No doubt you’re aware of the name Kardashian. They are Hollywood royalty, and every one of them is swimming in notoriety. Their show Keeping up with the Kardashians is easily the most popular reality television show on the E! channel.
Or at least, it was. Recently, a new challenger has been giving the popular family a run for their money, and it’s not someone you’d expect. Enter Tyler Henry, a young 20 something with a winning smile and big personality. With his show Hollywood Medium, he’s taken celebrity culture by storm with his apparent ability to communicate with lost loved ones.
His process is simple. He meets a client whom he apparently has no prior knowledge of. Then he takes a special item, holds it for a second and begins to scribble on a notepad. As he does this, he claims that images and messages begin to come to him.
Mediums are nothing new in the land of Hollywood. More often than not, they are proven to be frauds. Anyone remember Miss Cleo?
For better or worse, Hollywood Medium has found itself in its third season and is more popular than ever, with no definitive proof as to whether or not Tyler Henry is the real deal.
Let’s take a look at 17 Shady Secrets Behind Hollywood Medium.
17. He had his first vision at 10 years old
If he is a fraud, Henry has certainly put a lot of thought into his back story. According to Henry, he began receiving visions at the young age of 10 years old. His first vision wasn’t just any spirit either, it was his grandmother. When he received the vision, he and his family believed her to be alive.
The event happened in April of 2006. He awoke shortly after midnight, with what he describes as the memory of his grandmother passing away. This obviously upset him, so he got out of bed to get confide in his mother.
As he began to tell her the news, the phone rang. It turns out that his grandmother really had just passed away. From that point, according to Henry, he began to hone his own psychic abilities.
16. The things he brings up are really easy to Google
All psychics have their skeptics. Someone as successful as Tyler Henry has them in droves. One thing these naysayers love to point out is how widely known most of Henry’s observations seem to be.
While he claims to have no prior knowledge of his clients, there’s really no way to prove that.
For example, Tyler’s message from Matt Lauer’s late father about the news man’s snoring is something Lauer has been very open about in interviews before.
Additionally, Henry’s story of being randomly pulled in the direction of Bella Thorne at a party could be nothing more than a marketing ploy. His supposedly shocking revelation about the widely public knowledge of Thorne’s father’s passing could be the same strategy.
15. He uses the tricks he calls “fake” from other psychics
Tyler Henry is very vocal about other psychics. He’s quick to point out that many people in the business are simply fakes looking for a pay day. He gave Entertainment Tonight three tell tale signs of a fake. If they’re asking a lot of questions, making very general statements, and asking for more money, they probably aren’t actually talking to the dead.
Tyler doesn’t need money, but the first two points definitely describe his process. A segment with ABC News’ Nick Watts takes a far more specific jab at this. It features him calling out psychics who focus on what letter, and then flashes to a clip of him doing just that. Henry focused on the letter B while doing a reading for Jaime Presley.
14. His strange connection to Michael Jackson
An episode has yet to air may end up proving to be the make or break for Tyler Henry. While he’s flirted with controversial topics before, none are perhaps as out there as his upcoming episode contacting Michael Jackson for the king of pop’s sister LaToya.
Henry told Entertainment Tonight a few choice things about the upcoming segment. He says that Jackson came across “much like a child.” He also says that the “Thriller” singer had some very specific things to say about his death and the timeline to go along with it.
This won’t be a case where Henry can feign ignorance, so he’ll need to bring some serious surprises in order to wow audiences.
Not only that, but both those teases are highly volatile subject matter for both fans and critics of the late singer.
13. He left nursing school to become a psychic
Tyler Henry certainly has a very kind demeanor. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he initially planned on becoming a nurse. After graduating from high school, he chose to pursue studies in hospice care. He did this because he had an affinity for helping people.
When he was still in high school, he was encouraged by local spirituality shop owners Tom and Joy McGuire to pursue a career in psychic readings.
By the time he enrolled in West Hills College, he was already giving one-on-one readings for 40$ a pop.
Alas, he would never finish his degree in hospice care. At the tender age of 19, Tyler Henry began his career as the hugely popular Hollywood Medium that we all know today.
12. A medium told him he’d be successful
How do you even get into the psychic business? It’s not like there’s some kind of school for children with special powers. (Not in the real world anyway.) Ironically, as previously mentioned, Henry did have training of sorts from local spiritualists.
Even while he was giving private readings and practicing his own skills, Henry continued to receive readings from other psychics. One woman in particular gave him a very specific premonition.
She told him that at 19, he’d start to film a TV show and that he would even write books.
If you believe Henry’s own words, everything about this premonition came true. At 19 he signed the contract and began shooting Hollywood Medium, and the year after he published his first book titled Between Two Worlds: Lessons From the Other Side.
11. He won’t do personal readings on the fly
Tyler Henry claims to welcome skeptics. That said, he’s been extremely sketchy when it comes to actually proving them wrong.
On a boardwalk, he wouldn’t perform a reading on ABC’s Nick Watts. According to Henry, there were too many energies around him to get a proper reading.
However, one of his most famous readings was of Bella Thorne, at a party, where similar restrictions should have applied.
He similarly replies no when requested by an interviewer from The Outline. The interviewer went a step further and ask if Henry would be open to a test under more controlled circumstances. Henry’s response is shifty; he says he doesn’t know what those might entail. The Independent Investigations Group said they were more than happy to supply a proper test environment, but Henry has not returned any messages since that interview took place.
10. The techniques he uses are pretty textbook
Along with his interview on The Outline, the video also points out three techniques that are fairly common in professional psychics, be they fraudulent or not. The first one is called cold reading, where the reader will make extremely general statements and guesses in order to draw out more information from the client. Tyler’s apparent necessity for props supports this.
The second one is called shot-gunning. This is where the reader goes very quickly through different images until something sticks. The reader will also use keywords like “symbol” to make sure that it’s understood that even if something doesn’t click, it may mean something else.
He also plays on something called The Barnum Effect. This is where people’s minds attach personal or specific significance to things that are actually extremely general in nature.
9. He gives health readings…
When Tyler Henry did a reading for Alan Thicke, it turned out to be a very big deal. The reason for this was because he gave Thicke a very specific warning about his heart.
Even though Thicke seemingly dismissed the warnings, he passed away not very long after from a heart condition.
Henry’s proponents are quick to point out that this is obvious proof that he is the real deal. However, this may end up doing more harm than good. Tyler Henry has already show up on shows like The Doctors, after all. Some news sources even publish Tyler’s predictions at face value.
The more reality television fans buy into Tyler’s readings, especially on subjects like health, the more dangerous he becomes. Remember, while he did enroll in a nursing program, he never actually completed any sort of health science degree.
8. Corey Haim’s mom isn’t buying it
’80s heartthrob Corey Feldman was another one to have had an extremely emotional encounter with Henry on Hollywood Medium. In particular, Feldman may have been contacted by his one-time partner in crime, Corey Haim.
Tyler gave Feldman a pretty specific message from Haim: that he should push and reveal more names of alleged abusers from their child star days. Feldman replied that he’d been praying for this answer.
All of this angered Judy Haim, the late actor’s mother. According to her, Haim had distanced himself from Feldman in recent years because he saw Feldman as a bad influence. She says that Feldman only continues to play up their relationship for his own personal gain and fortune. That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement of a man claiming to have contacted her dearly departed son.
7. He’s had a rough past
Most of what’s known about Tyler Henry’s past should be taken with a grain of salt, because it comes right from him. He’s an extremely private individual and not much is known about him from before his Hollywood Medium days other than what he’s revealed.
Henry reports being bullied in high school. Apparently he believed so strongly in his gifts that he was ostracized by his peers to the point where he became home schooled and graduated at the age of 16. Soon after graduating, he began to feel like his brain was swelling.
This culminated in him receiving brain surgery at the age of 18.
Today, Henry lives with his boyfriend and his puppy named Pearl. Oh yeah, and his reported net worth is $1.7 million.
6. He has more than 15 000 people on his waiting list
Tyler Henry claims that his only goal is to bring people closure. His own website offers all kinds of services. There’s a tab for private meets or small group sessions, and even one for appearances and events. This may lead people to believe that seeing the young psychic is within the realm of possibility.
Through Twitter, he specified that he does 2-3 readings when he’s not shooting. He never specified how spread out those readings may be, and a quick look at the comments reveals that folks end up waiting a very long time for a meeting that may never come.
That’s because Henry’s waiting list is reportedly 15 000 names long and counting. If you’re a celebrity, the wait time probably won’t be that long. For everyone else, there’s always the magic store and costume shop down the street.
5. He has tripped up
The claim that Tyler Henry makes most on Hollywood Medium is that he doesn’t know anything about his clients before giving them readings. During the show’s first season, this claim was passable. He presents himself as a small town boy who never cared much for pop culture.
As he’s grown in fame, this claim as become less and less likely. He told Carolyn Radziwill that he had no idea who she was because he doesn’t watch much TV. But how did he know she was on TV?
It may seem minor, but keep in mind she stars on The Real Housewives of New York. That show airs on Bravo. NBC owns Bravo as well as E!, the network currently using Hollywood Medium as its poster show.
4. He’s the target of a number of skeptical campaigns
Throughout these entries we’ve sprinkled in a number of Hollywood Medium skeptics, but the truth is we’ve barely touched the surface. These people aren’t just passive nonbelievers either. Many of Tyler Henry’s detractors are actively seeking to have him removed from the zeitgeist.
The term “grief vampire” has been applied to Tyler Henry by critics.
Neurologist Steven Novella, Oncologist David Gorski, and activist Susan Gerbic have all used the title in direct reference to the would-be medium.
Gerbic in particular has used many outlets to sound off against Henry. The Independent Investigations Group (who you may remember offered to help Henry prove his veracity in conjunction with The Outline) awarded Hollywood Medium with the Truly Terrible Television Award in 2016.
3. He claims that he’s been contacted by spirits in the shower
The way the young psychic explains his abilities, it seems as though he’s always flooded with visions. No matter where he goes, the non-living seem to want to have a word with him. Being deceased, they seem to have an easier time getting on his busy schedule.
In a game of Never Have I Ever conducted by Us Magazine, Tyler went into explicit detail about the inappropriate situations he sometimes finds himself in.
He says spirits will often contact him in the morning while he’s preparing for his day.
Apparently, sometimes spirits will go as far as to bother him in the shower. In those cases, according to Tyler, he simply tells them that he’ll see them outside. Talk about not having any personal space.
2. He’s laughed at inappropriate times during readings
In the same game of Never Have I Ever, Henry revealed another juicy tidbit. According to him, he has indeed laughed at inappropriate times during readings. If you’ve ever watched the show, you know that Henry is full of smiles. Whether it’s a front he puts on or not, the young man is always chuckling and smiling even through the most dour of revelations.
According to Henry, it’s the energy that makes him feel so positive and he just can’t help it. However, sometimes he reacts inappropriately even when he’s not being contacted by spirits. In the lightest instance on this list, Joel McHale recently pointed out Henry’s reaction to Christina El Moussa’s story of working with her soon to be ex-husband.
In the clip, Henry smiles and exclaims “Nice!” as El Moussa continues to nod her head, Henry slowly realizes his mistake and quickly retracts his happy reaction.
1. His ultimate goal
All of these entries paint a pretty decent picture of the person Tyler Henry is. He sometimes appears genuine, sometimes a little bit phony. He seems to want to help people find closure, if nothing else. His past in hospice studies further illustrates that.
He ultimately wants to work with parents whose children have taken their own lives. Taken at face value, this seems very noble.
However, critics say Tyler Henry targets the vulnerable and the grieving for profit. As Susan Gerbic states in her “grief vampire” piece, this is exactly the type of show concept that producers are probably looking into as you read this in order to serve as more “morbid entertainment for the masses.”
Do you have other secrets about Hollywood Medium? Let us know in the comments!
