Well folks, it's official -- the world will be exposed to the remaining "Paranormal State" episodes beginning Monday, April 11th on A&E. Me and my co-writer, Lisa Maliga, will report on them every Wednesday.
This week's blog is about a silly act of deception on the part of Ryan Buell, Chip Coffey and the faux reality show, Paranormal State. It deals with how Ryan met Chip…
To date, we have uncovered five, count 'em, FIVE, different versions of this meeting of the fake para-celebs. We wonder how something so simple should become so complicated! In fact, we recently happened across the fifth version of this event and the source is none other than the purveyor of fakery himself, Ryan Buell.
Yay and naysayers might be asking why do we keep focusing on the details? It's just a minor detail to the big story. Right there is the reason. If they can't get the story right or feel a need to be deceptive and make up stories about this event, then what other things have they been less than honest about?
The following [in red font] is an excerpt from our book, Paranormal Reality: Investigating Paranormal State.
Episode 2 "The Name" is when the general viewing public is introduced to Chip Coffey - Psychic and Medium. But it's not that simple as things never are when it comes to the show. Ryan states the following in his book on page 199: "Recently a mutual friend had suggested a psychic named Chip Coffey, so before the shoot, I gave him a call. As I spoke with Chip for the first time…"
But in "The Name" episode when Chip is first brought in, Ryan says:
"I have decided to call in reinforcements so I am bringing in Chip Coffey a medium and frequent PRS consultant."
Which of the above statements is true? The one written about in Ryan's book? The one seen and heard on air? Maybe neither statement is true. You be the judge.
UPDATE: We now have a third version of the story from Chip Coffey. According to the article "Out of the Psychic Closet" in the February 2011 'Intrepid' magazine, Chip gives this explanation: "I had been doing some events, locally and regionally, and I expanded out to do some national events. I was friends with one of the many paranormal event coordinators out there, who was also somewhat friendly with the Paranormal State people, back when the working title of the show was Paranormal U. They had already filmed the pilot, which had not yet aired, and were in production for thirteen episodes bought and picked up by A&E. They had been using another psychic on the show for eight episodes, and they decided they wanted to switch it up a bit. I was contacted, had a conversation with Ryan Buell, the star of the show, and later that same day, contacted by one of the production people who called to make my flight arrangements. When I asked how much time I had to get ready, they told me “day after tomorrow.” It was that quick. This all took place on a Wednesday, and by that same Friday, I was on a plane to film my very first episode of Paranormal State. That episode was entitled, The Name, and was the episode where Ryan - who had been plagued for some time by this demonic entity – and I named that entity for him during what they referred to on their show as ‘dead time.’ I actually wrote the name down on a piece of paper and handed it to Ryan, which, kind of [long pause]…shook things up a bit."
In the book we show three different versions of When Ryan Met Chip…
We received a fourth version of the story from Dave Schrader of Darkness Radio fame and soon to be featured in a new para-reality show from the folks of Ghost Adventures. Dave states that he is the person that brought Chip and Ryan together. This might support Ryan's book version. However, it would expose Ryan's statements from "The Name" episode as completely false. All this brouhaha is very interesting as Chip Coffey stated on his recent "Darkness Radio" appearance that he would expose any reality show caught lying about anything. Mr. Coffey, we are still waiting on your report on this one.
But wait folks; here is the fifth [and final?] version of how Ryan met Chip.
Story #5 – From Ryan's Twitter Interview [Monday, May 18, 2009]
"I first talked to Chip on our message boards when he came by to introduce himself about a year before the show started."
The "Paranormal State" Twitter Transcript link is here: http://www.aetv.com/paranormal-state/ryan-buell-
So what does this mean to the above versions of the story?
The claims on the TV show back up this version because Chip could have been a longtime contributor to PRS via the boards.
Was Ryan being deceptive in his own book?
Was Chip being deceptive in his interview? Is this the version that Ryan and Chip agreed on trying to sell? If we accept that they met on the message boards, then how much information had Ryan shared with Chip long before the show aired?
Dave Schrader's account is brought into question as Ryan claims he met Chip through the PRS boards.
Stay tuned as versions 6 and 7 are just around the corner and we will be more than ready to report on them …
Ghost B. Gone
Here is a link to an unusual story that Ron Tebo uncovered over at SciFake. As a soap maker, Lisa says that the Ghoul B. Gone Soap will probably smell nice but won't be warding off any ghouls. She also notes an incomplete list of ingredients. As for the other products which allegedly contain "blessing" and various essences of gold, quartz and other stone "essences", be warned that "blessing" is not a recognized ingredient. And plants and flowers have essences, stones do not! So, keep your rocks in your head and your credit card in your wallet. Just say no to scammers.
