Lights that aren’t camera artefacts.

The orbs recorded by digital cameras are false. They are a consequence of the camera’s electronics and should be ignored.

This does not mean that I believe all ghost-light phenomena to be false. Far from it. I consider the digital-camera orbs to be a distraction, an easily-debunked misinterpretation that serves only to provide the fundamentalist sceptic with a target. Sceptics can focus on these orb photos and divert attention from any other evidence they can’t explain.

There are many reports of ghostly lights, dating back to well before the invention of any camera, much less the modern digital variety. These come in a variety of forms, some of which can be attributed to natural phenomena, some of which cannot.

‘Corpse candles’ is a term used in the UK, particularly in Wales and the Northern Counties. In Ireland and in other parts of the UK, these phenomena are referred to as ‘fetch lights’ or ‘fetch candles’. They are supposed to precede a death: they appear at or near the site of a disaster, or they might be seen travelling a route from a house to a churchyard—a route that is later followed by a funeral procession. They might appear at a site where a body will later be found, or between someone’s home and the place they will later be buried.

If they appear over marshy ground they might well be will-o-the-wisp lights, nothing more than ignited marsh gas. Walking through marshy woods at night can be an unnerving experience, particularly when those woods are well away from any form of street or building lights. In those circumstances, marsh lights will appear bright. Their sudden, silent appearance can be startling.

However, these corpse candles can also appear indoors. They are reported to look exactly like a candle flame with no candle below it. Marsh gas looks like a flicker of light along the ground, it does not resemble a coherent flame.

They have been seen travelling along roads, which marsh gas cannot do. They have been reported long before the invention of the automobile, so they cannot be attributed to reflections of headlight beams.

Unfortunately they are impossible to study because they only appear once in a particular location. They foretell death, and once it has occurred the candle is not seen again. Unless we can predict who will die and when, we cannot lie in wait for corpse candles. If they are ever captured on film it will be by pure luck.

There are more regular appearances of other forms of ghost light. Again, some can be explained—or potentially explained—by natural phenomena. The Australian Min-min lights might be a mirage caused by the headlights of a distant car. They might not, but the explanation is plausible. Many forms of earth-lights can be attributed to reactions in the atmosphere caused by geological activity. Whether this is true or not is uncertain, but at least they are being studied. The frequent reoccurrence of anomalous lights in the Hessdalen Valley in Norway has prompted considerable research and many theories. The origin of these lights remains a mystery for now, but they have been photographed. They look nothing like 'orbs'.

On Brown Mountain, in North Carolina, scientists tested the theory that the lights seen there had a seismic origin by setting off explosive charges. No lights were detected. While this does not completely rule out a seismic connection, it certainly does not support that theory.

Similar lights have been reported all over the world. Few of them are seen over marshland, many over rocky ground where no marsh-gas explanation will suffice. Some areas have frequent reports: the UK’s Peak District, Marfa in Texas, Joplin and Hornet in Missouri, and many other places. Despite some serious attempts to find natural explanations for the lights, no theory has yet been derived to explain them all.

The mystery of these lights remains, and a paranormal explanation cannot be ruled out. The lights of Silver Cliff, Colorado, appear in a miner’s cemetery and have been reported for many years. The sceptic’s explanation that they are reflections from street lamps does not explain how the lights move, nor does it explain how they can have been seen before streetlights were installed.

There are real, unexplained lights out there. Many forms of them. Some, no doubt, will have a natural explanation but for now, very few do. Those ‘explanations’ that exist, while sometimes convincing, are not proven. These lights are visible to the naked eye and can be photographed. It’s very difficult for a sceptic to debunk these lights.

It’s very easy for them to debunk digital-camera orbs, and easier still for them to pretend photographs of real lights are the same thing. This is why I am so opposed to the publication of ‘orb’ photos. They are a distraction and provide the sceptic with an excuse to dismiss real findings.

Ghost lights are real. Orbs are not. If you can’t see it except through a digital camera, then it’s not a real light.

Don’t publish it.