RIP Sylvia Browne

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No one important; just a self-proclaimed "psychic" who ...

... took money, under false pretenses, from people who are in very vulnerable positions, emotionally.

... constantly gave medical diagnoses without any medical training. This can obviously be dangerous, leading people to pursue incorrect diagnoses, and to possibly ignore the advice of their own medical professionals.

... gave advice to families of missing children (and adults). Not only does this false information add to the trauma being suffered by the family (read about Opal Jo Jennings, for just one example, and the claim she made about Amanda Berry, for another), but can lead those families to insist on law enforcement following up on these fictional "leads," wasting hours and manpower which could have been put to use following up on real leads.

... invented false information about, and false messages from lost loved ones, she is stepping on the true memories of these people.

Like I said, no one important.

Last edited by Fnord on 21 Nov 2013, 10:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

maybe you read people better than I do. that would not surprise me, as I consistently misread people.

I doubt that. where something like a psychic is concerned there will probably be about 5 million different interpretations of what she's doing.

Do you like John Edward(s) - (I always forget which one has the s on the end)?

I took a class with James Van Pragh. I also thought he was extremely mean on tv, but in real life he was pretty nice. so that just goes to show you.

I suggest that people read This Wikipedia Article on Sylvia Browne and decide for themselves.

my fave psychic is George Anderson.

Oh yeah, he does seem pretty cool.

You know she died in the town where Walter is.
Not that that has anything to do with anything.

Just my opinion, but based on observations and what others have relayed to me...

Sylvia Brown was mentally ill, AND she was psychic, AND she cared about people AND she was an opportunist AND she felt great pains at others suffering AND some of her big discoveries of missing people were actually predictions of other psychics who would call her [or she would call] with their gut feelings. When she had multiple identical "readings," she would then pass on the information as her own AND she tended to confuse simple mind reading with visits from beyond and precognition. AND it would not surprise me to find out that the first thing she did upon passing through the pearly gates was light up a cigarette. [ sort of kidding on that one]

i believe she was a good woman, not perfect. She did bring comfort to many.

Did she arrange her funeral in advance?

ruveyn

I would place her as an entertainer in the "cold reading" business. That is some sort of dialouge much based on guessing and assumptions. "So he had dark hair, yes? Or more like blonde, yes, i see a blonde man..." And sloppy tv hosts like Montel Williams just let her get away with this embarrasing waste of time.

Doubtful ... she predicted that she would die 11 years from now.

OP:

I have two of her books, one on paranormal definitions (just a general collection of multiple interpretations on all things paranormal), and one about dreams and possible interpretations. I found both rather good in some parts, and also very speculative in other parts. However, her merit is not at issue here, a member of society, who was looked upon with great debate and often as well as a guiding light (for some), has died. Anyone who actually is trying to use this thread, which is an informative thread about someone dying, as a means of discrediting the woman, in my honest and blunt opinion, simply must have bad taste because there is a time and a place for everything, and this is neither the time, nor place, to try to discredit the dead. The thread is about the unfortunate passing of a human being that lived as well all have on this world: with an independently thinking mind, and with their own sets of beliefs and traditions. Who cares if they were "right" or "wrong"? And who's to say what is "right" and "wrong" when it comes to beliefs anyway? Certainly not I, nor anyone else here.

[Rant=Begin] (not technically related to Sylvia's passing, but it's been mentioned so I'll respond)
On that note however, I would like to mention a few things because I hear these all the time and they're utterly absurd:
"Psychic" =/= "seer of the future". This stereotype gets on my nerves. Like stereotypes about autism/AS/ASD's, this stereotype is also based on ignorance. Research is your friend, if you don't research, then don't try to say "oh, well they didn't see that coming" because that's completely idiotic, seriously. Of course they didn't "see it coming". If you want to use that as some kind of "evidence" then you may as well say that the weather man and meteorology is fake because they didn't predict the rain. Do you see how completely stupid that sounds?
Second: I don't care what profession anyone claims to be a part of, if person A gives person B advice after person B comes to them asking for guidance, and their asking is based on nothing more than popularity (and it always was in the case of sylvia browne), then it's person B's responsibility to act on it or not, that is/has/ and always will be how real individuals live their lives, whatever happens to person B as a result of taking the advice of any "reading" is solely person B's fault, for better or worse. If person B is desperate enough to listen to person A, whom they don't know, about a situation that person A knows nothing about, then that is a phenomenally huge red flag right there that person B isn't exactly thinking straight to begin with. You cannot possibly equate that person A is to blame for any "wrong" information because person B took what person A said at face value as a flat conclusive answer to a problem that more than likely was so far beyond fixing that it was unrealistic to assume anything good would occur. Person A's words did absolutely jack-diddly-squat, it's person B's actions, coupled with unrealistic thinking that is to blame for any kind of misfortune to occur as a result of any communication with person A (which once again, has always been initiated by persons B).
Now, I'm not saying that Sylvia Browne was a fake, nor am I concluding that she wasn't. I'm just saying that people cannot possibly (within any logical reasoning) blame someone for not knowing something about someone or something else. That's about as stupid as saying (to reiterate an example) "oh the weather man was wrong about this rainy weather, so he's a fake". It's quite honestly, laughable.
[Rant=End]

I'm sorry for your loss AuntBlabby. If you ever want to talk, my ear is here. (((hugs)))

Ditto.

Bro' Blabby-

I'll be honest - I hold psychics and soothsayers in low regard, as either preying on the vulnerable, or that they themselves are victims of their own self delusion. That being said, if Ms. Brown had brought you a degree of comfort, then that is indeed important, and at least that should be credited to her.