Dumbfounding Door

A few minutes ago I went out of the back door of the house where I live, to throw some de-icing particles on part of the back lot. I closed the door behind me as I went out of the house. When I approached the door to return to the house, at the moment I was about two feet away from the door  the door mysteriously opened about one foot. There was no noticeable wind gust outside; I could not feel any wind;  and the listed wind speed for my city at this hour is only 13 miles per hour.  There was no one in the house when the door opened. I've never seen the door behave this way before in the years I've lived here.  For another account of a door mysteriously opening, read here. 

Cracked Circle

 Photo date: December 20, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

Ghosts in the News, Part 6

 Here is the latest in a series of videos I am making:

If you have trouble viewing the embedded video above, try the YouTube link here.

Big Sky Orbs: A Retrospective (Part 3)

 Below are some photos I previously took of large mysterious orbs in the sky. All of the photos were taken in clean, dry air when there was no fog, mist, rain or precipitation. 

My 2019 photo below shows a very transparent orb:

My 2018 photo below shows one mysterious sky orb larger than the other:

My 2018 photo below shows a large sky orb. 

My 2019 photo below shows a large mysterious orb:

My 2018 photo below shows an orb looking like it was resting atop a building:

My 2018 below shows another large sky orb:

My 2018 photo shows a mysterious orb seemingly between two Manhattan towers:

My 2018 photos here show two mysterious orbs that both seem to be aligned to the edge of a building:

Ghosts in the News Part 5

 Here is the latest in a series of videos I am making. 

If you have trouble viewing the embedded video above, try the YouTube link here.

A Yellow Orb

 Photo date: December 11, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

Big Sky Orbs: A Retrospective (Part 2)

 Below are some photos I previously took of large mysterious orbs in the sky. All of the photos were taken in clean, dry air when there was no fog, mist, rain or precipitation. 

My photo below from 2019 shows a mysterious orb I photographed near a building 

My photo below from 2019 shows one mysterious blue orb that dwarfed another blue orb. 

My photo below from 2019  shows a mysterious orb I photographed near St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

 

My  photo below from 2016 shows a big orange orb floating above a school in New York City, on a night when the moon was a mere crescent. I've heard of "school spirit"  -- is this what they mean?

The photo below from 2017 shows a large orange sky orb I photographed in midtown Manhattan. The orb has some light purple markings.

The photo below from 2017 shows a big colorful orb I photographed above a building in New York City.

The photo below from 2017 shows a mysterious large orb I photographed near a building in New York City. The orb was about 10 percent of the original photo height.  A dust particle would have to be about 1500 microns to appear this large in a photo, but outdoor dust particles have a size of only about 1 micron.

My 2018 photos below show mysterious blue orbs near buildings. 

The photo below from 2017 (cropped from the top edge of a large photo) shows a multicolored sky orb I photographed. The orb was 10 percent of the total photo height.

The photo below from 2017 shows a large multi-colored orb I photographed in the sky.  The mysterious orb was eleven percent of the original photo height.

She Said the Orb Transfigured Into the Face of Her Deceased Son

On page 2 of the December 22, 1888 edition of the Religio-Philosophical Journal (which you can read here), we have an account entitled "A Voice From the Grave" by Amarala Martin. She says she attended a seance, without giving her name, and was merely given a number of 24 to identify her. Amarala reports several phenomena very widely reported at seances: the sound of mysterious voices, the appearance of mysterious luminous phenomena, and the levitation of an object.   In my the first 17 installments of my previous series of "Spookiest Years" posts, I gave a history of the astonishing spiritual manifestations reported between 1848 and 1889, which you can read in my posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, 

here, here, here, here,  here, here, here, here, here and here . Amarala's reports of seance phenomena are similar to many reports quoted in those posts. The "direct voice" phenomenon she describes is like the phenomena described in this post. 

Amarala reports this:

"Independent spirit-voices were audible all over the room, many of them addressing their personal friends at the same moment of time. Musical instruments were thrumming and flying about pretty lively, among them a music box which was wound by some invisible force as it sped through the air. It stopped several times and rested on my head and on my lap, seeming much attracted to my locality. After this was repeated several times I felt what seemed like little fingers about my face and little arms around my neck, and heard a whisper saying distinctly:

'Mamma, mamma, I am here; your baby boy Martin. Look, while I try to show myself.'

In an instant there was a ball of light before me just a few inches away and out of it grew a face bearing the image of my child. Seeing it, Mrs. Lord, who was describing a spirit in another part of the circle, cried out, 'Oh! see, see that beautiful boy! Number twenty-four, he says you are his mother.'

The vision faded away before us all, but the voice resumed its story:

'Mamma, I passed away at sunrise one April morning, ...I don’t like this music box like I did my own that you hid in the folds of my dress and buried with me. You couldn’t bear to hear it any more when I was gone, could you?'

Here the investigators inquired whether or not these statements were true, and I told them they were, in every particular; and that only myself and one other person ever knew that the music box was buried with the [child].

It was also utterly impossible for Mrs. x or anyone in the circle to know of it. Here, then, was the little one whose body lay under the blossoms hundreds of miles away, telling me of incidents occurring years before, and proving the continuity of life and love beyond the grave."

A Blue Orb and an Orange Orb

Photo date: December 3, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below two mysterious orbs I photographed indoors. 

Ghosts in the News, Part 4

 Here is the latest in a series of videos I am making. 

If you have trouble viewing the embedded video above, try the Youtube link here or the Facebook link here . 

Big Sky Orbs: A Retrospective (Part 1)

Below are some photos I previously took of large mysterious orbs in the sky. All of the photos were taken in clean, dry air when there was no fog, mist, rain or precipitation. 

My photo below from 2017 shows a big mysterious sky orb that took up a full 11% of the original height of the photo:

The photo below I took in 2017 shows a mysterious orb so large that it looked bigger than the moon, which we see below the orb. 

The photo below I took in 2017 shows a big mysterious orb that seemed to be moving fast. 

The photo below I took in 2017 shows a big mysterious orb above a tiny little orb:

Below is a photo I took in 2017 showing a big mysterious orb that took up a full 12% of the original photo height. 

 The photo below from 2017 shows a mysterious big blue sky orb:

My photo below from 2017 shows a large mysterious blue orb I photographed near a building in New York. The orb took up 10 percent of the original height of the full photo.

Ball of Golden Light Spooks a German

 A recent news article is entitled "Surprise city earns title of 'new UFO capital' after series of strange floating lights."  Someone named Manoel Orro states this: "One of them was a man from the German embassy, who called me a while later saying that he was a very skeptical, very logical person, who didn’t have the courage to talk about this with anyone in his family, but that a ball of golden light had appeared inside the chalet and he asked me to explain it."

Ghosts in the News, Part 3

 Here is the latest in a series of videos I am making:

If you have trouble viewing the embedded video above, try the Youtube link here or the Facebook link here . 

Postscript (November 28): while working on another video in this series,  I again witnessed the spooky event of my PS4 PlayStation machine turning on inexplicably while I was in the middle of watching a TV show. Whenever that happens the machine takes over my TV screen. At the time I was sitting alone in the room; my TV remote was an arm's length away from me; and the PlayStation machine and its controller were two meters away from me. The PlayStation turning on by itself while I was in the middle of watching a TV show  (an anomaly which I have seen at least five times such as here and here) is as inexplicable as a room light turning on by itself.  Turning on the PlayStation machine requires either touching a button on the machine, or clicking a particular sequence of two clicks using the TV remote. 

Seeing Visions While Gazing at a Glass of Water?

 The book Nineteenth Century Miracles by Emma Hardinge Britten is a long, fascinating and very scholarly account of observations of the paranormal. You can read it online for free here or here. On page 38 we have this interesting claim:

"Our spirit guides advised me to make the attempt to see visions in a glass of water. They disclosed to me one day that I possessed the gift of being able to see spirits without becoming somnambulic [hypnotized]. They said I was to fill a glass with water, and look therein, and they would then produce spiritual representations in the same. Upon making the trial, I immediately saw all kinds of objects in the water. At first the water seemed to be agitated ; by degrees the pictures appeared at the brim of the glass. I perceive these visions only in the evening, never by day, and I must feel disposed thereto through an earnest desire for the same. I am in a normal condition — i. e., in full consciousness of what I observe and say. The desire of others to see this or that picture has absolutely no influence upon me. These pictures often remain a long time in the same place, others again disappear instantaneously. They often appear to be much larger than the surface of the glass would seem to permit ; sometimes appear like photographs, then again in colors, or like brilliant light cloud pictures. As I perceive the visions in the water I dictate the view to my husband, Baron Eugene von Vay, who transcribes it, and it is then explained by my guides.

' Adelma Vay.' "

No one should be terribly surprised to hear of such a report, given the long history of people reporting they saw visions while gazing into crystals.  Gazing into a glass of water is rather similar to gazing into a crystal. 

Although I have never tried such an activity of gazing for a long time into a glass of water, the activity is very similar to what I did do for a very long time, which was to photograph ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling against a dark featureless background.  There is a strong common feature in trying to see visions in a water glass, and trying to photograph falling water drops.  In both cases you are engaging in an activity which under materialist assumptions should produce nothing interesting.  But just as the quoted writer did get something very interesting from her activity, I got something very interesting and unexpected from my activity of photographing falling water drops.  The effect I got was that on very many days, the most dramatic patterns would appear. Once a pattern had shown up, there would typically be multiple instances of it in a single photograph. And the pattern would typically persist for many consecutive photos.  You can see the photos I am talking about by using the link here, and continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right. Or, if you prefer to finger-swipe your way through the whole very long series of photos, you can use the link here. 

Below from December 3, 2021 is one of the endless patterns I got while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling:

Here is a photo I took on December 3, 2021 while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling:

I took the photo below on November 9, 2021 while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling. We see what looks rather like moons orbiting a planet.

I took the photo below on September 15, 2021 while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling:

I took the photo below on  June 5,2021 while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling:

I took the photo below on  November 11, 2020 while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling. We see a seven-part pattern repeated three times. 

Orb and the TV Ghostly Figure

 Photo date: November 19, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

I'm binge-watching the Doctor Who TV series on HBO Max, and in the rare cases when a ghostly figure appears on my TV screen, I'll take a few pictures  to see whether an orb shows up. We see here a white orb near the ghostly figure that appeared on the TV. 

Orb With Two Stripes

 Photo date: November 18, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

Pentagon Probing Case of "Large Orange Orb"

Yesterday we had a news article on the CBS News web site entitled "Pentagon solves 1 UFO mystery but still probing cases of 'large orange orb,' 'large metallic cylinder.' "

In the article we read this strange description of an orb encounter:

"One case was reported by a law enforcement officer 'out West' who observed 'a large orange orb floating several hundred feet above the ground,' according to Kosloski. 

As the officer approached where he thought the orb would be, he saw 'a blacker than black object' that was about the size of a Prius. When he reached a distance of 40-60 meters away from the object, it tilted 45 degrees and shot up vertically, traveling faster than any drone he had seen before.

Just as it left his field of view, it emitted bright red and blue lights that lit up the inside of his vehicle 'as brightly as if someone had set off fireworks just outside of his vehicle,' Kosloski told Congress."

Freaky Flash

 Since starting to record my dreams a few years ago, I have had more than 500 dreams about deceased people, which have included more than 250 different deceased people (listed here). This evening I was telling one of my daughters at dinner that today I had a dream about the late Tony Randall. I showed her a photo of him, and explained that he was a great comedic actor.

After dinner ended I was watching a video on my I-Pad about great movie speeches, and the tab I was using filled up my whole screen. In the middle of watching this video on an I-Pad I was only holding, I suddenly see a picture of Tony Randall pop up for about three seconds and then disappear. I can't explain this. My fingers were motionless. Nothing I did should have caused such a picture to suddenly pop up on my tablet and then vanish three seconds later. It was rather as if I had got some little "thanks for the mention" sign from the Great Beyond. 

A Strange Orb

 Photo date: November 19, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below  a mysterious orb I photographed indoors.

Orb With a Little Ring

 Photo date: November 17, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. 

Orbs Mingling With Ghosts?

 Page 231 of the May 19, 1883 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here,  has an article by Stella Dunbar about experiences at a supposedly haunted house. We read this:

"Just at this time a young lady was crossing a passage, and looking from the window to the garden saw a woman in a light dress crossing the lawn. She called her companion, and they both watched the figure disappear. The same evening two others, knowing nothing of what these had seen, met the same figure coming from my room, and even noticed that it had very large bare feet."

We later read this:

"A visitor saw a woman’s figure, in everyday attire, sitting at the foot of her bed ; and my mother, entering the same room, saw what—until she spoke to it—she imagined to be the servant. In this room are frequently seen large balls of bright light."

The account has some other mentions of spooky figures making fleeting appearances at the house. We are told, "The figure of a child has been seen by the drawing-room fire-place, and at the top of the stairs."

A Spooky Sight

 Tonight hours ago I locked an inner door a few feet away from the front door of the house I live in, something I like to do as an additional security measure. A few minutes ago I decided to go outside and check the mailbox very close to the front door. I put on my shoes, noticing nothing unusual about the inner door right in front of me. When I came back from checking the mailbox, I noticed something very unusual.  The inner door was now ajar several inches, and locked (in the sense that the handle was unmovable unless you unlocked it) -- a state I can never recall seeing it in previously.  I am at a loss to explain this. I only lock this inner door when it is closed. I wonder whether this event has some symbolic significance. 

This is not the spookiest thing I have seen involving a door. As reported here, at a previous residence I once heard the lock cylinder turning on a locked door, and saw the door open slightly, without anyone entering. Going to investigate, and opening the door all the way, I saw no one nearby. 

Postscript: Odd things followed. The next Monday I heard a tooth paste tube falling into a sink a full minute after I had left a bathroom, with no one else around. The same night a light seemed to turn on by itself in the hall. The next day while watching a TV episode almost to its end, my PlayStation machine mysteriously turned on, when the TV remote was an arm's length away from me, and I was sitting alone in the room. The PlayStation and its controller were two meters away, and turning on the PlayStation machine requires either touching a button on the machine, or clicking a particular sequence of two clicks using the TV remote. 

Deathbed Orbs Turning Into Apparitions?

 Below is an account from the May 11, 1934 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here:

The person quoted is Charles L. Tweedale, author of the very interesting work Man's Survival After Death, which has many a fascinating eyewitness account of ghosts and spirit manifestations.  You can read the book below:

http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1920__tweedale___mans_survival_after_death.pdf

A Striped Orb

 Photo date: November 14, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

We see below a mysterious striped orb I photographed indoors. 

To see 800+ other mysterious striped orbs I photographed, use the link here and continue to press Older Posts at the bottom. 

Orb Flanks the TV Ghost

 Photo date: November 10, 2024. Photographer: Mark Mahin. 

Below we see a mysterious orb I photographed indoors. I was watching a Doctor Who episode on TV entitled "The Unquiet Dead," at the point where the TV depicted a ghost swirling around in the air. I wondered whether I might be more likely to get an orb when such a thing was depicted. Sure enough, this orb showed up in the second photo I took. 

The Same Features Keep Appearing in Reports of Out-of-Body Experiences

 Last night I had a dream of having an out-of-body experience. In the dream I seemed to have a kind of spirit body or astral body that was starting to rise up out of my physical body as my physical body lay on a bed. The separation between the two was not very great: only about a foot or so. In the dream my spirit body seemed to be horizontal above my body, and facing the ceiling. I had the idea that if if I could use the hand of my spirit body to grasp something above me, I might pull my spirit body up higher, farther away from my physical body. It was like I was trying to get my spirit body to rise higher above my physical body, but could not increase the separation between the two. 

The dream was remarkably consistent with accounts of out-of-body experiences, where the same features keep appearing. Below are some relevant examples:

(1) On page 288 of the July, 1894 edition of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which can be read here, a witness reported being an observer above his own body, with an "elastic force" preventing him from floating too far away from his body. He reported he could not rise higher than "two yards" above his body. 

(2) On page 34 of the January 17, 1903 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here, George Wyld MD describes having an out-of-body experience in which his "soul-form" was "six or seven feet" above his body. 

(3) On page 46 of the February 8, 1919 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here,  we hear an account by Captain Gilbert Nobbs of getting a severe head injury during World War I. He says, "I seemed for a moment somewhere in the emptiness looking down at my body lying in the shell-hole."

(4) On pages 57-58 of an Italian book (the text of which can be easily translated using Google Translate), we read that Mrs. Nathalie Annenkof reported an out-of-body experience, saying "suddenly I found myself above and next to my body, which I saw sitting on the edge of the grave... And I had the sensation of hovering above my body in complete bliss."

(5) On page 23 of the periodical here we read this:

" 'On one occasion at a dentist’s office.' says Arthur J. Wills, Ph.D., C.E., of 224 Herrick Road, Riverside, Illinois, 'the dentist was drilling in my tooth. Suddenly I found myself outside of myself looking over the dentist’s shoulder into my own mouth!' 

(6)  On the same page of that periodical, we read an account by a Mr. Hyman who says, "I found myself high up in the room, from where, to my terror, I saw my body on the bed, eyes closed. " 

(7) Barbara Lambert said that during a difficult labor she floated out of her body to the ceiling, and saw her body from above, temporarily thinking that the body below her was her twin sister (link). 

(8) A woman (W.H. Westley) said that at her son's funeral her heart fluttered, and she found herself high above the funeral attendees, addressed by the very son who had died (link).

(9) Ami Greenstead suffered from a rare illness causing many fainting experiences, but reported to her mother that she had out-of-body experiences during such events, going up to the ceiling and observing her body from above (link). 

(10) Bryce Bond reports that when hospitalized from an allergic reaction, he rose up out of his body to the ceiling, before traveling through a dark tunnel, and meeting a dead relative he recognized (link).

(11) Dick Battista reported floating above the operating table during a transplant operation and watching the surgeons do their work (link).

(12) Marjorie Hall reported that she had an out-of-body experience during childbirth. She says, "I felt myself lift out of my body and float upward, " She reported seeing from above her body giving birth, at a height about 15 feet (about five meters) above the scene (link). 

(13) In the interesting book The Imprisoned Splendour, we read the account of a man who was thrown twenty feet after his armored scout car got struck by a German anti-tank shell in 1944. We read this:

"I was conscious of being two persons -- one, lying on the ground in a field where I had fallen from the blast, my clothes, etc., on fire ...The other 'me' was floating up in the air, about twenty feet from my body, from which position I could see not only my other self on the ground, but also the hedge, the road, and the car, which was surrounded by smoke and burning fiercely."

(14) On page 95  of a book we read this account by Cromwell Anderson:

"One night I awoke to find myself floating over my body, a few feet from the ceiling and could see my physical body on the bed beneath me. 

On page 123 of the 1954 Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research (Volume 48), which you can read here, we read of a poll done of 42 students who were asked: "Have you ever actually seen your physical body from a viewpoint completely outside that body, like standing beside the bed and looking at yourself lying in the bed, or like floating in the air near your body?” 33% answered "Yes." 

Robert Crookall noted quite a few observers who reported floating horizontally above their bodies at a distance of about one or two meters:

"A number described their newly released 'doubles' as occupying a remarkable position, namely horizontal, just above the vacated body. They were J. McCormack (who noted 'this rather odd position'), Miss Bazett (about three feet above), Mrs. C. H. Smith (about a foot above), Mulvey (about three feet above), Dennis, Mr. 'H,' Mrs. Boorman, Dr. Gilbert, Mrs. Hibberd, Miss Douglas, Nurse Normanby, Mrs. 'Horam,' Miss Dean, G. Lester, and Mrs. Folson ( when she was a child of five or six years). More than a score of others, who did not describe the horizontal position, did note that their 'doubles' were above their bodies."

Below are some cases from one of the books of Robert Crookall:

• Case #161. A Mrs. J. Douglas Newton reported this: "My son, then 8 years of age, who had never heard of any¬ thing of this sort, had gone to bed one night and was lying reading. Suddenly he called rather urgently for me. I found him sitting up, rather scared. He said, 'Such a funny thing has happened. I was just lying reading when I felt I was rising into the air. I seemed to go up, near the ceiling. Then I looked down and could see myself lying in bed. I came slowly down.' "
• Case #162. A B. Barrett reported this: "I was in perfect health when one night I found myself looking down at my earthly body and could not make out why it was not lying there dead as I thought."
• Case 165. A Mrs. Lambert reported this: "Suddenly I shot out of my body. I lay about six feet up, looking down at myself."
• Case 170. A Peter Urquhart stated this: "I went outside and found myself out of the body again. This time the sensation was like being in a balloon, attached by a cord somewhere in the region of the navel, like the umbilical cord."
• Case 172. A Mrs. Argles reported this: "I found myself standing on the top of the steps, looking down on my body, lying on the floor. There was a cord connecting me to the body on the floor."
• Case 173. Vera Oates stated this: "in the early hours of the morning I was suddenly wide awake, but, to my amazement, I was hovering between the railing and the bed. I looked down and saw myself on the bed."
• Case 175. A Mrs. Harris stated this: "I have left my body many times, walking round the room and looking at my body which is joined by a cord." Reports of such a cord connecting body to soul are not very rare.
• Case 183. A Mrs. M. F. Hemeon stated this: "Suddenly I felt myself  ‘swimming’ up out of my body...I was very startled, and by an effort of will... returned to my body."
• Case 194. A woman states, " Suddenly I was floating with my nose almost touching the ceiling—I saw all the little imperfections in the distemper."
• Case 201: An R. J. Carlson states, " I suddenly found myself out of and above myself—and yet I could either sense or see my body in bed."
• Case 204: A Rebecca Schreiber stated "I suddenly felt I had left my body and was flying over the ocean until I came to the ship" (the Queen Mary) that her daughter was on. After asking her daughter what was wrong, and being told she was sea-sick, she told her daughter she would soon feel better. Her daughter later said she had an experience matching this visitation account, while on the ship, at about the same time. 
• Case 236. Oscar Mockler stated, "The next thing I was aware of was standing on the floor of the cabin and looking down at my body lying asleep in the bunk."
• Case 241.  Mrs. N. Matile stated this: "I found myself floating above my bed (about three feet above). I then quickly passed out of the window to the middle of the Mews where we were living. It was a starry night and it was a lovely feeling, floating in the air. "
• Case 243. An M.E. Fearn stated this: "I felt myself arise and float off the bed and ... was at the foot of our bed, looking at myself asleep, facing my husband’s back. Then I floated towards the window."
• Case 246.  A Mrs. Eyres stated, "I had a feeling that the real Me came out of my body through the head and I had the sensation of flying.” She claimed to have visited other countries in out-of-body experiences. 
• Case 247. A Mrs. Watkin claimed to be visited by two figures who took on a visit to some spirit world. She states this: "I was brought back to my bedroom and there the three of us again stood looking at my lifeless-looking body. Suddenly I slipped easily and swiftly into it."   
• Case 259. A Miss Douglas stated this: "“One night I awoke from sleep to find that I was in a horizontal position and suspended in mid-air. In this position I travelled at moderate speed through the bedroom windows out into the night. It was moonlight and I could see the houses very clearly. I felt thrilled as I travelled along ...It was so real. I drifted across the roof-tops and identified the neighbours’ gardens. ... On the return journey I seemed to be losing height but not speed. ... Finally, I arrived in the garden at home, still remaining in a horizontal position and suspended in mid-air."
• Case 267. A Mr. Hall stated this: "Presently a most strange sensation passed through my body. Next I floated out through the window and across the town. I seemed to be several hundred feet above the ground."
• Case 269. A Mrs. Flint stated, "One afternoon, while resting on my bed, I felt myself floating, or rather suspended in the air, and I was actually looking down at my body on the bed."
• Case 285. A Mrs. Mansergh stated this: "In February, 1939, my husband and I retired to bed as usual and I awoke to find myself standing by the side of the bed looking down on the sleeping forms of my husband and myself. I moved away from the bed to the window. As I moved, I noticed a glistening cord trailing from me." 
• Case 309. A G. Bradley stated this: " I awoke about 7 a.m., and had the sensation of leaving the body. All I could see was the frame of myself left in the bed. I was floating around the room feeling peaceful. Suddenly I had the urge to get back into the shell of my body. What a struggle I had to do it!"
• Case 310. A Mrs. Shakespeare stated this: "During the night I seemed to float down the ward and then returned and hovered over my bed, looking down at myself. I felt calm and peaceful.”
• Case 313: A Mrs. Fyal stated this:  "Suddenly I felt myself leaving my body and looking around my bedroom... I saw my own body...Suddenly I found myself wandering again and floated to my body where, in the morning, I was astounded that I was in it."
• Case 314: A Mrs. Langridge stated this: "I was outside my body, suspended in air, and looking down upon my body. Three or four people were reviving me. I was in a pleasant state of freedom and thought, ‘I wish these people would leave me alone!' "
• Case 327. Dr G. B. Kirkland stated this: "To my surprise, I found myself looking at myself lying on the bed. The thought; just flashed through me that I didn't think much of me —in fact, I didn’t approve of me at all. Then I was hurried off at great speed. Have you ever looked through a very long tunnel and seen the tiny speck of light at the far end ? It seems an incredible distance off. Well, I found myself with others vaguely discernible hurrying along just such a tunnel or passage—smoky or cloudy, colourless, grey and very cold."
• Case 336: An F. W. Talbot stated this: "The next  moment I was suspended in mid-air, horizontal, and looking down at my body on the bed. I could see myself lying in bed quite clearly. I watched an attendant go to my body, lift my arm and plunge in a needle. This was extremely interesting; I was suspended over his head and my feeling was that of detached curiosity."
• Case 337: A Mrs Rowbotham stated, "I remember being on the ceiling of the room looking down at the two doctors and two nurses—just floating and watching."
• Case 339: A Kathleen Snowdon stated this: "Suddenly I realized a feeling of great excitement, wonder and delight surpassing anything I had ever experienced as I felt my body [‘double’] completely weightless and floating upwards in a golden glow towards a wonderful light around hazy welcoming figures and the whole air was filled with beautiful singing. I floated joyfully towards the light and then I heard my mother’s voice calling me. My whole being revolted against going back."
• Case 343: An S. H. Kelly stated this: "As I lost consciousness, certain things in my life came in front of me. This was followed by a queer sound of music and the next thing I was suspended in mid-air and looking at them bringing my body out of the water and trying artificial respiration. I was very happy and free and wondered why they were doing that when I was here! At that moment I was transported to my mother’s room. I stood beside her as she was by the fire in an easy chair, trying to tell her I was all right and happy. Afterwards, I was back, looking at my body, when a brilliant light shone around me and a voice said, ‘It is not your time yet—you must go back. You have work to do!' "
• Case 346:  A Mrs. Maries stated this: "Meanwhile I  had left my body and felt myself floating in what seemed like a dark tunnel (with a glimpse, at the end, of a lovely countryside). I had no pain, only a wonderful feeling of happiness. I felt I had somebody with me, but saw nobody. Only I heard a voice which said, ‘You must go back! That child needs you!’ I returned to my body and heard the doctor say, ‘No, by Jove, I can still feel her heart!’ "

Fleeting Faces Forming From High-Voltage Currents?

 Below is a report that appeared on page 338 of the June 1 1934 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here:

 LUMINOUS SPECTRES

 “ 'L A REVUE SPIRITE'  for May (Paris) quotes as follows from Aujourd’hui (12-3) : 

' In a Naples laboratory where experiments were being carried on with high-tension currents, extraordinary phenomena have several times occurred. In the completely darkened room, the engineers have observed luminous spectres moving about, having the appearance of human arms or legs. After remaining visible for several minutes, they disappeared without leaving a trace. Believing that they were the victims of an optical delusion, the engineers re-started their experiments several times, to be again confronted by the luminous spectres—which on the last occasion took the form of a clear-cut human face. 

 This is not the first time such things have been testified to. At Fribourg in Brisgau, during some chemical manipulations, the scientists noticed materialisations analogous to those mentioned above. They too were luminous and took the form of human heads. The Schenectady Laboratory, near New York, where research work on high-frequency currents were in progress, reports the same mysterious and disquieting phenomena.' "

I am not at all surprised to read the result above, because what is described is an effect like I often got myself when photographing pure, clean drops of water falling in front of a black featureless background. On some days there would start to appear an effect I called the water face effect. When the effect occurred, a photograph of ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling would show many instances of circular shapes with face-like structures. Once the effect had started on a particular day, the effect would usually persist for many consecutive photos, maybe hundreds of consecutive photos. Each photo would show many circular objects with face-like structures. An example of one of the photos that I took on December 5, 2019 is shown below:

Below is another photo from the same day:

You can see many examples of this effect by looking at my series of photos here, continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right to see them all. 

All of the observations discussed here are inconsistent with the assumptions of materialism. Under such assumptions phenomena such as random electricity and falling water drops should never produce persisting representations of human faces. But under radically different assumptions, such phenomena may occur.  Under assumptions that we are all spirits living in a spirit-entangled reality, such manifestations may occur. Spirits with unknown capabilities may influence matter in ways we cannot predict, and we cannot set limits on what manifestations we may see from such powers. 

The effect of face-like structures appearing when photographing falling water drops was one of only very many massively repeating pattern effects I got on very many days when photographing pure, clean water fall in front of a featureless black background. There were very many other types of patterns that would occur. To see them all, you can look at my series of 700+ posts here, continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right. Typically when a pattern appeared, there would be multiple instances of the pattern in each photo, and the pattern would very often persist for many consecutive photos, before suddenly stopping. The appearance of the pattern would be a "plain as the nose on your face" kind of thing, with there being no need to scan a photo carefully to see the pattern.  The patterns of many varied types would appear as obviously and dramatically as in the photos above. 

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: