Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Paranormal team: Apparent ghosts at old schoolhouse

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

READFIELD -- They returned to the Readfield Historical Society expecting to hear a metaphysical teacher delivering a grammar lesson and the sound of a chalkboard being cleaned.

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BOO: A paranormal team is reporting the location of apparent ghostly forces at the Readfield Historical Society building, a former schoolhouse.

Staff photo by Andy Molloy

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Instead, the team of paranormal investigators encountered occult forces that were far less welcoming.

Those were the results of a six-member team's ghostly investigation into the Readfield Historical Society building, a former schoolhouse built in 1823.

A Sanford investigative group called Everything Paranormal of New England staked out the property on Route 17 the night of June 5. Members planted audio recorders and infrared cameras throughout the two-story building, and awaited the outcome.

"It was a crazy night," said Renee Alling, who shared the results of the investigation this week with the Readfield Historical Society president, a reporter and an Augusta-area team of paranormal investigators.

"We heard a man's voice right off. He was in the back room," Alling said. "From there, it turned crazy."

The evening's highlight was a segment the team caught on video in which team members say they communicated with a ghost through a flashlight. The presumed ghost twisted the light on and off in response to prompts.

"It's hard to explain, and hard for people to believe you," Alling said. "But we were there."

In the video, one of the team members asks, "If you're a little girl, can you turn the light on?"

After a few seconds, the light twists on.

"Can you flash the light how many years you are old?"

The light flickers on five times.

Alling said this flashlight conversation was the first time her team had had that sort of interaction with a paranormal force.

"We were a little nervous," she said.

The audio recorders picked up a number of sounds that Alling's team found only upon combing over the recordings following the investigation.

Those included the sounds of chairs and desks moving across the floor; a presumed spirit telling the investigators, "I see you"; and men moaning.

Another man tells the group: "Get out."

"If we would have heard it," Alling said, "we would have gotten out."

Many of the team's experiences that night gave the investigators a jolt.

"Some of them were humorous," Alling said of the ghosts. "Some of them were terrible."

While outside taking a break at one point, the group heard a scream.

And as team members taped their interaction by flashlight with the ghost, they heard a girl screech.

After a nerve-wracking night, that's what caused the team to gather its equipment and flee the building.

"The first time it was all happy," Alling said of her team's Readfield Historical Society visit last fall. "This time, we go in there, and they're telling us to get out."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com