Sacred area in New Mexico. Notice blue orb in center bottom of photo
The streets outside my apartment were one such area and I used to have a great deal of fun with people who didn't believe the orbs were much more than dust or other camera anomalies. We would go out on my balcony at night and I would look out at the street and ask for orbs. The shot would be full of them. Then I would make a plea that there be no orbs and the shot would be empty. It was great fun to watch their brains lock.
Anytime my daughter was around and we were taking photos she would look up and demand no orbs show up and ruin what could be good shots. For her this was important because she did the photo shoots for publicity for her theatre company. Orbs showing up could and did ruin good shots until she started making her request that they not show up.
This showing up and not showing up on request seemed to indicate there was some from of communication happening. At times, when the activity was really strong, the shapes would change on request. They would go from circular to square to diamond, and on rare occasions show different coloring. Some people would generate all kinds of activity and others none. In general groups of people generated more activity, but not always. Geographical area could make a big difference. To our Western scientific minds this was all very fascinating and fun and pretty inexplicable. To the Native elders we were working with it was all explainable.
To them we were getting a photographic representation of their reality. We were photographing the spirits that worked with them because our photos matched how they saw these orbs. The only difference was that we were most often getting cross sections of a three dimensional reality. I don't remember any Elder ever saying so, but it began to seep in that if they were right, our playing around with the phenomenon might actually be somewhat disrespectful. Even though there did seem to be some sort of communication, it was so limited on our part that we were in a certain respect asking them to perform like pets. The more I meditated on that thought the less interest I had in taking orb photographs. I still get orbs in photos, but very rarely try to communicate unless I feel it will make a teaching point for some one else.
That teaching point usually has to do with how our brains will filter out information that has no meaning in our day to day survival needs or usual worldly interaction. The brain is taking in an enormous amount of sensory data at any given time and will filter out the vast majority of the data that has no perceived usefulness. The relative usefulness of the data has a great deal to do with our enculturation. In the world of Native medicine people perceiving orbs is very important to their cultural understanding of their world. So when Dianna and I were told it was typical that whites would need technology to see orbs, it wasn't just a gentle joke, it was an observation on how the white world is defined by technology and the tools and philosophy of science. It was a statement about how this puts limits on our world view and it's inherent assumptions about the truth of reality.
Once I fully understood this I found it truly humbling. It had a lot to do with opening my mind to receiving other possibilities about our universe and who else might live in it with us. The Communion of Saints and Angels became very very real.......
The links below will take you to the start of the story.
1) What's a frustrated Catholic to do?
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-frustrated-catholic-to-do.html
2) The appearance of orbs and St Helena
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com/2010/07/story-continues.html
3)I have been hooked for longer than I thought
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com/2010/08/story-continues.html
