A look at the claims, predictions and behavior of a media "psychic".
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A look at the claims, predictions and behavior of a media "psychic".
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Larry King Live: "You're Telling Me My Mother Has Died?"A caller asks Browne for advice on dealing with her mother, and is told that her mother is dead. BackgroundOn December 5th, 2003, Sylvia Browne was the guest on CNN's Larry King Live show. During the show, she took several calls from viewers, including the one quoted below. The Call
The woman uses the past tense "had," apparently leading Browne to believe she was talking about a deceased mother. Not an unreasonable assumption, given the fact that she is normally asked about deceased relatives.
Cold readers generally tell a person what they think that person wants to hear. The caller said she had unresolved issues with her mother, so Browne blames it on the mother, saying that she was difficult to deal with. Then she tells the caller that everything is fine now, on "the other side," again, apparently what she thinks the woman wants to hear.
A cold reader generally "plays the odds" trying to appear to know things they "couldn't know." The caller is calling from Japan. It is a pretty safe bet that her mother is/was "little," at least by American standards.
I am beginning to notice that Browne quite often says "Yes, but see..." right after she finds out that she has apparently gotten something wrong.
AnalysisThe caller is not heard from again. Was her mother dead? We'll probably never know. Browne frequently says that she is not always right, that "only God is right all the time." And I have heard her state that her accuracy rate is only around 85% (if I recall correctly). Why then does she never seem to say "I could be wrong here" - especially when informing someone that a loved one is dead? Let's assume for the moment that she is a "real psychic." She apparently wasn't even certain that whatever spirit she was "seeing" was the caller's mother - she described her as "little", to make sure she had the right spirit. So, when the caller says that her mother is alive as far as she knows, why doesn't Browne say "Well, perhaps the little woman I am seeing is someone else"? This, like saying "Yes, but see...", is another of Browne's patterns. Although she likes to modestly say that she can't always be right, she rarely (if ever) admits to even the possibility that she could be wrong in any specific case. This is also classic cold reading - do not admit to being wrong. Insist that it is the person being "read" who is mistaken. ConclusionAs usual, this call has all the markings of a cold reading. Does that mean that it definitely was a cold reading? No. But I see no reason to assume otherwise. Related LinksClicking 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.
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