Crossing Over was a Total Scam...Totally

Oddly enough, Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller had the best critique of sham psychics I have ever heard in regards to these feelings.

Even if some fake like Edwards or Sylvia Browne can give you comfort, say they've totally duped you into believing they made contact with your loved one and they give you this final memory...how is that theirs to give to you? Why should they take from you your last memory of your loved one and replace it with something else? That's the problem with fraud psychics. Even if they aren't damaging people (which someone like Sylvia Browne does frequently, if you follow her little circus of insanity) they're screwing with something that's obviously precious to you. Now if you believe them, it seems like there's nothing wrong. But imagine if they are lying to you, or imagine if you caught them lying to someone else, doesn't that incense you?

Anyway, there's ample evidence out there to show how "psychics" do their shtick if you're interested in looking it up, and plenty of anecdotal evidence from people who have been to live shows, as opposed to heavily edited and taped ones, about how Edwards misses constantly and fishes until he gets a bite from someone in the crowd.

I'd check out www.randi.org if you like, read about the $1 million dollar prize that James Randi has for any proof of any paranormal phenomena of any kind that no one has ever won. Psychics like Sylvia Brown claim it's a scam, but you can read all the documentation and see it's not. Others claim they don't need to prove it, but that's just sad. For a million bucks, which could at least go to a very needy charity and close the books on whether psychic phenomena is real? There's no excuse not to except that psychics are frauds.

Some people will never want to believe the truth though.

www.cafepress.com/fortees
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDT6ggNy9ms

"I'll leave two final thoughts...have you asked yourself why in the world you are spending so much time on the Crossing Over site -- a show that you clearly do not support?"

Well, I don't actually spend much time here, but I can explain how I got here and why I choose to post on the boards every now and then.

I am a skeptic, a person who views the world from a naturalistic, scientific point of view. Where something can be explained by science or logic, I do not see the need to make up fantasies of people talking to the dead, or god, or aliens abducting people, etc. So, as I'm an active skeptic, I surf the net specifically to find out what other people are busy believing. I enjoy taking interest in what factors lead a person into duping themselves into believing absurd fantasies. So it's from this that I feel the need to try and get people to see things from a more earthly, coherent perspective. It helps me flesh out my own views and engage with people who disagree with me, which I find intellectually stimulating. Always talking to people who agree with what you say can be intellectual masturbation, it's just not the same without the challenge of an opposing viewpoint.

Although it is hard to change someone's mind when they are so determined to believe something, I hope that I can at least plant the seed of rationality. That maybe someday someone reading this will begin to realize that things are rather easily explained without fantasy and unfalsifiable theories. For example, is it easier to believe that John talks to dead people (who, for some reason, can't just talk to him normally, but only give him vauge clues which he throws out to audience members, etc) or is it easier (and much more rational) to belive that John is making it all up for money (as people throughout history have done, Houdini clearly and comprehensively debunked them by the way) and is using "cold reading" and possibly "hot reading" techniques to get a response from the audience (hence explaining the vauge information, etc., used in his readings). Ask yourself seriously, why is it so much easier for you to believe that he is talking to the dead? Deep down inside, it is most likely your fear of death, your longing to live beyond this current life. John gives you the hope that you will live on after death, and that your loved ones do too. This is why people believe, but it takes away from the beauty of this life, the only time that you'll ever be a self-aware, conscious being. Don't waste the short time you have on hard-to-believe fantasies.

That's why I post here, I hope to open people's eyes, to help them to think critically, and do not get taken in by con-men like John who have been around for centuries.

"Second, if what John does is so offensive to you then change the channel."

One must know one's enemy to successfully argue against it. Where you see him talking to the dead, I see cold reading techniques and video editing. I don't understand how it's so believable to some people. I'm not so much offended as I am baffled by it. Plus I feel smarter since I'm not so easily fooled by an obvious lyer.

"Hmn...think I already played this game. Please find something more constructive to do with your life my friend. Take care..."

I am saddened that you still dismiss the clear logic and sensibility of the last poster there. Think about who is doing something constructive and who is not: you lend your mind to a con-man and a lyer, while others are critically thinking about the situation and offering down to earth, rational, and ultimately correct explanations for John's "powers". Think of the people like yourself throughout history who have been duped by the same cold-reading lyers, who wasted their lives believing in an afterlife and that their relatives were still alive in some other realm. Again, Houdini did a fine job of exposing these people for what they were, today is no different, only there are now more skeptics to combat the lyers.