Crossing Over: The Stories Behind the Stories

by John Edward

The psychic television host talks about his life, his work, and his TV program, sharing stories of the people and spirits he has encountered, and discussing his efforts to bring peace and insight to those grieving for loved ones.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Paranormal, Memoir, New Age, Biography, Autobiography

290 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Antigone · Rating 2 out of 5]

And then there are the books people give you.

Mr. Edward asserts these things fall into our laps for a reason. If we are encountering him it is because the universe is turning our focus in his direction. This may be true. It's possible. Although I'm not quite sure why he would use this mystically-orchestrated moment to tell me how hard it is to be a psychic medium; to get a book published, to produce an infomercial, to mount a syndicated television show. How ruthless and unfair the skeptics are. How he loathes the West Coast and the Hollywood machine. How tough it's been. How grueling. How maddening the road has proven in this valiant attempt to get his message out.

Which is, I don't know, what? Psychic mediumship isn't for sissies?

I think sometimes people give you books because they like you and they know you like to read. I think it's a kindness that has very little to do with the subject matter. I think sometimes the universe is saying: See? There are some sweet folks, too. That's what I think.

[Treena C · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Edward is definately one of Gods gifts. He is an amazing man.

[Mysticpaganwitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the time I was a big fan of John, not that I'm not now because I still am. I hadn't been a fan for long, my Sister told me about the show and it wasn't long before I was hooked. I remember rushing home from doing the shopping so I wouldn't miss it. When I knew he had a book out I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I bought it on the Thursday and I'd read it by the Sunday. I couldn't put it down. Been to see him twice since. Novelty has worn off a bit now but still a fan.

[TIMOTHY Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

john edward is the real deal, a gifted psychic who loves people. i was blessed with being able to see him twice. he is astounding. i do not normally "see" auras but the moment he rubbed his hands together and said let's begin he went golden!

[Rana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book about the paranormal and how John Edwards came to realize his gift and how he helps others. You will laugh and you will cry... enjoy it.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Very interesting to read and very hard to put down. Recommended.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Making money off people in grief looking for hope.
Big oof

[Lisa Gennusa-O'Connell · Rating 2 out of 5]

That what mediums do, bringing messages from the other side to this one, is no hoax and that he's tired of defending his craft.

I felt grateful....it was hard to get through than I thought it would be. Too technical and in depth info on "how things work on TV" and how things happened. Not enough stories from actual readings.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like the supernatural then this is for you! I enjoyed watching his show and to read his experiences first hand was fantastic. Not a book for skeptics!

[Steven H · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE MEDIUM TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE, HIS BOOKS, AND HIS TV SHOW

Medium John Edward wrote in the Preface to this 2001 book, “This is a book about Crossing Over. Not just the television show. Not just the metaphysical process that inspired the television show. To be sure, you’ll read a lot about both the show and the process. But this book is also a chronicle of personal transition… If you have read any books by or about psychic mediums… you will notice that this is not like the others…. I intend this book to break some new ground, not only I demystifying the process of spirit communication… but in offering a glimpse of this world I live in. I want you to know how things look from inside my head…. That’s why you’ll find me discussing some difficult and controversial questions---money, motivation, celebrity, and the private and public battles I have to confront in my work.” (Pg. xv)

He explains in the first chapter, “By 1995, my spirit guides were pushing me to put more time and energy into that part of my life… I was on a path to a life’s work connecting the physical world to the spirit world… I was very insecure about how people would perceive me. ‘What do you do? Oh, I talk to dead people.’ … That year, I made the biggest leap of faith of my life… I gave private readings in my home office, group readings in the living room, and started giving lectures to larger groups in hotel meeting rooms… my guides let me know what I needed to begin working on a book..” (Pg. 6-7)

He continues, “By the spring of 1998, the book was finished and set to be published… I couldn’t wait. It would reach so many more people than I ever could through lectures… With that, I hoped, would come something I craved. Credibility… my goal was to be respected by my peers, and for my work to be understood and accepted by the public. There was no denying I had chosen a field tainted by the stereotypes of phonies and flakes, and ridiculed by cynics… To have the prestige and credibility of a major publishing company behind me meant that smart, careful people believed in me… And make no mistake---selling books is what I wanted to do. I saw no reason to be embarrassed about seizing this opportunity to be paid as much money as I honestly could for my hard work.” (Pg. 17) He adds, “After this whirlwind tour, after all the national television exposure, I was sure the book would take off… Surprise---not happening…” (Pg. 22)

Later, he adds, “When I first signed the contract to write ‘One Last Time,’ I told the publicity people that they would have to figure out how to promote the book without putting me on the TV circuit… I hated the idea that … maybe it was a show that might sensationalize or belittle the subject… A year later, I was calling TV producers myself and asking them to put me on their shows. I’d had… a change of heart. The publicity people had sat me down and said: … This is America. It’s 1998. If you want to get your book into a lot of hands, you have to go on television… My guides gave me the green light… Proceed with caution.” (Pg. 73) He continues, “I got my own show right away. Okay, it was the infomercial. Not exactly cutting-edge television. But it offered something I craved: control. Or so I thought.” (Pg. 87) He summarizes, “Looking back on it now, the infomercial was a failure in every way but the most important one. It introduced me to the essence of television. It gave me a tremendous education in the marketing of a medium and the importance of protecting the integrity of the work in a world crawling with people whose main interest is exploiting it.” (Pg. 103)

He recounts, “The 90-minute HBO special, ‘Life After Life,’ aired on October 5, 1999, and featured more of me than I expected… or would have liked. The part showing me doing readings or being interviewed was fine, but the rest was embarrassing… me with my dogs, me working out in the gym… Gary [Schwartz] and Linda [Jackson] ‘…did the last of the three tests a month after the HBO special aired, then went on to write up the findings … for the ‘Journal of the Society for Psychical Research’… No surprise… that after the HBO special… Gary found himself being cut in half by James (The Amazing) Randi…” (Pg. 125-126)

He observes, “If we were 83 percent accurate in the Arizona experiment, what about the other 17 percent? Among skeptics and believers alike, there’s a catchphrase to describe what has become a popular way to evaluate a medium: hits and misses. I hate those three words…” (Pg. 131)

Of his own show, he reports, “The show would be made up of three basic elements. Readings in the gallery would be the centerpiece. Then there would be private one-on-one readings that would be shot on the set but without an audience. Some of these would be with celebrities. And then the producers would do what they were calling ‘post-analyses,’; when they took the people who had been read into a separate room and asked them to explain the messages that came through, what made sense and what didn’t, and to talk about the loved ones who came through and what the experience meant to them… they got me to introduce taped segments and give the show a final thought by sitting among the gallery and reading what… had [been] written for me on the TelePrompTer… There was no reason to hide the fact that the few seconds of material that were obviously not spontaneous---and which had nothing to do with the authenticity of the readings---were written by someone other than me.” (Pg. 206-208)

Before long, “I began to realize something very cool. I was forming a really special bond with the producers and crew members on the show. It felt a little like the way I connect with spirits, by raising my own vibrations as they lower theirs so we can meet somewhere in the middle. There were TV people, but there wasn’t an ounce of cynicism in them. They were real people who wanted to do a meaningful show. And I was a psychic medium guy, but I wasn’t so serious that I couldn’t have fun with it or appreciate the bizarre nature of what I was doing.” (Pg. 223)

He acknowledges, “I learned a long time ago that it’s impossible to do this work in any kind of public way without taking hits, fair or not, intelligent or inane. So I’ve tried to limit the kinds of things that I will let get me worked up. I never lose sight of this reality: I am a member of the only profession in which the work will always be questioned and can never be proven… Everyone in the public eye---politicians, actors, athletes---is subject to scrutiny… they might be accused of being dishonest politicians, greedy athletes, or lousy actors. But nobody will claim that their entire life is an illusion. My attitude is this: You want to attack my profession, go ahead… but I don’t appreciate being called a fraud.” (Pg. 237-238)

Inevitably, “A man named Michael O’Neill had come to the show with relatives … and were hoping to connect with Michael’s grandfather. An older male figure did come through… He validated enough of the information to indicate that we had connected with his grandfather, and he apparently went home reasonably impressed. But when O’Neill saw the show on TV weeks later… he ‘began to suspect chicanery. He believed that the reading was edited so that he appeared to be nodding yes to information that he remembered saying was wrong, and that most of the other ‘misses’ in his reading and those of others had been edited out.” (Pg. 247-248) He admits, “what did most of the audience … talk about during the delays [in taping the show]? Those departed relatives, of course. These conversations, O’Neill suspects, may have been picked upby the microphones strategically placed around the auditorium and then passed on to the medium.” (Pg. 248)

He continues, “Whether or not Michael O’Neill wanted to believe his grandfather came through that day was for him alone to decide. But … it led him to e-mail his suspicions to the James Randi Educational Foundation… On that, Time magazine based its story on ‘Crossing Over.’” (Pg. 249) He recounts, “Larry King … invited me on his show to talk about the controversy. He also had Sylvia Browne and James van Praagh, along with a variety of skeptics…” (Pg. 251)

He concludes, “After the tempest died down, I thought about why I was doing the show in the first place. It was to reach people. The audience was my only real concern. And they were the ones hurt most. It pained me to think that anyone who had set in their gallery… might wonder if it had all been a grand illusion… Yes, I could look back and see how far we had come. But that didn’t mean that we didn’t have far to go.” (Pg. 252-253)

This is an interesting book, for anyone interested in mediums.

[Sean Keefe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely shocking, delusional horseshit written by a charlatan exploiting the grief of others. At times you genuinely feel sorry for the man, who seems to suffer from a very deep mental illness - the parts about Carl Perkins and “scientific studies” would be hilarious if they weren’t written in such studious self - belief.

Luckily someone left this on the bookswap shelf in my local, so I’ve given no money to anyone concerned, which gives me comfort.

If it gets you through the night, then fair play, I guess, but I can’t help feeling that you’d need to be exceptionally gullible to believe any of this hokum. I actually felt sick at quite a lot of this cynical communal fantasy. Perhaps people do come back from the dead to contact us - who knows? - but I very much doubt they’d choose to do it through such a self - aggrandising, egotistical fantasist.

I can’t give it zero stars as I’d like to, but I guess it does deserve one for the line “I was not a happy medium in 1998”. Avoid.

[Terrible Book Club · Rating 1 out of 5]

Episode 28: Crossing Over - The Stories Behind the Stories by John Edward is all about ghosts, mediums, and how Long Island seems to be some kind of breeding ground for psychics. If you're a skeptic of supernatural phenomenon or have ever wondered about the John Edwards and Sylvia Browns of the world, this episode is for you.

Oh and, uh, Paris & Chris just want you to know that you have a great need for other people to like and admire you and even though you have a tendency to be critical of yourself, you have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. John comes across honestly, acknowledging that his field is one that is wrought with skepticism and disrespect, and doesn't appear to be too full of himself. While my Catholic beliefs tell me to be skeptical, I can't help but wonder why this does not fit into a "eternal life" promise.
My only issue is that he says he's not in it for the money, yet the $200 he charged when he first started has ballooned to $750 for a private reading.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had seen a few episodes of "Crossing Over" and was intrigued. I saw this book on the sale shelf and thought "why not?" John Edward puts on a pretty entertaining show. I was hoping the book would be the same. Unfortunately, the book was just an ego-trip. Save your time and money unless you are truly a huge fan. I'm guessing there was a reason the book was on the sale shelf, after all.

[Wizardeyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, John Edward is a good writer...but this book isn't only the stories behind the psychic readings...there's ALOT about how he got his TV show. That guy is really self-absorbed. I HAVE TO SAY his gift is undeniable, though...and that's what gives him the 4 stars.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am going to look for a book by him that is less personal info and more about his readings

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this book and read the first few chapters but was very bored from the beginning.

[Lori Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

He kind of started going all over the place. I read almost to the end and then stopped.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is pretty terrible. I am 100% on board with psychic mediums & I like John Edward & believe their messages do help people immensely. I just hoped for more out of this book.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Edward in his book "Crossing Over" presents himself in a humble manner. I share a similarity with his life philosophy. Long before I heard of John Edward, let alone read his book, I have the mindset of "keep your work consistent and make sure you receive good pay". Just as John Edward stresses "there is no humbleness in poverty". I have seen far too many homeless vagabonds in my life to not take concern with the starting salary of my future career. I don't make life about money, but I require money (as does everyone) to eat, pay taxes, pay bills, and for fun recreational things like books and music.

I miss the television show he had. I would like to get a private reading from him someday.

[Lisa Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by mediums and psychics. When Crossing Over was on TV I enjoyed watching it, and of course, I wondered what would happen if I were in the audience. Probably nothing for me, I imagine, but its fun to wonder.

I enjoyed reading about how it all came together, and for the most part, it was a good book. I didn't enjoy the scientific part, it was a chapter that I could have done without. Basically, trying to explain the technical part, the scientific community attempting to scientifically prove that what mediums do is legit. I don't care how they do it. But, I ready it because it was there.

For the rest of the book, its a pretty quick read, and an enjoyable one as well.

[Cullen Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen many mentalists before, so it's very easy to discount what John Edward does as some form of trickery or cold reading charlatan. Having also seen him in person, at the State Theatre, some of the intimate details he's able to garner about people, their loves ones and messages are most compelling and impressive; no matter what your beliefs may be.

What's most interesting about Edward's memoir, is how he readily exposes his own vanities and ego bruisings.

If you're dipping your toes into this arena - first start with Derren Brown's 'Miracle: Faith of Fiction', out on Netflix

C

[Stacey Menzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crossing Over is the first of Johns books I have read. Having twice before seen him at his events, I was intrigued to read more about him and his work. The stories of the people he has connected with their loved ones are just incredible and most of them had me in tears. Never have I been so emotionally moved by a book. Loved reading more about John as a person and his process of learning and growing with his gift, grieving his own mothers passing and setting up the Tv show of the same name of this book! Can't wait to read his others!!

[Todd]

Not sure why i came back to this author/subject. Probably the subject matter is most interesting. Or maybe... well i am impressed by Edward's methodology --he seems pretty candid and transparent and definitely is devoted to the notion of following the lead of his spirit guides. Anecdotal or not, I'm convinced if not by the sheer number connections he's made as I am by the depth (detail) of particular cases. In any event, does kind of make you wonder... departed kin just kind of hanging out, but are also able to make themselves known to the living...certainly intriguing mind-body paradigm

[Margaret McDougall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read.

What a Fabulous insight into communicating with Spirit. John Edwards does not use any fancy words to explain his ability as a medium. This book shows very clearly that John is the messenger and the Spirits are in charge but what a wonderful messenger they have chosen. I couldn't put this book down. Well done to John and the team who pulled this fabulous account of John's journey to print. Going to download every John Edward book I can find, thank you.

[Circa Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first account I've ever read of a professional medium and I feel like Edward made a pretty solid case for himself. The television and radio journey was less interesting to me than the stories of him helping people connect to loved ones on the other side but I think I might seek out One Last Time for more of those.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can understand why people are skeptical and I don't know if John Edward is actually legit. I enjoyed the book, but what has made all the difference to me since my husband's sudden passing is all the personal, unexplainable occurrences in my life. If you lost someone, just know that they are not lost and that they continue to exist. And you don't need to visit a medium for confirmation.

[L. Soper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read. I'm a skeptic of all things after life, so I wasn't counting on getting wowed into a different opinion, but John Edward is a fascinating person, whether you believe his abilities are due to craft or madness. That said, this book focuses on the evolution of his career rather than his abilities, and I just wasn't interested in how he went from in-person readings to radio to TV.

[Debra Waites · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think John Edward is the real deal. His integrity and compassion comes thru clearly in this book. I enjoyed the stories and but more importantly I appreciate his message to communicate, appreciate and validate the people in your life NOW.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed John’s story and am a believer in his ability. However, I think a ghostwriter was needed as the writing and sentences just didn’t flow. Also, I’m not a fan of cuss words.

The book would have earned a 4 or 5 star rating if it were written better.