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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TVTalkShows.com: "A report on my session and dealings with Sylvia Browne"A woman makes an appointment for a phone reading with Sylvia Browne, then regrets having done so.
BackgroundAs I've mentioned elsewhere on this website, I occasionally hear people say "What does it matter whether Sylvia Browne is a fraud or not? She is just giving comfort to people. What's the harm in that?" Well, I've given examples which show that she doesn't always "comfort" people, such as in the article about the Opal Jo Jennings reading. But here is a case where a woman could well have suffered very real long-term harm from a Sylvia Browne reading. The PostsTVTalkShows.com is an internet message forum where various TV talk shows are discussed by those who love and hate them. One of the sections of the forum is the "Montel Williams and Psychic Sylvia Browne Fan Forum Message Board", devoted to discussions of that show, and of Williams and Browne. While reading through it, I found an interesting thread (a group of messages on a specific topic) titled "A report on my session and dealings with Sylvia Browne". The following posts (messages) are from that thread, and are reproduced here by permission of the tvtalkshows.com webmaster. All emphasis mine. The First Post
I had heard that the waiting list was four years long. If the dates here are accurate, it was just over one year in this woman's case. The message continues:
Interesting that Browne does not take questions regarding missing persons nor missing items. She claims in her books and on television that she finds missing people all the time. Why would she not want to take questions about them? The message continues:
If I am correct, and Browne is only pretending to be psychic, playing "cold-reading" guessing games with the people who come to her for help and advice, then this woman was planning on making an extremely important life decision, which could have a long-lasting impact on her and her husband's financial well-being, on Sylvia's guess. The results could well be tragic, but would Sylvia be held responsible for those results? Of course not. She would have her $700, and that would be the end of it as far as she would be concerned. The message continues:
Web pages listing some of Browne's many failed "world event" predictions can be found in the Related Links section below. The message continues:
The Second PostThe following day, she entered another post on the thread:
The Third PostFive days later, she posted the following:
AnalysisSo, a happy ending of sorts. She got her money back. Is this policy at Browne's office, or was it only because this woman had let them know she was going to "let the world know" if she got a disappointing reading? Regarding Browne's not answering questions about missing persons, the following is a quote from her official web site's Frequently Asked Questions page:
This does not seem to make sense. If she has the time to spend 20-30 minutes on the phone with someone (at a fee of $750), why can't she spend that time answering questions about a missing person or a murder? We have already discussed on the site two missing persons cases (Ryan Katcher and Opal Jo Jennings) where Browne was totally incorrect. Perhaps Browne does not want to deal with calls from people upset that she was wrong about tragedies such as these. ConclusionIt is frightening that people are willing to make such important decisions based on the "psychic predictions" of Browne, and others like her. "What's the harm" in what Browne does? Even though this woman did not go through with her phone reading, her messages provide us with a clear example of just one type of harm Sylvia Browne's "readings" can cause. 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.
Here are some pages discussing some of Browne's many "failed predictions" concerning world events:
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