IT was the only source of illumination in a darkened room, emanating from a small black box attached to a phaser whose day job was a guitar effects pedal.

The lights, ten tiny dots vaguely resembling a cluster of spider’s eyes, highlighted the source of a cacophony of white noise in which human voices, crackle and static, blended.

It was not how I had imagined a paranormal investigation to unfold but, to be fair, it was the first one I had ever attended and all my preconceptions had come from film and TV.

The device was, we were told, specifically designed to open a channel to the spirit world allowing those on the other side an opportunity to make their voices heard. And the voices were certainly open to interpretation.

I distinctly heard a male voice say ‘Malcolm’ several times although my wife sitting next to me detected nothing, even though her ears, unlike mine, had not spent eighteen months of their youth in a notoriously loud rock band.

I lost a good friend called Malcolm several years ago and so may have been receptive to the name and, to be honest, after several minutes of listening to white noise laced through with human voices it would be difficult not to hear something that could be interpreted as distinct words.

The evening was hosted by Chronicle editor, Liz Davies and led by a pair of investigators from Rhondda and Pontypridd respectively who are collectively known as Paranormal Now Investigations.

Others present included Linzi and Claire from Gilwern who had been on an investigative evening here before; first-timer Neil, from Aberdare; Liz’s housemate, Terry; Chronicle sales representative Andrew and his partner Josh and finally my wife who I had bribed to come along with the offer of a meal.

Psychic, Richard Oliver has known since childhood that he has a channel to the spirit world, the voices seek him out to pass on messages - sometimes inconveniently, whether he wants them to or not. He explains, ‘There are times when I wish I didn’t have this gift, spirits can be persistent and when several try to get through at the same time it can be disorientating. ‘

Would the spirits be persistent tonight? Richard sensed that the spirit world inhabitants of the building - of which all investigators have agreed is many - were benign and their energy was ‘positive.’ And so it began.

Richard and fellow psychic Jared Walters guided us through the not-so-straightforward attempt to link this world with the next. The first thing we learned is that you would have to be an idiot to ask, ‘Is there anybody there?’ This would be an invitation to any errant spirit to gatecrash the party and they could turn out to be impishly mischievous or downright malevolent.

And so Richard called out to them in more specific terms, ‘Are you connected in some way to this building?’ Can you let us know you are with us? Can you move something or touch one of us? I was tempted to flick my wife’s ear in the dark but she recently suffered a back spasm and leaping a yard into the air might have set it off again.

There followed no unmistakable signals from beyond the veil and so we moved on. A tour of the building gave those who spend their days here the opportunity to share some inexplicable experiences. Andrew has seen a figure walking along a passageway that no longer exists; I have heard doors slam when alone upstairs and something that sounded like a child crying - but it could have been a draught causing the slamming and the child could have been in the cafe garden next door.

Liz’s experiences are harder to brush off. She has had her (heavy) desk moved across the office and heard running feet while in the building alone; she is no stranger to the many creaks and groans of the 300-year-old premises.

We were told that, contrary to popular belief, the spirits are often more scared of us than we are of them and can be reluctant to make their presence felt although we were assured they were there - right there, in the room with us as we spoke.

There were phenomena. My wife felt a cold draught that no one else experienced and detected the smell of tobacco smoke and ‘old-fashioned’ aftershave.Those more attuned to the spirit world were able to detect the presence of guests who had gathered to study us.

Then it was seance time. We split into two groups; my group retired to a top floor room and sat around a table in the dark, the only illumination coming from a small glass pot filled with battery-operated fairy lights. Liz and Terry, my wife and I and seance leader, Jared placed our fingers on the glass.

There was a brief invocation to protect us from any mischievous spirits and for what seemed like a long time no-one from the other side appeared to be answering Jared’s invitations. Then, out of the blue (or the black), Jared asked me, ‘Bob - do you go walking somewhere.. some special place? Regularly? Because your sister wants you to know she goes there with you.’

We had previously established I had a sister on the other side but the walking thing - and the reason for it - had never been mentioned; and it was so specific an activity as to be intriguing.

There is somewhere I regularly walk with the dogs, it’s in a place close to where I live and was the scene of a family tragedy directly involving my sister half a century ago. It was either a real link to the spirit world or an exceptionally lucky guess. He went on to tell me my sister was pleased with a recent commemorative family event I had not mentioned at all.

The seance continued with Jared apparently connecting both Liz and my wife to deceased relatives until the link was finally exhausted and both we and the spirits returned to our respective worlds.

Much of the evening was recorded and apparently it takes some time for the messages and signals to be deciphered. Speaking a few days later, Jared commented, ‘I thought it was an excellent session. There were several contacts that we now have to corroborate in order to find a link to the building.

‘There was the persistent presence of someone called Ieuan, or Ian who was around all evening and eager to get through to us. We also have to transcribe all the film and sound recordings to see what they contain.’

For those who want to believe, there was probably enough to confirm their suspicions that this world is just a stop over - a service station on the vast and endless highway of life. Likewise, for hardened skeptics, there may not have been the irrefutable proof they would demand. I had begun the evening leaning heavily toward skepticism.

As we climbed the twisting mountain road to home, watching sheep taking midnight snacks in the headlights my wife eventually decided I had been introspective long enough. ‘Well?’ she asked, ‘Do you think that was your sister?’

If it wasn’t, I’d like Jared to buy my next lottery ticket.