Crossing Over: Truth or Travesty?
John Edward is making a name for himself. Time magazine’s 2002 “Year in Culture,” a review of the year’s movie and television fare, gives him and his highly successful TV show Crossing Over With John Edward a mention, saying that it “indulged our need to believe that our lost ones are still aware of us.”
In front of studio cameras he allegedly communicates with the other side as a spirit medium or, in New Age terms, a channeller, with the deceased loved ones of his guest audience.
But what Edward is doing isn’t new. Such people have been around from ancient times, and a check in any suburban newspaper will give you contact details to any number of Tarot card readers and spirit mediums. But Edward takes spiritualism into a new dimension in his lively and intriguing television show with its “live crosses” to the spirits of the departed. Crossing Over is significant because Edward is popularising spiritism, giving it a fresh, attractive public face.
He’s an entertaining, witty and empathetic showman, who, as Time writer James Poniewozik suggests, gives grieving people hope. And incidental to that, demystifies death in the process. Of course, it may be just people’s fascination with the occult, but whatever it is, Edward delivers prime-time ratings, and such is his popularity, he recently toured the country.
Edward was raised on Long Island, New York. As a child, relatives allege, there was something different about him.“He knew events that took place prior to his birth,” they claim.
He developed an interest in Tarot and attended psychic festivals as he studied for a degree in health administration. After graduating, he worked in health-care. When he married Sandra, his “spirit” work was still a hobby, but his life changed after an encounter with psychic Lydia Car, who encouraged him to develop his psychic abilities.
As Edward did “readings” (personal contact with the spirits of relatives), he became recognised as special. He began to lecture on the topic around the US, then did “live” contact with spirits in front of groups. His popularity skyrocketed with the publication of a string of books, including, What if God Were the Sun?, Unleashing Your Psychic Potential, Understanding Your Angel, Meeting Your Guide and Crossing Over among others.
In a typical Crossing Over, to reach the “other side,” Edward will pause and meditate for a moment, awaiting a spirit who has “crossed over” to make contact. He says the spirits “pull him here and there” and that’s why he sometimes looks confused. As the message from the spirit becomes clearer, he will verbalise a word or two and wait to see the audience reaction. Giving the messages like this is called “reading.” Hopefully someone gives “validation” or is able to relate to the word to take him to the next step.
This is the process of finding out which spirit message fits which person/s in the room. The word could be a name, such as “George” or a place, a car park for example, or a number or date. Waiting for a response is part of the show’s element of suspense.
Once the word is validated, Edward then engages the guest in dialogue, usually asserting that he’s getting extra detail. He looks for further validation in order to see if the spirit “knows” the person or is the crossed-over spirit of the deceased.
The spirits, he says, direct him by the “energy” in the room. Eventually Edward will make a “hit,” then follows a stream of validation—a real hit on a reading—but this only seems to happen as a result of asking the people for more information about themselves.
The show ends with Edward sharing some comforting message from the crossed-over spirit, usually about how happy they are on the other side. Usually it is something like, “They’re all right, and still with us, even if not in physical form.”
A few people leave disappointed, however, but there are web sites full of positive testimonials. “We will be eternally grateful to him for giving us peace of mind and helping us to heal from this most painful experience in our lives,” says one believer.
Not everyone agrees and many web sites and articles are written against Edward and his activities. Some suggest he’s a charlatan, with informants planted in the queues of those waiting to get into the show. Others suggest it is Edward’s ability to read body language that gives him clues, while still others argue that his power of suggestion is so sharp that he can almost will a person to validation.
Whatever it he does, he’s good at it. But as one person commented: “I have yet to see an interview with him where he doesn’t throw a hissy fit and stomp off when challenged by the interviewer. I think he is hearing voices all right—they’re coming from his bank account and telling him to make money off hurting people.”
For those who believe in the supernatural and a life after death, Edward is credible, but most people don’t change their opinion as a result of seeing his show. According to The Age “Green Guide” (its weekly entertainment section) story, people get enough information and feedback to validate their own perceptions and thoughts.
It seems people make an evaluation based on what they see and hear. My own view of an afterlife, the supernatural and spirit world is a Bible-based one. From my reading of the Bible, I believe spirits do exist and that there’s an unseen spirit world (see Ephesians 6:12; Psalm 103:20, 21). I also believe spirits contact humans (see Hebrews 1:14; 13:2; Mark 1:21-27), so Edward may well be hearing them. But where I differ is on the issue of the identity of the spirits he talks to.
The Bible, while acknowledging the spirit world, says the dead know nothing. When we die, we stay in the grave, not heaven (see Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10). None of the Bible writers suggest that at their deaths they would pass into heaven. The writer of Hebrews says all who live by faith in Jesus wait for the resurrection and the promise, and will receive them together at a later time (11:39).
The parallelling image of death in both the Old and New Testaments is that death is as a “sleep” (John 11:11-14; Daniel 12:2; Job 14:12), an unconscious state of non-existence. This is comforting for there is nothing better than a peaceful rest. We humans may not be able to wake ourselves up from this “sleep” nor wake others, but God, who made us, can. At most Christian funerals it’s suggested that this will be at the general resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:22-24, 50-54) when Jesus returns to earth.
And when the Bible says that at death the “spirit” (Job 27:3, KJV) returns to God, what does that mean? The word spirit as used in the Bible is synonymous with the word breath. The Bible (Greek) word for “spirit” is pneuma—the same word we use for air-filled, pneuma-tic tyres. The “spirit” is synonymous with breath, thus, when a person dies, they “breathe their last”—their “breath,” as it were, returns to God who gave us life (Genesis 2:7).
The Bible also says that the spirits we may engage, although real, are not the dead, but angels. Angels are another form of life in the universe, and there are two kinds—good and evil, both of whom possess supernatural power.
Good angels have appeared to individuals—Mary (Luke 1:11, 26), Moses (Exodus 3:1-6) and Lot (Genesis 19:1 ff) for example—to groups—including the shepherds at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:13) and the disciples at His ascension (Acts 1:11)—in addition to personally giving messages to various prophets, such as Isaiah (6:1-7).
Evil angels (demons or evil spirits,) are those who rebelled against God after being deceived by the devil and were cast out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-9). Their main purpose is to deceive people (see Genesis 3), leading them into destructive and self-destructive behaviour.
But this deception occurs only as people are led to believe that the evil spirits are in fact good and of use. No-one is deceived or persuaded by a pitch-fork wielding devil, a red dragon or fire-breathing brute, but they are deceived by a comforting message of hope. In this, they want to believe.
The work of the spirit medium has been rightly condemned throughout history, beginning with the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 18:9-14), which says that they have no place in decent society. Throughout the Middle Ages, so-called witches were executed by the established church, although many were probably suffering from mental diseases, such as dementia, which was tragic.
Society once recognised the practice of communicating with the spirit world as dangerous, so after a history of rejecting it for valid reasons, why would you want to invite John Edward’s world into your lounge room?
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
