Recent investigations by self-described "field investigators" are beginning to document the city's paranormal activity -- possibly enough to eventually have a citywide ghost tour. It's a concept that's popular and profitable in small Southern cities such as St. Augustine and Savannah.

"We're tickled to death to have them," downtown redevelopment director Taver Cornett said of the so-called ghosts. So far, field investigators for the American Institute of Parapsychology have detected what they believe to be proof of at least five ghosts inhabiting downtown.

Call it absurd, unbelievable and far-fetched.

Any way you look at it, City Commissioner Mary Swiderski said, it's good business.

"If there's ghosts in our downtown, I want to thank you for coming out," she said. With spring break in full, uncontrolled swing, she added, "We'd rather have that than what poor Daytona Beach goes through."

'A lucrative business'

In St. Augustine, which draws considerably more tourists than DeLand, several competing ghost tours draw hundreds of people every night.

Cindy Stavely, general manager of Ghost Tours of St. Augustine, says her 8-year-old business routinely gets 200 people a night during the peak seasons.

"The popularity is definitely still there and it's still growing," she said. "It's a lucrative business."

The parapsychology institute, based in Gainesville, also investigated some of the spirits now showcased by the St. Augustine tour.Institute investigator Jack Roth, his crew and a couple of dozen onlookers will set out tonight to further document hauntings inside the DeLand Artisan Inn. Roth said the investigators will use a magnetometer, which they say detects paranormal activity through electromagnetic fields, as well as a psychic and night-vision cameras to locate paranormal beings.

"We're looking for corroborative evidence," he said. "We try to get photographic evidence or video evidence or something like that."

Tales of ghostly moonshine

Artisan Innkeeper Chryst Soety says she has never seen the ghosts that supposedly haunt the 78-year-old building, but she hopes tonight's investigation is the beginning of regular tours that will attract out-of-towners to her inn.

A preliminary ghost investigation in February drew more than 30 people, she said.

Some Artisan employees and guests have reported sightings of a woman staring out of a window, an old bootlegger ghost still stirring up moonshine in the hotel basement and a little girl who hosts tea parties in the ladies' room on the first floor.

Skeptics are not amused. James Randi, perhaps best known as The Amazing Randi through his frequent appearances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, has made a living debunking purported psychics and myths.

He says this, like the rest, is a crock.

"They just go around looking for anything -- for any anomaly," Randi said. "It's like reading tea leaves."

'We're dealing with energy'

"It becomes a matter of quantum physics," Roth countered. "When all is said and done, we're dealing with energy, and as Einstein said, energy cannot be destroyed. So, if we're made of energy what happens when we die?" Lake Helen Mayor Mark Shuttleworth, who owns DeLand's Florida Victorian shop, where he says a ghost named Sarah has lurked for years, will take part in tonight's tour. He says a tour can be a status symbol for the city.

"It's a recognition of the history of the town, and we've had a lot of unique characters in town," he said. And as merchants in St. Augustine can attest, it can also mean a handsome payday.

Beth Kassab can be reached at bkassab@orlandosentinel.com or 386-822-6802.

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