"Crossing Over with John Edward" -- s...

by reagan_oconnor 11 Replies latest jw friends

  • reagan_oconnor
    reagan_oconnor

    I just saw this show on the SciFi channel for the first time on Monday night. How entertaining! If this guy is for real, I'm amazed. If he is a charlatan, then he gets my vote for sheer effort.

    www.crossingover.tv

    I still haven't come to terms with my beliefs on existence after death, I'm working through too many other things right now to concentrate on this yet. I'm still of the "dead=asleep" class. Just wondering if anyone else has (a.) seen his show, and (b.) what your thoughts are.

    Cheers,
    Reagan

    I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul.

  • Yerusalyim
    Yerusalyim

    My vote, CHARLATAN, a skilled one for sure, but he uses the same tactics mediums and psychic readers have used for centuries.
    Just my humble opinion.

    Yeru

    YERUSALYIM
    "Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
    [Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]

  • open_mind
    open_mind

    I have seen the show. Used to watch it all the time. I agree with Yerusalyim.

    The dead are concious of nothing at all.

    Just my opinion.

  • TresHappy
    TresHappy

    I have seen this program. Very entertaining. He was on Leeza Gibbon's show all the time. She became a big fan of his. However, I can't believe he communicates with the dead. Again, my opinion only.

  • Mommie Dark
    Mommie Dark

    Absolutely true statement:

    When the dead speak, they speak to John Edward.

    I know another equally true statement:
    the dead have never spoken to John Edward.

    Sylvia Brown has, though, and she taught him how to make it appear to the gullible that they do. The pupil has outshone the master, though, as John is infinitely more personable and sincerely convincing than Sylvia.

    Try to schedule a private reading with John. He takes appointments one day per week (between the hours of something and something only), and he schedules a WHOLE YEAR in advance. That gives his team lots of time to find enough personal facts to wow the mark that is paying thousands of $$ for the reading. Or you can schedule a lovely tropical weekend getaway with John and his wife at their psychic island getaway retreat, learning to tap your OWN psychic power to chat with the dead, for a mere two or three times what your private reading would cost.

    BTW in cold readings on talk shows etc he does about 30% accuracy, or about what you or I could manage with some shrewd guessing.

    A lot of what John does is the same shtick that televangelist healers do, having production assistants with sub mics and earphones eavesdropping on audience members. Have you seen the movie "Leap of Faith" with Steve Martin? Some of the tricks can be seen there. It's old reliable seance medium hoodoo with a modern technotwist.

    Remember that the SciFi channel program is edited to make him look his best, too. When he misses altogether, they can make it go away before airing the show. He also occasionally tells a mark who insists the 'message' isn't relevant, 'go home and think about it and let us know when you make the connection to what the dead one meant.' IMO it's a typical blame the victim ploy, implying to the mark that JOhn's message was right but he was too stupid to understand it.

    Gullibility + heartfelt desire = $$$ for John.

    Caveat emptor.

  • Copernicus
    Copernicus

    What always had me laughing throughout the half dozen or so times I’ve watched this show is that if this man is communicating with the dead, then why doesn’t he ever reveal some MEANINGFUL information? It’s always about where Uncle Harry left his last pair of dirty socks, or whether or not Cousin Edna dyes her hair orange or not. All the information he supposedly ‘extracts” or “channels” is always about ridiculous, basically irrelevant stuff.

    If you were talking to the dead, wouldn’t somebody want to know WHERE THEY ARE? WHAT’S IT LIKE THERE? IS THERE A GOD? WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE? The man never touches these subjects, which are obviously the kind of thing the “dead” could import meaningful information about. I for one would be curious about his answers to THESE sorts of questions. But he never touches these sorts of subjects.

    In my opinion, the guy is a complete fraud, no question about it. Worse, he preys on the emotionally disadvantaged who are suffering from recently having lost a loved one. They are so desperate for any tidbit of confirmation that their dead relative still exists, that they are subtly pumped to feed ol’ John enough facts to make him appear legit, as he weaves his little of web of I see a “B” – what’s the “B” mean?

    And by the way, it was my dear dead brother Joe who asked me to get this message out!

  • TweetieBird
    TweetieBird

    I've seen him a couple of times myself. I think if you watch him he can narrow things down. He will start of with something like, "I'm picking up someone who's name is John, Joe, Joey," then the person will say "I have an uncle Joe that passed away recently." Pure bunk!

    Reagan, I feel exactly like you though when you said, "I still haven't come to terms with my beliefs on existence after death, I'm working through too many other things right now to concentrate on this yet. I'm still of the "dead=asleep" class."

    Someday, maybe someone will teach me how they can transfer what someone wrote previously in the small form. Right now I just copy and paste.

  • Mulan
    Mulan

    I have seen his show, and was pretty amazed, until I saw him on Larry King Live, and he was pretty well exposed on that one, as a fraud. At least to me he was. They tape 4 1/2 hours for each one hour show. That allows all the problems to be edited out, and only the 'amazing, shocking' ones to be aired. There were other 'psychics' on Larry King that night, and John Edward was the least credible in my opinion. On the phone ins, he missed every time. Sylvia Browne and another gal were really pretty good, though. They freak me out, they are so accurate.

    There is a guy in England, named James Randy, I think, who has offered 1 million dollars to any of them to prove what they do is what they say it is. So far, no takers. One of them did actually take him up on it, but he had all the audience speaking German, so she was out in the cold........couldn't do it, because she didn't speak their language.

    I think John Edwards is bogus. He uses a trick, that is very commonly used by people like him. He is just real good at it, except on the phone.

    Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)

  • Introspection
    Introspection

    A few things.. First of all, remember it is the sci-FI channel, science *fiction*, though I don't think even John Edwards claim his stuff is science.. In any case, the questions he ask are so vague that it's meaningless. "I see a vowel in his name, either A, E, I, O, U, and possibly Y..." I'm exaggerating, but not by much. Although I don't know the details of scams that professed psychics pull, it seems clear that he is trying to get people to reveal information about themselves or their family, etc.

    This does bring up a question for me though, I'm curious how exactly you guys understand the scripture that says the dead are conscious of nothing at all. It occurs to me that this does not necessarily (though very likely) imply the soul does not survive after death, specifically if you believe in reincarnation, which I guess is probably a rare combination here but not impossible. Personally, I think after stating that the dead are conscious of nothing at all, it could be added that the living is conscious of very little generally speaking..

    "It is not so much that you use your mind wrongly--you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease." -Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

  • GinnyTosken
    GinnyTosken

    There is an article on the Skeptic site by Michael Shermer called "Deconstructing The Dead: Cross Over One Last Time To Expose Medium John Edward." You can find it here:

    http://www.skeptic.com/

    Here is an excerpt:

    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."

    Ginny

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