Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Deconstructing The Dead: Cross Over One Last Time To Expose Medium John Edward
Skeptic.com ^ | unknown | Michael Shermer

Posted on 11/14/2002 8:46:48 AM PST by NewsFlash

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

History is not just one d*** thing after another, it is also the same d*** thing over and over--time's arrow and time's cycle. Fads come and go, in clothing, cars, and psychics. In the 1970s it was Uri Geller, in the 1980s it was Shirley MacLaine, in the 1990s it was James Van Praagh, and to kick off the new millennium it is John Edward. Edward's star is rising rapidly with a hit daily television series "Crossing Over" on the Sci Fi network and a New York Times bestselling book "One Last Time." He has appeared, unopposed, on Larry King Live and has been featured on Dateline, Entertainment Tonight, and an HBO special. He is so hot that his television show is about to make the jump to network television, as he is soon to go opposite Oprah in CBS's afternoon lineup.

Last month Skeptic magazine was the first national publication to run an expose of John Edwards, a story that was picked up this week by Time magazine, who featured a full-page article on what is rapidly becoming the Edward phenomenon. There is, in reality, nothing new here. Same story, different names. In watching Edward I'm amazed at how blatant he is in stealing lines from medium James Van Praagh. It reminds me of entertainers, commedians, and magicians who go to each others' shows to glean new ideas.

Time's reporter Leon Jaroff, quoting from the Skeptic article, wrote a skeptical piece in which he reported the experiences of an audience member from an Edward taping. His name is Michael O'Neill, a New York City marketing manager, who reported his experiences as follows (quoting from the Skeptic article):

"I was on the John Edward show. He even had a multiple guess "hit" on me that was featured on the show. However, it was edited so that my answer to another question was edited in after one of his questions. In other words, his question and my answer were deliberately mismatched. Only a fraction of what went on in the studio was actually seen in the final 30 minute show. He was wrong about a lot and was very aggressive when somebody failed to acknowledge something he said. Also, his "production assistants" were always around while we waited to get into the studio. They told us to keep very quiet, and they overheard a lot. I think that the whole place is bugged somehow. Also, once in the studio we had to wait around for almost two hours before the show began. Throughout that time everybody was talking about what dead relative of theirs might pop up. Remember that all this occurred under microphones and with cameras already set up. My guess is that he was backstage listening and looking at us all and noting certain readings. When he finally appeared, he looked at the audience as if he were trying to spot people he recognized. He also had ringers in the audience. I can tell because about fifteen people arrived in a chartered van, and once inside they did not sit together."

Last week an ABC television producer flew out from New York to film me for an investigation of Edward they are conducting. The segment began as a "puff piece" (as she called it), but a chance encounter in the ABC cafeteria with 20/20 correspondent Bill Ritter, with whom I worked on an expose of medium James Van Praagh a few years ago, tipped her off that Edward was, in fact, a Van Praagh clone and that his talking to the dead was nothing more than the old magicians' cold reading trick. After waching the 20/20 piece the producer immediately realized what was really going on inside Edward's studio. She began to ask a few probing questions and was promptly cut off by Edward and his producers. ABC was told they would not be allowed to film inside the studio and that they, the Sci Fi network, would provide edited clips that ABC could use. The ABC producer became suspicious, and then skeptical. She has been trying to get an interview with Edward to confront him with my critiques, but they continue to put her off. In fact, she just phoned to tell me that Edward's publicist just left a message on her voice mail (with a date and time) stating that Edward was not available for an interview because he is out of state, yet the producer just caught him on television live in studio on CBS New York! Something fishy is going on here and I know what it is.

The video clips I was shown make it obvious why Edward does not want raw footage going out to the public--he's not all that good at doing cold readings. Where I estimated Van Praagh's hit rate at between 20-30 percent, Edward's hit rate at between 10-20 percent (the error-range in the estimates is created by the fuzziness of what constitutes a "hit"--more on this in a moment). The advantage Edward has over Van Praagh is his verbal alacrity. Van Praagh is Ferrari fast, but Edward is driving an Indy-500 racer. In the opening minute of the first reading captured on film by the ABC camera, I counted over one statement per second (ABC was allowed to film in the control room under the guise of filming the hardworking staff, and instead filmed Edward on the monitor in the raw). Think about that--in one minute Edward riffles through 60 names, dates, colors, diseases, conditions, situations, relatives, and the like. It goes so fast that you have to stop tape, rewind, and go back to catch them all. When he does come up for air the studio audience members to whom he is speaking look like deer in the headlights. In the edited tape provided by Edward we caught a number of editing mistakes, where he appears to be starting a reading on someone but makes reference to something they said "earlier." Oops!

Edward begins by selecting a section of the studio audience of about 20 people, saying things like "I'm getting a George over here. I don't know what this means. George could be someone who passed over, he could be someone here, he could be someone that you know," etc. Of course such generalizations lead to a "hit" where someone indeed knows a George, or is related to a George, or is a George. Now that he's targeted his mark, the real reading begins in which Edward employs cold reading, warm reading, and hot reading techniques.

1. Cold Reading. The first thing to know is that John Edward, like all other psychic mediums, does not do the reading--his subjects do. He asks them questions and they give him answers. "I'm getting a P name. Who is this please?" "He's showing me something red. What is this please?" And so on. This is what is known in the mentalism trade as cold reading, where you literally "read" someone "cold," knowing nothing about them. You ask lots of questions and make numerous statements, some general and some specific, and sees what sticks. Most of the time Edward is wrong. If the subjects have time they visibly nod their heads "no." But Edward is so fast that they usually only have the time or impetus to acknowledge the hits. And Edward only needs an occasional strike to convince his clientele he is genuine.

2. Warm Reading. This is utilizing known principles of psychology that apply to nearly everyone. For example, most grieving people will wear a piece of jewelry that has a connection to their loved one. Katie Couric on The Today Show, for example, after her husband died, wore his ring on a necklace when she returned to the show. Edward knows this about mourning people and will say something like "do you have a ring or a piece of jewelry on you, please?" His subject cannot believe her ears and nods enthusiastically in the affirmative. He says "thank you," and moves on as if he had just divined this from heaven. Most people also keep a photograph of their loved one either on them or near their bed, and Edward will take credit for this specific hit that actually applies to most people.

Edward is facile at determining the cause of death by focusing either on the chest or head areas, and then exploring whether it was a slow or sudden end. He works his way down through these possibilities as if he were following a computer flow chart and then fills in the blanks. "I'm feeling a pain in the chest." If he gets a positive nod, he continues. "Did he have cancer, please? Because I'm seeing a slow death here." If he gets the nod, he takes the hit. If the subject hesitates at all, he will quickly shift to heart attack. If it is the head, he goes for stroke or head injury from an automobile accident or fall. Statistically speaking there are only half a dozen ways most of us die, so with just a little probing, and the verbal and nonverbal cues of his subject, he can appear to get far more hits than he is really getting.

3. Hot Reading. Sometimes psychic mediums cheat by obtaining information on a subject ahead of time. I do not know if Edward does research or uses shills in the audience to get information on people, or even plants in the audience on which to do readings, but in my investigation of James Van Praagh I discovered from numerous television producers that he consciously and deliberately pumps them for information about his subjects ahead of time, then uses that information to deceive the viewing public that he got it from heaven.

The ABC producer also asked me to do a reading on her. "You know absolutely nothing about me so let's see how well this works." After reviewing the Edward tapes I did a ten minute reading on her. She sat there dropped jawed and wide eyed, counting my hits. She proclaimed that I was unbelievably accurate. How did I do it? Let's just say I utilized all three of the above techniques. After the show airs on ABC New York this week (Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday I'm told) I'll reveal the details in another posting.

Most of the time, however, mediums do not need to cheat. The reason has to do with the psychology of belief. This stuff works because the people who go to mediums want it to work (remember, they do the readings, not the mediums). The simplest explanation for how mediums can get away with such an outrageous claim as the ability to talk to the dead is that they are dealing with a subject the likes of which it would be hard to top for tragedy and finality--death. Sooner or later we all will face this inevitability, starting, in the normal course of events, with the loss of our parents, then siblings and friends, and eventually ourselves. It is a grim outcome under the best of circumstances, made all the worse when death comes early or accidentally to those whose "time was not up." As those who traffic in the business of loss, death, and grief know all too well, we are often at our most vulnerable at such times. Giving deep thought to this reality can cause the most controlled and rational among us to succumb to our emotions.

The reason John Edward, James Van Praagh, and the other so-called mediums are unethical and dangerous is that they are not helping anyone in what they are doing. They are simply preying on the emotions of grieving people. As all loss, death, and grief counselors know, the best way to deal with death is to face it head on. Death is a part of life, and pretending that the dead are gathering in a television studio in New York to talk twaddle with a former ballroom-dance instructor is an insult to the intelligence and humanity of the living.


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: edwards; johnedwards; mediums; scams
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-139 next last
To: Boxsford
OK, thanks.
41 posted on 11/14/2002 10:24:09 AM PST by stuartcr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr
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.
42 posted on 11/14/2002 10:25:22 AM PST by discostu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

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

LOL!

43 posted on 11/14/2002 10:26:18 AM PST by Boxsford
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: discostu
Eternal punishment for that? What should BinLaden get, or Stalin, or Hitler?
44 posted on 11/14/2002 10:29:39 AM PST by stuartcr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: discostu
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.
45 posted on 11/14/2002 10:34:28 AM PST by mikegi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: EggsAckley
Is that a message you received from beyond?
46 posted on 11/14/2002 10:42:04 AM PST by BSunday
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr
They get different eternal punishments. Here http://www.brunching.com/dante1.html that's a humorous look at the various punishments according to Dante.
47 posted on 11/14/2002 10:42:47 AM PST by discostu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: discostu
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?

48 posted on 11/14/2002 10:42:50 AM PST by Le-Roy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Le-Roy
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!


49 posted on 11/14/2002 10:46:32 AM PST by BSunday
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Le-Roy
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.
50 posted on 11/14/2002 10:56:40 AM PST by discostu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: EggsAckley
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.

51 posted on 11/14/2002 11:07:15 AM PST by Alex Murphy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: NewsFlash
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?
52 posted on 11/14/2002 11:07:22 AM PST by nastypumps
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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.
53 posted on 11/14/2002 11:11:53 AM PST by discostu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: discostu
   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?

54 posted on 11/14/2002 11:14:37 AM PST by Le-Roy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: RANGERAIRBORNE
Can't you make your point without a personal attack?
55 posted on 11/14/2002 11:18:21 AM PST by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: NewsFlash
The only spirits that communicate with the living are evil spirits.
56 posted on 11/14/2002 11:19:10 AM PST by philetus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Le-Roy
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?
57 posted on 11/14/2002 11:21:18 AM PST by EggsAckley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: philetus
The only spirits that communicate with the living are evil spirits.

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

58 posted on 11/14/2002 11:23:05 AM PST by EggsAckley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Le-Roy
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.
59 posted on 11/14/2002 11:24:06 AM PST by discostu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: 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.
60 posted on 11/14/2002 11:25:47 AM PST by philetus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-139 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson