Julie M. Frank

“I would park my bike and go inside the desolate structure and walk around to see what I could feel, see or hear. Sometimes I would get very quiet, close my eyes and try to image what the place was like before it was deserted. While listening I could hear moans, creeks and whispers. The air around me would start to move slightly and the temperature would drop. If I were really lucky, I would feel a hand on my shoulder or someone touching my back. It was usually at that moment I would start asking questions, ‘Is there anyone here? Hello, my name is Patti. Do you have a message for me?'”

This was how Patti Star, a certified ghost hunter, described her first encounters with spirits around age 12, according to her Web site www.ghosthunter.com.

Star, along with Chip Coffey, will give SDSU students an inside look at their ghost hunting expeditions in Lincoln Music Hall on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.

The presentation consists of video clips, photos and Star and Coffey’s ghost hunting experiences, according to Heather Roberts, member of the University Program Council (UPC). The program will be conducted in the Lincoln Music Hall because “it’s said to be haunted.”

The event will also feature a ghost hunt through several buildings on campus, according to Roberts. Twenty-five students’ names will be drawn to go on the ghost hunt. Each student can pick a friend to join him or her. Students embarking on the hunt can bring a camera or video camera and are advised to wear warm clothes.

Star is the president and owner of Ghost Hunters International, Inc., since 1996, and wants “to prove that life goes on even after death,” according to the Web site. She also owns the Ghost Hunter Shop in Lexington, Ky., which provides books, CDs, DVDs and ghosting hunting equipment to meet all ghost hunting needs. Star has also been a part-time teacher at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Kentucky since 2001. She teaches Introductory to Ghost Hunting and Advanced Ghost Hunting.

On her Web site, Star said ghost hunting “has been a passion … for a long time.”

“When I was a kid I loved to explore and check out old abandoned houses, closed factories, forgotten school houses and even a tall smoke stack,” she said.

Star says she doesn’t remember being afraid when she was younger and eventually brought kids and family along with her on her expeditions. She began taking her research more “seriously” in the early 1990s.

Since then Star has written a book, been voted one of the 2007 Top 10 Ghost Hunter Paranormal Investigators in America and won many awards.

Star will be presenting with Chip Coffey, a psychic, medium and a paranormal investigator, according to his Web site, www.chipcoffey.com. He is a certified paranormal investigator and works with law enforcement and victims’ families on murder and missing person’s cases.

On his Web site, Coffey said that when he was young, he knew when the phone would ring and who was on the other line. He was giving impromptu readings for family and friends by the age of 10.

When it comes to receiving information during readings, Coffey says it’s “hard to explain.”

“It’s like the information completely bypasses my five human senses and is imprinted in my brain. I often ‘see’ images or short ‘videos,’ and I ‘hear’ the messages, although not as if the words are actually being ‘spoken’ to me.”

Coffey began working as a full time psychic and medium in 2001 and has conducted over 9,000 readings worldwide.