Click, click, click, click, click, click. “Do we have any men on the call?”

The Guerilla Skeptics are still participating in Zoom events featuring psychic mediums who are unable to ply their trade in person because of the pandemic (that they did not foresee coming). We are calling this series of investigations Operation Lemon Meringue. We have not only looked into Thomas John’s solo events but have also looked into events he has cohosted with several other psychic mediums, including Suzanne Northrop, Maria Verdeschi, and Kimberly Meredith. 

This article discusses a January 13, 2021, event the Guerilla Skeptics attended with grief vampire Thomas John. He makes it clear at the beginning of the Zoom event that this will not be mediumship but rather just psychic readings, though you will see that his attendees still ask for communication with their dead loved ones, and in the case of the reading featured here, Thomas John does oblige. 

A bit over 250 people attended; it’s difficult to tell the exact number because people are always entering and exiting the Zoom room. The January 13 event ticket fee was $20.00, but there was an early order discount of only $10. So, 250 multiplied by $20 is $5,000, which is a nice haul for ninety minutes of work. Even if he only made half of that, Thomas John still has the opportunity to upsell his private readings, books, swag, personalized 2021 calendar, affirmation cards, prayers, and more. At least he isn’t selling pandemic-related merch on his website like other mediums do. I guess there is a line Thomas John won’t cross. 

The ninety minutes consisted of many health issues: women wanting to know if they were going to be getting pregnant, why they were feeling poorly, and what is going on with their knee. There were the typical comments in chat that were from desperate, vulnerable people calling out for Thomas John to be in touch with their loved ones. 

I wasn’t going to show you this clip because it is not associated with the main reading this article is about. But listen to this thirty-second exchange. 

Thomas John is no more a man of medicine than I am, yet he is telling this sitter that he thinks there is something wrong with her anti-depression medicine. He is careful to say that she should talk to her medical doctor before she makes any changes. What I’m concerned with is that she might just stop taking the medication—or start taking alternative medicine for her depression that isn’t based on science. I guess what I’m getting at is my concern that Thomas John is giving medical advice of any kind. Something feels very wrong with this, even if it does not legally cross the line.

As usual, there is too much to unpack from these readings. I may revisit this event again, but for the moment I’m going to focus on the last reading of the event of a man named Kyle R. 

At 1:31:00 in the event, Thomas John leans very close to the computer screen and very carefully clicks on the Zoom screens, looking one at a time at the people on the video screens. He asks, “Are there any men on this call?” We see a succession of male faces as they speak: John P. then John T., Larry, Paul from the UK, John from California, and Angel from New York. And then there is Kyle R. Thomas John says, “Let’s go with Kyle. That’s who I’m drawn to.” 

I and my team have come to believe that Thomas John knows who he is going to read before he starts. His usual claims, such as “I’m getting a message from an older male that wants to reach his daughter” or “I’m looking for someone that connects with a woman in Spirit that had a miscarriage” are common and precede more specific readings. 

There are numerous ways he can know who will be attending; people buy tickets in advance, leave comments on Thomas John’s social media saying they will be attending, and sometimes say who they are hoping to be in contact with. Thomas John calls on people who have a first and last name on their Zoom, usually a name that is a bit unusual. It’s never “MaryAnn’s iPhone” or Elizabeth H.

Thomas John has been accused of using social media to look at people’s online accounts and just repeat content back as if he got the content from the “other side.” Don’t take my word for it, here are his Yelp reviews. I’ve heard from people who have had readings with him that felt something was suspicious and looked him up, found one of my articles, and reached out to tell me their story.

My interest in Thomas John started with Operation Pizza Roll. He read the Facebook pages associated with our tickets. All the content he said he was getting from Spirit was on these pages, accounts former professional psychic Mark Edward and I had no knowledge of. The only person within miles of the event who knew what was on those Facebook pages was Thomas John. And we have the audio and screenshots to prove that he or someone on his team was peeking at the Facebook pages associated with the characters attending the event. To be clear: the reason that Mark Edward and I did not have access to the Facebook pages was to double blind the operation. Thomas John would not be able to say that he was getting the content from our brains. 

A recent Yelp review by Teresa S. from Baltimore, Maryland, is revealing. She writes on January 10, 2021, that she had a reading with Thomas John, who started talking about her aunt who had recently died. Thomas John said that the aunt’s husband was coming though and called him by a name that the uncle hated and never used. This made Teresa suspicious. After the reading, she Googled her own name.

“The first thing that came up was my aunt’s obituary. Everything that Thomas John said was in that obituary—and not a detail more. And of course, my aunt’s husband was named with his legal name, not the name he actually used. It was more than obvious that he, or someone who worked with him, had fed him this information.”

When challenged, Thomas John always says that he would never look at people’s social media, that even the suggestion is stupid, and he does not have the time to do so. 

It does seem like it would take a lot of time to prepare, but if you have the right tools and a lot of experience, it’s a lot easier than it looks. Thankfully, I have a team that is as focused as I am on this research. We take pride in finding the content Thomas John consults in the readings in real time, as he is saying it. We would be quicker if only we knew in advance who he was going to be selecting for a reading, a luxury he has.

During this reading with Kyle R., we noticed something that we see often: Thomas John was looking down and to the right of his screen. We can see his eyes reading something on his screen. When Thomas John was doing his live shows, he would do his readings with his eyes closed so he could concentrate on what Spirit was telling him, he said. Thankfully, during his shows Seatbelt Psychic and The Thomas John Experience when he was driving people in a car, he kept his eyes open. 

But what could be on the lower right of the screen that he reads? Could it be a Facebook Messenger thread? I use Facebook Messenger all the time on my desktop computer, and when it is open it appears on the lower right side of the screen. Is it possible that the communications Thomas John says he receives from Spirit are actually Facebook Messenger posts? Is someone who is looking through the social media of people on the Zoom call feeding information to Thomas John when he is ready for the next reading? I don’t know for sure. He could be stretching his eyeballs and just happen to glance often in that corner of the screen and then seconds later Spirit gives him detailed information about the person he is reading. 

So, the target is Kyle R. Let’s see what happens next. 

This is Kyle’s first reading, and we can see Thomas John looking directly at Kyle on the screen. Thomas John asks if Kyle has any questions he wants answered, and Kyle asks if Thomas John can be in touch with his father who died a while ago. When Thomas John informs Kyle that this is a psychic-focused event, Kyle asks about his career. We can see Thomas John reflected in Kyle’s glasses; we can see what Kyle is seeing. 

“Kyle, do you have a dog in Spirit?” Thomas John asks as he picks up a deck of cards and proceeds to shuffle the cards. “No, I have never had a dog in my life,” said almost no one ever. How nice, a couple dogs just showed up in Spirit for Kyle; no names or descriptions or anything helpful like that, just dogs watching over Kyle.

When Kyle was telling us about needing psychic advice about his career, he also told us that he had had a bad car accident. His car was totaled, and he had to pay it off. Kyle also lost his license. 

It’s been two years, and now Kyle has his license back and is going to be able to get a car. The past two years Kyle has had to take jobs that didn’t require him to drive, and he is looking forward to having a car. Sounds like Kyle has had a pretty bad past two years. So much for the dogs “watching over him.” 

Thomas John asks, “Do you know Nick?” Kyle answers that he has an Uncle Nick. Thomas John is confused on how that relates to Kyle and needs more clarification, whether Nick is on his mom’s or dad’s side. Kyle clarifies that Nick is his dad’s closest brother. Thomas John asks if Nick is currently a part of Kyle’s life, and we learn that Nick is not. Thomas John says that he feels that Kyle’s dad has been gone awhile, and we learn from Kyle that his dad died in 2000.

Thomas John asks if Kyle knows a Shirley. Nick says he has no idea who Shirley might be. Thousands of readings have taught Thomas John that when he has a miss to just move on and not draw attention to it. 

Then this brilliant insight from Thomas John: “I definitely feel that the last couple years for you have been challenging. … They are telling me that things have been really challenging.” 

Then Thomas John says, “Hold on,” turns to his right, closes his eyes, and then you can see his eyelids flutter a bit. He then turns back to Kyle and asks, “Kyle, do you know John, in Spirit?” 

Kyle says, “That’s my dad.”

I want to pause here for a minute. I have watched the video several times after one of my team members pointed out this moment to me. There is a second peek right after Kyle confirms the name John. I asked mentalist Mark Edward what he thought about this move. 

He said, “This is part of a mentalist’s bag of tricks called a peek or a glimpse. It has to be done on the off-beat or with some misdirection, and when it is done on camera it can be very clumsy.” 

I’m sure if asked, Thomas John will say his eyes were closed and he was concentrating on what Spirit was telling him. Well okay, but it would be a lot easier if a confederate were busy looking up Kyle’s father’s name and posting it for Thomas John to read, but to each his own. 

Thomas John is telling Kyle that his father is in a good place and wishes he had been a better father and other nonspecific claims. Kyle had already told us that his father had died in 2000. Now Thomas John is saying that he feels like Kyle has taken on a lot in the past twenty years and things will be improving for him; he will be able to save some money and become more independent. Remember Kyle just told us that he finished paying off his totaled car and is going to get a car after not having one for two years and now will be able to get a better job. So, I guess Thomas John is right; Kyle will be more independent once he gets a car. Wow! 

Thomas John winds down the reading with more platitudes about things improving for Kyle. And that ends the event. 

But what about this Shirley person who Kyle could not identify? In the adrenaline rush of finding hits in real time, there will be many mistakes. 

When searching for an obituary for a John R., we came across several; one of them says “services provided by Shirley & Stout.” It’s the wrong death date, but if you are quickly searching for the obit, you might make a mistake. Thomas John asked about a Shirley, and he didn’t give any indication of who or what Shirley might have been. It could have been a mistake because things are happening very quickly, or Thomas John could have been throwing out the name in the hope that it would have hit. Possibly it might have connected somewhere, and Kyle didn’t remember, and Thomas John didn’t feel like pushing it further.

What about the other names that Thomas John was so specific with and were direct hits to Kyle’s uncle and father? Thomas John did not say “your uncle Nick” and “your father is John.” Even though Kyle might remember it happening that way, we have the video and know exactly what was said. Thomas John said, “Do you know Nick?” and “Kyle, do you know John, in Spirit?”

We know what Kyle’s last name is and what Kyle looks like. A quick search on Facebook brings up as the first result a man who looks just like the person on the Zoom screen. The first post on the page is of Kyle and the comments are from his family. One says, “you look just like your dad who I miss a lot.” And then, “lookin good my dear nephew.” If we wanted, we could zero in on those family members’ posts and possibly sort out the family tree, but it is quicker to keep looking at the photos. 

We clicked on a photo of two men standing together and see a comment from someone in 2012 who says “Come down for Thanksgiving. Uncle Nick will be in town.” So, when Thomas John says, “Do you know Nick?” Kyle answers he has an Uncle Nick. Thomas John asks him to explain the relationship. This is how Thomas John is trying to understand whether Nick is alive or dead. Thomas John says, “Hold on,” and because the Zoom video is in speaker mode, it flashes to Kyle, and Thomas John is hidden. Then as Thomas John is asking Kyle to sort out the relationship, we see Thomas John take another peek at the lower right corner of his screen (Figure 1). 

And now John. How did Thomas John get that name? Okay, yes, I know; who reading this article right now does not have a John in their life? But if Thomas John brings it up, then it will be a close relationship to Kyle.  

We go back to Kyle’s Facebook photos. He has another photo of himself with a lot of comments. One is from someone named Nikki, who writes, “Every time you post a picture of you it reminds me of my uncle john and all the fun memories I have of him and all of us. Love you Kyle!” This is from someone who has known the family a long time and is comfortable telling Kyle she loves him. Her name is Nikki; maybe she is the daughter of Kyle’s Uncle Nick, making her Kyle’s first cousin. 

 

Thomas John didn’t say “your father is John.” He said “do you know a John, in Spirit?” Kyle is the one who makes the connection.

 

For those new to critically examining mediumship readings, what we have seen today is an example of hot reading and word play. And let me be crystal clear: this is all happening very fast, and Thomas John is very good at what he does. Kyle is not to be blamed for not reacting in real time to what we later can see as hot reading. He might just think about the reading later and wonder why there were so few hits, other than Nick and John and a bunch of platitudes saying everything will be okay. There wasn’t much else there. Kyle has a large loving family. Why no mention of anything specific or helpful? 

Hot reading means that the medium/psychic has information beyond the world of Spirit. The sitter (the subject having the reading) does not need to be on Facebook, but it sure helps. The readings that Thomas John and friends are doing are quick five-to-fifteen-minute readings and are not meant to be detailed or precise. Find some quickly searched information to sound sort of specific, add some fast talking and affirmations, and you have a good reading. If one of these grief vampires needed to do a much longer reading or needed to impress, there are a lot of ways to do deeper research. Here is one article that will explain more in detail. 

If you are one of the people who has had a reading from Thomas John or another psychic and felt that something wasn’t quite right—and you did a Google search and wound up here, welcome. I’m happy to talk to you one-on-one and would love to hear your story. We can even make it into an article like this one if you’d like. I have several of these stories in waiting for future use. 

The people who are duped in these events are neither stupid nor deserve to have this happen to them. Many times, these people are at a time in their lives when they are lonely, afraid, and need to talk to someone. These feelings are often exacerbated because of the times we are living in. So, withhold your judgement and snarky comments toward these sitters and show some kindness and compassion. 

As I mentioned before, in the chat area of these Zoom events, there are people calling out to Thomas John for his attention. Some are begging for him to be in contact with their loved ones. There is no entertainment value in these events, and there is a potential for great harm. Shame on anyone or any organization that helps promote these grief vampires. For now, I and the Guerilla Skeptics will keep attending and researching these events. Stay tuned.