John Edwards is a Really Terrible Person

I'm sure that we have all heard of the alleged psychic, John Edwards. He has a Television show called "Crossing over" on which he claims to communicate with the deceased loved ones of the audience. It is rather clear however, that Edwards is nothing but a mildly clever showman with absolutely no psychic abilities and apparently no conscience either.

Edwards using the technique called cold reading, asking extremely vague questions or making extremely vague statements to get a response, then focusing on the response to make it appear as though he is actually speaking to the deceased, as well as warm reading, where you already have some information about the subject before hand. For example, on his television show Edwards might come out and say something like, " I'm getting the name Henry, " Chances are in such a large audience, someone will know someone named Henry who has died. And even if no one does, he will say something like, "Its a name with an H, Harry, or Hilda..." Eventually someone will identify with it, and speak up. Edwards then uses clues about the person, including having the waiting area where the audience waits for the show micro phoned to get information from them to determine the next vague statement or question to ask. For instance, Let's say an older woman responds to Hilda, Edwards can most likely guess that it is the woman's mother due to her age who has passed on. He will continue will vague statements, and depending on the response, try to get more specific. Anyone who can think on their feet and has no qualms with exploiting other's grief can do what John Edwards does.

This is a letter that an audience member wrote after the show aired:

"I was on the John Edward show. He even had a multiple guess "hit" on me that was featured on the show. However, it was edited so that my answer to another question was edited in after one of his questions. In other words, his question and my answer were deliberately mismatched. Only a fraction of what went on in the studio was actually seen in the final 30 minute show. He was wrong about a lot and was very aggressive when somebody failed to acknowledge something he said.
Also, his "production assistants" were always around while we waited to get into the studio. They told us to keep very quiet, and they overheard a lot. I think that the whole place is bugged somehow. Also, once in the studio we had to wait around for almost two hours before the show began. Throughout that time everybody was talking about what dead relative of theirs might pop up.
Remember that all this occurred under microphones and with cameras already set up. My guess is that he was backstage listening and looking at us all and noting certain readings. When he finally appeared, he looked at the audience as if he were trying to spot people he recognized.
He also had ringers in the audience. I can tell because about fifteen people arrived in a chartered van, and once inside they did not sit together."

Obviously, Edwards is a hack, and a really terrible person for lying and exploiting those who are grieving for their loved ones.