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Saturday, December 8, 2007
“Paranormal State”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Asthma.”
The word, or something related to it, popped into his head.
We met for the first time three years ago. Chip Coffey and I. He’s a psychic. Maybe it’s genetic. He’s the great-great grandson of Minnie Sue Morrow Foster, the Native American medicine woman and shaman.
Coffey, of Lilburn, criss-crosses the country, attending conferences, lecturing, giving presentations and readings - putting what he calls God-given gifts as psychic, medium, spiritual counselor and parapsychologist to good use. Helping others.
On Monday night, his talents will be put on a national stage. Coffey, 53, is featured in “Paranormal State,” a series on the A&E Network that debuts at 10 p.m. with 30-minute, back-to-back episodes. The show chronicles cases of the Paranormal Research Society, a group started by a Penn State University student to investigate inexplicable incidents.
When the series needed a psychic, Coffey’s name surfaced. He received a phone call back in January. A couple days later, he was on a flight to Pennsylvania to join a case. He filmed nine of 20 episodes, and appears in the second one that airs Monday night.
“I’m a very big skeptic when it comes to psychics,” said Ryan Buell, the society’s director and founder, who plays a central role in the series. “Chip read things and gave me information [on cases] that I can’t explain how he got it.”
In the past, Coffey has passed on projects that could have garnered him exposure, but lacked purpose. Had that been the case with “Paranormal State,” he says he wouldn’t have signed on.
Initially, the show’s goal was to find evidence of paranormals. Nothing more. The people who appear in the episodes needed more than that, though, said Buell. They needed help to get rid of demons, negative spirits, strange entities - call them what you want. Families who appear on the show also receive free counseling and therapy.
For Coffey, that was a selling point.
“Chip cares about the families,” Buell said. “He’s very conscious about the information he tells a family. He doesn’t just show up on the episodes wanting to be ‘a psychic.’ His psychic abilities are just another part of him. He wants to be responsible.”
And to do God’s work.
“I make no apologies because I earn a living doing what I do,” said Coffey, who also does private readings. “I feel honored and blessed to be doing God’s work, to help others. The show really focuses on the family. The family is not left adrift. If I can bring healing peace, and comfort to one person or family, what can be better than that?”
Coffey and I recently met in the same coffeehouse that we’d chatted in three years ago. At the end of that first interview, he’d gotten a reading, hint, inclination, something, related to asthma. I didn’t say so at the time, but Charlie, my brother, died from an attack in February 2004.
I told Coffey this last week. Charlie, Coffey told me, wanted me to know that he and mom are together, and that they are doing just fine.
For more information, see Chip Coffey’s Web site at www.chipcoffey.com.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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