Home | Articles | Reviews | Forum | News | Store

Psychic Sylvia Browne

I was sitting home in front of my TV with a bad case of poison ivy, trying everything in my power not to scratch it. Having just returned from the doctor I was flippping through the channels and stopped on the Montel William's Show. His special guest was "psychic" Sylvia Browne, who was there to promote her new book "Secrets & Mysteries of the World."

While I do think there are people in the world with special talents, or gifts, that allow them to see or know things phsychically, I think there are just as many people who have a knack of fooling the more gullible members of our society and exploiting this for their livelihood. They are nothing more than sideshow entertainers.

The introduction to psychic Sylvia's website reads:

"Welcome, weary traveler, you have arrived at a place of Spiritual Renewal. Within these pages lie wonderful things for your mind to ponder; things which will challenge your understanding of Life - things which will spark a very dim memory of truth - even things which have never entered your mind, but now having done so, you will never forget them. Visiting here explains the Meaning of Life."

Even in establishing what you will find at her site she is being vague. The first example is the statement, "...things which will spark a very dim memory of truth..." What the heck does that mean?

Second, "...even things which have never entered your mind, but now having done so, you will never forget them." Not a very well phrased statement, I'd love to read her book if only to examine the quality of her writing. What this statement seems to suggests is that things she says may not seem to make sense, and will likely be very vague, but once you have them in your head you may be able connect her ideas with coincidences that arrise later, thereby apparently certifying her phsychic abilities.

She claims, "Visiting here explains the Meaning of Life."

After visiting Sylvia's website I have no more data to stear me toward the meaning of life than I had before. To tell the truth, I'm not looking for the meaning of life, I'm looking for meaning IN life. I think that's the key.

Anyway, call me naive, my spirit guides seem to stear me down the path of practicality and reality, and serve to keep me in touch with my roots and herritage. For example, I was very close to my grandmother so I do believe that she is around me still, and she's more than welcome in my home. I do feel a connection, even with her gone for so many years.

I also feel, or maybe just hope, that energies remain on objects that were held dear by the dearly departed. I have a violin that was owned by my aunt Mara before she passed away. She died before I was born. I never met her, but her violin is now one of my prize possessions, given to me by my grandmother. I'd like to believe Mara's spirit is with the violin.

One time, when I lived back at home with Mom and Dad, I was playing the piano and distinctly heard a female voice remark upon the completion of my song. She said, "That was beautiful." I'd like to think it was my grandma, or Mara, but it just as easily could have been a combination of sounds that happened to resemble a human voice. There's my skeptical mind getting in the way again.

Back to Sylvia. While watching her "performance" on the Montel William's Show I noticed she acted rather highbrow, and also exhibited signs of boredom. At times it seemed like it was above her to be entertaining the questions of the lowly pions in the audience. She seemed to assume that no one had the ability to comprehend what she was talking about.

She was dismissive, crude, insensitive, and pompous. She frequently gnawed on her grotesquely long fingernails too.

A few audience participants were obviously unconvinced of Sylvia's abilities. One woman asked Sylvia to identify a piece of jewelry given to her by a relative before her death. Sylvia responded, "It was a locket." And when the woman showed no positive reaction to the "guess" Sylvia continued, "A small locket." The woman remained unimpressed by Sylvia's response, she was obviously way off the mark. But hey, two outa three ain't bad right?

I watched Sylvia talk to a grieving mother about her son's abduction and subsequent death. Sylvia said he was also sexually abused, but added that this had occurred after death. The mother was unaware of this, why would Sylvia decide to bring this to her attention? Was it really necessary to add to the grief of a mother who had lost her son?

In all I found Sylvia's performance boring, unconvincing, and very close to a joke. I thought Montel William's was about quality content. Not everyone can be an Oprah.

I wish I was phychic. Maybe I would have foreseen my weed-whacking mishap and avoided this dreaded poison ivy altogether, and this episode of Montel!

Drew Vics — 06-09-2005