Deconstructing The Dead: Cross Over One Last Time To Expose Medium John Edward

Skeptic.com ^ | unknown | Michael Shermer

[stuartcr]

OK, thanks.

[discostu]

Being a fake seer, a hoaxter pretending to commune with the dead and profiting from people's grief while knowing that all he says are lies.

[Boxsford]

I would hope Satan could do a better job of recruiting, Edward really isn't good at what he does.

LOL!

[stuartcr]

Eternal punishment for that? What should BinLaden get, or Stalin, or Hitler?

[mikegi]

I think it would be fun to go to one of these "mediums" with a specific but totally bogus story. Something like I was gay and lost my buttboy to AIDS. Wear subtle hints for Edwards to pick up on, like an AIDS ribbon and a ear ring in my right ear.

[BSunday]

Is that a message you received from beyond?

[discostu]

They get different eternal punishments. Here http://www.brunching.com/dante1.html that's a humorous look at the various punishments according to Dante.

[Le-Roy]

You don't know any of what you assert about John Edward, any more than you know how the universe began.

Why not stop trying to 'save the world' against their will? Do you similarly offer such unsolicited advice as to the diets of others, or what kind of car they drive? Why should you care how people choose to spend their money, as long as it's a voluntary transaction, and it gives them satisfaction?

[BSunday]

Do you similarly offer such unsolicited advice as to the diets of others, or what kind of car they drive?

YOU BET!! You should eat only legumes, and drive Fords!

[discostu]

I do know it because I know how the trick works and I know the signs to look for. Anytime somebody had to hunt and peck on stuff like the name of the deceased they're full of crap.

And I'm not trying to save anybody against their will. Anybody that wants to believe him and give him their money is more than welcome to. I'm trying to help the people that are WILLING to be saved and aren't sure if he's full of crap. I don't even have a problem with people who don't believe him but enjoy the show, I've lost money at 3 Card Monte tables for the entertainment value, but I knew better than to think I had a chance of winning. Same proviso here, somebody wants to give Edward money for the pleasure of the show, whatever their money their time, but the should know that there will be no communication with the dead.

this isn't unsolicited advice, it's an FR thread ABOUT John Edward, the original article came from the stance of "against", on FR we are allowed to comment on articles. I'm sharing my insight, if you don't like my insight you're free to skip it. If you feel you can disprove my insight feel free to try. If you're just gonna bitch that I'm giving insight take it up with the wall.

[Alex Murphy]

I must say, he made me realize that I should open my eyes and be aware that there ARE "messages" being sent. No need for a medium, he even SAYS that. And I do get the messages now, quite frequently. Thanks to John Edwards.

Really? How'd you afford the studio, the hidden mikes, and the buses for the ringers?

Seriously, though - John Edward couldn't have made you "realize" anything, because as the above article thoroughly points out, he's a thoroughly debunked fake. Which means the messages are fakes. Which means the dead aren't talking to anybody, at least not on camera during his show.

I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of your father and nephew, but there are better people to be learning about death and afterlife from than John Edward.

[nastypumps]

I've watched this guy & noted how the edits work (anyone w/a bit of TV production exp., like me, can see it clearly), further, there is no mystery in all this...most folks who conduct investigations, interview a variety of people in depth for employment or have some other type of exp/training in the behavioral approach to gathering & evaluating info. develop what appears to be an uncanny knack for "predicting" the future or "seeing" into the truth of someone's past & even current thoughts.
I've taught behavioral interviewing for 30 yrs. & my method (trademarked as "Predictive Selection")
appears uncanny in its accurate precasting & forecasting of people's lives (in this case, as related to employment issues & performance) but there's nothing special about it at all! As to Mr. E...read the book or see my favorite film on the subject of acts that mindread/commune with the dearly departed called Nightmare Alley.
The other guru in the field is that talon-nailed Queen of the Darned, Sylvia Brown (or Browne) who has had quite a career. Now she's really g-o-o-d!
Who has not yearned to speak w/a lost loved one? Who has not felt their "presence"? I don't care about the Miss Cleo fools, but there isn't a circle in hell hot enough for con artists who prey on the sad and desparate.
Then again, that $500 mill' billing figure IS tempting, no?

[discostu]

To quote Queen "Another One Bites the Dust"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/789000/posts

Miss Cleo, another faker and charlatan, is going down.

[Le-Roy]

   You understand how someone could do these things with absolutely no psychic ability. You can not possibly know that such is the case with John Edward. You may believe however you wish, but that is a far cry from knowing.

   John Edward simply offers possibilities that can be neither proven nor disproven scientifically; you claim to know things that it is empirically, demonstrably impossible to know. Whose position is more problematic?

[Howlin]

Can't you make your point without a personal attack?

[philetus]

The only spirits that communicate with the living are evil spirits.

[EggsAckley]

Very well said, and might I add, why is it any of their business. Oh, yes, some cite a compulsion with 'saving' the gullible. Pardon me if I don't want to be 'saved' by the likes of these hard-headed, narrow-minded buffoons. Like I said, I'll go to my church, and they can go to theirs.


Question: just why ARE they so adamant about this? Threatens their "organized" religion perhaps?

[EggsAckley]

The only spirits that communicate with the living are evil spirits.

And your "proof" of this is............?

[discostu]

Simplest solution is the most likely. Since Edward's shtick has ALL the telltales of a classic cold reading scam: keeping people waiting under controlled circumstances where they can be observed, the constant use of vagueries with the details provided by the subject, the hunt and peck method of ranging in on a person, the casual "pre-reading" conversations for his "more intimate" situations (his infamous Larry King "reading" of a camerman has been blown wide open, there's a lighting test tape of him getting ALL the information he presented), beligerent frustration when a subject bucks the odds and he can't hone in his guesses. There's really only two possibilities.
1 - he's a faker who's read some of the same books I have
2 - his "talent" is so weak and pathetic that he'd be better off reading those books and using the standard cold reading techniques.

You see I can know because I've done it, I've cold read, I've bent spoons, I've moved crap on tables without touching it. The only "mind powers" involved were being smarter than the audience. And I've seen it done many many times. You should watch James Randi, he's a great cold reader, better than Edward could ever hope to be, and not one drop of "extra-human powers", he's just been in the game a very long time and knows how it works.

[philetus]

They hold the loan hostage, tho.

Sure, but the point of the loan from the world bank was not to make money off Argentina, it was to put Argentina in a hole it can't get out of.

The world bank has Argentina by the short hairs just like it has almost all countries by the short hairs.