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A few nights ago, television “psychic” John Edward — better known as the Crossing Over guy — did a small show for an audience in Los Angeles.

And outside the theater were peaceful protesters ready to educate the audience about the scam they were about to witness (and waste money on):

Susan Gerbic

John Gaffney

Emery Emery, host of the Ardent Atheist podcast, explains that he and his colleagues were met with resistance even though they had every right to be there:

How do you know you’re having an effect? When the people running the event, lose their minds trying to get you removed by the police.

A few minutes after that exchange, one of the people who had come to attend the event stepped up to assist the security guard and arm her with what I’m sure he thought, would be a slamdunk. He told the security guard that he had paid for tickets to the show and that we were ruining the event for him with our “negative energy”.

Sure they were…

It’s crazy how much shit the skeptics had to put up with despite being well within the bounds of the law, but they hung in there. The signs were memorable and the police eventually left them alone.

Emery summed up the night with this lesson:

What I learned is that these types of events should ALWAYS have demonstrators present who know their rights and are ready to politely demand that they be allowed to exercise those rights so that we may continue to offer the victims of these pathological grief predators the opportunity to learn how they are being fleeced by charlatans.

(Images courtesy of the Investigation Network)

Hemant Mehta is the founder of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, podcast co-host, and author of multiple books about atheism. He can be reached at @HemantMehta.