Are ORBS ghosts?

MY FORMER INTERNS borrowed my digital camera and had a photo session in the Speakers’ Guest House in Baguio City. It was in July 2006, and their last day in Baguio during their LGU exposure trip so they took turns on shooting each other’s photos for posterity. When they were done, I reviewed what they got, and was surprised to see an orb or two in some of the photos. These are indoor shots and apparently, these are the only indoor shots that have “orbs” in them.

These are some of the photos.

Orbs, according to Wikipedia,

The term orb is the popular name given to typically circular anomalies appearing in photographs. In photography and video, orbs appear to be balls, diamonds, or smears of light with an apparent size in the image ranging from a golfball to a basketball. Orbs sometimes appear to be in motion, leaving a trail behind them.

Ghoststudy.com further describes orbs as:

Orbs are believed (by many) to be ghosts in the form of balls of light. They are life forms that travel in groups and are believed to be the human soul or life force of those that once inhabited a physical body here on earth. Psychics claim to talk to them on a regular basis, and ghost hunters encounter them quite frequently. It is said that they are those spirits that have willingly stayed behind because they feel bound to their previous life or previous location for whatever reason. Because of this obsession they tend to become similar to a psychotic human beings. It should be said that the majority of us when we die proceed gladly and willingly to the next level of existence after saying our quiet good-byes, which means we're off to the spirit world. Then again, as stated, a select few elect to stay behind because of a refusal to move on. Apparently the longer they stay behind, the harder it is to find their way to the next level, which again, is the spirit world.

However, there are two conflicting ideas on orbs. First, is the fact that it is mechanical in nature. Second, these are really ghosts.

Troy Taylor would like to believe that most of the orb photos are caused by refraction of light from the flash hitting an object or dust on the lens, especially if one is using digital camera.

In the first photo, it is possible that there is a reflection of light from the crystal vase on the right side. The second photo might be caused by the reflection of light from the digital camera suspended on the neck of the guy on the left. On the third, it is possible that light was reflected on the chandelier above or somewhere else. But in general, the place was dark, because the walls have wooden panels, so the rarity that light can be reflected. It could be dust. There is a fireplace on the left (now shown), and there is a rug in the middle.

This explains why the seemingly orbs captured by my digital camera, may be caused by the ashes and dust from fireworks lit up by my nephew last December 31, 2005 during our new year revelry on the street. (See this photo below).

However, Taylor does not fully discount the fact that there are, indeed, ghostly apparitions. Gleaning from this, there is a possibility that my orb photos are those of spirits. If the "orbs" in the guest house were caused by dust, how come there is only one, which occupies almost the same space on the right, which is near the sofa and near the ceiling? Could it be that the "spirit" wanted to join the photo session?

Having known this, my “theory” that the orbs in the guest house are ghosts or spirits. Why?

Continue reading….

The Guest House

On their last night in the guest house, the ladies were scared to death. One of them went inside the comfort room to relieve herself, when there was a harried knocking on the door, signaling she should finish fast. So, she said, “Sandali lang.” (Wait a minute.), and hurriedly finished her business. She was surprised to know that no one was behind the door, and definitely no one was knocking, because all her room mates were downstairs already chatting and eating.

In another occasion, one of the ladies wanted to use the comfort room, but she found out it was locked, so she waited. One of the roommates arrived and asked what she was waiting for. She said she was waiting for one of their roommates to come out of the CR. Since the other lady would also use the CR, they knocked but no one answered. When they turned the knob, the door was already unlocked.

In the middle of the night, the room went so cold that they could not sleep well. Instead, they all lumped on the sofas outside the room. They were puzzled that it was warmer outside.

Because of that, some of them stayed up chatting until dawn. Then in the middle of their girl talk, they smelled an aroma of soy sauce. They thought that perhaps, one of the boys was cooking instant pancit canton so they waited for him to come up and share the meal with them. They were turning impatient until they decided to check if it was already cooked. So, they went down to the kitchen, only to find out that the boys were already snoring on the sofas.

In the morning, one of the ladies was complaining because her one and only biscuit was missing. She was reserving it in case the food is not yet ready. She was already hungry and there was no food yet. So she asked around if somebody got it. Nobody did.

Where was I? I was lucky I was billeted in a nearby hotel, so I never exprienced these things.

The Priest

My brother bought a property across the street. It is located on the right of the photo of my nephew (the one he is facing). When I was younger, Uncle Bening, the second husband of the second cousin of my mother, who was the last occupant of the lot, told me (I could not remember if I was in elementary or high school) that there is a ghost of a priest roaming around the property. I did not know if it was true or not.

However, I know for a fact that there are ghosts in our place in Nueva Ecija. My youngest nephew, when she was 5 years old (he is now 7), told his dad that he saw a lady near their veranda looking at him. The lady, according to him was wearing white and had long hair. Thinking that she was one of the patients of my brother, he even asked what she wanted. She was just a few feet away from my nephew. She never replied and went away. According to my nephew, he still sees things.

One of the "urban legends" in our family was about Lakay Intong, who died with an open mouth. So his relatives had to put a handkerchief bandage to keep his mouth closed. (Much like Mang Kepweng, and other comedy movies of Chiquito and Palito). My late father asked my two elder brothers (they were still elementary then) to buy a cigarette from Aling Felisa's store, which is one block away. It was dark and drizzling, and worse, they had to pass by the house of Lakay Intong. Afraid that they would get the ire of our father, they bought the cigarette, and hurriedly went home because it was starting to rain hard. Midway, they passed by the house of Lakay Intong which is on their left. By chance, they glanced towards the house and was so surprised to see the ghost of the old man standing by the gate--oggling them. They ran as fast as they could. The cigarettes were strewn all over and went home with nothing in their hands. At that time, our father did not know how to react--whether to get mad for the lost cigarettes, laugh at them, or comfort them.

I didn't know if the story about the priest was just made-up to scare us so we would go home early after school and after playing at night. If I remember it right, Uncle Bening had a penchant for making up stories, a la "story-telling-a-lie" just to entertain people. Nonetheless, being young and hearing these kinds of stories was a scary thing for me. That story was long forgotten, until I scrutinized the photo taken on New Year’s Eve in 2005 (above photo).

The fact that my eldest nephew is “lapitin ng multo” and can see ghostly apparitions, (and I too feel them), I could not believe what I saw.

Scroll up and look at the figure pointed by the two arrows on the left. (Click the photo for bigger view). What do you see? Is this just a figment of my imagination?

Scared?

Note:

I fully attest that the photos posted in this article are not, in a way, manipulated, except using Photoshop for cropping, covering the faces of the subjects, and drawing arrows on the photo (not even changing the contrast and brightness). The photos were set/ maximized for internet browsing at 72 pixels and cropped at 7x5 inches.

Posted in: Filipino Culture and Tradition,Photography