John Edward: Phychic or douche?
 

What are people's opinions on this guy?
I've heard that he does a combination of cold and warm reading, and that the audience is bugged so he can overhear audience members talking about their loved ones before the show. I've also heard that he uses paid actors, and creative editing to ensure that he looks like he is really talking to the dead. I think on South Park when Stan tells the audience that he's learned something today, he realizes why they need to believe in John Edward, but he feels that they need to recognize that what John Edward does is a magic trick, and that was is really going on in the world "is much more amazing than this douche." He says something about why would the dead be floating around up there just to talk to that asshole (Edward).

Anyway, he's some sites to help you decide for yourself
http://www.re-quest.net/entertainmen...v/john-edward/
http://www.skepticism.net/discussion/fullthread$msgNum=206&page=1
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/archive/index.php/t-87178

To a certain extent, contact with spirits is possible, but anyone with a true gift like he claims to have would be doing better things with it than making a TV show. Either he's faking it or he's making money off of a talent that should be shared with the world. Either way, he's a douche.

Does anyone smell that? it smells like horse shit to me. ;-)

definitely douche

*aaaaahhhhhhhcccccchhhhhoooooo*

Sorry. I'm allergic to bullshit.

Seriously: I think he's full of it. There's tons of books that teach you how to do what he did.

Can't deny he's good at what he does, though =)

I think it's a bunch of bullshit, and he's definitely a douche. But I wonder if it's possible if HE believe's he's really contacting the dead? Is he delusional or a COMPLETE douche?

Douche

vote douche

He's fully aware that he's exploiting the gullible.

I think this guy is a serious douche. He preys on people's emotions to further his own celebrity. I've heard people say that even if he is fake, so what? He gives people comfort in their time of grief.

Bullshit. If he was only interested in giving people comfort, he'd be a grief counselor. This man is despicable.

I will throw my hat into the douche ring.

one more vote for douche. but as long as it doens't hurt people and it makes them feel better, then whatever

easily and clearly a fraud. it's just like all "psychics"...plenty of vagueness and a dash of hope

Just watch Penn & tellers "Bullshit!". The episode with him in it is wonderful. It explains cold reading and why it looks like he's so successful.

He's a douche.

Glad I didn't have to type it myself. :) Nicely said.

Go to see the James Randi web site at http://www.randi.org/
It is updated every Friday with great information.
I don't believe that any one can talk to the dead.

I disagree...I can't say for certain about John Edwards as I have never met him or had him read me, but I do think there are people that have psychic abilities, esp etc.

If there were, they could easily make a cool million by taking up the James Randi One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Blonddie, if you think you know someone who has those abilities, I recommend you ask for 1/2 the money when they win the prize.

...Oh wait. I'm having a vision of the future. Nobody is going to take James Randi's million dollars.

LOL. Yeah, the guy talks fast, uses common names, colors, et cetera. The episodes of his show are allegedly heavily edited as well, and he's been caught more than once doing a "hot" reading ( (e.g., chatting casually with the audience beforehand and using statements made their to get specific hits). The whole thing about palm reading and the like is that the client will ignore all the misses as long as the reader makes a few good hits. The people in the audience are just such a group, self-selected for, well, gullible desperation.

I do believe there's more to life than what we perceive with our eyes and ears, but John Edwards is nowhere near the edge of the veil.

douche

Gotta vote with douche.

why should he profit from exploiting people who are obviously troubled by their lost ones' deaths?

This is way off topic and I didnt read the thread, but when I was in highschool and we had Kenisiology (sp?) classes we would go bowling once a week and I would always name myself Douche. This thread title brought back the memories.

... you're an infectious pile of human waste


(okay?)

I have a friend who truly believes he can actually do this after I presented her with informational (like SlimShaydee has) but yet was too stubborn to look at both sides. He is a Super Douche.

Although it is not to say some may have the ability, he is a con artist in it for the money. IMO.

Worlds Biggest Douche award.

biggest douche in the universe

Damnit I knew I had that quote wrong :( Good job Zephyr66 :P

Im going with southpark on this subject. The universes biggest Douche!

WORSE than a douche! They make douches now that smell "springtime fresh" and they are designed to "clean and freshen". John Edwards stinks the planet up and the only thing he cleans is the wallets of the grieving people that pay him money to make one last contact with a departed loved one. I don't need some asshole like this guy to put words in my dead grand-mother's mouth. How dare he claim to speak for the dead and make money off other people's misery. He's a chisler, a con-artist, and a nothing more than human waste. I've flushed excrement that had more honor than this guy.
Sorry for the rant but this guy and his ilk really get me going.

douche douche douche douche...

Yep, Douche is too good a name for that waste of skin.

Can I vote Sylvia Browne as a publicity-seeking douche also?

I know people who work on the production... and a) it's TV and b) heavily edited.

I don't believe in him... otherwise why does he talk to common people and not really SMART people like Einstein, Aristotle, et. al.?

biiiiggest dooouuuche in the uuuniveeerse

He's not just a douche, he's an incompetent douche. If you're going to trick people into thinking you can help them communicate with the dead, at least do it well. I've seen other fakes that are flawless in they're readings. John Edwards stutters and second-guesses constantly.

Congradulation Mr. Edward, you have just won the annual "biggest douche in the universe" award. Here's your life supply of horse shit.

douche, most definently.

John Edwards is for real. I BELIEVE HIM ... *clears throat* hmm

Only kidding, hehe ...

walks quietly away

yup.. definetly more of a douche than that douche person from the douche planet.. whatever her name was.. DOUCHE

I believe there are people out there who have psychic abilities and can. After all we only use 10% of our brain and there is a lot of undeniable proof that psychic ability exists.

Is John Edward one?

Perhaps he has some ability, but what he does on TV is probably 95-99% fake, the rest is just guessing.

First, we don't "only use 10% of our brain." This has been covered quite a bit in these forums. We may only have 10% - 20% or our neurons firing at any given time, but the ENTIRE brain gets used extensively, every day.

Second, what's this "undeniable proof" you write of? I know of no psychics who were able to prove their abilities under laboratory conditions, or even under verifiable circumstances. Please post a link to some of this evidence, because I've never heard of it and I'm always looking to learn something new.

In exchange, I will again post the link to the James Randi One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. I invite you to find one of these "proven" psychics and ask them to split the money with you... Of course, I'd like a small cut for turning you on to this free money.

DOUCHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe that someone MAY be able to communicate with dead, but I don't think that it can be done 100% of the time.

I'll call him a douche... I'm definately nominating him to the universe biggest douche if there is such a competition :p

he's the biggest douche in the universe.

good scam. how much $ does this guy pull in? shit, probably at least bob tilton level.

The douchiest of the douches. He isnt the only one practising this kind of crap though. These charlatans are springing up all over the place, like the creepy midget fella. He's just as bad as John Edward, just more creepy looking.

This should have been a poll, yeah, I bet the voting would have been really close ...

you know ive never even heard of this guy, but after reading all your posts i think he probably is a douche

John Edward is a douche with a TV show. He claims that he can contact the dead, but what he's really practicing is mentalism. It's not a paranormal or extrasensory ability, it's an array of techniques anyone can learn. In effect, anyone who has ever attempted to persuade or "charm" people into doing something or trusting them has practiced a little mentalism. And I bet a lot of you have.

Mind-reading, contacting the dead, etc, are all mentalism magic tricks. There's nothing paranormal about them. In fact, they're exceedingly normal; everyone uses tricks like these in everyday communication.

^You're right^ I saw David Blaine on Howerd Stern talking about he used something like that to pick up on women. I guess it's basically like cold reading right?

He's good at what he does, but he is nothing more than a glorified scam artist.

Houdini and his wife had a deal that whichever one of them would die first would try as hard as they could to contact the one still living. To confirm that it was truly him (or his wife) they came up with a secret message that only the two of them knew. He died first. She went to psychic after psychic and no matter how many of them claimed were in contact with him, none of them were able to tell her the secret message.

I call bullshit on all these so called psychics. I do, however, believe that certain people have the ability to talk with/through the dead, whether by demon possession or witchcraft. There are several examples in the Bible (if you believe the Bible) of this happening.

I like him.. he seems like a nice guy.. I find his show entertaining..

but to me there is one small problem with what he does..
he is talking to dead people... but... DEAD PEOPLE CAN'T TALK!!

Hey! No Sylvia Browne bashing now! John Edwards is indeed a bonified douche...and I used to agree about Sylvia Browne too until I saw her once on Montel and she told this woman where to find her dead daughter and the people that murdered her and then they had an update where the mother had gone back to the town and told the authorities what Sylvia had said and it all turned out to be true. I thought it was pretty cool since Sylvia had supposedly never even heard of this woman or the town she was from. I guess it's highly possible that it was all scripted, but sometimes it's just more fun to believe.

Nah, all psychics are pretty much frauds and scammers.

You know, I really really thought that this was about the Vice Presidential candidtate until I caught on.

I'm pretty sure that he's a douche. I mean, really, haven't there been like a million TV specials on how to fake things like this?

Yeah Houdini blew all theories of things like the seonce out of the water. Can't be done, No proof of an pyschic of esp ability exists.

i think he is a flip-flop and a con man

douche, douche

I couldn't agree more with this statment. Edwards is definitely a douche bag and its easy to tell just by how he presents himself and speaks.

I thought we were talking about the VP candidate for awhile

I'm a little slow I guess :(

But yeah, the Crossing Over guy, he's a douche.

i remember the first time i saw that show and was completely amazed at his psychic ability (yes, i was/sorta still am kinda gullible). It's amazing that a show with someone pretending to contact the dead can achieve a decent following, when even a little bit of critically thinking should tell a person it's impossible. He's a douche, but only for exploiting the weak of mind and giving false hope to those who have lost love ones.

I had to laugh when I saw his show. I'd heard on a few message forums how impressive and authentic he was. The show I saw had a segment where he was doing a "hot" reading and getting absolutely no hits. All of a sudden, a crew member steps forward and reveals that the information John was getting actually fit *his* dead relative. They did the reading and everyone got all misty-eyed. It was the lamest thing I've ever seen.

The later part of the show was better, where he tosses out random details and audience members desperately try to twist them to fit their own situation. I think he was having fun with it, tossing out the most random things he could come up with and still get a hit. He kept tossing out something about a wheel of cheese, but nobody could latch on to it.

I dunno, the Pet Psychic on Animal Planet qualifies for the Sad Douche award. You can't fault AP for trying to get a piece of the Crossing Over pie though, I'm sure its a decent source of income from the gullible.

d o u c h e

Penn and Teller do a great episode of "Bullshit" on this, great show if you've never seen it. Airs on showtime. Recommend the DVD set of the first season.

Well, there are always going to be people who will stubbornly believe in things, in spite of incontrovertible proof to the contrary.

Just look at the current elections in the U.S.

Definite douchebag!

douche bag

definitely............

He seems almost 100% certifiable douche to me.

This is interesting. To start off with, I don't buy his act. My mother, however, does. Around 5 years ago, before his tv show, my mother bought some tickets to see him speaks in Detroit. (Oddly enough, in the basement of a Masonic Temple. It was cool and added an extra layer of creepiness.)

This guy is good. Damn good. We got there and sat for about 30-60 minutes (the exact time period escapes me). People were whispering and whatnot, but not enough to get the level of detail that he gets. That is part of it though. The rest has to be actors.

He has some great stories about past psychic experiences and whatnot, which even if bullshit, were fun to listen to. The lecture part of the book tour lasted about 45 minutes. Then it was on to the readings.

There were a few regular readings, with not too much detail. There were also several very specific readings. One involved a picture of a ghost on a motorcycle, which was a fun little story. There was another reading that lasted almost 20 minutes, because the person in question just didn't get it. It took them forever to make connections with the things Edward said. At the time I chalked it up to his peristence, but later I realized he probably just was unlucky, or that the whole incident was staged.

I defy anyone to walk away from seeing a show like this without some doubt about the possibility of this phenomenon. Its cool. Its flashy. And its convincing.

Upon a little reflection however, it just doesn't hold up very well. Edward claims to have participated in several scientific studies, but I've never heard more about them.

On the whole, I think he's a fake. I'm still willing to hold out on a final judgement though. Even though he's been caught cheating before, I think its possible that he might have some small gift that he's combined with mentalism to make some cash.

But that's highly unlikely, so he gets a douche from me as well.

(That is, I'm calling him a douche; I'm not offering to douche him.)

I agree, complete douche. People who give him money deserve to be swindled.

I don't believe it for a second, but you have to give the guy props for being really good at faking it. He has awsome skills at reading body language and speaking ambigously in a way that still makes him seem specific. The rules he has made up about his speaking to spirits covers his tracks even more.

Douchebag!

The guy takes himself so seriously it's laughable. Has anyone seen the MadTV skit making fun of him? They totally rip on all the thematics and drama that John uses on his show.

:thumbsup: I've gotta agree with Southpark and say he's the biggest douche in the universe

complete and utter DOUCHE

Douche......

I think he is a total fake. I love how he says stuff like...I'm getting someone with the name of John, or Jay, or Jack.....stuff like that. As if it's hard to find someone with a relative named a common name in an audience of several hundred people. If he said something like, I'm getting Vladimir, or Bertrand, or Abelard....THEN I'd be impressed if he made a "hit".

I think he is worse. Taking advantage of hurting people for profit is really low.

this wasn't a choice but i'll choose huge assclown. especially for trying to pull that "i'm going to talk to 9/11 victims" stunt that he pulled out of at the last minute because his people thought it wouldn't be a good idea.

he does something that anyone can do, he pokes around at basic symbols to a group of people who have lost someone in hopes of getting someone to speak up.

Let's say "Talented Douche"
 

You know, when I first saw him, I was truly amazed for about 15 minutes, then I got really suspicious about the way the show is formatted and edited. Then I started watching just to see how many times he states things that cannot be proven/disproven, and I was alarmed at some of things he got away with. Now, having read this thread, and some of th elinks from it, I can be absolutely sure that he is a douche, yet he is strangely compelling, so I say "talented douche" because he is, after all, a fairly excellent performer.

Just my thoughts...

Pierre

definitely douche for me !!!

To take advantage of vulnerable, gullible people is unconscionable behaviour. He's a fraudulent piece of shit who should be in jail. See if he can predict who's gonna fuck him up the arse next.
Douche.

The idiot will certainly need a douche after that.... :lol:

And a couple of stitches as well

I'm curious if you're going to come back and back up your claim of "Undeniable Proof"

We'll all be here waiting for you when you do