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Three curious light phenomena have begun to gain interest on the Internet in the last few years. They have been named Light Circles, Orbs, and Rods. And each has as many sceptics as believers. If you search the web you’ll find a fair few articles on each of them, from both points of view, and so here I’m just going to introduce you to the basic information about these anomalies.
LIGHT CIRCLES
A very strange light phenomenon seems to have appeared across the western world during the last decade. In essence this anomaly consists of geometric circles of light, that are mostly seen in clusters, on the sides of buildings. They were first noticed in the USA, but now there are reports from as far away as Australia and Europe.
Many of the lights look as though they are a reflection of the sun, and often contain an X-shape within the light circle. However, the number of lights that are seen does not tally with the amount of windows to be found in the building from which they seem to emanate. And while some of the reflections seem to change very rapidly, others remain unaltered.
But scientific explanations have been un-forthcoming. One idea is that the reflections are caused by the inward curve of the surface of the window glass, with the 'X' being due to interference from the light reflection. At the following site a scientist states his opinion that:
The concavity of a windowpane would have to be considerable, a few milimetres, depending on the distance of the reflection and size of the glass sheet, what is not observed in practice. Forces, which would cause such bending deformations, e.g. due to the pressure against the window frame, would have to be very strong. The next issue is, that sheets of glass are not completely flat but slightly wavy, what normally adds to further dispelling of light. The result is that, normally, there is no clear reflection at longer distances anymore.
This 'waveness' of windowpanes is not uniform, but random (it originates from solidifying of glass) and it is therefore unlikely that this would cause any straight interference. At the same time the sunlight is not coherent enough to cause coherence on such a large scale (its coherent length is 1 micrometer), so that all internal structures inside circular reflection can, from a physical point of view, be caused by mere focussing of light.
In answer to which, the site comments that:
this thesis raises at least three questions for which there are no answers yet: (i) why would the concave surfaces appear in such masses just lately (ii) why would light circles appear in some cases as reflections from some windowpanes only and sometimes as reflections from all windows of a building (iii) why there appears, if a windowpane's surface is concave, an additional form, in most cases a bright X, in the centre of a round reflection? Furthermore this thesis does not consider reflections in the form of a rhomb or an octagon.
You can also find many pictures, from around the world, at the same link:
http://www.cdk.si/grz/sv_krogi_e.htm
Most of these light circles appear to coincide with the sun’s angle and are often seen at certain times of the day, e.g. early morning, midday, and late afternoon. However, others are only seen during particular seasons of the year. And some have only been observed when there is bright moonlight. But, even more strangely, some have been seen when people have actually made a wish to see them. This last occurrence is very akin to the one in which a person wishing to see a UFO then claims to have seen one.
In an article, by J. D. Rabbit, entitled Circles of Light he explains this in the following paragraph:
Numerous circles have also been reported and photographed under other circumstances. They have appeared on bedroom walls after the occupant had read an article about them; they have appeared on the sidewalk in apparent response to people wishing to see one; they have even been seen on automobiles and clothing, in one case remaining on a man's shirt as he went inside. Another man was sitting in a café when he saw one on the side of a bus passing by; another man reported seeing them on every house he passed as he walked down the street. Exceptional forms, such as a bright "X" inside a rectangle, also appear. Some designs have been observed to change significantly in as little as 15 minutes. In two cases noted thus far, the light reflected from windows on the homes of Transmission Meditation participants to form circles visible on the adjacent houses. No physical healings have been reported in association with the circles, but some claim the designs grow brighter when people meditate near them.
http://www.mcn.org/1/miracles/circles.htm
Exactly as has happened with Crop Circles, the intricacy of their geometry has developed over the years. And the following link goes into far more detail about the article mentioned above by J. D. Rabbit. In it the author speculates that the designs may be related to Sacred Geometry, and that they continue to evolve from the original eight basic shapes; adding that perhaps both phenomena share a common origin.
On the scientific side it states that:
Physicists who have examined this phenomenon note that in order to produce such a focused image, the windowpane would need to take on an extreme curvature or concavity, as much as several millimeters, which is not evident under normal observation.
The extreme force needed to produce such a bending deformation would certainly threaten the integrity of the glass itself. Furthermore, sheets of glass are not normally flat but slightly wavy due to the solidifying process during fabrication. This “waviness” is random, which makes it very unlikely to result in straight interference (i.e., straight lines such as the patterns produce in the image). Finally, the limits of coherence in sunlight itself (its coherent length is 1 micrometer) would not allow it to reflect without fuzziness on such a large scale. This means in sum that the shapes within the circular reflections cannot, from a physical point of view, be caused by mere focusing of light.
You can read the whole of the article here:
http://www.taracanada.com/CircleofLight.html
ORBS
The subject of Orbs is far more complicated than either Light Circles or Rods. There are many Internet sites devoted to this topic, and they all have different ideas from alien life forms to spirit lights.
Are they lens flares, dust, insects, moisture, etc? They are seen both indoors and outdoors. However, a great many people seem to believe that they are the first manifestations of a ghost; with faces having been seen inside some of these Orbs.
These little spheres seem to be made of light that can differ in colour, size, and clarity. Mostly this phenomenon appears to show up on digital photographs, although there are instances where they have been caught on 35mm film.
But, those who are experienced in photography, especially digital photography, maintain that the Orbs are nothing more than an artefact of the camera, possibly caused by a fault in the lens.
Meanwhile, over on the hufos.net site there is a most interesting article about Orbs, including the actual photos that were taken during a skywatch in Wharram Percy, Yorkshire, UK. This is a deserted mediaeval village that had originally been occupied since the Iron Age. You can read the description, and see the images, here:
http://www.hufos.net/the_orb's_phenomenon.html
From another paranormal web site, The Institute of Paranormal Research, comes a commentary that also mainly suggests the Orbs are some type of camera malfunction. Although it does also suggest that some of them are genuine paranormal anomalies. You can read the reasons for this idea here:
http://www.iopr.org.uk/4832/18832.html
On the other side of the fence comes a piece of writing, by Dave Julian, who believes that the Orbs are due to energy transference, between a source and a spirit, in order that the spirit can manifest. In it he states that:
What are these balls of transparent light we find in photos taken in allegedly haunted places? I won't tell you I know the answer to this question. No one has the true answer to this question yet, but that's part of the job of researchers and investigator. One of the leading theories concerning what orbs are and the one that I lean towards the most is that they are not the spirit at all. The orb is the energy being transferred from a source (i.e. powerlines, heat energy, batteries, people, etc) to the spirit so they can manifest. This may not even be a conscious thing the spirit is doing, just a natural way they get their energy. This would explain why the orbs are round balls. According to the laws of Physics energy being transferring like that would assume is natural shape of a sphere. This theory can also be tied into the EMF readings we get during spirit activity.
And here is an article from someone who believes that the Orbs are probably ghostly materializations:
http://www.xmotu.com/orbs.htm
They think that:
The orb is the basic energy pattern of the spirit world and is the most common.
They also question why it should be that if you have several people all taking pictures of exactly the same spot, at the same time, only some of the processed film shows Orbs, while the rest do not. And they query the idea of these Orbs being due to dust by saying:
What about dust and dirt being stirred up? Can that be the cause of the orbs? If that were the case, I would think that there would not be normal photos in a sequence of photos from the same camera and location. All of the shots in a sequence should have the dust or dirt in it. We find that most orb photos do not appear in consecutive photos. All photographers present should get orbs if it is dust being stirred up as well.
Yet another idea comes from the spiritlights.co.uk web site:
http://www.spiritlights.co.uk/orbs/whatareorbs.htm
Here they believe that Orbs are a type of intelligent life that exists side by side with us, but on a different dimensional level that is only seen occasionally. This intriguing idea also suggests that perhaps the Orbs are trying to communicate with us. And they make the following, very pertinent, point:
Alternatively are we to believe that all the manufactures of photography/video equipment be it in digital format or conventional film, have and continue to make the same error in production, used the same faulty hardware/components and or software? Even if this was the case surely they would of rectified the problem by now.
They end by saying:
When it comes to the video evidence which is usual shot in night vision (filming in/or using infrared light) the sceptics would have us believe that these orbs/lights are dust, although they can clearly be see flashing and are always transparent!
Brian P. James, from APRA, has written a piece entitled The Riddle of the Orbs? in which he looks at the whole subject of Orbs. Starting with the history of photography during the last few decades, including the introduction of flash photography, he describes his own experiences with the photography he undertook while researching ways to reproduce anomalous photos that he’d seen taken by other people. He continues by examining modern digital cameras and how they work. Then, describing his own research, he states:
The vast majority of these early 'orb photos' were taken in the Southwest of England, which were taken in crop circles at dusk or even at night, and often during drizzle; this immediately raised concerns to me. Notwithstanding any 'paranormal' aspect, here we had photos being taken in a situation – i.e. in a ripe cereal crop - where dust and all manner of small insects (if any of you think of those small black bugs as 'thunderblight' you are wrong, they are 'harvest bugs' - I know from 17 years in the grain and malting trade!) that would be present in front of the camera and flash. We also had obvious small droplets of moisture on occasions - surely a recipe for spurious images?
Well, that was fascinating because I live in the South West, and I had no idea this is where some of those Orbs originated. He also points out the following information:
My own research effort covered precipitation effects (such as mist, drizzle, rain. snow and hail) as well as particulates (dust, pollen and smoke), and insects etc. I note that in the reports from the SPI National Skywatch in Rendlesham Forest in August 2003 that many people were capturing 'orbs' as they wandered round the forest at night while continually taking photos - now, let's think logically here... The forest floor is pretty dusty in the summer months anyway, but this was after one of the driest summers in Britain for over 20 years, and here we had 40-odd people tramping through the undergrowth – is it any surprise that cameras were picking up numerous orb like particulate reflections?
However, he adds that he is not debunking all of the Orb images, just that they need very careful consideration before any conclusion is drawn. You can read his work, and see the photos he took, at this link:
http://www.apra.org.uk/riddle_orbs.htm
And finally, for a wholly scientific explanation of what these Orbs might be, the following site is as good a place to start as any:
orbstudy.com
It introduces itself thus:
Here you will be introduced to the "colorful" plasma energy orbs discovered in Gulf Breeze, Florida in 2000. If you are interested in learning more about the true "nature" of a tropospheric plasma orb, a careful study of our sample film and digital camera images, as well as all supporting scientific research work and theories, is an excellent place for you to begin. "Initial Study on the Nature of Orbs" under our Research link button on this Home Page, contains many groundbreaking observations and theories in the area of plasma energy physics and ball lightning, and you will find it is written in an easy to understand manner for "beginners" just venturing into this fascinating new field of tropospheric energy studies. We hope you enjoy learning more about Unified Field Plasmoids, and that our work will inspire your own further discoveries and contributions from around the world.
This site is being offered as a "springboard" for college and university level students, with multidisciplinary applications in the areas of lower atmospheric plasma physics, quantum mechanics, math and specialized photography.
If you’d like to investigate the idea of Unified Field Plasmoids for yourself the site also contains links that are categorised as follow:
orbstudy.com
TITLE DESCRIPTION
Section I Orb Study Home Page
Section II Introduction to "The World of the Earthly Plasmoids"
Section III Sample Digital Images
Section IV Research "Initial Study on the Nature of Orbs"
Section V Dedication to James Clerk Maxwell (the "Father" of Color Object Photography)
Section VI Unified Field Plasmoids and the Quantum Theory
Section VII Unified Field Plasmoids - Atoms and Light Quanta
Section VIII Orb Study Research Level - Sample Photo Submissions
Section IX Identifying Camera Problems
Section X Multiple Equipment Validation Experiments
Section XI Orb Study Around The World
RODS
As with the two previous phenomena opinion about the Rods is also greatly divided.
Basically, it seems that they first appeared on film taken by Jose Escamilla in March 1994. However, they could only been seen if the film, or video, was slowed down, although they can also been seen in some photographic stills. But so far, apparently, they cannot be seen with the naked eye as they move too fast.
Back in 1994 Escamilla, a filmmaker, was shooting footage in Midway, New Mexico, but since then he has also managed to capture these Rods in other film footage. His description of them is that they have a cigar, or cylinder, shape that can be anywhere in size from a few inches to quite a few feet in length.
At times they can also be captured on underwater film, although mostly they are seen in the air. In many ways they resemble some sort of animal, with different varieties having been seen in both The Americas and Europe.
So are they really a new flying species, or are they in some way related to UFOs? On the other hand, perhaps they’re related to the Rod-shaped Orbs captured on film taken during paranormal investigations.
Others, of course, have suggested that they are alien entities, or probes. While the sceptics maintain that they’re simply camera glitches, insects, or even high flying birds, caught on camera. Some have described the Rods as being 'sky fish' because they seem to move with the same undulating motion.
And, on the subject of debunking these, at the following link you can read a short article that does exactly that. It does so by basing its evidence on how cameras work:
http://www.ufotheatre.com/rods/rods.htm
However, one of the best articles I’ve come across that looks at the whole Rods phenomena can be found on the ufos-aliens web site. This sets out the pros and cons of the two theories that Rods are either extraterrestrial, or a new earth based life form. 
It also includes a fair amount of film footage, together with the history of how some of the photographs were taken, including details of who took them. And it includes what some of the scientific researchers, e.g. biologists, zoologists and entomologists, say about them. There is also a report from a meteorologist in relation to a Rod that he saw flying into a tornado, and being totally unaffected by it, including footage of this particular event. The piece ends by giving some ‘tips’ from Jose Escamilla on how to capture Rods on video film. You can read the entire article here:
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicrods.html
What are we to make of these strange lights? You’ll have to make up your own mind. Personally, I’m not very scientifically minded, and I know nothing of photography. So, for now, I think I’m just going to remain open-minded.