The Orbs and the Apparition

 Below is a passage from page 110 of the book The Other World  by Frederick George Lee, which you can read here: 

"The husband was often absent, but he and his wife occupied the room in which Mrs. Webb had died, while· their daughter, a girl about ten years of age, slept in a small bed in the comer. ...

Mrs. Accleton, during her husband's absence, having engaged her mother to sleep with her one night, was suddenly aroused at the same hour of two by a strange and unusual light in her room. Looking up she saw quite plainly the spirit of Mrs. Webb, which moved towards her with a gentle appealing manner, as though it would have said, ' Speak, speak ! ' 

" This spectre appeared likewise to a Mrs. Radboune, a Mrs. Griffiths, and a Mrs. Holding. They assert that luminous balls of light hovered about the room during the presence of the spirit, and that streams of light seemed to go up towards a trapdoor in the ceiling, which led to the roof of the cottage."

A Yellow Orb

 Photo date: November 1, 2024. Photographer Mark Mahin. 

Below we see a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

Earlier in the day while alone in my home there was another of very many times in which I noticed a coin that seemed to have appeared mysteriously. I saw a quarter lying atop the middle of the middle cushion of a sofa, very noticeable against a dark blue background. I had been two meters away a few minutes earlier to empty a trash basket, without noticing any such quarter.  I was wearing tight jeans, and there seemed to be no chance that such a quarter might have dropped out of my pockets. 

Told Someone Was Dying, She Soon Saw a Spooky Orb Above Her Head

 On page 124 of Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1894), which you can  read here, we read this account by a Miss Williams:

(191. 2.) From Miss Williams. 11, Cleveland-terrace, Coatham, Redcar, September 23rd, 1889.

 "I was living at home with my parents at Eston-in-Cleveland. There was a working man called Long living in the village, not far from our house, whose wife was taken ill. Dr. Fulton, who at that time was staying with us, came in one night between 9 and 10 o'clock and said Mrs. Long was dying. After that we sat talking over the fire a good while, and then my sister Isabella and I went off to bed. We slept in a back bedroom, and after we got to this bedroom I said, ' Oh, I've forgotten something in the large bedroom !' To this latter I proceeded by myself, and, as I approached the door, something seemed to say to me, ' You'll see something of Mrs. Long, living or dead ! ' But I thought no more of this, and entered the bedroom, which I had to cross to the opposite end for what I wanted. When I had got the things in my hand, I noticed a lovely light hanging over my head. It was a round light —perfectly round. I had taken no light with me, but went for the things I wanted in the dark. I looked to see if there was any light coming in from the windows, but there was none : in that direction there was total darkness. I grasped one hand with the other and stood looking at the strange light to be sure that I was not deceived and was not imagining it. I walked across the room to the door, and all the way the light was hanging between my head and the ceiling. It was akin to the electric light : something of a cloud, though every part of it was beaming and running over with light. It left me at the bedroom door. On first seeing it a strange impression seized me, and after it left me I was so impressed that I could not speak of it to anyone for a day or two. I wondered at the time whether it had anything to do with Mrs. Long, and on inquiry I found that she died just about the time when I saw the light. If there was any difference, I judged it would be a little before, but there would not be much in it. This would be about 11 p.m , and about four years ago. It left an impression on my mind which I have never forgotten, and never shall forget. Mrs. Long was not ill many days—about two or three ; she died rather suddenly. I was rather interested in her. I did not see her during her illness, but had often seen her and talked to her before.  I was perfectly well at the time. and was in no trouble or anxiety. My age at the time was 23. I have had no experience of the kind before or since. I saw no figure, only a lovely light. Before telling my sister I made her promise she would not ridicule me nor call me superstitious. To the best of my recollection this is a correct statement. "

-- Mary Helena Williams.

"' P.S. —-The light which I saw was a palish blue. It emitted no rays, so that all the rest of the room was in darkness. It was wider in circumference than my head, so that as I walked I could see it above me without raising my head. As I left the room it remained, and when I looked again was gone. It was in a corner, where the darkness of the room was deepest and the least chance of illumination from the windows on the right and left, that I first saw it above my head. I had no fear, but a kind of sacred awe. The light was unlike any other that I ever saw, and I should say brighter than any other, or, at least, purer. Looking at it did not affect the eyes. It was midway between my head and the ceiling."

On the next page Mary's sister corroborates the account. 

Stars, Stripes and Spooky: A Retrospective

 Let's look at some photos I previously took of mysterious orbs near an American flag. Most of the photos were taken in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. 

The photo I took below in 2019 showed a "flag's extra stripe" effect:

I took the photo below in 2019:

The photo below shows a bright orb:

Below is a photo from 2018:

I can't tell whether this 2016 orb was playing "flag tag" or "wreath tag":

This 2016 photo may make you ask: are blue orbs attracted to the blue part of a flag?

This shot from 2018 shows two mysterious orbs:

This orb from 2017 was bright and yellow

This one from 2016 seemed to squeeze into a slot:

This one from 2015 had a great color:

This one was from 2014:

This one was also from 2014, with the orb being large, making up 15% of the original photo height:

The Mysterious Orbs and the Presidential Assassination

 On page 13 of the January 1897 edition of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which you can read here, we read this:

"On the evening of May 21st, 1881, I was seated by a window at A. B. Rolfs in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Saw two large balls of light pass the window followed by a long crimson scarf that [it] seemed would never pass, its length was so great. I rose from my seat and went to the dining-room where some of the family were at tea ; told them what I saw, and stated my convictions that it was some national calamity. The balls meant death and the long scarf blood that would enwrap the whole nation. I then saw a stout, dark young man who handed me a paper. I then said, 'We will hear of this by such a young man as I describe.'  Time passed and the vision had gone from memory, when one day in July, same year, we all sat sewing and a man passed the window. I recognised the young man I had seen in my May vision ; sprang to meet him and he handed me a bulletin announcing Garfield's assassination, or rather the shooting that cost his life—the first intimation we had had of such a thing."

President Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, and never fully recovered. He died on September 19,1881. The shooting was about six weeks after the strange sight of moving balls of light. 

The Mysterious Orbs and the Spooky Death Notification

 On page 375 of the June 22, 1934 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here, we read the following account of observing mysterious orbs in a seance:

"MME. NIJINSKY, who recently returned to London, tells us of a strange experience of Rudi Schneider and his wife. Rudi said he had never sat with a Medium. Mme. Nijinsky took him and his wife to Miss Frances Campbell. During the sitting—which Rudi, we are told, hugely enjoyed—balls of light sprang up and skipped from Rudi to Mme. Nijinsky’s lap. Miss Campbell gave accurate descriptions of the family affairs of her sitters ; then she turned to Mrs. Schneider and said : 'I feel I must prepare you for a blow. Your brother has been shot to-day in Linz.'  Mrs. Schneider protested that it could not be true. Next day, however, a telegram arrived stating that in the riot which cost so many lives in Austria, Mrs. Schneider’s brother had been killed."

A Mysterious Blue Orb, Levitation and a Spirt-Hand Playing a Violin

 On page 187 of the March 21, 1935 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here, we get two astonishing accounts. First, we hear of the sighting of an apparition:

"In the Revue Spirite Beige for February (Liège), Dr. Lucien Graux tells the following story. One night, M. Albert Lambert, of the Comédie Française, was silently going over his part in ' Ruy Bias'  in his private room, when there entered a man in a long cloak, who was the very image of the Ruy Bias of the title part of the play. The apparition commenced to recite Victor Hugo’s verses. Albert Lambert listened with every sense alert; it was as though revelation and enlightenment were coming to him from the other world. When he was afterwards questioned about this vision, the famous actor replied: ' You wish to know whether it was an illusion, whether I really saw, or only thought I saw? My emphatic reply is this : I both saw and I heard.' ”

Then we have an account of a mysterious blue orb appearing at a seance:

"An eye-witness has sent to the Neues Wiener Journal (Vienna, January 7th), an interesting account of a sitting with the young French Medium, Mile. Remy. The sitters were the guests of Professor Lyonel, and included two well-known University Professors, two medical men, and an engineer, who was in charge of an intricate set of control apparatus, including a camera for infra-red film photography, as well as one that registered even the faintest manifestation of light. The delicate-looking young girl sat down in an armchair and was then put into slight hypnotic sleep. After an interval of only five minutes, Professor Lyonel was touched by a hand and the correspondent by another; then the table on which the sitters’ hands were resting was raised by powerful pressure from below and levitated into the air. The wish was expressed that the hitherto sceptical investigators might be enabled to see what was taking place, and a second later an iridescent ball of blue light appeared close under the ceiling; and the ticking of the light-registering apparatus gave independent evidence of this fact. By the light of this ball of blue, the sitters saw that the table was raised six to seven feet above the floor. The light then sank down over the Medium’s chair, revealing the sleeping figure of the young girl; and so profound was this sleep that it was not broken when, next moment, with a loud report, the ball of light burst and disappeared.

The account ends: 'There followed ten minutes of expectant waiting, when suddenly the room was filled with the most marvellous but infinitely sad music of a violin. We had seen before the room was darkened that, amongst the instruments on its walls, there was a violin, with its bow beside it. But whose was the masterhand that was now playing it? Certainly not the Medium’s, for, under the controlling eyes of the apparatus, she could not leave her seat even for one second without being detected; and the strip of film which I was allowed to examine later on proved that throughout the seance Mile. Remy had never left her chair. But the photograph also showed a film-like hand hovering in the air, with the delicate tapering fingers of a woman—ethereally delicate, as if from another world than ours.' ”