Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Issue 22 – Psychic/Medium Chip Coffey Fails Simple Psychic Test!

When is a psychic a psychic? When is a medium a medium? Is it when someone gives $200 or more for a reading? Or when the cameras are rolling and there's an audience? Do psychic gifts work that way? 

Let’s see what information Merriam-Webster provides.

The word psychic is derived from the Greek word, psychikos which means, "of the soul, mental." A psychic is, "sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences: marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding."

What's a medium? "An individual held to be a channel of communication between the earthly world and a world of spirits."

It doesn't limit itself to time periods so we are led to believe that it is a 24-hour-per-day thing. In daily life you should be able to talk to spirits or at least be in contact with your spirit guides/angels, having them help you get through your life. This is my belief, so I decided to test this on Chip Coffey.

If you don't know who Mr. Coffey is, you can Google his name and read his website, press releases and abundant self-promotional efforts. He is currently prepping to do a series of group events across the nation entitled "Coffey Talk" in which, according to his PR, you will be really impressed by his wit/abilities.
 
The test was a simple psychological one. False information is given to a person or a group to see if that information might influence the behavior of those receiving the false information. It's like those experiments that are performed to measure the misinformation effect. So I put that concept to use.

I would post a series of false statements on Mr. Coffey's Facebook page in order to observe if he would be able to use his gifts. Remember, he claims to be both a psychic and a medium. If he truly possesses those gifts I would be busted right after the first false statement.

I claimed that I had purchased tickets for his event in Los Angeles. Mr. Coffey should have picked up on the following:

1 I hadn't purchased tickets.
2 I dislike crowds and don't attend such events.
3 I find most new age teachers have no spiritual authority.
4 I wasn't going to be within 50 miles of Los Angeles that day.

Mr. Coffey could have picked up on any of those four points. His spirits could have shared with him even one of the four. But they didn't. At this stage of the experiment he gets a score of zero.

Then Mr. Coffey added an interesting twist to the experiment. I posted a link to a blog post on SciFake by Ron Tebo concerning a disagreement he had with Mr. Coffey. [Ron wrote a story about his stepfather's missing will and how Chip told him to look for it in a pile of papers. In fact, there was no will.] Chip sent me an email scolding me for posting the link, and if I didn't watch my step he would ban me from attending the event. One would think that while Chip was composing this email his gift would have kicked in. Or one of his many spirits would have whispered in his ear the above four points. But they never did. Not even one of the points. So we have to give him a score of zero.

There's more. About two weeks later [in response to my posting on SciFake about my concerns of the ethics of the show "Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal"], Mr. Coffey posted on the same thread. He publicly wrote that I was no longer welcome to attend his event. Once again, his spirits let him down as they should have whispered in his ear or given him a vision. But they didn't. So, we have to give Chip another 0.

Then Mr. Coffey posted on his Facebook page that I had to get a refund ASAP. Once again his talents fell short. Chip's score? Zero.

I decided to amp it up a bit and wrote that I passed my tickets on to some young ladies thinking he would catch this one! Does he? Nope! Score? Zero.

Mr. Coffey then makes a big effort to contact his tour manager so as to begin the refund process. But nothing is mentioned that I never bought a ticket in the first place. Of course my name doesn't appear. You would think Chip's gift has got to kick in by now. Nope. He then posts a comment wanting to know what name I used to buy the tickets. Again, not even a trick of his psychic powers or a word or two from his spirits. Guess they were on vacation throughout this test. Chip's final score? Zero.

So via this little experiment Chip got nothing right and never a word from his spirits. What does this all mean? You have your opinion, as do I. I believe that if a person is a psychic they are one throughout the day [and night]. If they are talking to spirits one should expect them to be in communication not only while a person is performing and the cameras are rolling, but throughout their life.