Archive: Apr 2010

A hearse is a funeral vehicle, a conveyance for the casket from e.g. a church to a cemetery, a similar burial site, or a crematorium. In the funeral trade, they are often called funeral coaches. Hearses were originally horse-drawn, but silent electric motorised examples that were used in Paris were reported in the pages of Scientific American May 1907 and petrol-driven hearses began to be produced from 1909 in the United States. Motorised hearses became more widely accepted in the 1920s. The vast majority of hearses since then have been based on larger, more powerful car chassis, generally retaining the front end up to and possibly including the front doors but with custom bodywork to the rear to contain the coffin. Some early hearses also served as ambulances. A few cities experimented with funeral trolley cars and/or subway cars to…

Hi!  My name is Ty.  I’m the “new kid” in the GhoSt Augustine haunted pub tour crew. I’m a self-proclaimed beer aficionado and have home-brewed for ten years.  On evenings I am not conducting haunted pub tours, I’m singing and playing guitar at local restaurants. My state of origin is Pennsylvania.  I have earned degrees from Penn State and have taught elementary school for 36 years. My wife and I fell in love with St. Augustine on our first visit, intending to stay for one day.  We stretched this to six days and returned to Pennsylvania with a Florida mortgage.  Now it’s four years later.  I’ve retired from teaching and we live in the city of our dreams. As a pub tour guide, my goal is to pass along our love for this beautiful, historic, exciting, haunted city.

Great photo submitted from a guest on our Haunted Pub Tour with our newest guide, Ty Cowell! The reason the couple look so excited in the photo is because we believe one of the spirits at McLean’s is trying to communicate through the K2 meter.

Ever wonder what headstones mean? Here are a few of the most used designs on headstones: Anchor – Steadfast hope Arch – Rejoined with partner in Heaven Birds – The soul Cherub – Divine wisdom or justice Column – Noble life Broken column – Early death Conch shell – Wisdom Cross, anchor and Bible – Trials, victory and reward Crown – Reward and glory Dolphin – Salvation, bearer of souls to Heaven Dove – Purity, love and Holy Spirit Evergreen – Eternal life Garland – Victory over death Gourds – Deliverance from grief Hands – A relation or partnership Heart – Devotion Horseshoe – Protection against evil Hourglass – Time and its swift flight Ivy – Faithfulness, memory, and undying friendship Lamb – Innocence Laurel – Victory Lily – Purity and resurrection Mermaid – Dualism of Christ – fully God,…

Reincarnation, literally “to be made flesh again”, is a doctrine or mystical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the Spirit or Soul, the ‘Higher or True Self’, ‘Divine Spark’, ‘I’ or the ‘Ego’ (not to be confused with the ego as defined by psychology). According to such beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the being remains constantly present throughout these successive lives as well. Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism (including Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea was also entertained by some Ancient…

Ghosts are more likely to manifest if the air is dry. Ion generators charge the air with positive particles that may supply energy for ghosts to manifest. Many air cleaners/purifiers send out an ionic stream that may contribute to manifestations. Spirits can draw energy from electrical appliances, the atmosphere and from people. Fear and anger are two very powerful emotions from which a spirit may draw energy. If there is a lot of emotional stress in a home that is haunted, the spirit could be drawing from the negative emotional energy. Our emotions may affect spirits the same way they do people. Spirits can attach themselves to a person, place or object. In most cases, ghosts were people too. They are just no longer constrained to physical bodies. Though spirits may not communicate well with us, they know what we…

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…