- 6 weeks ago
TV psychic John Edward has a new book, Chasing Evil, about his work with the FBI to track down a serial killer. But that’s just one part of his story. He’s also the founder of the subscription app Evolve TV Plus and is on a mission to teach people how to take leaps of faith, trust their instincts, and trade security for the unknown. Even with his spirit team on call, his founder journey hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. Listen for his unfiltered advice for overcoming struggles and finding your greater purpose.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00For me, I'm constantly pushing myself. Recently, somebody said, would you like to see Crossing
00:03Over the TV show, you know, on again? And I went, new version or the old reruns? And they said,
00:08the old reruns. I went, absolutely not. And they said, oh, but it was such a successful show. And
00:13I said, it was a very successful show. But it's not a good representation for who I am today.
00:17It's a great representation of who I was in 2000. But I'm 25 years later, I am 25 years better.
00:22Hey, everyone. It's Dan Bova here at Entrepreneur. And welcome to another episode of How Success
00:32Happens. Today's show should be very interesting in that there is a good chance our guest knows
00:38the answers to all the questions that I'm about to ask before I even ask them. John Edward is
00:45arguably the world's most famous psychic medium. His show Crossing Over with John Edward was a
00:51groundbreaking series, which introduced a lot of us to him and to this concept of having
00:57conversations with people who have passed. He used the success of that show to build a psychic
01:02medium empire that now includes Evolve Plus TV, which is a platform devoted to mindfulness,
01:09astrology, dealing with grief. And he has a new book out called Chasing Evil, which tells the intense
01:17and true story of how he helped an FBI agent solve a serial killer cold case. I read an advanced copy of
01:25it, and it is wild. It is incredible. I should also mention that John, like me, is from Long Island.
01:33So beyond learning about his amazing abilities, you're all going to hear some tremendous accents over the
01:39next 20 minutes. Welcome, John. Thank you for having me. We're part of Long Island.
01:46From Suffolk County, Farmingville. Farmingville? I have a cousin who lives in Farmingville.
01:51Really? Not Farmingdale, John. Farmingville. I know. I know the difference.
01:57Of course you know, John. You should have known I was from that. No, I'm just kidding.
02:01Um, well, so great to talk to you, man. Uh, you know, watching you on TV back in the day,
02:08and now it's, uh, you know, you, you're an impactful guy. Well, I appreciate you saying
02:14that. Um, I love doing what I do. I've been doing it, you know, since way back in the 1900s. I started
02:18doing this in 1985. So it's been 40 years. It's my 40th year doing this. And, uh, to punctuate it with
02:25this book is an understatement. Yeah. So before we get too much into the book, into your,
02:30the overall trajectory of what you've done, can you just define what a psychic medium is? Of
02:37course you can, but please, I should ask. So for the folks that don't understand the, like the,
02:41the term, the term psychic or medium, a psychic is somebody who has the ability to connect with
02:46energy and talk about what's happening in your life. Now what's coming up for you,
02:49maybe validating things of the past. And then the medium aspect is using the psychic ability to be
02:54able to connect with people who have crossed over your loved ones and friends who are in the spirit
02:57world. And those two things kind of go together for me. So not every psychic is a medium, but every
03:03medium is a psychic. Okay. Got it. Uh, I don't think I'm either of those things, but you might say
03:10differently. I think you say differently in this book, but we'll get to all that. Um, I want to ask,
03:17you know, I'm sure you've told this a million times, but for those who don't know, when did you
03:21realize you, you had these abilities? So I've always had them, but I was told at the age of 15
03:28by someone who was doing a reading at my grandmother's house. They, my mom's family used
03:32to have psychics come all the time and do readings a couple of times a year, three or four times a
03:36year sometimes. And, um, I went to debunk this woman to prove that she wasn't going to be able to
03:41read for me. And at the age of 15, you know, I was a little sarcastic and, um, I was going to show my
03:49family, like, I'm not going to help her the way you guys helped her. And she blew my mind. She changed
03:55my life. She told me that I had disability and she predicted all the things that I actually went on to
04:00do. Um, things that at the age of 15 weren't even in my mind in any shape, way or form.
04:05That's incredible. Um, you know, I think a lot of people would probably, even after being told
04:11something like that would just be like, you're nuts and, and just leave it at that. But I did
04:17think she was nuts. I'm not going to lie. I, I, I usually equate that first part of my journey with
04:21her that she might as well have said that she parked her spaceship in my grandmother's backyard
04:25and she'd take me for a spin when we were done. I was like, okay, but then you know what?
04:29She produced that spaceship and like, we did go for a spin in, in, in, in theory. So she,
04:34she was, she was validated. She validated herself in a big way.
04:38That's incredible. So, uh, you know, this being entrepreneur, I, I'm curious,
04:43when did you not only realize that this was something you had an ability to do,
04:48but something that you could like make a living doing?
04:51So that was the one thing ironically that I didn't want to do. Um, I used to tell people that I,
04:57I'm a few, I'm a few credits short of a master's degree in healthcare and public administration.
05:01And I was working in the healthcare system. I was, I was in hospital administration and that was going
05:07to be my trajectory and readings were going to be what I did because it was my passion.
05:11Long story short, I, uh, I was due for a pretty big, uh, raise and a bonus and a job title change.
05:19And, uh, my wife had said, you know, can I just ask you a question? Like, why,
05:23why are you killing yourself at the hospital and killing yourself doing readings? Like,
05:26why don't you just do the psychic stuff? And I was like, no, like, that's not what I'm supposed to do.
05:30I'm supposed to have like a real job, you know, with the 401k and the whole nine. And she was like,
05:36I just think you should do what your passion is. You know, she was very, very supportive.
05:40And I didn't want to have that conversation or argument. And so I've said, you know what,
05:44if I don't get the promised position and title and raise, I'll take that as a universal sign.
05:49So I was promised an 18% increase. And when my review came up, it was two.
05:59And I was like, okay. All right. Wow. All right. The universe is calling me out on my,
06:05my statement.
06:06So, you know, when I talk to people who made a similar kind of big decisions and sort of like
06:13bet on themselves, there's often, you know, a mild heart attack that comes with it. Some self-doubt
06:20you're in a unique position. Do you have self-doubt or were you, were you feeling this energy? Like,
06:28no, this is absolutely the right thing to do.
06:30Um, yeah, there was nothing psychic about that decision. It was more like I made a statement
06:39to the universe and I was afraid that if I kind of pulled that back in, everything was going to
06:47collapse around me. So I felt like I knew now I was done there. That was a, that was, I was done.
06:53And I knew I needed to allow myself to see through if I wanted to do the psychic work as my profession.
07:02And if I didn't, my wife had said, well, guess what? If you don't, then you can go back and work
07:07in the hospital again. Right. And I went a different hospital, but yeah, I can go back. I can go back
07:13and work in healthcare. She said, then I think you need to bet on yourself and bet on what you do.
07:18Can you, can you describe, cause you will, uh, we'll get more into the book, but so Robert Hilland,
07:24uh, former FBI special agent, uh, who came to you for help with a case and, um, we could talk more
07:33specifics about that case, but he describes talking to you and you're, you know, I don't want to say
07:40in a trance, but you're, you're communicating thoughts that are, are, are being sent to you or,
07:47or questions. Can you describe like what you're hearing and what you're seeing in those moments?
07:53Sure. Whenever I'm doing a reading for anybody, I will equate it to like a daydream. If you've ever
07:58had a daydream, you know, and I say, remember back in the days of school when you're staring
08:02out the window and you're supposed to be paying attention to the teacher and you have this whole
08:05other thing going on. That's what a reading feels like. It feels like you're caught up in a
08:09daydream and in this daydream and whatever I'm seeing, feeling, hearing, thinking, I am now just
08:15going to convey to you. Right? So, um, if I'm getting information, I'm going to tell you,
08:20like, if I see this, it means this. If I feel this, it's making me feel a certain way. Sometimes
08:23I'll get images out of a movie or a scene from my own life and all of those things kind of tell
08:29a story. So I just narrate what that seeing, hearing, and feeling moment is. It is not a
08:34conversation like you and I are having. It's more like energetic sign language or for lack of a
08:40better way, a way of saying it, Pictionary or charades, trying to figure out, you know,
08:44what is it that I'm seeing and what does it mean? So in the book, uh, so special agent Robert Hillen
08:50comes to you and, uh, well, he, he describes that when he met you, you know, this is not something
08:57that you were very comfortable doing. Um, and you said that you didn't, I think, want to do it at
09:05first or didn't like working with law enforcement for, for different reasons. Can you explain a little
09:11bit about that first meeting and, and why this case was something that you felt compelled to
09:17help out with? Sure. Um, my dad was a New York city police officer and not a fan of the subject
09:23matter. And he basically said to me, I don't ever want to find out that you were working with the
09:26police. That, that was pretty much the gist of like, you know, you better have a respect for
09:31the uniform and like, you know, don't, don't, don't embarrass yourself and don't embarrass me
09:34kind of vibe. Um, which I really always adhere to. Like that was something that, you know,
09:40he and I were not very, very close, but I have always been respectful of the uniform and still,
09:45still am. My assistant at the time, uh, basically was the one who got Bob in. And when he came in,
09:54it was interesting because he's a pretty big guy. He's like, I don't know, six foot something like
10:04he's towers over me. It's like six foot eight or something like some ridiculous, you know, height.
10:09Um, very imposing and not very giving in that moment. He was like walled off, walled off. And
10:19what I later found out is that he was there to expose me as being a fraud. He didn't like hearing
10:24me on the radio and he came under the guise of a very real case. And that sparked a connection,
10:32meaning the information that I gave him on the case. And then the information I wound up giving
10:36him about himself, it, it brought instant validation to the subject matter. I think blew his mind a
10:41little bit about the possibilities. Um, and then I think he saw me just as like, you know, like right
10:48now people are discovering AI. He discovered JE. He was like, what can I do with this? How can this,
10:56how can this help me? You know? And it became an interesting juxtaposition because although I
11:03wasn't close to my dad and I really didn't need any type of validation from him, I'm going to say
11:08on a psychological level, maybe I did because working with Bob kind of was like working out some
11:14of my, my dad issues and he's not that much older than me or I'm not much older than him. I were around
11:19the same age and it became this unique kind of vibe between the two of us. And then we had a lot
11:24in common and then it became this cool use of my ability. So I say very openly, I didn't work for the
11:32FBI. I worked for the B.O.B. I worked for Bob and he just happened to be an FBI agent. Um, I'll encourage
11:37people to pick up this book. Anyone who's interested in this because it's, you know, it's a, it's fascinating.
11:43It is a page turner. It's a thriller. It's, it's incredible. I don't want to give away too much
11:49about it, but, uh, but, but it's, it's great. Um, you know, what you do is so different from the
11:57people that we usually talk to on the show. And I always start by asking someone, you know, how do you
12:04personally define success? Uh, so I'm really curious to hear what your version of that is with your
12:11business and also just, you know, sitting down with someone or, you know, your day-to-day
12:16operations. Like what feels like I'm doing the right thing here. I'm winning here.
12:23I mean, for me, it's doing my job and being as accurate as I possibly can and never settling,
12:29like never settle. Like I don't, I want to be better tomorrow than I am today. So for me,
12:34I'm constantly pushing myself. Recently, somebody said, would you like to see crossing over the TV show,
12:39you know, on again? And I went new version or the old reruns? And they said, the old reruns. I went
12:44absolutely not. And they said, Oh, but it was such a successful show. And I said, it was a very
12:48successful show, but it's not a good representation for who I am today. It's a great representation of
12:53who I was in 2000, but I'm 25 years later. I am 25 years better at what I, what I've done and more
13:02accurate because I've, I've still been working at what I do. So I always want to be better. And I think
13:09that my goal is to leave people better than I find them and where I'm at today and what I'm doing
13:15today, whether it be through evolveplustv.com or writing this book, chasing evil, or doing my next
13:21reading, I still want to be able to help raise awareness. I want to empower people. I want to
13:27educate them about energy. I want everybody watching this know that nobody needs reading. Like nobody
13:31needs to come see me. I want to be able to teach them about the world of energy so that when they're
13:36making their own connections and you probably are, you're not going to miss them. And I want to do
13:41it in a way that is grounded. I wonder if you could talk a little bit, see, you touch on it on the book,
13:47in the book, we, you say, you know, everyone has intuition, everyone, and especially at Entrepreneur,
13:53you know, we hear a lot about, I trust my gut. I trusted my gut. What is our gut instinct? Like what,
14:00how do you define that? I think your gut instinct or your intuition is it's that moment, that spark
14:11where you go, I know this. I don't know how I know this, but I know this. And I think most of all,
14:20and I'm going to show you in front of me at all times when I'm sitting at this desk and I'm actually
14:25doing my work, whether I'm doing an interview, I'm doing a reading is this word trust. This is a
14:31very old rock. It's been sitting in front of me for a very, very long time. It is a reminder to
14:37trust myself, to trust my ability, to trust my process, because that's, I think, something that
14:43we can rely on. You can rely on yourself. You can rely on your process. You can rely on your knowledge.
14:48And I think being grounded and realistic, there are moments where I've, I've done something and
14:55I'd be like, wow, this in theory is phenomenal. This in theory is great. This in reality is not
15:03working. And this is not something that, you know, I'll say that before I got to evolveplustv.com
15:09being the success that it is, I had an epic failure, a huge epic failure, a gross epic failure,
15:16because I was too early in the marketplace with what I saw. So, you know, I did a whole online
15:23subscription-based digital platform when there were none that existed yet. Like where I hired
15:30the programmers to come up with the platform. And I was doing like this type of stuff back in 2009 and
15:402010. Okay. And people were like, no, you should be doing that for free and on, on YouTube. And I'd
15:47like, no, YouTube was like kind of new at the time. I was like, no, this is, I see it. Like I see it.
15:54Yeah. And I did see it. And I was accurate with what I saw, but my timing could not have been
15:59beyond off. Right. Right. So yeah. Was that successful in finance? Absolutely not. Epic
16:09failure. Yeah. Was it successful in a concept in theory and a proof of concept for me? A hundred
16:14percent. So now I've just brought it back when it's the right time. So whether it be a screenwriter
16:21who wrote that amazing story and it's sitting in your drawer or somebody who's got the schematics
16:25architecturally for something that they saw and they couldn't, you know, it wasn't there yet.
16:30Cause maybe the, I don't know, the materials weren't around yet for your idea to go back and
16:35revisit and trust in your thoughts about who you are, but don't have blind trust and blind faith to
16:42the point that you're going to, you know, have that gambler's mentality. That's incredible. That's
16:46such a great way to look at things. Cause we always, we always like have this feeling like, Oh,
16:51I'm too late with this. I'm too late with this. But this concept of maybe we were just too early
16:55with it as, uh, that's, that's a new way to look at it. I love that. We've got a reader question,
17:01uh, from Lisa L who, uh, wants to know if you worry that one day you might wake up and not have
17:10these connections anymore. Um, I don't, that's a great question. And I, I think the reason why I
17:17don't worry about that is because I have such a respect and reverence for the process. I would never
17:22think that they wouldn't be there for me. And if that was the case, I think I would probably,
17:30probably wind up teaching about it. Mostly. If I couldn't do it, I would want to teach about it
17:38kind of following like somebody who's a successful dancer. You know, if somebody is a, a successful
17:43dancer and choreographer, if their body no longer allowed them to do what they love to do as a passion,
17:49they would then teach it to the people who could, I think I would err on that side.
17:54Oh, that's great. I love that. Um, what, what is, you've spoken to so many people. Um,
18:01is there a sort of prevailing for people who want to connect with people who have crossed over?
18:07Is there a, you know, a common message that you hear where people are, uh, you want people to
18:15understand that are still here, that you hear a lot from people who have crossed over, whether it's
18:20about moving on or moving on from, from pain or, uh, from sadness? It is to honor their feelings.
18:30So people here get stuck because of grief and we get anchored into the, into the loss, into that
18:36dark, it's that darkness. Um, so when, when people are navigating grief, it's like a fog that rolls in.
18:45And when that fog rolls in, they won't be able to see the signs of even their loved ones
18:50communicating with them. So I think honoring what it is that they're feeling F E E L I N G,
18:55not what they're fearing F E A R. And I think honoring the feeling, um, gets us closer to the
19:02other side of grief, which is love. So I think we have to honor our process of navigating grief and,
19:07and kind of maybe honoring what we're feeling and then communicating with the people that are in
19:12our lives today while they're here for the moment when we're not, or they're not, which is pretty
19:18important. That's, that's an overall arcing theme. That's beautiful. Um, well, John, we've reached, uh,
19:25the speed round of our show. Okay. I don't know if you're ready for this. I am chocolate. Chocolate's
19:32the answer always. Yeah. Okay. Well, it might be right here. First question. What's a habit you are
19:39happy to have and one you wish you could ditch? Uh, ice cream, definitely ice cream.
19:48That's the ditch or the happy to have both. Okay. Definitely. If there was a competition
19:55where it's like, who, like who can consume the most ice cream, I'm, I'm a contender. Yeah. Okay.
20:03Well, maybe we could hook you and Joey chestnut up and, uh, I think I could take him. I might be on
20:08ice cream and not hot dogs, but I could take him on. I might be able to handle him ice cream.
20:11All right. Great. So what is your favorite way to turn off your brain?
20:17My favorite way to turn off my brain is nature. Hmm. Nature is my favorite way. Um, my, my brain,
20:25which I nicknamed Brian, um, is, is something my Brian and I, we don't get along sometimes,
20:33especially at night when I'm trying to sleep. So nature to me occupies Brian as well. I love
20:39beautiful scenes. So anything that's nature, natural, whether it's the beach or the forest or
20:47anything, that's just pretty skies. Like I get, I get caught up in that. And I love that. Like
20:53one time I was driving across country and I had like two hours left and I had an event that I was
20:57getting to. And the way that the GPS was taking me was like off a main highway. And I wound up like
21:04crossing this one section that I just got out of the car. I just like pulled over on the side of
21:09somebody's farm and just like standing there. And I just took it all in. Like that to me is a great
21:15kind of disconnect. And then if you take your, your shoes off and you put your feet in the ground,
21:20that's grounding. So I love that. I love to be grounded in nature. That's fantastic. Um,
21:26you mentioned this a little bit before, but, uh, you know, dealing with, you know, the after world,
21:32the afterlife, uh, sorry if I'm using weird terms, but does anything freak you out? Do you get scared?
21:40I don't actually, I don't get scared about connecting with spirit. I don't get con,
21:45I don't get concerned with that. I'm more freaked about like humans, like living people scare me
21:49more than, to be honest. I mean, that's people ask me, are you afraid of the evil? I was like
21:54in the world? Yes. Yeah. Got it. Got it. Uh, and then, uh, movies and TV shows are spoilers an issue
22:03for you to do this, the after world telling you what's going to happen in the last episode of sex in the
22:09city. So it's really funny. You should use that as an example because I'm, I'm, I am, I get a lot
22:13of information through TV and movies. And one of the things before I read for a client, I'll say,
22:17I want you to have a lost experience today, not a game of Thrones experience. And they're like,
22:24what does that mean? And I explained to them that when I watched the TV show lost, which is
22:28one of my favorites, if not my favorite, um, when I would watch lost, I never tried to figure out what
22:33was happening on the Island. I never tried to figure out the mysteries. I just went on the journey
22:37and I just appreciated the show for where the writers were taking me as opposed to game of
22:42Thrones, where I had a very distinct opinion about what I wanted to happen. Yeah. And when it didn't
22:47happen, I was disappointed. So I always, I always tell people I want them to have the lost journey,
22:52not the one where they have an expectation that can't be met. Oh, that's fantastic. I love it.
22:57Well, John, uh, so fantastic talking to you. Uh, as we mentioned, chasing evil is a book it's out
23:04September 2nd. And can you give everyone a quick word of how they can, uh, keep up with all the
23:12things you're doing? I know you're also hitting the road. You're going on tour. I am. I'm, I've been
23:17on a, I've been on a 30 year tour. Um, I feel like, you know, I'm going to be like Cher starting
23:22my first farewell tour soon. Um, people can find me at johnedward.net. And if they're interested in
23:28learning more about the subject matter, they can go to evolve plus tv.com. I'd love to have you come
23:32there and be a part of that. And then chasing evil is going to be available where all books are
23:36sold. And there are autographed copies. I believe still available. If they go to talk shop live,
23:42Robert and I both signed some books there. Fantastic. And does, does your association
23:47with Robert get you out of any speeding tickets? It has not, unfortunately it has not. But again,
23:54I wouldn't use that. Um, you know, it wouldn't be something that I, that I would use. I'd be like,
23:58you know, have you seen this book? Yeah, no. Okay. License and registration. Here you go.
24:04Fantastic. All right, man. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So great talking to you.
24:08Same.
Recommended
23:11
|
Up next
1:30
1:16:58
1:09
20:57
1:47
2:52
1:17
4:35
1:11
2:01
1:18
1:32
2:09
33:28
Be the first to comment