Before I get to the story of Operation Onion Ring, I want to make an announcement. I’ve been thinking about writing a book about Grief Vampires and kept putting it off for someday. I was really productive in the past fifteen months of lockdown and with the conclusion of Operation Onion Ring, I know it’s time to put a fork in it; I’m done. Every investigation, every write up, video, and interview were one small part of a bigger work. And research? I’ve been doing that from the beginning; stings, investigations, interviews—I’ve kept everything. So after publishing this report on Thomas John and the children, I’m going to pull everything out and start the process. I’ve told almost no one, because then I would have to go through with it. I guess I’ll have to go through with it now. Stay tuned.

Okay now that’s out of the way, let’s get on with Operation Onion Ring 

Here is some of the back story for those of you who have not been following my long history with grief vampire TJ. If you are up to date, then feel comfortable skipping this bit. 

Thomas John Flanagan, better known as the Manhattan Medium, the Seatbelt Psychic guy, drag queen Lady Vera Parker, and a grief vampire, will be referred to as TJ in the rest of this article. He came to my attention in 2017 when I was looking for an event to attend in the hopes I would catch someone hot-reading. My friend Paula saw a Facebook ad for this guy who was going to be in Los Angeles during the window of time I was planning on being there. My team of volunteers put together fake Facebook pages, gave them personality and a story for TJ to find, and then Mark Edward and myself attended his live event. We were unaware of most of the content on those Facebook pages (double-blinding the sting), but TJ was not; he read through most of the content of those pages, and we have the audio to prove it. This sting became known as Operation Pizza Roll and was written about by Jack Hitt for the New York Times Magazine in 2019. 

Before Operation Pizza Roll, TJ had been the star of a Lifetime reality show called Seatbelt Psychic. The premise was that he drove unsuspecting people around as a ride-share, and when they got in the backseat he told them that he could contact their dead family members. The editing made it look like he was really talking to dead people, but I guess it didn’t go over well as there was no second season. 

I and my team of Guerilla Skeptics did a lot of investigating and discovered that the ride-share wasn’t really a ride-share. I interviewed one of the sitters (actual person in the back seat) and found that they were told they were going to be on a game show. They had filled out an application in advance and drove around for an hour; the best bits were cut down to a few minutes or seconds for the show. We learned that most of the sitters were actually actors with IMDb profiles and that TJ drove around in circles. All this has been written up for those interested in the details and can be found here and here.

After that, CBS All Access produced The Thomas John Experience, which was the same thing as Seatbelt Psychic, but sometimes he got out of the car and went to pre-selected locations to meet with people. We have the screenshots of him asking for people to be read for the show. In other words, the sitters were known in advance. Articles here and here. 

In January 2020, Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas gave TJ his own venue at the Cleopatra’s Barge. We tracked the ticket sales and sent in various groups of people from the Las Vegas Society of Skeptics to record, observe and talk to people. We found out that many people read were friends of TJ, and the general audience wasn’t thrilled with the show. TJ thought his time at Ceasars would continue past the summer of 2020, but he didn’t see the pandemic coming. Now that Las Vegas is starting to re-open in 2021, there is no sign they are rebooking him. Articles here and here.

During the lockdown, TJ and his other grief vampire friends kept busy over Zoom doing readings. We attended most of the events, several webinars, transcribed the videos, and then wrote up our findings. We called this series Operation Lemon Meringue, and they can all be found on my website along with all the rest of these articles. 

This last sting was not intended. We discovered months prior that TJ was going to hold an eight-person Spirit Circle in April 2021 for children ages five to twelve years old, (accompanied by an adult) over Zoom for $400 each. We tried every way we could think of to get the event cancelled; only Steven Novella showed any interest and published on Science-Based Medicine his thoughts on why this was dangerous to the mental health of the children. TJ didn’t care, called Novella “crazy,” and went on with the show. In my frustration, I wrote this article a few weeks before the event in the hopes that someone in power would get this dangerous event cancelled. People in the skeptic community were sympathetic to our frustration, but no one with the power to cancel the event came to aid us. So there was only one thing to do: attend ourselves. 

This is the story of Operation Onion Ring. 

How best to tell this story? I’m not sure how much to reveal as we used several tricks to infiltrate that we might use in the future. He obviously didn’t see any of it coming (some psychic), and at one point he mentioned the account I was using to watch the whole event, all two plus hours of it, yet didn’t know I and my team were staring right at him. 

I have not publicly talked about this sting, and this article will be the first time TJ learns how busted he is. Howdy TJ. 

I think the best way to tell this story is to recap the eight readings and then sum up what we learned about each of the sitters. I will conclude with some twists at the end. To protect the privacy of the sitters who share no fault in his exploitation of their grief, I will be vague and everyone has been assigned a new name. 

I want to remind you dear reader that these mothers (and they all were women) love their children very much and truly believe that this experience was helpful and seeing a medium who talks to their dead loved ones is a positive experience. I don’t see it that way, nor does Novella who writes, “From any reasonable perspective, offering grieving children the deception of a medium performance is exploitation of a vulnerable population with the potential for psychological harm.” I think that when you are raised to believe in life-after-death, angels, demons, ghosts, and other such religious pseudoscience, then paying someone to speak to the dead and get messages back isn’t much of a leap. These mothers were probably raised to believe this way, and now these children will do the same. My beef isn’t with them; it is with the grief vampires out there like TJ who are preying on people’s vulnerability by getting a hook into them to keep them coming back for more.

To begin, TJ was late getting started, and then he had a longish intro where he explained this was his first time doing an event for children and the reason he was doing this was because it was suggested by parents. He then went through all the sitters to make sure their audio worked, afterward placing them on mute.

To get the sitters in the right frame of mind, preparing them for the seriousness of the event, and adding legitimacy to the readings, TJ gave this invocation:

“So let’s have everybody kind of close their eyes. And let’s take a deep breath, parents can definitely participate in this to go ahead and take a nice deep breath. And go ahead and bring yourself to a peaceful place. This can be a place that’s a real or imagined. But I would like you to go ahead and take a nice deep breath, bring yourself to a peaceful place.

Okay, when you bring yourself to a peaceful place, go ahead and invite in anybody in your peaceful place that you would like to hear from. There’ll be a loved one, whether it be a spirit guide, whoever it might be, invite them forward. And just kind of welcome them in your thoughts. Go ahead and take a deep breath in and out. And when you’re ready, you can have a moment of gratitude. And you can come back here to the room.”

———————–

Sitting 1 – Annette (mother), Alice (six years old) 

TJ addresses Annette and Alan. Annette explains that Alan would not be joining them because he isn’t “ready for this” and instead Alan’s younger sister Alice would be in his place. 

Alice asks, “Why do we see spirits?” TJ gives a long answer about how spirits are all around us and children are more likely to see them than adults. He mentions particles, atoms, microscopes, and candles and then explains not to be afraid of spirits she might not know because there are angels and guides to help. “The main thing is to just remember that, at the end of the day, you’re always in control of what you see, feel and hear.”

TJ asks Alice if she had a grandmother that has passed over. Grandma has a very strong energy and had been really sick at the end of her life. She does not want to be remembered for being ill as she is now very healthy in heaven. TJ feels that Alice and Annette are very sensitive people and are better at connecting to spirits than other people. 

Annette asks about Alice’s great-grandmother who was close to Alice—apparently Alice had said she had had a dream with her in it. There is some back and forth (stalling in my opinion) that goes on with TJ trying to find out if it is Annette’s mom’s mom or how she is connected with the other grandmother that was sick but is now doing great in heaven. And he comes up with, “Is this the C name?,” which Annette acknowledges as correct. 

Great-Grandma C is laughing a lot and both of these women are around Alice and Annette a lot. They did appear in dreams to Alice and will probably continue to do so. 

That’s it for Annette and Alice; price $400.

 

Sitting 2 – Bonnie (mother), Bea (six years old) 

Bea is asked if she has any questions and she responds, “I see clear people trying to walk to my door, one time I tried to let one in.” TJ asks the mother if it is okay to talk to Bea about this; Bonnie said that it’s okay as she kinda sees them often. 

TJ says what he said to Alice, that young children are more open to spirits and seeing loved ones. She sees them as “clear people” but they are guides and angels—some are people guides, some are animal guides. He says that Bea is very artistic and very connected to animals. When she is older, she will be drawn to animals. He concludes that she is an empath and more able to perceive angels that are around her all the time. They are very protective of Bea. Mother Bonnie confirms that Bea likes animals. 

Then a man in spirit comes through, a family member, but that Bea wasn’t necessarily close to him. TJ isn’t sure she ever met him. 

Bonnie interrupts and says, “She wants to connect with her dad.” She adds that the other male spirit isn’t the correct one because Bea was very close to her father in the “physical world.” TJ possibly stalling for a message from someone quickly looking up information on Bonnie asks, “So her dad passed over?” and when Bonnie answers yes, TJ says “Okay, um, when did he transition?” Bonnie responds “January 2020.” 

TJ responds again: “Well, maybe we could maybe we could see if if (sic) he would come through. But you’re saying they spent a lot of time together in in (sic), they spent a lot of time together in the living world. Yeah. So maybe we can maybe we can ask about him a little bit. Um, do you know if there would be another man that would be on the other side that maybe she wasn’t as close to that?” 

Note: Bea is wiping away tears during this exchange.
Bea suggests “Barney?” and Bonnie explains that Barney is Bea’s uncle. 

TJ asks if Bea knew Barney. Bonnie says Bea had, but they weren’t close.
More rambling from TJ, trying to see if Barney is Bonnie’s brother or the unnamed father’s brother. More stalling while he tries to connect to the father and see if there is a message. TJ asks what Bea’s father’s name is. “Bernard” was the answer from Bea and Bonnie. 

TJ asks, “Was this a fast passing or sudden passing?”

Bonnie answers, “Yes.”

TJ in classic cold-reading style responds as if he knew all this all along, “Oh, that’s kind of what I’m feeling, I feel like—yeah.” He asks Bonnie to confirm if this is the correct guy or not saying that he is getting someone with a really good sense of humor; he liked to laugh a lot. “And do you feel like that would be true that he, he had a really good sense of humor? Or that he could be kind of like that. Do you think that would make sense to you?” 

Note that all the time TJ is speaking to Bonnie, she is nodding her head and smiling in agreement. 

Next TJ says he is getting a feeling about an “M name” and asks Bonnie who the dad would be talking about that has an M name. Bonnie explains that he had a daughter with an M name, also his mother has an M name. 

The father sends the message that his passage was strange and does not make sense and that he does not want to talk about it. Then TJ asks if the father ever took Bea out to lakes or in boats. Bonnie responds that they did fish a lot. TJ asks if there was some fishing stuff that was kept for Bea. 

Bonnie says that most of the fishing stuff went to Bernard’s dad, but Bonnie still has his cooler. And TJ asks if Bonnie is planning on giving the cooler to Bea someday. 

Bonnie says she might and also some of his clothes. Now Bernard tells TJ that he has been somewhere with Bea and he has seen her draw, then asks of Bea, “Do you like to draw a lot?”

Bernard says that he likes to watch Bea draw, he’s at peace on the other side, his passing was sudden, but he didn’t suffer, and she is sending a sign with butterflies. “Do you get any signs with butterflies?” TJ asks. “Yeah.” 

Back to the M name: TJ said that Bernard wasn’t that close to his daughter? (Bonnie nods in agreement) and back to the drawing, Bernard likes to watch Bea draw and color; he is very interested and watches her do that. 

TJ asks, “Did he have not a lot of hair? Or did he have a bald head?” Bonnie laughs and says he was bald. 

And that was it for Bonnie and Bea; price $400.

 

Sitting 3 – Cassandra (grandmother), Cole (around seven years old) 

Cole asks, “Is my mommy gonna visit me soon?” Grandma Cassandra explains that he wants to see his mommy in a dream; others in the family have but he hasn’t. 

I should mention that behind Cole and Cassandra is a giant poster with family photos and a memorial to his mother. 

TJ first has to clear up who his mommy is and asks Cassandra if it is her daughter. He explains that there are many ways to connect, not only in dreams. He checks to see if he is connecting to the right person, someone with a bubbly personality? And she shows him the letter C. Cole says that his mommy’s name was Caroline. 

Then there is a man coming through who died many years ago, but he watches over them both from heaven. TJ thinks it is Cassandra’s father and asks if he has passed on and if he would have known Cole and Caroline. The father is talking about family trips to Lake Michigan. 

Cassandra explains that they were poor growing up, but they spent most of their weekends at Lake Michigan. 

TJ explains to Cole that sometimes when you are grieving and not in a good emotional place, the person you really want to hear from has a harder time coming to visit you. But Caroline is around Cole a lot, but then in the psychical world there were times that Cole and Caroline were apart, that she was trying to make her life better but she had to stay away. 

Caroline talks about putting on her makeup and coloring her hair and then thanks Cassandra for taking care of Cole. She is going to send signs, just not always through dreams. 

Cassandra explains that they receive songs with Caroline all the time and signs with electricity. She also liked to dance. 

TJ says there are two sisters. Cassandra says that Caroline had twin sisters and then tells him their names. 

He asks about a woman named Carol and if they spend much time with her. 

Cassandra is a bit vague and says that they still do talk to Carol, but she was there the night Caroline died and that Cassandra doesn’t know the full story of what happened, Carol doesn’t want to say—and there was a guy involved who wanted Caroline to move but Carol didn’t want that to happen. And a lot of negativity and so on, in other words Cassandra is giving TJ all the information he needs to expand on all the drama associated with Caroline’s death. Just reading between the lines I think I would have no problem guessing what a mess Caroline’s life had become. This is a long conversation between Cassandra and TJ; he tries to move onto the next sitting, but then Cassandra cuts him off so that Cole can ask a question of TJ. 

Cole says that he saw a female spirit at the back door; it was negative energy, very evil. He said that he ran to get his mommy and when they came to see what it was, it was gone. This happened when he was younger. 

TJ explains that there are negative and positive around them, and Cole needs to keep his “intentions out there positive.” The thing seems to have been something more from the negative realm, but it does not feel like it is around anymore. 

Cassandra pushes in again and says that Cole wants to know if his mommy is proud of him. TJ says that Cole was a big help for Caroline and made her life better and that she is happy on the other side and is glad that Cole and Cassandra have such a close relationship. She really wanted to change her life, but now she is in heaven and is going to school there learning sprit stuff. 

That was the end for Cassanda and Cole; price $400.

 

Sitting 4 – Donetta (mother), Dulce (twelve years old) 

This sitting starts with Dulce telling TJ that when she was eight she used to feel connected to spiritual stuff, but now as she is growing up she isn’t so much anymore. Her mother Donetta interrupts and explains that in past mediumship sittings, various family members have connected to Dulce. 

TJ explains what he said in the other readings that younger children are more aware and open to the spirit world. But in Dulce’s case he is seeing a wall, possibly because she has become overwhelmed (she nods in agreement at this statement). Her angels and guides have pulled back a little bit (he calls it “interesting”). 

TJ says he is seeing a woman who is sixty or seventy who has a message for them. He thinks she died of breast cancer about ten years ago (at this Dulce and Donette start to cry). 

And a male who was about fifty when he died. A heart attack he thinks because he feels chest pain. They acknowledge that they know these two people. 

TJ says that he is feeling that there is psychic ability in the family, not sure what side it’s from, possibly even great-grandparents. 

Now a woman who was very sick and having a lot of health problems before she died who was very Catholic is telling TJ that she is around Dulce, her name starts with a “row” sound. 

Donette says that her name was Rosemary. 

Rosemary now tells TJ that she is watching over Dulce and wants Dulce to follow her advice, something about school and then something about a pen or pin. 

Back to the man who died from a heart attack, he had a close relationship with Dulce, which she confirms is true. TJ says that he is sending her signs with coins, which the mother confirms, saying that usually it is dimes he sends and he also flickers the lights. This man wants to guide Dulce and not allow her to feel stuck. TJ thinks that Dulce with some practice will find that she is better able to connect to these people. 

Donette interjects and says that in “previous readings” (not clear if these are from TJ or other mediums or both), her brother (Dulce’s uncle) says he sends Dulce coins but it’s confusing, “It’s so hard because she says, Well, you know, how is he communicating with me? I wish he would tell me.” Donette continues that this thing with a pen or pin keeps coming up. They were told it was from her mother-in-law, but she and Dulce have no idea what that is all about. TJ says that it will eventually reveal itself. 

Concluding with Dulce and Donette, TJ says that if they pray and focus then the man who had a heart attack and the woman with a pen/pin will make themselves more clear. His advice is this, “and you might get a subtle thing, you might get a, you know, you might get a song, you might get a feeling you might, you know, it just depends what you may get, but you may get, you know, different things that sort of connect, and you know, resonate and stuff like that. So, I always think that that is, that is definitely a way that you can, you know, connect and kind of, you know, bring forward things and stuff.”

That’s all for Donette and Dulce; price $400.

 

Sitting 5 – Eleanor (mother), Edgar (looks to be seven or eight) 

Edgar wants to know how many angels he has.

TJ says he wants to answer this more generally and explains that everyone has angels around then, also family members and guides that watch over us. They aren’t always prominent guides. Some are with us all our lives, others for only a short time. Angels are not human so Edgar has not met an angel in person. But Edgar has a very “high vibration spirit” connected to him, Archangel Michael. “And he has chosen to work with you in this lifetime. So now Archangel Michael is an archangel that really everybody can access but it feels that he takes a specific interest in you.” 

TJ tells Edgar that he feels a father figure around him and asks if his father has died. Edgar responds, “Yep.” So TJ explains that his father is watching over him and is frustrated that he can’t connect to him as well as he would like. Apparently, Edgar’s father didn’t have a proper passing where he could have said goodbye to Edgar; it was more of a shocking or sudden thing. Edgar agrees to this statement. 

TJ says that Edgar’s father is telling him about a memory flying a kite. He’s not sure if they were flying a kite together or if it is a metaphor or he’s seen Edgar flying a kite or what. The father is around Edgar a lot and is sending him signs with numbers or “certain things through numbers.” TJ says that he is getting the number eleven, and Edgar gets real excited and says eleven was his father’s favorite number. 

TJ asks if Edgar has a sister, and Edgar says yes. The father wants the siblings to stay close, have a strong relationship, and the father will continue to watch over Edgar. 

That’s all for Edgar and Eleanor; price $400.

 

Sitting 6 – Florence (mother), Fabian (looks about eleven) 

Fabian asks about the two grandparents he never got to meet. 

TJ asks if both sets of grandparents are gone. Florence interjects saying that all of Fabian’s grandparents are gone, but he did not get to meet two of them because they died before Fabian was born. 

TJ says that he will try to see who comes through as they are all now on the other side. He asks if there is a man with an R name? Florence answers, no. 

There is a dog on the other side (Fabian says yes) and a young man that may have not met Fabian. Also possibly Florence’s father starts to come through, someone large and happy who had known Fabian in life. They answer, yes.

TJ asks, “Who is Cheryl, Sheri, or Sharon?” 

Florence says that is her mother, Sharon. 

TJ says that Sharon is really close to Fabian, watching over him and that she passed close to before Fabian was born. Fabian responds, “I think so.” 

Next TJ goes on to explain that when someone is born and the other passes close to the same time, then they become part of your “soul group.” “And I don’t really quite know what that is or why that is; the only thing I can imagine is probably, if you think about it, metaphysically it’s like, you know, your souls preparing to come here and then their soul comes back over. And so it must be some sort of connection like with that.” Not a reincarnation but a close connection. 

TJ asks if there is a man that passed with an M name. Florence says that is her father. Florence’s parents are coming through together; they are connected to Fabian knowing that he was going to be born. The grandmother is watching Fabian play sports (this gets an emotional reaction from Fabian).

TJ says there is a young man coming through and wants to know who that would be. Florence says that it is her cousin who passed when he was seventeen and she was six. He comes to her in dreams and other readings. TJ explains that there is a strong connection between them. He asks if it was a sudden passing and when she responds yes, TJ asks about motorcycles and if the cousin was connected to them. 

Florence says that would probably be him (she says his name is Johnny), because there is a motorcycle on his gravestone and he loved motorcycles. 

Did Fabian ever meet his paternal grandfather? Florence says no. TJ responds, “Yeah because I kind of feel like you never got to meet him or anything like that.” He asks if he smoked, which Fabian confirms. Then TJ asks if that is what he died from. Florence says that she thinks so. 

The smoking grandfather starts telling TJ that Florence is financially successful; it’s a “kind of certain karma.”

That’s it for Florence and Fabian; price $400.

 

Sitting #7 – Pat (mother), Ida (twelve years old) 

Ida wants to know about her family in London. TJ asks if she recently lost her grandmother. Ida is a bit confused, first saying no, then saying yes and not sure about recently. TJ asks when she passed, and Ida explains last year around Christmas. (This reading is happening in April 2021.) TJ patiently confirms that it was in the past six months, because the woman that is coming through for Ida is saying it was a recent passing. He wants to be sure he has the right person. He asks if it is her mother’s mother or not. 

Ida confirms that it is. TJ says that the grandmother is talking about “a lot of medical stuff at the end.” He asks if this woman lived in London and that they were having trouble seeing her near the end. He says that they wanted to see her before she passed but there were travel restrictions in place; he confirms that Ida and Pat do not live in London. Pat says, “We are in New Zealand.”

TJ explains that this grandmother and Ida were very, very close, a strong natural bond. Ida is very sensitive and that she is the type of person that cares about everyone and wants to be sure everyone is okay. Then he shares a memory of Ida and the grandmother, something to do with cupcakes. The grandmother is saying that Ida is worried about her grandfather; she is concerned that it is stressing Ida out. TJ asks if this grandfather was her husband and that he is still alive. They answer, “Yes.” 

TJ says the grandmother is telling him that Ida is really worried and concerned and that everything will be okay and not to get worked up about it. And there is something about a garden, someone with a garden or doing gardening. He asks if the grandmother had something to do with gardening. They answer, “No.” He responds, “Okay so we’ll just leave that I don’t know it seems like a pretty simple thing that she would bring through but I don’t know but I’m not sure. She showed me flowers.”

She tells TJ that she does not want to focus on her passing. She has moved on from that and it’s not going to help her to go over that again. She says that everything is okay and that she is watching over Ida. There is a gentleman on the other side that was connected to a farm, and it’s probably not someone that Ida or Pat would know, but it feels like it’s a relative of the grandmother, someone with a farm, possibly her father. Ida and Pat say that they can’t think of anyone that would fit. TJ continues with the farm, some man that passed over who owned a farm. 

Now back to Ida’s grandmother. TJ confirms that they had a strong connection, that Ida could talk to her about anything, often confiding in her. The grandmother wants to give Ida advice, that she needs to focus on school, that Ida is stressed and pulled in a lot of directions, but her grades are not good right now. She knows that Ida is smart and could do a lot better, but this stress isn’t helping and she needs to focus on her future and that means getting good grades and concentrating on school. She is going to start helping Ida with school, “They actually have the ability to help you, now they can’t snap their fingers and make things happen but they can definitely help you with certain things so one of the things I tell people is just to trust in that, you know invite that connection in and the more you do that you know the better it will be.”

End of Pat and Ida; price $400.

 

Sitting #8 – Julie (mother), (Jasmine twelve years old) 

Jasmine says that she has been worried and stressed about her family. She is confused with everything that has been happening, and it has strained her family’s relationship. She says she cries about it and wants some advice for her family. 

TJ says that he feels that Jasmine is here tonight to act as a messenger for someone else who is not here. Someone in her inner circle, a very close friend, an M name, but M has passed, someone that Jasmine knew, but was not close to him, but she knew him in the community. He passed three to six months ago from COVID-19. 

Jasmine isn’t sure she knows who that would be, and Julie says that they know people who have been sick from COVID-19 but not anyone that has died. 

TJ asks if they have cats because he sees a cat running through. Julie and Jasmine say they haven’t had cats but have had a lot of dogs. 

Changing the subject, TJ tells Jasmine that she has a lot of protection. She is being watched over by many guides and angels and that she should not be stressed out because the family is protected. The pandemic is very challenging, a heavy energy but “Jasmine is a empath and she takes on other peoples’ energy so it’s important that she practice ‘spiritual hygiene’ meditating and taking care of herself and that she has two very strong energies around her like a spirit guide that are helping her with her creativity.” He asks if she is creative, and she says that she paints. So he explains that the more she does of that the better, because that is good for her energy. She has a hawk spirit guide, which means knowledge, because she is trying to connect to the higher forms of knowledge. She is open to growing spiritually, and there is a specific woman that is guiding her, someone who feels like it was a relative who was very sick at the end of life and had trouble walking. 

Julie says that she had an aunt with multiple sclerosis, and it was painful for her to walk. 

TJ asks if Jasimine is trying to make different connections with her friends or if she is trying to make new friends and if she is having issues with her brother. 

Jasmine gets very emotional and starts to tear up; she says that she misses him a lot. TJ asks if he lives far away from the family. And Jasmine says yes. He asks if she sees him often and she responds it’s been a while. TJ asks if he is older than her; she says yes, by several years. 

TJ says that he knows she has been really worried about her brother, but there is a strong bond and connection. Then he moves on to someone who has stomach problems, a female. Jasmine says she had a friend in the past that had to go to the hospital with stomach problems. TJ says that maybe that is what he is picking up on.

He asks Jasmine if there is someone she wants to connect with, and she answers that she would like to talk to her friends’ father who died of COVID-19. And TJ reminds her that he brought that person up at the beginning of the reading. Jasmine said she had forgot about him, and Julie said she was confused thinking he meant a relative died of COVID-19. 

TJ repeats that he was clear that it was a family friend that died of COVID-19 recently and that they weren’t close. He says he did not understand why she didn’t understand it was this person because the man “came right in.” 

He tells Jasmine that this is her friend’s father, and she was close to this friend. He wants to know if it is an M name. Jasmine isn’t sure and says it is not an M name. She thinks about it and says she thinks his name was Nicholas. Julie says she thinks he went by Mark sometimes. 

TJ confirms that this is the right person. He died in December or January and that this news has been stressing Jasmine a lot. 

Spirit tells TJ, “[T]his is all like, in a way meant to be. And this whole situation that we’re going through, it’s actually it’s, it’s, there’s healing that’s happening. And what’s happening is, is this is actually healing our planet. Even through it doesn’t seem like that now because it feels like there’s so much, you know, death and sadness and negativity. But there’s a lot of healing that’s actually happening because of us. So, and it is, in a way, definitely raising our consciousness.”

And he is done with Jasmine and Julie; price $400.

At this point TJ opens it up for questions. 

Annette says that Alice wants to know about when someone dies on someone else’s birthday, because that has happened a few times in the family. TJ explains that means that they have a stronger positive connection. Annette says that her mother died on her son’s birthday and that he was going to be in the reading and not Alice, but she thinks that he “got overwhelmed with emotion. And he decided not to.”

Jasmine asks TJ a question about her brother. She says that she understands she personally is very protected, but she is still worried about her brother as he does not live with the family anymore. TJ asks his first name, and Jasmine says she does not want to say it. TJ asks what his first initial is, and she says J. 

There is a long pause where TJ looks into the air as if he is trying to make a connection with J and responds that the brother is very stubborn and although he is really connected to Jasmine he has a lot of people in the spirit world that are watching over him and are guiding him. He is “on his own energy … and we just have to trust that somebody is on their own path, that’s in their highest good. Even if it doesn’t feel like it would be maybe the path that we choose, you know, I’m saying so, that’s kind of what I’m feeling about that, but I’m good.”

Cassandra and Cole want to know if Cole’s mother is at peace. TJ says that she was having trouble being at peace on this side, and she is at peace on the other side. She shows two white doves and that is her symbol for being at peace. 

Dulce wants to know about pets because her cat has the same personality as her grandmother. They got the cat three weeks before grandma passed. TJ says that obviously this isn’t reincarnation because they were both on Earth at the same time. But it could be “full transparency.” He explains that he had a client that morning that was telling him that her father and her mother were coming through her therapist. 

Eleanor says that Edgar wants to know if his father is helping him with karate. The father was a black belt, and Edgar does karate. TJ says that yes, the father is watching and helping Edgar with his karate and he should continue with that. 

——————————

And that’s the end of the readings. Two hours and thirty-eight minutes. $3,200. 

Now let’s bring in the Guerilla Skeptic team. What did we discover? 

Annette and Alice – Within minutes of TJ starting this reading, my team found Annette on social media. She is a “medium and healer” and has a website that we perused; her children are also mentioned there by name. I don’t want to give the website link to protect her children’s privacy, but she is attuned to the highest levels of Reiki, Ascension, Kundalini as well as crystal healing, polarity balancing, and astrology. 

The C name is for Carmen who we find on Legacy.com and is the grandmother of Alice and Alan. There’s a lot of comments from family and friends, many of them could be used as fodder for a “message from grandma from the other side.” I am concerned about Alan who was “overwhelmed with emotion” (his mother’s words) and who can blame him. I would think that hearing that they were going to talk to a dead grandmother would be pretty stressful, especially if he were told that these dead people watch over him. I remember how freaked out I was when I was a child and told that Jesus and God were always watching over me. I tried to skip taking a bath and tried to change clothes under my blankets; I wasn’t okay with some guy peeping in on me. Alan could think that grandma was going to tell his mom about things he didn’t want her to know, private things that a young boy might be uncomfortable talking about. Children don’t understand the nuance of these conversations. Elf on the shelf is bad enough; having dead grandma and other invisible “spirits” watching you and then reporting back to some guy talking to your mom is pretty uncomfortable. 

Bonnie and Bea – Okay, it’s my opinion that it’s probably not a good idea to encourage your child to think they are seeing “clear people” or whatever at your door. Best to talk to a professional trained and licensed for working with children. 

We don’t have the last name; the Zoom screen says Bonnie’s iPad so we can’t look up information. We know that TJ has all that information because they had to register to purchase the ticket, and she probably used a credit card or Paypal, which gives him even more information. But as I’m rereading and watching the reading again, I don’t think TJ found much on them when he looked. He threw out someone with an M name, and Bonnie said she knew who that was. He first tried the “older man in spirit,” which is a common statement when cold-reading and Bonnie is the one that interrupted and said she wants to connect to her child’s father. TJ asked when he died, which was last year, and then he asks if the father and child were close. (What an odd thing to say.) There is a lot of visual feedback from the mother and the child starts to cry when they talk about her daddy. He says dad is laughing a lot and has a great sense of humor. Well duh! 

The M name was so vague that Bonnie connected it right away to her step-daughter and also her mother-in-law. When TJ asks about fishing (which is a cold-reading fishing statement), he gets a hit. He suggests that they might be going to hand down some of the fishing things for Bea, but mom nixes that right away and says she only kept the cooler. Lucky Bea, someday she is going to inherit her father’s ice cooler. 

He also puts a lot of pressure on the child to draw a lot because that is when her father is watching her and feels close to her. Okay that sounds sweet but what happens if the child breaks her arm and can’t draw, or decides she would rather ride her bike? Isn’t the child going to feel guilty that she isn’t spending more time with dad? And what’s up with these “signs”? Dad sends butterflies. What does that even mean? How would you know who sent which butterfly? I’m looking out my window as I type this and see all kinds of butterflies. Who sent those? Maybe there are just butterflies and no one sent them. I’m also thinking of what will happen when the child accidently steps on a butterfly or finds one smashed on the windshield. Will she need therapy? 

TJ guessed that a six-year-old likes animals. What are the odds of that?

He got that the father was bald, or did he? He just asked if he had a lot of hair or was bald. Well it is kinda one or the other. I remember in Operation Bumblebee when Grief Vampire Chip Coffey asked a young woman whose fiancé had died days before if he had a full head of hair. The woman said, “No but he wished he did” and Coffey responded, “Well he is standing in the back of the room right now with a full head of hair, so he got what he wanted.” 

Cassandra and Cole – Cassandra’s Facebook page is flooded with photos of her family, including Caroline and her twin sisters. Dancing, putting on makeup, and  laughing. We even see mention of Carol. The Lake Michigan reference is all over the page, because Cassandra says, “What I wouldn’t give to have one more day with them (her parents) at Lake Michigan … their absolute favorite place to be … I’m pretty sure they are well aware of all that has transpired since they left us …” We found on her Facebook page an ad for a lake house she is selling, with photos and her phone number. 

Another concern is for Cole who says he saw a long time ago a bad shadow person. He is about six years old now, so he was about three? Memory is a funny thing and having grandma keep reviving and reinforcing this memory isn’t what I would think of as healthy. TJ throws it back on the child, to keep the bad shadow person away, then Cole needs to always stay positive and if he sees these bad things again, then it’s his fault. 

Sending music, butterflies, and coins is just cold-reading 101. And when TJ says that Caroline is sending songs, it just means that they will hear a song on the radio or in a car next to them when driving that will invoke a memory, something that Caroline liked. What are the odds of a song that was popular a few years ago would be played again within their earshot? It’s grasping at straws and making things fit to support this narrative that the dead are communicating. 

Donetta and Dulce – TJ opens up with a Rosemary whom we discover pretty quickly on Legacy.com. She died five years ago of breast cancer and had a Catholic Mass. 

I really feel bad for Dulce; she is quite emotional throughout this reading. She is aging and sad that she isn’t connecting to dead people like she did four years before. The family had thought her “special” and now it’s fading. TJ boosts her back up telling her that it’s just a wall, and when she is less overwhelmed and if she opens herself up to spirit, she will be back in touch right away. 

Again with the “signs”; they are receiving coins, mainly dimes. (We used to joke, send us $100 bills and then we’ll listen.) So they find coins from time to time. What of it? How do they know it was sent to them and not to someone else? The idea is that they look at the year and it invokes a memory. It could be anything—a birth, death, anniversary, year they had surgery, year someone moved, graduated, the year a car ran into the house, anything. 

If the dead sends flickering lights to connect to us, then I guess we shouldn’t bother hiring an electrician to fix the problem? I have had a flickering light in my bathroom for months. I thought it was that a wire was loose, but I suppose it could be a dead family member trying to get in touch.

Very interesting that the mother and Dulce show a spark of critical thinking asking why when they get these multiple readings and the dead say they are sending signs such as coins, flickering lights, and a pin or pen. Why don’t they just come out and say what they are doing and who it is from? All this time they are confused what the medium is talking about. Keep following that line of reasoning Donetta and Dulce, you are on the right track. TJ throws it back on them: pray enough and the answer will be revealed, but he isn’t willing to give an answer to clear it up.  

Eleanor and Edgar – We found the father’s obit from Legacy.com. He died in 2015, and it’s a long obituary that tells his life story and all about his family complete with photos. There is a long list of comments; this was a well-loved man. Within the comments, there are remembrances that can easily be repurposed into memories from dad on the other side should TJ wish to embellish. 

Sending signs with numbers—I’m almost embarrassed for TJ that he keeps relying on these old cold-reading tropes. TJ mentions the number eleven and Edgar seizes on that saying it was his dad’s favorite number. How he would know that I don’t know, Edgar was about three when his father fell overboard when he was out fishing. So maybe there is a photo on social media of the dad wearing a team jersey with an “11” on it. No idea, but it could easily just be a guess that was thrown out and hit a memory. 

Florence and Fabian – Fabian is the one who tells TJ who he wants to hear from. All four of his grandparents are dead so there is a lot to choose from. Right away TJ asks about an R name, which Florence isn’t aware of. (That’s surprising, not a first, last, or nickname in the family living or dead with an R name?) 

A large happy man (well to a young Fabian, any man would be “large”). So next TJ throws out three common female names: Cheryl, Sheri and Sharon. I don’t know if he knew one of these names in advance or if it was just a cold-reading statement that hit. He doesn’t say that one of these names is her mother; he asks, “Who is it?” It could be almost anyone female living or dead or even a pet. 

Next it is another M name and it turns out that it is the husband of Sharon. Again this could be a guess or TJ actually knows this information. He smoked? A guess? Or maybe he knew. Whichever I’m not impressed.

A young man coming through was all TJ threw out and Florence is the one who said she knew it was her cousin Johnny who died when she was a child. Florence talks about how this cousin keeps coming through in the readings she gets with mediums, so another person who is getting multiple readings. 

Pat and Ida – So this is an interesting reading, TJ knows about Ida’s maternal grandmother dying recently after an illness in London leaving behind her husband who Ida is really worried about. He knows that Ida is stressed because they could not see her before she passed, and that Ida is still worried, in fact her grades are starting to slip. All perfectly correct. How was TJ so accurate? 

Well actually Pat and Ida were sent by me. 

Pat is actually Sheree McNatty from the New Zealand Skeptics. And Ida is her fourteen-year-old daughter, Lillia, who has been doing some acting in the past; check out this creepy story. I met Sheree in 2016 and again in 2019 at conferences. 

In our past stings, Operation Ice Cream Cone and Operation Pizza Roll we used fake Facebook pages to bait the medium. This time I used common names that he would not be able to search for; he could not use the information I gave when registering for the ticket, nor could he use the information from the Visa card. I left him only one avenue, the chatty email I sent. And here it is. 

***

Kia or Thomas John

That’s sending you greetings from beautiful New Zealand which I hope you will visit someday so we can see you in person.

Our family loved your shows and hope there will be another season. We purchased a ticket to the Spirit Circle for tomorrow and we were wondering if there was some link or something we are missing because I do not see one on the confirmation we received.

My daughter Ida and I will be attending and we are so excited. I had to get the day off from work in order to not miss it, I’m a nurse here in the South Island. We haven’t done anything like this before and watched the video you sent but still we are nervous (sic). 

My parents live in London and my mum passed over near Christmas and because we are in New Zealand and the plague mess we could not go see them in the last year and her before she passed. Ida is my father’s favorite grandchild and she is very worried about her PaPa Norris. I don’t think my sister is taking the care of him she should be and we can’t go to him and he can’t come to us so we are not happy. Ida is a very good student but since her Nana got sick last year we have been really struggling, Ida’s grades are horrid.

If you could please tell us how we are to get on the Spirit Circle tomorrow that would be great and we really hope that you will be able to tell Ida some good things so she can get more sleep and get her grades back up and stop worrying so much about her PaPa.

Aroha,

Jo and Pat Martin

***

Tracy (who is TJ’s assistant) sent Jo an email before the reading with this message “Hello, Can you please email the first name of your child that will be attending the Spirit Circle? Thomas medittes (sic) before the group.”

So with this email in mind you can see that TJ knew about her maternal grandmother dying around Christmas time and that her husband was still living in London. He knew about Ida’s grades suffering because she was worrying so much. He knew that they were unable to travel to visit her grandparents before the grandmother died. 

You might notice that there is no mention of how the grandmother died; in fact the grandmother says she does not want to discuss it. Well that’s convenient because TJ does not know how she died; all he knows is what I wrote in that email. Keeping in mind that there is no dead grandmother in London. 

The other stuff about the grandmother showing him flowers and a garden are vague cold-reading statements. Throwing in a farm, possibly belonging to an older man that could have been Ida’s great-grandfather should have been an easy hit. 

Before I wrote the email to TJ, I grilled Sheree about her family history, people’s names, and then asked her, “If TJ is really able to communicate with the dead, who would you expect he would be in contact with?” He didn’t hit on any of those people, not even vaguely close.

I created a back story that wasn’t close to their real family story so there was no ambiguity with the information he gave; it clearly comes from the email and no place else. Sheree and Ida knew very little about what was in the email. My team and I were on a Facebook Messenger chat at the same time they were being read; we were supplying them the answers to the questions AFTER TJ was asking them. 

Ida’s maternal grandparents are alive and well; I expect they have a good relationship and maybe at some point they did bake cupcakes together. I’m sure the grandparents would like for Ida to do well in school, but the fact is that Ida is not Ida, she is Lillia who is doing really well in school, and she isn’t stressing out and worried about her poor widowed grandfather. 

Why didn’t TJ say the names I gave in the email Nana and PaPa Norris? Probably because it would have been too obvious. It’s only a ten-minute reading and if he did he might as well have read the email verbatim back to Sheree and Lillia.  

Julie and Jasmine – Jasmine says that she is stressed out about her families strained relationship and needs advice. But TJ goes right to some M name for some guy that died of COVID-19, not a family member but someone in her “inner circle.” Jasmine later realizes who that must have been: a close friend’s father whose name was Nicholas but went by Mark sometimes. 

TJ stresses over and over again how protected Jasmine is, that she has a hawk spirit guide and strong energies around her. Some woman who was sick at the end of life and having trouble walking was guiding her. (What are the odds that someone old would be sick and having trouble walking right before she dies?) There is something about a woman having stomach problems. 

TJ knew that she was stressed about her older brother who was stubborn and left the house, something that was making Jasmine cry. When Jasmine pressed him again near the end of the Spirit Circle, she asks again about her brother and if he is safe. TJ pauses to think and shoots back that he will be fine and he is on his own path. 

Looks like TJ scored some great hits on this one, right? 

Well yes and no, you see, Jasmine is fourteen-year-old Bailey Harris who has published a series of children’s books on science. Check out her website; the forward to her first book My Name is Stardust was written by Richard Dawkins, yes that Dawkins. I met Bailey in 2019 where she gave a talk at CSICon; she is a secular humanist. 

Bailey’s mother Mackenzie Harris was a real trooper, sitting there for more than two hours always on camera; it must have been grueling. Dad Douglas was sitting directly off screen monitoring the chat that I and my team were having with them. Just like with Sheree and Lillia, the Harris family didn’t really know all the information that TJ had; they were being feed what to say AFTER TJ said something first. 

I purchased this ticket two days before the event. Here is the conversation I had with TJ and his staff by email. 

***

Hello, I know it is last minute but wondering if you might have one more opening for the Sprit Circle tomorrow? My daughter has been having a tough time during the lockdown and her close friend’s father died of COVID in January and she is worried that it will happen to us next or to her older brother who will not get the shot. If you have an opening I will hurry and purchase a ticket We loved you on Seatbelt Psychic and binged watched it and your other show this year!!! Amazing the power you have and comfort you bring to people. 

JJ Jones

—–
Okay got the ticket!! Jasmine is really excited to talk to Thomas. She’s 12 but very friendly and is very starstruck to speak to him. I hope this goes well, she might just seize up and say nothing, her father and I will be shocked! I told her that Thomas is kind and used to talking to people like her. Her brother Joshua has moved out of the house because he does not like our rules and it is very stressful, he won’t get the vaccine and that has all of us so stressed out. Thank you so much and bless you all, 

Julie & Jackson

(Tracy responded saying that she loved my response and said I was a wonderful mom.) 

***

With this in mind, we see that what TJ told Bailey and Mackenzie was just what was in the email I sent. She does have older brothers, but the story I tell TJ, which he recaps back, isn’t the story of her family. All that was made up, even the story about her school friend’s dad who died of COVID-19. Bailey isn’t stressed, in fact she launched a series of cool watercolor jigsaw puzzles recently. 

So here we are; all done with Operation Onion Ring. 

What did we learn? 

Not much; he is doing the same old thing he has been doing in all the Zoom readings we attended and reported on throughout the lockdown. He was very patient with the kids, explaining definitions and encouraging them to do well in school (well dead people are watching them, so I guess they better). He stressed that these children have spirit powers if they want to explore them. 

What little fame he had after his two TV shows and gig at Ceasars are fading. I see no indication that there will be season two of either show. Ceasars doesn’t appear to be bringing him back. He is pretty busy pushing out these Spirit Circles. He does webinars and online conferences, but when you have to resort to preying on five-year-olds, then that is pretty desperate. 

It was an eight-child Sprit Circle; he announced this event before Christmas 2020. But I was able to purchase tickets four days and two days before the event. Just sad. He can’t even sell out an eight-person event without help from the skeptics. 

The bottom line is that Ida, Pat, Julie, and Jasmine are not their real names. He did not see through the characters; he did not know these were died in the wool scientific skeptics. He knew that there was an extra Zoom account in the room; he mentioned it and said to ignore it (that was me). The $800 we paid came from my non-profit About Time, but the money to start the non-profit came from the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). You would think that having the hand of James “The Amaz!ng” Randi over my head would have sent out some scary juju to someone who is professing to be a psychic medium so powerful that he can see dead grandma eating cupcakes with her granddaughter or at least be able to tell that it was all bullshit. But no, not only did he not have an inkling that a world-wide pandemic was coming, over a million people dead and counting, but he couldn’t see through this simple sting we set. 

But if you want to know about grandma being sick and having trouble walking at the end of her life, then he’s your guy. 

Thank you to my entire Guerilla Skeptic team and Mark Edward, you were terrific. Extra thanks to Sheree and Lillia in New Zealand, and the Harris family, Douglas, Mackenzie, and Bailey. 

For media requests, all documents concerning Operation Onion Ring have been preserved, all planning sessions recorded, discussions and emails available for serious inquiry only. Please contact us at AboutTimeBoard@gmail.com.