I watched Crossing Over with John Edward (SciFi network, 11pm Eastern ) for the first time yesterday. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Edward, he communicates with the dead, and shares what he’s being told with the living relatives. This guy is good. People drop their jaws in amazement, and weep. I feel it’s emotional fraud, but the people that believe they have heard from passed loved ones, through John, seem to be comforted by the knowledge that everything is okay on the Other Side.
Should John’s type be run out of town, or should they be allowed a no-harm-no-foul exemption?
BTW, if I’m able to speak with the living after I’m dead, I sure as hell wouldn’t be spouting off about things as mundane as “weddings” and “oatmeal”. I’d be shouting, “Convert to ______ now! It’s damn hot down here!”
Yes, I’ve seen the show. He is a classic cold reader, and it irritates me that he has a TV show. The thing is, even if you sit down with people and analyze exactly what he does, (zeroing in on hits and dropping misses despite his admonition to guests to remember the misses, starting with vague pronouncements and regurgitating information given to him by the audience members, and all the other cold reading techniques) people will still believe in him because they want it to be true. What he does is IMO unethical, but there is no way to prove he isn’t speaking with the dead, so it’s hard to really say that he can’t be allowed to practice this hucksterism.
I find this guy and his type very offensive - they are toying with people’s deepest emotions for money. However, barring actual fraud (such as telling someone great uncle Fred can only get out of hell if you give me your lifesavings), I’d say the best treatment of this subject is to try to educate people about cold reading so they know it’s just a trick. Especially in regards to a television show, this jerk has every right to spout his garbage - it’s freedom of speech.
Unfortunately, I doubt we can educate enough people to stamp out this type of trash. That shouldn’t stop us from trying, though.
Me too, Mojo. I happened to come across it one night and watched about 15 minutes worth, then looked at Leigh-Anne and said, “Well, at least it’s on the Science *Fiction * Channel.”
When I said he was “good”, I meant his technique and presentation were good. The rapidity of his questions and “answers” keeps the subjects (victims) off balance, and he works answers out of them very well. I guess the magic of television editting doesn’t hurt either. I think James Randi has a million-dollar check waiting for John!
About a year ago, Larry King had “pychic” on his show, and she was taking phone calls from some real dupes. I tried and tried to get through to the show so I could ask her, “what was my father’s middle name and what city did he die in?” and see what she made out of THAT.
But I never got through and no skeptics called—or, more likely, no skeptics were put through. I tried, though! Has anyone tried to outfox this John Edward guy on the air?
Just wanted to mention a good article on cold reading - http://www.randi.org/swift/mpa.html. It’s written by an actress with no prior experience who worked as a cold reader in Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular. It shows how easy it is to fool people, even those who consider themselves skeptical.
Both the Skepdic and Randi articles are good explanations of what this guy does. I hate the show. He is playing with their emotions, and to me, he’s obviously fishing for clues. When he makes some poor woman cry, claiming to be in contact with her niece, I just get all the more furious.
I’d like to know how much interaction he or his helpers get with the audience before the show starts.
I understand that the famous magician Harry Houdini made a pact with his wife, that he would attempt to contatc her from the “other side”. I cannot find anything about Harry’s success (or lack thereof) in this endeavor; however, as the acknowledged best magician of his day, I would expect that if ANBODY could pull this off, he should have been the one.
As an aside, just what could a dead person tell you? Consider the following:
dead people cannot hear, see, or think (all of these actions require the use of a brain, which ceases functioning upon death). So how could Uncle Al tell me anything I wouldn’t know? Of course, let us assume the dead person has all of his memories intact (up to the point of death). Well, then a conversation with UIncle Al would probably be rather boring:
Al: hello
You: how are you?
Al: my sciatica is bothering me
You: where is Aunt Jane?
Al: I don’t know
eg—Houdini did indeed make that pact. He was famous for exposing fraudulent pyschics (like there’s any other kind!). His wife held sceances year after year, waiting to hear the agreed-upon code the two had come up with. Nuthin’ ever was heard, and after about 20 years Mrs. Houdini said, “there’s no use trying anymore, people can’t ‘come back.’”