investigation

St Augustine Lighthouse Investigation

St Augustine Lighthouse Investigation
Jan. 6th, 2008
I just returned from a amazing trip to investigate the lighthouse in St. Augustine, Fl. The organizer of the trip was none other then Todd Sheets, founder of the ever growing and popular virtual online investigation group called, “The Nightwatchers”. Check them out if you are not familiar with them. Just click here to go to their site: Nightwatchers

By the way, the Ghosthunters just returned last week from a second trip to this lighthouse and there is a rumor that they will discuss this topic on their new show that premiers this coming Wednesday. The new show is on the Sci-fi channel and it is called”Ghost Hunters International’. The time will be 9 PM EST and 8:00 Central time. So watch the show to find out the scoop. Here is the link to the show if you would like to know more: GhostHunters Show

Well, we started out Saturday by meeting for dinner at Scarlett O’Hara Restaurant in downtown St. Augustine. The dinner was just delicious and it was so wonderful meeting friends in person that I have only known on-line for a few years. It was also great re-connecting with on-line friends with whom I have previously attended other Ghost Hunting trips and events. Some of these people have remarkably become my closest friends.

We then arrived at the lighthouse entrance. I was so impressed with Tod’s organized and professional manner in handling this event. He took attendance and gave everyone on the registration list a sticker to wear on their clothing. I thought it was a great idea and a wonderful way to control non-registered members of the general public from joining in with our hunt.

He then divided us into two teams and named two team leaders. I felt privileged to be on Psychic Serenity Moore’s team. One team would investigate the lighthouse first while the other team investigated the Light-keeper’s home and ground area. After three hours the teams would switch.

While we were investigating the grounds, Serenity got a psychic message that someone named Steven used to work the grounds a long time ago. She decided to ask one of the staff available that night about this and found out that there really was man named Steve that worked there a long time ago. I thought it was so exciting to see her message validated as a historical fact by the lighthouse current employees.

I then went to the second floor of the light-keeper’s home. I took a few pictures but mostly, Lorrie from the Ghost Chicks and I worked with a AM/FM radio from Radio Shack that had been converted to work like Frank’s Box. If you are not familiar with this concept, check out this website here for an introduction: Frank’s Box

The method to convert the radio involved opening it up and cutting a wire. Lorrie and her partner, Tara completed this task during their road trip to Florida. The conversion seem to work while they were on the road as the radio did not pick up any radio stations when set to the scan setting.

However once we tried it in the lighthouse home, it did pick up bits and pieces of a few stations here and there while it was in scan mode. In any case, we did hear a few a voices. One said, what the —-? in response to one of our questions. I forget what the question was. Whether it was a radio show host or spirit remains a mystery at this point.

I then suggested to Lorrie that maybe the wires should have been cut and then tied. Also, that perhaps, the wires met and that was why the radio still picked up bits and pieces of the radio stations.

I made an analogy to tubal ligation surgeries that are done on females. In the old days, the tubes were just cut and unfortunately, sometimes the tubes touched and the procedure failed. Later on, they revised the procedure so that the tubes were cut first and then tied. This was proven a lot more effective. She thought, I had a good point and intends to work on the radio some more. Hopefully, it will work better on our next Ghost Hunting trip.

I spent the rest of the time during the first half of the investigation taking pictures of the lighthouse grounds and lighthouse home. I got a few pictures with orbs that may well be dust particles. I have posted them in an album called, “The St. Augustine Lighthouse”, in my picture section on this site.

I also spent a little time sitting on a bench outside the entrance to the lighthouse. While I was sitting there talking to other people on my team, I kept seeing a cat walk across the same bush over and over again. A couple people noticed that I kept looking at the same area, they also looked towards the same place however they did not see anything.

Maybe I was seeing an imprinted haunting. This is a special type of haunting where the event occurs over and over again. By the way, there is an actual black and white lighthouse cat that currently lives on the lighthouse grounds named Lucy. However, this was not the cat that I kept seeing.

Finally, the time came to rotate the two teams and I got to enter the lighthouse building itself. I entered and carefully took many pictures of the never ending spiral staircase. I thought it would never end. It was a real aerobic workout getting all the way to the top of the lighthouse. The view from the observation deck at the top was however, breathtaking!!

In a few pictures, I got a mystery mist. When I looked at it on my small camera screen, the mist looked like an apparition. I got excited because Paula from Parahub radio was also taking a picture of the same area and also got a similar mystery white mist.

However, after looking at my pictures at home and uploading them. I think the mist that appeared in most of my pictures may have been a reflection of my camera lens as I took these pictures in the dome area of the tower.

In contrast, Paula’s mist was looks like an apparition in nature as her mist is underneath one of the sides of a spiral staircase. In any case, the real source might just remain a mystery. In other pictures, I got orbs but these may be also just pictures of dust particles.

In all, it was a great trip and I encourage people to go to this lighthouse if you get an opportunity. Whether you experience any paranormal activity or not, I think it is worth the trip. It is a historical site and has a very haunted past. For more information about the history of the hauntings, check out this site:About St. Augustine’s lighthouse ghosts.

Ghostock 4: A Hair Raising Experience

Ghostock 4: A Hair Raising Experience
2-7-2007

As many of you know, last weekend I attended Ghostock 4 in Savannah, GA. It was the most fantastic event I have ever had the pleasure of attending. The main event of the weekend was going on a Ghosthunt investigation. This occurred last Friday night.There were 14 different places to explore. After everyone got assigned to a specific location and team leaders were selected, the fun began.

I got assigned to a team investigating a local haunted restaurant called,” The Olde Pink House”. This restaurant was rumored to be haunted by the Ghost of James Habersham; a colonial statesman and the acting governor of Georgia from 1771-1773 and also other unknown entities. My specific investigation started at midnight and ended at 3:30 AM .

We started out by interviewing the management of the restaurant. Several employees had stayed at the restaurant overtime so they could talk to us and of course, let us in and lock up after woods.

They informed us that woman diners have been mysteriously locked in the ladies room on occasion. Also, that dishes have flown off counters, tables and chairs have moved by themselves and pictures on the wall have been moved upside down at times. Most of this activity occurred in a special dining area called, “The Purple Room”. They also stated that many of their employees refused to go into the wine cellar downstairs because of strange noises that they have heard and unexplained cold spots that appear suddenly. After we took notes, we started the investigation.

We split up into 3 smaller groups and part of the team got assigned to the ladies room, part to the wine cellar and the other part to the Purple room. . We rotated the groups until everyone got a chance to investigate each of the haunted areas.We used video cameras, digital cameras, EMF readers and voice activated tape recorders. Most of the members of my team were experienced investigators. I was happy about this since I felt that I could learn alot since this was my very first investigation.

During our first visit to the purple room, we set up a video camera and left the room to take random pictures of other parts of the restaurant. When we came back, the video camera had turned itself off stating that the tape was full when it really was not and had nothing on it. They explained that this frequently happens during Ghost Hunt investigations. Apparently, the entities cause the equipment to malfunction. We set up the camera again and this time, it recorded a video.

In the ladies room, we used the EMF readers and it went crazy in certain parts of the ladies room. It is believed by many that quick changes in electro-magnetic fields indicate spirit activity. We all got chills up and down our backs while there. We asked the entity questions hoping that the voice activated voice recorders would pick up the answers. Tape recorders can usually pick up voices that cannot be heard by the human ear. These are called EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon).

In the wine cellar, we sat down, turned off the lights and used the activated voice recorder to ask the entity questions. One of the groups said they heard a whisper but could not make out what it said.My group leader said she felt something touch her head. I quickly pointed my camera at her to try to take a picture. It would not work. As soon as we left the cellar, the camera started working perfectly again. My leader explained that this frequently happens during Ghost Hunts especially when the entities are nearby. I guess the entities do not want to have their pictures taken.

After each group had investigated all of the locations, we all met in the Purple Room for a while. We set up the video camera again and tried to talk to the entity. We closed all of the curtains so no light would come in from outdoors. We noticed several small ball of lights come from the fireplace area and return quickly to the place they came from. The fireplace did not have a fire going at that time. We actually got these to appear on the video camera. The team members explained to me that sometimes entities appear to people in this form.

We left the restaurant around 3:30 AM and thanked the employees for their hospitality. The next day, everyone checked out their pictures, videos tapes and tape recordings. We found several voices on the tape recordings. One said, “GET OUT’. The investigators told me that this is a very common recording to get. Another said, “HELP ME”. A third one said, ” The Doctor is in.”.

We played these recording for the people attending the conference on Sunday morning. We also had several orbs in our pictures that showed clear movement and a clear rings around them. Usually these kinds of orbs are positive orbs however they may also have been dust particles. We also projected these pictures for the audience.Lastly, we also showed the audience the video tapes with the moving ball of lights.

On Sunday morning, all of the investigation groups also presented their findings. It was so amazing listening to what each group found. One of the other teams actually got a video of an entity going up the stairs of a basement. Patrick Burns, show host of Haunted Evidence, was blown away by this video. He had never seen one this clear. Everyone was just astounded. Some of the others groups got great EVP’s. One of the female investigators got a full face in a picture that she took while investigating the Haunted Lighthouse in Savannah.

In addition to the investigations, we also got to listen to some great speakers. Some of them have also authored books on Ghosthunting. They gave us some great tips and shared a lot of great stories with us.

One of the speakers was Dr. Hans Holzer who has had over 40 years experience in GhostHunting. Another set of speakers were the Ghost Chicks which have a profile on MYSPACE and other social network sites. They gave a great presentation of Poltergeists.

Here are a few pictures. Here is a picture of Patrick Burns and I:

Here is a picture of Steve from Ghosthunters and I:

Here is a picture of the Ghost chicks and I

Lastly, here is a picture of Patrick’s wife, Pamela and my roommate, Tracy.(Moonlight Poetess)

In all, I had a blast last weekend and can hardly wait to attend the next Ghostock in Sept. 07.