Thursday, March 02, 2006

Mysterious Orbs Of Light

Mysterious Orbs Of Light At North Texas Church

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_058160642.html


(Go to the link above and click on the news video link and check out the orb on film going through a woman's body)




CBS 11 News) HALTOM CITY In the world of the paranormal, experts say there are many phenomena that can occur involving light. But one North Texas church has reported not only the appearance of orbs, but other religious manifestations.

Riverwalk Fellowship Church is a charismatic church in Haltom City. The services aren't exactly traditional and neither are some of the reported phenomena happening there lately.

The church’s senior pastor Steve Solomon, a Messianic Jew (a Jew who believes Jesus is his/her messiah) has reported, among other things, an oil substance manifesting on the balcony and on the baptismal and the pulpit of the sanctuary.

One of the church’s prayer intercessors, Velma Alexander, was the first person to discover the oil when entering the sanctuary one day and simply touching one of the columns in the church. She says her initial reaction was, "Somebody better call Pastor Steve, ‘cause oil don't come outta wood and brass!" Alexander said when the pastor first heard about it he thought something had broken, thus their investigation into the matter began.

Solomon said that as people began taking pictures of the oil, something else began to appear in the pictures. He said, "We'd started taking pictures at church and almost everyone would just take a picture and these orbs of light would show up."

We decided to pay a visit to the church and take our own picture. It revealed a very large blue orb hovering over a woman’s head as she was being prayed over.

It all looked very compelling but we needed an expert opinion. Most photography experts said light can reflect in many different ways and there are so many variables, it can be difficult to explain in scientific terms.

One thing that intrigued all the experts was a video shot by a 13-year-old boy at this church. According to the pastor, the teenager was visiting the church and was videotaping the service. The pastor says the power went out during the service, but despite the darkness in the sanctuary, they kept going. Later, when they replayed the boy’s videotape, they saw an orb of light moving through a church member. Pastor Solomon said, “…starts at her feet and goes right through her body out her head."

We contacted an expert in paranormal psychology and director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations in Berkeley, California. We told Loyd Auerbach about the videotape and about what we had seen at the church. Aurebach said, "Orbs on video and photography are said to be all kinds of things from energetic effects to ghosts to even UFO's.” But, he said, this sounded like psychokinetic energy "...energy from the person or energy between the people; if it's a healing situation, affecting the film, the digital media." In other words, the orbs might have been that energy caught on tape.

Auerbach said once you eliminate the photographic possibilities like other light sources, dust on the lenses, tampering, etc. – and someone is physically affected, then it bears watching. He said that since, in this case, the power had gone out, we had checked our lens and the tape was viewed immediately, “something is ‘probably’ going on.”

According to Auerbach, there have been many experimental studies on orbs done in the past two decades and they have concluded that some people do exhibit the ability to affect film and other human beings merely with their thoughts or energy.

Pastor Solomon pointed to the orbs of light depicted in very old paintings behind Jesus and the Saints and said, “how did they know to do that; where did that come from?” Solomon added, "I believe it's a sign from the Lord. There's nothing wrong with supernatural signs."

The feeling seemed to be echoed by Velma Alexander, the woman who discovered the oil in the church. She was still reeling from her experience. She said, "it was awesome. I haven't been the same since…I don’t care what they say, I know God is real.”

Although there are no true experts on orb photography, experts like Auerbach give us at least a glimpse into the possibilities they might present. There are many Websites devoted to the orb phenomena. One site we found, prairieghosts.com, gives a thorough layout of how to discern between what it terms real orbs—ones that are actually paranormal in nature—and flukes, such as reflections. The Website says that although most orbs are not paranormal in nature it is wise to take a closer look at orbs which “move” while on camera.