
	"GHOST WHISPERER" CONSULTANT SPEAKS OUT LOUD

Release Date:

January 2, 2008

Press Release:

The Sacramento Bee

The technical consultant for CBS' "Ghost Whisperer" talks about her career as a ghost buster.....

by Allen Pierleoni

MARY ANN WINKOWSKI

Mary Ann Winkowski says she sees dead people. More specifically, make that "earthbound spirits." The "ghostbuster-for-hire" also claims she can talk with those spirits telepathically ("In my mind"), act as a bridge between them and their survivors ("I find a lot of missing keys to safe- deposit boxes") and assist them to cross over to the other side.

Of course, skeptics find such claims to be disturbing – some even become vehement – but Winkowski isn't bothered by them.

"I'm actually glad to hear people say they don't believe in what I do, because people need to keep their own personal opinions," Winkowski said on the phone while on a nationwide tour for her fourth book, "When Ghosts Speak" (Grand Central Publishing, $24.99, 256 pages). She added: "It's not my job to try to change their minds. It doesn't make any difference to me if they believe it or not."

Winkowski, 57, is married, has two grown daughters and lives in a suburban town in Ohio. She used to be a pet groomer, though she says she has talked with spirits since age 4. She so impressed veteran TV producer John Gray that he was inspired to build a TV series around the concept and hired her as a consultant. "Ghost Whisperer," starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, is in its third season (7 p.m. Fridays on Channel 13). Two other shows with paranormal themes, "Medium" and "Supernatural," also have enjoyed success with the public, whose appetite for ghosts and demons seems insatiable.

Winkowski even maintains a "Whisperer"-connected advice column at www.cbs.com/ghostwhisperer, called "Ask Mary Ann."

"So far this season I've received 10,000 e-mails there," she said, sent by viewers seeking advice or wishing to share their own ghostly encounters.

Her personal Web site, www.maryannghostbuster.com, averages 2 million hits a month, she says.

Q: Have the dead shown you what awaits the living?

A: No, because they don't know, and I am not a medium. I (deal exclusively) with earthbound spirits who I cannot contact after they enter the white light and cross over. I can tell (survivors) only what the spirits tell me. (The ghosts) don't know I can see or talk to them unless I stare at them or start talking to them. Sometimes I'll freak out the ghost because they don't think anybody can see them.

Q: Does your ability have a purpose, such as helping earthbound spirits move on, and comforting those left behind?

A: Absolutely that. I bring a lot of closure to a lot of people. I also have the ability to remove negative energy off a person. It can stick to a person and have a terrible effect.

Q: You've traveled the world solving cases in which you remove ghosts from residences, hospitals, hotels and the like. What's a typical scenario?

A: I don't advertise. It's not like I go out there and drum up business, though I have 800 people right now who I need to call back.

OK, they call me and leave a message and tell me what's going on. From that phone message, I can tell if they have an earthbound spirit in their house or not. A lot of people don't have anything – they just watch too many scary movies.

(For the others) I will call them back and find out exactly what's going on in the house. I give a couple of suggestions for them to try to get rid of whoever is there. If they have a ghost in their house, I can see the inside of their house and tell them the room the ghost is in. I can tell if it's a man or a woman.

If my suggestions don't work, I will go to the house, talk with the ghost, find out who they are and why they are there. I will ask the ghost any question the homeowner wants, and I will tell the answers to the homeowner. Then I will create the bright white light that (the ghost) lost after their funeral – when they made the choice not to go into that light – and watch them walk into it. When I don't see them anymore, they're where they need to be.

Q: How much do you charge?

A: That depends on how far I have to travel, but it starts at $100 for the whole thing.

Q: That's cheap.

A: If you have a gift – though some days I think it's a curse – you can't abuse it because you'll lose it. There are so many people who need help right now.

Q: Does the client have to pay for your transportation and lodging?

A: Expenses would have to be paid in that manner. But I'll wait until three or four people (who live in geographic proximity) need me and then call and ask if they want to share the expenses, so that it's not all on one person.

Q: What is your role with "Ghost Whisperer"?

A: I'm still a paid consultant and, yes, I talk frequently with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I go to Los Angeles at the beginning of each season and meet with the writers, when they're not on strike. I will recount to them different cases I've had and take them on a ghost-busting tour so they can see firsthand how it really is, without the Hollywood-izing of it.

Later, when they're writing episodes, they'll call me with questions. I get a script every week and read it. I circle things that I just know would never happen in a million years. Then I'll call them and say, "No, no, no, don't do that" and then I sit there and watch it on Friday nights and they've done it anyway. But that's OK. I was pretty much told, "This is not a weekly docu- mentary on ghosts, it's entertainment. If you want to put the truth (out there), write a book." Which I did.

Q: Do ghosts visit the set?

A: All the activity attracts them. That's where I ran into Barbara Stanwyck (who died in 1990). I came around a corner and she was standing there. All I could get out of my mouth was, "Oh, my gosh, there's Victoria Barkley!" I couldn't remember Barbara Stanwyck's name, but she played Victoria Barkley on "The Big Valley."

I was with a couple of younger people, and they went, "Who?" "Barbara Stanwyck!" I said. And they said, "Who?" Gosh, did that make (Stanwyck) angry. She was just a little-bitty thing, but she put her hand on her hip and jutted her jaw, like, "I'll tell them how many movies I made." I said, "It's not me, I know who you are!"

She didn't want to cross over because she didn't like the way the studios are handling things and the (behavior) of actors. I told her, "If you let me make the light for you and you go into it, you'll have much more control." She looked at me and said, "Hmmm, I don't know if I believe you or not." And I said, "OK – and who's the last live person you talked to that heard you?" Finally, she said, "OK, make me that light." I hope she's happier wherever she is.

Q: Does seeing ghosts all the time get distracting? What about when you want some privacy, or when you're grocery shopping or staying at a hotel?

A: They're not in my house, so that's not a consideration.

Hotels are full of spirits. When I see one coming toward me, I make sure they realize I can see and talk to them, and I make the white light.

Old-lady ghosts hang out in grocery stores all the time. Think of how much stress there is at a supermarket – the prices, the decisions, the crowds, the checkout line. Any place where ghosts can get a lot of human energy is where they hang out.

Q: How does your family handle what you do?

A: My husband and I were already married for two years and had a daughter before I told him what I could do. I thought he had listened to everything I told him. Then he said, "I'm ready." I asked, "What are you ready for?" He said, "I can handle this. Just wiggle your nose and show me what you can do." "Bewitched" was on TV at the time, and he actually thought I could do that.

Q: What about your two adult daughters?

A: One can do it and wishes she couldn't, the other can't do it and wishes she could.

Q: You write that you're a Catholic who attends church each Sunday. How does the clergy regard what you say you can do?

A: In our diocese, if someone calls the church and says, "I'm Catholic and I think I've got a ghost in my house," (church officials) actually give out my name and phone number, yet they've never asked me (for permission) to do that. We've moved more than once, so I've had different parish priests. Some of them admit to stuff they don't understand; others don't believe in it.

Q: At book signings, what's the No. 1 question asked by audiences?

A: "Do I have anybody (ghost) attached to me?"

Q: What's your usual answer?

A: "We don't do that in public."