Ghost Hunting

[The Dreaming Dragon]

            I am vacationing in Florida at the moment and I stayed at St Augustine,the oldest city in the country. Lots of history,lots of tragedy,and lots of paranormal activity. I took a tour of various hotspots in the area: an old hospital with an Indian burial ground on under it,a drug store ontop of the same mound,outside a graveyard filled with victims of the yellow fever outbreak in the 1600s and lastly the Ripley museum where some nasty double murder took place. We were given disposable cameras(I had a digital one so I saved mine) and an E meter that suposedly marked fluctuations in the electromagnetic spectrum near it.That required constant preasure on the On button,so I abandoned it although some folk mentioned activity. And we were told to go wild with the flash photos...

           What all this was some orchestrated prank or special effect at first,a thrill ride of sorts of manufactured experiences...and I was WRONG. With my own camera I captured basic entities,but commonly documented Orbs, whitish discolored spheres floating freely about. And someother more indistict shapes as well...for now here is one picture I uploaded and the isolated bit of it so you can see for yourself...more to come...

           

And here is the Flickr page where others have uploaded their photos,so enjoy those and I'll do more of mine soon!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ripleysghosts/pool/

[quadz]

With my own camera I captured basic entities,but commonly documented Orbs, whitish discolored spheres floating freely about.

I apologize if I'm being too much of a wet blanket.    But, have you given consideration to how such optical effects might be arrived at, given the properties of the camera lens vs. the light sources in the vicinity?  I mean, lets say for the sake of argument there's no such thing as paranormal activity.  Might we then presume those discolorations are a kind of lens flare?


As an aside, one thing I've found kind of puzzling about the idea of ghosts inhabiting physical structures.  The universe being as vast as it is, and the earth hurtling along through space at some 2 million km/hr, and with 'ghosts' apparenly not being affected by gravity, atmosphere, or solid objects... If there were any sort of afterlife, I'd think the disembodied spirits might be out exploring the cosmos or something, not necessarily floating in geo-stationary orbit in a house in Florida?


Nonetheless I hope you are having a wonderful vacation.


Regards,

quadz


Lens flare:

[Whirlingdervish]

I've heard those little dots referred to as ghost nipples, although only in a humorous fashion.

 

[Punk_FAS]

It's usually just dust or other particles in the air.  They're seen commonly in underwater photography in the middle of nowhere.  Are ghosts inhabiting random places at the bottom of the ocean floor in the middle of nowhere?

http://www.ghostgadgets.com/_knowledge/orbs.html

I'm not saying I'm 100% certain that "ghosts" don't exist, but there seems to be plenty of rational explanations for orbs.

Had to join the Debbie Downer train.  Full speed ahead Quadz!

[peewee_RotA]

I think that they use that E meter you are describing is something that they use on the ghost hunters show. I've heard them mention that they jam a penny down on the button to make it constantly give readings.

As for the orbs, orbs look like lens flare or dust and are generally debunkable. The orb in the picture that you highlighted is in direct line with that orange light (a candle?) with the background so it could be a flare. It looks like the other light source in the room is coming from the left since you can see the shadow cast by the woman holding the picture in that frame beside her. The faint small orbs on the left seem like dust or caused by that light source.

At first when i looked at the one on the right, I noticed that it was the exact same size and shape of the brightest orb but I don't think that it is coming from a flare from any present light source. It might be some kind of double exposure (but you said you had a digital camera) except what is interesting is that there is a larger very faint orb right underneath it. I wan't to call it a smudge on the camera, except I'd have to see more pictures that night. Smudges would cause problems in every picture.

So from my honest take on it, you have an extremely bright orb that could be lens flare from an extremely low light, but it's still interesting because it sounds unlikely. You also have smaller shaped orb on the right hovering over a larger orb. I've heard about orbs with a second orb revolving around them being more credible. But in the end they are still just orbs and you really could reproduce the picture using dust and the right lighting conditions.

How long did you guys spend at each location? Did you stay up all night doing this?

[[BTF]Dizzy]

Might we then presume those discolorations are a kind of lens flare?

It looks like the light from the flash could be reflecting off of something shiny in a direct enough line to cause flare. Especially since the two orbs near the ceiling in the foreground appear to be along the same plane. Then again the flash appears to be partially obscured...

As an aside, one thing I've found kind of puzzling about the idea of ghosts inhabiting physical structures.  The universe being as vast as it is, and the earth hurtling along through space at some 2 million km/hr, and with 'ghosts' apparenly not being affected by gravity, atmosphere, or solid objects... If there were any sort of afterlife, I'd think the disembodied spirits might be out exploring the cosmos or something, not necessarily floating in geo-stationary orbit in a house in Florida?

Presuming they are limited by the same constraints as light, it would be a long, boring and lonely journey before they reached anything remotely interesting. They may very well have done the tour of the solar system though, and are now vacationing in Florida. Maybe they were from Quebec originally

[quadz]

Presuming they are limited by the same constraints as light, it would be a long, boring and lonely journey before they reached anything remotely interesting. They may very well have done the tour of the solar system though, and are now vacationing in Florida. Maybe they were from Quebec originally

   But damn it, having to obey physical laws would cheapen the whole supernatural experience for me! 

If I'm going to be in a 'paranormal realm', at least let me thumb my non-existent nose at thermodynamics and relativity!

[CodeBlack]

the only serious indistinct shape is the woman in the middle...
 
 

[yahoo]

 

[The Dreaming Dragon]

The lens flare arguement would work if the smudge was in the same spots if it were on the lens...but I found it odd that these shapes were so consistant and more so when I saw the ones photographed by others were the same sorts of spheres. One man mentioned he was feeling a tingling sensation,hair standing on end,and later my friend had snapped an orb right by his hand. I admit the other sorts of "evidence" could well be blurs combined with suggestion and wishful thinking,hoping the random elements in any given pic were a face or a humanoid form. Or maybe not.

I for one DO believe in Ghosts. That is to say: I believe that our world is made of atoms,and they made of tinier particles called neutrinos and those are only partially in this dimension at any given time.I believe each brain has its own unique pattern of electromagnetic activity based on how the neural pathways were forged through the course of its life,and these patterns can transcend the boundries of physics at times,all of which we have only the slightest of understanding. So seeing balls of electro magnetic energy drifting about in places that the humans who lived there suffered excruciatingly could be the result of charged brain activity confining those electromagnetic patterns to the area. Or something

I say not:This is Real,but This is a Strange Set of Coincidences....

[yahoo]

there were a million and one claims of ghosts but yet not a single one is proven true. Im the skeptical type of person really.

[[BTF]Dizzy]

This is what doesn't add up for me anyway, you "were told to go wild with the flash photos..."

It seems to me there are two possible scenarios: They are visible and glowing. In which case, what's the flash for? And why isn't anyone in frame, witness to such an amazing event, not even looking at them?

Or, they aren't visible. In which case, what's the flash for?

Seems to me they recommended flash photography, because they rigged the rooms with reflective surfaces and objects.

[peewee_RotA]

There are two ways to view this thread. As something trying to convince skeptics of a way of thinking, or as a thread expressing the interest in an activity and trying to share with other people interested in that activity.

It's good to debunk and dismiss as much paranormal evidence as possible so that all that remains is the clearest and best evidence. However discussing why ghosts can or can't exists is probably not the intent. I asked TMF to post pics because I enjoy watching Ghost Hunters and take an interest in this hobby. Everyone is going to post whatever they want, but TMF, don't take it personally. That's our nature to hijack threads and to just argue random topics without limitations.


----
Oh and PS the link to the Flickr page in the original post just points to a single picture.

[The Dreaming Dragon]

Fixed it thanks

I have not investigated the phenomonon much past what I have in my flash drive,so I cannot say Why these things show up with a flash. I speculate though it may be they are transparent to the naked eye and wouldn't be noticable until the area is flooded with photons like any other glassy surface. And most of the other pictures I have are of these things so I'll post only the best of them. But the correct link to the flickr page will show you more...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ripleysghosts/pool/

And I don't require demand or expect belief...I know my audience     but put this out there for the Fun of it. Too Much of it not to share.

[Jman-CRU]