Ginger, her Daughter, Son, and Daughter-in-law (DIL) The John Edward Seminar, Atlantic City, Dec. 7th 2001, at the Taj Mahal showroom. My daughter son, my daughter-in-law, and I went to the John Edward seminar. It was not televised and there are many more people at a seminar than are on the "Crossing Over" TV show. Doug, (John Edward's Crossing Over stage manager), came out first and introduced John. He usually does a very funny John impersonation, but he didn't (but that's okay, since it left more time for readings). A seminar lasts 2 ½ hours and no one wants to leave the room during it. John came out from behind the curtains to a very warm welcome from the audience. He was wearing a black sweater and blue jeans. He was also wearing his glasses. To us, he looked basically the same as he does on the TV show. He told us he can't stand still because of his energy and that he would do a lot of pacing on the stage. That's also why he often runs up the steps on the Gallery TV shows. He made us do a short 5 minute meditation and to ask our loved ones to come through.

Right at the beginning John stated this seminar would be a little different than most others because he was going to skip the lecture part and go right into readings, with a few questions & answers mixed in! A big cheer rose from the audience because that is what everyone is really there for. A few of the first readings were a bit difficult, with people who either couldn't or wouldn't validate some of the things John was saying. The rest of the readings were great, many of them making us and John laugh. He mostly stayed on the stage for them, only walking off occasionally for someone way in the back.

For his safety he is supposed to stay on the stage.

He was asked about how he knows whom to "read". He said there is an " arrow" over the people he is meant to go to. About 2/3rds of the way through the seminar our incredible experience started. He looked in our general area and……..

1) John mentioned a dog puppet that looks like a particular dog and has been used to "play talk" to a dog. John was making puppet moves with his hand. He was pointing to our general direction from the stage and he stated this was coming through for someone "right at the end of the aisle". We were 12 rows from the stage. No one on the other side of the aisle looked remotely like they were going to own up to this, until finally DIL (daughter in law) (who was in the end seat in our aisle) spoke up. We all knew about a dog puppet but were reluctant to speak at first, for fear that we would be reaching out and trying to make something fit where it didn't. John came down from the stage and stood right in front of us two feet away. DIL has a dog puppet that looks like her basset hound, and it's a big part of her life right now because her 15-month-old adores it. Her father, who died three weeks before my husband died, often played with it also with my 15-month-old grandson. 2)

He stated there was a mother coming through and the date the 23rd that had just passed. November 23rd was the anniversary of DIL's best friend's mom's passing. DIL said she was a very strong person in life and DIL had been asking her to help others "come through". John said there is a new baby, ( DIL's baby, my new granddaughter, was one month old the day before the seminar).

3) The name Katherine came through…. D**, ( another member of the John Edward web site we belong to), was sitting next to us with a friend of hers. The friend's grandmother's name was Katherine and was the person she wished to hear from. She thought it was a quick hello. At the beginning of the seminar John asked us to look around at the people near us because often the Other Side considers us to be together and will come to them also.

4) John started mentioning and emphasizing a back brace, back surgery pain, or severe back problems like two discs being crushed. He kept repeating and repeating " two discs". About 8 years ago Daughter had severe lower back pain that made it almost impossible to stand up. An x-ray showed her two lower discs were compressed. They talked about surgery to fix them but Daughter said no. She had to wear a back brace for over a month and do some exercises. It finally stopped hurting without surgery.

5) John mentioned dittos/ a ditto machine. (A ditto machine is what the old copier machines were called and the ink on the copies had a strong smell). Daughter made a quick hand motion of taking a ditto sheet, lifting it up and smelling it, and he (John) nearly jumped at her. (She said you can REALLY feel the energy when it's directed at you and she later asked if a spot light was on her!!) John said "YES!! Exactly! Why did you do that?". He sees pictures and images in his mind and it amazes him when someone gets the meaning of what he sees. She felt like a real idiot (She's so glad this wasn't taped! (LOL), because she couldn't think of anything specific and she just said," I used to love to smell them in high school". John laughed and asked if she was well known for her Ditto sniffing in school. That got a big laugh from the audience.

At the end of the seminar as we were getting ready to leave, DIL reminded Daughter that when Daughter's dad was in the hospital, a few days before he died, Daughter, Son and she were in the room with my husband, (who was in a morphine induced coma at that point), when the nurse came in with a ditto sheet she was using for marking vital signs. Daughter held it up and sniffed it. All three of them smelled it and remembered what a ditto smelled like. They launched into a whole discussion about how they thought ditto machines were obsolete, and then how they all used to love getting dittos back in school because they smelled so great. I was not present for that conversation. Several times while my husband was in the coma, they had discussed whether he was aware of everything that was going on, and I think this was his way of confirming that he was.

6) John spoke of a father coming through that had non-acceptance of an inter-racial relationship. He was staring right at me when he said this. It took a few minutes for me to remember that when I first started dating my husband (who was half-Filipino), my father made a big issue of the difference in race and I was very angry about it. This was especially significant for Daughter, Son, and I, because I had never told them about it. (long before we got married my father learned to love and respect my husband). I had a microphone in my hand and was telling this to 1,400 people! I did talk to my parents before the seminar and had asked them to come through.

7) John said there was a big gambling problem on my side too and that this person would be downstairs right now on the slot machines. My mother had a very big gambling problem with the slot machines and losing the grocery money in them, (the machines used to be in all Maryland grocery stores).

8) John mentioned there were a LOT of fathers, all coming through together in our area. DIL's dad died in May, Daughter and Son's father died in June, and my father and mother died a long time ago.

9) John started mentioning seeing a foot amputation. It turns out DIL's dad (a diabetic) had a bad infection in his toe several days before he died, and the doctor was talking about amputating it. They would have if he hadn't died so soon. The last thing he said was he saw someone in jail, a jail connection and he was looking at me. I couldn't think of anything but the people right in front of me were all shaking their heads, "yes". John laughed when I handed the microphone over to the man. He thought I didn't want to answer him. There was a big jail connection to them, a son who died in jail and another son now in jail.

We were all kind of in a state of shock and disbelief to have gotten a reading. It was so awesome. Any small shreds of doubt we may have had about whether John Edward is for real were completely erased. The information he gave was just too off-the-wall and detailed to be guesses. The ditto was the greatest one. Daughter wondered why the Ditto thing came through and then remembered she had asked her father, if he did come through, to come through with an obscure validation that no one could have found out about. The ditto certainly matched that. There were over 1,400 people at the seminar and everyone there was hoping to get a reading. John says only the strongest energies can get through at a seminar and the people who are meant to get a reading, do. He only had time to do about 12 and we are all so happy we got ours. A lot of coincidental things fell right in place to give us the chance to go. For the first time since my husband died the knot of grief in my chest is gone. I am still grieving but not with great pain. We were fortunate that one of the other members of Pam's site wrote down the notes from our reading and sent them over to us after the seminar. It was a big help in remembering what was said because you are too stunned to do any writing yourself with John just a few feet away from you.

Ginger