I promise, it is the last time I will write about Tyler Henry. This year. Probably.

Sometimes what is missing from a psychic reading is more interesting and more important than what was actually said.

Case in point: In the summer of 2016, as a promo for the third season of E! Network’s Hollywood Medium, psychic Tyler Henry sat down with American television host of The Today Show, Matt Lauer. They recorded for an hour, and The Today Show released a 6:35 segment on YouTube. This video has been watched 1,025,162 times, and has more than 4,000 likes, and 890 comments.

As I write this, Lauer has just been fired from his job as the host of The Today Show. The media is reporting that Lauer was accused of many cases of inappropriate sexual behavior with women. Lauer released a statement soon after, and apologized for his actions, admitting that some of the allegations were true. I remembered that Tyler Henry had done a psychic reading for Lauer and I wondered if there was any foreboding of this scandal. Most people would say that this has been the worst week of Lauer’s life, surely Tyler Henry must have seen it coming and warned him?

I’m going to give a brief overview of the reading, with my explications of what is on the video. Then I will describe what is missing. The video, if you want to follow along, can be watched below.


Let’s set the scene first. Tyler Henry is sitting with cameras and lights on a set, and Lauer walks in with ease and confidence. He shakes Henry’s hand and says he really doesn’t know how this works. There is voice-over from Lauer telling us that Henry has been on The Today Show doing readings before and that Henry did not want to know who he was going to read in advance. This is typical of all of Henry’s videos; there is strong stress on this point: Henry does not know who he is going to read. This is a reaction to skeptics claiming that Henry Googles people in advance. I’ve written about Henry many times, here, here, and here stating that, from my investigations, it appears that Henry does not need to do research. By using cold-reading techniques, he can produce the same effect as what we see happening during a reading.

In this case, Henry does know Lauer, and they greet each other with Lauer saying, “Good to see you again Tyler, how have you been?” Henry knew that he was shooting a promo for Hollywood Medium, so it seems probable that he knew he would be reading Lauer.

Henry uses psychometry (holding a personal object) in order for him to focus on who the sitter would like to “come through” during the reading. Lauer (this is explained by a voice-over) brought a pocketknife that was given to him by his maternal grandfather. Lauer gave it to Henry, who then said that many people want to come through. This is a statement that mediums use as a way to transition between “stories”; if they aren’t getting good hits with someone, they just move to the next person, saying things like, “so now an older woman is pushing her way forward and wants to acknowledge a dog. Does that connect to you?”

Henry then mentioned a “fatherly kind of essence” who did not want to die in a hospital surrounded by doctors. I’m not sure how many people would be happy to die in a hospital, but Henry goes on to acknowledge that this person was grateful that he did not die “in a traditional kind of facility.” At first, I wondered about this statement, as it does seem a bit of a risk to state it with certainty at the beginning of the sitting. So, I went back and watched this exchange a few more times, paying attention to the body language of Lauer. And sure enough, you can watch him agreeing with Henry, nodding his head, making eye contact and reassuring Henry he was on the right track. Henry is young, but he has done over a thousand readings and is no fool when it comes to body language feedback.

I also want to point out that as soon as Henry starts talking about this “fatherly kind of essence,” Lauer’s demeanor completely changes. His head drops and his voice softens. During a voice-over, Lauer says that Henry is talking about his father who died in 1997.

At this point, Lauer in his mind has claimed the “fatherly kind of essence” as his father. But for Henry, he still does not know if this is a father, grandfather, father-in-law, a mentor, uncle, brother, or a close male friend. Henry plays it safe and continues saying “he” or “this person” but nothing else to describe him.

Next Henry moves onto something that seems specific but really is a common general statement made by mediums doing readings. The “fatherly kind of essence” is showing Henry, “a coin, coins, or a coin collection.” Henry follows up with, “that is a really odd thing.” Henry does this all the time; he makes a very general statement and acts like it was specific. Lauer says that he has a couple of silver dollars from him but not a lot. Henry replies that there is a third coin somewhere.

Next Henry lightens the mood a bit and throws out another general “vision.” The “fatherly kind of essence” is showing him a bird that was in the house and someone had to trap the bird and it was really funny. Lauer said that this had actually happened.

How risky was that statement for Henry? Birds fly into homes, and businesses, and all kinds of places; it’s not that unusual. And they often will not leave on their own and need to be removed. I’m sure it is pretty comical when it happens. (One of the people who commented on the video said that while watching, a bird flew into her house.) The odds of Lauer connecting to this story are pretty high, a quick YouTube search and you will find endless videos of birds flying inside homes. If Lauer had not connected, then Henry had several options. He could have said, “this happened before you were born, ask someone else in the family” or maybe it was on a TV show they could have watched together, or it could have happened to someone else in the family. Henry does not say to whom this happened or when. That leaves the door wide open for Lauer to make the connection. Or the final out, if Lauer had not connected to the story, Henry could just move on to something else knowing that only the best parts of the reading will actually air. And Lauer (like most humans) will remember the hits and forget the misses.

And once again, Henry makes a statement claiming that what he just said was really specific, “It’s random details like that that proves someone is coming through.”

Next, Henry says that the “fatherly kind of essence” has just told him that Lauer has sleep apnea; something that Lauer confirms. Sounds like a specific hit. Well … what are the odds that a man would have it? A Google search tells me that about 4 percent of men have it, so that does look like a hit. Well done “fatherly kind of essence.” Oh wait … a Google search for “Matt Lauer” and “sleep apnea” returns a 2014 article, How early does Matt wake up? In this article, Lauer says that he “sometimes” has sleep apnea. Very possibly Lauer has discussed this on The Today Show; maybe when Henry was present. When Henry was getting his makeup and hair done before the taping, he could have innocently asked the stylists something like, “Matt must get up really early in the morning; he probably has sleeping problems?” With that little question mark at the end of the sentence and a pause, they easily could have told him all kinds of things. Not so difficult for a personable Tyler Henry to glean a bit of information. It’s not as if this was a test for the JREF million-dollar challenge. So the sleep apnea was not so much of a hit as I first thought.

The “fatherly kind of essence” now acknowledges a lone individual in a boat with a fishing pole. Lauer is nodding in agreement. The video cues the emotional music, so viewers know we need to start getting misty eyed. Lauer clearly emotional, tells Henry that this “fatherly kind of essence” is his father. Which leads Henry to smoothly say, “Your father is SO immensely proud of you, you didn’t have to get to where you are today for him to be proud of you … or successful in his eyes. He views you as successful regardless.” Very smooth Henry! He added that tidbit as if he had known all along they had been talking about Lauer’s father.

Next, Lauer asks if there is something his father wants to know. Which is a rather odd question, but Lauer is probably a bit emotional as he has been convinced that he is speaking to his father who died nineteen years ago. Henry says, “He just wants to know if you are happy.” “Yes,” Lauer says, “I am.”

Then the video cuts to Lauer on the beach wearing sunglasses and talking to the other hosts who are back in the newsroom. Lauer is telling them that after that reading, he cried and cried. He said his hands were shaking the whole time and Henry was “spot on.”

Remember that what we were shown was only five minutes of an hour long reading. So, a lot is missing; editing pulls together the best bits for the video promo. Anything that was a miss would not make the cut. Only the best parts would be shown. If there were a lot of great hits, they would have cut the part about the coins or the sleep apnea. They could have run a longer video; so I assume these were the best hits: A “fatherly kind of essence” who did not want to die in a hospital and who gave Lauer silver dollars and wants him to go find the third one. Then there was a bird was loose in someone’s house, and he also wanted to tell Lauer something that he already knew, that he has sleep apnea. Oh, and about the boat: it looks like another hit. Or does it? A Google search for “Matt Lauer” and “father” gives me this article, Today’s Anchor Chat: Matt Lauer’s Fish Tale from 2007 where he says, “One thing you have to understand about me is that outside of my family and my work, I have two passions, both instilled in me by my father: golf and fishing … We also used to do a lot of freshwater fishing, which we both loved … .”

I’m not saying that Henry did a Google search as I did; I’m saying that Lauer’s love for fishing came from his dad, and this was not a well-guarded secret. In that same article, Lauer mentions his favorite photo of his son is one he took on the boat with a striped bass that they had caught minutes before. Perhaps that photo is framed on Lauer’s desk. What is more likely? That a dead person communicated to Tyler Henry a vision of Matt Lauer sitting in a boat with a fishing pole? Or, Henry saw a photo, or heard a story from Lauer’s co-workers, about how much he likes to fish on his boat?

It’s possible, even likely, that Lauer really did think Henry was “spot on.” This was an hour sitting, and a very emotional hour. Lauer is not asking the questions, he is not in control as he is used to. The psychic was throwing a lot at him very quickly, and his brain tried to make sense of it all. That’s how human brains work; we look for connections. Even if something is a bit of a stretch, we will try to make sense of it all. Plus, we want the psychic to be accurate. Henry is very personable and charming, and Lauer likely wanted to make a really good promo. Henry claimed to be speaking to his father, and Lauer really wanted that to be true. And, as we tend to remember the hits and forget the misses, I can’t blame Lauer for thinking the reading was accurate. I’m at home, able to rewind, over and over, rewatch whatever I want, and think about what happened. Lauer wasn’t even taking notes during the reading. I have a notebook with many pages full of notes.

As I said at the beginning, sometimes what is missing is more important than what was said.

What happened to the maternal grandfather who gave the pocketknife to Lauer? We don’t hear from him at all. If it had been a hit, then it would have been included in the segment. In this review of the reading, you might have become annoyed with me continuality using the phrase, “fatherly kind of essence” instead of just saying “father” as we knew that Lauer thought his dad was coming through. We know this is supposed to be dad. But until Lauer said it, Henry didn’t know. And Henry carefully guarded his words with just “he” or “this person” until just seconds after Lauer admitted it was his dad.

Henry, never mentioned a name, not initials, not even one letter. No places, no dates, no mention of a wife, other children, siblings, his parents, grandchildren. Nothing. He mentioned he died, but nothing about the illness or the room. What about pets or family friends, anniversaries or … well … anything?

Lauer had the chance to talk to his father and never asked him any questions? He didn’t ask for advice or even about what the future has in store for him and his family. Dad just wanted him to find the third coin! Really?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. As I write this, Matt Lauer has just been fired from The Today Show. This is all over the news; it is a very big deal. It is possibly the most important thing that could have happened to him outside of him becoming a star journalist. The allegations against him, if true, are disgusting. Coworkers are coming forward saying that they all knew he was unfaithful to his wife, but they didn’t know that he was having non-consensual relations with other women. Lauer’s father said he is “immensely proud” of Matt. Really? If these claims of infidelity and or sexual harassment are true, you are immensely proud of your son?

And if they are not true, or only partly true, then why was dad spending his precious, limited time communicating through Henry about sleep apnea? Dad just wanted his son to “be happy.” How about a head’s up dad? This week has been earth-shatteringly difficult for Lauer and his family; for the next few years, Matt Lauer will be the butt of many jokes. He is likely to lose his wife and children; he has already lost his career, and dad just wants to talk about a bird that flew into the house?

Something is really missing here. And that is the point. Each of these recorded readings can be reviewed years later and analyzed. Just like when Tyler Henry didn’t mention to Alan Thicke that just two months after their reading, Thicke would be dead.

I’ve read through the comments on this video. Some are believers, hoping they will be able to get a reading from Tyler Henry. Others are slamming psychics as frauds. Almost no one is commenting on the actual statements from the reading or noticing what is missing. As I noted at the beginning of this article, sometimes what is missing from a psychic reading is more important than what was actually said.

I would like to thank Rob Palmer for suggesting I write this article and Stuart Jones and Rob Palmer for reviewing my writing.


By Susan Gerbic
Affectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the cofounder of Monterey County Skeptics and a self-proclaimed skeptical junkie. Susan is also founder of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project. You can contact her at SusanGerbic@yahoo.com

Originally published on csicop.org and republished here with full permission.

Revealing the tricks of Psychic John Edward Part 2

A lot of people contacted me about the first article on John Edward happy that I went into such detail with regards to how it performs his readings.

Well since he performed more readings on that show, I thought I would look at some more and further show that if you know how the tricks are done, any reading, however impressive looking to the average person, can be exposed.

Readings like this on daytime TV shows are actually some of the best to analyse. The reason is that they are not edited or produced in house by the psychic, so they are not editing in fake responses and reactions, bad guesses aren't edited out, and as long as you assume that the psychic hasn't planted the audience member themselves, you will get the psychic working in a purely cold reading way, which for people like me, people who actually know all the tricks, is really easy to break down and explain step by step how it is done.

The only bad parts are if a reading is stopped due to the show taking an advertisement break, because often the psychic will keep talking to them during the break, and we have no way of knowing what information they can glean during this and then repeat back to them when the show is live again.

So with that first watch the video below if you want, and then scroll down to see the Transcript (again done by the excellent forum member "girlseeksghosts") with my analysis and explanations interjected.

As always I will work from the transcript so I can be as analytical as possible, but will check the video for certain spots if needed.


Key:
John Edward - Normal Font
Audience Member - BOLD

Jon Donnis (Me) - RED

I don't know where I'm going next because I was pulled there first so I don't know if I am going to be here or if I'm going to be here to you guys so I won't get up until I know that yet so I won't be in the way of the camera; but I feel like I need to talk about the younger male, like the son figure who's passed. So I don't know if someone has lost their son or if there is a younger male that's passed but I feel like the younger male has two father figures with him that would be like he is with his dad and his father-in-law or he is with his dad and his uncle but there's two together and I think that there is an 'R' name that they want me to attach this to. So did anyone lose a younger male? A younger male to me would be like son, nephew, grandson, younger brother, that's what it feels like. If I had to go by 'pull' I was going to say I still feel like I am being pulled in front of me.

Us?

If it's a younger male then yes, do you have a younger male that's passed?

Yes.

If you read the first article, and you really should have done, you will see a similar pattern again. Lots of questions asked by John Edward, lots of vague comments, and using a huge net to catch the fish.

The moment a self proclaimed psychic asks a question, that is how you know they are fake. The moment they use terms like "father figure" or "male figure" you know they are fake.

I don't know if that's you, I don't know if I am with you. I have to move.

Why doesn't he know? He is supposed to be psychic. Why are the spirits so useless at just giving basic information?

I think I'm here. I think there is a younger male energy that I am supposed to talk about so somebody here lost a younger male that I would see as being like below you that would be like a son figure and there's two father figures who have passed. Let me rephrase this, imagine having the two father figures and their younger male, so if you have the brother who passed or if there is a husband energy who's passed and he is with both father figures I would see it as being the same scenario and I know that there is an 'R' name that's connected to it either living or passed, and I am supposed to talk about... that doesn't mean that... there you are, you could be the 'R' so that's what's getting me here so if this makes sense raise your hand so I can get a mic to you so I can hear you.

My daughter is Robyn.

Your daughter is Robyn?

Please read the last paragraph again, then read it again, and now one last time.

Do you see anything in there that is specific? One single thing?

He comes up with a "R" name. Could be living or dead, Could be the people present, or not, Could be male or female. Just a R name. 

And straight away the audience member jumps in with her daughter Robyn.

and she lost one of her friends about 4 years ago.

So she lost a younger male, so this would be younger than you?

Yes.

John asks more questions, remember, he claims to be the psychic, yet he doesn't know anything, he is fishing, he is getting information FROM the audience member, NOT giving it her. 

Are there two older... I don't think that's it, I don't think thats it, I feel like I am here, I feel like I'm more here (moves to someone else)

We had an uncle that was killed at 21.

Ok and is there, is your dad......no that wouldn't be ...?

John is struggling here, this is known as "casing" in the business. Basically it is a way of seeing who is best to "read" who will be most forthcoming, while at the same time making it appear like as a psychic you want to be specific.

It is a psychological trick which is often done on purpose. Now John Edward has a number of people he can see are willing, he has picked up a fair bit on info, so if he struggles on one, he can switch back to the other, and makes him appear to be more genuine, as he is not just jumping on the first person who answers one of his question in the affirmative. It is a bit like when a ghost hunter will say "nothing happened" as that gives the impression that they must be telling the truth when something does happen.

Our grandfather?

No. Is somebody in the food business? Does somebody work in the food industry or does somebody have a connection to doing something with food? They are showing my symbol for a cornucopia when I see that it means somebody works in food in some way.

Our uncle used to be a grocer who lived with Ray.

Ok so I think I am with you guys then. So you have the two father figures who have passed?

Yes.

Ok, so it would be like a father and an uncle?

Well it's grandfather and his brother.

After a lot of digging, asking questions etc, John has decided to settling on this person to read. And straight away he gets the "older male figures" wrong.

Ok so where's the 'R' name?

Ray our uncle.

Ok and he's the one that worked with food?

No, our great uncle is Ray as well, he worked with food.

Look at the sheer amount of questions John is asking here. One question after another, and every time he tries to make an assumption, he gets it wrong, and the audience member corrects him and gives him more information.

He worked with food. Ok so here's what I know I have, I have the younger male with two older males, somebody who worked with food and there is an R name. 

Yes you have that because the audience member just told you. They literally told you all of that and you told them none of that. You asked questions to an audience. 

Why is August important in the family? What took place in August or who's birthday is in August? Is this on your mum's side?

Yes.

More questions, he chooses a month, then asks multiple questions. If anyone can explain to me how asking questions is evidence of psychic abilities please do, as for the life of me I don't get how anyone can believe in John Edward.

He then gets a positive answer to a QUESTION.

Ok because they are telling me to go to mum's side of the family so is mum still here?

Yes.

John Edward a man who claims to talk to the dead, does not know if this persons mother is dead or alive.

and did she have some type of hip thing or did she have some type of....

She has got a hip problem at the moment.

A minute ago John didn't know if the ladies mother was dead or alive.

But hang on a second, what happened to the two old males, the younger male, and the R name?

Now he is ASKING questions about the woman's mother and if she had a "hip thing"

Now I wanted to check the video on this. If you do skip to 3m25s. Notice how John is stating she "had" a hip thing, as in the paste tense. So with the reply of "at the moment" that is not what John is saying. Now look at the two women he is talking to. I assume they are sisters, they look to be in their 50s, maybe late 40s. So their mother the woman being talked about is most likely to be in her late 60s or early 70s. Both women in the audience are over weight, one morbidly so. So with two sisters, you can also assume that their mother is overweight also, just by looking at them and making educated assumptions. So is it really such a stretch to assume that such a person would have hip "things".

This is what psychics do, they look at people, they ASK questions, they make educated guesses. 

Ok because they are telling me to talk about her hip thing but its only on one side because I don't see it on both sides.

Yes.

Very crafty here by John Edward, after ASKING the woman earlier, she clearly said that her mother had a "hip problem" indicating just one hip. So with this information, John is now repeating it back as if he knows psychicly.

Not to mention the fact that people who do have hip issues will nearly always have it on one side. In my own family I know of 3 older women who have had hip issues, and it is always one side first, never both at once. It is sadly very common in women as they get to a certain age, if they carry a bit extra weight.

and she is a very, very strong, tough, no nonsense, I don't want any assistance, I can do this on my own, kind of personality. But you got to be careful with that because if she does need assistance or help she might not ask for it so we have to kind of put her in that position.

Yes.

Very generalised comment here. We are talking about someone probably in the 70s. That generation were very much like that. Ask yourself, how many people do you know in that generation that are not strong, tough, no nonsense types when it comes to health etc. Literally every one I know in that generation and above fit that description.

Somebody was misdiagnosed, they were being treated for one thing and I think they realised then it was something else. They were being treated for maybe something they thought was this then they realised it was cancer, where is that? I have a whole bunch of stuff going on in this section so I have that and then I have somebody who passed from a suicide where their actions brought about their passing. So that might be somebody else in this section so if you have the suicide or somebody's actions brought about their passing they might be jumping in, separate from this.

Possibly.

So not only are the two older males, and younger male and the R name forgotten, he is already going to forget about this old lady with a bad hip and move on to someone with a misdiagnosed cancer, and then a suicide.

Nope, its not possibly its either their actions brought about how they got there ...

Oh yeh I was just saying possibly it's me sorry!

Oh sorry because I feel like I am supposed to bring that up. How is that connected to you?

My cousin.

Is that where Michael or Mark or the M...

Mark.

Mark ok, I just need you to know that that's their way of letting you know. Is Mark connected to your dad's side of the family or is his dad still here?

This is really sad to see, the woman is almost instantly in tears, this is the sad side of the psychic con. 

Anyway lets look at what John said, he asked the question of who it was, the woman told John it was her cousin, John Edward did NOT know.

Next he is about to ask her the name, Michael, Mark or the M.... she then cuts him off and volunteers the name of Mark. Now believers will watch this and say that John Edward knew the name of the person who committed suicide and that he was called Mark. But no that is not what happened. John said two incredibly common names, and was going to go on to say "M sounding name", but the woman cut him off and she told him the name was Mark.

Lets just say that John had continued talking. If that woman had ANYONE in her family with the name Michael, Mark or any M name, that would be classed as a hit in the eyes of a believer. But John did NOT tell her the name Mark, he was asking a question, and the woman told him the name.

This really is an important difference that it is sometimes very hard to spot, especially when the client is jumping in and volunteering so much information.

I'm not sure.

I need to talk about the issue with dad.

Ok.

So I don't know if your cousin is talking about you possibly having an issue with dad? I'm sorry to do this on live television, is there anything going on with dad I need to bring up?

My dad or?

Yes.

I don't know my biological father but he passed last year I think.

Your dad?

Yes my dad.. like my real dad.

but your biological father has passed?

Yes

This is a huge fail here by John, he clearly assumes that the girls dad is alive and that she has "possibly" had an issue with him. Not only that the woman then gives away a load more information about biological father, which of course then indicates she has a step dad and so on. And again notice how John Edward is just asking question after question and not really telling her anything.

Ok, your cousin Mark is letting me know that dad, the one that you had the issue with which was maybe not knowing or not having a connection to, is there in spirit and watching over you.

A moment ago John didn't even know that the dead person was her cousin, SHE TOLD HIM. He guessed the names Michael, Mark or M, again SHE TOLD HIM. John didn't know her Dad was dead. He is just repeating back to her everything she told him.

Now here is the interesting thing, I don't know if you had one experience with him at the age of 13 or if there was a one-time meeting where you guys connected and he kind of disconnected from you in some way. 

Again remember that the woman told John that is was her "biological dad", no one refers to their father as "biological" unless they were abandoned, or they were adopted, and so on. So from the information that she gave to John Edward he has now created the scenario in his head, which he will now ask her questions about to try and make everything fit together.

I feel like I'm supposed to tell you I'm sorry and apologise for not being able to cope or be responsible for what took place at that time in your life. That actually created and started some stuff for you in your life and sent you down a unique path but you're trying to work thought that. Is there anybody who had some type of either... I'm going to be really off the wall like crazy for a second so do I have your permission to be very personal?

Yes.

Again he says a lot here but never really gets an answer to the specific things he asked her. Then at the end of his rambling he asks a question, that way he is almost guaranteed to get a "yes" reply, despite her not confirming anything he said. Psychics do this so that others in the audience, and even the client themselves remember saying the word "yes" to the psychic. People remember people confirming things. They do not remember the details, the questions asked, how things were worded, all they remember is the final response, and emotions.

I have to wrap this up but I will talk to you after the break with this if thats ok.

(advert break)

So before the break I was just about ready to say something and then we got pulled away so I want to come back and repeat what it was I said off camera but everybody here heard me say but I am going to ask you again but for the folks at home. I asked if there was somebody who had a, I don't know how I phrased it before, if there was somone who had swiched genders in some way and you said?

My husband!

Now unfortunately we don't know exactly how John worded things in the break, and how much information the woman gave him. But if history has shown us anything, it is that John asks a question and the client gives him all the information.

So this would be your biological dad's way of talking about seeing what's going on in your life and not being a part of it. I feel like there's like you know separate from your relationship, separate from stuff, communication is very very key in anybody's relationship and I feel like sometimes, and I'm very sorry to put you on the spot but I feel like if someones made that choice to become empowered and know who they really are on the inside and reflect that a lot of communication and inner dialogue has to take place but I feel like sometimes you lack in that arena, you lack in the ability to dig deep and express that, you can talk and you can communicate, but really owning your own feelings, imperative. (Turns to lady's partner) How do you feel hearing me say that as partner?

Yeh, well she definitely talks a lot.

but the depth of it, you want more, you need more, correct?

Yes.

I have to admit, I was surprised to see John Edward go down this whole gender issue route. So I thought I would check the video for clues, and yes it is quite clear that the ladies partner is transgender, so for John to ask her if "someone she knew had switched genders" well, its quite clear why he asked. And perhaps before the John Edward segment they may have even had a discussion about Trans people, and if he was watching backstage. Just a thought.

And I feel that you need more as well. There's an interesting thing about nine kids in a family. So I don't know if someone is one of nine or whats the joke about nine?

Hopefully not for us, but my Nan is one of 13 and my grandad is one of seven I believe, so maybe nine is in the middle.

Completely wrong. Just took a number, made a guess and hoped the client would make it fit.

What I see is this, my mum is one of 11 and I get them as like five and six there was like five boys, six girls so either nine of one and then like 3 of another one or 4 of another, was somebody one of nine?

Yes I think I think my nan was one of nine girls.

So as expected it has been made to fit.

and the cousin did he cross himself over because of drugs or was there some kind of issue of drug consumption connected to that?

Yes.

Bizarrely he goes back to the dead cousin, and takes a chance with drugs being involved, and gets lucky. Whether it is drug overdose, or suicide via drugs, sadly it is a major cause of death in young people. Also keep in mind that John kept talking to this lady in the break, so we have no idea how much she gave away then.

I just feel like this is their way of saying we see what's going on around you and I do think there is going to be some type of legality that you have to work through, so I don't know if you're dealing with laywers or if you are dealing with something legal now in order to get something forced through or to get something approved. It's almost like what they are showing is like when my mum was sick and her health insurance wouldn't cover something that she needed. It was just like right outside the box and they would not cover it and I had to like fight to get them to cover that. So I feel like I'm trying to get something included inside the circle of something. So I hope that helps.

Thank you.

No confirmation or talk about anything there, it just ends.

So Looking back, did John get anything right in the whole reading?

He jumped from one dead person to another, 2 father figures, a younger male and a R name all quickly forgotten. An educated guess about if someone was transgender, just by looking at them and hearing their voice. Wow that could have gone really badly if you think about it.

Out of the whole reading, being really generous, I would give him two hits. Just two. The name Mark, and Drugs. The Mark name was part of a question which the woman interrupted him and gave him the information. So you cant really count that, its a very common name and he was asking a question. And secondly the comment about drugs. We never really found out what happened to the cousin, why or how he killed himself, so it is all left very open to interpretation and vague, so this woman might leave the studio and be convinced.

Personally like all of his other readings I was just not impressed, not at all.

He asks question after question, he repeats back to people what they tell him, and we are expected to believe that he is psychic.
Sorry John Edward fans, he is not psychic, he is a fake. And with that I am done for the day.

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By Jon Donnis

Lyndsay Edwards - Psychic Predictions 2017 - A Look at what was right or wrong.

I had never heard of "psychic" Lyndsay Edwards until a forum member mentioned that she had published a load of psychic predictions for 2017. Well since we are now nearly at the end of 2017, I thought what better time would it be than to take a look at what she got right, and see if her claims of being a psychic are real or just a bunch of lies to make money.

She also has a helpful disclaimer
"All psychic predictions on this website are given to me by spirit and are not my thoughts/words/wishes."

In other words if they are wrong, you can blame the ghosties.
I will also note that I do not have a copy of these predictions from when they were written, plus the page has been edited many times, oh and guess what, the Wayback Machine has no archive copy of her predictions and the page it is hosting on, bizarrely was not even linked to from the main page of her site until September according to the archives.

If I miss something please leave a comment.

I have added my comments between each prediction in red.

• 29/01/2017 Donald Trump will be assassinated

As of 30/11/2017 Donald Trump is still alive.

I can understand why someone who make such a prediction as there were a lot of threats made against him, even Madonna called for the White House to be blown up.

• 25/03/2017 Theresa May will step down

As of 30/11/2017 Theresa May is still the UK Prime Minister.

Again with all the talk at the time, this was brought up a lot, but instead of stepping down, the PM went on to win an election.

• 25/03/2017 Donald Trump will win the war against ISIS

Since 2017 according to Wikipedia there has been 27 separate attacks attributed to ISIS, 900+ dead, 7400+ injured. So clearly in March 2017 Donald Trump had not won any war, but he had said many times that he would wipe ISIS out.

However in the last few weeks of November, ISIS has lost all territory in Syria.

• 16/05/2017 French President makes wrong judgement call & will have to publicly apologize

I searced the whole month of May for any action by Macron that would fit a "wrong judgement call" and apologise, but I could not find anything at all.

But most leaders will make a bad call and have to apologise, it is part and parcel of being a leader of a country.

• 21/04/2017 Donald Trump sacrifices hostages lives 

In a blog post accompanying this prediction, Lyndsay Edwards made mention of a female hostage. 

The only possible thing that could fit this is when Trump dropped the MOAB on Isis militants in Afghanistan mid April. No Hostages were killed as far as I can see.

• 12/04/2017 Theresa May sends troops into Syria to tackle ISIS – She did agree to send 100 more troops into Afghanistan on 9th May 2017.

The blue writing is an edit by Edwards.

And yes in May NATO had urged the PM to send more troops into Afghanistan to fight a Taliban come back.

HOWEVER the claim was to send troops into Syria to tackle ISIS. Wrong country and wrong enemy.

• 06/04/2017 The ocean will explode and destroy parts of certain countries

The closest I could find a fit here would be the various Hurricanes that happened. But these happen every year. Of the big ones Hurricane Maria caused a lot of flooding and damage, this was in September, as was Hurricane Irma. Does this fit with an ocean exploding?

• 12/03/2017 Justin Bieber meets new love in August 2017 and it gets pretty serious, it’ll be public with images in the media by October 2017 – Happened (See October news article here)

Yes Justin Bieber did indeed get photographed with a girl in October!

However he also got photographed with a different girl pretty much every month, he is consistently on/off with Selena Gomez.

So it is hard to take seriously a prediction that is so incredibly likely to come true regardless of when you say it will happen.

It is a bit like me predicting that Donald Trump will tweet something that will cause outrage in December. We all know it will happen, so is it really psychic?

• 22/03/2017 London will be bombed from a plane above

Nope never happened. Although there was the Westminster attack in March whereby 52-year-old Muslim extremist Khalid Masood, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street. Perhaps if Lyndsay Edwards had been a bit more vague, she could have got a hit here.

• 25/03/2017 Women and children will be targeted during in terror attacks – Happened Manchester arena attack May 2017

Yes there was a terror attack in May, and Children were the intended target. However with the way that Terrorists work, this was pretty likely and only a matter of time before someone successfully bombed an event like this.

• 25/03/2017 Italy will be attacked by ISIS

Italy has not had a single Terrorist attack in 2017. In fact their intelligence on the matter is one of the best in the world. Although many pundits have expected Italy to be attacked eventually. Everywhere else has.

• 25/03/2017 The Pope will be targeted

Nope, although it is the Pope, there are always threats against him.

• 25/03/2017 Lightworkers coming together publicly

If anything people in the New Age / Spiritualist movements are more divided than ever.

• 25/03/2017 Huge protest in London after the bombing/explosion

There was no "huge" protests as such. There has been various marches. But the only marches against Terrorism have been by groups like the EDL and events organised by Tommy Robinson, which to be far have had large numbers in the tens of thousands. So I will say this prediction is correct, but usually when there are terrorist attacks, people will protest them, its not a huge leap to predict this.

• 04/05/2017 Donald Trump doesn’t get his own way with another country’s leader this month – Happened: Trump wasn’t happy with the Paris Agreement and so pulled out 

Donald Trump literally doesn't get on with another country's leader every week. Him pulling out the Paris Agreement was not even a disagreement with a leader. Plus it happened in June. So this is a real stretch here.

• 04/05/2017 Donald Trump is having secret meetings with cash exchanges – Happened: Trump caught having secret meetings.

Now Lyndsay Edwards links to an article titled "Trump and Putin had 'secret' second chat at G20" It was so secret that every single mainstream media outlet reported on it at the time! It also had nothing to do with cash exchanges.

• 19/05/2017 Madeline McCann was accidentally killed in the apartment that night by being slammed into the wardrobe, she hit her head and died instantly, her body was disposed of at sea and she has since been reincarnated.

Nope, none of that has been said or revealed. As far as the police are concerned it is still a mystery what happened.

• 29/05/2017 Terror attack on a school in America

There has been no Terrorist attacks on schools in America in 2017.

Lots of random shootings as usual however.

• 30/05/2017 Theresa May will WIN the general election 2017 – Happened 09/06/2017

Earlier on in these predictions Edwards clearly stated that Theresa May would step down. So I am guessing these predictions have been added to and edited as the year progresses as opposed to one long list added at once.

To predict that Theresa May would win the election was an easy one, as the whole point of the election was to increase the number of seats they had, there was never any chance of her losing.

The fact that Edwards already predicted she would step down makes a mockery of this prediction.

• 01/06/2017 Gemma Collins will have a baby summer 2019 & is haunted by her past

She is 36 now, has no children, so it is likely she will want kids soon so this is an easy prediction to make. Will have to wait and see if it comes true.

• 04/06/2017 Huge shoot down in Westminster between multiple terrorists and the police

She wrote this in June, the day AFTER the London Bridge attack.

The terrorists did not have guns, after running people over they went on a stabbing spree before they were shot by Police.

There has been no shoot out in Westminster.

• 04/06/2017 Multiple unarmed police officers killed by terrorists in London

She is writing this the day AFTER the London Bridge attack.
I can only assume this is nothing to do with predictions but has added this here just to link to a blog post whereby she actually talks of a vision of Trump being assassinated with a bow and arrow!

• 04/06/2017 Plane crash into Westminster or drops a bomb on it from above…

No.

• 04/06/2017 The use of nuclear weapons against ISIS

No.

• 25/03/2017 & 04/06/2017 One country having to start again from scratch

No.

• 09/06/2017 Theresa May will give the go ahead to the military to tackle ISIS alongside our American Friends

We have been bombing targets in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

• 09/06/2017 Donald Trump is hiding something (evidence) connected to Obamacare

No. In fact he has tried to repeal Obamacare.

• 14/06/2017 Spirit guide says terror attacks on Italy are currently being planned 

Terror attacks have been planned for pretty much every country. However Italy is one of the best at stopping them and as of 30/11/2017 They have not had a single attack carried out in Italy, although I suspect it is inevitable that they will miss one.

• 16/06/2017 Terror attack at a music concert in the US near the stage area

The closest I could find to this is the Las Vegas shooting. It wasn't near the stage area, instead the shooter fired blindly into the crowd from a hotel window. Apparently not a Terrorist with an ideology. Official line is that he was a lone gunman with mental issues.

Personally I believe he was radicalised by watching the liberal US media and their demonisation of Trump and Republican voters, and he decided to take out his anger on these very people. Notice how the US media have not reported on this since it happened, and it is almost like it never happened. I hope one day the truth will come out, but sometimes the silence tells its own story. Anyway that is just my crazy conspiracy brain.

• 16/06/2017 Terror attack and hostage situation in a Post Office in London

No.

• 18/06/2017 Kathy Griffin’s death threats are not real  Happened 

Edwards here puts "Happened" after this, but I can find no evidence that Kathy Griffin faked death threats against herself.

Kathy Griffin is a disgusting human being, and I am sure she got many threats for what she did. I see no reason why she would need to fake them

• 19/06/2017 US music concert terror attack is currently being planned and they’re looking at Bieber concerts – Justin cancelled the rest of his world tour (phew! Although these insane people are still out there and yet to strike so it’s a worrying time and I pray security is stepped up for Justin and his fans)

Bieber did NOT cancel his tour because of any terror threats.

And since Terrorists are looking at big events to target, any big name singer could be a target, but as far as I can see Bieber has not been mentioned.

• 26/06/2017 North Korea Leader Kim Jong-Un declares war & missile collides with U.S military aircraft   – Happened: North Korea declared ready for war against the US.

No North Korea missiles have hit any US Military aircraft. As for Kim Jong-un declaring war, he does this every week.

• 29/06/2017 Terror attack on a shopping mall – open fire, Queen wants a leader who can get a grip on terrorism

She stated Dubai or the Trafford Centre in Manchester within her blog post, as of right now there has been no shopping mall terrorist attack.

• 02/07/2017 NASA Rocket will be hit by Russia missile in November

Well unless it happens by midnight tonight, this is another fail.

• 05/07/2017 Terror attack at a bowling alley & talks of attacks at Royal Variety Show & drive by shooting at police officers

It seems that she just picks out a popular location that a lot of people would attend, and states there will be a terrorist attack there. 

Of the 3 she mentions, none have happened. Although the cloest would be last month's Nuneaton bowling alley hostage situation, however it was not a terrorist but an ex-partner of an employee at the bowling alley who did it.

• 07/07/2017 US Election was rigged and Russia were involved

Funnily enough this has been a constant speculation by the far left media in the States ever since the election and their candidate lost.

The irony is that the DNC Primary WAS rigged against Bernie Sanders, and the fix was in for Hillary to win.

As for Russia being involved in the election, despite constant attempts to blame the Russians for just about everything, there is not a single piece of evidence that Russia rigged any election. In fact if anything the Russians were helping Clinton with the fake dossier on Trump.

• 10/07/2017 Love Island Couples Predictions: Dom & Jess will get married (They’re now engaged) and have a child, Jess is fame hungry Happened all over Instagram etc, Kem and Amber will move in together Happened, Marcel will propose to Gabby but they’ll split up, Camilla and Jaime will date for a short time outside of the villa, Chris will end it with Olivia for good – Happened 12/07/2017.

It is Love Island, a scripted reality show, I do not care. 

You can have anything Love Island related as correct predictions if you like.

• 13/07/2017  Chris will go back on his decision about ending it with Olivia and then regret going back on it (Happened), Chris & Olivia will have another row but this time Chris will be shouting at Olivia for being so disrespectful (Happened), Mike pursue’s Tyla, Theo is at a loose end with the ladies in the villa with no one he feels he wants to really pursue (Happened).

Wow so much detail about a scripted reality show. Again I do not care.

Might as well predict who will win at Wrestlemania.

• 16/07/2017 Donald Trump will break his arm, Someone will find hidden evidence in Trumps office related to the US election Russian scandal, Trump will be assassinated before any charges can be brought against him but the case will continue against his son.

Trump's arm is fine, he has not been assassinated. No evidence against Trump has been found in his office. Pretty much all of this prediction is just what she has been reading in left wing magazines and newspapers.

• 19/07/2017 ISIS accidentally kill one of their own during killing hostages

They don't need to accidentally kill anyone, they just kill who they feel like.

• 02/08/2017 Stephen Bear will propose to Charlotte Crosby in December 2017 and they’ll have a baby while engaged.

No idea who these people are, still a month to go, I assume they are an item and are in the magazines, so I suppose this is pretty likely so they can sell the story and make some money from a photoshoot.

• 05/08/2017 Donald Trump to use prisoners to build wall 

I thought he was gonna be assassinated? Make your mind up!

As for Prisoners to make the wall, that is a good idea, I hope he does it.

• 10/08/2017 North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un to announce he’s ready and fully prepared for war against USA   – Happened: North Korea declared ready for war against the US.

He and his father have always said this, nothing new.

• 27/08/2017 American troops taken out by ISIS due to incorrect intelligence being used Happened: 4 US soldiers killed by ISIS in a surprise ambush attack, intelligence showed it was unlikely they’d run into enemy forces, click here to read the full news article…

The Niger attack could fit this. Although if you look at the amount of places that US Troops are located around the world, and the amount of dangerous places they are, it was only a matter of time before this happened. So yes she gets this right, but it is more an educated guess than any kind of specific prediction I am sure everyone would agree.

• 04/10/2017 Terrorist rams innocent victims with his vehicle near a beach/pier in the UK

Terrorists have been killing people by using vehicles, sadly this is now their preferred method. Although I don't recall any attacks near a beach in the UK, this is likely to come true eventually. 

• 14/10/2017 Donald Trump is a good guy with good intentions for the American people

Again I thought you said he would be knocked off? 

• 24/10/2017 Prince Harry will get engaged to Meghan Markle November/December time (Happened) but split up before any wedding takes place, Prince Harry will meet the girl he is going to marry not long after splitting up from Meghan.

Everyone was predicting this, it was nothing like a surprise, not in the least.

However the idea he will split up with her, that is one to look out for.

I believe they will indeed get married, have kids and live happily ever after.

• 31/10/2017 Terror attack explosion/fire in winter time

Yes very likely. We get a terrorist attack on average every couple of months.

• 27/11/2017 Justin Bieber will propose to Selena Gomez in 2018

Perhaps, it is kinda what young people do when they are in love. Hardly a bold statement.

And that is where we are upto.

I think you can agree that her predictions are a mix of completely wrong, and educated guesses, nothing psychic though. Nothing specific on the ones you could argue were right.

Please leave your comments below.

By Jon Donnis

Revealing the tricks of Psychic John Edward Part 1

Since I published the analysis of a couple of readings by Harry T whereby I showed step by step exactly how he was doing it, it occurred to me that the name of this site is indeed BadPsychics, that perhaps I should expose a few more psychics, as I had become a tad lazy, and by doing the reviews of Most Haunted, I had become a bit of a whore for ratings. Reviewing Most Haunted gets me easy traffic to the site, but after I checked how many people had read the Harry T article, I realised that in fact more people read that, than the review of MH I had done the day after.

So bizarrely it seems that people are more interested in seeing me expose fake psychics than make fun of a fake ghost hunting TV show.

Well, after speaking to someone via email, who had insisted that John Edward was the real deal, I thought I would revisit this man. A man who has in fact been exposed as a fake many many times over the years.

I was challenged to analyse a reading he had done on an Australian TV show, as this I was told was similar to the reading they had received, and that they could not figure out how he was doing it.

So I summoned my favourite minion to transcribe the reading for me, (Forum member girlseeksghosts), and below is what I found out.

Now for the record because people ask, when I analyse these types of readings I prefer to make it as analytical as possible, I take out any emotion. So right now, as I write this I have not seen the video. I will work only from the transcript.

I do this as it allows me to concentrate purely on what is being said.

Now should I come to a part that I cannot understand how it is done, or I need to know a bit more about the person being read for context, I will then watch the video to see what clues were given away by the audience member, or to better understand why something was said. But usually the words are enough. It allows the purest form of analysis. And I advise anyone who has ever been convinced by a medium, to get the reading transcribed, and read it through.

Much like any magic trick, when you see the routine written down, it is much easier to figure out how it was done. So with regards to a psychic reading, you can see how many questions are asked, how many hits/misses there are and so on.

First you can watch the video yourself if you like. And after you have scroll down to see my analysis.


KEY:
John Edward - Regular font
Audience Member - BOLD
Jon Donnis (Me) - Red

I was getting pulled to this section and I feel like there is a father figure reference that they want me to bring through so I don't know if there is a father figure for you guys who passed but that to me would be like father, uncle or grandfather. There is J or a G name that they want me to highlight so that's either someone who is living or passed but it's in that section over there, does that make sense?

My father in law.

Passed?

Yes passed.

I always find John Edward easy to expose, since he uses a technique called "Shotgunning" basically that means he fires a load of information out very quickly and hope that some sticks.

Whenever you hear the words "Father figure" you know you are dealing with a fraud, someone cold reading.

The reason they use these words is because it widens their net for catching the fish. It is deliberately vague.

Father Figure could be, an actual father, step father, father in law, grandfather, great grand father, older brother, older male friend, any older male relative, uncle, cousin, a friend of the family, someone you work with. Basically any male who is older than you. And even John admits this when he says "father, uncle or grandfather"

He then says that it could be someone who is alive or dead! 

So to clarify here, the man who claims psychics powers, and can talk to the dead, is ASKING the audience member if they know someone alive or dead, or could also be a father, uncle or grandfather. 

And then he expands this by saying a "J or G" name.

So to get a hit, he needs the woman to acknowledge, 1 of 3 possible relatives that are dead or alive, with a name that could be, John, Jonathan, James, Julian, Jacob, Jason, and Jeffrey, Jushua etc etc. 

or

George, Gavin, Greg, Gabriel, Grant, Graham, Gordon, Glenn, Gilbert etc etc

So this as you can imagine is a pretty huge net.

But the hilarious thing is the woman says Father in Law, so not even one of the 3 that John Edward guessed at, but since it was a father figure, the net is so wide he will count that as a hit.

And then he asks her again "Passed?" and she confirms.

And there's got to be a J or G name connected to that.

Yes, he's Giovanni but we call him Jonny.

So with the huge net cast, the woman comes back with Giovanni or Jonny as the name.

Note. John Edward asked the woman if she knew a G or J name, He did NOT know the name he did NOT tell her the name, he did NOT know the relation to her, he did NOT know if the person was dead or alive.

ALL of this information the woman told to him. This is how basic cold reading works.

There's a five connection that they want me to talk about so the five connection to me would either be the month of May because that's the 5th month or the 5th of a month, birthday or anniversary but there is something 'five' related that they want me to talk about and he has to have a child that's with him or there is a younger energy that passed so there's a younger person that's connected to him, correct?

He had 5 kids.

Back to shot gunning, he is giving a lot of information here very quickly, this doesn't let the woman really think, every guess he makes regarding the "five connection" is wrong, every single one is wrong. Not a month, a day, an anniversary a birthday, hell just by pure chance I am surprised he didn't hit on anything there.

But the woman has found something that matches the number 5, that being how many kids he had. Remember John Edward did NOT say this, he did NOT tell her, she is telling him the connection. All John said was the number 5.

So other possibilities to the number 5 could be, outside of what he said.

House number, so 5, 15, 25 etc. Age the person died (50, 55, 65, 75 etc), a favourite number, how many animals he had, a military number, a number on a tattoo. Basically when a psychic is this vague, and just asking questions, then something like a simple number is almost impossible to miss on.

Ok, and is one of the kids passed or is there...

Two of them.

John guessed that one of 5 children had passed, it was in fact two, so John is wrong here, just think how much more impressive this had been if he had said straight off that 2 of the children had died. But please don't forget, John did NOT know that any child had passed just seconds earlier, remember the audience member told John that this man had 5 kids, John Edward was going on about months and birthdays. So he has taken information given to him by the person being read, and is letting that shape how the reading continues, again this is basic cold reading.

So far it is safe to say that John Edward has not said a single thing that could be classed as a straight forward statement, he has only asked questions, and in fact he has pretty much been wrong on every single thing when he was slightly specific

Ok somebody passed from something head related or there was something...

That was him.

John is clearly talking about one of the dead children here, probably assuming that someone died in a motorbike accident, or a car accident, it is a typical go to by many psychics as everyone knows someone who has died in such an accident.

But again John Edward is wrong, and the audience member tells him that it was her Father in Law who passed from someone head related.

But lets quickly look at how common head trauma is when someone dies.

As I previously mentioned, any kind of vehicle accident, whether as the driver, passenger, or even being hit by car, then there are brain tumours, brain cancer, water on the brain, brain swelling, stroke, dementia, and on and on. So any of that would be a hit if you are so vague as to say "something head related".

Ok so there was something head related that comes up with him. A Catherine or Karen, there is a C or K name but it's a nickname not a real name so it's like somebody that was known to have C or a K, I hear the 'K' sound.

He's got a younger daughter Celina.

John quickly moves on, since as part of the shotgunning technique, you want as much info given in as short a period of time as possible, then you move on, that way after the reading when the client is remembering back, there is simply too much to remember, so they tend to concentrate on things they feel were right, not realising that it was in fact they who gave all the information away.

It is time for more guess work. I wont bother listing all possible C and K names, you get the idea.

The woman desperate to keep helping John forwards the name Celina.

That would be an S.

It's a C.

No, no it phonetically would sound like an S to me so I can't accept that, its got to be a 'K' name. Think like Coco or Kiki or Keara or someone with like a 'K' kind of name and then they are telling me to you that.... has his wife also passed?

Yes.

Just keep in mind they are in Australia, and you can understand why he guesses those names.

Next he then ASKS the woman if her father in laws wife had passed, again note John does NOT know, he is asking a question, not making a statement. The woman answers, and therefore is giving John information, not the other way around. If you have to ask, then you are not psychic.

Because I see him with his contemporary which is the wife energy and someone had congestive heart failure that means like they fill up with fluids or heaviness in the chest in some way and that was either his sister or somebody that would be like a sister figure to somebody that's here because they are talking about the sister figure, now is there some reference to him losing a sister as well as his wife?

There was a lot of family overseas in Italy but there was one that went..

and do you know her? (points to lady nearby)

It's my sister.

Hang on, we moved away from the wife, and now to a "sister figure" of the man who died, John is very clear here, he is talking about a dead sister figure, to the dead father in law of the woman being read.

But then that quickly changes as he points to a woman near the woman being read. John ASKS her "do you know her?" And the woman reveals it is her sister.

Because I feel like I need to bring you into this and I am supposed to talk to you about , is it your mum thats passed? (now addressing the sister)

No no.

So again John is jumping all over the place here, what happened to the father in laws dead wife, or his sister/sister figure, all of that is quickly forgotten. He then starts talking to the woman's sister in the audience, and instantly gets things wrong when he ASKS if her mum had passed. Again he did NOT know, he is asking a question, and this time the reply is "no, no"

Then who would be the aunt you are named for or the older female that has passed the name down? They are showing me parallel lines so when I see parallel lines it usually means a name has been passed down.

Crystal, my auntie's daughter is Crystal and my daughter is Crystal.

This is hard to keep up, when reading text on a screen, imagine facing this barrage of ever changing info face to face and trying to keep up with what is being said.

So John was wrong when he asked if the mother is dead, so he goes to the next best thing, that being an aunt, but John was originally asking who the woman being read was sharing the name with, that is what he was saying. But the woman then TELLS John that her cousin and her daughter share the same name of Crystal. Again none of this information has come from John Edward, he has been consistently wrong on every question he has asked, ever assumption he has made. Everything, every important detail he has been wrong on, but the sheer amount of information he has said, the speed in which he says it, the way he asks a question and latches onto the answer, its incredible how fast he is.

Ok and is your aunt passed?

Yes.

Again John does NOT know, he is asking a question, something a real psychic would never need to do, this time the assumption made in the question is correct. It is afterall a 50% chance of being right, and looking at ages and so on, its a fair assumption to make.

So that aunt, C or K name, is connected to you as well, correct?

Yes, yes, of course.

Yes it is her Aunt, that is how she is connected, she has literally just told you that.

You are all connected its just how I have to get it in my head, so the C or K name is telling me to come to you to you to acknowledge how the name has been passed down, so you both have children with the same name?

Yes.

Back to the C/K name, and he is now stating that this person with this potential name is dead, and that is who is talking to him. Bizarre that the dead person couldn't just say "my name is...." Instead they say "I have a C or K sounding name, you work out the rest"

Now I don't know if there is some reference to you going to school for healthcare or somebody dealing or doing something healthcare related?

Crystal is.

Which Crystal? The cousin, the daughter? 

Ok that so thats just my way of backing up the information. Why do I do it like this? Well for all the people that are going to tweet me that I am not actually doing this, we have never met, correct?

No.

I have not spoken to you?

No.

So who is the dead person with the C/K name?

John is now for some reason doing the old magicians technique of making sure everyone knows the audience member is not a plant, but he has literally gotten everything wrong, so who would think this was a plant I don't know.

I just want to be very very clear. One of the most important things is validation and what this does is show that your father in law, your mother in law, with their children and connected to your aunt who's passed, its their way of saying they are around you guys and they see what is going on. Did you know that somebody is expanding their family did you know that there is either like an engagement and somebody is kind of getting together or there is a marriage and people are expanding, do you know this?

Yes.

I am legit getting a headache trying to keep up with all of this.

Since when was there a mother in law? This is the first she is mentioned as far as I recall?

Now he is ASKING if someone is pregnant, well lets be clear here, we already know that this woman has a lot of family, her father in law had 5 kids for a start, we have cousins mentioned, daughters and so on. So to guess that someone might be pregnant or thinking of starting a family, but then to not actually specify who is really really vague if you think about it.

But also notice that he also threw in their a marriage, an engagement, blimey this net is so big I don't see who wouldn't be in it.

Ok so its been announced already?

Yes.

Now at this point, John does not actually know what the announcement is, is it a baby, an engagement, a marriage, so note how he will not specify anything until the woman tells him.

Why am I feeling like we had to put it off? Like what did we have to put off like did somebody put off their date? Or they put off doing this. They had put something off, I feel like it can't happen now it has to happen then, its like a putting off of something?

Well she can't have the baby when she was supposed to because it falls on your birthday! (said to daughter)

So they decided to it put off?

Once again the woman gives away the info, John Edward did NOT know.

The wedding?(daughter)

Well no, the wedding is in April but the baby is due October but she found out yesterday she might have to have a Cesarean I said that would be good because then it won't be on her birthday (points to daughter)

And again all this information is coming from the women in the audience and NOT John Edward, he did not know any of this remember, he asked a vague question and the women filled in all the blanks. This is known as "fishing" hence the reference of nets I keep making.

This is what I talk about this being a current event and it's their way of saying to you we see whats going on around you and if I could be so bold and I know its live television and if you dont want to go there its absolutely ok you don't have to but you were saying that you wanted to keep things separate in other words you wouldn't want to have two people... its like having your birthday on Christmas...

Oh exactly I don't want ... you can't have the baby...

Its all good! Now we saw a very cute video ealier in the show of a little dog messing around with the cat. They are telling me that you have one of those that passed, somebody has a dog thats there and it's so funny I supposed to talk about all these people in your family and the reaction the dog got was bigger than the people, no matter where I go it's the same.

Yes.

So first of all do you think that John was perhaps watching the audience while this video of a little dog was playing earlier, and seeing peoples reactions? How often do you see a dog on the TV or in real life and turn to someone and say "oh look at him he is just like Rex", so that is a possibility here, however I just think that John took a simple guess here, since most people have pets, and everyone has had a pet die on them, and he is talking with 3 people pretty much here, so its an easy assumption to make that one of them would have a dead dog.

I could start on the logistics of pets being in the afterlife, the sheer number of dogs and cats etc that have ever existed, then you have to ask about other mammals, are all mammals in the afterlife? All mammals that have ever existed? Just think about that for a moment. Is it starting to sound ridiculous enough yet?

I supposed to talk about either somebody had a mishap on the big boat or there was a mishap in the family on the boat or there is a joke about the mishap on the boat?

She was just on a cruise (daughter)

I just got off a boat!

Was there a mishap?

Once again John makes a vague comment and then ASKS a question about a boat, straight away the daughter comments about a cruise (not a boat), but then the mother continues.

There was a lot!

So hypothetically could we say that there was a reference of umm I don't want to say man overboard, but could we say there was an issue where maybe somebody did...

They were kicked off the boat!

So a man overboard is what John says, the woman however says something completely different in that someone was kicked off a boat, two very different things I think you can agree.

Yes, It happened? Was it somebody you were with?

(daughter says no)

Indirectly?

John doesn't know because he is not psychic, so he ASKS the women. He assumes it was someone they knew, but his assumption is wrong, and by telling him it was not someone they were with, that sets up his next reply.

Yes, because I have a feeling of good riddance like good riddance...

Yes, yes!

Now if they had answers his questions with a "yes" and that being someone they knew, would he still have then said "good riddance"? Probably not. This is how the reply of a client shapes the reading.

If you had to ask for someone to come through today, would it have been your father in law to come through for us?

I feel like he's in our house all the time.

More questions from John, remember back at the beginning, John had no idea who he claims had come through, the woman gave him all the information.

Yes because I feel he's making me feel like it's no big deal

John Edward asks a question, gets a reply, and then uses that as part of his reply to make it sound like he knew all along.

So to better understand.

Psychic asks Question: Would you want this outcome

Client gives Answer: Yes that is what I want

Psychics gives Answer: Yes that is what I thought.

Can you see how the psychic is using the answers to his questions to shape what he says next. This is cold reading. This is the method used so that after the reading has finished, and the client is remembering the reading, they will remember these confirmations as if the psychic knew all along, or like the psychic told them, when the truth is the complete opposite. The ONLY way to keep up with what is going on, is by analysing the reading and really seeing and understanding how they are doing it.

I'm so glad that you have said that, I'm not going nuts, I can go home and tell my husband.

You're not nuts but why is your husband not taking care of his stomach stuff? I'm just passing on what I see I am not a doctor I can't diagnose I just want to know why your husband is not taking care of his stomach stuff?

Oh I don't know about any stomach stuff!

The woman mentions her husband for the first time, and straight away John Edward jumps on it, and ASKS why he is not taking care of his "stomach stuff".
And of course its a complete miss. 100% wrong.

But to understand why he said this is to understand how psychics work, they work on statistics, on educated guesses, and so on.

Looking at the woman he is talking to, he is guessing her age, looking at her own outwardly physical condition, and making assumptions about the husband without ever seeing him. So she looks to be in her 50s, over weight, so it is fair to assume her husband is older than her, so maybe 60 or on his way to 60, and if she is overweight then good chance he will be too, so an overweight man around 60, well most have issues with diet, with their stomachs, many will be on drugs for other issues, and those drugs can affect the stomach as a side effect, however in this case the woman's husband has a good stomach, but I wanted to show you how psychics think and why they say the things they do, it is all about educated guesswork.

No, no, isn't he the person, oh maybe I got the wrong guy. Is there another son that he has that has like really bad acid and stuff?

Yes one of my sons, yes yes.

So John admits he is wrong but doesn't want to give up, so moves it to a son, the woman then tells him it is her son.

Why is that not checked?

Oh it is he has been to a specialist about that and he is on treatment now for it.

It's happening?

Yes.

There is no way around this, John is wrong on every step, first he assumes the husband is ignoring a problem with his stomach, he is wrong so moves onto the son, and again assumes he is ignoring the problem, but is wrong as the woman says that the son is being treated and not ignoring it at all.

Ok, so maybe it's just they are showing it to me, it's like we see it happening. I always err on the side of lets be cautious, lets look at it!, Maybe ask him if he is taking his meds, maybe see if there is any change in that. I know I'm in Sydney but is he in a different part of the country, in a different place?

No he lives with me but he is going soon, moving soon.

Despite being proven wrong John is trying to reword things to get out of it, he then makes an assumption that the son lives far away, but yet again John is wrong

Away?

Yes.

That's just his grandfather's way of looking after him. Thank you very much I hope this helps.

And that is that. Every full name that John said was wrong. All of them were wrong.

He got the relations wrong, he got the conditions wrong, he literally got every single thing he said wrong, he asked a ton of questions, the woman gave him all of the information.

This was a really poor reading. But look at the audience, look at the reactions, the people lapped it up. John Edward never said a single statement that was correct, the closest he got was by saying there was a dead dog, he never said the name of the dog, the breed, nothing. There was not a single part of that reading that even came close to being right. Yet the audience all lapped it up. And the reason why, is because John Edward is incredibly good at his particular type of mediumship, he has performed this style day after day, year after year, he does it now without thinking, he just fires off so much information, that it is hard to keep up, even me with text on a screen which I can read over and over found it hard to keep up. Yet when you really get to the bottom of it, he is a terrible psychic who gets nearly everything wrong.

Yet he is one of the most successful psychics in the world. He is charismatic, he has a near perfect method of delivering his readings in a way that make it very hard if you are the recipient to even follow, never mind debunk.

Anyway I hope that I helped people better understand how Psychic John Edward works. And perhaps give you the tools to spot other fakes who use similar techniques. As always if there is anything you disagree with, let me know in the comments.

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By Jon Donnis