Haunted Houston
TV's Paranormal investigator Chip Coffey centers in on the ghosts at the RiceLofts
Chip Coffey brings his current tour to the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice Loftsfor an evening of paranormal inquiry.Chip Coffey/Facebook
Chip Coffey in a photo-shoot against California Proposition 8.Photo by Adam Bouska
"We've had some kick-butt results with some of the spirit contacts we've done on this tour," renowned psychic Chip Coffey tells CultureMap in a phone interview. "We were using flashlights at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas (Sunday) night and they just went berserk."
Coffey has used the "Maglite technique" — in which the back of metal flashlight is unscrewed to the brink of powering down — throughout much of his Coffey Talk tour, which travels to the Crystal Ballroom at the notoriously-haunted Post Rice Lofts on Wednesday night.
"Depending on the time of year, some places are more active than others," Coffey says, "but we almost always get something."
"I don't know if we're necessarily contacting the dead, but the synchronicity of the lights turning on and off as we asked questions in Dallas was very interesting," he says, adding that he and his team made sure to choose locations on the tour with, shall we say, a spirited past.
After five seasons as a regular investigator on the A&E series Paranormal State, Coffey has gained an iconic status among paranormal investigators for his uncanny abilities of channeling and communicating with the unseen. From 2008 to 2011, he also has served as a mentor on another popular A&E show, Psychic Kids.
Since early April, his current 15-stop tour has hit a string of well-known haunted hotels like Los Angeles' Millennium Biltmore, where the Black Dahlia was last spotted before her murder in 1947, and the Bally's in Las Vegas where a fire in 1980 took the lives of nearly 90 people. Before its conversion into residential units, of course, the Rice Lofts housed the famed Rice Hotel where John F. Kennedy spent his second to last night before the 1963 assassination.
"From when I was about 10 to 14, I lived to a haunted house in Upstate New York, which was where I first started to sense spirits," Coffey says.
Each Coffey Talk this month begins with a segment dedicated a series of personal stories from his recently-released book Growing up Psychic, a memoir about discovering and embracing his psychic abilities. After discussing his childhood, Coffey spends time conducting readings for randomly-selected audience members.
"From when I was about 10 to 14, I lived to a haunted house in Upstate New York, which was where I first started to sense spirits," he says. Coffey adds that his earliest memories involve being able to sense the phone ringing immediately before someone called. Later on, he recalled being able to name the person on the other end as well.
Those with deluxe tickets can enjoy an extended edition of the Wednesday event that includes a meet-and-greet session with Coffey and a special attempt to commune with Rice Hotel's spirits, who locals claim to hear dancing on the roof from time to time.
"Depending on the time of year, some places are more active that others," Coffey notes, "but we almost always get something."
Coffey Talk with Chip Coffey starts at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30) Wednesday at the Crystal Ballroom inside the Rice Lofts. Tickets range from $59 to $179 — click for purchase information.
