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It is dark. The smell of sulfur from cannon fire still hangs in the air. Candles and lanterns project oddly contorted shadows against the coquina walls of the old town, so you shut your eyes. This makes it worse. The sounds of the men who have been wounded reach you. You know that a severe wound in the arm or leg means one thing: amputation or slow death. You are lying on a small rough cot in the corner of the room, the instruments of the medical trade are strewn about on a crudely made wooden plank table. Pain, fear, anger and immense sorrow are as tangible and real as the family you may never see again.
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Extreme spirit activity, most experts state, tends to occur in those areas where human emotion is or was concentrated on a regular basis. Certainly the Spanish Military Hospital in Saint Augustine, Florida meets both of the requirements. From its earliest recorded history, the hospital would have bandaged, patched and prepared the dead or dying from several wars, including the Seminole Wars, and the Civil War.
 Located near the Spanish Quarter Village in Old St. Augustine, the Military hospital was formerly named Our Lady of Guadalupe. Of course, the building that stands there today is a replica of the original which stood on this same site from 1784-1821. Interesting discoveries were made, of the gruesome type, when the city decided to overhaul its waterlines, which ran under the Military hospital.
"What the city found were piles and piles of bones," says Jeff Reynolds, founder and director of North Florida Paranormal Research, Inc. "From the sheer number of bones that they found, it's quite likely that they built the hospital smack on top of a Timucuan burial site." Reynolds and his Ghost Tracker investigative team have investigated and observed the paranormal happenings at the Spanish Military Hospital for three years now.
During one such investigation, Reynolds, as witnessed by four others in the room, had a garden stake thrown at him from across the main room inside the hospital.
"We had really not been getting too many significant readings in the area," Reynolds states, "and I had just joked with some of the other team members about there not being any spirits here at all." It was then that Jeff turned to walk away. Reports from the other team members state that a heavy wrought iron garden stake, which had been leaning against a far wall, fell to the ground and was hurled across the floor to stop inches from his feet.
"I didn't see any of this, "says Reynolds with a steely look in his eyes, "but I did hear the screams and surprised shouts from the other investigators. You better bet I turned around to find out what was going on. Apparently, Spirit did not like my comments and was, in my opinion anyway, trying to get my attention. The fact of the matter is, if Spirit had wanted to, I could have had a stake through the heart, or across the back of my head." Reynolds explains that most of the investigations which have been done at the Spanish Military Hospital have only served to confirm his belief that there is much to be learned from the high level of interactivity between the spirits in the place and those who care (or dare) to ask questions.
Skeptics would state that the stake simply fell to the floor and rolled in Jeff's direction. However, members of the investigative team testified to the fact that the staff did not roll.it slid. Purposefully, in one direction. Then stopped.
So, what does this tell us about Spirit and the Spanish Military Hospital? Diane Lane, the curator of the Spanish Military Hospital Museum states, "There's no doubt that a lot of human drama has occurred on this spot, many times. Maybe the spirits of those who passed away here simply want our attention. For the most part, they don't bother us and we don't bother them.but we know each other is there."
 To that end, Lane formed the Ancient City Tours where she allows ghost hunting groups to take a 'ghost tour' through the museum after hours.
Why the ghosts still linger on the site of what must have been a traumatic event in their lives is purely speculation. Some say they are trapped, others say that the haunting is a residual psychic imprint. Other significant events include scratches appearing on visitor's backs, which form words, and movement of objects. Orbs and ectoplasm have been photographed in or near the area. This type of activity is quite normal in areas where there has been a lot of concentrated human emotion. The
Casa Monica Inn, for example, also sports this type of activity, as well as frequent manifestations, apparitions, and moving of objects.
Carl Sagan once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Though Dr. Sagan spoke of the stars and the universe, chances are that, that something, or someone, is closer to home than any of us could have imagined.
Photos courtesy of www.spanishmilitaryhospital.com
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