Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne
Born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker
(1936-10-19)October 19, 1936
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Died November 20, 2013(2013-11-20) (aged 77)
San Jose, California, United States
Occupation Self-described psychic and medium
Spouse(s) Gary Dufresne (1959–1972; div.)
Kenzil Dalzell Brown (1973–?; div.)
Larry Lee Beck (?–2002; div.)
Michael Ulery (2009–2013; her death)
Website Official website

Sylvia Celeste Browne (née Shoemaker; October 19, 1936 – November 20, 2013)[1] was an American author who claimed to be a medium with psychic abilities. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live TV shows and hosted an hour-long Internet radio show on Hay House Radio.

Browne was frequently discredited and faced criticism for making pronouncements that were later found to be false, including those related to missing persons such as Shawn Hornbeck and Amanda Berry. Jon Ronson in The Guardian dubbed her "America's most controversial psychic".

Browne was also a convicted criminal, having faced fraud and theft charges in 1992. Despite considerable negative publicity, she maintained a large following.[2]

Early life

Browne grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of William Lee and Celeste (née Coil) Shoemaker.[3][4] Her father held several different jobs, working at times in mail delivery, in jewelry sales, and as a vice president of a major freight line. Browne was raised mostly as a Catholic, and was said to have an Episcopalian mother, Lutheran maternal grandmother, Jewish father, and relatives from all these faiths.[5][6][7]

Browne claimed she started seeing visions at the age of five, and that her grandmother, who she also claimed was a psychic medium, helped her understand what they meant. Browne also claimed her great-uncle was a psychic medium and was "rabid about UFOs".[8]

Career

Browne started to give psychic readings in 1974; as of 2008, she charged $750 for a 20- to 30-minute telephone session.[9] In 1986, she founded a "Gnostic Christian" church in Campbell, California known as the Society of Novus Spiritus.[10] She was also head of the Sylvia Browne Corporation and Sylvia Browne Enterprises. In a 2010 interview, Browne's business manager said that her businesses earned $3 million a year.[11]

Browne claimed to have observed Heaven[12] and angels.[13] She also professed the ability to speak with a spirit guide named "Francine", and to perceive a wide range of vibrational frequencies.[12]

Books

Browne was the author of over 40 books on paranormal and spiritual topics.

Television and radio

Browne was a frequent guest on US television and radio programs, including Larry King Live, The Montel Williams Show, That's Incredible!,[14] and Coast to Coast AM. During these appearances, she usually discussed her claimed abilities with the host and then performed readings for audience members or callers. On certain occasions she was paired with other guests, including skeptics, often leading to debate about the authenticity of Browne's psychic abilities.

Browne hosted her own hour-long Internet radio show on Hay House Radio, where she performed readings and discussed paranormal issues.[15]

Browne appeared in a 1991 episode of Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories. In the segment "Ghosts R Us", she portrayed herself in a recreation of events that purportedly took place in a haunted Toys R Us store. Browne also appeared as herself on the television soap opera The Young and the Restless in December 2006.[16]

False predictions

Browne made many public pronouncements which were subsequently proven false. Among the more notable incidents were the following:

  • In 2002, Browne informed the parents of 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had disappeared earlier that year, that he had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned Hispanic man with dreadlocks and was now dead.[17][18] Hornbeck was found alive in 2007; his kidnapper was Caucasian and short-haired.[19] In June 2008, UK television network ITV2 was sanctioned by Ofcom for re-airing the episode of The Montel Williams Show featuring Browne's original prediction.[20][21]
  • In November 2004, Browne told the mother of kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, who had disappeared 19 months earlier: "She's not alive, honey." Browne also claimed that Berry was "in water", and that she had had a vision of Berry's jacket in the garbage with "DNA on it".[22] Berry's mother died two years later believing her daughter had been killed. Berry was found alive in May 2013.[23][24]
  • On Larry King Live in 2003, Browne predicted she would die at age 88. She died in 2013, at age 77.[25][26]
  • When appearing on The Montel Williams Show, a couple asked Browne how their daughter died. Browne stated that she was shot. The daughter collapsed in her bedroom, but it was found that she did not die from being shot.

Psychic detective cases

In 2000, Brill's Content examined ten recent Montel Williams episodes that highlighted Browne's work as a psychic detective, spanning 35 cases. In 21 cases, the information predicted by Browne was too vague to be verified. Of the remaining 14, law enforcement officials or family members stated Browne had played no useful role.[27]

In 2010, the Skeptical Inquirer published a detailed three-year study by Ryan Shaffer and Agatha Jadwiszczok that examined Browne's predictions about missing persons and murder cases. Despite Browne's repeated claims to be more than 85% correct, the study reported that "Browne has not even been mostly correct in a single case." The study compared Browne's televised statements about 115 cases with newspaper reports and found that in the 25 cases where the actual outcome was known, she was completely wrong in every one. In the rest, where the final outcome was unknown, her predictions could not be substantiated. The study concluded that the media outlets that repeatedly promoted Browne's work had no visible concern about whether she was untrustworthy or harmed people.[28] Among the predictions examined in the study were the following:

  • In 1999, Browne said that six-year-old Opal Jo Jennings, who had disappeared a month earlier, had been forced into slavery in Japan. Later that year, a local man was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Jennings. In 2003, an autopsy of Jennings' remains found that she had died within hours of her abduction.[2]
  • In 2002, Browne claimed Holly Krewson, who had disappeared in 1995, was working as an exotic dancer in a Hollywood nightclub. In 2006, dental records were used to positively identify a body found in 1996 in San Diego as Krewson's.
  • In 2002, Browne claimed Lynda McClelland, who had disappeared in 2000, had been taken by a man with the initials "MJ"; was alive in Orlando, Florida; and would be found soon. In 2003, McClelland's son-in-law David Repasky, who had been present at Browne's reading, was convicted of murdering McClelland; her remains were found near her home in Pennsylvania.[29][30]
  • In 2004, Browne said that Ryan Katcher, a 19-year-old who had disappeared in 2000, had been murdered, and his body could be found in a metal shaft. In 2006, Katcher's body was found in his truck at the bottom of a pond, where he had drowned.[31]

In a 2013 follow-up article, Shaffer reviewed more recent predictions by Browne, as well as predictions whose outcomes had been earlier classified as undetermined but were now largely resolved. According to Shaffer, Browne was mostly or completely wrong in 33 cases and mostly accurate in none.[32]

Sago Mine disaster

On January 2, 2006, an explosion at Sago mine in West Virginia trapped several miners underground. The following day, Browne was a guest on the radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. At the start of the broadcast, it was believed that 12 of 13 miners trapped by the disaster had been found alive and, when Noory asked Browne if the reported lack of noise from inside the mine might have led her to think the men had died, she replied, "No; I knew they were going to be found." Later in the program, it was discovered that the earlier news reports had been in error; Browne said, "I don't think there's anybody alive, maybe one ... I just don't think they are alive", adding, subsequently, that she "didn't believe that they were alive ... I did believe that they were gone."[33]

Popularity

Browne cultivated a large following: in 2007, she had a four-year waiting list for readings by telephone. That same year, hundreds of people joined Browne on a cruise, each paying thousands of dollars for psychic readings.[2] Many of her books became staples on The New York Times Best Seller list.[1]

Detractors

Browne was frequently condemned by skeptics.[1] Robert S. Lancaster maintained an exhaustive record of her inaccurate predictions and criminal activity,[12] and described her pronouncements relating to missing children as "incredibly offensive".[2] Jon Ronson, who called Browne "America's most controversial psychic", wrote that she was often "psychically wrong" and made "a fortune saying very serious, cruel, show-stopping things to people in distress".[2] Fox News noted that she was "often criticized for her predictions";[34] Browne also garnered disapproval from others who claim to be psychics.[35]

James Randi

Browne's most vocal critic within the skeptical movement was James Randi,[1] a retired stage magician and investigator of paranormal claims: Randi claimed that Browne's accuracy rate was no better than educated guessing.[36] On September 3, 2001, Browne stated on Larry King Live that she would prove her legitimacy by accepting the James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge to demonstrate supernatural abilities in a controlled scientific test.[36][37] By April 2003, however, Browne had not contacted Randi to make testing arrangements.[38]

On May 16, 2003, in another appearance on King's show, Browne said she had not taken the test because Randi refused to place the prize money in escrow.[38] Randi responded by mailing a notarized copy of the prize account status showing a balance in excess of one million dollars; Browne refused to accept the letter.[38][39] In late 2003, despite challenge rules that money could not be placed in escrow, Randi announced that he was willing to do so for Browne; Browne did not accept or acknowledge this offer. In 2005, Browne posted a message online that she had never received confirmation of the prize money's existence, despite Randi's claim that he had a certified mail receipt showing Browne's refusal of the package.[40]

In 2007, on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, Browne's business manager Linda Rossi stated that Browne would not be taking Randi's challenge "because she has nothing to prove to James Randi".[41]

Fraud conviction

During the late 1980s, local authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating Browne and her businesses over several bank loans that caused "sustained losses" to banks.[42] In 1992, Browne and her then-husband Kenzil Dalzell Brown were indicted on several charges of investment fraud and grand theft. The Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, found Browne and her husband had sold securities in a gold-mining venture under false pretenses.[43] In at least one instance, they told a couple that their $20,000 investment was to be used for immediate operating costs.[44] Instead, the money was transferred to an account for their Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research.[43] Browne pleaded no contest to securities fraud and was indicted on grand larceny in Santa Clara County, California on May 26, 1992.[45] The couple each received one year probation. In addition, Browne was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.[43]

Personal life

Browne married four times. Her first marriage, from 1959 to 1972, was to Gary Dufresne.[11] The couple had two sons, Paul and Christopher. She took the surname Brown upon her third marriage, and later changed it to Browne. Her fourth marriage took place on February 14, 2009, to Michael Ulery, the owner of a jewelry store.[46]

In March 2011, the Society of Novus Spiritus, the church founded by Browne, announced that Browne had suffered a heart attack on March 21 in Hawaii, requesting for donations on her behalf.[47]

Death

Browne died on November 20, 2013, aged 77, at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California.[1][48] Her interment was at Oak Hill Memorial Park.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sylvia Browne Dies at 77; Self-Proclaimed Psychic". New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ronson, Jon (October 27, 2007). "Is she for real?". The Guardian. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ Dulin, Dann (December 2005). "Soul Advice". A&U Magazine. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
  4. ↑ DuFresne, Chris. My Life with Sylvia Browne: A Son Reflects on Life with His Psychic Mother.
  5. ↑ Browne, Sylvia; & Antoinette May (1990). Adventures of a Psychic. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc. ISBN 0-7394-0178-5
  6. ↑ "Sylvia Browne Bio". penguin.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ King, Larry (March 6, 2001). "Are Psychics for Real?". CNN/Larry King Live. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
  8. ↑ Browne, Sylvia (2005). Secrets & Mysteries of the World. Hay House. pp. 94–96. ISBN 1-4019-0085-2.
  9. ↑ "Sylvia Browne". Official website. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Novus Spiritus- FAQ". Novus Spiritus, Founder Sylvia Browne. 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
  11. 1 2 Cheatham, Craig (May 13, 2010). "Sylvia Browne secrets". KMOV-TV. Archived from the original on May 20, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  12. 1 2 3 Smith, Jonathan C. (2011). Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 1444358944.
  13. ↑ King, Larry (May 16, 2003). Larry King Live. Interview With Sylvia Browne. CNN. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. ↑ "1980 That's Incredible, Haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, California". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  15. ↑ Ask Sylvia! Archived December 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. on Hay House Radio
  16. ↑ Adams, Diane. "Young and the Restless Recap: December 18, 2006". Archived from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
  17. ↑ The Montel Williams Show. February 26, 2003. syndicated.
  18. ↑ Cooper, Anderson (January 19, 2007). Anderson Cooper 360°. Psychic Powers Debunked in Shawn Hornbeck Case?. CNN.
  19. ↑ Curry, Colleen (May 7, 2013). "Psychic Who Said Amanda Berry Was Dead Silent After Berry Is Found Alive". ABC News.
  20. ↑ "ITV wrong over psychic claim repeat". The Press Association. June 23, 2008. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  21. ↑ Ramsay, Fiona (June 23, 2008), "Ofcom rules that ITV breached broadcast code", MediaWeek.co.uk, Haymarket Media Group Ltd. Republished
  22. ↑ Hudak, Stephen (November 18, 2004), "Amanda Berry is dead, psychic tells her mother on Montel Williams' show", The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH: Advance Publications . Republished May 7, 2013
  23. ↑ Sutyak, Kara (May 6, 2013). "Missing Teens Found; 3 Brothers Arrested". Fox 8 Cleveland.
  24. ↑ Curry, Colleen (May 8, 2013), "Psychic Who Said Amanda Berry Was Dead Silent After Berry Is Found Alive", Good Morning America, retrieved May 8, 2013
  25. ↑ Kuperinsky, Amy (November 20, 2013). "Psychic Sylvia Browne dead at 77". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  26. ↑ Browne, Sylvia (May 16, 2003). "CNN Larry King Live: Interview With Sylvia Browne". Larry King Live (Interview). Interviewed by Larry King. Retrieved November 20, 2013. KING: OK. Do you know when you're going to die? BROWNE: Yes. When I'm 88.
  27. ↑ Gomes, Joseph (November 27, 2000)""Prophet Motive"". Archived from the original on January 24, 2001. Retrieved 2015-03-23. (Brill's Content), as reported in Skeptics Dictionary. "psychic detective". Retrieved February 1, 2007.
  28. ↑ Shaffer, Ryan & Jadwiszczok, Agatha (March–April 2010), "Psychic defective: Sylvia Browne's history of failure", Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, 34.2, ISSN 0194-6730
  29. ↑ Fuoco, Michael (March 18, 2003) N. Braddock man held in mother-in-law's killing, post-gazette.com
  30. ↑ "Man Kills Mom-In-Law Over Sex, Found Guilty", thepittsburghchannel.com, WTAE-TV News, December 12, 2003, archived from the original on June 15, 2009
  31. ↑ "Katcher's Body Found at Kickapoo". The Commercial-News. July 26, 2006. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  32. ↑ Shaffer, Ryan. "The Psychic Defective Revisited", Skeptical Inquirer, September–October, 2013, pp. 30-35.
  33. ↑ Friedman, Roger (January 5, 2006). "TV Psychic Misses Mark on Miners". Fox News. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  34. ↑ "Celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne dies at age 77". Fox News. November 21, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  35. ↑ Moye, David (May 10, 2013). "Sylvia Browne's Failed Amanda Berry Prediction Returns To Haunt Her". HuffPost. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  36. 1 2 Randi, James (January 28, 2005). "Sylvia Browne's Clock-Update". James Randi Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on January 31, 2005. Retrieved October 25, 2006.
  37. ↑ Jaroff, Leon (May 24, 2004). "Guess What I'll Write Next". Time. Archived from the original on May 29, 2004. Retrieved March 16, 2009.
  38. 1 2 3 Farha, Bryan (July 1, 2003), "Sylvia Browne: Psychic Guru or Quack?", Quackwatch, retrieved January 3, 2007
  39. ↑ "Copy of the Randi's Goldman Sachs account balance". Skeptic Report. 2005. Archived from the original on June 30, 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
  40. ↑ Randi, James (May 30, 2003). "Sylvia Wriggles Away..." James Randi Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved August 6, 2005.
  41. ↑ Cooper, Anderson (January 30, 2007). Anderson Cooper 360°. Psychic Reality Check. CNN. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  42. ↑ "Sylvia Browne's FBI File: Examining Her Alleged Detective Work and a Federal Criminal Investigation", Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Volume 39.1, January–February 2015, ISSN 0194-6730
  43. 1 2 3 Nickell, Joe (November–December 2004). "Psychic Sylvia Browne once failed to foresee her own criminal conviction". Skeptical Inquirer. 28 (6). p. 11. Archived from the original on 2005-07-27. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  44. ↑ Romano, Bill (March 9, 1993). "Spiritualist, Ex-Husband Plead No Contest in Securities Case]". San Jose Mercury News
  45. ↑ Gonzales, Sandra (December 18, 1993). " Psychic Gets 1-Year Probation For 'Good Feelings' About Venture". San Jose Mercury News
  46. ↑ Neville, Anne. "Psychic Sylvia Browne sees better days ahead.", Buffalo News, 2009-03-26
  47. ↑ "Special Urgent Announcement" (PDF). SylviaBrowne.com. March 24, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  48. ↑ "Renowned psychic, bestselling author Sylvia Browne dies at 77 - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
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