Site launched on the 23rd February 2025

Smoke

Out of all of the anomalous ‘mist’ images I’ve seen over the years, the imagery produced by smoke introduced to a cold damp atmosphere is by far the most evocative and easily prone to pareidolia and very simple imaginative interpretation. Depending of the source of the smoke and the environmental conditions, in some cases (such as candle smoke) the smoke itself is rarely visible to the naked eye, but when flash photography is used, especially in colder, damper conditions, the results can be startling.

Perhaps the best known recent case of smoke and a purported supernatural presence comes from the image of an alleged face in the smoke surrounding the World Trade Centre attack on September 11th 2001. The image of ‘Satan’, as identified by a number of news outlets – as well as paranormal and other religious groups – hit headline news, but has now been explained by many as a result of pareidolia, fuelled by the view of evil at work in the attack.

So what actually is smoke?

Smoke is formed when a material is burned, resulting in the expulsion of particles and gases. Depending on the source of the fire, the smoke can comprise hundreds of elements, though solid particles in ‘standard’ smoke comprise such things as soot, oil and ash. The gaseous elements of smoke are varied, but can also contain dangerous gases such as hydrogen chloride or carbon monoxide.

Strange-looking mists/smoke can easily be caught on photography, the culprits tending to be smokes produced by candles, cigarettes and in recent years vapes. As with mists and fogs, smoke is airborne, and thus subject to the movement of every airflow that it encounters, though as smoke by its very nature is warm, in cold air it usually rises quickly. This can often result in the same effect as vapour condensing from the atmosphere. Smoke also ‘hangs around’ in enclosed spaces a lot longer than condensation clouds are visible, and as such can produce strange photographs long after the smoker has departed an area.

Due to smoke also being formed partly of solid articles, I’m also theorising that smoke could also inform the origin of some photographic orbs further, but that’s something I’ve not experimented with yet.

Smog

Smog is formed by a combination of smoke and fog, usually noted as air pollution. Smog is usually coloured, due to the mix of the fog with coal smoke or other chemicals produced by human industry such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Vehicle emissions themselves, a prime component of smog, can be seen to be billowing clouds of smoke: it may be that concentrations of emission smoke can account for some ‘apparitions’ reported in the media over the years at car crash sites.

Case Study (private location): there be demons ere, there be...

Back in 2005 I took two photographs which I then decided to use in conjunction with experiments for testing alleged spirit mediums and those sensitive to ‘dark forces’. Now twenty years ago, the cry of ‘demon’ was only usually raised during investigations by individuals where the presence of such a being would be beneficial for the team in question – ie, they could charge more for ‘clearing’ a location. Demons didn’t really come into mainstream UK ghosthunting until certain paranormal shows arrived from the US and rose in popularity. So imagine my surprise when these images gave claim that the location in question was haunted by multiple spirits, or for the most part, by demons.

The premise was simple: show the images to the spiritual mediums/sensitives in question and give them the following information: “These were taken in an empty corridor, with no mists visible. The location had reported alleged poltergeist activity, and occasionally disembodied footsteps in that corridor.” Nothing in the statement was a lie: the corridor when taking the photos did appear empty, and the location had reported the phenomena.

Out of 20 alleged mediums/sensitives shown the photographs, 6 one of them claimed that the photographs were evidence of multiple spirit manifestation, and 14 of them, demonic infestation. Not a single one suggested that the images in question were simply environmental in nature. Here’s the two images in question (click on them to see bigger images):

Some went further and asked for copies of the images, which they then ‘analysed’ in a graphics package, their ‘analysis’ essentially playing with the brightness/contrast. In the mists of the first image especially, they found their evidence – with a face being identified to the left and a ‘creature’ resembling a side-facing skull with a short body to the centre. I’ve reproduced these images for you here:

The truth? The images are the result of candle smoke interacting with air currents and cold damp air. The candles were set up to provide a background of ambient light as the location in question had no electricity for lighting, and having a bit of ambient light helps in recording footage and in not tripping over things and walking into walls… there’s simply nothing paranormal about these photographs, which simply show candle smoke interacting with air currents and cold damp conditions, which produce images which light up the viewer’s imagination through pareidolia.

Notes and conclusions

Notes and conclusions are much the same as for Mists and Fogs, with more experimentation and image production required.

Examples

Examples of smoke images