Do You Believe? Holy image appears behind child battling leukemia

[The Straight Story]

KIRTLAND, OH (WOIO) -

Believer or not, the image behind Erin Potter, a Kirtland girl battling leukemia, is stunning. It certainly stunned her mom.

"My reaction immediately, it's Mary, they hear us, she's there," Jen Potter said.

The picture of Erin, running with sparklers, was taken in her backyard by a friend just after the family learned that Erin's cancer was back, for the third time, and she was facing a second bone marrow transplant.

"I didn't necessarily see it as a sign that Erin is fine and is going to walk out of this, but it's a sign that we're watching over her," Jen added.

19 Action News has documented Erin's cancer battle before. Kevin Potter, her father, actually introduced President Obama at a campaign stop, as the president spoke of the family's fight to stay insured to keep alive the fight for Erin.

Just after the picture was taken, Erin had that transplant, and right now, she's cancer-free.

http://www.19actionnews.com/story/22416520/do-you-believe-holy-image-appears-behind-child-battling-leukemia

[yellerpup]

1. That holy image

is wearing scrubs.

[GoneOffShore]

3. Exactly

Of course, people do take comfort in things like this. Even if it's only an illusion created by lens flare.

[yellerpup]

12. I seek to deprive no one of their comfort. n/t

[defacto7]

25. I don't seek to deprive comfort either

I do seek to enlighten the gullible so they are not disappointed by the realization they are being had, by preempting the hoax through education. I also seek to undermine those who manipulate the weak to make a buck or promote a myth.

[yellerpup]

32. Worthy quests.

Carry on.

[Savannahmann]

2. One thing that has always bothered me.

Those who see such information or images are always claiming it proves the existence of that which we can not explain. Those who don't believe always say that it is irrelevant to the non existence of a spiritual being or force.

Whatever I believe, or do not believe, is nobody's business but my own. If my faith was so weak as to need some inexplicable photograph to shore it up, then my faith in whatever I purportedly believe in is pretty weak.

So photographs or stories like this do nothing to shore up any faith I have, and the absence of such photographs would do nothing to diminish any faith I may have.

[The Straight Story]

4. I kinda feel the same way about your reply

[X_Digger]

5. Pareidolia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

[Dash87]

11. The paranormal community also refers to this as "matrixing."

[KittyWampus]

17. your signature drives me nuts. But in a good way.

[Dash87]

19. :D

[Jazzgirl]

44. Your signature drives me nuts too! LOLOL!

Every time I read your posts I know it's there but I keep reading like it's part of the post.

[Dash87]

45. It's all part of my evil plan

[defacto7]

6. You know, there's something worse than

using a child to promote a myth, that's using a child with cancer to promote a myth. The only thing worse than that is lying and manipulating a photo to create that myth to sway the gullible. I won't even begin to mention how badly that photo is manipulated. It's too blatant and insulting.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. You had that reaction too?

At least I know it was not just me

[LadyHawkAZ]

31. It's not just you. n/t

[LondonReign2]

35. No translucent child?

You mean in real life that child isn't a lovely translucent green?

[longship]

49. Yup! Piety justifies bearing false witness.

It's called pious fraud. Just like the Shroud of Turin, and numerous other holy relics in history. Most were done to bring more converts to the church.

This one looks deliberate as that is clearly a person standing behind the girl with the sparklers. The time lapsed nature of the picture that explains the bright tracks of the sparklers explains the blurred image of the figure behind the little girl.

Occam's Razor slices off any claim of what is claimed here.

Deliberate pious fraud, IMHO.

[Apophis]

7. Pareidolia.

It's no miracle. It's no proof of magic sky beings. It's no proof of an afterlife.

[Arugula Latte]

8. So Mary has the power to appear and "watch over" this child

but The Deity (Mary's rapist) is either powerless to prevent a child from getting cancer, didn't care to prevent the child from getting cancer or The Diety caused the child to get cancer.

[Apophis]

15. If any of those are true, why call this deity god?

I agree with your assessment.

[KittyWampus]

18. "Deity" is not that which causes or prevents anything. It's the Universal Consciousness that experie

experiences all that happens WITH all of us.

Your observation is sophomoric and indicates you could benefit from expanding your philosophical horizon.

[Arugula Latte]

23. Thank you, Oh Enlightened One.

I still think it's silly to "believe" in supernatural nonsense.

[trotsky]

28. You make such proclamations with a certainty that rivals the most extreme fundamentalists.

What an interesting coincidence.

[Marr]

34. Yeah, I think you made that up.

It certainly isn't in the Bible. You simply choose to believe that because it makes you feel better.

Then again, that's pretty much what all of religion is, so I suppose it's just as valid as any other religious claim.

[snooper2]

38. "Universal Consciousness"

That's all warm and fuzzy sounding LOL...


What if universal consciousness is really like the Borg and the only thing keeping you and I from it's evil is our own human free will? If there was some such thing as "Universal Consciousness" it's got a 50/50 chance of being fucking evil right?

[longship]

50. Resistance is futile! nt

[Dash87]

9. Shutter speed issue with the camera.

It causes very similar effects.

[siligut]

24. yes, a picture of all persons attending would no doubt reveal a young woman

One who temporarily entered the picture with Erin.

[Dash87]

30. I'm not horribly convinced that's a picture of anyone.

If it is, however, it might be a 'smudged' picture of the little boy who's running. The camera seemed to have been held fairly steady (the environment isn't smudged), but all moving objects are smudged.

I wonder if this picture was digital? If not, I wonder if double exposure is also possible. I definitely see over exposure, but it could be a weird combination of the two. I think you might be on to something, as there appears to be a woman just exiting the picture.

Finally, notice the effect created by the sparkler in his left hand - it's exactly the same height as the figure. I believe that this 'figure' is nothing more than a combination of the little boy and his other sparkler.

[bowens43]

13. Wow! Complete nonsense.

[brooklynite]

14. Isn't it amazing that the Virgin Mary never appears to Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists...?

[KittyWampus]

20. They most certainly do, when one meditates.

[defacto7]

22. It is true

and fairly well studied that meditation as well as medication can stimulate parts of the brain that can cause visual hallucinations. It is somewhat common.

[sarisataka]

16. I am glad

that Erin is cancer free and hope she has a long, joy-filled life.

[bunnies]

21. I believe these people are dumb as shit.

Does that count?

[d_b]

26. it'd be way cooler if mary was jumping in the air like david lee roth

[Xyzse]

27. I have no idea, but tend not to knock people for what brings them comfort

If this brings comfort to somebody, all well and good. It enriches their lives and makes them feel better.
I don't have it in me to take that away from them.

Do I believe that picture? I have no idea.
Frankly the figure behind looks kinda creepy. Doesn't look holy at all, especially with that Reddish color. Isn't red supposed to be bad?

Any how, I hope the kid lives a long healthy life.

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. It looks to me like a blurry picture of a woman wearing a pink sari....

with the ghostly image of a small person waving lightning bolts in the foreground.

Perhaps that is a young Thor, there to offer protection to the sari wearing individual.

[cbdo2007]

33. Looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi in Return of the Jedi

[pnwest]

36. Double exposure. You can see the girl

in pink looking down at a sparkler in her hand, which points down. And the second exposure is the child running with sparklers in both hands, held upright. The two circles on the left is the same person with a sparkler in a different position in each exposure.

[Marr]

37. You know what bothers me about this sort of thing?

Religious people are constantly claiming that various pieces of hokey "evidence" proves their claims-- but then deny actual evidence and solid, scientific arguments that conflict with their beliefs because 'these things are beyond science'.

I can't tell you how many articles my religious relatives have sent me on the subject of "Biblical Archaeologists" who assert that X or Y proves this or that Bible story, even when it does not. And then they turn around and dismiss reams of scientific evidence in other fields.

[HockeyMom]

39. Holy? No

Maybe spirits, ancestors, whatever. I prefer the term Entity, which isn't necessarily HOLY.

[cordelia]

40. I hope the young girl has long, healthy, and happy life.

[Iggo]

41. LOL...no.

[Quantess]

42. I wanted to read the local comments from the channels' website

but I couldn't find any. Bummer.

[frylock]

43. i see carrie, not mary..

[Auntie Bush]

46. That women in the picture is wearing glasses.

So she's not an angle. We're perfect in heaven...no?

ALSO, the child is transparent. You can see the woman in the background right through the child.
Hmmm...I smell a fish!

[SoCalDem]

47. Doesn't the Virgin Mary always wear blue? n/t

[Rex]

48. A trick of the light and exposure at night.

It is just a trick, I've made similar photographs. It is very easy to do.

[Egalitarian Thug]

51. Are you always this impressed with obvious, badly done fraud?

Do you see white-man Jesus in you crackers?

[Tom Ripley]

52. Is that the cover of Sabbath's Paranoid album?

[madamesilverspurs]

53. The family may take comfort

from the picture, and I'll happily believe in that; comfort can add to the healing process, whether I agree with its source or not.

[NYC Liberal]

54. Looks like a blob of random colors to me.

And even if it did look like a person, how do they know it's "mary"? Why not one of the billions of other women that live and have lived on this planet?

[SidDithers]

55. Looks like the Devil, come to take the cancer kid to Hell...nt

Sid