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John Edward in person

cambion said:
I think a big part of Edward's appeal is that he IS so unassuming. He has a baby face and an innocent, nice aura (of the personality variety, not the supernatural) which can be disarming.

But he's still at best misguided and (more probably in my view) an outright fraud. He can't do anything the umpteen other retired and admitted phonies were able to do, so I don't see any reason to treat him differently just because he seems like a sweet person.
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He is a vicious , slimey fraud. Back when he worked out of his house on Little Plains Court, in Huntington,NY, he preyed on grieving people with his scam psychic act. Once he had someone hooked, he'd have his wife call every month that they hadn't gotten a "reading" and say that John had received a message from Mom and needed to talk. It was only $50 a head back then (he had groups rates), but it sure beat taking blood from people as a phlebotomist or being a dance instructor.
 
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Ha, I'd forgotten that he worked as a phlebotomist. He's both literally and figuratively a blood sucker. Love it.
 
Pixel42 said:
Probably pretend that the spirits weren't being particularly co-operative that evening and return the client's money.
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[sputter] You made the cherry Coke come up through my nose.

I know that some of the skeptics here will think I am making this up, but the First Rule of Acquisition1 is "Once you have their money, you never give it back." Mr. Edward has nothing on the Ferengi.

..................
1) a Star Trek reference to a species that worships capitalism.
 
Robert Oz said:
He certainly has done just that. See this clip with Derren Brown and Simon Pegg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg

I realise he trashes NLP when being honest, but he certainly has used it as misdirection in his explanations. I have a fairly good idea how he performed the BMX trick and, obviously, it has nothing to do with throwing in related words while anchoring and decorating the room with subliminal images.

ETA: I am aware he doesn't actually say 'NLP' in his explanation, but it is very obvious that the intention is to describe it.
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There's a "Fool Us" epdisode with Penn & Teller in which a guy says he performed his card guessing trick using psychology and "planting" a thought in someone's head. When Penn got to guess how he did the trick he started by saying that all this psychology thing is Bull **** and the magician agreed fully with him (they both laughed about it). Turned out to be a trick deck of cards.
Can't remember which episode it was. Look for it on youtube.
 
yairhol said:
There's a "Fool Us" epdisode with Penn & Teller in which a guy says he performed his card guessing trick using psychology and "planting" a thought in someone's head. When Penn got to guess how he did the trick he started by saying that all this psychology thing is Bull **** and the magician agreed fully with him (they both laughed about it). Turned out to be a trick deck of cards.
Can't remember which episode it was. Look for it on youtube.
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Wow! What a great series. I was unaware of it.

And for seacreast's benefit, here is the link to a video of Penn and Teller being fooled by another magician.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpthjI1z2FM

seacreast, I've watched quite a few of these Fool Us tricks on youtube now and can tell you that Penn and Teller's knowledge of magic is phenomenal and they do spot how most of the tricks are done.

However, the above link proves that even they can be fooled, even in their area of expertise. And they happily admit it!
 
seacrest said:
I'm not including everyone, I'm addressing jref posters
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Oh really?

seacrest said:
@ post #80 I find personal experience provides the most valuable information.
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seacrest said:
As for JE's claim of mediumship, all one need do is simply see him for objective evidence to satisfy the burden of proof. Unless you're unlike Oz, who appears able to detect a fraud.
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Because you seem to clearly state that you think seeing in person is enough to conclude that he is not a fraud. So again I ask you, do you think people who fall into various scams do so without meeting the scammer in person?

seacrest said:
The implication being that I couldn't and you could? Then why would you hesitate to see JE to obtain "empirical" evidence that he's a fraud.
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You also do rezlize I hope that in a lot of cases seeing a live performance is worse than seeing a non live, right?

Sure, in a non-live there are editing tricks, but a live performance is something you can't verify. People's memory is quite fuzzy and the excitement of the crowed is a major factor. Heck, that's the major reason why cold reading works in the first place.
 
I just checked seacrest's profile and it appears (s)he hasn't visited this site since 12th August. So we're all talking to the air.
 
Talking to the air, sounds familiar.

Hold on, I'm getting a message, something coming through. A gentleman whose name begins with C... no? Oh Sea yes that's right sir. Seacrest you say. Thats the gentleman. He has a message for a group of you? Are you in a group? That's right a group of you who are here today. He says he understands now. Does that make sense to you? Is this about an argument? Yes because he says he was arguing with you when he departed and now he sees that you could have been right. He's asking you to forgive him. Can you do that for us all here today. Can you forgive Seacrest?
 
Pixel42 said:
I just checked seacrest's profile and it appears (s)he hasn't visited this site since 12th August. So we're all talking to the air.
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Not necessarily. seacrest's postings in this thread have been on the following dates:

12 July
19 July
20 July
2 August
11 August
12 August

It looks like seacrest checks in about once a week.
 
Edwards is a clever woo. I don't believe he pays for help on the road. It would be too easy for him to be sold out. I bet he has an inner circle he tours with and they are the only people he trusts. Hot/warm readings come from just one or two people he tours with. This is easier than you might think.

He cheats. He is clever. He cheats.
 
Senex said:
Hot/warm readings come from just one or two people he tours with. This is easier than you might think.
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One technique I've seen described by whistleblowers is to simply keep all the letters from believers which beg the "psychic" to contact a dead loved one and give masses of information about them. For each live show his staff look for letters from any believers who live locally and send them complementary tickets. Thus when the "psychic" goes on stage he already knows there are believers in the audience, and has all the information necessary to manufacture an "amazingly accurate" message from the dead.

These people have no shame.
 
Pixel42 said:
These people have no shame.
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The "no shame" doesn't even come close as those "people" (and I use the term only because the censor won't allow me to say what I really want to call them) who come to parents and interfere with investigations of missing children.

Seriously... I only wish there was some way to take legal action against these people. But it's just for entertaiment... Cause hearing your child is dead when in reality he is being held captive by a pedophile is so entertaining :mad:
 
Senex said:
Edwards is a clever woo. I don't believe he pays for help on the road. It would be too easy for him to be sold out. I bet he has an inner circle he tours with and they are the only people he trusts. Hot/warm readings come from just one or two people he tours with. This is easier than you might think.

He cheats. He is clever. He cheats.
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True. That's another part about live performances.
I have a "psychic impression" that tells me if people bootleg and tape John Edward's shows, we might find that some of the people who get the reading are appear over and over again in different cities.
 
Pixel42 said:
One technique I've seen described by whistleblowers is to simply keep all the letters from believers which beg the "psychic" to contact a dead loved one and give masses of information about them. For each live show his staff look for letters from any believers who live locally and send them complementary tickets. Thus when the "psychic" goes on stage he already knows there are believers in the audience, and has all the information necessary to manufacture an "amazingly accurate" message from the dead.

These people have no shame.
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No shame indeed. Having received letters from the audience qualifies as "hot" reading in my book. I believe what you wrote. This is one of his tools.
 
Senex said:
No shame indeed. Having received letters from the audience qualifies as "hot" reading in my book. I believe what you wrote. This is one of his tools.
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Actually, wouldn't it be super neat to stage a sting that way?
Supposably, send fake letters and then see if the medium tries to get signals from those particular letters?
 
I met John Edwards in person, at a campaign rally when he was running for president. He seemed very personable and sincere, and I saw no evidence that he had fathered an illegitimate child.
 
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