John Edward

John Edward is a hack mentalist who pretends to talk to the dead. He was named "Biggest Douche in the Universe" by the prestigious celebrity auditing firm of Parker and Stone.

Not to be confused with the former senator from North Carolina, John Edwards.

Putting the psycho in Parapsychology

Men who stare at goats

Julia Assante Mary Marshall Piero Calvi-Parisetti Sonya Fitzpatrick

By the powers of tinfoil

Animal communicator Clairvoyance Prophecy Spirit guide Pachita Parapsychology Paul the Octopus Perrott-Warrick Project Rumpology v - t - e

Techniques

Edward uses a combination of cold reading and plain old subterfuge. Each 22-minute episode is, in reality, condensed from a 3-4 hour "session," thus eliminating the hours on end where Edward doesn't have a clue and is obviously guessing. In addition, Edward is known for placing "plants" in the audience who, during the 30-60 minute delay between seating and Edward's appearance, will speak with real audience members about who they're trying to contact, then surreptitiously relay that information back to Edward's producers. Edward studiously prefaces his statements with weasel phrases, such as "I feel the need to acknowledge".

9/11 Attacks

See the main article on this topic: 9/11

Failure to Predict

The evening of September 10, 2001, John Edward appeared as a guest on CNN's Larry King Live. The worst civilian attack in United States history would occur less than twelve hours later, yet this "psychic" did not mention it in any way.[1]

Offer to "Contact" Victims

Following the attacks, Edward offered to air a series of specials where he would "contact" the various victims to relay "last messages" to their families. Even for Edward, this was an incredible show of bad taste, and the idea was soon shelved.

External links

• John Edward bingo card

References

1. Edward's Larry King Live transcript

This article is a stub.
You can help RationalWiki by expanding it.