Paranormal meeting?

Question

John Edwards as you all know him; psychic. My friend went and saw him live tonight. He e-mailed me about the event:http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture1fw6.jpg

What do you guys think?

Answer 1

Good post Eri  :-)

Yeah, I heard John Edwards talking on the radio to some woman called Kathleen who had a dream about her dead mother.

He said 'I feel you were called by a nickname, something like Leeny, Leena?'

'Yes' said the woman 'My nickname was Cackles'

then

I'm getting something about an Aries  or Sagittarius....

'Yes', says the woman 'My brother is an Aries....'

Bloody amazing stuff - how does he do it? Lol.

Why use imageshack to convey the contents of an email - when it would be so much easier to copy and paste?

Answer 2

First of all, people go to those things hoping to 'connect' with someone they lost, so it's not a big stretch to guess they lost someone.  If it was a young person, then their death wasn't natural, so it was likely to be covered on the news, even if it was the back page of a newspaper.  

People who attend these often remember that the psychic got a good number of things correct, but if they had taken careful notes, they might have noticed otherwise.  I remember a normal guy having an interview with a psychic.  In half an hour, he remembered her giving him about 6 names, most of which were correct.  When the interview tape was reviewed, it turns out the woman had thrown out 32 names, of which 4 struck a bell - and they were very common names, John, Catherine, Mary, etc - but he had forgotten the ones that didn't make sense and remembered what did.  That's called the confirmation effect.

Believe me, the media has no reason to keep the skeptics happy - there are so few of us.  They have every reason to play up to the believers and try to confirm their superstitions.  That's a good 90% of America.  And if you watch a typical newsprogram, that's what you'll see - uncritical coverage of dowsers, psychics, and faith healers.

Medical hospitals get more business?  Not really sure where that came from.  What does that have to with psychics?

This is a pretty typical reaction from people.  However, if they had gotten a transcript of the show and read it over, they may have realized how much they actually forgot.  Because John Edwards is just a stage magician like any other - actually worse than most - and a complete douche for convincing people that he can actually talk to their dead relatives.

Answer 3

I think John Edward is a deliberate liar, fraud and criminal.  I believe there are people out there who think they really do talk to dead people.  He, on the other hand, is fully aware of the fact that he is hustling people who are vulnerable and in so doing he is disrespecting the lives of his victims and the memories of those he pretends to speak on behalf of.

He is nothing more than a cold reader.  He may have plants in the audience and he may have spies.  I don't know about that for sure, but it's been done many times before.  I honestly don't understand why people keep falling for the same old carny tricks over and over again.  It's bewildering.

The only explanation I can think of is that there are so many people who can't let go to people they have lost.  Their desperation and desire to believe he has the power blinds them to his con.  They will even go so far as to assert there is some sort of media conspiracy afoot.

Your friend makes a puzzling (and very telling) comment that the media covers up these special powers to keep the hospitals in business.  I fail to see any connection there, so it's apparent your friend has some contempt not just for skeptics and the media, but also for modern medicine.

Here's a good article about this con man:

http://csicop.org/si/2001-11/i-files.htm...

Answer 4

I think....IT WAS REALLY HARD TO READ!!! lol

From what I was able to read...he seems to believe that he's on the level..that there's no way he could have known the things he said before hand. Wish you could summarize it. Was he called on? Guess there's no way to make the print bigger. Maybe when he comes back...he'll come here and tell us about it. I'd really like to know. I used to watch him..but can't get him anymore. I think he's on WE and I can't get that channel. If he has to cheat and go find out this stuff from people beforehand..then he's a busy beaver. That's more work than I'd ever want to do. And there's always a chance people will expose you if they find out (even people who work with him).