Review: Dr. Harry Stafford's Paranormal Investigative Tour in St. Augustine, Florida

Dr. Harry Stafford Ph.D leads an investigative paranormal tour in St. Augustine Florida. Dr. Stafford has over 30 years experience in the field, and has even wrote his own book. Needless to say his brochure was impressive, but what do you really get out of this sort of tour? Dr. Harry Stafford seems to offer endless possibilities, and even throws in a short lesson becoming a paranormal investigator before the tour.

Dr. Stafford's investigative paranormal tour doesn't come cheap. To take this 2 hour tour you better be ready to fork over $35.00 per person. Being that my fiancee, and I have done several years of paranormal research and investigations together, and countless years separately, we thought the tour might be interesting. After all, each paranormal investigator has their own perspective, and curiosity lead us to wonder what his was. After reading Dr. Stafford's brochure, we decided to take the tour, and planned on buying tickets later that afternoon. Unfortunately, I injured my knee while taking a historical tour, and didn't really feel up to the walking.

Just up the way from our bed and breakfast sat a small coffee shop, and at 8:00 that evening my fiancee, and I decided to walk over for a cup. Low and behold there was the sign. When I say sign what I mean is a large piece of white poster board with sloppy hand writing that read "Paranormal tour here 9:00". This certainly couldn't be the same tour that was in the brochure. However, we wasn't to surprised when Dr. Harry Stafford walked over to introduce himself, and asked if we were taking the tour that night. My fiancee quickly replied "no, we didn't get tickets, and she hurt her knee". Dr. Stafford quickly overlooked my bum knee, and as if he was a car salesman he said "that's o.k I accept cash, or credit here". Like an idiot my fiancee was quilted into handing over the debit card. Dr. Stafford walked up to the coffee shop called Crucial Coffee, and came back with a receipt. As he explained, he had worked out a deal with the owners to use their credit card machine, and the property at night for his tours. To give you a better idea of the place, it looks like a shack, you order there, then sip your coffee outside at one of the 6 picnic tables. Don't get me wrong, the coffee is great, but not a professional location for any other business to be taken seriously.

The $35.00 per person you pay to take this paranormal tour consist of the rental of an Electromagnetic Field Meter, a 2 hour walking tour with Dr. Harry Stafford, and a brief lesson into paranormal investigating. By brief, I mean it was more like "hold you finger down on the button, and do ignore any physic feeling you might have". Being that we had our own equipment, we did not need to borrow his Electromagnetic Field Meter, which by the way only cost around $30.00 to buy new.

After waiting there a half hour or so, it was time for the tour to start. Except for one problem, Dr. Harry Stafford walks over to inform us that he's not giving our tour, instead an assistant of his would be along shortly. A few moments latter a nice lady arrived, with her companion to start the tour. This paranormal investigative tour consisted of A young man in his early 20's to late teens, his teenage sister, and another sister that was 6 years old, my fiancee, and myself. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcous (Old Fort). Our very nice however relatively inexperienced tour guide started us off with a "ghost story" that terrified the little one. We all sort of mutually agreed to skip the stories (except for the older brother of course), so the rest of the tour was more like a group of sight seeing friends.

When the tour was over, our guide apologized for the situation, and herself, my fiancee, and I started chatting. Before long we were sharing pictures, and stories, which lead to some interesting knowledge. Our tour guide on the "paranormal investigation" was actually afraid of ghost. At the sight of anything abnormal, she actually leaves the area rather quickly. Even though our original tour only lasted an hour ( due to the presents of a young child), the tour guide, her companion, my fiancee, and myself spent several hours walking though town. It ended up My fiancee, and me doing our own investigating, while she more or less took notes.

The professionalism of Dr. Harry Stafford's paranormal tour is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that Dr. Stafford's brochure states "30+ experience with a paranormal psychologist" is untrue. I'm sure he has the experience, but never once did he mention another tour guide, with little to no experience might be taking you on your investigation. In fact, after we left for our investigative tour, he stood on the corner until he rounded up another family, in which he did do a tour with. Plus, no "ghost investigation should involve children, especially young ones. To take money in exchange for a child having nightmares is shameful if you ask me.

My overall opinion, if you want to take a ghost tour in St. Augustine Florida, stick with the ghost story telling tours. Those tours are cheaper, and much more fun. If you want to do some paranormal investigating in St. Augustine, do it by yourself, you'll save money, and have a better chance of capturing something. Either way, do not waste your money on Dr. Harry Stafford's Paranormal tour.