Walking With Ghosts
Meet St. Pete’s Spirit-Hunting Scholar, Dr. Brandy Stark
BRANDY STARK
ABBY BAKER
By Abby Baker
The team – Carissa, JJ Wallace, Veva Scott, Brandy Stark and Marina Spears – geared up at the Suntan Arts Center to investigate two potential apparitions.
Well before the 2000s craze for ghost-hunting reality TV shows, St. Petersburg College humanities and religion professor Dr. Brandy Stark was scouring Tampa Bay for the undead. In 2021, Stark and her team of five investigators – plus two paranormal hunter pugs Achilles and Patroclus – are the faces behind the Spirits of St. Petersburg ghostly investigation team. While Stark, who is also an accomplished artist, keeps one foot in academia, she keeps another in the spirit world, hosting Paradise Tours
Haunted Bus Tour in Downtown St. Petersburg. “When I was younger I would terrify myself reading books,” Stark said. “As I got older I learned that there is much more value in the role of ghosts in culture than just a ghost story.” The Real and the Unreal It was 1997 when Stark began tinkering with electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and video recording to document historically haunted places. She started “Spirits” as a hobby,
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but it soon evolved into a group that currently performs 8 to 12 investigations yearly. Stark has investigated spirits at Albert Whitted Airport and a haunted room at The Vinoy, amongst others. The professor doesn’t charge a penny for her investigative services, which can be in private homes or public spaces, like her most recent examination of the Suntan Arts Center at 3300 Gulf Blvd. on St. Pete Beach. “I have an ethical issue with charging for these services,” Stark said. “If someone wants to give us
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theGabber.com | September 30, 2021 - October 6, 2021
