Let’s face it: the paranormal community can be confusing and filled with misinformation. “Ghost hunting” organizations are a dime a dozen, competing for attention, praise, and even cash. For every website offering the “facts”, there is another “true” website out there telling you the exact opposite. The only certainty with the paranormal is that nothing is certain. No undeniable scientific proof of ghosts. No one piece of footage or audio verified to be a ghost. No college-degreed expert in the field with a PhD in ghosts, hauntings, and all things paranormal (sure, some people have more experience and there are a few scattered parapsychologists with degrees, but there is no true degree in “ghost hunting”).
We hear a lot of things from a lot of people, amateurs and professionals, saying what they believe. Some speak from personal experience, others from books and websites they’ve read. There are those who claim to make contact with the deceased. Others are more scientifically-minded, carrying around enough electronic equipment to blackout a small Kansas town. The best psychics in the world are never 100% accurate; even the most tech savvy individuals don’t always understand their own equipment or what it detects exactly. Yet everyone is an expert in their own mind. Everyone knows the “right way”, what’s “undeniably true”.
And then, you delve into the muddied waters of speculation and faith-based principles. Some people label certain spirits “demons”, or even practice “demonology”, often needlessly frightening clients and business owners with unverifiable information biased by their religious beliefs. Another small segment of the field promise to evict a ghost or spirit from a property by “sending it to the light” or making it disappear in a puff of smoke. Still more produce “photographic evidence” which, to the trained eye, is nothing but cold breath, glare from lights, or flying dust-bunnies and mosquitoes. They fail to mention that each above-mentioned item is refutable. There’s no proof of demonic entities (and using the term implies a Christian view is the only “right” answer). It’s impossible to guarantee the removal of a ghost (how do you guarantee something without proof it exists in the first place; furthermore, if you’re dealing with a person having a mental illness and they still “see the ghost”, you’re up a creek without a paddle). Many pieces of evidence can be replicated quite easily using non-supernatural means, making it impossible to prove that orb is a spirit, that misty smoke covering the lens is a phantom.
There is one person out there shedding a bit of light on the latter: Patrick H. T. Doyle. This author and paranormal investigator noticed that his YouTube promotional videos were being misinterpreted as ghosts when they were mere parlor tricks. So, Doyle set out to create a short series showing how “paranormal” footage you might find online can easily be faked or misinterpreted. Does this make him a non-believer? Hardly… just observant. In fact, he does investigate hauntings and believes he has experienced supernatural things. But what we see isn’t always what we perceive. It’s important to learn the difference between natural occurrences and spooks.
Here’s a clip from his series… discussing the one topic that annoys me so: orbs.
Now, understand that I’m not saying there can’t be balls of light seen by people or cameras (I witnessed a blue ball of light myself one night drop from the sky and rush through a field; not a likely behavior of swamp gas), but please, for the sake of humanity, people, stop calling every “orb” a ghost! Don’t add fuel to the fire of paranormal paranoia. Think. Research. Educate yourself. And if you’re serious about wanting to capture photographic “proof” of a ghost, put down the digital and pick up a 35mm camera. At least that was you have some hard copy that can be scrutinized by photographic experts.
