Trick of light or proof of haunted Town Hall?

Presence of orbs cited by probers

Paranormal investigators Len Anderson (left) and Ed Beaulieu with a handheld laser that can read temperature. (TOM HERDE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

MIDDLEBOROUGH - Paranormal investigators Ed Beaulieu and Len Anderson aren't quite done with their study of the cavernous ballroom in the Middleborough Town Hall, even though they presented findings from their high-profile look into otherworldly activities there to selectmen last week.

On March 4, Beaulieu and Anderson took more than 300 digital photographs and ran several minutes of audiotape in rooms throughout Town Hall, which some in town believe is home to ghosts. It is said that spirits are not visible to the naked eye, but do appear on film and tape.

The Town Hall photos showed images said to be orbs, or masses of energy, that represent spirits, the investigators told - and showed - selectmen.

The audiotape carried a 1.1-second segment, played for selectmen, that featured a guttural voice saying either "help me" or "hell, no." That sound came after one of the investigators had asked whether any spirits that were present wanted the ghost hunters to leave.

That recording, the investigators said, came when the highly sensitive digital recorder was placed on the railing of the ballroom's balcony. A photo showed an orb in the same location.

In the wake of that recording, they said, a lifelong Middleborough resident contacted them and recounted a story her grandmother told, about a 3-year-old falling to her death from the balcony railing during a turn-of-the century celebration in the ballroom. Histories of the Town Hall, however, include no such account.

"We're going to go back and shoot more pictures and do more taping privately," Beaulieu said, concentrating on the balcony area.

But the pair has no plans to oust any lingering spirit they may come across in the ballroom. "Our philosophy is it's pretty arrogant to think a spirit wants to be 'cleansed' or moved on," Anderson said.

Orbs, according to Anderson, are the simplest form of energy spirits can generate. A step up from an orb is ectoplasm, which appears in photos as a rope-like image. The strongest form of a spirit's presence would be an apparition, or what most people might call a ghost.

Although Beaulieu and Anderson, who recently gave themselves the official name "Paranormal Institute of New England," say they haven't personally received any critical comments from the public disputing their findings in Town Hall, skeptics abound.

They attribute the orbs in photos to dust particles, droplets of liquid in the air or even a speck or two stuck on the camera lens. Orbs are also said to be caused by flash units on digital cameras.

The nationally known James Randi Education Foundation, self-described as "an educational resource on the paranormal, pseudoscientific, and the supernatural," seeks out scientific explanations for manifestations like orbs. When contacted via e-mail, its founder, James Randi, quickly dismissed the presence of orbs in the photos of the Middleborough Town Hall's interior. "The orbs are already well explained as common artifacts of digital photography," Randi said.

Randi made a generalized statement regarding the ghostly voice on the audiotape, since he had not heard it himself. "These people turn their instruments up beyond reason, and try to get ghosts out of nothing," Randi said. "Every cellphone image, poorly heard taxi radio, TV pickup, or photographic glitch is readily identified by them as spirits. They ought to do well with ink-blot tests, as well."

But believers continue to contact Beaulieu and Anderson, with even greater frequency since their Town Hall excursion, so it looks as if the pair will be busier than ever. It's exciting stuff, they said.

"It's like a treasure hunt," Beaulieu said. "You're not sure something's there, but you're going to look for it."

Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com.