View Full Version : Schenectady, N.Y. article is posted (URL included)
Does anyone live near Schenectady, N.Y. ? If so, I have a favor to ask.
forgiveness
03-27-2002, 06:29 PM
I am pretty close...what do you need?
Pam, I'm no where near there but was really surprised to see that city show up here. I was born in Schenectady, NY.
Gail:)
Thank you ladies :) check your mail!
On this Easter Sunday go to www.dailygazette.com and check out the article about John Edward, our Pam, and the Atlantic City seminar. The reporter that talked to me is named Jeremy Boyer. Hopefully it will be a good report and he is as nice as he sounded on the telephone. He was looking for someone from Schenectady, N.Y. who has had a reading from John. I was born there (a long time ago:) ) and did have a reading. Mr. Boyer and I talked about 20 minutes and I hope some of my enthusiasm about John rubbed off on him.
Gail
marcia
03-28-2002, 03:17 PM
FINALLY.............a positive article...............can't wait to see it!
We don't know if it will be positive yet. He said it will be a "balanced" article. I got the impression that he is a very interested skeptic.
Let's hope:) .
Gail
marcia
03-28-2002, 04:08 PM
Balanced is better than what most of them turn out to be. One can only hope.
Yes, let's hold any celebration until Sunday. Jeremy was very nice on the phone, and we spoke for about 40 minutes. But let's see how much of that actually makes it into print. I made it very clear to him, that I was speaking for myself only, and that even though I owned this site, I did NOT consider myself a "spokesperson" for every John Edward supporter.
He said he would be contacting Adjective Randi as well.
Say prayers everyone....that Jeremy puts us in a good light :)
I do know the odds of me repling to Pam's thread saying I was born in Schenectady and then finding out the reporter wanted to hear from someone from Schenectady that has also had a reading must be pretty astronomical. Hopefully that means this is meant to be a positive article.:) Did anyone else on here have a Schenectady connection? My father was born there and my mother and father were married there. I also have one brother born there. My mother and father came through at the AC seminar so it makes me wonder if they had something to do with this.:D
Gail
I just checked and the article is on the web site in the Local section of the paper. It is a fair and balanced one. Pam and I are in it. Gail
Yes, I agree it's balanced, and I'm not unhappy about eithe side of the scale. :)
Read here:
http://www.dailygazette.com/local.shtml#story5D220005
frosty
03-31-2002, 06:23 AM
I've just read the article. IMO a very balanced article. Even though the writer could not get a comment from John or his close associates he still went to the trouble of finding this quote in answer to James Randi:
In a 2000 Associated Press story, Edward spoke about skeptics of his work.
"I learned a long time ago that I can't convince, convert or defend what I do," he said. "Because immediately, as soon as I have to do that, I'm putting myself in a position of saying I have to, and I don't. If they don't have a belief system, it's not up to me to create one for them."
Thank you Gail and Pam.
love and kisses
Marg
I gave him the quote, lol. :) He was very nice, and listened to everything I had to say.
frosty
03-31-2002, 06:30 AM
Well done Pam. At least he had the grace to use it.:D
love and kisses
Marg
I sent him a copy of my entire testimonial and hoped he wouldn't twist or change any of it. He did pick out the one item we thought was the most astonishing in it.
Okay, Pam, my full name is there. (Should I get an unlisted number now).:D I'm really not worried about it.:)
Gail
unicorn91432
03-31-2002, 09:02 AM
Am I missing something or did the Daily Gazette article fall just a bit short of being fair and unbiased?
They seemed to be much more negative than positive. But that could just be my reaction as I'm not exactly unbiased where John and my beliefs are concerned.:mad:
Unicorn
There's no right or wrong answer, it's a matter of opinion. As a reader, I don't think I could take an article seriously, unless there was an opposing viewpoint presented also. I'd suspect the author was biased.
I look at it this way: there will always be people who view this subject negatively. There's nothing we can do about that.
I prefer to focus on the fact that Gail and I, and the other person interviewed, got a chance to at least have our say, about our thoughts and opinions. I thought they were presented a manner that was respectful and serious. There may be someone out there who reads it, and at leasts looks at the situation from our point of view.
The professional cynic who was quoted provided an analogy that just didn't fit the situation, and I trust that most readers will perceive that.
I do have to say it was exciting and an honor to be in the same article with Pam.:)
Gail
Awww shucks, the honor was all mine, to be in the same article with you ((((Gail))))
ariechert
03-31-2002, 09:40 PM
My wife got her PhD in Mass Communications from the University of Tennessee. Her dissertation was on media bias in reporting environmental issues. They wrote a computer program that analyzes words in articles; thus giving them data on whether the article is for or against certain issues. It would be interesting to use the same program to analyze articles written about John Edward and other really good mediums (like George Anderson and James Van Praagh?) to see if the media was really being fair and unbiased in their reporting. I suppose theoretically one could use the same program to analyze transcripts of shows to see if they were unbiased. - Art
Here is the URL to my wife's homepage that gives some details of her research: http://web.utk.edu/~briecher/
WPBEAR14
03-31-2002, 10:39 PM
Congrats to Pam and Gail for their courage and effort to give the interview.
However, I didn't think the article ended on a positive note, and unfortunately the ending can be what is sometimes remembered..... comparing himself to a doctor, Randi is really stretching it.
I am glad the article started out positive, so hopefully more people will read and acknowledge the positive things that come from what JE does, and not Randi's negative comments.:mad:
Perplexed POOH
PsyQuestor
03-31-2002, 11:06 PM
Originally posted by ariechert
Here is the URL to my wife's homepage that gives some details of her research: http://web.utk.edu/~briecher/
Impressive vita Art, yours is too I'm sure. Is the link http://excellent.com.utk.edu/~mmmiller/vbpro.html for the program?
Thank you, I can't wait to check it out!
Tammy
ceylavie
04-01-2002, 12:19 AM
Hi -- did anyone capture the text of the article?? Unfortunately the link brings up other articles. :(
I cut and pasted the article. The Gazette changes to the next new paper each day. Here it is:
TV psychic Edward coming to Albany
By JEREMY BOYER
Gazette Reporter
John Edward was on the Sci Fi Channel, claiming to hear messages from dead people. "Where's the Brian?" he asked in the
direction of five people sitting in the top row of the studio audience of "Crossing Over," his television show.
"Byron? B.R. . . . Brianna? Bran? It's weird. B.R. Does that make sense for you?"
When someone in a lower row began to say something, he quickly cut her off. "Not here," he said, referring to the lower rows.
"It's in this connection," he said, shifting attention back to the top row. "Why the B.R. connection? Brian? Brandy?"
"Oh!" a woman in the top row finally said. "I had a dog named Brandy. I'm sorry."
That verbal exchange during a recent episode is typical of what happens on Edward's daily show.
Edward, a Long Island resident, and his supporters will tell you his psychic prowess allowed him to know something about the
dog of a woman he never met. But his critics will call the exchange a perfect example of how he tricks people into believing he
has supernatural powers.
Does he really have psychic abilities? Or is he making state- ments that everyone can eventually apply to their own lives?
Popularity not in doubt
One thing that cannot be debated is Edward's popularity. His daily show is watched by more than two million people. His
books are on national bestseller lists. And his seminars are selling out everywhere he goes.
That includes an appearance in the Capital Region later this week. Like most of his events, Edward's seminar at the Crowne
Plaza hotel in downtown Albany on Saturday has been sold out for weeks.
On the Internet auction site eBay, people are now making $300 bids for two tickets to the show. The face value for one ticket
is $45.
One of the many people searching for tickets is Nancy Begbie, a resident of Great Barrington, Mass. Begbie, who watches
"Crossing Over" several times a week, placed a classified advertisement in a local newspaper a few weeks ago pleading for
someone to sell tickets to her and her husband.
As of last week, she had received no responses. She plans to travel to the Crowne Plaza on April 6 just in case someone might
be selling tickets outside.
"I would like to just be a part of the whole experience," she said.
Edward's mass appeal, Begbie said, comes from his ability and his personality. "He seems like he's a very down-to-earth, basic
type of guy," she said. "He's not about hocus-pocus."
Begbie's greatest wish is to receive a psychic reading from Edward, who calls himself a psychic medium because he relays
messages from dead people, or people who have "crossed over."
Edward's fans say his work has a healing effect because it reaffirms hope that departed loved ones are still with us.
Begbie wants to receive a message from her deceased father, but she would especially love hearing from the parents of her
husband, who does not believe Edward can really channel the spirits of the dead.
"I would love it if his parents would come through, just to make him step back and say, `Whoa, this is really happening,' " she
said.
Schenectady believer
Schenectady native Gail Ingson has been read by Edward. It happened late last year, when she and some family members
attended a seminar in Atlantic City, N.J.
Ingson said Edward relayed messages from her husband, who died in June. "I am still in awe," she said from her home outside
Baltimore last week. "I'm still walking on air."
While reading Ingson, Edward said he was seeing the image of a ditto machine. Ingson later learned that while her late husband
was in the hospital suffering from lung cancer, a group of family members one day had a lengthy discussion about ditto
machines after a nurse had brought a ditto sheet into the room.
Ingson's husband had been in a coma at the time. She thinks he was using Edward to tell the family he was aware of loved ones
being with him in the hospital.
"The ditto machine reference really amazed me," she said. "There's no way he could have known that ahead of time."
But not everyone agrees. James Randi, a magician who has devoted much of his life to challenging paranormal claims, said
Edward uses a well-established trick known as cold reading.
A cold reader gathers information about a subject by making generic statements that apply to almost anyone and asking
questions to home in on specific information. When cold readers make a statement that appears inaccurate, they will tell the
person being read that the meaning will be obvious later.
"That's a very safe thing to do and it covers up a mistake," Randi said. "If you've got that kind of leeway, you can never make a
mistake."
Randi said Edward also knows ahead of time that most people he reads are there because of the recent death of a loved one.
"Remember, he's dealing with the grieving, the bereaved, very vulnerable people," Randi said. "He's a vulture."
$1 million challenge
To promote his message, Randi established the James Randi Educational Foundation, which is based in Florida. One of his
most prominent efforts has been the James Randi Challenge, in which he promises to pay anyone $1 million if he or she can
prove psychic powers. To do this, abilities must be demonstrated under controlled conditions.
To test someone like Edward, Randi would have the medium do a reading over the phone and not allow the person being read
to speak. Afterward, the person who was read would rate the accuracy of the medium's statements.
Randi would then play a tape recording of the same reading to 9 other people over the telephone, although they would believe
the reading was being done for them.
If the medium had psychic powers, Randi said, the actual reading would score quite high while the taped readings would score
low.
Most well-known psychics, including Edward, have not responded to the challenge. No one has collected the money.
Neither Edward nor USA Networks Inc., which owns the Sci Fi Channel, returned repeated telephone calls seeking comment
for this article.
In a 2000 Associated Press story, Edward spoke about skeptics of his work.
"I learned a long time ago that I can't convince, convert or defend what I do," he said. "Because immediately, as soon as I have
to do that, I'm putting myself in a position of saying I have to, and I don't. If they don't have a belief system, it's not up to me to
create one for them."
Edward's supporters also point to research on psychic mediums done by Gary Schwartz, a psychology professor at the
University of Arizona. Schwartz has conducted experiments and published articles supporting paranormal claims in the Journal
of the Society of Psychical Research in England.
His experiments, which have included Edward, found psychic mediums to have high accuracy rates - in one case above 90
percent - in readings in which conditions were controlled.
Randi has blasted Schwartz's research, saying it was not done according to scientific standards. He also has accused Schwartz
of manipulating data to produce outcomes supporting his theories.
Schwartz did not return a telephone call seeking comment last week.
While they disagree with Randi, many people who support Edward claim to be skeptics of most paranormal claims. Pam
Blizzard, a Bloomington, Ill., resident who runs an unofficial Web site for Edward supporters, said there are plenty of fraudulent
mediums and they make it difficult for those who truly have psychic powers.
Drawling line
"We support skepticism, but we draw a line between skepticism and cynicism," she said.
Blizzard lumps Randi into the category of a cynic. She said his mission is to insult Edward and his supporters by calling them
stupid or gullible.
"The cynics promote bigotry and hatred and intolerance," she said.
Randi said he is merely performing a public service by trying to educate people about scam artists. "They call me a mean
person," Randi said. "A doctor who takes someone off heroin: Is that a mean person?"
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Daughtie
04-01-2002, 07:46 AM
It didn't seem to me like the author was leaning in either direction. In fact, the first words I said when I talked to my mom about it last night were "Well, it was pretty neutral", so I agree the article is balanced.
Valerie
If I count up the "pro" and "con" and "neutral" statements, I feel there are more pro statements than con. (Subjective, I know)
marcia
04-01-2002, 10:12 AM
I agree that it appears to be pretty balanced. I like the fact they refer to Randi as a magician instead of a professional skeptic as he often refers to himself. You did a great job gals!!!!!!!! So nice to see a supporter get to have a little say in the matter!
unicorn91432
04-01-2002, 01:26 PM
Ok, I've reread the article thirteen times, and I may have been slightly..uh, wrong.
On one Crossing Over show, John said making "the face" was the button that sent him reeling. The first line of this article 'John Edward...claiming to hear messages from dead people,' seems to have that effect on me!
However, it improved from there and Gail and Pam did a good job giving John and his supporter's viewpoint and without resorting to personal insults as does Mr. Amazing.
Bottom line, I read the article to my husband and he thought it was 'fair and balanced.' Can't argue with that!
So I will quietly go stand in the corner and contemplate the most effective way to deal with the words 'John claims to be.....':angel:
Unicorn
ummm...unicorn...I had the same reaction to that one line...."claiming to hear". I re-read the article a couple times though and reached the conclusion that as a reporter, he could not report something that could not be factually proven so had to use the "claiming" word, just like the word alleged in regards to a person on trial, etc. Once I let him off the hook for that, I found it to be a fair report.
Just wanted to let you know you weren't the only one with sensitive eyes! :wink:
countrybaby69
04-01-2002, 03:17 PM
Pam I have to agree with you on that one. I think the article was well written and I hope will get more people open to the possibility that they too can connect with their loved ones. Congrats!!! I loved it!
-Tracy:wave:
unicorn91432
04-01-2002, 06:23 PM
Thanks, Kim, you are absolutely right.
In future when I see the words alledged or claims to be... I am going to assume they mean kind, considerate, compassionate, understanding, gifted. That should be much easier on my bloodpressure!
scrambled6
04-02-2002, 08:28 PM
Pam & Gail-
Nice job and "thank you" both for being a voice not always heard.
Well done girls!!!:thumbsup:
Cyndy
moonshado
04-02-2002, 11:09 PM
I don't get the analogy of a doctor taking someone off heroin (which by the way is a truly ludicrous statement in itself, as no doctor has ever been able to "take" someone off heroin, and if Randi knows one with that kind of magical power then I wish he would introduce me because I have lots of people I work with trying to get themselves off heroin)
anyway, back to the point. how is a doctor taking someone off heroin analogous to what he does? what exactly is he doing anyway? i suppose if he believes a doctor can take someone off heroin, then he'll believe anything. :alien:
is he saying that believing in legitimate mediumship and the afterlife is like being a heroin addict, and that those who do need randi the magician to magically remove our obsession?
the only thing amazing about that man is the size of his ego.
freeloader
04-06-2002, 12:28 AM
"the only thing amazing about that man is the size of his ego" as quoted by moonshado.
Agreed. It seems like his head is inflated a wee bit. It's funny how Randi questions the work of Gary Schwartz; I wonder if he's even read the findings in full?
ariechert
04-06-2002, 09:34 AM
"Agreed. It seems like his head is inflated a wee bit. It's funny how Randi questions the work of Gary Schwartz; I wonder if he's even read the findings in full?" - freeloader
I did read in one of Randi's paper's that he has never seen John Edward's Show. And, that a person is supposed to automatically start with the supposition that it's impossible to talk to those who have died. It's no wonder with that kind of attitude that there isn't anything anyone can do to change Randi's mind. He made up his mind long ago and even if his deceased loved ones appeared to him he wouldn't believe it. - Art
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