Email: A Skeptic in the Audience
An account of the taping of a Sylvia Browne episode of the Montel Williams Show.
Published: Jan 30, 2008
Written by: Robert S. Lancaster
"Sylvia is shockingly cruel, rude and disinterested and Montel Williams is just as bad if not worse when he jumps into her readings, which is very often."
- Email author
Background
Back in April of 2007, a woman who has contributed a lot of research to this site was able to attend a taping of a "Sylvia Browne Wednesday" episode of the .
She took notes during the taping, and has emailed me an account of the experience, written from those notes. It is a rather lengthy email, but I thought it would be interesting reading for visitors to this site.
top of page
The Email
Here, with the author's permission, is that email, with my occasional comments inserted:
Subject: My Adventure With Sylvia Browne
From: [] <[]>
Date: Mon, Jan 21, 2008 7:14 pm
To: <[]>
I began following Mr.Lancaster's website, StopSylviaBrowne.com, from the very start after reading a mention of it in James Randi's SWIFT. I had heard of Sylvia Browne before but after learning a bit about her from James Randi's and Robert Lancaster's respective sites, I quickly became very passionate about stopping her. I almost immediatly started researching her on the Internet and searching for some opportunity to see her in person.
After searching around on her site, I signed up for tickets to a Sylvia Browne taping on The Montel Williams Show and after the first date fell through in January, got tickets for a show in April 2007.
Allthough I came to the show certain that she was nothing but a fraud and didn't in the slightest expect to be convinced otherwise, nothing could have removed any lingering doubt I might have had as to her psychic abilities like seeing her perform in person. I came seriously doubting her self-professed psychic powers and very quickly became convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The taping starts like a regular Montel episode: a producer talks to the studio audience and coaches them on applauding and so on and then introduces Montel Williams and there is a Question and Answer with Montel. Then Montel coaches the audience on Sylvia Browne.
Here, loosely paraphrasing and to the best of my recollection is his routine (not that it's any secret, as he routinely repeats parts of this on the show):
"Rule number one: Do not stand up and ask unless you're prepared for the answer. She gets all her information from her spirit guide and her spirit guide can be quite abrupt and to the point and the answer can be very harsh so don't stand up and ask a question unless you're prepared for the answer."
"Rule number two: Pick a specific question in one category, love, finance, school. Don't ask Sylvia "What's my life going to be like in the next 10 years?". It's not a reading, there's no time to read everyone, she's just answering specific questions."
"Rule number three:How long have you been waiting for this? How far did you all come here? California, South Carolina, Florida? So you came all the way from there to hear what Sylvia has to say. So listen to her answer. Alot of people here just came to validate what they already think they know and if you're so pyschic, what are you doing here anyway?
The part of the show that drives Sylvia the craziest and drives me the craziest is when people don't pay attention to what she says. Even if you think it's wrong, listen closer. Think about it and listen to it, cause even if you think it's wrong, it's actually right.
I've had people on this show go like (imitates Sylvia here) "I'm getting something about your uncle William" (imitates audience member) "I didn't have an Uncle William! I had an uncle Bill!"
"I'm getting something in the chest area", "I don't have nothing in the chest area, I had a heart attack!" "
I realize that this is just a paraphrase of this woman's recollection of Montel's talk, but I have to comment here: In all of the Browne episodes I have watched, and in all of the transcripts I have read, I have seen nor read of Browne saying anything as specific as "I'm getting something about an Uncle William."
Instead, it is "Who is William?", which is a stock cold-reader's trick, letting the person being read supply the connection ("I had/have an uncle/brother/cousin/grandfather/friend named William"), if any.
Montel launched into a further diatribe about readings that seemed wrong but later turned out to be right and told two stories as an example. One was about a knife and a well that a guest on the show allegedly found on her property after first disbelieving Sylvia. According to him, this person was told to look for a missing object in "a well on your property" and when the person protested that they owned no well, Sylvia Browne insisted that the person did.
Montel mocked the person when he was telling this : "Like you're the only person to have ever lived on your property!"
So then, according to him, this person found the object in a drainage pipe in their backyard that used to be a well. And another was about the mother of a missing man who had once appeared on the show.
According to Montel, this woman was on in January of last year or this year and Sylvia told her that her son was dead and that his body was in a small body of water near a large body of water near someplace that "sounds something like Oak Tree Lane". The mother negated it and protested that the police had searched through all the lakes in her area.
According to Montel, the body was found three months later when a reservoir was emptied, when it surfaced in a drainage ditch, near a road by the name of "Spruce Lane".
"So listen to her answer", Montel gravely drawled.
To my surprise, the taping was much longer than a regular episode. The taping lasts more than two and a half hours, of which less than an hour is used. Many segments, starting with an intro and ending with a plug for Sylvia's latest book (in this case, the book about psychic children), are taped, which allows for entire segments to be discarded.
This implies that the audience "readings" which actually make it to the air, and are not very impressive, are the "cream of the crop."
Seeing Sylvia unedited for more than two and a half hours is a miserable experience. It's incredibly painful and depressing and deathly boring. I had more than enough after about twenty minutes but unfortunatly had no choice in leaving, as that is not allowed on a taping.
Until then, I hadn't realized the extent of the troubles of the audience; it was heart-stopping to suddenly realize that I was probably only person in the room that hadn't had a recent death in the family.
Based on what I saw, I am now convinced that almost no happy people turn to psychics and almost the only people who do so are victims of tragic and very traumatic events, such as a death, a rape, a mental illness or a debilitating injury. I say this to counter anyone who might say that what Sylvia Browne does is fun or entertaining in some way; it's nothing of the kind. The mood was glum and frustrated and everyone seemed very weighed down and saddened and, after their reading with Sylvia, actually even more depressed and unsatisfied and seemingly beaten down.
Sylvia is shockingly cruel, rude and disinterested and Montel Williams is just as bad if not worse when he jumps into her readings, which is very often. Their rudeness took my breath away; it's unfanthomable how someone could be so insensitive to grieving people turning to them for help. Montel makes cringe-inducing efforts to turn his guests' problems into jokes and is very vicious and impatient with anyone who's reading isn't going smoothly (enspecially when it seems to me that he knows none of the reading will make it to TV). By contrast, he's effortless at sincerity and graciousness and charm when the cameras are on. In my estimation, he's a born showman and a very slick operator and in another age, would have made a great snake oil salesman.
Sylvia doesn't seem to even be trying at cold-reading; she's slow and so deattached, she hardly seems to be hearing what's said to her. She and Montel mishear, misunderstand and ask to have questions repeated so often, I wondered if Sylvia, or both of them, weren't going deaf.
She was so inept at cold-reading that to my astonishment, I actually found myself supplying answers and cold-reading along with her under my breath- and though I never attempted it before, found I was better at it than she was! At other times, she botched cold-readings so badly and her performance was so painful to hear, I found myself praying, "Please just tell him 'yes'! Just say 'yes'!" or "Just tell her that her boyfriend tells her he loves her, please, that's obviously what she's asking, just say that".
I had at first toyed with the idea of making a scene or trying "psychic baiting" (making up a story and leading a psychic into a false cold-reading) but quickly gave that up, as I simply didn't have the heart to do it. I personally hope that these people never find out that they've been lied to, for their sake.
The episode, like all Sylvia Browne episodes, alternated between a guest and sessions of questions with the audience. The first guest was a woman who thought she was being visited by angel of her mother and Sylvia of course confirmed it and blattered on about angels and spirit guides and all the rest.
In the studio audience questions, she completely confused a dreadlocked African-American woman who wanted to know when she was going to meet her soulmate by telling her that she'd meet him not now but a few years later and that his name was "Albert". The woman went back to her chair whispering "Albert?!"
Another woman whose was diagnosed with her mother of auto-immune deficiency and wanted to confirm it cause she "didn't believe in her heart the diagnosis was right" was told her "No, forget it, auto-immune, no, it's your blood sugar. It's your blood sugar that's lousy".
If this is an accurate description, it is another example of where Browne's "medical diagnoses" could cause harm to a person if they ignored their doctor's advice/diagnosis, and relied instead on Browne's
Then another woman asked about her soulmate and got the answer that his name was Greg and a description of him as tall having dark hair and blue eyes. Then there was another guest, this time a woman named Gail who is convinced she's being visted by her deceased sister. Then a question from a man who was jealous and confused because he's never had a paranormal experience, as open as he is to having one. She told him the same blitter blatter as always and told him he has a very powerful spirit guide who's looking out for him named Marcellus.
And so on and on. Several people who described themselves as being in a life and career rut and wanting advice for what what to do for a living, women wanting to know about future partners, people asking about the futures of their children, nieces and nephews or grandchildren, people wanting to know the names of their spirit guides, the usual questions and answers.
There was a young Latino man who described himself in a career rut and was told he would go into "Music. Something to do with music" after which he looked very moved and responded "I know exactly what you're talking about". A woman was told she would become a teacher and another person was told "I see you opening a buisness in X-amount-of-time. Food. Something to do with food" and after the woman failed to respond and looked very skeptical, she prompted "like a restaurant or deli."
Then something really bad happened. Up to this point, it was pretty harmless but this just blew me away.
A middle-aged Latin man I had seen in line asked her something like "My brother died 12 years ago and I want to know is if he ever forgave me."
I heard him fine but for some reason Sylvia and Montel didn't the first few times and then she got it wrong and started talking about this man's brother as if he was still alive. He quickly corrected her and she paused and thought for a long time and slowly answered "No...not really" and proceeded to explain that that stuff is just the baggage the living have, that on the Other Side you don't really even worry about that.
Maybe beause of the language barrier this man seemed like he wasn't following her at all and stared at her really confused. Then Montel jumped in and tried to turn it into a joke like "You ain't up in heaven tripping over something that happened what 12 years ago like aw man, that guy down on earth. I mean, that wouldn't be a heaven if you were so miserable over something that happened 12 years ago."
This man misunderstood him and cried out "It is like that, just like that- ever day I think about it, whenever I wake up." Montel didn't realize what he was talking about for a few moments and then said "I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about him" and then tried once again to say the same thing in the same jokey, light-hearted manner.
I was blown away by their insensitivity at this poor man's obvious pain and suffering. The second the words were out of the man's mouth, I was pleading for Sylvia to just say "Absolutely he does, he forgave you long ago" and move on. It was the most painful, most cringe-inducing thing that happened in the entire taping.
Other moments were very disturbing, however. A woman asked whether she's in danger of mental illness since her family has a long history of it, she said she wasn't. A woman asked if she was still fertile after all her "health problems" and Sylvia told her right off the bat and very abruptly that no and then after a long and shocked pause from the woman, "Adopt!".
I certainly hope the woman did not take Browne's word for this.
An elderly Hispanic woman asked if she'll know anything about her biological father. I almost answered for Sylvia that no. Sylvia must have been thinking the same thing I was, that there's not much chance of finding the biological father of a woman that looked like she was in her 60s or 70s because she also immediatly said "no". She, however, helpfully added "but I think a foreign country is involved". An even older white woman (in her 80s or 90s) asked later on if she'll ever know anything of her biological parents. Sylvia said no but told her parents names were Marie and Warren.
A very young Hispanic woman said she was toying with becoming a housewife but was torn between that and a career but it all would depend on whether she marries the man she's now seeing in the immediate future and whether she should.
I immediatly understood what she was saying but Sylvia totally misunderstood and when the woman clarified several times that what she was asking was did she pick the right man and then flat out asked if he's "the one", Sylvia immediatly said "Oh, is he the one? Sure he is! He's the one! You got it!"
It could have been my imagination but she looked unconvinced. Sylvia went on "I see him now. He's got dark hair" and after a positive reaction "kinda wavy hair" and when she affirmed "tall and slim", at which this girl totally brightened.
In other readings on medical advice, a young man told her his father suffered from brain aneurysms and asked if he and his brother were in any danger of it and she said no. A woman asked if she and her daughter were in any danger of mental illness because it runs in her family and she said no. A woman in her 30s who's had some sort of mental illness, she didn't say what, since she was 16 years old asked when it was going to stop and Sylvia said "when you see another doctor", prompting her to burst into tears.
There was one woman whose home was burglarized and onl had part of her property recovered and wanted to know if her family jewelry would be recovered, Sylvia told her no, which given the situation, anyone could have told her.
There were some more questions about careers and career decisions and advice on buying and selling homes, to which she gave just dumb answers like "Yes cause the market's really good now and it's gonna be like that for a couple more years."
There were two people who asked about their past lives. She remembered to make one of them a midwestern farmer after making the other one a gladiator, which Montel caught and complimented her on: "I'm glad you say that cause all the other psychics make you, like, the queen. Everyone was Cleopatra!"
I have heard Montel say this on other shows, and Browne herself has mentioned in at least one of her books that she has never met anyone who was famous in a past life. However, according to ex-Novus people, Browne has told many of the people in her office that they are the reincarnation of very famous historical and Biblical figures.
But that is a topic for another article.
Then it started getting really serious. One person after another started asking about family deaths, including two women (in separate cases) who wanted to know about their sons' murders and the identities of their killers.
I was very strongly reminded of Ryan Catcher's mother when she [] invented some fake stories about gangs and car crashes and christened the killers "Juan" (for an African-American mother) and "David".
"His name was Juan. Ask them about Juan. ", she said, pronouncing it "Wan".
"Wan?" asked the woman.
"Well, they'll probably say it "John" but it's Wan cause that's the Spanish for it", she informed her, like this woman doesn't know.
One thing that was particularly sad was a woman in her late 30s or 40s who was on the verge of tears when she asked if her mother was happy with the care she and her siblings had given her before she died.
Mercifully, Sylvia said yes, absolutely and then pushed farther and told the woman she had gone above and beyond the call of duty and that she had done everything she could cause most people do nothing. The poor woman burst into tears.
Another really sad one was a young man whose father died in 2001 over Christmas. He wanted to know if his father had any messages for his mother and brothers and him but Sylvia hit him with "Who's Brad?" and when the young man didn't know, she pushed it again: "Cause he says that he's with someone named Brad" and when the young man really didn't know, she said "Ask your family members, you're older family members, they'll know who he is" and then switched to "And I see something to do with a uniform".
He was puzzling over that a long while and even when she was prompting him over the uniform thing, he kept denying it until he offered that his father once was in the military. And she and Montel shouted him down and completely lorded it over him. Out on the street, when the whole thing was over, I overheard him a man who looked like his uncle or stepfather marvelling over the uniform thing while he was still puzzling over "Brad" on the way out: "Yeah, but I don't know anyone named Brad...".
As I said earlier, she doesn't say "I have a cousin Brad," but simply "Who's Brad?", which drew a blank. She then blames the miss on the man rather than herself, insisting that if he asks his older relatives, they will know a Brad.
And, chances are, if he asks enough of his relatives, one of them will know of a Brad somehow connected to the family, as they would with any other relatively common first name.
One person that really stuck in my mind was a woman who's son commited suicide.
She went up to the microphone and asked "What happened to my son?!"
Dead silence from Sylvia Browne.
"What could we have done differently?!"
I guess she picked up, like everyone else did, that he either committed suicide or unintentionally killed himself and immediatly bounced back with "Nothing, you could have done nothing, you did everything you could, he was past help."
The woman asked if he was on the Other Side and Sylvia immediatly said "yes", but then-
"You said in your books that suicide doesn't count! And that's what he was."
Sylvia quickly came out of that one with "It counts if it's mental illness and that's what he was".
Twice during the show, she tried the old play of suddenly calling out a name.
"I'm getting a Kevin...did anyone here lose a Kevin?"
Montel : "Kevin?...Kevin?"
One woman finally stood up and said that years ago she lost an uncle Kevin and Sylvia said something like I see something in the head, some kinda trauma in the head and however many prompts she tried, the woman negated them until someone else stood up and said she had a cousin Kevin who died and when Sylvia started on her and prompted her about the head and trauma thing, she supplied her with the information that her uncle died in a car crash. Everyone clapped.
Another time, she called out Jennifer. After some time, one woman stood up and said she had a sister named Jennifer but that "she's still in this world" but Sylvia launched into cold-reading her about her sister and her death, until she repeasted that her sister was still alive. And got a very rude shout down from Montel.
Throughout this entire sad and sorry mess, I was jotting down notes and keeping mental notes to share with my fellow posters on the JFEF forum. I described my experience and waited for the episode to air to compare it to the taping. It never did and I can imagine why. If Montel Williams or Sylvia Browne ever read this, I want them to tell them: Shame on you. You must have no conscience and no honor and no compassion, to act the way you do.
I'd also make it clear that I generally disapprove of this sort of spying and usually wouldn't think it was either honorable or fair. However, given what Sylvia and Montel do, I have absolutely no regrets about planting myself in the audience.
If one person is saved from being victimized by a cold reader and her slimeball enabler by this account, it will all have been worth it.
top of page
Analysis
Like all the email articles on this site, this one is of course, one person's opinion. And I think it is safe to say that a fan of Sylvia Browne would describe the taping very differently.
One thing that is interesting is the fact that this particular episode has not been aired, as far as I know. Why not? Was it a particularly bad taping? From this woman's description, it seems a bit of a train wreck, but I would think that there would have been an hour's worth of readings out of it.
However, there is another possible reason why this show was never aired. This woman first had tickets to one of the tapings back in January, but these tapings were cancelled only days after Browne's involvement in the Shawn Hornbeck story broke on this site. Browne was avoiding all media, and apparently cancelled her Montel tapings as well, perhaps not wanting to deal with questions about it from the studio audience. Those tapings were rescheduled for late April 2007.
When this woman received her tickets, she mentioned it on the message board of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), where skeptical discussion of Sylvia Browne is common. If the people in Browne's office keep an eye on those skeptical discussions (and I have been told that they do), then they knew that this woman was attending the taping on this day.
In that discussion on the JREF board, it was suggested by some that this woman try to ask Browne a phony question ("psychic baiting," as the woman mentions in her email). They even suggest to this woman that she invite me along to the taping, since she had two tickets.
Did someone in Browne's office tell Montel's staff about this? One indication this may be true comes from the email from Nancy Williams in this article, where Reverend Williams says this of a Montel Taping she was to attend, also in late April of 2007:
A good friend of mine, also a Novus Spiritus minister, called Prelate Michael McClellan after the bus trip and while speaking with him she asked him about the change in procedure that occurred. At first she was told that the office had heard a rumor about someone going to the Montel show to cause trouble for Sylvia Browne. During this conversation, Prelate McClellan stated that he’d been informed that someone had made a post on James Randi’s forum which led them to believe someone may be attempting to cause trouble for Sylvia at the Montel taping. He said he assumed it was me who was going there to create trouble for Sylvia.
So, perhaps the people at Montel's show were afraid that some "psychic baiting" had gone on, and decided not to air the show, for fear that after the show aired, people would come forward to state that Browne had been fooled by them.
top of page
Conclusion
My thanks to this woman for writing this account of her experience, and for allowing me to share it here on the site.
top of page
Related Links
Clicking on any of these links will load a separate browser window for viewing the linked page.
StopSylviaBrowne.com is not responsible for the content of any of these linked pages.
top of page
