There has been ‘much to do about nothing’ regarding necromancer, and TV psychic entertainer, John Edwards, and his new book about prayer. One of Satan’s most cleaver techniques is to mix the truth with falsehoods and continue to call it all truth. This is exactly what is happening in the book by Edwards, “Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life”. He mixes what little he knows about the Catholic faith with his New Age brand of spiritism and “energies”. We must be very careful of this type of hype by the devil.
He claims to be Catholic but he is no more a Catholic than the man who is a pro-abortion politician and continues to receive Communion! The church’s teaching and the way Mr. Edwards makes a living (lecture, channeling spirits, predicting the future etc) are directly at odds with each other. The Catechism is so clear about this it is obvious Mr. Edwards is not a Catholic living his faith. (CCC 2115 to 2117) “ALL FORMS OF DIVINATION ARE TO BE REJECTED…”
In the article “Talking to Heaven Through Television” by Matt Nisbet
www.csicop.org/genx/edward/
Mr. Edwards “talents” are held in question. The following are some are some excerpts from that article:
Edward's psychic shtick is nothing new. He is the latest in a century-and-a-half lineage of full-time flamboyants that have laid claim to spirit communication, ranging from the nineteenth-century rappings of the Fox sisters to present-day media celebrities Rosemary Altea, Sylvia Browne, and James Van Praagh.
But what is unique about Edward is that he has emerged as the right kind of psychic, in the right place, at the right time.
Part of Edward's current success may be attributable to an apparent increase in public fascination with spirit communication over the past several years. A Gallup survey conducted in 1996 indicated that 20% of Americans believe that it is possible to communicate with the dead, while another 23% are unsure about the possibility. There is a significant gender difference on the topic, with 24% of women indicating belief in comparison to 16% of men. There are also differences across religious affiliations, as 27% of Catholics believe in spirit communication in comparison to 16% of Protestants and 9% of Jews (Gallup 1996).
In terms of technique differences between Edward and Van Praagh, one critic estimates Van Praagh's hit rate at between 20 to 30 percent, while Edward only scores 10 to 20 percent of the time. What Edward lacks in accuracy, however, he makes up for in sheer volume of guesses. After a recent analysis conducted in conjunction with ABC News, the consulting skeptic wrote in an e-mail commentary that "the advantage Edward has over Van Praagh is his verbal alacrity. Van Praagh is Ferrari fast, but Edward is driving an Indy-500 racer. In the opening minute of the first reading captured on film by the ABC camera, I counted over one statement per second (ABC was allowed to film in the control room under the guise of filming the hardworking staff, and instead filmed Edward on the monitor in the raw). Think about that--in one minute Edward riffles through 60 names, dates, colors, diseases, conditions, situations, relatives, and the like" (Shermer 2001).
John Edward's emergence on the public and media agenda has not gone without strong criticism from skeptics. Over the past two years, both Paul Kurtz (2000) and Joe Nickell (1998a; 1998b) of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) have critiqued Edward and other psychic mediums in articles published in Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and in press releases or public statements. In covering Edward, however, many mass media reporters have either favored the norm of "journalistic balance" in their coverage, or have honored the American media tradition of uncritical coverage of topics related to religion. The result has been a serious failure on the part of journalists to question Edward's claims.
Enter veteran science writer Leon Jaroff. "Clairvoyants who claim to communicate with the dead--and warnings not to listen to them--go back at least as far as the Old Testament, yet psychics continue to flourish in back parlors and storefronts across America," wrote Jaroff in his lead to a March 6 Time magazine feature. "None today is better known or more listened to than John Edward, a fast-talking former ballroom-dancing instructor who is cleaning up on his proclaimed ability `to connect with energies of people who have crossed over.' Died, that is" (Jaroff 2001).
Jaroff is one of America' senior science journalists.
Named Time magazine's chief science reporter in 1969, Jaroff has won numerous awards for coverage ranging from space exploration to anthropology. In 1980, Jaroff became the founding managing editor of Discover magazine, and like many science writers of his generation, he exhibits in his reporting a strong enthusiasm and appreciation for the scientific paradigm. A long time fellow of CSICOP and friend of magician James Randi, Jaroff has reported on several controversies related to the paranormal and the pseudoscientific, including Randi's efforts to expose psychic Uri Geller.
Therefore, for Jaroff, Edward's performances were less than remarkable, and merited critical coverage. In the Time magazine article, Jaroff explained Edward's "psychic" success as a likely result of two very earthly techniques. First, there was the old fortuneteller's technique of "cold reading," a succession of quick generalizations about individual audience members made by Edward that were meant to elicit a response, followed by a series of educated guesses based on demographics. Second, there was what Jaroff referred to as a "hot reading," a variation on the cold reading in which the medium takes advantage of information surreptitiously gathered in advance. (For a full discussion of cold reading techniques, see Hyman 1977)
In support of his assertions of Edward's possible hot readings, Jaroff detailed the experience of Michael O'Neill, a past audience member on Crossing Over who had been the subject of a reading by Edward. According to O'Neill's account, producers of the show had spliced into the final program clips of O'Neill nodding yes into the videotape after statements by Edward with which he remembers disagreeing. In addition, according to O'Neill, most of Edward's "misses," both in relation to him and other audience members, had been edited out of the final tape.
O'Neill also claimed that before the show, assistants to the producers had gathered information about audience members, including their names and family histories. O'Neill also told Jaroff that most of the conversations among the audience while they were seated in the stands waiting the start of the show were about dead loved ones, information that could have been picked up by microphones strategically placed about the amphitheater.
As he notes in his article, Jaroff did not include in his article reaction from Edward, since upon contacting Edward's publicity people, Jaroff was informed that the medium does not respond to criticism.
In short, John Edwards is a fraud, a fad, a passé entertainer. He is no different than the “Amazing Kreskin”, or Uri Geller’s bent spoons. His days in the sun are coming to an end, especially since the network cancelled his TV show Crossing Over (to the other side) with John Edwards. Several of the big wigs got upset with Edwards when he attempted a show featuring the victims of the 911! His obviously poor taste and bad judgment lead to the show being hacked. I wonder if Mr. Edwards “saw that coming” (sorry couldn’t resist!).
We live in a time in history when our world seems to faun all over “extra spiritual phenomena” like it was something new. Doctors, lawyers, business excts all run after the next the best medium or psychic friend. This type of thinking shows us two things: Folks don’t read the Bible. Folks don’t trust in the One True God. It is from this dysfunction within our society that the John Edwards of the world can grow to fame and charm the gullible and ‘pseudo-intellectual’ alike.
Maybe it’s time we forget the future and follow St. Therese’s example of focusing on every detail of the now. Let the Lord worry about tomorrow…today has enough troubles of its own.
God Bless,
Marguerite
