As I’m sure you are already aware, on October 20 we lost one of our own: James Randi. He was my friend and inspiration; he will be missed. It feels like my heart will not heal, and from the outpouring of love and remembrances I saw on social media in the days following his death, I think it will be a long time until the community heals. Randi was not the first and will not be the last we will lose. We need to remember them, honor them, and learn from them. I’ve had many people reach out to me over the past few weeks to ask me what’s next. Who will take up the mantle and lead us onward? My answer is that there isn’t one person; Randi’s shoes were too big to fill. So, it’s going to take all of us doing our parts. We need to get to work and start holding grief vampires accountable.

 

My team of Guerrilla Skeptics has been attending as many grief vampire online events as we can. With the pandemic rising, the vampires have now found fertile ground in the no face-to-face arena of the cyber psychics. It’s now easier, cheaper, and less cumbersome for the lowlifes to lay low—very low—than to travel. 

We continue to follow this new trend, researching and writing about them in a series we are calling Operation Lemon Meringue. These events are highly entertaining—and so very sad as well. I’m learning about mediums I’ve not heard of before, and it’s interesting to compare their styles and techniques. The attendees believe that their dead family members are on the other side waiting to make contact, and if only Thomas John or whatever flavor of the day he’s promoting will connect with them, then these desperate grieving people will be able to talk to Mama just one more time. 

These “psychic mediums” are preying on people, offering them fake comfort and issuing platitudes by cleverly reading their social media posts back to them. I’ve been writing about them for years and seeing little that surprises me. But in the world we are living through these days—where lying is the norm and accountability is just a word in the dictionary—it’s still startling to see. 

I knew nothing about psychic medium Maria Verdeschi until Thomas John brought her to my attention. As for the other grief vampires such as Thomas John, Matt Fraser, Tyler Henry, Chip Coffey, and Sylvia Browne, we are old “friends.” You can read about my investigations of these “mediums” on my website. 

This article is a dive into “An Evening with Spirit with Thomas John & Maria Verdeschi.” It was recorded over Zoom with about seventy participants on September 22, 2020. But first, let us take a look at who Maria Verdeschi is. 

Verdeschi’s website says she is a “truly remarkable psychic medium” and that she receives information from the “Inner Side.” This is a new phrase for me. She claims to be a Master Reiki practitioner, “proficient in Pranic Healing.” That’s a word that even my MS Word spellchecker doesn’t know. Wow, apparently this is a “thing.” Google tells me that it is a “unique holistic approach used to treat a variety of ailments, from fever to heart conditions to cancer, by tapping into pranic or chi energy—the universal force which is our life force.” Well okay then. This seems to be from a book published in 1990 by Choa Kok Sui. 

What else can we learn about Maria Verdeschi? She has a “certification” on her website as “A Credible and Reputable Member of Bob Olson’s Best Psychic Directory, investigated & Vetted by Private Eye.” Heck, you know it is legitimate because the certification even has the word LEGITIMATE in all caps right there on the document. That’s enough for me. 

Verdeschi’s Facebook page has Thomas John all over it; he appears to be mentoring her. She posts photos of her dog, her family, lots of advertisements for an upcoming Psychic Boot Camp, and her book, which I will mention in a minute. What seems to be missing are any mentions of anything that might be happening in the world. You know, important stuff that is happening. She is claiming to be a psychic medium but is clueless that means she should know some stuff is going to be happening. Ongoing social unrest, a historic election, a pandemic with over 225,000 dead Americans and counting. Verdeschi gives a mention of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death but no claim that she saw it coming. This is all pretty odd, but I guess this “truly remarkable psychic medium” just has more important things on her mind to tell us about.

Her book, which was released in September 2019, has a forward and contributions by—you guessed it—Thomas John. Must be really frustrating not to be able to do author signings or anything in person. Too bad she didn’t see that the world would be shut down for months, but I digress. Her book There Is No Death, Only Life is eighty pages of client stories. It has some reviews on Amazon, mostly praising the book, so you know it must be good. 

So, let’s analyze the Zoom session now. Verdeschi starts off the event by introducing herself to the audience. She has a new book coming out with about forty-five other energy healers and psychic people, called The Last Breath; we will be able to get it soon on Amazon. She says it is a fun book with lots of validations from the other side.

According to Verdeschi, she does a lot of Facebook Live events and is all over social media. She is teaching a class at a Psychic Boot Camp in October 2020. 

Thomas John says that he and Maria have done a lot of events together and they are loving these Zoom sessions. He cautions that during these group readings only a few people will get called on. If you really want to hear from someone, then you need to book a private reading with himself or Verdeschi. But all is not lost; Thomas John says that people not getting a reading should pay attention to all the beautiful content that will happen, because “there is a universal message in every message that comes through.” Thomas John and Verdeschi are going to take turns giving readings to people on the Zoom call. 

Thomas John tells us that he feels great about the event they are about to have. He proceeds to tell us that this is a small group, but we shouldn’t fret because everyone that is meant to be here is here. Note: it’s interesting that he didn’t know that some of the Guerilla Skeptics team was there. He claims that a lot of his events have 500–600 people at them. Then, obviously annoyed, Thomas John says “Four people are asking how many people are here. I have no idea why that is relevant to your life, but there are sixty-eight people logged in. Would you like to know anything else?” Why so snarky, Thomas John? 

Typically, Thomas John has two approaches for these Zoom events. The first is when he says he is getting a message from Spirit and then gives his impression of the dead person sending the message. He gets more and more descriptive until someone in the chat recognizes who the person is and claims the reading. In the second approach, he will select someone off the Zoom screen and say he is drawn to them, and then give them a reading. My team and I are fairly convinced that Thomas John knows who he is going to be reading in advance for both these methods.

In this bit, I’m going to directly translate Thomas John’s first reading. I’m including everything so you can see the word play. Someone listening for a specific dead loved one will try to make this fit. As he is saying this, people are calling out in chat to him, saying that it sounds like their person. But remember: Thomas John is looking for a specific person to say something in chat so he can be drawn to them. 

“So let’s get started. I did want to bring through a lady who’s coming through … actually I’ve got a man and a lady … since we are going to alternate … you know I’m going to start with the man, because he was the original person that I felt. I’ll do the woman second. So, … these could be the same people, but I think I got two different people here. So I have a gentleman coming through and … I’m not getting a lot on him but I’d like to bring through a message from him ‘cause it feels like he has been with me. First off, I got a significant connection with him. He was very funny … he comes in as an older man and… so he had a great sense of humor, loved to laugh, loved to joke around. … I would say with him when I connect to him it’s probably your father—but it could be a stepfather or grandfather you had that fatherly bond with. That’s what I keep feeling with him you definitely had that fatherly type of bond … a bond with him … and what I feel with him … he was … he so you would have been very close to him, I feel I feel with that. And I feel with him also as I speak to him that … I would say he passed towards his 70s could be in his 80s but I would say over 70. … I really want to put him more in his 70s cause I’m, that’s what I’m feeling, but he could be like 81, 80 maybe. He kinda has a youthful spirit to him, so I feel like he was an older man but he was still someone kinda like a go go go and … and things like that. And so I felt that, I felt that energy from him. And he actually tells me … that as I’m connecting with him … that he … he … when I connect to him, you and him has such a bond [he shows his fingers crossed together]. I mean he literally says that you guys were like best friends. … So I would love to bring this through for somebody where there was actually … a deep connection, so it wouldn’t be a father, like, well yeah, but we weren’t really close to him, well yeah, but we didn’t really talk. It’s not like that type of energy. This is somebody that I’m feeling you were very very close to. A very close relationship with him. … That’s what I’m feeling with him and … just what I was saying with connecting just a, just a loving energy. I also do see Cape Cod, so I do see love to bring that through connected to him …. I don’t know exactly where that goes … I feel like there might be some sort of connection with—that maybe memories, things like that … but I keep bringing that up, specifically Massachusetts Cape Cod. So, can anybody take this? I’d love to see if we have anybody with this … [looking at chat] soooo we have a couple people who …”

Thomas John picks two women out of chat, Jessie and Carole. They are both claiming a father figure who they think had a good sense of humor, and they both had a strong relationship with him and some connection to Cape Cod. Thomas John already knows which of these women he is going to read; the other will be cast aside. 

He plays them off each other a bit, trying to make sense of which woman he is trying to connect to. He asks if there is a sibling. One of the women took care of her dad at the end of his life, and then there was a mention of California. Finally, Thomas John selects Jessie. 

This is all for show—to give all the other people on the Zoom call the illusion that this message is coming from the Spirit World. You know what would have been really helpful? The guy’s name—first and last. No, it doesn’t work that way; apparently, it needs to be presented as a struggle. 

And Jessie’s reading continues. Hit after hit—almost like Thomas John knew ahead of time who he was going to read for and did some perusing of Jessie’s social media in advance. Thomas John ends Jessie’s reading with a platitude from her dad. 

Now it’s Verdeschi’s chance to give a reading to someone. 

Verdeschi keeps looking down by her keyboard like there is a paper she is reading off of. She is getting a Peggy or Peg. Something to do with a wrist and maybe a Billy. Maybe a mom. (She keeps looking at something on her desk.) Billy might be someone’s son. Mom always looked great when she left the house … her hair and clothes; everything has its place in the house. Lots of windows in the house. Lynette is chosen, because she claims that this fits her best, and so the reading continues with Lynette, whose last name appears on the Zoom screen and is very unusual. The reading is vague and offers no real hits.

One woman whose first, middle, and last names were on her Zoom screen got a reading from both Thomas John and Verdeschi. Her son had gone missing and was found dead due to an addiction problem. It’s easy to check the accuracy of Verdeschi and Thomas John’s readings, because a quick look at the mom’s Facebook page pulls up plenty. And the son’s Facebook page was linked to the mom’s, and there we can find the video from the funeral service with information about his cremation and even a memorial quote. Thomas John saw “bracelets” when he was giving a reading. Well, so did we. She had posted a photo of her wrist adorned with five bracelets with his nickname, beads, and other info. 

Another reading near the end of the Zoom event was Verdeschi’s. She started the reading and sort of stalled, like she lost the connection or her train of thought. Thomas John jumped in and completed the reading by coming up with specific names and information. Information that was also located on the sitter’s social media. Go figure. 

I checked in with one of my Guerrillas who attended the readings and asked his opinion of Verdeschi. He thinks Verdeschi does not hot-read; she throws out generalities like you would with cold-reading: “Somebody’s dog”; “two dogs”; “her hair is done before she left the house”; “her outfits”; “she is so proud of you”; “my daughter is a wonderful person”; “Mom has regrets”; “tell her I love her so much”; “was she sick for a bit?”; “tell her how sorry I am”; “were there windows in the house?” They seem specific and entice a sitter to give more information. But when you really consider what Verdeschi is saying, these are generalities that would fit most people. 

My opinion of this is the same. It appears to me that Verdeschi is leaning on Thomas John to mentor her. Her website, book, and social media clearly show that she is seeking his endorsement. Considering his reputation for hot-reading, and his repeatedly having been shown by the Guerrilla Skeptics to be just as accurate as the social media accounts of his sitters, I’m not sure why she is associating herself with him.

Thank you, team, for your wonderful insight and determination to stick with me as we traverse the world of grief vampires during the lockdown. It does not take a psychic to know that we aren’t done with Operation Lemon Meringue yet.