INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved uperstar "psychic medium" John by a local printer. He visited dieir spook The great magician Harry Houdini Edward is a stand-up guy. Unlike show and volunteered as part of an audi- (1874—1926) crusaded against phony the spiritualists of yore, who typi- ence committee to help secure the two spiritualists, seeking out elderly mediums S mediums. He took that opportunity to who taught him the tricks of die trade. cally plied their trade in dark-room seances, Edward and his ilk often per- secretly place some printer's ink on the For example, while sitters touched hands form before live audiences and even neck of a violin, and after the seance one around die seance table, mediums had under the glare of TV lights. Indeed, of the duo had his shoulder smeared with clever ways of gaining die use of one Edward (a pseudonym: he was born John the black substance (Nickell 1999). hand. (One method was to slowly move MaGee Jr.) has his own popular show on the hands close togedier so diat die fin- die SciFi channel called Crossing Over, gers of one could be substituted for those "which has gone into national syndication JOHN EDWARD of die other.) This allowed die production (Barrett 2001; Mui 2001). I was asked by of special effects, such as causing a tin television newsmagazine Dateline NBC trumpet to appear to be levitating. to study Edward's act: was he really talk- Houdini gave public demonstrations of ing to the dead? HI the deceptions. "Do Spirits Return?" asked one of his posters. "Houdini Says The Old Spiritualism The No—and Proves It" (Gibson 1977, 157). Todays spiritualism traces its roots to Continuing die tradition, I have inves- 1848 and the schoolgirl antics of the Stories tigated various mediums, sometimes Fox sisters, Maggie and Katie. They Behind attending seances undercover and once seemed to communicate with the ghost obtaining police warrants against a fraud- of a murdered peddler by means of mys- the ulent medium from die notorious Camp terious rapping sounds. Four decades Stories Chesterfield spiritualist center in Indiana later the foxy sisters confessed how diey (Nickell 1998). The camp is the subject of had produced the noises by trickery die book Tlje Psychic Mafia, written by a (Nickell 1994), but meanwhile others former medium who recanted and discovered they too could be "mediums" revealed the tricks of floating trumpets (those who supposedly communicate (with disembodied voices), ghostly appari- with the dead). tions, materializing "apports," and odier The "spiritualism" craze spread across In Boston, while photographer fake phenomena (Keene 1976)—some of the United States, Europe, and beyond. William H. Mumler was recycling some which I have also witnessed firsthand. In darkened seance rooms, lecture halls, glass photographic plates, he acciden- and theaters, various "spirit" phenomena tally obtained faint images of previous Mental Mediumship occurred. The Davenport Brothers con- sitters. He soon adapted the technique The new breed of spiritualists—like jured up spirit entities to play musical in- to producing "spirit extras" in photo- Edward, James Van Praagh, Rosemary struments while the two mediums were, graphs of his clients. But Mumler's scam apparently, securely tied in a special was revealed when some of his ethereal Joe Nickell is author of many books on the "spirit cabinet." Unfortunately the Dav- entities were recognized as living Boston paranormal, including Entities: Angels, enports were exposed many times, once residents (Nickell 1994). Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2001 19 Altea, Sylvia Browne, and George Margie, or some M-G-sounding name," dead rather than the living. Eventually he Anderson—avoid the physical approach and yet again heard from "either Ellen or changed his billing from "psychic" to with its risks of exposure and possible Helen, or Eleanore—it's like an Ellen- "psychic medium" (Edward 1999). The criminal charges. Instead they opt for sounding name." Gone is the clear- revised approach set him on the road to the comparatively safe "mental medi- speaking eloquence of yore; the dead stardom. In addition to his TV show, he umship" which involves the purported now seem to mumble. now commands hundreds of dollars for a use of psychic ability to obtain messages The spirits also seemingly commu- private reading and is booked two years from the spirit realm. nicate to Edward et al. as if they were in advance (Mui 2001). This is not a new approach, since engaging in pantomime. As Edward mediums have long done readings for said of one alleged spirit communi- "Hot Reading" their credulous clients. In the early days cant, in a Dateline session: "He's point- Although cold reading is the main tech- they exhibited "the classic form of ing to his head; something had to nique of the new spiritualists, they can trance mediumship, as practiced by affect the mind or the head, from what also employ "hot" reading on occasion. shamans and oracles," giving spoken he's showing me." No longer, appar- Houdini (1924) exposed many of these "'spirit messages' that ranged all the way ently, can the dead speak in flowing information-gathering techniques in- from personal (and sometimes strik- Victorian sentences, but instead are cluding using planted microphones to ingly accurate) trivia to hours-long pub- reduced to gestures, as if playing a listen in on clients as they gathered in lic trance-lectures on subjects of the game of charades. the mediums' anterooms—a technique deepest philosophical and religious One suspects, of course, that it is not Houdini himself used to impress visi- import" (McHargue 1972). the imagined spirits who have changed tors with his "telepathy" (Gibson 1976, Some mediums produced "automat- but rather the approach today's medi- 13). Reformed medium M. Lamar ic" or "trance" or "spirit" writing, which ums have chosen to employ. It is, Keene's The Psychic Mafia (1976) the entities supposedly dictated to the indeed, a shrewd technique known as describes such methods as conducting medium or produced by guiding his or "cold reading"—so named because the advance research on clients, sharing her hand. Such writings could be in subject walks in "cold"; that is, the other mediums' files (what Keene terms flowery language indeed, as in this medium lacks advance information "mediumistic espionage"), noting excerpt from one spirit writing in my about the person (Gresham 1953). It is casual remarks made in conversation collection: an artful method of gleaning informa- before a reading, and so on. Oh my Brother—I am so glad to be tion from the sitter, then feeding it back An article in Time magazine suggest- able to come here with you and hold as mystical revelation. ed John Edward may have used just such sweet communion for it has been a The "psychic" can obtain clues by chicanery. One subject, a marketing long time since I have controlled this observing dress and body language (not- manager named Michael O'Neill had medium but I remember how well used I had become to her magne- ing expressions that indicate when one is received apparent messages from his tism!, | but we will soon get accus- on or off track), asking questions (which dead grandfather but, when his segment tomed to her again and then renew if cotrect will appear as "hits" but other- aired, he noted that it had been the pleasant times we used to have. I wise will seem innocent queries), and in- improved through editing. Accotding to want to assure you (hat we are all here with you this afternoon!—|Father[,] viting the subject to interpret the vague Time's Leon Jaroff (2001): Mother],| little Alice!—land so glad statements offered. For example, nearly Now suspicious, O'Neill recalled that to find it so well with you and we anyone can respond to die mention of a while the audience was waiting to be hope and feel dear Brother that you common object (like a ring or watch) seated, Edward's aides were scurrying have seen the darkest part of life and with a personal recollection that can seem about, striking up conversations and that times are not with you now as getting people to fill out cards with they have been .... to transform the mention into a hit. (For their name, family tree and other facts. more on cold reading see Gresham 1953; Once inside the auditorium, where and so on in this talkative fashion. Hyman 1977; Nickell 2000.) each family was directed to prcassigned scats, more than an hour passed before It should not be surprising that show time while "technical difficulties" "Cold Reading" Edward is skilled at cold reading, an old backstage were corrected. By contrast, today's spirits—whom John fortunetelling technique. His mother was Edward and his fellow mediums suppos- a "psychic junkie" who threw for- Edward has a policy of not respond- edly contact—seem to have poor memo- tunetelling "house parties," one of the ing to criticism, but the executive pro- ries and difficulty communicating. For alleged clairvoyants advising die then- ducer of Crossing Over insists: "No example, in one of his on-air stances (on fifteen-year-old that he had "wonderful information is given to John Edward Larry King Live, June 19, 1998), Edward psychic abilities." He began doing card about the members of the audience with said: "I feel like there's a J- or G-sound- readings for friends and family, dien pro- whom he talks. There is no eavesdrop- ing name attached to this." He also per- gressed to psychic fairs where he soon ping on gallery conversations, and there ceived "Linda or Lindy or Leslie; who's learned that names and other "validating are no 'tricks' to feed information to this L name?" Again, he got a "Maggie or information" sometimes applied to the John." He labeled the Time article "a 2 0 November/December 2001 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER mix of erroneous observations and base- through, what I see, hear and feel.