Chip Coffey Visits The Banff Springs Hotel

Chip Coffey, self-proclaimed psychic, and known from the A&E television series Paranormal State and Psychic Kids was on hand at the Banff World Television Festival taking part in a discussion about paranormal television shows.

The discussion was an absolute bore with no direction or focus. It was primarily a marketing event for current television productions such as Paranormal State. Chip Coffey went on to say that he believes the host-hotel, The Banff Springs Hotel, is haunted. He went on to say that as he entered the hotel he was met by several spirits and within 15 minutes had met them all.

Chip Coffey is a celebrity even with the dead.



Chip went on to say that the ghosts were busy mingling with the movers and shakers of the television world as the Festival was in full swing. He did not, however, explain why a bellhop, a pregnant bride or a child ghost would want from a television producer or a scriptwriter.



In an interview with the Calgary Herald after the discussion panel, Chip explained one ghost was a woman, perhaps the famous bride who died on her wedding day and is said to haunt one of the hotel's many stairwells. Her name, Coffey has determined, was Christina and she was pregnant when she died.

"Not one life but two were lost at that time," said Coffey. "With me being here, she felt very comfortable is saying, 'It's not a stigma anymore, so I will let you know I was pregnant. And the only two people who knew at the time was my mother and my husband-to-be.'"

He also saw a man who he believes may have been Sam McAuley, the devoted bellman whose ghostly figure is said to haunt the hotel on a regular basis since his death in the 1970s.

The third was a little boy named Jack.

"He just wanted to hang," said Coffey. (Again, it must be his celebrity status that is attracting even young, ghostly children to him. Either that, or he had some candy to share.)

"He's been around and pretty active and hanging in my room. I do a show called Psychic Kids and I work with a lot of children. Children in particular feel comfortable, in spirit, to be chatting with me. The boy identified himself as Jack -- he's blond, he's about six to nine years old. He showed up in my room first and came through last night on the ghost walk."

It's not the first time the Banff Springs Hotel has had an inpromtu ghost walk or investigation. It's been rumoured to be haunted for some time and Coffey took guests around the hotel and explained what he felt. No evidence was presented and the tour was quickly wrapped up.

Chip Coffey went on to explain that during his overnight stay his computer rebooted twice and the lights in his room flickered on and off. He attributes these events to the ghosts. He failed to explain, however, why a ghost would reboot his computer of flick on and off the lights to communicate with him, when previously they presented themselves and started chatting about intimate secrets.



Some were absolutely astonished by Chip Coffey's knowledge of the suspected haunted hotel. How did he know about the Bellhop named Sam? How did he know of the bride who is said to haunt the main staircase? And what about the little boy? How did he know about him?

The answer is:

John Robert Colombo.

With several books on his person including two by Colombo, Chip Coffey simply did a quick read-up on the ghost stories of the Banff Springs Hotel to impress the crowd and his fans. Some were not so impressed by the psychic abilities, mainly because he was so vague and did not offer anything new - he simply regurgitated ghost stories that were already known to most participants.

Chip Coffey is either loved or hated by the paranormal community. For A&E and shows like Psychic Kids he earns his keep and those loyal viewers will never see him do any harm. After all, he is a "warrior of god!"

However, there are plenty of people who think his psychic abilities are bollocks and he is an unethical fraud.

Certainly, his whirlwind tour of the Banff Springs Hotel and his "discussion" of paranormal television did not prove he was real, nor did it prove he is a fraud.

It simply proved he is becoming a washed up para-celeb with trinkets to sell and demon-slaying stories to tell.

The Wem Ghost Photograph Genuine or Fraud?

On November 19, 1995, Wem Town Hall in Shropshire, England burned to the ground. Many spectators gathered to watch the old building, built in 1905, as it was being consumed by the flames.

Tony O'Rahilly, a local resident, was one of those onlookers and took photos of the spectacle with a 200mm telephoto lens from across the street. One of those photos shows what looks like a small, partially transparent girl standing in the doorway. Nether O'Rahilly nor any of the other onlookers or firefighters recalled seeing the girl there.

O'Rahilly submitted the photo to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena which, in turn, presented it for analysis to Dr. Vernon Harrison, a photographic expert and former president of the Royal Photographic Society. Harrison carefully examined both the print and the original negative, and concluded that it was genuine. "The negative is a straightforward piece of black-and-white work and shows no sign of having been tampered with," Harrison said.

But who is the little girl? Wem, a quiet market town in northern Shropshire, had been ravaged by fire in the past. In 1677, historical records note, a fire destroyed many of the town's old timber houses. A young girl named Jane Churm, the legends say, accidentally set fire to a thatched roof with a candle. Many believed her ghost haunted the area and had been seen on a few other occasions.

Does a Postcard hold the answer to the Wem Ghost Photograph?

One of Shropshire’s most sensational mysteries – the spooky riddle of “The Wem ghost” – may at last have been solved by eagle-eyed Shropshire Star reader Brian Lear.

Brian spotted an eerie similarity between a girl standing in the street in a 1922 photo of Wem and the young girl whose fuzzy image was famously captured amid the flames as Wem Town Hall burned down in 1995.

That photograph taken by local amateur photographer Tony O’Rahilly created international headlines and sparked the legend of “The Wem Ghost”.

There was speculation that the girl was 14-year-old Jane Churm, who accidentally started the disastrous great fire of Wem in 1677 and was reputed to be haunting the town hall.

Paranormal

Wem folk enthusiastically embraced the story which put their town under the spotlight. A sign on the outskirts had a makeshift alteration to read “Ghost Town”, experts in paranormal activity visited, and there was even a scroll and a plaque to mark where the ghost was spotted.

But when Brian, from Shrewsbury, looked at a photo of Wem — a postcard franked in 1922 — in our Pictures From The Past slot the other day, his eye was drawn to a little girl standing in a doorway.

“I was intrigued to find that she bore a striking likeness to the little girl featured as the ‘Wem ghost’,” he said.

“Her dress and headgear appear to be identical.”

So we have blown up detail from that picture to compare with the “Wem ghost”. And, by jove, he’s right!

Look at the pictures and make your own minds up.

Photographer Tony O’Rahilly, who died in 2005, said at the time that he had discovered the ghost image when developing his snaps of the town hall fire.

Some time later the photo was examined by experts from the National Museum of Photography, who concluded it was a fake. But others were certain it was genuine.

Out of This World Investigated the Wem Ghost Photo. Below are the investigation videos:

Part 2 of the Wem Ghost Photo Investigation:




Is the photo genuine or a clever hoax?