No ghosts at the Taunton library says NESPI

NESPI investigated the supposed haunted Taunton library in Massachusetts. No tangible evidence was collected, aside from personal experiences.

The results are in and representatives from the New England Society of Paranormal Investigators (NESPI) say that while they did pick up some interesting sights and sounds with their equipment after their investigation at the Taunton Public Library earlier this year, there was not enough scientific evidence to say for sure any area in the building has paranormal activity.

“It is definitely a place of interest and we really want to come back,” said Bill Martin, EVP research director and investigator. “We caught some activity on our recording devices, but can’t actually make out everything.”

The building has housed the library since 1904 and it was actually NESPI team member Colleen Beltramin who came to the library directors to ask if the team could conduct an investigation given how much activity has been known of or reported in other places in the Taunton area.

The team, make up of almost a dozen people, set up the equipment last March in the area of the front desk then put other recording devices in other areas such as stairways and where the old children’s’ area was and spent 24 hours. After sorting through hours of various types of recordings, they’re still not certain but did find things they have yet to be able to explain. Evidence was found in one of the stairwells as well as the old children’s’ area where they were able to capture two clear recordings.

Susanne Duquette, library director, never experienced anything herself when she’s been working, nor have any of her colleagues, but given the age of the building and the group’s interest, she thought it would be neat to have them come in and see what they could find.

“They’re looking for areas that support paranormal activity,” said Duquette, “and where residents talk about it and this area seems to be a hot spot.

Assistant Library Director Daisy Delano took part in the investigation too.

“It was fun and spooky!” she said.

Along with Martin and Beltramin, founder and lead investigator Mike Astin explained some basics about the science of paranormal activity and talked about a few myths that go along with it during their “Paranormal 101” presentation Saturday night.

“I’m the biggest skeptic of them all that you’ll find, even within this team,” Astin said with a full house in attendance. “Do I believe in this? Yes, because we have evidence we can’t prove.”

Martin said in order for a place to be considered haunted, a few things need to take place on both the audio and video equipment. The team uses many pieces of equipment but a few are key: a thermometer for cold spots, a digital microphone, a digital infrared high-definition camera, a K-Z meter, which picks up electro-magnetic fields and an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recorder.

During the presentation, they played recordings from many other areas of investigation around New England they’ve done in addition to the few they gained in the library. There were more than a few skeptics in the audience so as they played these sounds, they asked people to guess a few. Some more obvious than others.

“There are intelligent haunts as well as residual haunts,” said Astin. “The intelligent ones can actually answer your questions or come in on your conversations. The residual haunts are the ones where someone may pass through a wall because a door may have been there at one time.”

The team, based out of Cape Cod, break their work up into three areas: field investigation, team intervention and research.

They explained that there are different classes of what can be picked up on an audio recorder. Class A people can decipher without headphones while class B and C recording require headphones an bit more of a fine-tuned ear.

Beltramin said one big myth out there is that only people who have died haunt places.

“This is not true,” he said. “Prisons and mental institutions have mostly the negative energy while libraries and schools have positive energy that’s mostly from children.”

Many of their past recordings feature young children’s’ voices. In one of them a little girl saying “Follow me.” can clearly be heard.

“We think we’re all tough guys on the team,” said Beltramin, “but I can’t tell you how many times my hairs have stood up on my arm and I’ve gotten tears in my eyes from something I couldn’t hear until I hear it later through the recorded data.”