My Thoughts On Psychic Medium John Edward
John Edward did his “psychic reading” on Dr. Phil this past week. I do not believe in psychic mediums or psychics at all. I think these are people who read people to some degree, and use people for pure profit.
I have yet to watch one person in nine years who I believe. Not one.
When I watch this segment with John Edward, if you watch it closely, he is playing statistical odds in an audience (that people will relate to generic statements), asking for them to fill-in-the-blanks, etc.
When he talks about a fire, he watches facial expressions. If I say fire to a victim, there is likely going to be a response on a person’s face affected by a traumatic fire. He then waits for people to give him signals. You notice he asks them to answer a lot of questions, too.
The two women talk about a woman who was dismembered and burnt. The John acts like its psychic to then later say, “Did this make the news?” Of course it would. You don’t need psychic abilities to say that!
John says he sees an older male energy and he waits for them to come up with someone. It’s playing on their emotions! And then he says he sees “smoke and fire” — DUH! That’s not psychic. And then he plays on it more by saying it “has to do with their passing”. Well, DUH, again! They told us that.
Then he talks about the fire being set to get rid of evidence. Most crimes of dismemberment and fire are usually for that purposes. Hello. That’s just a good logical deduction. Score for John Edward: Zero.
When he says is someone now pregnant, and that again, is likely to get a hit. If not with these women, with someone near by. He waits for a hit! When you look at the ages of these women, their children are close to that age or will have cousin who is–so its a sure fire hit again. He let’s the women fill in the blanks. Nothing shocking going on.
When he finds out that the crime victim was pregnant, he says there were two people. Yeah, hello, of course they will find a connection. Usually a pregnant woman has a spouse or a boyfriend, and if she was killed, they either killed her or got killed. Good guessing, right?
So then John asks again, “So I don’t know if we are talking about two people involved in this case?” You see, he knows NOTHING. He has to ask everything or make logical deductions to move forward.
I find this so disturbing!
He then brings up “S” names. Most people can come up with someone, but these two fail to do so. Then later they make a connection. They will always make a connection, if they believe. He catches people in the heat of the moment, in need of answers, who are emotional! They are the most vulnerable victims. They will find understanding. They need it for comfort.
Keep watching.
He has to ask people a ton of questions because he truly has nothing. Then he watches their faces, reads what he can, makes logical assumptions and asks more questions. He loves these women because they are “true believers”–his best candidates. When he gets someone who shows doubt, I can assure you he moves on quickly. That’s part of the game.
John then asks if there is a similarity in the two cases. Hello! Yes! Both are murders!! We know that already. What a dumb statement.
Then he brings up DNA. Well in any crime, isn’t DNA going to be a topic of discussion? It sure is! Nothing psychic there.
I find this utterly creepy.
When John Edwards says there is a younger female, and the women in blue offers doubt, he moves on right away! He has to find a subject who bites and statistically speaking some young woman will find a correlation, and boom, you think John is psychic. Do you see the game?
And now the believers remember someone with an “S” or an “Sk” — nothing shocking at all but boy if you didn’t take statistical odds and averages, you might believe wow! But the amount of people who know someone with an “S” or an “Sk” is quite high.
Every now and then, it will look like he knows something, but he just got a lucky hit– a true believer who thought through things, or made a good correlation for him. It is likely to happen statistically–no magical odds.
If a true psychic or medium existed, they could do readings behind a curtain and never see the people they are giving a reading to, but as you see that never happens. For a reason.
Sadly, I believe I could do this to people, and pray on their emotions and vulnerabilities and be wildly rich, but I have a conscience that won’t let me pray on victims like this. I couldn’t do it and I could lie and get rich off of the vulnerabilities of other people. I would feel like slime, and rather be dead.
Please if you are tempted to go to a psychic medium or a psychic, don’t waste your money. It’s pure rubbish.
Thank you for your decency and integrity. I hate charlatans, especially those who prey on the grieving and vulnerable. It’s pure evil in my opinion.
You sure hit the nail on the head with this fakery. When I see ads for Long Island Medium, I want to throw up.
‘throw up”? I think is a little ott
Sorry, it was just a result of nausea.
There is a woman in my metro area who charges $400. Lots of people pay it, saying she is very good. I wonder. I would never pay that kind of money. I would insist on the reading first and then if it was not accurate I would not pay the fee. But of course, they don’t work that way. There are few true psychics and most of them do not charge and we don’t even know who they are. The minute they go public is when they lose the ability to stay true to themselves.
I once went to a psychic 20 years ago. She was correct on one issue that she couldn’t have known about, and the rest was logic and wisdom about my questions/issues. But as you said, people are so emotional that they think what they’re being told is some high and mighty secret stuff. It IS sad.
I don’t want you to reveal too personal of information, but I’m curious what that issue was. Was it something that could have been a shot in the dark like “you dog Max (most common dog name) passed away not too long ago” or “you were involved in a accident involving a red sedan”?
Personally I had one physic moment 15 years ago. My roommate at the time started going out with a new girl, Melisa. I didn’t know what she looked like, never heard a description of her, heard her voice, knew nothing about her other than her name and that she existed. A few days later out on a smoke break at work (40 min drive from our apartment) I walk up to this girl and ask “I think I know you, are you Melisa, Brian’s new girlfriend?”, and she was. Even if I subconsciously saw a name badge or something lots of people had that name, and there’s no reason to think it was Brian’s Melisa.
Thanks for sharing this. If psychics could really do what they claim, then they could help find missing (or murdered) people, but that has never happened (to the best of my knowledge). Here’s another example:
“In one of the worst errors, “psychic” Sylvia Browne, a regular on the “Montel Williams” show, told the parents of missing teenager Shawn Hornbeck in 2003 that their child had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, and that Shawn was dead. In fact, Hornbeck was found very much alive in January 2007; his abductor had neither dark skin nor dreadlocks.”
Source: http://www.livescience.com/23993-psychic-devastates-dead-student-family.html
James Randi has offered $1,000,000 to any psychic that can prove their skills under mutually agreed conditions. No one has even passed the preliminary test, much less the actual test.
Source: http://web.randi.org/the-million-dollar-challenge.html
Didn’t she also tell some poor family their young daughter had been sold into white slavery? And they (sadly) discovered the girl’s body buried less than a few miles from the home where she’d been taken, probably murdered the same day. Imagine the horror those parents went through, thinking their baby was out there somewhere, suffering.
I was not familiar with the case, so I decided to look it up. Your points match the news story exactly:
http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_opal.shtml
God, that poor little girl. That poor family. I knew I had heard this on the radio on my way into work one day. I wish I were wrong about it.
I know I’m late to this discussion but was just browsing around the blog and wanted to add that Sylvia Browne told Amanda Berry’s mom that Amanda was dead. Sadly, Amanda’s mom had passed away herself by the time Amanda escaped so she went to her grave thinking her daughter had died because of Sylvia.
I couldn’t stand old Sylvia Browne or Montel. Taking advantage of people’s sorrow has to be the lowest. Glad Mr Randi called her out n hung on like a pit bull! I’m sure he was a thorn n her side till she died.
Watch Randi’s movie – An Honest Liar.
Thank you for this analysis Eyes people need to see this…so many being preyed upon by these vultures. I could possibly understand if someone was deluded enough that they truly thought they had these abilities but that isn’t the case they KNOW what they are doing and continue to hurt others and profit from them. And I agree with you that you most definitely could use your talents to do the same but that is why you are so trusted – your readers know exactly how honest and moral you are and that is the main driver of what you do.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Sarah!
I really enjoyed reading this analysis of John Edwards. I stopped watching the Long Island Medium show after you gave your opinion about her.
I think you meant to use the word ‘prey’ instead of ‘pray.’ <3
peace to you <3
Harry Houdini made a mission to debunk people like this, which I’m sure was much more rampant in his time. He was close friends with Sir Author Conan Doyle, who after his wife died payed “spiritualists” to communicate with her. When Houdini replicated the scam right in front of him SACD refused to believe and offered something to the effect of “may you have abilities you don’t understand”. This was the author of Sherlock Holmes, master of deductions and logic! So I’m sure there will always be a market for stuff like this.
Thanks for the sidenote on Doyle & Houdini! I love them 🙂
He really covers his tracks at the beginning by saying, “I have no control over what information comes through.” If he’s not accurate, he can just state, ” Sorry, but the spirits didn’t come through right now.”
He’s being honest – he has no control what information he will receive. I too, have received information and I cannot control it – either when it will happen or what it is. To actually experience it yourself, you would know that spirit communicates – to not have experienced it then you do not know that there is more to this life than what you see.
The “spirit world” doesn’t communicate with this one any more than you can go talk to the people who populated your dreams last night.
No news here. (I mean that in a good way.)
I don’t think we should be so dismissive. Here is a psychic that helps solve ‘real’ crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sQHYkyq7Hs&spfreload=10
Notice how Randy ignores here questions and provides here with no additional feedback. He knows what’s going on and doesn’t fall for it.
It actually seems like there was a cut there right at about 2:18 or so which I thought was interesting. I wouldn’t say he provided her with no information, but she wasn’t looking at him so if she did pick anything up, she would’ve had to do it out the corner of her eye, and it’s hard to see much detail in our periphery, and she seemed too distracted to have been paying much attention to that. He showed a fair bit in his (apparent lack of) response though. 🙂
James Randi is a pretty interesting guy, and I remember seeing him a few times on TV shows as a kid and being fascinated by what he did. We could use more really robust skepticism shows today– people should learn how to be skeptical in a productive way rather than just a contrary way like so many are.
Hi Keith, she is reading him out of her periphery vision. I probably take this for granted.
Every expert therapist, at least hypnotherapist, does that also. It’s part of their skill set observing how people are reacting to your actions or words. To me she’s definitely doing that but it doesn’t look like she is. Her busyness with her hands is likely just another distractor but Randy knows all of this because magicians do all this themselves.
So yes sorry, I meant he wasn’t responding to her actions or words and giving her information. He knows she’s more than likely observing him in her periphery.
Also when Edwards was talking to the two women in the back he would have been observing in his periphery the reactions of the woman in the front to what was being said. That gives him a reading on how she is responding and clues about her situation when he comes back to her.
But anyway, what do you mean be skeptical in a productive way?
Hi Brent, sorry for not seeing your comment a long time ago. I’m heading out and don’t have time to reply to everything, but before I lose your comment, what I mean by “skeptical in a productive way” vs. a non-productive way is– well, to put it into some kind of words quickly, I’m thinking of the types of people who wind up believing any nutty conspiracy despite how ridiculously improbable it is to be real. Think of 9/11 conspiracies, or the people who think Sandy Hook was a false flag and never really happened, or the people who think vaccines cause autism and that bloggers and moms just surfing the internet for a few months can possibly be better or even equally informed as to the actual science than the researchers who dedicate their entire lives to studying specific mechanisms and processes by which they work.
Not intending to be insulting to anyone who falls into one of the above categories– they’re just quick examples that you might be likely to understand well enough to see what I mean by productively skeptical vs. unproductive skepticism (which is really more of a type of being a contrarian). Does that make sense?
I’m glad you did this. I sometimes wonder how John Edward and others like him can sleep at night. Or do you think that Edward might actually believe that he is really psychic?
I can’t speak for every psychic, but I don’t believe he believes he is– there’s no confidence there that you’d see if he believed it.
I think that is what irks me most. He does not believe it.
Thank you. I just love your posts.
I find him kind of repulsive.
Repulsive is a very strong word. How would you feel if you were thought of as repulsive when you know that you are not? It’s a harsh world we live in when we are different to the majority.
I find him repulsive, too. And it has nothing to do with a population that is marginalized. I find him repulsive because he preys on grieving people and tells them what they want to hear in order to make money. He is taking advantage of the vulnerable. Edward chooses this behavior, this has nothing to do with race, religion, socioeconomic background, etc, etc…
I’m sure he knows lots of people are on to him. But he keeps going anyways, ignoring those people so he can use the rest. That’s hard for me to relate to…. and it’s not self-deluding, nor does he think he is deluding everyone. He just needs enough people to have an audience. I don’t get his motivation……..
You get to make numb people feel something about something that’s important to them and you don’t have to work for a living. Not only that, but you get to feel special about yourself too. Not a bad gig if you can get it. :
Hi, yes it is a strong word. It’s just that I see him as completely fake. When he asks Phil McGraw if he’ll get “mad” if he gets some things wrong, I don’t think it’s cute, but gross. I can’t explain.
You can’t “know you’re not” repulsive. That’s a reaction another person has. If another person is repulsed by him, that’s how they feel.
I just want to say that I have some psychic ability and think that others are being harsh in their judgement on this website. I know I have seen spirits and felt energy that intuitativaly tells me info. I think you are wrong about John Edwards and the Long Island Medium. I agree with a lot of what you say on many topics and am impressed by what you point out, but I will say that I myself have seen and heard spirit. I do not believe these people to be frauds and preying on people. There are many that do who give others a bad name.
James Randi has a million dollars waiting for you.
The trouble is that this video doesn’t seem to reveal anything but techniques.
Immediately he passes over the person he was requested to speak to, using a classic no-is-that-correct question and goes on to a national-reported-in-the-news fire double murder.
To me I’m suspicious if he had information about the case before the show. Any magician would suspect the same I would imagine, as they do similar tricks regularly. Randy did some great ones, but he never claims it’s anything but misdirection and tricking people. The SK for example is a trick Randy does, actually Randy’s is a more sophisticated version, during the performance you think he blew it, he really got that name wrong, but then at the end the meaning is revealed and you think wow he was right all along but ‘we’ didn’t realise it, and you let the audience discover it for themselves. Of course it was all planned out beforehand.
There is so much hit and miss that if he didn’t have the continual verification from the two women it is doubtful if he could have told a coherent story. Besides when all was said and done, was there anything of significance he told any of the three ladies that they didn’t know already? Anything?
To me a genuine psychic would eliminate as much as possible any such techniques and tricks so that they couldn’t be accused of them.
>Immediately he passes over the person he was requested to speak to
No kidding. I watched the video over again, and I find it shocking how he just totally passes over the people he’s supposed to read. Where’s Dr. Phil at this point? Shouldn’t he be asking John, “Why can’t you read them? Is there anything we can do in the studio to help out? Are you stressed at the moment and can we come back in 20 minutes?” but nothing of the kind happens. You are so correct – he totally blows the first couple off, and starts a classic cold reading on an entirely different section of the audience.
I normally don’t go around paraphrasing Avril Lavigne, but “Can he make it any more obvious?” – he says he can’t read the first couple and then starts fishing for someone he can read. He finds the two ladies, and does a horrible job of reading their situation – exactly with the results you cite – he doesn’t tell them anything they don’t already know. There is nothing of significance provided by John Edward. Nothing. Wow, it really is that transparent once I watched it again.
I personally wouldn’t say anyone is being harsh in any of the comments I read here tonight. No one has denied the possibility that someone SOMEWHERE might possibly be psychic, but I also won’t defend someone as flat obvious as John Edward is here. Derren Brown can do similar things– even much more convincing things– but he explains exactly what he’s doing and how he does it in the process, and there’s nothing psychic at all about what we’re seeing here if you ask me. Or if there is anything psychic, there certainly doesn’t need to be to get these results. Even I can do better than what we see in this example, and there’s nothing spiritual or supernatural about it.
Now, I will say, I have seen a few things in my life that I can’t quite explain scientifically with one or two tai chi or qi gong masters, but never anything remotely psychic. That doesn’t mean such a thing doesn’t exist anywhere, it only means that I haven’t ever seen it myself. That’s not being harsh, that’s just being honest about my own experiences. My not having seen you doesn’t mean your own experiences never happened, it only means I haven’t seen them. That’s not so much judgment as it is the truth, at least to me.
In my experience, anything that’s even remotely psychic-like isn’t something most people like or want anything to do with. Once the proof becomes more than a novelty or curiosity like a magic trick and they start to feel like maybe you actually CAN see or know things that no one could possibly know, people tend to freak out and want to distance themselves from you rather than seek you out or let you keep going, because that’s actually a very uncomfortable experience. That more than anything is what makes all of these self-proclaimed psychics more likely to be frauds than the real thing to me. The reality is a whole different animal than the make believe, fantasy version, and that reality usually slams down hard when or if it happens.
Well done, Eyes!
I took a class in college where we studied phenomena like this. Our professor called these psychics’ technique “cold reading”. They just throw out a few topics that are sure to elicit some type of connection, but are very generic. When they strike out, they just back up and proceed with a different topic. John Edwards and the Long Island Medium are perfect examples.
I watched an episode of Long Island Medium where she asked a lady in a sandwich shop about a bowl full of buttons. And the lady was like “My mother kept a bowl full of buttons!” I was like, yeah, my grandmother did too. I think it was pretty typical of women during a certain time who were more likely to be homemakers and to sew. I bet there are still lots of bowls of buttons in grandmothers’ homes in the U.S. of A.
It’s sad for people who get taken in, but I think if you approach it with a curious mind you can manage to be fascinated by the powerful sociopathic abilities cold readers possess, or at least mildly entertained.
thank you Eyes for posting this. I sure hated the part, on the full show, where Dr. Phil played into this. albeit Phil’s play along was full of tells. He didn’t believe it either. sad he let it play though.
I think the cold reading technique is very obvious. That being said, I have been to several psychics who have predicted things I could not have dreamed of nor did I particularly want to happen. The most accurate one was an elderly woman who did readings from her home. I went to her house with a friend and we both had readings. She took each of us separately and during our reading she requested to hold something such as a watch or ring that we wore regularly. Then, for the next 45 minutes, she sat and never opened her eyes and began talking. Some of the things she told me were mundane details that came true a few years later – some were about things I did not want to hear about, but since she had her eyes closed, she couldn’t tell that I was disinterested. At the time, I thought she was telling me these things because most people would want to hear them – future relationships, etc., but I was newly divorced and was dead set against any such idea and felt that it was a waste of time for me to have to sit through this and listen. What she saw was remarkably accurate. But again, she did not use these cold reading techniques at all.
There are definitely legitimate psychics out there. John Edward is a terrible example – very scattergun approach and with very few hits. I don’t believe he’s setting out to manipulate or deceive however; he’s just convinced himself that his intuitions and educated guesses are coming from beyond the grave.
lmao. sure there are. name two.
I don’t happen to believe in, or admire John Edward.
But I do become uncomfortable when I sense that someone is being ganged up on, and severely judged.
Now, when it comes to murderers, that’s an entirely different matter!!
I’ve never believed idiots like this guy even for a second. To me it’s completely transparent. I mean it’s not even close to me even considering whether or not what they say is true. The only trouble I have with this guy is that my mother, to my mind one of the more reasonable, down to earth, smart women not prone to the usual fraud games people play, dying of cancer, started following this guy, reading his books, totally believing him and could relate a story why. It was just mind boggling to me and made me rethink my opinion of her, unfortunately. I’ve always thought he preys on people’s emotions and he was preying on my mother’s. I hate this guy.
Mark — I’m sorry you have pain when you think of your mom and John Edwards. Please don’t rethink your opinion of her. When people face death, they grapple for comfort of the unknown, and that is what your mom did. It’s not uncommon. Many people who were not religious in their life reach for religion during their time of parting. It should say nothing of who they are, or who they reach out to. It’s just a difficult phase in life where people seek comfort from the unknown. I hope you can give your mom understanding 🙂
Whether or not you believe in mediums and/or psychic abilities is not the issue here. The issue is there are people who exploit others to make a gain financially or for stardom…. or both. Yes, it is possible and yes people do it every day. There are those who are so well tuned with human body language and human behavior that they can appear to “know” things about you by simply predicting how you will react or how you have reacted. You don’t even have to say a word and they will know. They seem honest, they seem trustworthy, they seem genuine…. but underneath all of that “feel good” persona is another one of a completely different issue. Most, not all, but most people *want* to feel and know the things Mr. Edwards gives to them. Even as a skeptic he can give you the appearance he is trustworthy, genuine, and honest. He is quite good at what he does, make no mistake about that – but he is merely a charlatan.
The movies Red Lights and An Honest Liar are a really good insight into this world. I’m sure there are more and probably tons of books but those two came to mind first.