I have had many things happen on my Haunted St Augustine tour. One night there were 8 of us on my tour including myself and as we were standing around discussing what had happened at the location we were at, all of the sudden everyone of our KII meters started flashing one after another as if someone were running around us in a circle. I had never experienced this before and so I asked everyone to check their cell phones just to be sure this wasn’t an electronic interruption. No one had missed a call. On another occassion, everyone on my tour including the tour manager who happened to be going along with me this night, watched as the blinds of one very empty and very haunted house opened and closed themselves for about 20 minutes! There have been many other experiences on my tour but I think one of my favorites came from a complete skeptic. I had a gentlemen on my tour once who let me know right away that he didn’t believe in ghost and was
only on my tour to support his wife who was a firm believer. I applauded him for supporting his wife and told him I understood, even though I was secretly hoping he would have an experience for his wifes’ sake. Boy did he! Not even 5 minutes into investigating the very first location, he grabs his right cheek and his jaw hung wide open. I asked if he was ok and he said, “something just slapped me across my face.” As he was telling me this, he suddenly grabs his left cheek and says, “something slapped me again.” His wife was laughing when I asked him if he was a believer now and then added, “if not, maybe you should just say you are so you don’t get slapped again!”

My first encounter with a haunted building was when I was 15. I was partying in
an extravagant four story mansion in a mountainous resort in Asia. The mansion
had been converted to a nightclub called “Spirits”. The first floor was a
gigantic dance floor. The second and third floors were restaurants and
bars with a panoramic view of the dance floor below. The fourth floor was
reserved for children, who were playing video games and being taken care of by
their nannies while their parents danced and drank on the lower floors. It was
very fun, ethereal, and eerie moment…listening and dancing to trance music in
what was once a haunted mansion.

Now, I find myself going to haunted locations almost every day as a tour guide
for Ghost Augustine. Sometimes, I’m surrounded by people, who want to have
“spirits” with the spirits, on the Haunted Pub Tour, a very jovial tour in some
of the most haunted taverns and pubs in St. Augustine. On other
occasions, I find myself giving a tour with people, who want to investigate and
have that serious ghostly encounter, on the Paranormal Investigative Tour.
To be honest, I never saw myself as a tour guide. I just enjoyed taking out
family and friends to all the fun and historical places in St. Augustine for
free. Falling into this job was very serendipitous and so easy, yet I realized
later on that it requires a certain person, who can provide entertainment and
knowledge with tenacity, fortitude, and a sense of humor.

Hi, my name is Amy. I am honored to be one of your Haunted St. Augustine tour guides. I have been interested in the paranormal since the age of 4 when i had my first paranormal experience. I have since had many more experiences. The Haunted St. Augustine tour is the perfect tour for me to be a guide on because it is a real investigative tour, not theatrical. I really want to know what the other side is all about and I love investigating with people who share my interest. I also love making believers out of skeptics which tends to happen alot on this tour. So whether you’re a die hard paranormal fan, or a total skeptic, or maybe even somewhere in between, I look for to investigating with you!

Even when training a new guide you never know what you will find. Recently while training a new tour guide for our Haunted St. Augustine Tour an apparition was captured near the City Gates. Our manager was on a dress rehearsal snapping photo with our newest guide when she captured a full body apparition, possibly of Elizabeth, near the City Gate. The area is said to be haunted by a young girl who died of Yellow Fever along with her entire family by the Yellow Fever Epidemic that swept the city in the 1830s.

There are 4 basic ways in which a spirit or ghost may manifest itself. The one that most people think of but is probably the least common is a visual apparition. For the investigator, catching something like this on film is the holy grail of evidence. In this form of manifestation the ghost or spirit appears in physical form. They may look like a normal, living person, a semitransparent wispy figure, or anywhere in between. Visual apparitions may also be of animals or objects.

The second form of manifestation is through sounds. These may be disembodied footsteps, the sounds of doors opening and closing, music, or speech. Often, in the cases where speech is heard, it is muffled conversations from an empty room and there are many reports of people hearing their name being called. These are of course just a few examples

In the third form, scents or smells are detected. Often times there are reports of smelling flowers or cologne. Pipe, cigarette and cigar smoke scents are very common as well. These scents usually do not last long. Typically, someone will catch a brief smell and about the time they recognize it, it is gone.

The last form is tactile. Like the others this can take several forms as well. A common example is feeling a cold spot in a room. These spots are believed to be caused by a spirit absorbing the energy in a room to assist in further manifestation. Heat is just another form of energy and when used by a spirit can drop the temperature 10 degrees or more. Sometimes it is a small area that is affected and sometimes a whole room. Tactile manifestations can also take the form of being touched, like a hand on the shoulder or a poke in the side. Sometimes hair is pulled or a piece of clothing is tugged on. These are generally very slight but can be forceful in nature.

These different ways a ghost or spirit may manifest may happen individually or together. The combinations are as varied as the hauntings they are associated with.

HSA Tour – 18 March 2010
My name is Celynda. I’m a recent graduate from Flagler College sporting a major in English and a minor in Theatre. I started working here in January and I’ve already got some interesting stories under my belt, including simultaneous meter readings between three meters at the fort, and an abundance of activity from a young boy named James down at the Tolomato Cemetary (he’s my favorite, by the way).
On Thursday, I went out with a group including two girls about my age who were both incredibly sensitive to the paranormal happenings around town. While we were at a haunted hot spot in the Minorcan District quite infamous already for its activity), one of them saw a woman’s face on the second floor. Now this location normally has activity on the west side of the building. I’ve always been a bit wary about the house, and sometimes I feel I’m being watched when I stand on the south side of the house. The face seen on this particular evening was seen on the east side. I’m starting to wonder if our dear ghost,just follows us around to every side of the house until we leave the area. Quite an interesting concept. I’ll have to keep my eye out for more proof.

Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International visited our haunted city last week for two interactive investigations. One at the St. Augustine lighthouse and one at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. They also were here filming a new episode of Ghost Hunters Academy which should air later this year.