Psychic* Sylvia Browne Dies

[Amaris]

Renowned psychic Sylvia Browne -- a leader in the paranormal world who appeared regularly on television and radio and also wrote dozens of top-selling books -- died Wednesday in a northern California hospital, according to her website.

She was 77.


A believer in reincarnation as well as God, Browne conducted thousands of hypnotic regressions and hundreds of trance sessions to help people around the world, according to her official biography. She explained on CNN's Larry King Live that she both communicated with the dead and looked into the future.


"I don't know how I do it," Browne once explained on King's show. "I've done it all my life."
Her following extended well beyond those she helped directly. Some got to know her through her writings, others through the media -- including appearances on "Unsolved Mysteries," "Loveline with Dr. Drew" and "The Montel Williams Show," on which she was a weekly guest for 17 years.

You can read the article here: CNN Entertainment Article

I feel, and have always felt, that her actions played upon the pain and hurt felt by the gullible, the ignorant, and most importantly, the grieving, and all for profit. Still, I do not wish that anyone should die, and so I hope that she is now at peace.

As a side note, I added an asterisk to the title of "Psychic" because while that was her well known profession, I do not believe in the supposed supernatural abilities of psychics, nor do I believe her to have been a "psychic" by any stretch of the word.

 

[auntiehill]

Meh. I've no interest in frauds.

 

[Brolan]

Did she see it coming?

 

[Amaris]

Meh. I've no interest in frauds.

She's only on my radar because I also dislike frauds, particularly hucksters, and I'm also a devotee of James Randi, and their interactions are well known, and legion.

Did she see it coming?

I also had this same thought about two seconds after I found out. I felt really bad about it, but the thought had come unbidden. I try not to think such things.

 

[Taylirious]

I am sorry for her loved ones loss. I know her from Coast To Coast as a guest.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Did she see it coming?

Did she see it coming?

I also had this same thought about two seconds after I found out. I felt really bad about it, but the thought had come unbidden. I try not to think such things.

Same here, we must be psychic or something.

 

[Amaris]

James Randi will probably have something really classy to say in the next day or so.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Do you think she truly believed in what she did or that she was knowingly a fraud?

 

[RAMA]

I think psychics who do it for money should be arrested and fined. It's fraud.

RAMA

 

[Australis]

Did she see it coming?

I also had this same thought about two seconds after I found out. I felt really bad about it, but the thought had come unbidden. I try not to think such things.

Same here, we must be psychic or something.

Me too. But then, I am a bad person...

 

[Taylirious]

In HS a guy was punished for selling another student oregano the "victim" wasn't punished...who is at fault?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I also had this same thought about two seconds after I found out. I felt really bad about it, but the thought had come unbidden. I try not to think such things.

Same here, we must be psychic or something.

Me too. But then, I am a bad person...

Everyone thought this. Everyone.

 

[Thestral]

^ Yeah, same. Never heard of her, but it sounds like she was quite the scam; that said, sorry for her family. I really don't see the need for the asterisk though, seems a bit err... point-scorey, just imo.

 

[Tiberius]

Did she see it coming?

Let's see.

OK. Do you know when you’re going to die?

Yes. When I’m 88.

Source

I'd say not.

 

[Amaris]

^ Yeah, same. Never heard of her, but it sounds like she was quite the scam; that said, sorry for her family. I really don't see the need for the asterisk though, seems a bit err... point-scorey, just imo.

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm not glad she's dead, but I'm glad she can't perpetuate her fraud anymore.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Did she see it coming?

I also had this same thought about two seconds after I found out. I felt really bad about it, but the thought had come unbidden. I try not to think such things.

Those words were out of my mouth before I finished reading the headline. Don't feel bad about it. The woman was a huxter and a hoaxster.

 

[Miss Chicken]

James Randi will probably have something really classy to say in the next day or so.

What he has said on his Facebook page

When Sylvia Browne died, Montel Williams offered this sappy eulogy:

"A beacon that shined [sic] for so many was extinguished today, but its brightness was relit and will now shine forever for many of us from above."

To explain to this apparently dense man where his judgment has reverted to the level of a 5-year-old, I’ll point out that Browne was not at all funny "ho-ho" but frightening – to anyone with any compassion. She fed eagerly on the insecurities, the grief, the need and desperation, of her victims. They turned to her for help, at great cost -- $850 for a 20-minute telephone chat as she squatted before the TV camera like a taloned Jabba the Hutt confronting Luke Skywalker – played by Montel – and graveled out anything-but-funny, unfounded, useless, and damaging pap that added to their confusion and pain – but which made Montel and his sponsors ecstatic, because they could hear those cash register sounds as their products slid off store shelves.

And she let 10+ years go by yet never tried for the JREF million-dollar prize, as she’d agreed to do when we both appeared together on Larry King Live so many years ago…

I agree with JREF President D.J. Grothe that we do not celebrate her death, even as we criticize the way she lived. But I’ll be quite frank with you, I cannot mourn at Browne’s passing — she really hurt far too many people, and always so unapologetically.

It's unfortunate that she only stopped hurting so many people by dying.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, I was just coming to post that. I agree with him completely. There's no pleasure in her death, but it's sad that the only way she stopped preying on the distressed and grieving was that she died.

 

[Thestral]

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

I know, I read your opening post, but I think my comment still stands.