Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

 Be a skeptical voice in the MSN Live chat room: John Edward, self-described
"psychic-medium," who hosts his own TV show on the SCI FI cable channel
("Crossing Over With John Edward"), will be guest on "MSN Live" tonight
(Monday Dec. 4) at 8:00 pm ET (5:00 pm PT/ 1:00 am, Tuesday Dec. 5, GMT):
Point your browser to http://chat.msn.com/msnlive/features/johnedwarddec.asp
to read more about the event, John Edward, and the transcript from his last
appearance at MSN Live.

 The hype for the John Edward event is, as usual, over the top:

 "The last time John Edward was a guest on MSN Live, the auditorium was
filled with a hushed silence as John revealed answers to audience
questions.... Whether or not you believe in psychic phenomena, Edward is a
master to behold. During this exclusive session Edward will share insight
into his new book, What if God Were the Sun? and if possible, he may also
provide readings for several lucky audience members."

 John Edward was roasted in absentia on the November 17, 2000 episode of
Dateline NBC by Joe Nickell. It would be nice to see Edward have to take some
tough questions from skeptics in person regarding his alleged powers at
tonight's chat session. If you need a refresher on the subject of cold
reading--the methods used to subtly eliciting information from "sitters"
(subjects of psychic readings)--go to these pages:

 http://www.csicop.org/articles/19990608-vanpraagh/index.html
 Critique of James Van Praagh by CSICOP's Joe Nickell

 http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/coldread.htm
 CSICOP Fellow Ray Hyman's classic guide to cold reading posted on the
Australian Skeptic's web site

 http://skepdic.com/coldread.html
 Entry on cold reading in the encyclopedic Skeptic's Dictionary

 http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00083.html
 Recent CSICOP Center for Media Integrity Review

 Hope to see you there!

 Kevin Christopher
 Public Relations Director
 CSICOP/Skeptical Inquirer
 P.O. Box 703
 Amherst, NY 14226
 E-mail: SIKevinC@aol.com