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Chip Coffey of "Paranormal State" talks about how people were shackled in the basement of one his and Patti Starr's investigations of The Bishop House in Lexington, Kentucky.

SEC spooks URI students with tales of paranormal, ghost hunt

By: Jeff Sullivan

Posted: 10/21/08

10/21/08 - Do ghost and spirits really exist? Last night some University of Rhode Island students got a hands-on lesson on how the professionals gather evidence to prove that there are things that go bump in the night.

The URI Student Entertainment Committee hosted Ghost Chasers International representatives Patti Starr and Chip Coffey last night in the Memorial Union Ballroom for a lecture and campus ghost hunt.

The lecture included a slideshow of photographs, videos and audio clips showcasing their evidence of the paranormal.

"I do not have proof that there are ghosts," Starr said. "But I do have evidence, and that evidence for me has convinced me that there are ghosts."

The pair showed their evidence to a crowd of more than 100. In every case shown, the evidence became more and more defined, and sounds of shock and surprise reverberated throughout the crowd as the lecture progressed.

Starr said she has been a ghost-hunting enthusiast for more than 30 years. The International Ghost Hunters Society certified Starr as a professional ghost hunter nine years ago. She said she has been named one of the top 10 ghost hunters for three years in a row.

Coffey, an expert on the TV show "Paranormal State," is a self-proclaimed psychic and psychic medium, and said he can detect paranormal activity.

"Being a psychic is being able to tap into some sort of energy and know things that cannot [be accessed] with your five human senses," Coffey said. "Being a medium means you talk to dead people. How do I do it? I have no idea."

He said he believes everyone has some amount of psychic ability, the only difference being that he has an easier time sensing activity. He said things like thinking of a friend right before they call, or having a dream that comes true are indications of psychic ability.

He said his psychic "hits" come from being an extra sensitive psychic, and added these hits directly correlate with Starr's ghost detecting device, an electromagnetic field sensor, which detects paranormal activity through changes in ambient electromagnetic fields.

"I'm more the science, he's more the sensitive," Starr said.

One case they showed that had a particularly strong response from the crowd was an old Catholic school trip when Coffey claimed to have channeled a dead nun who used to live at the school.

The nuns at the school also ran an orphanage, and the pair exhibited a recording in which the voice of what might be a boy could be heard. They said the boy was calling out for his mother, and as Starr's sensor was beeping, Coffey said he could feel a presence.

"I picked up the spirit of a little boy," Coffey said. "His name was Marshall, we discovered, [and he] said he was 9 years old."

Coffey said they discovered later that a boy named Marshall died in the building when he was 9 years old, and they believed the nun to be his caretaker in his final moments.

Video evidence they showed had many different forms of spiritual activity, including orbs, mists, shadows and vortexes.

One of the mists appeared in a security tape from an IHop restaurant that was sent to the ghost hunters, and for several hours of tape, they claimed, the mist moved around the eatery like it was a patron.

One other case of evidence that produced gasps of astonishment and disbelief was the Bishop's House. The ghost hunters said the Bishop's House was a place where a bishop had lived, and later was owned by a man who tortured, killed and dismembered any vagrant who happened upon the house.

When the pair went into the house to investigate, they found old medical equipment, shackles and other torture devices. Coffey showed one photo of what appeared to be a medical examination table.

"For the guys, that's a doctor's examination table," Coffey said, pointing to the image. "For the girls, get ready to cringe, that's a gynecology table."

The next image of the house was a photo of one woman who accompanied the investigation team, and had possibly been possessed, according to Coffey and Starr.

"She said she [felt] like something was trying to jump into her," Coffey said. "I said, 'Are you OK?' No response."

He said he asked her if he could put his cross around her neck and she nodded. They said she was back to normal as soon as she was out of the basement of the house.

One student said he did not believe in ghosts, but was not opposed to the idea of the paranormal.

"I feel like I have psychic abilities," Freshman Shane Libow said. "I feel this [way] because I have dreams and sometimes they do happen."

About 40 students and SEC members followed the pair on a ghost hunt around URI. The URI Ghost Hunting Team does similar activities around the area, and meet once a week in the Memorial Union in room 308 on Tuesdays at 6 p.m.