Ok, so my Mum is going to see John Edward soon, and my family are all chipping in for her ticket price. Despite my loathing of the man, I can deal with it - it makes my mum happy and that's what's important.

What really winds me up is that when I tried to explain why I think he's a massive tool my sister (who is predominantly a gob****e) just starts (enter Tim Minchin quote) firing off clichés with startling precision.

"But last time we saw him, he picked mum out of the crowd - he said "there's a lady under the fire exit" and then started talking to her".

I said "well fancy that, there was a person in a packed arena at a John Edward gig near a fire exit, and it was a MIDDLE AGED WOMAN" :facepalm:

And she just wouldn't have any of it, in fact I stopped arguing with her when she said "you're deluded".

I'm deluded.

For NOT BELIEVING IN MAGIC.

Seriously, let's examine the possibilities:

Either John Edward hears the dead or he doesn't.

Let's examine the possibility that

(1) John Edward cannot hear the dead. There is but one conclusion that can be gathered based on that:

He's lying about his ability to communicate with the dead.

Which leads to WHAT A FUNDAMENTALLY TWISTED ****! Making money from lying to the bereaved about their loved ones - what an inhuman thing to do!

Ok, now let's put that to one side for a sec and consider the other option:

(2) John Edward hears the voices of the dead in his head.

This has two possible explanations:

(a) John Edward can indeed do what he claims to - that is commune with the deceased.
OR
(b) John Edward is mentally ill.

Only option (a) is worth delving into further, (b) is self explanatory.

So, what if John Edward really can hear the voices of the dead? This in itself poses a few questions.

(1) Why hasn't he gone to the Randi Foundation and proved it?
(2) Why doesn't he speak to anyone useful? I mean I'd be talking to Newton, Einstein, Boyle, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson.... <_< ok, not MJ, but the point is that there are so many people worth talking to, you wonder why they don't want to talk to him...
(3) If there are 6 (nearly 7) billion people on the planet, how come whenever he's in a room of middle aged women are their relatives always there? What are the chances of that?! Not once has someone "come through" and said to him "is Bob Randall here?" and John's asked the audience, turned up zero and said "sorry dead lady, Bob's not here, come back tomorrow when I'm in Phoenix maybe?".
(4) Why hasn't the US Military thought "hmmmm.... here's a man with an Army of INVISIBLE ALL KNOWING SPIES.... perhaps we can put that to use..."

There are more, and I'm sure some of you will post them, but I find it hilarious that my sister thinks that I'm "deluded" because I don't believe in that lying scumbag.

Again, Tim Minchin: "Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be .... not magic."

So, err yeah, /rant

He's pretty good at what he does. He goes from broad to specific smoothly without being obvious and he covers up mistakes easily. It doesn't hurt that his audience wants to believe so bad that they're willing to be pretty lenient.

Accompany her, bring a gun. With a scope. :3

Think man!

What would jesus do?

For a while I wasn't sure if you were talking about John Edwards of the '04 US election or Jonathan Edwards of "sinners in the hands of an angry god" fame. Turns out it was neither. Sounds like your average superstition-manipulating quack, though.

inb4southpark

He'd talk in Edward's head. Because he's dead.

Jesus would cockslap Edward off the stage.

I think he's the universes biggest douche for doing what he does.

But if what he does helps a person in some way or another, I'm glad for that person.

I guess these guys justify what they do by thinking it makes people happy.

.

I guess I have less morals than you guys, but as long as I was certain my premise was so absurd that no rational person would buy in, I'd be willing to take a Ron L. Hubbard bet.

Making your own religion isn't hard.
Declare yourself Grand Zizior of the Kaleks and say you are god, post all over the internet.
Bam. The desperate, scared, mentally challenged, and just plain foolish will flock to you.

L. Ron Hubbard

Xenu hates you now.

**** L Ron Hubbard, and **** all his clones.

So much of what people like Edward do is a scam. They have people in the audience who pre-interview the audience members about why they're there and so forth.

Even without that, he's really good at cold reading. If someone wants to believe, they will.

Reminds me of Char. She's been exposed several times but still people believe her.

People like John Edwards are utter ****ing scum. I don't at all blame the people that watch him or believe him, I don't belittle them at all, I have no idea what it's like to lose a family member but I know if I lost my sister I would do anything to get any sense of contact with her. John Edwards is preying on people that have gone through the worst imaginable pain and is exploiting that to get rich. Absolute, utter, ****ing cocksucker, lowest form of scumbag fraudster there is.

Hopefully, Martyn, your family will see how full of **** he is when seeing him live. A lot of the illusion is created in the editing process, editing out all his misses.

Mort that video is goddamn hilarious.

"Can't contain the bull**** AGHHHHHhhhhhh"

I'm really sorry to be this guy, but what's the difference between this and religion? I'm not flame baiting. What is the genuine difference? You can't 100% know if a leader believes it themselves.

Kirbz, I would *love* to tackle this question, but honestly, you'll have to clarify. What you're asking is like "what's the difference between grass and soap?"

I don't see how a guy preying on people's emotions to scam them out of money for his own personal gain has anything at all to do with individuals making a personal connection with a higher power.

John Edwards would be easily considered a leader of a cult, if he weren't on TV. He has everything, he preys upon vulnerable people to become obsessive followers of his particular supernatural 'ability', just like Jesus.
He could be schizophrenic, it is possible he actually does hear voices and is misattributing them as 'ghosts'. In which case, he's a highly functioning schizophrenic as he can ignore the voices at will and only 'listen' to them when the cameras are on.

It's sad that severe mental delusions is the only morally redeeming option for this ****.

He's not the leader of a cult because he does it primarily to get money from entertainment AFAIK, rather than to just get a loyal following.

I almost respect that he kept his cool during that prank, but then of course he knows it's all bull****.

There's a very good set of youtube videos of Richard Dawkins interviewing Derren Brown about these kinds of people. Sadly the 3rd video in the set isn't working for some reason but what's there is all good. Worth a watch if you have a spare 45 minutes or so.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

A lot of cults are in it for the money too, they take all the money and possessions of it's followers, though you got me on the entertainment part of your statement.


But seriously, have a talk to your sister about cold reading, make her watch that south park episode that has him in it (seriously).
Actually theres probably no point.
John Edward really is the biggest douche in the universe, but no matter how many times he's fraudulence is pointed out people will still believe.

Yeah, stat makes a good point, I think he's sort of a step removed from a cult. Instead of taking money directly from followers, like Scientology, he takes it from networks and advertisers that fund him because of his followers.

And also, he probably has a high turnaround of followers, rather than a core 'base'. I imagine a lot of people that go see him live go away less than impressed with all his misses edited out of the broadcast, and those that are convinced must see through his **** eventually, either as they gradually come to terms with their loss or just through his inability to follow through on anything meaningful after an initial 'hit'.

I agree with you that he's not as bad as a cult, but I think that if you looked at the stats (I say that as someone who is only guessing) of people that have been to his stuff live and continue to believe for the rest of their lives then you would find yourself sorely disappointed in humanity.

There really is a large amount of stupid/gullible people in the world.

The primary motivation of the cult leader is power and control. Money, sex, drugs etc are all nice secondary perks. Edwards does it for the fame and money. It doesn't hurt that his fans become undyingly loyal, it just ensures that he has a consistent fan base.

Eh I'm just leaving it at giant douche