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Spiritualist camp’s mediums focus on orbs
CASSADAGA — Could photo orbs reflect eerie trails of spirits eager to communicate with the living?
Or are they simply unsuspecting insects trapped in the bright lights of a flash?
It’s a debate almost as old as the art of photography, but believers insist that orbs and wispy patterns captured on film in dark, desolate places prove the existence of a world beyond our physical reality.
Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp guides and mediums will soon offer to share the experience with curious observers willing to spend a Saturday night wandering the community’s streets for a $20 fee. The spiritualist camp, a not-for-profit organization, was formed about 100 years ago and is known for its population of mediums who claim to communicate with the spirit realm.
Medium Joan Piper said Cassadaga is a great place to capture the orbs on film because so many spirits already frequent the camp’s main streets.
“All the mediums are going to support this because we think it’s a great venture that Cassadaga is doing,” said Piper.
Camp spokeswoman Jo Maldonado said orbs can be captured on film anywhere, but Cassadaga seems to offer abundant opportunities to capture the entities on film.
But for James Randi, founder of an organization dedicated to debunking paranormal claims, the explanation of orb photography is much simpler. Orb photography is merely a trick of flash photography caused when an insect or dust comes between the camera lens and a further focus point, he said. The flash lights up the object in between, creating a defect in the photo called an orb.
“Since it’s completely out of focus it shows up as a dot but a magnified dot,” said Randi.
The James Randi Educational Foundation in Fort Lauderdale has offered $1 million to anyone who can prove the existence of paranormal activity. In eight years of independent investigations, no one has been successful.
Randi said the orb effect is more likely to happen with digital cameras than traditional 35 mm cameras, but it’s a problem that has long perplexed professional photographers.
“News photographers will tell you they are plagued by orbs during a snow storm, said Randi, adding his researchers have re-created the effect using confetti in a darkened library. “They sometimes blot out details of the picture.”
But for Piper, it’s all about faith in the spirit realm.
“I feel that it’s energy that spirit uses in order to manifest,” Piper said. “It gives us something to focus on so we can see them.”
Maldonado said the tours will be offered Saturdays beginning Aug. 27, and participants will be able to go home with prints of the images they capture during their tour of Cassadaga.
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