Family Ghost Hunting Trip in St. Augustine (Lots of Images)

As some of you know, my family and I spent a few days in St. Augustine, per the request of my children, who were entralled with the idea of going ghost hunting, after becoming fans of the show Ghost Hunters and TAPS visit to St. Augustine. We initially had a tour booked for our first night there, but chilly temps and an upset stomach detoured our plans and we rescheduled it for our last night. We did go on our ghost hunting expeditions and eventually did the tour, so I'll be sharing pictures of both.

First off, I have to say St. Augustine is a beautiful old town type of city. The old parts of the city are geared towards walking and it was enjoyable to stroll old brick roads instead of whizzing by in cars. During one of our self guided walking tours, we visited the Spanish Military Hospital which is reportedly haunted. For a small fee you can walk around as long as you like in the place, but the "ghost tours" were at night. The very first room we went to was called the Mourning room, and personally that room was the most oppressive in the place. I felt alot of sorrow and the irrational urge to cry was very strong while I stood in the room. We snapped pictures here but nothing showed up.

The next room, the Ward, also felt "different" but it wasn't as oppressive or disturbing to me. Of all our pictures in the Spanish Hospital, only one features an anomaly. The following two pictures were taken about a minute apart in an area where I felt "something" and where the boys were asking for something to make itself known. In the first pic, nothing is there, then in the second, is a faint orb near the Virgin Mary picture:


Faint orb


Later that evening we walked by one of the "Haunted" old cemetaries. Now I've been told that sometimes humidity causes the "orb" phenomenon and I'll admit that it was a little humid that night. However not all of my pictures that night feature orbs, orb activity seemed random at times, but concentrated around supposedly haunted locations. The following pics are near the cemetary and I would attribute most of them to humidity with the exception of the first one:




These two images are odd, in all of the over 900 or so pictures we took We never used any night time feature on the camera and didn't get any similar images like this.. they were taken near the cemetary... not saying paranormal... just an anomaly.





more to come.....


[edit on 4-29-2008 by worldwatcher]

[edit on 4-29-2008 by worldwatcher]

The Old City Wall where reportedly a little girl haunts.


more orbs at the city wall


Orb at the "Love Tree", it's a palm tree growing through an oak tree


Orb at the Flagler House


more orbs in the general area


more later along with pics from the official tour, so far, these are our random pics.
btw, I should mention, that numerous times, I had the feeling that we were being followed.

[edit on 4-29-2008 by worldwatcher]

As I mentioned, we took hundreds of pictures, but this particular set caught my attention. We were at the Fort, early morning and the boys were in one of the storage rooms, "doing evp" work (my kids are funny)



now what's this between them? You may have to click on it to see it clearly




[edit on 4-29-2008 by worldwatcher]

Now on to the actual ghost hunting tour. Instead of the regular ghost tours which are more stories and entertainment as you either drive or walk by haunted locations, we chose to go with This tour which is more like a paranormal investigation. It was conducted by Dr. Harry Stafford and two couples from out of state were also along with us. We were given electromagnetic detectors to use and Dr Stafford, started the tour with an explanation of paranormal phenomenon, orbs, scents, etc.



Whenever our meters spiked, we all snapped pictures, the following are from the tour, this is in an area that was once used for public hangings and also part of an indian burial ground.




this doorway used to be the entrance to a funeral home that was once in that building


Back at the cemetary.....where a woman and a little boy is said to be occassionally seen. This cemetary is also the site of some sort of voodoo/santeria ritual on occasions.

In this area of the cemetary, several of us detected a very flowery perfume scent. We checked the various vines and bushes but there were no flowers or buds that could be linked to the floral scent. This pic is directly infront of where the scent was.


These are from another cemetary, this one has the famous grave with the face that be seen only at night.

Can you see the face??

maybe here?

or is this better?

We then went to the ground of the Fort. While there, some smelled burnt hair, to me it smelled like when chicken feathers are singed on the grill. Throughout the entire tour several of us, especially the women and my kids experienced spikes on our meters but the Fort was also very active.
In these pics, our meters are spiking like crazy when the images are snapped....




Practically on this woman's shirt as their meters spike

This is awesome WW, keep them coming. I just have one question and it's about your camera. I'll explain.

I've had my camera for a few years and in all the time I've had it, all the thousands of pictures I've taken with it, it's only recorded an orb once. Then I went ghost hunting at the Crescent and it photographed eleven orbs in just a couple of hours.

Does the camera you used have a history of recording orbs or is that a rare event,as it was with mine.

That incident alone has really made me start giving serious thoughts to the idea that orbs are more than just dust particles.

Great thread my friend, starred and flagged.

While I didn't see any apparitions or had any actual visual confirmation of the paranormal, I did "feel" alot while in St Augustine and at the fort. Unexplained scents, emotions, possible whispers, cold spots, and at one point in the night, something of a tingle/pinch on my back.





there's quite a few more, but there all pretty much the same, orbs, orbs and more orbs.

I think we're being followed:


No seriously, I think we're being followed:


Well that pretty much sums up our ghost hunt in St. Augustine, see the Travel forum for general touristy pics. It was a fun experience, the boys enjoyed it tremendously and want to go on more ghost hunts. None of the images have been enhanced in anyway, but some of the orbs are very clear if the picture is brightened. Feel free to investigate the pics and ask any questions.

Thanks MrWupy

No history of capturing orbs with this camera at all. I've had it for a few years now and have never captured any similar type of activity/anomaly. Never took a picture of an orb around me or boys while at home or while on other vacations.

Oh noes!!!11!!! Ghost Dust!!!!

Seriously, there's nothing in those photos that can't be explained by very boring, mundane phenomena.

Keep on trying, though! If we're going to get some decent evidence for ghosts and such, it'll be from amateurs first, and scientists second.

Nice dust pictures there,...

All those "ORBS" are in fact ordinary dust particles, that float up in the air everywhere around us.

thank you for taking the time to respond, even though you think it's just "dust" I guess haunted cities just have more dust than other cities.

reply to post by worldwatcher


No, there is dust everywhere. It's just because you think it's haunted that you attach more importance to the dust you see there.

The whole Orb nonsense is just because people don't get full-bodied apparitions in their photos, so to photograph ghosts, they make the barrier to being "haunted" much lower, and ascribe supernatural origins to otherwise-mundane, ordinary dust. Otherwise people will have to acknowledge the fact that they can't take photos of ghosts, which isn't as much fun as pretending dust is ghosts.

Excellent thread WW. Looks like you and the kids had a great time and spooky trip.

You may want to do some research into the "orbs" phenomena with regards to digital cameras. Dust has a way of reflecting light from the flashes of cameras that the CCD of a digital camera records as a big, blobby, spooky looking "orb".

It's a function of pixels and processors that I am not qualified to explain but many experts out there have. There are some shots taken in a well lit dusty room that look like dusty air. When the lights were turned out the room was full of orbs.

Since I live where I do (see Val's "Have I disturbed something?" thread) I have become convinced there is more to this world than we see so while I can confidently say that most "orbs" taken by a digital camera with a flash turned on are dust I can't say they ALL are.

Springer...

reply to post by Springer


I don't know about Val's thread - it's a great read, but it's so highly subjective that trying to learn anything from it, or even create any hypotheses, based on anything other than human sensory falibility is pointless. The only way we can learn about our surroundings is with the scientific method. We demand it for every other aspect of our lives, except when it doesn't demonstrate what we want it to. I'm not calling anyone a liar or insincere, I'm merely stating that people get carried away and ignore mundane explanations for more fanciful explanations with no supporting evidence.

I don't believe there's anything more going on in this world, but I'm open to evidence to the contrary. Without evidence, for me at least, there is no belief.

Appreciate the comments Spring.

I'm not sure what to think about orbs. Even the boys are fully aware that their "orbs" are not taken seriously by their favorite ghost hunters and is mostly attributed to dust or camera glitch.

However I do want to point out something about these pictures again. We took hundreds of pics, many times multiple shots in the same place and imo if it was dust, it would be captured in all of the images. And then there's the electromagnetic meters.... why would they spike and only subsequent pictures of the moment show orbs?

it's very fascinating and imo cannot be easily dismissed as just dust. Maybe it's just energy particles? Maybe it's the reason why some places are more prone to paranormal activity? I don't know... I can only assure you that pictures taken at night in other places right here in Florida don't exhibit the same type of phenomenon and that we as a family don't have any pictures from any of our travels or any occassion that feature these "orb" things.

I am so happy to see that you and your whole family got out and made this trip for us all to enjoy. It is presented so well that it is the next best thing to being there, thankyou.

I noticed a difference in the colors of the orbs in various places for instance in the cemetary, they seemed to have a red aura surrounding them as if died in fear or anger, then the one next to the picture of the Virgin Mary it is pure white.

I knew that you and your family would draw entities with your energies but I never expected the amount of orbs you captured and that actually 'followed' you!

Was the picture of the face on the grave stone done by an artist and did you see it during your tour, or did it only apear on the pictures you presented?

Question, 'if' the theory of earth being a waiting room of sorts and most entities being simply containers for aliens, (big stretch I know) is it possible that some of these entities are souls that have a less than desired level of acceptance by those that wait for the best and or most appropriate soul?

I mean to ask, if you had your choice of souls perhaps some come more wanted than others. So could a soul that dies in an unconscious manner or worse, be not accepted at the time of death and simply left to roam like these disenfranchised souls?

I was never even close to thinking that these orbs were anything but dust particles, or anything other than camera anomolies, but having as you stated 'sensed' where I shot and then to see the orbs in those exact pictures has me on the fence now with a skeptical mind but an inquiring and now open sense of new realities for the unknown possibilities that exist if they do not prove to be dust particles and the likes.


One more question, is it now time for us to consider making a seperate forum for ATS Ghost hunters? Seems like there are alot of people that have an interest in this subject, and many of us live near places that could be investigated by individuals. As gas prices and food commodities soar, less and less people will be able to get out to visit these haunted sites, but this as I already told you was the next best thing to being there.

[edit on 30-4-2008 by antar]

reply to post by worldwatcher


Do you suppose that 'intent' has something to do with when and where we see the orbs? I mean if souls are attached to the orbs then people die everywhere all the time and yet we do not see the orbs while at Disneyland or on other types of adventures.

Perhaps if they are trapped or waiting souls, they want to be acknowledged by people with warm life energy. maybe all you have to do is have intent, and they gladly appear, for some that is.

reply to post by antar

Was the picture of the face on the grave stone done by an artist and did you see it during your tour, or did it only apear on the pictures you presented?

Face is not painted and during the day it doesn't look like anything...I forgot to take a daytime picture of that cemetary
It's only at night when the you shine a flashlight or take a pic does the face show up.

It's actually a pretty famous grave and I'm sure there is a thread on this exact gravestone somewhere around here on ATS. There's many pictures, blogs and websites that feature ST Augustine orbs and ghost faces, I'm sure it's on a few of those too.

I'm not sure if it is intent or what, but being who I am, of course I "protected" myself and my family before and during our entire stay there. I honestly feared going there but did it for the boys, because while I'm sensitive to such phenomenon, I don't like it and normally don't go seeking it out. I'm afraid to imagine what I might have experienced had I not "protected" us. St. Augustine is definitely haunted, my pictures may have conclusive proof of that, but there is definitely paranormal activity there.

As for the orbs, I really don't know.. I wonder why none of night time pics here where I live or while in NY or other places don't show the same thing, if "orbs" are attracted to intent or just certain people, then we should have orbs showing up regardless of where we are and when we take the images.

I'm a believer in reincarnation and while trying to rationalize spirits and ghosts to myself, I've theorized (my mind changes all the time) that there is no heaven or hell and right here on earth is purgatory or the waiting room for the deceased. We see spirits in their human forms, because they have unfinished business or refuse to give up ties to their previous lives... and orbs and other energy phenomenon are souls/spirits waiting their turn for the next reincarnation having giving up ties to their human forms... like I said, don't know, but I am fascinated to a certain extent with death and the afterlife.