In my opinion the comparison isn't strictly necessary, look at JE's reading on its own, its easily within the confines of cold-reading. He comes out with a street party/feast/fair, and won't let it go. Something HE planned or was a part of. Over and over to no validation from the sitter, then the typical broadening comes in. Street party/fair/festival that YOU were a part of, YOU planned. Any excuse as to why his process of mediumship confused who was a part of this festival, or who may have planned it? So after more prodding she gives him Memorial Mass Parade. Now lets recap. He intially says HE was a part of, HE planned, both complete misses, he was not a part of nor planned the memorial parade. SHE was a part of, SHE planned. She states there was a parade. She didn't plan it that we know of, and we don't know that she was a PART of it, she may have merely attended the parade. He asks if the parade was in honour of him, and she doesn't verify this persay but answers, well for deceased members of AN American Legion Post. She doesn't specify that he was a part of this Legion Post, or that he was being honoured as a deceased member of said Legion, although one could argue that its implied. So this is a clear example of fishing for information, then broadening when the reader did not validate, and then narrowing (in honour of him?) when the sitter did provide information. Then he has the gall to make fun of her like he knew all along, and she was not remembering right.
Heres another disingenious bit in this reading. JE comes out stating he's getting a male figure, sitter provides the dead husband info, but no name. Then JE fishes out Anthony and gets a hit, then he says the following:
John: Anthony's here with him, because he's telling me to acknowledge Anthony. And Ralph.
Now explain to me that if he's already established that he's talking with the woman's dead husband, and the spirit should seamingly have caught this as information as well, why does the spirit ask her to acknowledge him by a nickname? Their asking me to acknowledge Ralph....he IS Ralph, err Frank so why not say, he's asking you to acknowledge Anthony and himself? Does this not raise any alarms with anyone? JE was fishing for another person named Ralph, he was not expecting it to be the validated spirits nickname. Look at that above sentence logically and explain why the spirit would refer to itself in such a manner, when the connection that he was the sitters dead husband was already established.
Next he comes out earlier with the older female "V" name would could have been the Aunt, however, when he narrows and gets a hit on the "family of 7" this no longer makes sense. The sitter validates that she is one of 7, when she says there's no V, she means none of her other siblings have a "V" name which is in fact correct as far as we know. JE uses his earlier tactic of simply trying to embarrass her and she balks and fits the information for him with Aunt Vera, how is not part of the family of 7, not that JE clarifies this tidbit for us because then it wouldn't make any sense.
Then there's normal inconsistency. JE states intially:
John: He's also telling me that either your anniversary just passed or there's like a wedding anniversary that he's telling me, OR an anniversary of a death that just passed. He's acknowledging a red rose. Do you understand that?
A red rose. But then right after this statement he continues with this one:
John: Okay, then they're together. He's showing me a big bouquet of pink roses. When I see that, that's their way of expressing their love to you, so he's passing this on. He's asking about your foot or your ankle, so I don't know if you're having a problem with it now, but he's acknowledging the foot or the ankle.
Now the roses are pink. Now some might drag out the normal bally-hoo of his not clairwhateverly seeing pink right the first time, or mistaking red for pink, or pink for red. But since he doesn't clarify or correct himself at all I'm of the opinion that he forgot what color he said the rose was intially, and therefore changed it unwittingly, OR knew full well he called it red the first time and nonchalantly screwed up and called it pink the second time as a way of broadening the information. Either way, another small inconsistency that I'm sure most people missed.
Then he fishes out that the guy hated hugs, wrong, he loved hugs. Then he goes off on a bunch of tripe about her not getting to hug him goodbye, he covers his ass here by mentioning its not the big regret, just one of many potential regrets of things she didn't get to do before he passed. Then JE gives her a hug, plays to the crowd and the emotions and guess what, no one probably even remembers that he got it completely wrong to begin with.
Now, onto Neils reading. I do have a few concerns. Were the sitters known to Neil? Or did they know he was cold-reading, or were they given the impression that he was a real medium? Were they believers before hand? The reason I ask is that a few statements made by the sitter give me the impression that they were just saying things that made them sound like obvious believers. Here are a few examples:
SITTER: My sons name is Dylan, and his birthday is in may and my older son was born on the 5th, also I do have an older p name does he tell you more,, the Harley is my husband and I-and I have a niece Hailey.. kinda the same .. come to think of it not just my husbands name is Bill but my cousin who passed name is Bill,, you know things that only my husband and I know... so you have me at 70% believing right now...
The last sentence especially, can you think of anyone that would make such a statement as to a percentage of their believing? Do they at this point know that Neil is cold reading?
SITTER: Yes I lost my wedding ring- WOW YOUR SPOOKING ME OUT!! AND THE P name is my godfather-uncle, yes I love Italian food, yes a lot of romance and still madly in love with my husband ..but yaw know.. family stuff. Dont remember ever being sick when I was little , did break a leg , and knocked a tooth out my mom cried all day... you had asked about a Daniel and Donald, my uncle Danny passed away when I was young, and Donald is my brother in law in Virgina , how could you know please for sanity sake tell me more!!!
The bolded parts. I'm sorry, these sound awfully forced or scripted to me. I realize people sense of grammar is often a little hazy over IRC or any other type of chat media, but does this not raise alarm bells for anyone else?
).
.....neo
in this show, he said that he was showing him a red rose which meant an anniversary of something, [their anniversary was that day] then he was showing pink roses to express his love. Even if their anniversary had not been that day people who believe would still say it fit because they had an anniversary sometime during the year, so JE can't lose with that one either.