“Ghost” Photo Debunks
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine
Paranormal evidence caught on video? You decide!
Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend! Maybe I’ll celebrate by shopping and stimulate the old economy. Or, maybe I’ll just do some good old fashioned debunking.
I’m in a “debunk-ish” mood this morning. So I went on Google and searched for ghost pictures that I could post here.
My point in this exercise is this. When you look at a photo, you must rule out every possible logical explanation before you can label it “unexplained.” And there are lots of logical explanations. Here are just a few:
Deer Ghost Photo Found at About.com's Paranormal Site
Looks to me like the natural texture of a tree trunk. This appears to me to be a case of matrixing – where the human eye perceives patterns. The human brain is wired for facial recognition, and therefore we tend to see faces if there is a pattern that is even slightly reminiscent of a face.
You see this quite a lot in outdoor “ectoplasm” type pictures. My guess is that the photographer exhaled while taking a picture, and that created the mist that you see. One way to avoid this is to hold your breath while you take the picture. Here’s another that is likely the same thing:
Roberta's Ghost - found at www.hauntedaccomodations.com
Romanian Ghost - found at www.sanfranciscosentinnel.com
This picture – and the picture that follow, appear to have a common “cause” if you will. To me, the image that is the “ghost” appears to be the play of light and shadows across the natural patterns in the background. Matrixing comes into play here again. We are wired to see images of ourselves – faces and bodies – in random patterns. Hence Virgin Mary appears in a water stain or grandma’s ghost appears to be floating in a window.
Myrtle's Ghost - taken from the about.com paranormal website.
These, of course, are just my opinions. What do you think, and what do you see? Do you agree with me or disagree? I look forward to hearing your take on these photos – and other photos that you can find.
Nice Job. I think coming up with logical explanations is one of the most important paranormal tools. That leaves the few “unexplainable” evidence that much more credible.
I agree with your assessments but would have had to check deeper into the Romanian Ghost picture before I easily dismissed it. I would guess more a Photoshop technique but who knows
.
Awesome topic and examples, thanks!!!
A lot of these ghost pics lately are photoshop. You can have a regular pic and do an eraser wave or two through it. And, it looks like a ghost.
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I agree. People often get worked up in the hopes that they have captured real evidence. Understandably so, but it’s important to be willing to think critically before jumping to a conclusion claiming hard evidence of activity. I just had my wood stove repaired and took before and after pictures for posterity using a Canon SD790 digital camera. It was an overcast day outside, no sunlight streaming through the curtains and no flying bugs inte h room. Nothing appeared in the ‘before’ photos, but two of the ‘after’ shots sported what appear to be orbs. Unless accompanied by a full body apparition, I tend to view orbs with more than a jaded eye. Do I think that I have a ghost from teh photos? Nope. Probably a low battery or malfunction of my camera.
Great article! I agree. People often get worked up in the hopes that they have captured real evidence. Understandably so, but it’s important to be willing to think critically before jumping to a conclusion claiming hard evidence of activity. I just had my wood stove repaired and took ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures for posterity using a Canon SD790 digital camera. It was an overcast day outside, no sunlight streaming through the curtains and no flying bugs in the room. Nothing appeared in the ‘before’ photos, but two of the ‘after’ shots sported what appear to be orbs. Unless accompanied by a full body apparition, I tend to view orbs with more than a jaded eye. Do I think that I have a ghost from the photos? Nope. Probably a low battery or malfunction of my camera.
I have a lot of outdoor mist photos, that are very genuine. I hold my breath while taking photos, and still get these mist shots. I even hold my breath, when it’s 70+ degrees, and still get these mist shots. I’ve heard everything from auto exhaust, to BBQ grills. I know they’re very real, because we live in a very active place, and have had numerous personal experiences. Our first mist photo was taken purely by accident, my wife was taking photos of the moon. Three were completely normal, but one was not. I have many series of shots, that show just how quickly a mist disappears, or returns.Many of the mists are in unique forms and shapes. Some appear as animals, people, or assorted other shapes. Many mist forms are explainable, but many are not. I’ve done my own testing with photographer’s breath, and natural mists. Photog’s breath is very real, and can look very convincing. But, it never has the detail or structure, like my mist shots. They’re basically just thick blobs, with no detail. As far as natural mists, if they’re close, they look like a thousand orbs. If at a distance, they’re so thin and wispy, they’re barely visible. It’s usually very easy to tell, if a mist is photog’s breath, natural mist, or real paranormal mist. I have photos of my mother’s grave, that are quite extraordinary. I’ve heard people say, that if anyone has a lot of mist photos, they’re obviously faked; or the photographer didn’t know what they were doing. Bull !
Now that you have explained by your “logical explanations” that those ghosts do not exsist, right? That is were you are mistaken. These may just be cameras that show false pictures, yes but ghosts are very much real. Before i can explain, if you know what a ghost is like then you dont fear them because what harm can they do to you? They can’t. But not because they don’t exsist. Now i will explain. Has it ever occured to you that you think you saw something behind you and when you turned to look it wasnt there? Well, it was there. You can see ghosts out of the corner of your eye. And they are NOT white or blue or anything like that. They are colorfull. But then the laws of science come in. How can they be colorfull, when it doesnt have any pigment or other stuff? How does the color reflect? It is indeed a color. And it is not part of visible light. It is called infra red. It can be caught by bad quality cameras and people cant see it when theyre staring at it. And again some more science. Nobody has ever communicated with a ghost. That’s because ghosts communicate with us by sending us memories, thoughts, and info to our brain. How? That’s a secret I have sworn not to tell.
I’m pretty sure that there was nothing here that indicated that because these photos have logical explanations, then ghosts don’t exist. Ghosts very well may exist; however, when evidence is presented that can be explained by something logical, you cannot say that it is definitive evidence of a ghost.
not likly you people ust need to have anopen mind about things because ive actually seen ghosts and its not funny. a low battery or breathing while taking the picture doesnt cause those images you see. the only way to see the breath of a person is if its cold and besides people cant breath that much in a very short amount of time. a low battery will just make the picture a bit darker than usual (duh).
I have a pretty darn open mind. I’ve experienced ghosts. I believe in ghosts. I just don’t believe that every anomaly that shows up on camera is a ghost. You’d be amazed at what breathing can do in a photograph. It is considered good practice to hold your breath as you snap a photo.
Good topic. Here is a mist photo to think about… You may have to cut and paste it to your browser.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-GhostBreakers/201964954872?v=photos#!/photo.php?pid=4195989&id=201964954872&ref=fbx_album
Here is the URL for the video also.
http://www.super-muzyka.pl/video/4sMTirjPhG4/Ghost-or-Apparition-of-Virgin-Mary-Caught-on-Camera.html
okay, this is weird but i see images all the time; usually when i start burning wood in my wood stove. usually animals and sometimes horrific people. why? i don’t want to see them; but they are there; i have asked other people what they see and they see it to; is it my vivid imagination or are there ghosts coming through anyway they can!
Actually your incorrect in one statement…orbs are associated with either daemons or angels NOT ghosts. So IF you caught something..and maybe you did…one or the other was passing through. If your house isn’t haunted and I’m assuming it isn’t…its a nice thought that their are angles in your house.
What on earth would make you to say that an orb is not ghost related?? Did you ask one? Your religion? LSD?
There is no way you would know that.
I like this topic I took a pic the other day and I thought ray I had caught a ghost! I was so stoked but I took a long time looking at it and saw the area in the light and saw that it was just light/shadow. Don’t just rule out all photos not saying that you are.
Thanks.
on the last one it looks like a light because you’ll notice further down the picture there appears the be another thing looking like a leg hah its lights and shadows. yeah all breath, trees and light
hey I’m not saying i don’t believe in ghosts but its not paranormal its paranoid. and just saying even though i haven’t seen or experienced one i still believe in them.
why do so many people say all ghost photos are fake? why don’t they believe in ghost?
i know there’s no solid proof that ghost exist but then what evidence do people have to prove they don’t? have you ever died and gone to the afterlife, what ever that is? i don’t think so! so how can you prove or disprove something that no one really knows?
p.s not saying ghost exist or whatever, just saying people need to keep an open mind when approaching these matters
hey bookworm250 if there is a possibility of either then shouldn’t they be scared incase it was a demon?
theses pictures are sooo creppy i have seen a picture on my friends phone and there is a man clear as day in the background and nobody but her and her friend were there!!!
I agree with your opions. There are some photos I can not de-bunk, but, most I could. I am seeking real proof, and nothing in fantasy land.
most of these could be explained. if you encountered these under freezing or cold weathered nights, then this ‘cloud forms’ could be frosting air instead.
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