By ANDREA NEMETZ

Psychic Picky about Paranormal Visitors

And the psychic, medi­um and spiritual counsellor from Atlanta is hoping to find some ghosts when he comes to Halifax for a Coffey Talk on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the World Trade and Con­vention Centre.

Coffey, 55, visited Nova Scotia in 2000 when he was a travel agent, stopping at Peggys Cove, Mahone Bay, Lunenburg and Halifax, where he viewed the Titanic artifacts at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and went on a pub crawl. But he wasn’t yet exploring the psychic realm — dead people didn’t visit him till he was well into his 40s.

Now the star of A&E shows Paranormal State and Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal, Coffey is anxious to see what he feels in Halifax from a paranormal perspective — particularly at sites like Fairview Lawn Cemetery where victims of the Halifax Ex­plosion and the sinking of the Titanic are buried.

Coffey believes everyone is psychic, or intuitive to some de­gree, and he doesn’t remember a time he couldn’t get information from what he views as a sort of sixth sense.

“I focus on living energy in my psychic practice,” he says by phone from his home in Georgia.

“With mediumship comes the ability to communicate with other realms, to talk to people no longer in their body, souls in bodies that have passed away.”

Coffey vividly remembers the first time he was visited by a dead person — the deceased brother of a co-worker.

“It was very alien. It felt like there was someone else’s thoughts inside my head,” he says in a soft Southern accent.

“It was on top of a parking deck and saying, ‘Tell Pam hello,’ but I didn’t do it. The brother became more insistent and said, ‘Tell Pam hello from me.’ The third time he was even more insistent. Pam and I had talked a little about the spiritual thing, he supposedly died in a car accident when he was 16 and she was 12, and I went to her and said, ‘I hope you think I’m out of my mind, but . . .’ and she was surprisingly receptive.”

The brother told Coffey things that were “very ‘validatable,’ ” experiences Pam had gone through, Coffey says.

“It was bizarre, to say the least.”

The idea of life after death was appealing to Coffey, who calls himself an open-minded skeptic.

“I don’t want to believe when the credits roll we’re done, worm food, that the soul is finite.”

And he says more people acknowledge the possibility of psychic activity than dismiss him.

When people come to him for psychic readings, they are looking for answers, hope, validation or guidance on topics like romance, careers, finances or possibly m ove s.

More often, people want him to contact loved ones who have died. “All they want to know is that the loved one is OK,” he says.

And for the most part, he says, every soul he has talked to is.

“I don’t often come across souls in distress, discord or disharmo­ny,” Coffey says.

Personalities remain the same, he says.

“Those who are quiet remain quiet. Those who are outspoken or gregarious exhibit the same personality.”

Coffey says he made an agree­ment with his spirit guide so he doesn’t receive random visita­tions.

“I didn’t want Patrick Swayze to be singing to me at 2 a.m. or to be in the grocery store having some­one say, ‘Say hello to my grand­daughter.’ I’m not Western Union for the dead. I’m not going to deliver every message. I rarely get unsolicited information unless it will prevent a tragedy or a desper­ate situation.

“A friend calls them God taps, and they are things you better listen to.”

Five other cities are on Coffey’s Canadian tour, the locations cho­sen by his Twitter followers.

At a Coffey Talk, people come in anxious, he says.

“They wonder, can I really reach out to a dead relative, ask questions? They are hyper-emo­tional. And for the first part of the event, I try to put everyone at ease, feel the energy of the room. I talk about my own personal experiences, answer general ques­tions, chat and talk. . . . They see I have a quirky sense of humour, see my personality.

“After we take a ‘Coffey break,’ they come back and I do psychic readings and mediumship. People ask me to contact their dead rela­tives. . . . I feel the energy of the room, and whoever I am ener­getically drawn to, that’s who I pick.”

The Chronicle Herald

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