MIDDLEBOROUGH - Ghost trackers Ed Beaulieu and Len Anderson investigated the Town Hall's grand ballroom Monday night, as planned. But they won't release the results of their excursion into the paranormal until next week, when they meet with the selectmen.
The pair was busy this week reviewing film and audiotapes they obtained, looking for evidence of spirits. They say spirits are not apparent to the naked eye, but do register in photos and videotape and sometimes on recordings.
Beaulieu said he didn't sense an unearthly presence in the cavernous room during the investigation, as he has done elsewhere, but that doesn't mean there were no spirits present. It's also possible, he said, that spirits were scared off by the many members of the media who accompanied them.
Depending on what they find, the pair may return, by themselves, for another check.
A few inexplicable things did occur, the pair said. Their equipment malfunctioned a few times - which is often an indication of ghostly energy at work, they said.
The Town Hall, built in 1873, has supported a number of uses during its history, including a district court. The basement still has cement cells where "tramps and transients" were locked up at the turn of the last century.
Beaulieu and Anderson, who make up the Paranormal Institute of New England, obtained permission to investigate Town Hall after receiving reports of footsteps late at night in the Town Hall's upstairs. One local performing arts teacher had also said that she had seen a large milky white orb, the kind that paranormal specialists say can contain ghostly energy, on a videotape of a performance her school had done in the ballroom in 2001.
Beaulieu and Anderson checked out the Town Hall's second floor ballroom, equipped with a laser thermal temperature detector, their digital cameras, and a new, highly sensitive digital recorder.
The recorder was run for short periods, while the ghost detectors asked questions. "We asked, 'Can you tell us who you are?, What year is this?, Were you an employee at the Town Hall?' and 'Are you upset we're here?' " Beaulieu said. While the human ear does not hear responses as they are given, Beaulieu said they are sometimes detected on recordings.
One highly unusual occurrence did take place Monday, Beaulieu said.
The team's laser thermal detector, used to detect the dramatic drops in temperature that some say indicates the presence of spirits, went temporarily haywire, soaring up, not down. The digital camera that Anderson was using also went temporarily on the fritz.
"That's usually an indication of a presence," he said.
The pair was looking forward to reviewing the film and audiotapes. In any case, Anderson said, the team had a good time. "It was great, and you never know what you're going to find."
Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com.
