Moved by a spirit to hunt the supernatural

Bellingham man gains fame in an unusual line of work

Jeff Belanger quit a high-paying technology job to hunt ghosts. (Rose Lincoln for the Boston Globe)

Jeff Belanger's version of the American dream involves ectoplasm, exorcisms, and, perhaps most importantly, a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

At the beginning of 2004, the Bellingham resident quit a high-paying job in technology to pursue his rather unusual calling: ghost hunting.

He and his wife, Megan, who works in publishing, scraped by as he supplemented his dream vocation with graphic design work. They agreed that once their savings dropped to a certain level, he would go back to a regular job.

But it never did. And this year, he said, he's finally been able to devote himself fully to his otherworldly craft.

"Sometimes it's a little bit surreal," Belanger, 34, said in an interview at his home.

This supernatural celebrity has written nine books on paranormal topics that have been translated into six languages. He runs ghostvillage.com, a website devoted to ghost research, evidence, and discussion, that gets 225,000 hits daily. Just last Tuesday, he fit in 14 interviews for radio stations around the country.

But it all will come to a screeching, if temporary, halt at noon on Halloween, a day his wife describes as "sacred." Boxes come up from the basement. Strobe lights are connected. Faux cobwebs are spread over the bushes. There are videos and music and inflatable monsters. The whole process takes hours.

Belanger said he knew his decorating efforts were a success one year after he watched a child tear down the street and then stop at the edge of his driveway, where he said, "Whoa."

Belanger's search for the supernatural has taken him from the Needham Town Hall to the Tower of London. He's never seen a ghost, but that doesn't stop him from believing. And if he found one, he wouldn't jump in his ectomobile like a character from "Ghostbusters." Viewing himself more as historian than exterminator, he'd probably pull out a notepad.

One of the best places for specter-sighting in the region, he said, is Stone's Public House, a restaurant in Ashland, which was allegedly the scene of a murder in the mid-1800s after a poker game went awry. The unfortunate victim is said to still haunt the premises, alongside the spirit of a little girl who died either by accident or illness, depending on who is telling the story.

Belanger has also checked out Needham Town Hall, where a longtime custodian insists he can hear footsteps when he's alone in the building.

Belanger even looks for ghosts in his own town, where he has done interviews on the haunting of the Bellingham Historical Museum. Part of the building was the town's library from 1930 until 1989, and is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a librarian who likes to move books and push out chairs.

His website is a collection of audio, video, and articles by him and others. More than 25,000 people are subscribers and contribute everything from blog entries to research. People post stories and photos of their alleged encounters. And there are dedicated pages for every paranormal topic one can think of, including witchcraft, haunted hotels, psychics, and skeptics. The site also has a "Ghost-Mart," where one can buy items such as electromagnetic field and radiation meters and testers.

His latest book, "Who's Haunting the White House? The President's Mansion and the Ghosts Who Live There," aimed at children, came out Oct. 7. And he recently finished working behind the scenes on an episode of "Ghost Adventures" about the Houghton Mansion in North Adams, which is scheduled to air on the Travel Channel tonight at 10.

Belanger's entrepreneurial streak was evident as far back as middle school, when he typed up cards with his name, phone number, and the prescient words: "supernatural investigation."

A childhood friend, John Judd, said Belanger's writings sometimes gives him the creeps. One night after reading a chapter Belanger wrote on exorcism, Judd said, he couldn't sleep. But he loves telling people one of his friends is a paranormal investigator.

"Not a single person isn't interested," said Judd. "It's a subject that piques everyone's curiosity. We're all still sitting here on earth wondering, is it true" that ghosts exist?

Interest in the paranormal has enjoyed a spike in popularity recently, and Belanger thinks he knows why: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Historically, every time there is a major calamity, people turn to ghosts and other unexplainable mysteries as a form of spirituality, he said. Mediums enjoyed a business boom after the Civil War, said Belanger, and there were similar surges in interest after both World Wars and the Vietnam War.

"After 9/11 we've had a world in turmoil," he said. "Spirituality is a basic human need."

Belanger said his belief in ghosts stems from curiosity, from the desire to know there is life after death. Ghost-chasing is not a religion, he said, but equal parts spirituality, history, and folklore. And he's had enough experiences he can't explain to keep him intrigued.

Once, in the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, he heard footsteps that could not have belonged to anyone in the building. He was thrilled to see a shadow he couldn't explain in the Catacombs of Paris a few years ago. He likened his experience to a deer hunter who never runs into a deer.

He's come up empty despite special access to some amazing haunts, including the Tower of London and the White House. But he won't give up faith that he'll some day find a ghost.

"I stand in all the right places," he said with a smile.