What do you all think about ghost orbs, mists and the like that show up in photographs?

My son has a Yahoo group dedicated to these phenomena: Paranormal_Mobile
One of his friends has a related website: Paranormal Mobile Investigations Group
The pictures were taken by my son, his friends, and myself.
(IMHO some of the pix are darker on the sites than on our hard drive, losing some of the detail. But they are still quite thought-provoking!)

Since last fall, my son and his friends (and I on occasion) have been taking photos of cemeteries, roadside crosses where accidents have occurred, etc.
We've gotten some truly amazing pix!
We've all gotten some awesome pix of orbs; my son has gotten some incredible pix of mists as well.

These pix were taken on clear nights, no fog or rain. We were careful not to have lights in the background, such as cars, etc.
Some pix were taken one right after another; yet one may have orbs or mist, and the other - nothing! So they are not likely dust or atmospheric disturbances.
In some pix, the orbs are actually behind objects - obviously not something on the lens!
In a few pix, the orbs appear to be moving.

Recently, I found a photo of my father's grave from Christmas 1976. To my amazement I found an orb!
I took the pic with a 110 camera - involved film and developing. No digital glitches!
And the pic was taken in late afternoon - they don't "just come out at night" anymore!

After considering the evidence, I have some theories:
If these orbs and mists are indeed spirits, they may not necessarily be those of the people buried in the cemeteries, etc. Especially considering that some pix have dozens of orbs; and maybe the following shot of the same scene will show nothing.
Perhaps these are "transient" spirits, flowing through or gathering at sites that have strong emotional ties. (A cemetery or accident scene certainly would!)
Well - I'm still new at this.

What are your thoughts?

I think you can find anything if you are looking hard enough. Now Mitzi, you know I love horror movies just as much as you. But my religion prevents me from believing in ghosts. I do believe in Demons "impersonating the spirits of those who once lived" so I guess where paranormal activity is discovered I would chalk it up to demon behavior. But that is just my personal opinion and I know what everyone says about an opinion

Interestingly enough I am fascinated with cemetaries and historical landmarks that are supposedly haunted. I have taken countless pictures and never once photographed an orb. And I am a professional photographer so I would think that if there was one around I would capture it on film. I've also toured supposedly haunted places and never felt a cold spot that couldn't otherwise be attributed to a draft or a crack in the foundation.

Guess I am just a bonifide sceptic here. But I know you will get plenty of responses from people who will totally back you up!

Georgia has made a good comment: if you look hard enough for anything (like racism in Star Wars) you will find it. And if you believe in something strongly enough, you will likely see it or feel it.
As for me, I believe that ghosts and orbs and mists (oh my!) are possible and also explainable, depending on the apparition and circumstance.
And I have had my own experiences with such entities to help shape my opinion. Had I not, I would likely be less open to the possibility -but not entirely closed to it, either.

I too am very skeptical of orbs, mists, etc. I guess that's why I'm interested - I'm curious. And (I think) I want to know what they are...
Of course, I want to believe that they are manifestations of spirits. However, I realize that there is probably a "scientific" explanation...
At any length, they do remain a puzzlement, as offhand, I can't think of a "reasonable" explanation, given the circumstances I've described.
Another mortal mystery...

BTW - For those interested, my son has updated his pix.

Texan- Is it possible for me to email you an orb experience I had? I dont really want to put my experience on a web site as its too personnal.

Thanks tex for letting me email you with my story.

Anytime, BookHunter!

After many years of being exposed to this kind of thing I have come to the conclusion that we are NOT seeing dead people.

We may be experiencing the spirit Realm, but not the DEAD.

Humans have a "flavor" to them, a taste of humanity which I believe comes from our lives. These other things did not have that "flavor" that "presence" or added somethingness which I relate to life and living. The singular lack of "life" is telling in that we are dealing with something other than people - dead or living.

In one case where I was in a cemetery with some friends completing the clean up of a ritual we came face to face with a dark vortex of energy which "screamed" "Get Out!" on a psychic level. Several of my friends were terrified to the extreme, I was more curious than concerned, and stepped forward to get a "taste" of the entity. Remarkably this entity "stepped back" from me, it expected fear and was met with something else. The impression I was left with was decidedly something with intelligence, perhaps even malevolence, but not humanity.

I was left with the impression that it actively attempted to cause fear to give it energy. My lack of fear (I was more curious at it than anything else) caused it to thin, to loose some of its presence.

We find that most Ghost stories either take place in old, scary houses, graveyards, dark places where the human mind can be more easily lead down the road to fear, grief, anger - or they take place in places of love and light - joy. Rarely, if ever, do we hear tell of a haunting where indifference or neutral emotions are called.

This suggests to me that we are witness to entities which "feed" or are fueled by the emotions. Emotional energy is powerful, addictive, contagious and is one of the least understood forces of nature. We have attempted to quantify, control and measure emotions, but we are no closer to meaningful answers to the emotional than we were ten thousand years ago.

Homes which are full of frustration, fear, or have children going through terrible times will report demons, ghosts, spirits, possessions more often than the homes that have joy, love light. But we do find that those happy homes are "possessed" by entities as well, we call them Angels, God's Love, the bright shinny contrast to the darker, more fearful spirits which associate with death and hell.

Graveyards are natural places for these entities, we humans tend to relate death and dieing to fear. We are more afraid of death in the Industrialized Nations than ever before - our whole society has gone way out on a limb to prevent death, to hide death and to "beat" death by finding ways to prolong life, even when death is far better than the life we struggle to keep going no matter the cost.

I think that our cameras are picking up something just beyond our ability to see in most cases. I also think that recordings where one hears voices are picking up auditory sounds which we tend not to hear normally.

Other instruments have been able to pick up on the tell tale signs "energy readings" of the spirit realm. Something is being detected. Spirit yes, but not spirit manifestations of humans.

I think humans either cycle through lives rapidly (reincarnation) or they experience soul sleep (awaiting for the final Trump) I do not see them as energy feeding spirit beings which hang around causing fear or joy to keep going.

But there are those who take a thousand pictures and get not one orb. Why is that? I think that it is part and parcel of the experience. I think that the observation of the event directly impacts the event. Thus we will not be able to put these events in the laboratory because the event is part of the observation.

The Skeptical mind may be automatically shielded against these things. If these spirits are directly linked to emotional energies, then the skeptic may not be offering the correct emotions to cause the manifestation.

In other words. Those who go in search of Ghosts will find them, those who co in search of nothing will find that.

David