So what is your opinion of JE's ability then?
Very favorable. I do believe that he is picking up information psychically. Some would argue that it's coming from reading the sitter's mind, but after observing him for so long, and considering my own experience at the Philly seminar, I reject that theory altogether.
His dismal performances on LKL highlighted for me what his ability was like when put on the spot, or asked to perform away from an environment of his choosing. While there were excuses as to why he did poorly in that environment, I must say they sounded like grasping at straws.
I would agree with you, voidx, that his phone readings, for the most part, did more harm to his credibility than good, and so I can completely understand your take on it. I know JE felt that the medium itself shouldn't make a difference, and he definitely has done some good readings via phone connections in the past, but imo, I think that the limited time and multiple phone lines worked against his abilities.
Going to a local medium to me is not a good test. I know enough to realize I might not be able to see the tricks, while sitting through them. Someone should be able to look at a transcript of all the information provided and still see it as being something truly validating.
I agree that a transcript would be invaluable in assessing the reading. There are many mediums, however, who do invite you to tape the entire reading, or who offer to do it themselves. John Edward never felt comfortable with doing that, so of course, that is another strike against him from the skeptics, who really aren't interested in what his reasons for this might be.
The very fact that we often disagreed as to just how specific a piece of JE information was shows the very problem with subjectivity and how it relates to mediumship.
I can't argue with that either. As a rule, however, I think the best arbiter of how meaningful a piece of information is to the sitter, is probably the sitter himself. I did find the sitters' post-reading comments very interesting though, since they usually provided the details necessary to make sense of the reading. That's why I think you might find the experience valuable.
I once came across an article written by a columnist for a NJ newspaper, and he wrote all about his own skeptism, and how his own reading in the "Crossing Over" gallery had made a believer out of him. I think if more skeptics would do a better job of investigating mediumship for themselves, instead of simply adhering to their preconceived belief in its illegitimacy and repeating the same old skeptic talking points, more than a couple of you would become a bit more agnostic on the issue.
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