Cemetery Green Orb

Not a long story, but one of the few truly "paranormal" experiences I've had. I put paranormal in parenthesis as I am always open to other explanations.

Back in 1999 a friend and I took a trip to Forsyth, Georgia. I had family back there which had moved at this point in time so I was semi-experienced with the area. This is further in a ways and not downtown Forsyth. A lot of older buildings and Pastures in this area. Most notably a very old and run down Church. Down the road from the Church a civil-war era cemetery. This was right around the corner where I had family living.

Well, a friend of mine and myself were avid bikers during this time and decided we'd trek through the not-so-often used roads. We set up at my families old residence which was now condemned. (Why they moved.) We parked the car and pulled out our bikes from the rear and set off at around 3PM. We passed the old Church, the cemetery and we continued on. We rode for about an hour and decided to take a break as we saw what appeared to be old house foundations just inside the woods with the chimney still standing. We explored a bit then set off again.

Come two hours of just riding around we decided to head back. So we followed the same roads back. It was getting dark but we weren't more than maybe 10 minutes away. As we approach the cemetery on our left side, I found it quite calming. It was serene. As I was thinking this, I saw what appeared to be a soft-ball sized orb further back in the not so big cemetery floating in front of an old head stone. It was quite beautiful, I say the main color was green but it had yellow and bluish swirls circulating on the inside.

I came to a stop, my friend didn't see it at first and asked me why I stopped. I asked if he saw what I saw pointing in the direction of the orb. I had the inclination of wanting to get off my bike and get a closer look. But just as I was about to raise my leg over my bike to get off, my friend sets off in a hurry which startled me which caused me to get spooked so I did the same.

We got to his car and I'm trying to talk to him, saying I wanted to take a closer look. He's in a bit of a hurry. As we're in the car he just told me that was not meant for us to see and he didn't want to have any part of it. He's not a big believer in the paranormal so his reaction struck me at the time.

This is one of those experiences in my life where I remember it vividly. Especially seeing I'm not prone to out-there experiences in general. (Although I've had a few, but far and few between.)

Would love to hear your thoughts. I've researched a bit as to what it could have been, and one theory is it might have been gas escaping from a decomposing body. My thoughts are the graves weren't newer than the early 1900's, so wouldn't the majority of bodies have been decomposed by then? I went back in early 2000 to get a closer look. The head stone was eroded so no name or dates were legible. Did not see anything during that visit.

But I can't get how beautiful the orb was. Usually I'm scared of the paranormal, but I just felt so peaceful and curious and wanted to see more.

Thanks for reading.

I have seen the green orbs. Were you by water, like a pond or lake?

a reply to: Guiltyguitarist

Hey, thanks for the reply. As far as I know, there is no ponds or lakes in that area.

Spirit energy is electromagnetic. The human spirit is a real thing. It just isn't studied by academia because of the fear of ridicule and just plain fear. Systemic institutional ignorance as well.
Most people don't find out that they have a spirit until after their body dies.

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
The human spirit is a real thing.

I believe this 100%. My only question is, is it even possible to see it? But that's another thread. I'm curious as to what this orb was. Spiritual energy? Gas? Something else?

Either way, it was stunning and would love to see something like it again.

originally posted by: Aegeus
a reply to: Guiltyguitarist

Hey, thanks for the reply. As far as I know, there is no ponds or lakes in that area.

For comparison (sorry to those that have read this before) the ones I saw were basketball sized and floated about 20 feet above the ground. About 15 of them moving together like a school of fish. I didn’t see a swirl inside them, but they had a chroma flair effect, that is they changed color a little as they passed by like the fancy cars in car shows. It was the most fear I’ve felt at one time. I actually dropped to my knees and covered my head for a second. It was about 2100 hours.
Some one here on ATS said “those sound like will o wisps,we’re you by water?” And yes I was 25 feet from a large pond.

originally posted by: Aegeus

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
The human spirit is a real thing.

I believe this 100%. My only question is, is it even possible to see it? But that's another thread. I'm curious as to what this orb was. Spiritual energy? Gas? Something else?

Either way, it was stunning and would love to see something like it again.

It seems a spirit can be seen but defining the conditions when one can be seen is not an easy task.
Cameras and digital cameras, full spectrum cameras, cameras set up to capture in the infra red range of light have all captured spirit energy.
New technology for capturing spirits or recording their presence have progressed by leaps and bounds since say 20 years ago.
Just being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment might also be a factor, plus luck.

There is a new theory on ball lighting happening anywhere , even with absolute clear sky conditions.
Possible ?
Yes.

originally posted by: Aegeus
I'm curious as to what this orb was..

I've had close encounters with them on two different occasions. I believe they are something conscious and intelligent, or at least controlled by something conscious and intelligent. They're not just balls of gas. One theory is that they're some kind of interdimensional (spiritual) being that is manifesting as a kind of energy in the easiest physical form to take (a sphere).
The time that I encountered two of them in the woods at night, they came down into the woods from the sky and disappeared. We heard soft footsteps come from where they disappeared. Whatever it was whistled at us real loud when we eventually left.

This might sound dumb, but have there ever been a bunch of sasquatch or UFO sightings around that area?

Luminous orbs have been reported throughout all of recorded history. I've had my own encounter with both a huge one over a mountain top at night and smaller ones also in an old abandoned cemetery in the wee hours.

Natural earth/atmospheric phenomena? Quite possibly. I mean we know ball lightning & "earthlights" exist.

On the other hand I have come to the current opinion that we do from time to time come into contact with non-human intelligence. Those the ancients oft time referred to as the "shining ones."

Mysteries can be tough to live with. We like answers to our existential questions. But as far as mysteries-you-have-to-live-with go, witnessing orbs is a pretty cool & wondrous experience.

a reply to: Aegeus

I've never seen any orbs myself, but appreciate hearing your experience with them. Thank you!

I had an experience with 2 green orbs once, one was a little bigger than the other. They zipped around in a car I was traveling in with one other person (driving) who also saw (and named) them. They were with us for about 400 miles, We stopped for the night to sleep in a hotel and the next thing I remember I was home, dont remember anything from the hotel to home.

originally posted by: ATruGod
I had an experience with 2 green orbs once, one was a little bigger than the other. They zipped around in a car I was traveling in with one other person (driving) who also saw (and named) them. They were with us for about 400 miles, We stopped for the night to sleep in a hotel and the next thing I remember I was home, dont remember anything from the hotel to home.

Wowzers that sounds like an awesome encounter

So, when we die our spirit goes to Heaven to be with God. Our body stays on Earth waiting for Jesus return to be resurected. The spirits you see on Earth are ones that are not in Heaven with God. They are waiting. This does not mean they are bad or evil, some just didnt know Jesus. This is why sometimes you feel scared but other times you do not.

originally posted by: MPoling
So, when we die our spirit goes to Heaven to be with God

When we die, we do go on to a "next" place (or progressive series of places), to ultimately "be with God".

originally posted by: MPoling
Our body stays on Earth waiting for Jesus return to be resurected.

This is a ridiculous misunderstanding of biblical verses. Your human body is not going to be resurrected on Earth for you to come back into at some grand bodily resurrection event.

originally posted by: MPoling
The spirits you see on Earth are ones that are not in Heaven with God.

There are many different kinds of spirits, just as there are many different kinds of physical creatures - cat, deer, butterfly, human, etc. It's extremely incorrect to assume that a spirit you encounter is some human that got stuck on Earth just because you've encountered it. I'm going to assume you're a Christian - do you believe in angels, for example? Have angels ever appeared on Earth? Obviously angels are not deceased humans who got stuck here. And again, angels are just one kind of spiritual being, just as cats are one kind of physical creature.

originally posted by: MPoling
This does not mean they are bad or evil, some just didnt know Jesus.

Knowing Jesus has nothing at all to do with whether or not you pass on. Everyone passes on when their body dies. That's how the system works. To imply that a person has to know Jesus in order to gain access to the afterlife would imply an imperfection of the system, because then certain people would be cut off from access to the afterlife due simply to life circumstance. God is not imperfect or flawed, nor is the system he created. Nobody dies and gets stuck because of what they know or don't know. God's love, forgiveness and acceptance are infinite, and none of those who want life are excluded from it.

originally posted by: MPoling
This is why sometimes you feel scared but other times you do not.

Being afraid of something is not an indication that it is bad or evil, but fear of something can result from that thing's nature or actions. You may recall biblical accounts of people reacting with terror and panic to the presence of angels. The angels were not evil or attempting to harm the people, but they felt fear regardless. Likewise, some people don't feel fear when confronted with things that are evil or harmful.

I've told the story several times here. Stepped into my porch in Phoenix and lit a cigarette and just stopped breathing and froze looking over my pool and around our grapefruit, tangerine, orange lemon, and keylime trees pink, orange, blue, and yellow brilliant spheres of light. Kicked the door open behind me and screamed someone get a camera and run! A yellow orb flitted over to me and flew arondy body going down then up then right in front of my face for a look although there was absolutely nothing at the center causing the bright light. Finally someone came from inside and said, "oh neat." And all in unison they stopped flitting and just all flew straight up into the sky and we got three or four pictures of their retreat. Because she was so unimpressed I asked what she just saw. She said lots of colored lights flying around then shooting into the sky. I can't believe she wasn't that impressed. Because all my life I've loved reading about paranormal stuff but in the end deep down though I wanted to believe I knew that it was probably just misunderstanding and attention starvation behind all the accounts. But that night my ability to believe in the world we can't always see became huge and allows for anything and finally knowing there are these things that really happen is so wonderful but it's driven me insane too since I HAVE to know what they were. I call them and am 100% certain it's the phenomenon called Willow th'wisps.

a reply to: AlexandrosTheGreat

Yup. I know exactly what you mean. It’s hard going thru life pretending this stuff isn’t real once you’ve seen them.

a reply to: Aegeus

In Mexico dead bodies are often buried with stolen gold. It was a well know phenomena that dead bodies will give off a weird glowing gas.

Bonus weirdo fact, during the American Civil War a group of soldiers who were considered "dying: on the battle field were left to die. That night many of these men glowed green and had a slight aroma of sulfur, but the weirdo part was that all the men that had the green glow survived their injuries. Even though they were all considered to far gone to waste medical resources on.

You might want to look up where that story happened in regards to where you were since I believe that the incident happened in Georgia as well.

EDITED PART BELOW:

Here is one story about the green glowing soldiers:
From: fullmetaltraveler.com

The night of April 7, soldiers from both sides were still stranded in the middle of muddy fields waiting to be rescued. That’s when they started noticing a strange blueish-green glow coming from their wounds.

The doctors and troops left it in God’s hands. It was a miracle to them.

It would remain a mystery until 2001 when a 17-year old high school student named Bill Martin, his mother Phyllis (and microbiologist) and his friend Johnathan Curtis created a school science experiment to figure out why. Bill had visited the Shiloh battlegrounds and heard the Angel’s Glow lore and wanted to solve the mystery.

They studied known types of bacteria that glow in the dark. Then they checked to see if the conditions were right for certain types of bacteria to be present on those dates, in those weather conditions.

Short answer: yes. There was a bioluminescent bacterium that would have thrived in the wet, muddy and cold conditions of those dates in history. Those bacterium were made possible by the presence of nematodes, parasitic worms that borrow into blood vessels of larvae and contain Photorhabdus luminescens.

The story I was told took place in Georgia, but it happened in a few places it seems. There was even a weird case of a homeless man in DC a few years ago that had the same greenish glow. Weirdo stuff.

When my father passed away, we were inside the funeral home for visitation.

It was getting late at night, about time to close it down and go home.

Me, my Mother and my two Older Brothers were in
The Viewing Parlor with Dad.

We were all standing up in the middle of the room
Suddenly a gold, shimmering,
Softball sized orb appeared at the doorway!

I noticed and said Look and Pointed.

The orb hovered for maybe 10 seconds and then began traveling slowly towards the open casket.

We all kinda stepped back and out of the way and it traveled through the area we were standing in and then paused in front of us for a moment, maybe another 10 seconds.

Then slowly it advanced and positioned itself directly over the casket but about six feet above it.

Then it began slowly moving down towards my Dad.
As it was going towards him the color seemed to undulate and shimmer more.

It went down, almost touching his heart area and paused for a moment and then went upwards to his forehead pausing and shimmering.

Then so suddenly it shot straight up in the air and through the ceiling and it was gone.

We were all speechless!!!
Yet, Filled with Calmness!

We decided whoever came to take Dad on his journey was very beautiful and kindly.
Allowing us to bear Witness to this Event.

That experience has been one of a few
highlights of my life!!!

Thank you all very much for your insights and valuable input. I appreciate it.

I'm short pressed for time as of late so just gonna do a quick post here and start another thread. I'll have to research about the "Angel Lights" and where it happened. I could certainly see a civil war battle being fought in that area as it's rife with old buildings from that time so it certainly was a habited place back then.

Again, there are lakes in Forsyth but none in that immediate area. So not sure how far (if it matters) these orbs need water to be. It's also not very wet, pretty average soil.

I'll sit down when I have more time and go through this thread more thoroughly. I really do appreciate all of your input as it helps me gain a broader sense of what it might be. I did look up the area on Maps and having a hard time narrowing the exact place down. It's been nearly twenty years since I've been there last and I certainly don't remember street names.

If I do find it, I'll gladly show you the area and highlight the cemetery.