my pregnancy this month and having my children pulling at my heals all summer has also slowed me down.   Blogger has also been giving me a really tough time as well.  I can't comment on alot of my favorite blogs and I can't even respond to comments on my own blog.  After hours of work,  I still can't fix my blogger account.  Sadly, my blog has slowed down to almost a halt.  I think my blog may stay slow until the kids return to school in August.  However,  I have some plans for some little blog posts between now and then and I was able to go on a road trip into the bizarre realm that is North Alabama.   I found a museum dedicated to objects left behind in luggage.   In that museum, I found the original Muppet used in Labyrinth.   The Muppet was for the character Hoggle.  There were also some rather strange props from the movie.  I found a cemetery with an interesting stone gate.  I also found a cave haunted by phantom animals.  I captured an amazing number of orbs in the photos I took from one section of the cave by an old bridge.  The orbs are in the last picture.  Here are some photos from my journey.

Orbs: Ghosts or Dust?

Today I had my son's birthday party at Pump it Up. Naturally, I went camera crazy. I snapped picture after picture of my boy's big day hoping to make that scrapbook I've been promising myself I'd make for going on 7 years now. As I went through the pictures this evening, I noticed they were cluttered with orbs. Orbs are balls of light that are believed (by many) to be the energy from the souls of the deceased. Orbs are thought by many ghost hunters to be the human soul or life force of those that once inhabited a physical body here on earth. In other words, many think orbs are ghosts.


I have gone on quite a few ghost hunting trips over the last few months and have caught very little on film. So why is the Pump it Up is dotted with orbs? Many people believe orbs are no indication of ghosts. Of course skeptics don't believe they are ghosts, but when I got my hand book fromt he American Ghost Hunting Society the chapter on orbs argued that they were anomolies caused by weather conditions and dust on the lens. They argued that orbs were no indication of any paranormal activity and should be completely disregarded. I have read many articles that present similar arguments that orbs are created by bad film or processing.

I tend to agree with the skeptics on the topic of orbs and lean towards believing orbs are just dust. However, Pump It Up, where these photos were taken, prides itself on the fact that it bleaches all the play equipment in the room between parties. The room is clean and as dust free as any room can be. Of course, weather conditions can't be considered important at an indoor party. It could be dust on the lense of the camera, but then why would the previous and following pictures in the series be orb free if I hadn't cleaned the lens? The long and short of it is that I'm not sure what to make of the orbs at Pump it Up. If they are ghosts, what are they doing at a children's play place? The place is new and has no tragic history or ancient past and this would tend to argure that the orbs are just dust, but dust from where?