articlejedwdCrossing Over

New Idea – national weekly magazine

Acclaimed medium John Edward crosses over to mainstream success.

Once when you thought of a medium or a psychic the image was of a wizened old woman draped in scarves and silver jewellery, trying to con you out of your hard earned cash. But the modern day medium is compassionate, comforting and accessible to everyone via TV and your local bookstore. And instead of prophesising about tall dark strangers, they bring messages of comfort and love from the other side.
Acclaimed New York medium John Edward, who has been able to communicate with the dead since his late teens, has been battling the stereotypes and the personal attacks for 10 years, since his name became known in the psychic world. He still attracts more than his share of cynics, but he says perceptions are slowly changing. And he thinks Australians are leading the way.
Earlier this year John did a Down Under tour, his first out of the US, and he sold out every seminar and got the largest audience of his life. Many of the stories – funny, embarrassing and touching – appear in his new book After Life: Answers From the Other Side.
‘It was an unbelievable experience. I was blown away!’ says John, who also discovered a new skill – wombat reading.
‘I couldn’t believe the reception I got, and it was amazing because the culture there is so open to the subject matter, and so spiritual, much more so than America. I’m not sure why, but maybe people in Australia have a more spiritual upbringing or belief system ingrained in them from when they are young, from their family.
‘One person said that it’s a culture that’s seeking self empowerment and self knowledge, and because of that people are more open to the resources that are there and are more in tune with those things.’
He wasn’t nervous getting up in front of 10,000 people, but he was overwhelmed by the support and the interest in him as a person.
‘I walked out on to the stage in Sydney in front of 10,000 people, to a standing ovation from the entire arena. And I was like: “Oh my God! I didn’t even say anything yet!” There are moments in your life that you’ll never forget, and that was definitely one of them for me. Walking out there and having all those people just give back so much of their energy. It was extremely moving for me.
‘But I said to them: “Thank you so much, but I want to just say that you’re not standing on your feet clapping for John Edward the person, you’re applauding the process, and it represents the boundless love you have for your loved ones on the other side.”’
John talks a lot about the process, in which he delivers personal and intimate messages to people here from their loved ones on the other side, because he is uncomfortable when the focus is on him. He is the charismatic and entertaining host of TV’s Crossing Over with John Edward, but he would rather be anonymous. In his books he plays down his celebrity status in favour of stories of him being a fan and chasing his favourite singer down the street.
‘With the TV show and the books it was never: ìI want to be famous, I want to be on TV, I’m going to do radio and write books,î or anything like that, that was never my goal. It just became part of the work that I do, just an amplification of the message,’ he says.
‘I was doing it on a smaller scale with private readings, then on a small group level, and then the privates got filled up and the groups got bigger, and I was just trying to reach out to more people, so just by nature of the swell of the interest it turned out like this, and I kind of backed into having a TV show.
‘But it’s not about me! I’m just the instrument on which they play. If I can help create the melody with them then that’s a beautiful gift, but I am not the musician. It’s like, you can have a concert pianist playing the piano and a three-year-old banging away on a keyboard to make noise. They are vastly different experiences, different sounds, but the instrument stays the same. I recognise that it’s not about the instrument, it’s the person playing.’
As a regular guest on Larry King Live and other US prime time shows, John has worked hard to demystify the process of what he does and educate people about mediumship, the after life and the process of grieving the death of a loved one. He’s been told that watching Crossing Over is like therapy to deal with grief.
‘I have heard that, and I am complimented by that, and I think in some respects that is true,’ he begins. ‘However I would like to stress that mediumship is not an alternative to counselling. And I think it is important for people to recognise that if you’ve lost somebody you love you need to honour your grief and that personal journey. This can be helpful, this can be therapeutic, but it is not an alternative. It’s not like: ìLose a child, find a medium and life goes on and everything’s happy.î It can be unhealthy I think if it’s too soon.’
John began his working life in a hospital, but he slowly realised that his psychic gifts could bring healing to more people. ‘I do feel this is my purpose,’ he agrees. ‘I think there are two things I’m supposed to be doing in my life and that’s teaching and healing. And it didn’t matter what field I chose to go into, I think I would always straddle both of those subjects.’
There was a time, depressed by the constant criticism his work attracts, that he considered giving up and going to vet school or back to the hospital. But the gratitude of the people he does readings for – and some well worded advice from his best friend – convinced him he is doing what he’s supposed to be doing. And his groundbreaking TV show has certainly helped get his message to the masses. The power of Crossing Over and his books is that the messages that come through him from the other side are universal. Everyone can relate to the words of comfort, forgiveness and closure passed on, not just the person whose relative is speaking. I’ve always believed it in theory, but to watch him do it, and see the incredible emotion of the person receiving the reading, is incredibly moving, healing and inspiring.
John is also continually touched by the power of the experiences.
‘I wasn’t shocked that people have found the messages so universal, because I know the subject matter, and I know how people relate to it. Whether you’re in the gallery of the show while someone else is being read or watching it on TV at home, you’re able to identify with that one person being read, and if it can happen to them it makes you think it can happen to you too. ‘That’s how I’ve always approached it. When I do a reading for someone and their parent comes through and they offer a message that I can understand, I feel that it’s as much for me as it is for them.’
As a teenager John realised he had psychic ability, and he spent his last few years of school doing readings and predicting futures at psychic fairs to hone his skills. Then he noticed he could see and communicate with people who were no longer alive, and he slowly realised what this meant for the people they were coming through for.
‘It wasn’t something I was flipped out by, I was just inquisitive. And because I became more inquisitive and more nosey and I wanted to explore it more, I think I just peeled away the layers in a session. And finally I got what it meant for people to hear from someone who had died. It didn’t mean that for me, because at that point I hadn’t had anyone that close to me who had died. But then my mother passed, and everything immediately shifted for me, and I had that big gaping hole at the age of 19 that I didn’t know how to fill. It was really tough. But this work filled that, this work helped me to move through it.’
And it’s also helped a lot of other people work through their grief. ‘My mum used to always say to me: ‘If in your lifetime you can help one person with your ability then it’s all worth it.’ And I can sit back now and look at the show and smile, because it has helped a number of people.’
John remains modest partly because he believes everyone does have the potential to develop their psychic ability. He says people on the other side are always trying to communicate with us and let us know that they are OK and that they love us – we just have to learn how to read the signs.
A friend of mine believes her mum is trying to communicate with her in various ways, but she is frustrated that she can’t understand the message.
‘I definitely think there’s a way to figure it out, and I would say that dreams are the number one way that people can come through,’ John reveals. ‘My recommendation is for people to keep a dream journal and within that have all your dreams, even the ones that don’t seem relevant. And it’s important that if you think you’ve had an experience of any kind, date it and write it down, with the time and what the experience is, and think is there a special theme, did anything happen on this date, does the time mean anything, what were you doing, because if you put things on paper it’s very hard to rationalise it away.’
But no matter how many people he gives comfort to by delivering messages from the other side, John’s main message remains clear – don’t get bogged down in trying to validate that those who have crossed over are still here. Live your life now. Make amends with the people you love while you can.
‘Absolutely. You should live your life and enjoy the journey and enjoy the people in your life in the present. Don’t wait until they’re not here to decide you want to say what you need to say.’

Visit John Edward’s website here.