By Brian Carnell

Monday, March 18, 2002

Skeptical Inquirer, the publication of the Center for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, recently published an excellent, detailed takedown of everybody's favorite psychic, John Edward. The article, John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved, is long and goes into detail about how Edward pulls off his act, but an instance of Edward apparently outright deceiving an audience stick out as the most damning.

This occurred during the taping of a segment profiling Edward that appeared on Dateline. Writer Joe Nickell writes,

Be that as it may, on Dateline Edward was actually caught in an attempt to pass off previously gained knowledge as spirit revelation. During the session he said of the spirits, "They're telling me to acknowledge Anthony," and when the cameraman signaled that was his name, Edward seemed surprised, asking "That's you? Really?" He further queried: "Had you not seen Dad before he passed? Had you either been away or been distanced?" Later, playing the taped segment for me, Dateline reporter John Hockenberry challenged me with Edward's apparent hit: "He got Anthony. That's pretty good." I agreed but added, "We've seen mediums who mill about before sessions and greet people and chat with them and pick up things."

Indeed, it turned out that that is just what Edward had done. Hours before the group reading, Tony had been the cameraman on another Edward shoot (recording him at his hobby, ballroom dancing). Significantly, the two men had chatted and Edward had obtained useful bits of information that he afterward pretended had come from the spirits.

Nickell informed Hockenberry who then grilled Edward about it,

HOCKENBERRY: So were you aware that his dad had died before you did his reading?

Mr. EDWARD: I think he-I think earlier in the-in the day, he had said something.

HOCKENBERRY: It makes me feel like, you know, that that's fairly significant. I mean, you knew that he had a dead relative and you knew it was the dad.

Mr. EDWARD: OK.

This makes accusations in a Time article more credible. Time reported that people who work for Edward's apparently surreptitiously collect information about members of the audience prior to a show, although Edward's handlers claim none of that information is shared with Edward.

Nickell also provides confirming evidence that Crossing Over appears to be heavily edited to make it appear that Edward is more successful than he really is. Nickell cites a New York Times reporter who attended a taping of the show and noted that two segments of the show that resulted in a great deal of problems for Edward were simply edited out, with only the parts where Edward had the best readings included in the final edit.

Source:

John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved. Joe Nickell, Skeptical Enquirer, November 2001.

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