- Details
- Category: Past Issues
caption:
Spirited Photo
After a photo of an empty barn was developed, the spirit of a horse appeared in the photo. Photo by Bill LeClair used with permission.
By Don Spaeth
Ask your friends if they believe in ghosts or spirits.
There are lots of people out there who believe in ghosts and nearly each person has a reason or an explanation for his belief. I’m a fan of the TV show “Ghost Hunters”—not because I believe in ghosts (I’m pretty sure I don’t), but because the idea of people “hunting” ghosts fascinates me.
There was even one episode of “Ghost Hunters” that featured an investigation of our own Bradley Playhouse!
So, when I recently spotted a vehicle parked outside New Alliance Bank in South Woodstock with “CONNECTICUT PARANORMAL RESEARCH TEAM” decals on the sides,
I decided it was time to investigate this fascination with and belief in the afterlife by interviewing the Team’s founders.
I wanted to find out what motivates people to dedicate time, energy and money to the pursuit of ghosts. I sensed there might be some interesting stories—not only from the actual “hunts”, but from peoples’ lives—that would help explain this unusual occupation.
So, one Saturday in late January I met CTPRT’s founders, Christine and Bill LeClair, at Mrs Bridges’ Pantry for hot chocolate and some ghost stories. What I got was more than I had bargained for and in the next few installments I hope to present the world of Paranormal Research through the experiences and investigations of one local group, Connecticut Paranormal Research Team.
Christine LeClair has been involved in paranormal research for over 20 years. Bill has been investigating for 11. Both Christine and Bill share an ability to take psychic photographs and through this shared interest they met and married four years ago.
Psychic photography is the act of taking photographs of an object and having something else reveal itself in the developed picture—something that wasn’t there or couldn’t be seen by the naked eye when the picture was taken.
I’m as skeptical as the next person when it comes to “orbs” and smoke in a picture, but I was shown more than several pictures that made my hair stand on end.
Christine contacted Kodak and received an analysis indicating that the camera was working normally and the film was neither damaged nor tampered with. Kodak stated that they could not explain the images on these photographs.
According to Christine and Bill, certain people have an innate ability to attract spirits or ghosts.
And when these psychic photographers take pictures they often get unexplained results on the developed film. The same phenomenon is true with the digital photography that CTPRT now uses.
Bill showed me a picture he took in an old barn that was being refurbished by a friend of his.
Workmen reported sounds of horses’ hooves in the barn and there were no animals anywhere nearby. Bill’s friend asked him to come in and investigate, so Bill took some photographs of the empty barn—no people, no horses, nothing. Empty space.
But when the developed photographs were examined, right there in the middle of one picture is the smoky outline of a horse trotting across the barn. Unmistakable and very spooky. Christine said the horse was an Arabian.
Part II --- next week!
"Don Spaeth is a retired English teacher and Woodstock resident"