John Edward / James van Praagh Bingo

[RichardR]

This coming Friday (Nov 16), Larry King (http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/) is hosting another hour of credulous guessing games with cold readers John Edward and James van Praagh. To make the show less painful, I developed a John Edward / James van Praagh Bingo card (http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2007/11/john-edward-jam.html) - check off a square for every lame cold-reading trick you note. I hope you find it amusing.

Actually there is another reason for doing this - if you know anyone who believes in this stuff you could try watching the show with them while you play bingo. It can help get the message over.

And let me know if you can think of any particular cold reading tricks I've missed. The card is based more on John Edward's style as I haven't seen much of van Praagh.

[shalomsteph]

Cool. It needs to be a drinking game, though. (For those of you who drink). Take a shot for every time either one of them says any of those things!! You will be drunk by the end of the show.

Coincidentally, I am, at this moment, listening to "Art Bell's Somewhere in Time" (I am visiting my brother and can not sleep.) James Van Praagh is on, from 1997.

[rjh01]

Cool. It needs to be a drinking game, though. (For those of you who drink). Take a shot for every time either one of them says any of those things!! You will be drunk by the end of the show.
<snip>

If someone actually did this they may be dead before the end of the show from drinking too much. Is this in violation of rule 5 that says



You will not post anything that demonstrates a clear and present danger to the welfare of another person, or otherwise tends to create alarm or apprehension that the welfare of any person is in imminent jeopardy.


:D :D :D

[panchov]

I took a 3 day class with JVP once (this one wasn't so much my fault since the I had missed the writing class I had actually signed up for due to work and had limited options as replacements). He didn't give many readings because it was about teaching us to be psychics - I was amazed how quickly I was able to teach myself cold reading (or is hot? I get them mixed up).

I was actually able to tell a woman that she lived in the country, there were cows near where she lived, she passed them coming and going all the time, and there was one particular cow that she really loved and had given a name to. The only thing I got wrong was the color of the cow. I was gonna try and get the cow's name by saying something like "I see a J or an L," but I didn't have the nerve!

The only thing I had to go on to get this information was a pen of hers that she gave me. The pen was EXACTLY like one my dad used to carry around with him all the time, thus I figured if I started making guesses about her based on my parents experiences, I might get somewhere. Every time she nodded her head excitedly, I just kept going.

At one point James came over to see how we were doing and I told them upfront that no spirit guide had contacted me and I was just making mad guesses. He told me I was wrong, I wasn't used to speaking to spirit guides and it always felt like that at first and he actually wanted me to make wild guesses because that was really the spirits, yada yada. It was kind of tempting to believe him because I felt this surge of (power?)??

He's nicer in person than he is on tv by the way, but still full of it.

Some things I noticed he did repeatedly during the class - He would often tell us he felt an aura of healing around us - Are you working to be a therapist? When he said that to me I almost fell off my chair (psych student), but then I kept asking the same question over and over and I realized that anybody who talks to him is likely to think of themselves as therapists, whether it's aroma or psychic readings or massage or whatever.

Another thing he does is ask a question over and over and over until someone says yes. For instance, during a guided meditation where we were calling our spirit guides, he kept saying he saw Julius Caesar running around the room. Who is he here for? Who wants to claim him? After he asked the question three times, someone said, Oh that's me, he's here for me!

The class was fun but man those people take it seriously. They almost fell over themselves to get him to clean their auras, and yes he actually did that thing where he'd like pinch some bad aura between his fingers and toss it away. It was surreal.

He doesn't like to take no for an answer at all.

[DeVega]

RichardR, I think that is a wickedly brilliant idea! Do make sure Randi gets to see it - it would make a great Swift entry - just imagine how much good it will do if people do print it out and get their woo friends to use it! I know it's a bit of fun, but nothing convinces people more than this sort of interactive thinking... Do you have a way of knowing how many are printed out?

Kudos to you!

[LawnOven]

Haha, awesome. :-) Nice work.

[ExMinister]

How about one for Sylvia next to accompany Montel Wednesdays?

[wahrheit]

I was reading the columns of your bingo card top to bottom, left to right. When I saw "HEAD AREA", I said to myself: shouldn't that be "HEAD OR CHEST AREA"?

My question was answered in the last column on the right, and the last square "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" made me laugh. :D

Very cool idea this bingo, indeed!

[RSLancastr]

Here's two JVP staples:

1. JEWELRY.

2. BECAUSE I'M SEEING (REPEATS WHAT CALLER SAID) or BECAUSE HE/SHE'S SHOWING ME (REPEATS WHAT THE CALLER JUST SAID).

One of the most blatant examples of the latter I've seen was on his thankfully-defunct TV show. He was giving a reading for the parents of a deceased little girl, and at one point the exchange was something like this:

JVP: Did she have a toy that she loved so much, she nearly wore it out?

Mother: Yes! She had a stuffed Pink Panther that she carried with her everytwhere!

JVP: Because she's showing me a Pink Panther.

Mother: (Breaks down in tears)

:mad:

[alfaniner]

I hope someone can get in with a call about the Million Dollar Challenge.

The M-name square should have "M or M-A", as he usually says both.

"Has s/he passed?"

Don't forget the position of the "spirit". Always above, or to the right or left.

"I'm seeing a uniform."

"Who has the...?"

"I don't know what this means."

[Kilgore Trout]

One trick I found perhaps missing is "water". That could find a hit with any number of things; it was raining, someone liked to swim, a car crash by a river, they liked to fish, was a plumber, or just liked drinking water.

Another one Sylvia likes to do is "I know." (Or "that's right" or some other confirming statement.) The idea being that the victim will state something, a response maybe or just offering some information, and the psychic will confirm it matter-of-factly because, of course they knew, they're psychic.

[grayman]

Don't forget, "Yes, I was just about to say that".

[Diagoras]

There once was a jerk on the tube,
Who talked to the dead like a n00b.
His program was ended,
Which got him offended,
But who cares about that dumb boob?

[COLONEL]

I see he/she is holding something yellow . Did he/she like Bananas ?

[alfaniner]

The Universe has a Big Douche
whose words always come in a whoosh
South Park kicked his ass
He still has no class
I wish he would fermez la bouche.

[RichardR]

Hey thanks everyone - especially Rob (I used your Pink Panther example).

Also, Randi emailed me with some more van Praagh specials. If you printed a bingo card already, you might want to go back and print the updated one.

[alfaniner]

I wonder if it will have the title "Talking to the Dead?" as had been shown on his previous episodes of this type. At least the addition of the question mark does not make it a "claim".

I have to wonder if LK will be less forgiving this time around. Has he had any of these vultures on since the Hornbeck revelation?

[DeVega]

I was just flicking the tv channels and happened to catch Colin (wee weasal) Fry for a few brief moments. He was talking to the parents of a dead child...

FRY: Do you understand, please (yep he really does talk like that!) that he wants you to know he was running very fast?

PAUSE - UNCOMPREHENDING LOOK PASSES BETWEEN THE PARENTS

FRY: No, not in the physical sense...

Sorry, don't know what came next. I had to change channel or throw something at the tv.

[Juustin]

Are they taking live phone calls?

[RichardR]

FYI, thanks to a reader I now have a randomized bingo card (http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2007/11/bingo-night.html) - so everyone can have a different card.

Also, it looks like John Edward dropped out. CNN now advertises “Psychics (sic) James Van Praagh & Lisa Williams take your calls”. Has anyone ever seen this Lisa Williams? She's from the UK.

[grayman]

Lisa Williams has been discussed here (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=95482).

[rebecca]

I love psychic bingo, well done Richard! I've mentioned Lisa Williams on the blog in the past -- she's the fraud on Lifetime who also made an appearance on their stupid psychic challenge (http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=724). There must be some transcripts floating around if you need them, but really it's same ol', same ol'.

[alfaniner]

Did this go on as scheduled? I was otherwise occupied.

[RichardR]

Did this go on as scheduled? I was otherwise occupied.
Not really. There were no "taking calls" for us to evaluate (despite what was promised) - just a load of douche bags making extravagant claims for themselves. I'll post a bit about it when they have the transcript posted.

[COLONEL]

They did introduce a Skeptic I forgot his name ,but he did ask them to take the Randy challange , of course no one took him up on it and Larry King just sat there and would not comment on it all in all. I was diappointed in the show. I had my bingo card all ready . Well all we can do is hope there will be a next time I will keep my bingo card handy .

[RichardR]

FYI I just wrote about the actual program: From The Sublime to The Ridiculous (http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2007/11/psychics-larry.html).

[wahrheit]

MACLAINE: I'll tell you what it means mostly to me. You don't kill when you kill somebody. The mind dies. The body dies. War is stupid, because nobody gets killed. The souls get all screwed up and karma is incurred. So war is stupid.


Hullo? Sounds like she forgot to take her meds.

Oh, wait...