On Friday I was talking to my significant other about medium John Edward and how I’ve always appreciated his warm and down-to-earth perspective on the spiritual realms. I thought he did a good job on his TV show Crossing Over with demystifying the whole process of communicating with people who have passed on, showing his viewers how normal this can be.

My honey and I were also discussing how there are very few Gen X psychics out there in the public eye. I enjoy being part of that generation. People in their 30’s to 40’s tend to bring a lighter, humorous voice to metaphysical discussion. I think that’s very much needed. We’re very different from the “heavier”Sylvia Browne and Carolyn Myss types.

I’ve also found that younger psychics are more “user-friendly”in their approach to psychic talents. We don’t place ourselves on pedestals as these anointed, God-like beings. We’re more likely to describe exactly what we’re doing, the conditions under which our abilities operate, and show you how you can also acquire these skills through practice. We like to break down the “fourth wall”and get rid of barriers that would make people treat us as celebrities or as anything particularly special. Gen Xers know that we all have these talents because Gen Xers are one of the most psychic generations around. They don’t all identify themselves as being that way, though. But they are a sensitive bunch, that’s for sure.

Anyway, as synchronicity would have it, I wasn’t yet ready to head for bed late Friday night because I could hear some leftover bread pudding calling to me from the downstairs fridge. (To quote the Vogons from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Resistance is futile!”) So I went down to inspect it, spoon in hand.

As I sat munching the yummy stuff, I turned on the TV and happened to catch the last few minutes of an appearance that John Edward was doing on a CNBC show called The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. John Edward has a new book out called Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life which could be very interesting. I didn’t hear him talk about the book, but I did hear him answer some questions from the host and respond to a couple of people who called in to the show.

As so often happens whenever a psychic does a media appearance, Deutsch was pushing hard to get John to read for him. I liked John’s response. It was a firm “No.”He explained why. Part of it was because he has had so many bad media experiences. (I know exactly what he’s talking about. Radio and TV hosts are always putting you on the spot and “testing”you, and it’s really not appropriate. Would they force a baseball player to hit a home run right then and there and evaluate him accordingly? Would they demand that a violinist perform a concerto on the spot and if he didn’t do well, tell everyone that he’s obviously not a real violinist? And yet these are the bizarre standards that psychics are held to when they make media appearances.)

I’m sure John has been ambushed one too many times by hostile hosts who take issue with what he does and want to try to make him look bad. Donny Deutsch didn’t come off that way, and apparently John has been on his show before. Still, John held his ground and refused to read for him. He also said he doesn’t like to read for hosts because “It’s like reading for family.”I know what he means by that. When you’re sharing energy with a host and trying to create a good show segment, you become comrades-in-arms. It’s hard to step out of teamwork mode and suddenly distance yourself from that person to do a reading on their behalf.

In a similar way, it’s very hard to read for family members because you are too close to them. It’s difficult to be objective because you want to read certain things into your session and produce a specific outcome for them. And you have to be objective to tune in accurately. It’s hard to read for a show host because you feel pressured to tell them what they want to hear, and often times, that’s not going to be accurate. So sometimes it’s best not to read for them at all.

Deutsch asked John some other questions. He asked how people can find a good psychic, since there are so many charlatans out there. John said that you have to be careful. Many people, he said, try to capitalize on his name and say that they either taught him everything he knows or were taught by him. He said if a psychic has to prop up their own reputation by associating themselves with someone more famous, that’s not usually good. It can mean that they haven’t come into real abilities on their own and are just trying to impress you with a big name.

As far as the horrible gypsy fakes that litter every street corner in America with their bright neon signs for card readings, John said he advises people to look at it this way. Would they go to a heart surgeon who had a shop on a street corner like that? No. In the same way, to find a good psychic, you should do your research, get referrals, and find out what the person’s work is like in advance. I agree with this completely.

The host also asked John if he’s ever had experiences where people were upset after a reading or it impacted them negatively. John said he has had times when he hasn’t been able to read someone. (I’ll give him credit for admitting that. Good for him. I was lucky when I did readings full-time. I did over 10,000 readings and only had to turn away two people because I couldn’t read their energy. I’m sure with John’s talents that he hasn’t had to turn many people away, either. He’s very gifted.)

John also said that if people have a negative reaction after a reading it’s usually because they came in with specific expectations of what they wanted to hear in the reading and they didn’t hear what they wanted to hear. Or there will be the occasional case of someone like an agnostic who doesn’t believe in the afterlife who is given incontrovertible proof of life after death through John’s reading for them, and they can go through a crisis as their core beliefs are shattered.

But God/Goddess/a Higher Power tends to reveal things in exactly the manner that they need to be revealed. John often talks about trusting the process that way. He sees that he’s just an instrument. He prays and meditates before he does readings, just as I always did, to make sure he’s tuning into “The Good Side of the Force.”

As the show went on, John took a call from a woman who said that when she drives by street lights, they will often burn out or turn off. She asked if this was a sign of contact from the deceased. John pointed out that he doesn’t encourage people to always be looking for signs. He doesn’t advise people to string together coincidences into some kind of meaning. He says he tried to do that after his own mother died, and no real signs of contact were turning up, even though he knew her presence was around him. Finally, he let it go and accepted that he wasn’t going to receive any such signs. And he says that when he was finally able to get out of his own way, significant things began to happen that gave him the proof he needed. But he couldn’t force it to happen by stringing together signs and coincidences. It had to be revealed in its own way, in its own time.

So he told the caller not to project too much onto the street lights thing. He did say, though, that spirits work with electromagnetic energy and that they can affect things like lights and computers and TV’s. This is true. I did a fair amount of ghostbusting work, and one dramatic case I worked on took place in a haunted trailer where the stereo would turn on all by itself. It did so numerous times while I was there until I was able to clear out the trapped spirits. From that time on, the resident never experienced any further electromagnetic anomalies.

John also told the woman that he has known people who were very psychically powerful who could affect electrical equipment themselves. He mentioned a friend of his who can turn street lights off when she goes by them and how he has been with her when she has done this. So he raised the possibility that perhaps the caller was affecting the street lights herself through her own intention and her own energy field. The caller said that this made sense to her and was a real possibility.

As the host wrapped things up, one of the last questions he asked was if people bring their psychic children to John for advice. He was referring to psychically open children who “see dead people”like the little boy so memorably played by Haley Joel Osmant in the movie The Sixth Sense. Donny asked John what he tells children like that and how he handles them.

John said he has encountered many children who are able to communicate with spirits and explained that it’s because kids under the age of six or so “have no filters.”They haven’t yet screened off the spiritual realms and are still open to communication. Then, as they get older, those filters gradually start to come in. This is definitely true from my experience. Opening up to your psychic abilities as an adult involves removing the filters that have creeped in as you came of age. You have to become like a child again.

John mentioned what was going on with a daughter of some friends of his when she was four years old. Apparently, she is a psychically open kid who communicates with people who have passed on all the time, conveying messages back and forth to the adults in her life. One day this little girl saw John’s show on TV. Her parents had never shown it to her before or told her anything about what John did for a living. Although he was a family friend, he hadn’t presented those abilities to the little girl at that point. The little girl watched what he was doing on TV and said, “He’s doing what I’m doing.”John loved that. To her, it wasn’t her doing what HE was doing. It was more like HE was obviously following HER lead. She had total clarity and confidence about her abilities.

The host asked John what he said to the girl, how he told her to handle her gifts. “Is this kid specially chosen, do you think?”he asked. John shook his head, again pointing out that kids are completely open and don’t have blockages or filters. He said when he talks with the girl his job is to make her feel completely normal, telling her how common these abilities are. He stressed how important it is to make psychic kids feel normal. And he also mentioned how he shares with the girl how she always has psychic protection from God/a Higher Power that she can call on.

I think that’s great. Anyone with psychic abilities needs to stay grounded and not feel that they are God’s gift to creation, because they aren’t. With millions of powerful psychics on the planet, they are hardly alone! On the other hand, what they do is real, it has significance, and they need to be prepared for how other people may respond to these talents. As they grow up, they need to learn discretion and discernment. They need to have a clear understanding of how their psychic abilities operate and yet realize that there are many people who will demonize or misunderstand these gifts.

It’s good if parents can educate themselves about metaphysical abilities and realize that these gifts are not an abomination but cherished skills which help their children to connect with divine spiritual energy. Who wouldn’t honor having a pipeline to the dimension of spirit? All of us would benefit greatly if we could develop a deeper understanding of these abilities, which are innate to us all, if only we would reclaim them. There’s far too much superstition and ignorance floating around when it comes to exploring the psychic side of life.

John Edward has such a grounded view of his abilities and has such a clear way of expressing himself that I’m sure his newest book will be excellent. I know I plan to check it out. And I’m glad my spiritual guides and angels lured me downstairs with some tempting bread pudding Friday night so I’d just “happen”to tune in to John’s uplifting appearance on CNBC.

If you're interested in John's work and would like to buy his latest book, Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life, click on the Amazon link below. Your purchase will help to support this site and bring you instant good karma!