CHAPTER 12

THE MYSTERY OF ORBS AND THE WORK OF PAUL C. MUIR

Recently, my attention has been drawn to the ongoing work of Welsh researcher Paul C. Muir. For the past several years, Muir has been conducting photographic and video surveys of sacred sites throughout Wales and Great Britain. The goal: to record unknown energy phenomena in the form of mysterious orbs occurring at the sites, which consist mainly of stone circles, standing stones, dolmens, chambers, and the like. Muir spent hundreds of hours recording images at different sites, sometimes taking hundreds of images in a single night. His work opens the door to many new questions in a field where there are already far more questions than answers. However, his objective and scientific approach and the techniques he used in capturing the images go a long way toward proving what the images are not. Produced using multiple cameras and shooting simultaneously from different angles and under different conditions, Muir’s work has shown that many of the common explanations must now be dismissed.

Many who have seen Muir’s pictures, which have been captured at both day and night by film and digital technology, believe they show light reflecting off unseen dust or moisture particles suspended in our atmosphere. Another common explanation is dust or water on the camera lens when the photo was taken. By using a standardized approach, triangulating the photographic subjects with two cameras and photographing in many different documented conditions, Muir has shown that the same orb images appear in photos from both sets of cameras and under many varying conditions, making the “dirty lens” and “particle reflection” theories all but impossible as the cause of the orbs that appear in his images.

Fig. 12.1. Multi-orb image taken in Caledonia State Park, Pennsylvania, during the evening under very dry conditions.^*13

Fig. 12.2. Orb “moving” past standing stone at Rollright, England

So if they are not optical illusions what exactly are they? Some have speculated they are “spirit energy” or the energy signatures of ghosts. Still others report the orbs as “life energy” or the energy put off by living organisms, plant or animal, some kind of energy signature every living thing gives off. Perhaps they are a conduit or a means by which energy is transferred. The members of a research project in Florida who are studying orbs believe they are atmospheric plasma energy and refer to them as “unified field plasmoids” (or UFPs), which they describe as a phenomenon related to ball lightning.

Muir’s research assigns an electrical charge to the orbs, and this attribute has been confirmed by the researchers in Florida, who have measured and recorded the energy using handheld electromagnetic field detectors. Many of the orb photos have been taken at sites where strong electromagnetic anomalies have been detected previously using similar equipment. The questions are, are the orbs attracted to the strong electromagnetic fields associated with many ancient sacred sites, or are the orbs themselves responsible for the measurable electromagnetic fields that exist at such sites? And is this clear evidence of a connection between the appearance of orbs and the existence of an electromagnetic field at the sites where they appear? More research is needed to arrive at a clear understanding of this aspect of the phenomenon.

Fig. 12.3. Sixteenth-century woodcut from Germany showing orbs in the sky over Nuremberg

Muir believes the phenomenon has been recorded for many centuries and cites a sixteenth-century German woodcut showing orb-like “objects” over Nuremberg (see figure 12.3). He also believes such orbs appear in many images seen in prehistoric rock art and cites and correlates examples of this as well.

Through his research, Muir had also developed a standardized photographic guide to capturing these orbs on digital cameras, and he believes anyone who looks can find these orb images in photos they have taken.

I tested this and began looking for orbs in images my wife and I had taken recently with our digital cameras. And sure enough, there they were. Not in every image, but in some there were orbs we had missed or simply dismissed when we first looked at the images.

Also, as I am a member of NEARA, I asked some NEARA members to look through past photos taken of ancient stone structures in the northeastern United States to see if any unusual orb images were captured. I was quite surprised by the images I received in response. NEARA member Terry Bierce provided me with several examples of photos taken at stone chambers located in upstate New York. Multiple orb images were clearly visible in all eight photos Terry sent. She indicated that she had no idea what they were but had certainly noticed their presence in the photos. The chambers are a mystery themselves, with some believing them to be thousands of years old and influenced by the Celts, while others believe them to be the work of European colonial settlers in historical times. In any event, they are quite old and are likely the closest thing the United States has to megalithic structures. It has been shown by the late Hudson Valley chamber researcher Enrique Noguera that many of the chambers have winter solstice sunrise alignments. And strong electromagnetic anomalies or “hot spots” have been documented at many of the hundreds of stone chambers in Putnam County, New York, by researchers working with the late John Burke, scientist, businessman, and author of Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty, Understanding the Lost Technology of the Ancient Megalith Builders.

Fig. 12.4. Bronze Age image from Scandinavia, circa 1500 BCE. The inscribed site features have been highlighted with white chalk for easier viewing.

Fig. 12.5. Orb that appeared in images taken by my wife, Stephanie, in the winter in Woodstock, New York

Fig. 12.6. Orbs photographed by Terry Bierce outside stone chambers in Putnam County, New York

Fig. 12.7. “Strand” energy

Fig. 12.8. “Bar” energy

Fig. 12.9. “Mist” energy

Muir has spent a great deal of time systematically examining, analyzing, categorizing, and cataloging the different types of energy patterns recorded at the many sites where he conducted surveys. His work shows the “energy fields” come in many different shapes, sizes, and configurations, including bars, mists, clusters, waves, helixes, strings, and strands. Several photographic examples are shown in figures 12.7–12.9.

Fig. 12.10. Still-frame video images of orb energy captured in motion against a black background

Muir has also shown visually, with frame-by-frame video images, how these various patterns move and transform from one to another, while for the most part remaining invisible to the unaided eye. The movements of the orbs are of particular interest as their motion appears not to be random, and they seem to move in both a linear and nonlinear fashion. A question to consider is what mechanism of propulsion is responsible for the movement. Orbs also seem to defy the laws of gravity and inertia. More research is needed before conclusions can be drawn.

One interesting observation about the orbs and energy fields is that, like snowflakes, no two appear exactly alike. Each appears unique unto itself, and many different qualities can be discerned between any two, including size, shape, color, density, transparency, and component structure configuration.

Orb research is in its infancy, but the field is ripe for scientific inquiry and discovery related to atmospheric plasma physics, quantum mechanics, math, and specialized photography. Along the way we might gain some further insight into how this seemingly unseen element of nature is connected to our physical world, leading to a greater understanding of how orbs function in our environment and what purpose they serve, if any.

Paul C. Muir’s book, Orbs, Energy, and Mists: Secrets of the Ancients, was published in 2010. For more information on the orb phenomenon, please visit the following link:

Lulu.com: www.lulu.com/shop/paul-muir/orbs-energy-and-mists/paperback/product-12205319.html (accessed October 19, 2017).