John Edward - psychic or what?

[Resume]

Psychic amnesia - real. John Edward - real. AHA!

You're giving me psychic dsypepsia.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Not just someone...my brother and nephew. I'm not stretching to make the hard "G" connection as in... oh I had a friend Gabrielle in kindergarten.

No, you already did that when you said that your father had an "ST" sound in his name, when his name's actually "Salvatore".

 

[GeeMack]

RemieV,
I happened upon your thread...and by "happened upon" I mean I was thoroughly and deliberately searching for any and all threads about John Edward on this site! : )
Anyway, pretty amazing story, I agree. Although after a new refrigerator, a Valerie Harper connection, and a tooth in the pocket... I can't say I'm surprised! I am surprised, however, that you are asking people to explain how he did it... I KNOW how he did it and I'm willing to bet you do too! : )

John Edward is a con man who preys on the gullible, desperate, and weak. He's doing magic tricks, only marginally more difficult than the card tricks kids start showing each other in 5th or 6th grade. One of the main differences is that the grade school kids doing the card tricks only fail a small portion of the time. John Edward fails the vast majority of the time.

People have tried to help you learn how he does his tricks. The fact that you do not want to know is the only barrier between you being conned and understanding reality.

 

[Garrette]

Not just someone...my brother and nephew. I'm not stretching to make the hard "G" connection as in... oh I had a friend Gabrielle in kindergarten. And I'm SURE if you really sit here and think hard about it you will realize you also have a significant connection to Valerie Harper (one that proves your loved one saw what you were doing a mere few hours before which in turn proves their continued existence) AND if you think really hard you will realize that your sister JUST bought a new refrigerator AND if you think really hard you will realize that your new friend carries a BIG tooth in his pocket. Or NOT. And for the record I will not stand for you calling me a "sock puppet" when I am clearly a "woo." : )

Except JE didn't do that, did he. Your very own words indicate that he did not aim those specific statements at specific people. For the name and the refrigerator it was addressed at best to a group of four people, and for the tooth it was addressed to at best one side of the room. And JE did not say your brother was going to a Valerie Harper show. He said there was a connection, which fits any number of people in any number of ways.
Your recollections have changed in your very own blog.

Your argument boils down to the very arrogant claim that you, you specifically, simply cannot be fooled. The arrogance does not bother me, though. What bothers me is your denial of it coupled with your mistaken claim of it for those who actually see the fraud.

 

[meg]

Robin,

You and your brother have brought up Occam's razor a couple of times, so let's go with that.

You have also said that you've read all about cold reading while you were doing your "research" on different psychics. In case you'd like a refresher course, here's a pretty easy to read pdf called Red Hot Cold Reading by Herb Dewey and Thomas K Seville, Ph.D., written in the mid 1980s, coincidentally right about the time John Edward says he became convinced that he was psychic. http://www.forum2.org/mellon/lj/Red Hot Cold Readings.pdf

So, here's my question.

If you listen to John Edward and you listen to a magician doing a cold reading gig, John Edward sounds a lot like a magician doing cold reading.

If you watch John Edward and you watch a magician doing a cold reading gig, John Edward looks a lot like a magician doing cold reading.

The kinds of words and images John Edward says he gets are the same kinds of word and images a magician doing cold reading says he gets.

John Edward's "hit" rate is about the same as a magician gets doing cold reading.

We know that cold reading exists.
We know that some people call themselves psychics who perform cold reading.


So, which is the more simple explanation for John Edward's "abilities"?

John Edward is a magician doing cold reading.

OR

John Edward actually really talks to dead people, but really talking to dead people coincidentally looks and sounds a lot like magicians doing cold reading.

 

[Robin1]

I have a sister, an aunt, an uncle, and a grandfather who all have a seriously hard g in it.

And I'm quite familiar with your delusions since I used to be involved heavily with mediums and completely believed it for years. I have been in many seances and met many mediums and gotten many messages. Yeah even from the really expensive ones. And your pattern detection device is off. You're making coincidences and cold reading into the world. They can't even give you a bloody whole name. They can get a "G" But they can't get a "george brown." because they are cold reading. And you are desperate to believe it. It's sad, sad, sad.

I bet you have a long list of stuff you tell people as your evidence for spirit people. Well I guess you're reciting it here. Just sit and think about it, kind of like the fraudsters who consciously manipulate you say to do, just sit and an alternative explanation for all of these events will come to you later. If you just open your mind to the possibilities. Think of the strange coincidences, they are just patterns in life lining up and you notice them. Think of the strange messages, they picked that information up from your friend or relative or guessed you go "They couldn't have known!" Just, open your mind... open your mind.... why couldn't they give you a birth date but they knew of all of these other details, saying what the spirit is saying word for word but somehow they never knew a name.

Listen closely...This here Woo used to be You! Yes, the fact that I am now sounding like Dr.Seuss is beginning to frighten even me...
And so...

"This Woo is through...nothing more I can do."

Peace from this Woo to You.

 

[truethat]

Yes, I watched the clip. It reminded me of the night I saw John Edward... I believe that many people who went to the same John Edward event that I did probably left feeling that John was a little "off" that night. After all, John was completely wrong insisting that my brother had a Valerie Harper connection (and even John said it woud have to mean something more for ex. than just liking the show Rhoda!) And John was completely wrong insisting that someone on my side of the room had a BIG tooth in their pocket. John was adamant on both counts to no avail. If any James Randi followers had been there that night they would view those unvalidated (almost ridiculous) statements as being verification that John was a fake! Oh, John did have another "miss"...he insisted that I, my brother (Occam Jr.) , my Mom (and of course my Dad) had a connection to someone with a hard "G" sounding name. Unfortunately John was wrong...we had no connection to a hard "G" sounding name....none, nada, zilch , zero, we're sure,...sorry John. It wasn't until after the event while we were at the restaurant with despicable "Tooth Guy" that I , my brother, and my Mom miraculously made the connection to the hard "G" sounding name....my other brother, Glenn. And of course his son... Gage! Yup. John does have a phrase to describe what happened to us that night...and it does not include any of the words running through your minds right now : )
John calls it "psychic amnesia" and here is a quote by John on a Larry King show that explains it:
"I have coined the phrase psychic amnesia. That is like the sudden and complete deterioration of the brain when I start talking to someone. They completely forget who they are, who they're related to : ), what their name is, how their friends passed, all that kind of stuff - until after the fact. And then the aha moment comes in."
Psychic amnesia - real. John Edward - real. AHA!

Getting hits on random items in no way indicates that he is psychic. It just says to me that someone overheard or found out information about you and he kept pushing it expecting you to say yes. It must have been very frustrating for him to know you had an older brother named Glenn and you didn't cop on to his saying a "hard G." He must have been nuts over that.


http://www.castleofspirits.com/johnedward.html

"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."

http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=378


"Not Using the Given Name is a Schtick he uses over and over again with limited success."


I found it interesting to see that he has a typical spiel about people not using their given name. Sometimes it is a hit and sometimes it isn't. (See the quotes below) You can imagine that this is something that most people wouldn't think of talking about. But it is actually pretty common. I would say that every single day I have met someone who doesn't use their given name. Going back to the OP of this thread.

For example My ex husband is Egyptian and Egyptians have "begat" type given names. Ex. They take on the name of the father and the grandfather. Even if they are female, so for example my sister in law's name would be (fake but similar) Faiza Mohammed Abdul Samaan. When my ex was registering for his greencard they actually put down the first three names. So in his case it would be (fake but similar) Omar Mohammed Abdul. On his greencard his name was listed this way, but it isn't his real last name. His real last name would be Samaan. He had to fix it later and my kids had a different last name than him for years, it's part of why I kept my maiden name, because it wasn't the correct last name.

My husband now uses a different nickname because no one can pronounce his real name.

My mother doesn't use her real name. She uses her middle name as her first name. My best friend's real name is Mohammed but he doesn't use it because he doesn't like being considered Muslim because he isn't. My female best friend goes by the name Michelle but the Hebrew pronunciation of her name is Mikhal.

That's at least 5 people that are very close to me that do not use their real names. My former boss who was murdered here in Brooklyn who was Egyptian went by the last name O'Kelly. It turned out his Arabic last name was Ohkailhey and the immigration officials spelled it wrong and he liked it because it sounded Irish and he used that name.

That's five people plus one person who was murdered. My friend who died of colon cancer also didn't use her given name.

So if I went to a John Edward event and he said "I'm getting a connection with you about someone not using their real name" I'd look up. That could be my ex husband, my husband, my mother, my male best friend, my female best friend and my former boss or my friend that died.

Then "it's a male" so now another hit.

That could be my husband, my ex husband, my best friend, or my former boss.



Then JE says "he's dead"

and


Bam total full on hit with O'Kelly and how in the HECK did he know that?

He's found a niche that most people don't realize is an easy hit maker.

Father didn’t use real name
John Edward: Okay, but I get it as being separate. Either your dad is also there, but they’re telling me to acknowledge the father figure, also, who has passed. Is there a reason why he would not go by his given name?
Sitter: Unbelievable.

MISSES ON “CROSSING OVER”

Father didn’t use real name
John Edward: And they’re making me feel like there’s a reference that I have a dad that’s coming through. And they’re making me feel like the father’s coming through, also acknowledging that he was known by a different name or a variation of the name.

MISSES FROM LARRY KING LIVE AND SEMINARS

Father did not use real name
John Edward: Is there a reason why your dad would not go by his name? That he would go by the name of a place?
Sitter: Not that I know of?

 

[Garrette]

Listen closely...This here Woo used to be You! Yes, the fact that I am now sounding like Dr.Seuss is beginning to frighten even me...
And so...

"This Woo is through...nothing more I can do."

Peace from this Woo to You.

Listen? We have listened. We are the only ones listening. It is the skeptic side that has demonstrated real knowledge of cold reading, confirmation bias, malleable memory, and all the aspects of making the fraudulent seem real. The only one not listening is you. You ignore the relevant questions. You ignore the discrepancies in your story. You ignore the obvious similarities between JE and mentalists. You ignore topics that you raise when you find we are familiar with them. You ignore everything but your fantasy.

I do not believe you wish us peace. I believe you only wish we disregard fact in favor of believing your flawed worldview.

I said it before: your behavior is arrogant and disrespectful -- all the more because you pretend those flaws lie with us.

 

[Robin1]

Listen? We have listened. We are the only ones listening. It is the skeptic side that has demonstrated real knowledge of cold reading, confirmation bias, malleable memory, and all the aspects of making the fraudulent seem real. The only one not listening is you. You ignore the relevant questions. You ignore the discrepancies in your story. You ignore the obvious similarities between JE and mentalists. You ignore topics that you raise when you find we are familiar with them. You ignore everything but your fantasy.

I do not believe you wish us peace. I believe you only wish we disregard fact in favor of believing your flawed worldview.

I said it before: your behavior is arrogant and disrespectful -- all the more because you pretend those flaws lie with us.

Once again, Garrette, your eyes are blind to a very obvious and simple truth...I do wish you all peace...for in your eyes I can see the reflection of my husband as well as others dear to me who I couldn't possibly love or respect more. I can't change their minds, I can't change your mind, and you can't change mine... BUT that doesn't mean that we all can't find peace...we just have chosen different paths to get there.

 

[truethat]

Robin you can't tell people they are blind when you haven't shown them anything. I mean seriously, it's like you walking into the room and telling us you have a rhinoceros standing next to you. We say where? Suddenly something falls off the shelf and you say "Seeee, there he is!" and we say "We saw something fall off the shelf, we didn't see a rhinoceros knock it off the shelf" then you say "I can't help it if you are blind."

Dawg that's just stupid.

 

[AlaskaBushPilot]

Why can't his power do more than fleece people? Like retrieve old recipes from grandma or where grandpa hid his jug of XXX white lighting?

 

[pakeha]

Hi, Robin.
Have I understood you correctly to say you 'forgot' your brother's name begins with a G?
Memory is a tricky thing, isn't it?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Thinking about it, both my step-mum and a friend of mine go by their middle names. I'd not really thought about it before, but it can't be that uncommon.

I also used to know a girl that I always called "Daphne" simply because I thought it suited her more than her real name. I don't think that counts, though.

 

[truethat]

She forgot her brother's name. So did her mother. But they can tell us rock solid for sure they remember everything they said and did that day. She's also already changed the story from JE saying someone had a tooth to JE saying someone had a big tooth thereby rendering it more similar to the beaver tooth the guy had in his wallet.

 

[truethat]

Thinking about it, both my step-mum and a friend of mine go by their middle names. I'd not really thought about it before, but it can't be that uncommon.

I also used to know a girl that I always called "Daphne" simply because I thought it suited her more than her real name. I don't think that counts, though.

I bet every single person on this thread or actually forum, knows at least two people, one of them closely, that don't go by their real name. It struck me, it's an obvious commonality that most people never think about at all.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Why can't his power do more than fleece people? Like retrieve old recipes from grandma or where grandpa hid his jug of XXX white lighting?

You know what I'd do if I could contact the dead, and if I knew that the dead could always watch over us? I'd contact the spirit of dead spies and get them to watch over people in terrorist cells, so that the government (who I'd work for) could prevent future tragedies. Just imagine the intelligence-gathering potential of a spy who could go anywhere and whom it'd be impossible to stop.

But I'm sure telling someone that they've bought a fridge recently is more important.

 

[Garrette]

Once again, Garrette, your eyes are blind to a very obvious and simple truth...I do wish you all peace...for in your eyes I can see the reflection of my husband as well as others dear to me who I couldn't possibly love or respect more. I can't change their minds, I can't change your mind, and you can't change mine... BUT that doesn't mean that we all can't find peace...we just have chosen different paths to get there.

Wrong all around. You could change my mind about your behavior simply by discussing the topics that you brought up and discussing the discrepancies in the blog you insisted we read.

You could change my mind about JE by presenting evidence that does not fall apart under scrutiny.

My mind is changeable. Yours, obviously, is not.

You have decide that you and you alone are too smart to be fooled. So spare me the tripe about me being blind. I will gladly ratchet back my contempt when you decide to actually discuss. Until then, I am content to let you the emptiness of your position be demonstrated by your fear to examine it critically.

 

[mike3]

Listen? We have listened. We are the only ones listening. It is the skeptic side that has demonstrated real knowledge of cold reading, confirmation bias, malleable memory, and all the aspects of making the fraudulent seem real. The only one not listening is you. You ignore the relevant questions. You ignore the discrepancies in your story. You ignore the obvious similarities between JE and mentalists. You ignore topics that you raise when you find we are familiar with them. You ignore everything but your fantasy.

I do not believe you wish us peace. I believe you only wish we disregard fact in favor of believing your flawed worldview.

I said it before: your behavior is arrogant and disrespectful -- all the more because you pretend those flaws lie with us.

And the only way for him to remedy those moral failings of "arrogance and disrespect" is to change his beliefs, right? In other words, merely believing in something can make you a moral wrongdoer as a necessary consequence of that act of belief.

 

[truethat]

No, first up Robin is a woman. Second, Garrette didn't say anything about moral failings, Garrette stated that the behavior was arrogant and disrespectful. Coming to a site of skeptics and sharing a story that is so full of holes it gives a fishing net a run for its money, and then refusing to accept that we don't believe it's true. Dismissing people as blind instead of providing more details.

Ex. I think in this thread is the first time that we found out that one of the others in the group was Robin's mother. And that is a very important detail. Because if Robin's mother was there, it certainly demystifies the comments about the fingerprints. Reading body language and using details on a person is a warm reading, not a cold reading.

 

[meg]

I bet every single person on this thread or actually forum, knows at least two people, one of them closely, that don't go by their real name. It struck me, it's an obvious commonality that most people never think about at all.

Most of the people on one side of my family don't use their first name. We are scots, and all the firstborn males are named a particular ancestral name. Second and third borns get named after other family members. None of them use it. They all either have a nickname or go by their middle name.