Orbs - ha!

While in Wales, I heard about an old railway station that was, coincidentally, very close to a pub. So I visited both. There was no hint of haunting at either location, but I like to visit old places because they’re fascinating.

The track has long since been lifted and turned into a footpath and cycleway. A crime in itself, but worse was the wanton removal of the old station. There were photos of it in the pub, and it looked like an excellent example of Great Western architecture.

All that’s left is the bridge that carried the track over a tiny, winding road. It’s well over a hundred years old yet there’s not a brick missing from the structure and it shows no sign of recent repairs. They just don’t build like this any more. Modern bridges often show cracks and flaking masonry after a few years. Have we run out of the ‘proper’ cement, or is building a lost art? It’s most likely down to cost-cutting by the empty suits, but that’s not what this is about.

Here’s the bridge in question:


Since I had my infrared filter with me, I used it to take a few photos, including the bridge.
Here’s one of them:


It’s full of orbs. No flash this time, so I’m not lighting up dust in front of the lens. It’s a sunny day, just after lunchtime, and the sun is almost overhead.

Here’s another:


Note the pattern of orbs in the photos. Pretty similar, don’t you think? The pattern was the same on a few other photos. It depended which way I was facing.

In fact, it depended on whether the sun struck the filter at just the right angle to light up the dust specks on it. Yes, it’s dust on the filter, nothing more.

There are no records of anyone ever dying at the station, no accidents, no heart attacks, nothing. Yet if you believe in orbs, you’d assume there must have been a pitched battle here in the past. There wasn’t. Nobody has ever lived here, it’s the site of an old railway line and that’s it. No ancient burial grounds, nothing.

These orbs are dust. Most orbs are dust. I’ve heard of people claiming they can tell when orbs are around. Well, yes, Stomp around a disused building and say to your photographer ‘Take a photo now, you’ll get orbs’. This translates to ‘I should have stirred up enough dust to get you excited by now. Sucker.’

Ghosts are real. Other, non-human, spirits exist. I’ve seen them. There are such things as spirit lights, corpse candles, lights that can’t be passed off as will-o’-the-wisps or other natural phenomena. They are visible to the eye, not just to the error-prone digital camera.

Orbs, however, are dust. That’s all they are. They are not ‘the first attempt at manifestation of a spirit’. First visual attempts are usually hands, or feet and legs. The head and face are generally the final touch because they’re hardest to visualise. Nobody visualises themselves as a semitransparent disc. Nobody. Orbs are not ghosts. They are the worst thing that could happen to a serious investigation because they are easily proved to be photographic errors. Ammunition for sceptics.

Forget the orbs. If you want to be taken seriously, then don’t ever present an orb photo as ‘proof’.

It’s like loading the guns for your own firing squad.