Email: "Their Blatant Disdain For Others"
A former minister with Sylvia Browne's church shares some observations.
"I resigned from the organization after coming to the conclusion that Sylvia, her sons, her staff, and the Board of Directors of the Society of Novus Spiritus are dishonest."
- Former Novus Spiritus Minister
Background
This evening I received an email which I felt was well-worth sharing on the site.
As with all emails I publish on the site, this one is simply one person's opinion.
But that person is someone with an insight into Sylvia Browne and her organization which most of us will never experience.
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The Email
Here, with the author's permission, is that email:
Subject: Their blatant distain for others
From:
Date: Tue, Aug 14, 2007 8:10 pm
To:
Dear Robert,
I admire the way with which you have conducted yourself during the course of your campaign to "Stop Sylvia Browne". I am a former Minister of the Society of Novus Spiritus. I resigned from the organization after coming to the conclusion that Sylvia, her sons, her staff, and the Board of Directors of the Society of Novus Spiritus are dishonest. I am disgusted by what these people are doing to others under the guise of a caring and helpful organization. I am saddened by the fact that too many of Sylvia's fans and church/study group members do not give due and proper consideration to your research, but I know how that goes, because I was once one of them. There was a time when I too would have dismissed your campaign as an attempt to sidetrack the Truth about God and Sylvia's abilities. I now know better, as does the growing group of former believers. Far too many of the calls and emails I received as a Minister were from people who were disappointed with the services and products they had purchased from Sylvia's companies and/or Novus.
I know that much of the public goodwill enjoyed by Sylvia and her staff is based on several core beliefs, one of which being the illusion that Sylvia and her people are honest and caring. They certainly claim to be so, and in public they try to appear to be, but I will share a true story that may help people begin to see that all is not as it seems. This story is based upon my personal observations made in Campbell CA while attending the SNS Accelerated Minister in Training program in 2004. There were thirty-three invitees who attended the week-long training program.
Many of my fellow attendees had thought to bring along gifts for Sylvia. These gifts were all from the heart, meant to convey to Sylvia the love and appreciation we felt for her in our belief that she was the herald of a spiritual path that had changed our lives, one that promised to boost the spirituality and joy of all humanity. On the first morning of class we were told that Sylvia was coming in to speak and that we were not to touch her unless she offered her hand. We were told not to speak out but that if we had a question to raise our hands and wait for Sylvia to acknowledge us. We were also told that when the lunch break came around we were to wait until Sylvia had left the room before leaving our seats. As I recall there was no mention of the impressive pile of gifts, many obviously handmade and well crafted, that sat to the right of Sylvia's chair, placed there by the attendees as we entered the room.
Sylvia spent the morning discussing the philosophy and reiterating that everything she does is for the church. At one point she made it clear that when we returned to our hometowns we were required to be self-sufficient where money was concerned. If we wanted to open a church we should do so, but financially it had to stand on it's own. There was one young attendee who stated that she had the money to build a church. As I understand it she moved to Campbell shortly after the training and spent a lot of time working closely with Sylvia and the staff, but then she was gone by Ordination with no official explanation. I sometimes wonder whether she ever donated that money to build a church, and what became of it if she did.
At some point we were told that we were breaking for lunch. Sylvia left quickly, but many of us went to lunch together and during the course of our conversation the gifts were discussed. There were several people at that lunch who had brought gifts for Sylvia and we discussed how much thought and effort had gone into them. Someone mentioned that they had wished that Sylvia had acknowledged the gifts that morning, and we all agreed that since Sylvia hadn't done so yet she'd certainly do so in the afternoon.
We returned from lunch and found Sylvia's senior staff going through the presents. At first I assumed they were simply admiring them, but I soon realised that they were choosing the ones they intended to keep for themselves. I saw Linda Rossi wrap a pretty scarf around her neck and she was still wearing it when she left. I heard something to the effect that it would come in handy when she went to visit her family in freezing Detroit. I was quite shocked by this behavior, by the apparent disregard for the feelings of those who had brought the gifts. I didn't know what was worse, Sylvia not acknowledging the gifts (which she didn't ever do) or the staff rifling through them like they were at a rummage sale, without so much as a word to those who'd brought them!
As I lay in bed that night I came up with an answer that satisfied me. I have since learned that all too often we interpret what we experience according to our beliefs and our wishes. At the time I sincerely believed that Sylvia and her staff were who they claimed to be; honest, hardworking people devoted to helping others through spirituality. I decided that they must have been accustomed to being inundated with gifts to Sylvia at the office, so many gifts that Sylvia she could not possibly take the time to admire them all let alone express meaningful gratitude for them. I decided that the senior staff, being trustworthy and deserving, had probably been given permission by Sylvia to take whichever items they wanted because it would be much better than just letting the gifts sit somewhere collecting dust. But I knew, somewhere deep inside me it just didn't sit right. They didn't even have enough respect for us say "Thank you" and then wait until they were alone to divide the haul. And Sylvia was right there. And we never did hear so much as a "thanks".
Robert I do not expect any of Sylvia's hardcore fans to be swayed by my word, but for every one of them there will be many others who are able to weigh the evidence for themselves. I would like to suggest a way to these people to test the true priorities of Sylvia and her staff. You see, when I was with the organization it was clear that requests for our revenue generating products were given much higher priority than any others. Here are some helpful tools that you may wish to share with all who are trying to make up their own mind about Sylvia and Novus:
- Contact the office requesting information about booking one of Sylvia's shows in Vegas, buying her newest book, or even about attending the hypnosis school.
- Make a note of how long it takes to get an answer as well as the tone of that answer.
- Have someone else request an explanation of the well-substantiated articles on Stop Sylvia Browne, or about Anderson Cooper's 360 show last January.
- Make note of the timing and tone of the answer. If you receive a canned answer such as, "The sceptics are out to get us", or, "We can't comment on that", or "They editted it to make us look bad", point to some of the stronger evidence and politely but firmly request meaningful answers to your questions.
- Compare the results.
Sylvia's staffers are monitoring your site and I wouldn't be surprised to see them begin to treat the "unimportant" requests more kindly. They may even drum up some testimonials from people who have had readings. Time will tell however, for although they may be able to play it straight for a while, these people will quickly revert to their old ways, because that is just how they really are, and they simply do not have substantial evidence to support their claims. And besides, they'd rather be shearing sheep. I'd like to discuss my experiences with you further.
Sincerely,
"Freer every day"
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Conclusion
I think that it is probably not uncommon for a celebrity to receive gifts from their fans and followers, and pass those gifts on to their staff.
But to do so right in front of those people, without so much as acknowledging the gifts, shows an arrogance and disdain which in my mind matches the attitude Browne shows to audience members on the Montel Williams Show.
It has nothing to do with whether or not Browne has the "psychic abilities" she claims, but I believe that it illustrates a lot about her character, and about how she and her staff view those who follow her.
My thanks to the ex-minister who sent the email. I look forward to hearing more about his/her experiences with Sylvia Browne, her staff, and with the Society of Novus Spiritus.
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