User:Dynamicimanyd/sandbox/Coffey

Chip Coffey is an American self-proclaimed psychic from Elmira, New York, currently living in Atlanta, Georgia. He has appeared as a medium on various paranormal television programs, primarily Paranormal State and Psychic Kids. On Psychic Kids he acted as a mentor towards children who claimed to have psychic abilities, primarily seeing ghosts. He has been the subject of criticism by skeptics, including three who obtained false readings from the spirits of fictitious loved ones in 2014, and he has won a tongue-in-cheek Pigasus Award in 2009.

History
According to Coffey, when he was a child, he would tell his parents when the phone was about to ring and who was calling; referring to his ability to read the past, present and future as a "God given talent" He said that his family was very accepting of his abilities and had a history of paranormal experience. Coffey said that when he reached adulthood, he began to see full-body apparitions. He also defines what he feels is the difference between a ghost and a spirit is that "the latter has completed the journey between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Ghosts, on the other hand, are souls that, for whatever reason, have chosen to stick around. They may not know they're dead, or they may fear judgment on the other side." He had worked as an actor and a travel agent then became a full-time medium in 2001 when he says that a co-worker's dead brother had spoken to him.

Pet rescue and adoption group
With at least five rescue animals among his pets, Coffey has supported Georgia-based charity Angels Among Us Pet Rescue by hosting animal adoption web pages highlighting animals in need of adoption until around 2010.

Television and film appearances and autobiography
Coffey joined the cast of The Night Visitor 2: Heather's Story in 2014 to play the character of Daniel, a psychic and medium. He appeared in 31 episodes of Paranormal State and three seasons of Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal. His autobiographical book, Growing Up Psychic, was published in 2012.

Pigasus Award
Coffey was awarded a Pigasus Award "For the psychic who tricked the most people with the least effort" in 2009 by the James Randi Education Foundation

Operation Bumblebee
At his San Jose, California, show in September 2014, Coffey was the first subject of Operation Bumblebee, described as a skeptical sting operation, which later also tested another medium giving telephone readings. The operation, in part, included a carefully-designed double-blind experiment that would have produced strong evidence of hot reading if it had been employed by either psychic tested. While Coffey provided readings to three of the skeptics present, including the operation's leader Susan Gerbic, claiming to communicate with spirits of people who were fictitious or who were still alive, he made no mention of the planted false information, indicating that he did not use hot reading, though not ruling out cold reading. He did not appear to be able to detect that the three purported spirits were of non-existent or living people, and he claimed to be receiving communication from them. This was said to cast doubt on his claims of psychic ability.

In his own blog, responding in February 2015, he asserted that he knew all along, thanks to his team, that the three were skeptical infiltrators and that he deliberately gave them "precisely what they paid for: fake readings!" He did not say why he did not expose their fake stories or deceit at the time. His response did not mention that he met them all very cordially and posed with each of them for smiling photographs after giving these false readings, again without referring to their identities or the falsehood of their readings. He also made no mention of the skeptics present at his show two days previously in Los Angeles, for whom he did not provide readings.