Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne (born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker on October 19, 1936 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a well-known claimed psychic medium and author of numerous books on spirituality. She began her psychic readings in 1973 and has attracted a relatively large following. She has performed thousands of one-on-one readings and assignments with a wide variety of groups and individuals. It has been claimed that these include the FBI and former U.S. presidents however little evidence exists to support these claims. Sylvia Browne has appeared on many television programs. Browne claims as well to have worked with the police on criminal investigations and missing person cases (see psychic detective), but skeptic James Randi disputes this. An examination by Brill's Content of 35 cases discussed by her on ten episodes of The Montel Williams Show found that "In 21, the details were too vague to be verified. Of the remaining 14, law-enforcement officials or family members involved in the investigations say that Browne had played no useful role." [1] (http://www.skepdic.com/psychdet.html)

Browne considers herself to be a gnostic Christian, that is, a seeker of knowledge under the Christian faith. Her beliefs include the notion of spirit guides, discarnate spirits who have previously lived mortal lives and now watch over currently living mortals. Communication from these guides might manifest, for example, as the "little voice in the head" telling a person to go another way home from work to avoid danger or waking up a person in the middle of the night with news that someone has died. Browne professes the ability to speak with her spirit guides, and has given details of fifty-four of her own former lives as divined by them.

Browne has made many predictions of varying accuracy concerning the future, including the "hiding in caves" of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, the death of bin Laden (later reported by the CIA as false), a verdict of "not guilty" in the Robert Blake case (later established true), and the appearance of alien life on Earth by the year 2010. It is worth noting that her predictions have not touched upon some of the major events of the last few years such as the September 11, 2001 attacks or the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. (though Mrs. Browne has stated she was not given the 9/11 information "beforehand", other than having rather disturbing dreams involving a lot of fire). Her past predictions no longer appear on her website, but can be found on Internet archives such as the Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/).

Skeptics assert that during her crowd readings Browne cold reads to fish for information, rather than displaying actual psychic abilities. They also assert that during her televised performances she may be chatting with the audience during commercial breaks and using the information gleaned then when the cameras roll again, as has been claimed by Randi for certain other television mediums. On September 3 2001 Browne stated on Larry King Live that she would take up Randi's $1,000,000 challenge to demonstrate supernatural abilities in a controlled scientific test. Randi has tried to contact her several times, but to date she has not responded.

Browne has written a number of books that include both serious and humorous stories detailing her adventures. She is the head of the Sylvia Brown Corporation, and the founder of a church in Campbell, California known as the Society of Novus Spiritus. She acquired the surname Brown during the third of her four marriages, and enhanced it with a final e for her stage name.

Sylvia Browne claims to know what it is like in Heaven. In her book Life On The Other Side, she says the temperature is a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit, that there are no insects (unless you want there to be), that pets go to Heaven, and that you can build your house wherever you want it to be unless it obscures the view of a river or some trees, in which case you need permission.

In 1992, Sylvia Browne was convicted for selling securities in a gold mining venture under false pretences.[2] (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_6_28/ai_n6361823)

External links

• Sylvia Browne website (http://www.sylvia.org/)
• James Randi on Sylvia Browne and his challenge (http://www.randi.org/sylvia/)