Strange Encounters

In 2002 Shawn Hornbeck went missing from his Richwoods, Missouri home. Four months later his parents appeared on the Montel Williams show where "psychic" Sylvia Browne described the boys abductor as a tall, dark skinned, hispanic man with dread locks.

Browne claimed the boy could be found in a wooded area near two large jagged boulders. She told the distraught parents that their son was dead, thereby shattering their hope, causing them ever more grief.

A search for the boy's body was conducted, no body was found. If the police did in fact act on Sylvia's tip regarding the boys location, shame on them, but shouldn't we also consider that she hampered a police investigation with false claims? Is there a crime in there somewhere?

Sylvia Browne made her statements matter-of-factly, as if there were no doubt in her mind of the attacker's appearance, or that the boy was dead. The mother wept upon hearing this horrible news.

Now we learn that Browne couldn't have been more wrong. Shawn was found alive. And his captor? An obviously caucasian male, far from dark-skinned, no dreadlocks. Sylvia Browne brought unmentionable distress and sadness to this family with her erroneous claims.

Regardless of how many successes Browne claims to have had, there is no running record of them, but apparently plenty of evidence of her failures. According to Robert S. Lancaster, who operates www.stopsylviabrowne.com, Sylvia Browne has been wrong most of the time regarding missing persons cases she has offered "psychic" services for.

Believers in Sylvia's claimed psychic abilities will certainly make excuses in support of her. Do they not see the incredible tragedy of this situation?

There is no evidence that psychic powers exist. There are only those who choose to believe. Those who believe because they are easily fooled, and those who fool themselves because they want, maybe need, to believe in it.

Belief in something does not mean it is real.