I would be extremely disinclined to say I'm "certain" of anything. I would hope no one twists that; it's just I'm not a big fan of certainty because it strikes me that most people who walk around being certain all the time are fools.
If we could rephrase the question such that you are curious what I BELIEVE, things become a lot easier.
What I believe is that this thread should never have been merged, because somehow it turned into a swamp of crap. My original reason for posting the thread over a year ago was to ask around and see if anyone could come up with a plausible mechanism to an extremely particular piece of information John Edward managed to, seemingly, pull straight out of his butt. Or the ether. Or whatever. Essentially, I was saying, "Here is this trick I saw. How would you go about performing the same trick?"
No one was able to give an answer that was in the least bit plausible. A bunch of stuff about credit cards and background checks and plants - it's just not feasible in the real world. No Las Vegas casino employee is going to toss John Edward information on their guests. It just ain't gonna happen. That's fantasy thinking. Sure, it's much more probable than psychics being real, but it still doesn't stand as an explanation - particularly since Edward's readings mostly suck.
And what he did when I saw him would be significant IF John Edward was able to perform with the same degree of accuracy over and over again, pretty much all the time.
But he isn't. That has been illustrated. I'll probably never know the mechanism for how he came about the ONE piece of information he has ever given that was scarily accurate because, more than likely, the explanation is mundane - like that guy's wife called up John Edward's crew and was like "Hey, how about you impress my husband real hard in your show."
See, there would be absolutely no way for me to track that, but it is worlds - and I mean many, MANY worlds more likely than him being psychic, because the brutal fact is he is honest to god just not that good. I've been to his show twice now, and read transcripts of many others, and he quite simply doesn't 'hit' that well.
And, Robin, I have read your experience, and I completely understand why you would want to believe in him. But, and this is completely objective as I have no horse in this race (being certain of nothing), it isn't terribly impressive. And I mean even just by comparison to what John Edward does on a regular basis - completely excluding the major hit he got, which I witnessed.
What I mean is that what he did for you sounds exactly like cold reading, and I believe that the reason you feel it stands as a major hit is because you DO have a horse in the race.
I know you believe you ARE being objective, and that we are alike in that - but the fact is that I didn't go see Edward wanting to contact a real person. I went under a false name with a false backstory, and there was absolutely nothing he could say that would've gotten to me. THAT is objectivity.
The difference between our stories is simply that I was looking for a mechanism when I posted, and you aren't. Rather than believe in Edward, truly step back and look at what he claimed and how he could've gotten there.
