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OK...I can not EVEN believe that I am putting this out there...but I am. I TOTALLY believe in HIS abilities anyway, and that is because I experienced them first hand.
Went to one of the shows with several other friends that had loved ones they wanted to "hear" from. My brother was shot and killed in the line of duty, another's brother/son was murdered, another's died of leukemia. We all went together.
When my brother "came thru" we at first did not even put it together.....he was talking about something we had very little info to go on (he had been in the Army and was in a jeep rollover accident where his leg was hurt, but nothing permanent) and we did not get it. He came thru asking about twins, and a sudden, violent death resulting in being buried on his own birthday....THAT is when my mom and I stood up and said "I think you are talking about us". Johns reading was AMAZING!!!! He told us things that he could not have possibly known, and we were so very, very grateful that someone had told us to have a "scribe" ready incase any of us got a reading so that we could have the "notes" of what was said/referred to/disclosed. I am grateful to my darling hubby who wrote it all down, and for the ability to go back and read it over and over. I have to tell you, those friends with us who's loved ones did not come thru at that reading (and there were about 2,000 people in the auditorium at that time) KNEW my family and brothers story well enough to KNOW and have peace about their loved ones even tho they did not get the reading they were hoping for. Just the fact that we were all able to gain peace within our hearts KNOWING that the story he told was true, was so very, very helpful and healing for all of us. (Funny side, John kept saying, "He is putting a quarter in my face, what is that about?" We had NO idea, could not even understand or figure it out...but then someone that we had been standing in line with that we ran into in the ladies room at intermission said "Hey, look at the picture in your momma's wallet, the one you showed us"...sure enough, mom had a quarter in her wallet that was opposite his picture, and when we opened her wallet, there was the "indentation" of the coin on his photo sleeve on the opposite side. We FINALLY got peace that afternoon and it has helped us immensely in moving forward.
I'm certainly not arrogant enough to think there arent people who have this ability. If John Edward does have the ability he goes about it in a way that makes him come across like a fraud. He comes across like any other fraud doing cold read.
I'm certainly not arrogant enough to think there arent people who have this ability. If John Edward does have the ability he goes about it in a way that makes him come across like a fraud. He comes across like any other fraud doing cold read.
Part of the problem is that he works in large groups. If he could be filmed working one-on-one with people, it would become instantly clear that he has an unusual gift. Or not.
An illustration of cold reading by John Edward from the article I linked to:
John Edward: They're either trying to tell me someone has a name like Celine [no immediate bites from the audience] ... or they want me to acknowledge a name like Celina [still no bites] ... but they're telling me to say Celine [as he motions the letter "C" with his index finger].
Female Guest: I have an Aunt Zia Lina.
That is, cold readers go on a fishing expedition in an emotion-laden environment and throw out suggestions until someone bites. Then they expand on that information with further guesses and questions, and through successive approximation and further information volunteered by the "client" they seem to produce results ... results that actually are being offered up by the client. People will do this because these sessions are all about hope ... they willingly give the reader the info he/she needs to fool them!
In a large enough group, if you throw something out like "I'm getting a young man with brown hair who has been lost to you recently" chances are good at least one person in the group is close to a young man with brown hair who has cut off communications with his family, left unexpectedly and not told anyone where he's going, gone missing, or died. In fact, I'll wager someone who reads this over the coming weeks and months has a young man with brown hair who has "left" in their lives. With a group of 70 people, for example, there's a 99.9% probability that two of them share the same birthday.
I think that in a group where you have a lot of people who are hoping for some kind of communication with a deceased loved one, it would be easy to be fooled by techniques like those illustrated in the article. They become more obvious when you can read a verbatim transcript of the interchange.
And if there's a miss, the cold reader can fall back on the claim that the connection is cloudy, or the spirits are "unclear". I'm not saying Edward has psychic abilities or not, but from watching him a couple of times I don't see any compelling reason to believe that he does.
Feel free to doubt all you want, but I can tell you that 8 of us came away believers having experienced what we did.
And even stranger, HE knew something that was not reveled to us until AFTER the reading. John stated that my brother had tried to stop the person that responded and was killed after him (there were 3 killed, 2 critically wounded. My brother was the 2nd one shot)...he said that my brother tried to "warn the others". We had been told he was shot and died almost instantly so had no idea how/what was trying to be reveled to us.
At the TRIAL, a tape recording NONE of us (family members) were aware of was played of my brothers radio in the car and he said 2 words "I'm hit"! He evidently was able to try and radio in to let them know.
Again, you do not have to take my word for it, but know that there are those of us that have found LOTS of consolation in his readings. For a while after 9/11, he was not even available for "private readings" to anyone other than 9/11 family members trying to help them work thru their loss.
Having been involved with spirit contact for many years now, I have to say Edward is an absolute fraud.
So what do I base my conclusion on?
It has been my experience(and I'm sure others in the field will back me up on this)spirit contact is far from an instant reaction at best.
Over the years I have spoken with a number of spirits, and not one gave an instant response like this fraud Edward seems to get.
Spirit contact takes time, and more often than not, a response may not happen.
It is important to know just how contact is done, on the part of the spirit.
Experience, and gained knowledge tell me that spirits give out, and receive energy when in communication.
This energy isn't something that is produced in an instant.
I believe without this energy, spirit communication would never happen.
So for those who are gullible enough, people like Edward can , and do portray something which they are not, and there are some who would believe these types are gifted.
There is another one (don't recall his name) that use to scribble on a pad while supposedly making contact.
Complete and utter nonsense.
Bob.
An illustration of cold reading by John Edward from the article I linked to:
John Edward: They're either trying to tell me someone has a name like Celine [no immediate bites from the audience] ... or they want me to acknowledge a name like Celina [still no bites] ... but they're telling me to say Celine [as he motions the letter "C" with his index finger].
Female Guest: I have an Aunt Zia Lina.
"Celine" is an unusual name. It's not like tossing out the name "Mary" or "John" or "Peter". And Zia Lina is close enough. I'd say that such a small fragment of an incident or reading isn't enough proof either way.
OK...I can not EVEN believe that I am putting this out there...but I am. I TOTALLY believe in HIS abilities anyway, and that is because I experienced them first hand.
Went to one of the shows with several other friends that had loved ones they wanted to "hear" from. My brother was shot and killed in the line of duty, another's brother/son was murdered, another's died of leukemia. We all went together.
When my brother "came thru" we at first did not even put it together.....he was talking about something we had very little info to go on (he had been in the Army and was in a jeep rollover accident where his leg was hurt, but nothing permanent) and we did not get it. He came thru asking about twins, and a sudden, violent death resulting in being buried on his own birthday....THAT is when my mom and I stood up and said "I think you are talking about us". Johns reading was AMAZING!!!! He told us things that he could not have possibly known, and we were so very, very grateful that someone had told us to have a "scribe" ready incase any of us got a reading so that we could have the "notes" of what was said/referred to/disclosed. I am grateful to my darling hubby who wrote it all down, and for the ability to go back and read it over and over. I have to tell you, those friends with us who's loved ones did not come thru at that reading (and there were about 2,000 people in the auditorium at that time) KNEW my family and brothers story well enough to KNOW and have peace about their loved ones even tho they did not get the reading they were hoping for. Just the fact that we were all able to gain peace within our hearts KNOWING that the story he told was true, was so very, very helpful and healing for all of us. (Funny side, John kept saying, "He is putting a quarter in my face, what is that about?" We had NO idea, could not even understand or figure it out...but then someone that we had been standing in line withthat we ran into in the ladies room at intermission said "Hey, look at the picture in your momma's wallet, the one you showed us"...sure enough, mom had a quarter in her wallet that was opposite his picture, and when we opened her wallet, there was the "indentation" of the coin on his photo sleeve on the opposite side. We FINALLY got peace that afternoon and it has helped us immensely in moving forward.
I don't want to ruin your peace, but I am suspicious of this person you had been standing in line with. They could have been working with John Edward. Collecting information to relay back to him.
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