St. Augustine,
FL - Investigators on Vacation
March 2008
Where would a bunch
of paranormal investigators go for a weekend getaway?
Why, someplace old
with a reputation for being haunted. How about America's oldest city, St.
Augustine, FL.
A bunch of us decided
to get away for the holiday weekend in march so we packed in to the car
and headed north. A short five hours later we arrived at what might as
well be another world. Beautiful and historic St. Augustine, FL is one
of my favorite getaways.
The plan was to see
the sights, take in a tour and relax on the bay in a place that is as far
away from the day to day as you can get for a weekend trip. This was the
plan anyway.
The first thing we
had planned was a tour of Henry Flagler's most extravagant resort, the
prestigious Ponce de Leon Hotel, now turned Flagler
College.
Even though we arrived
almost an hour early for the tour, the architecture and lavish decadence
immediately prompted us to pull out our cameras and begin taking pictures.
Almost right away
we noticed something unusual. Unusually bright orbs had our attention.
When they started responding to commands it really got our attention.
This was our first guest, The
photograph above was taken by Yolanda
showing an unusually bright orb near the third floor of dome ceiling.
What makes this orb unusual is the brilliant and clear light it emits.
It was pretty cool, but as investigators, we tend to take orbs with a bit
of skepticism.
What was unusual is when we went to a quiet
corner before the crowd started to gather. I sat for a while and psychically
tuned in to the enrages there. It seemed full of energies that walked the
main lobby at all times. One would respond to my call though. It was the
energy of what seemed to be a middle-aged woman, she had others with her
but was the one clearly in charge. I did not get the chance to communicate
very clearly with her - it was more of a response to directions. I took
several pictures as things were happening and told my friends what I was
experiencing.
When we first sat down there was nothing.
I took this picture of the view I had. In the following photographs I will
zoom in a little so you can see more clearly. But you will notice my position
did not change and there was no crowd there to be stirring up dust.
Then I felt the energy approaching from
the main lobby.
I asked it to come closer.
I told my friends it is right in front
of us now, ant took this picture.
Events such as this make me question orbs
more seriously. Yes it could be dust or moisture, but why is this dust
or moisture responding to me?
When the crowd began to arrive the energy
dissipated. I do not think they like big crowds so they left. Ironically,
we took lots of picture of the beautiful building yet I had no more psychic
impressions and no additional orbs showed up. Even though we were around
some very dusty rooms with a big crowd that kicked up a lot ot dust. The
only paranormal activity we encountered on the tour was us acting silly!
I am not saying that orbs are spirits.
I think they may be a residual energy that results from spirit activity,
similarly to a cold spot, a cold spot is not a spirit, it is an indication
of possible spirit activity.
And not all orbs are paranormal, there
is a great deal of dust and moisture orbs, they usually look different.
They have weird shapes and angles or a clear nucleus or no jet at all.
If you ask me, the topic of orbs is still up to debate.
This happens to me again and again. I go
in to dusty dirty places with no spirit activity and get no orbs. The minute
I make contact, all of a sudden the photographs taken show orbs. Not only
do they show orbs at random, but they show orbs exactly where I am sensing
the energy to be.
Even people who are not tuned in to their
psychic abilities can test this theory. If you feel like you are being
touched or pushed, have someone take a picture. If your EMF goes off, take
a picture. Most of these pictures will show an orb exactly in the right
spot. I will have more on this later...
I want to share with you the rest of my
vacation now...
After the lavish ladies lounge and the
dining hall adorned with tiffany lamps, glass and gilded ceilings we walked
around the city. We went antique shopping and walked all the way down to
the bay past the bridge of lions, on one side, and the fountain of youth
on the other side.
Our room at the St.
George Inn overlooks the old spanish town and st. George Street.
This beautiful place was originally recommended to me by Bandora,
who visits St. Augustine so much, she should be made an honorary resident.
The beautiful hotel is right on the main walking street, unfortunately
though, very not haunted from my experience.
In the evening we took in a ghost tour,
there is a man we knew from our last visits named Harry C. Sanfford who
runs the best ghost tour in St. Augustine that he calls the Paranormal
Investigative Tour. The storytelling style tours seem to be abundant
and perhaps more popular. You will see lots of them as the sun sets with
various themes, from pirates, to hearses and even wenches and monks will
lead a tour. But nothing compares to Harry's walking tour. It is an in-depth
experience for novices and experienced investigators alike. He keeps groups
small and provides a wealth of information. Before any details are revealed,
he will want you to investigate each site on your own, then he will tell
you the history and best of all, he gives you gadgets to play with which
is always a thrill for first timers.
The only anomaly I got that was not an
orb on the night we took the tour was a strange light above the sign marking
the Tolomato
Cemetery.
The control photo shows no such anomaly.
Also, notice in both pictures the sign itself is sharp and perfectly in
focus.
The rest of the pictures are mostly of
orbs accompanied by other events.
During Harry's introduction, I kept feeling
an energy moving in the back of the courtyard. When I took the photo shown
above, the distinctively yellow orb appeared.
When the group went to work investigating
the space, I felt the energy move to the second story by the balcony. The
above photo shows the same yellow orb.
I had talked to the energy urging it to
try and communicate with the others in the group, but it wasn't until we
were about to leave that it finally made it close to the others. Here you
see two orbs, one in front of and one next to Harry. The yellow one in
front of him is our gust. I never made contact with the other.
Here I told Ed
that there was someone standing in front of him and took this photograph.
I am still not sure if Ed saw this energy or not, in fact, I am not even
sure he heard me. Either way, I like the picture!
This orb appeared in the tree where an
apparition of a boy had previously been seen.
This one appeared during an EMF spike.
Harry dazzled us with his album of paranormal
evidence and then we went back to the cemetery where we noticed a paranormal
group named POPS
was conducting a training session.
We talked to the team and exchange stories.
They are based out of port orange and conduct investigations of historic
places all over the country. A really nice group of people.
We finally got home at around one in the
morning.
All in all, St. Augustine left us with
the escape we were looking for. We learned something about ourselves though.
At least I did. Being a paranormal investigator is not a job. It is part
of you, something that circulates through your veins and fuels your drive
to seek out the unexplained. Even when on a vacation we find ourselves
knee deep in the search.
Cheers from the Tini Martini Bar overlooking
St. Augustine Bay!
READERS COMMENTS:
Please share your thoughts too!
From: Rod
Although i am not a big fan of orbs I have
done 3 investigations in St. Augustine and agree there is alot of activity.
The only city in the south with more in MAPRC's ( my group)investigations
(which number in the 500+ investigations) was Savannah. Have you tried
that yet? Just if you do don't waste your time with the ghost tour. Do
the tour yourself.
From: Dr Steve
Ok interesting this is my sisters home
town and i go there often the lighthouse is super cool. ok i have notice
in alot of the orb photos that they apear to be the same orb i mean if
you enlarge the photo and compare them it seems as if maybe possibly that
there may be something on the lens it is in alot of the shots however there
is the one of the sign which is differant not being a critic just pointing
out a very obvious explaination lens can pick up small things when we least
expect it i should know i am my biggest critic but it apears the same in
alot of the photos which is odd i have study photos for years and usually
orbs are differant in differant shots i dont know just sharing opinion
i know keep my mouth shut lol any how thanks for sharing
Atena's Reply:
Dr. Steve,
Please do criticize, but it might help
to know the pictures were not all taken at the same time, I cropped them
to bring the object of interest in to the center, so they are at difirent
zoom levels as well.
The lens was cleaned several times and
most shots had nothing paranormal in them.
I do have the urge to go back and review
all the photos now though! LOL
From: WipsGroup1
It appears that you had a fabulous trip!!
Now I want to go there, lol! My main thing with orbs is to have a good
story/personal experiences to go with it and if possible any readings to
support your experiences. You are right, the orb debate is still up in
the air though. It will make me crazy one day I am sure, lol!
Anyway thanks for sharing the great pictures
and all the supporting comments!
From: nitewing
I love St. Augustine. I'm glad
you could visit. Next time, DON'T GO WITHOUT ME!!!
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