(Theoretical Inquiry Special) Psychic Watch Part One: Sylvia Browne Incompetent Medium or fraud?

Psychic's, Mediums; people who claim to do the incredible, boasting they have performed feats such as; predicting outcomes to events as well as seeing or hearing spirits of the deceased. Today's theory will be an examination of world renown psychic; Sylvia Browne. Over the years, Sylvia has been known to have spoken to dead people, appeared on Montel Williams' talk show (to talk to dead people of course), has predicted the outcomes of others futures, made guest appearances on radio shows, and has accompanied law officials in an attempt to help uncover missing person cases as well as criminal cases. As a psychic, Browne has stated her accuracy is somewhere between Eighty seven to ninety percent, but based on my research, I have found evidence to prove otherwise.




Evidence #1: 116 failed cases and Sylvia's Credibility

Despite having claims of a good measure of accuracy with her predictions and readings, Sylvia has no evidence to backup her claims. As a psychic, Browne had taken on 116 cases of both missing person as well as murder cases with only 33 of them holding a conclusive answer; her level of accuracy is zero. To be fair, the remaining 83 cases were and still are unresolved, but this fact alone does not validate her credibility. Of course her followers will make the argument that the cases in question were not available for further information, leaving us in the dark as to whether or not Sylvia's involvement holds any relevance; which can be seen as leverage in favor of giving Browne benefit of the doubt. However, the argument itself is weak and doesn't account for the 33 cases where she was not only wrong, but we learn that both law enforcement officials as well as families involved in the cases have stated; the role she played in the case was not helpful. Also worth noting; seven out of the thirty three cases were previously unresolved which decreases her level of credibility.

 Given the fact Browne, claimed her accuracy was as high as 87-90 percent, we would expect her to have been right on some of these cases, however; on that account she fails to deliver. Other sources who have attempted to analyze her predictions such as; The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry,  have found her predictions to have a history of being wrong. Another blow to her credibility comes in the form of a lesser known fact; Browne, along with her husband at the time, were indicted with several charges of investment fraud and grand theft in 1992. The Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, discovered the couple had sold securities in a gold-mining venture under false pretenses.  In the end, Sylvia was indicted on the charge of grand larceny after pleading "no contest" to securities fraud. The couple then received one year probation and was also sentenced to 200 hours of community service.



Evidence#2: The Ariel Castro Kidnappings

Between the years 2002-2004, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" Dejesus, were kidnapped in Cleveland, Ohio by Ariel Castro; a former bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District who was eventually arrested in 2013.

In 2004, Louwana Miller, mother of Amanda Berry; made a public appearance on the Montel Williams show. Armed with knowledge of Browne  frequently appearing on the program, Miller intended to seek an answer for her daughter's disappearance, hoping to find her alive with the aid of Sylvia's powers. Instead of providing peace of mind, Browne told Louwana her daughter was dead. As a result of this declaration, Miller was devastated. It was this devastation which caused her to take down pictures and sell her daughters computer. Not only did she lose a large amount of credibility for her screw up on Montel; she also caused Berry's mother mental distress by profoundly affecting her with a wild assumption to which she had no real basis for. Despite her claims, Miller never stopped looking. It was later discovered Browne's prediction had been wrong; Amanda, along with Michelle as well as Georgina, were found alive on May 6, 2013 after Berry managed to escape with her six year old daughter. Unfortunately Berry's mother; Louwana died after being hospitalized with Pancreatitis in 2006.

This shocking turn of events became the first known public showing of Sylvia's false predictions coming back to haunt her. To make matters worse, upon hearing news of Amanda's survival, Sylvia issued out a lackluster statement to the family: "For more than 50 years as a spiritual psychic and guide, when called upon to either help authorities with missing person cases or to help families with questions about their loved ones, I have been more right than wrong. If ever there was a time to be grateful and relieved for being mistaken, this is that time. Only God is right all the time. My heart goes out to Amanda Berry, her family, the other victims and their families. I wish you a peaceful recovery." - Sylvia Browne. The sheer callousness of Browne's response speaks volumes of her character; as a result, she had received a hefty amount of criticism from both the psychic community as well as others who were fans of hers or genuinely outraged citizens.




Evidence #3: Sago Mining Disaster: The Browne Method of Reading

On January 2, 2006, there was an explosion inside the Sago coal mine located in Sago, West Virginia. The blast caused the area to collapse, trapping thirteen miners for a total of two days. News of the disaster spread like a wildfire, catching the attention of multiple stations across the nation, gaining worldwide coverage.

Amongst the many voices to give commentary on this accident, was none other than Sylvia Browne. Browne made an appearance on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, a US radio talk show program. At the time a report stating all thirteen miners were found was played during the show. When asked about what happened in the Sago mine, Sylvia claimed all thirteen men would make it out alive. It was later discovered she was wrong and the initial report of the men being alive was an error, only one of them had survived. Despite this foul up, Browne still maintains a large amount of fans who believe in her without question.  As previously stated in the first form of evidence; Sylvia has went on record claiming to have an accuracy level which ranged between eighty seven and ninety percent, yet the mining accident just proves to be another failed prediction; which begs the question; what exactly is her method for telling the future or talking to dead people? How can so many people be convinced by her alleged abilities? Perhaps an examination of how her "powers" work will give us an answer to all these questions.

Like others who call themselves psychics, Browne provides a service known as a psychic reading. Psychic readings are a method to which a Medium or psychic claim to channel either a spirit or a higher power to utilize ones heightened perceptive abilities, which include natural extensions of basic human senses, such as; touch, taste, sight, sound, and instinct. These natural extensions are known to the paranormal community as; Clairvoyance: {vision}, Clairsentience: {feeling}, Clair cognizance: {factual knowing}, as well as Clairaudience: {hearing}. As with others who bare her self proclaimed title; Browne's supposed abilities have no distinguishable differences from what magicians call; Cold Reading. Cold Reading is a set of techniques used by professional manipulators in order to get a subject to behave in a certain manner with the intent on making a person think the reader has special abilities regarding knowledge of a person's past, present, or future. The essential keys to this deceptive art requires a practitioner to make guesses, state suggestions, and ask questions without ever truly telling the subject anything; all information is practically given by the subject rather than their reader. In each of her public showings on programs like: Montel, Sylvia, has employed these methods to reach her targets, leaving them with a false impression of her abilities.


                                             

                                             Was she a fraud or just incompetent?



Psychics have a knack for preying on the weak minded, grief stricken individuals, as well as exploiting a natural human curiosity for anything having to do with the unknown. More than any other psychic before her, Sylvia has single handedly messed with the emotions of many people giving them false information pertaining to lost love ones, missing family members, all while milking them dry with service fees ranging from 400-800 dollars for readings. In the end it all comes down to this; Browne has never once been accurate in any of her readings, whether it was private or public; any claims of her doing so can and have been easily dismissed once you expose the fact her psychic abilities are nothing more than parlor tricks used by stage performers. When you take all this into account, it becomes far too obvious. Despite what many want to believe; Sylvia was not a woman blessed with amazing powers from beyond, no. Sadly, Sylvia Browne, was nothing more than a callous, arrogant, manipulative fraud with the sole intent to con people out of their hard earned money.

For a detailed list of all the cases Sylvia got wrong or was previously unresolved, feel free to check the links below.
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/psychic_defective_sylvia_brownes_history_of_failure/

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_psychic_defective_revisited_years_later_sylvia_brownes_accuracy_remains/

For further information regarding Sylvia's arrest: http://www.casewatch.org/crim/browne/complaint.shtml

Today's theory is dedicated to the fraud herself; Sylvia Browne, October 19, 1936 – November 20, 2013.