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We have received many questions about the terminology in the paranormal field. We are going to start a ghostly glossary for you. AGENT In a test of general extrasensory perception, the individual (human or animal) who looks at the information constituting the target and who is said to “send” or “transmit” that information to a percipient; in a test of telepathy, and in cases of spontaneous extrasensory perception, the individual about whose mental states information is acquired by a percipient; the term is very occasionally used to refer to the subject in a test of psychokinesis or the focus in a poltergeist case. [From the Latin agens (agentis), derived from agere, “to drive, do”] ALPHA In the context of brain science: a distinctive brain-rhythm or brain-wave which occurs mainly in the occipital region of the cortex, and which is correlated,…

A few years ago I was hanging out with my friend walking around downtown St. Augustine. She knew I worked for GhoSt Augustine and asked me to take her to a haunted spot that was included on one of our tours. We just happened to be near Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille, a normal stop on the Haunted Pub Tour, so I brought her inside. She follwed me up the stair case to the second floor asking, “Where the heck are we going!?” “Almost there”, I said as we walked down an ‘L’ shaped hallway before I pushed open the paint peeling door to the ladies restroom. “Oh, you have to go the restroom,” she said chuckling. I responded, “Actually, I don’t.” She looked confused. I continued, “this is where Katalina’s bedroom was hundreds of years ago before the building…

The most direct means of encountering the paranormal is through the use of the five senses. Ordinarily, because of the physical orientation of the senses, they block out far more signals than they bring to awareness. The senses are often quite acute when danger is present, linking us to the instinctual world of our primal ancestors. Sensory data then seems intensified or heightened, even riveting. It’s probable that at one time in human evolution what we think of as paranormal encounters were far more commonplace. The boundary between life and death, between the ordinary physical and the realms of spirit would have been far more permeable. This seems to be the case even now with psychically gifted people.  As our species chose more and more to literalize physical experience, granting it an independence that it does not possess (for all…

Hi Everyone! My name is Celynda. I grew up in Albuquerque, NM and visited St. Augustine for the first time when I was 17. Yes, I had a bit of a ghostly experience on that first trip. When I turned 20 I had the opportunity to move here and attend Flagler College and I recently graduated with a BA in English, and hope to become a writer in the fields of film and theater. After spending almost two years giving tours at the college I thought it would be well worth it to get my tour guide license with the city and was lucky enough to get a job with GhoSt Augustine. I’ve been having a blast with my tours and experiencing things around town that I never thought possible. See you on the tours!

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…

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…