John Edward’s Cold Reading Gig
The first time I saw and advertisement for the SciFi Channel’s “Crossing Over with John Edward,” I was tempted to cancel my subscription to the channel. I reconsidered after smugly thinking that nobody would possibly take the show seriously and it would die a quick death. Boy was I wrong — the show turned out to be enormously popular. It is so popular, in fact, that Edward is rumored to be on the verge of taking his show to a major network.
Even with the ratings, though, the show is still bunk. Edward is just using his own version of a long time magician’s technique called cold reading. Apparently Edward is not even very good at cold reading as the show is heavily edited to make him look more accurate than he is. An expose on the show in Skeptic magazine quoted Michael O’Neill, a marketing manager who appeared on the show, describing his appearance.
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
In an article on the Skeptic web site, Michael Shermer describes watching unedited footage of Edward at work which gives insight into how Edward works,
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.
Meanwhile, James Randi had an interesting analysis of “psychics” such as Edward and his forerunners, James Van Praagh and Sylvia Brown, who appeared together recently on the Larry King Show along with CSCIOP’s Paul Kurtz, Time reporter Leon Jaroff (who recently penned an expose of Edward), and Uri Geller friend Shmuley Boteach.
I missed that show, but Randi relays a hilarious account from one of his readers about how these folks explain away their errors. When Van Praagh totally botched a reading of a caller, Edward rallied to his defense,
… Edward said that since the caller said that nothing [Van Praagh had said] made any sense, it most likely was because the “feelings” VP had, were connected to some other member of her family — her father, etc. I submit that maybe his feelings may have been regarding her postal carrier. Or the clerk in the convenience store where she bought a soda today. Isn’t it handy to have so many excuses available?
Sources:
Deconstructing the dead: cross over one last time to expose medium John Edward. Michael Shermer, Skeptic.Com, undated.
Text from Korea, a Herd of Pyschics on Larry King< Pop Psych on Today, Galileo's Day, and Bye-Byte to Triangles. James Randi, Randi.Org, March 9, 2001.
Tags: John Edward
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 am
I understand that these psychics are not really what they are claiming to be but, if they are using this gimmick to make people feel better, why is it wrong? Why is it so important to debunk his ability and hurt these people again? He seems to give people a way to get past the grieving stage they are obviously having difficulty getting over. Are there people who have suffered? Has that type of thing been edited out? I was just wondering if proving him a fraud is more important than these people and their feelings? Could someone please explain this to me?
November 25th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Cherina,
John Edward is making money from lying to people about what he is doing. He does not call himself an entertainer or mentalist. He makes unflinching claims to be a medium, and vulnerable people pay him huge amounts of money to be lied to. Do you think it is more cruel to expose somebody who is fleecing vulnerable people or to use other folks’ grief and credulousness to make heaps of money by deception ? Most rational people (and most who aren’t I suspect) would be helped in their grief much more by getting on with their lives rather than being exploited in a shameless and cynical way by scumbags like john Edward. If you read the introduction to Harry Houdini’s book called “A magician among the Spirits” there is a moving account of how Houdini tried for decades to find out if he could communicate with his beloved dead mother, and all he found was frauds, all of whom were using tricks that he, as a professional magician, could see through. he even went as far as leaving a secret code for himself to be able to communicate with his wife after he died. This is a situation where it is kinder and more compassionate to remove the false friends of those who are mourning…
November 29th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Have any of you had any type of psychic reading before?
November 29th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I once went to a Sylvia Brown seminar/reading in Sacramento. There were about 1000 people in the audience. I have read her books, which contradict from chapter to chapter. We were given bracelets with numbers for Sylvia to call, pulling the numbers out of a basket. I was already disgusted by her rude, “white trash” attitude toward the audience [as seen on Montel Williams show]. The audience were required to fill out a little questionnaire before the show. I did not do this. When Sylvia was pulling out numbers from the basket next to her chair, I became suspicious over this technique & decided to walk up to the line of people called up to ask a question. When I got to the front, I asked Sylvia a question, saying my Mother “died” recently [she didn't], and if my mom was around me. Sylvia became very rude & hostile towards me, maybe because I wasn’t “chosen”. By looking at my features, tall, brown eyes, high forehead,etc., she said she “saw” my mom standing behind me and guess what? Sylvia used my features to describe my Mom. I could tell she was mad at me for standing in the line, not being called. I didn’t tell her that my Mom wasn’t dead. But by that experience, it confirmed that Sylvia Browne was a con artist! It makes me sick that they play on people’s emotions & take their money.[ Sylvia charges $750.00 for a 1/2 hour reading] I also lost all respect for Montel Williams for having her on his show every Wed. for 17 years. Sylvia also has a son, Michael, who’s riding on her coat tails & doing readings for $400.00 per 1/2 hour. Michael has absolutely NO skills at cold readings, I know of a few people who paid to have phone readings by both of them. Just wanted to share my experience.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
We believe what we want to believe. Personally I find the whole thing fascinating. If i had the skills i would certainly masquerade as a psychic and dupe people for the fun of it (and maybe the $$). i think you have to admire the skills and balls. However if youre going to do it you gotta do it proper like and make it believeable and i think Edwards is not that good at hiding his own fraudulence (at least not if you have more than four brain cells). Still its fun to watch all those idiots get conned and believe in him. They are so blinded by grief and emotion that they will belive anything. Ha ha!