How to Make a "Spirit Orb"

I shot this footage while doing a skeptical analysis of a supposedly haunted graveyard in July of 2007 during a field trip with investigators from the Center For Inquiry - Chicago. In the video I show the basics of how a common effect called lens flare can easily create a "spirit orb". It is sad to see how "ghost-hunters" and other woo-meisters delude themselves into thinking these mundane optical phenomena are something otherworldly or supernatural.

I made a more detailed blog post concerning this phenomena on my personal blog, The Skeptical Teacher - check it out:
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/what-is-it/

More information on the CFI-Chicago:
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/chicago/

More information on orb photography:
http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Orbs

Check out my personal blog, The Skeptical Teacher:
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• skeptic
• skepticism
• ghosts
• ghost hunting
• paranormal
• orbs
• spirit
• graveyard
• haunted
• center for inquiry

[dragonzith]

@benz1980i dust particles that are very close to your camera reflect the sun too and there you go.

[benz1980i]

so obvious becuase the object moves with the camera. How do you explain it when the camera is still and the object is moving??? I have two clips, check them out

[UpTick21]

Thanks for posting this video . . . I am tired of all the different orb posts . . . hello people . . . no ghosts!!! It is just stinking dust . . . people see what they want to see.

[bobthebike2]

Search for orb.flv see if you can explain that away with lens flair I was present i the room at the time.

[billybgood408]

that looks close but very diffrent from orbs i know u dont know me n u will think im full of shit but if u want i can send u pic iv taken in my house of orbs im not a ghost hunter just a guy the is trying to get to the bottom of whats been going on in my house for the last 3 years. iv seen balls of light with my naken eye heard nosies took a pic in the area the nosies came from and 8 out of 10 times i get orbs iv seen things move across the room n many more mind bending things