Famous psychic, television personality Sylvia Browne dies at 77

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: NBC News


Legendary psychic Sylvia Browne, a mainstay of television and radio and the author of scores of best-selling books, died early Wednesday in a California hospital, according to her official website. She was 77.

Browne made frequent appearances on programs like "Larry King Live" and "The Montel Williams Show" for nearly a quarter-century, earning legions of fans with a penchant for the paranormal.

(...)

Browne made headlines in May after Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry was rescued — nearly nine years after the psychic told Berry's mother that her daughter was dead.

“She’s not alive, honey,” Browne told Berry's mother Louwanna Miller on “The Montel Williams Show" in 2004 — two years before Miller died.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/20/21554383-famous-psychic-television-personality-sylvia-browne-dies-at-77

---

With an assist from equally vile hacks like Larry King and Montel, she pioneered exploiting those suffering from tragedy and grifting gullible rubes long before Palin and Beck came on the scene.

Guess James Randi gets to keep his million bucks now.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. Didn't see that coming.

Too soon?

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

2. She was off by 11 years

"Throughout her career she made guest appearances on "Larry King Live" and "The Montel Williams Show." In 2003, Browne told King that she knew when she was going to die — at 88."
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/11/psychic_sylvia_browne_dead_at_77.html

[diabeticman]

26. Maybe she lied about her age?

[Deep13]

6. Nope, overdue.nt

[Bradical79]

27. She was an awful con-woman

who preyed on the desperate to get rich.

[awoke_in_2003]

31. Neither did she

[47of74]

33. I dunno

I was about to make the same crack myself.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. A monstrous quack.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Her best prediction from 2012: Obama will not be reelected.

http://www.sylviabrowne.com/f/predictions



But seriously, thoughts go out to her family. As laughable as she was, she was loved by someone and they're probably grieving immensely right now.

[Archae]

34. Even money that grief lasts 3 days, tops.

They the family hauls each others' ass into court, screaming at each other about the will.

[longship]

5. Sylvia Browne was one the worst humans on earth.

Anybody who has seen her working over the parents of Shawn Hornbeck on the Montel Williams Show, and then realizing that she was just making shit up, should know that she was an utter fraud.

Those who think psychics are a real thing should study Sylvia. Or John Edward. Or any of the many kooks who promote this utter crap for personal gain.

Here's Sylvia utterly exposed. Read it on the Wiki: Sylvia Browne.

She was a utterly heartless human who exploited people at the bottom of hope. I cannot grieve for any leech like Sylvia Browne.

On edit: Anderson Cooper reporting:

Part 1:

Part 2:

You can decide for yourself?

[TlalocW]

7. She was a shitstain on humanity

Unfortunately, there are plenty of other scumbags to fill the gap her couldn't-come-soon-enough passing has left - from James Van Praagh, John Edward, Rosemary Altea, etc.

TlalocW

[nyquil_man]

8. Here she is giving comfort to a 9-11 widow.

"NO! I see him in water!!!"

[longship]

10. What a horrible person!

I've heard about this episode but did not see it until today. My opinion of Sylvia Browne (already at the bottom of the barrel) just took a nose dive. This is heartless.

After Shawn Hornbeck and Amanda Berry alone...
She's dead? Best think that ever happened to her. Save humankind from her like.

[nyquil_man]

16. I'm sorry you've had to experience her "powers" at all.

She's been sticking in my craw for years.

Psychics are basically just really bad interviewers, asking dumb, obvious questions and then waiting for their subjects to do all the work for them. "Did someone in your family have a heart problem?" "Yes, my uncle." "Oh yes, I see him now. He's standing behind you saying how much he misses his favorite niece."

[longship]

17. Cold reading. Here's Orson Welles speaking with David Frost on it!

Enjoy!

[nyquil_man]

19. That's an excellent clip.

Love Welles. He's dead-on about the difference between psychic ability and intuition.

I always use a line from Groundhog Day: "Maybe God isn't omnipotent. Maybe he's just been around so long, he knows everything."

[jsr]

45. Cold-hearted scammer

[xfundy]

9. What's the difference between her and Pat Robertson?

Or any other preacher?

Yes, I'm serious.

[Deep13]

14. Well, she never told people they were going to hell. nt

[nomorenomore08]

36. And that may be her one saving grace... n/t

[countmyvote4real]

11. She was very compelling and entertaining in her shark show (Montel) appearances.

But I never had a personal dog in the hunt. So sad for those that did.

She was a total fraud and charlatan. And by association Montel Williams must be, too.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. A real fraud.

I think some psychics help people, but she didn't.

She and Stuart Wilde died in the same year. Stuie wrote some good books in the 1980s and had a wry British sense of humor, but got trapped by drug abuse, lust, greed and alcohol. He got paranoid and kept making wrong predictions and it was all about demons taking over the world.

[longship]

20. How can any fraud help anybody?

There are no psychics. None at all.

People who claim to speak to the dead are just making shit up. All of them!

It's called cold reading.

And Sylvia Browne was not even a good cold reader, as her public record would attest.

[HuckleB]

30. Exactly. It's stunning to see such nonsense supported at DU.

Ugh.

[awoke_in_2003]

32. +1000. nt

[nomorenomore08]

37. I assume she meant they could help people come to terms with certain things.

But yeah, I don't really see that myself. Seems like if anything, they tend to mislead grieving family members and so forth.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

38. If she was reassuring people that their dead loved one was happy, that might help them.

Just general reassurance, not misleading them and lying to them.

A good example of a cold reader is Woody Harrelson in the recent movie Now You See Me. He was one of four magicians/illusionists that put on a show together. Cold readers pick up on body language and nonverbal cues from people and construct a story from that which probably isn't true.

I saw it in the theater last summer. It was a fun movie.

[nomorenomore08]

40. Whatever helps somebody, I guess. Even if it seems ridiculous to others.

[William Seger]

42. Browne charged $750 for a 20 to 30 minute phone call

... and she refused to take James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge because she knew she was selling bullshit. She was a cold-blooded predator of grieving survivors.

[nomorenomore08]

43. Oh, no argument about Browne. She was a sack of shit.

I was speaking more generally, although I personally have no use for psychics.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

13. An interesting prediction of hers from 2008:

A new flu virus will come out that is antibiotic resistant.

I mean really, no shit.

[Deep13]

15. Holy crap, I got an antibiotic resitant flu once!

Actually several times.

Then there were times I had an antibiotic resistant throat virus. And head colds. And an antibiotic-resistant strain of chicken pox when I was small. I also have a drug-resistant astigmatism in my eyes.

okay, I'll stop now.

[RobinA]

46. You Just Reminded

me of my antibiotic resistant broken elbow a couple years ago. Sheesh, it took that thing damn near six weeks to heal on its own.

[renate]

18. she was absolutely and completely horrible

This is a few minutes' read, but if you have time for a quick cup of coffee, it's a very enjoyable and interesting article.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/27/usa.jonronson

I personally wouldn't dismiss the possibility that some people don't have certain abilities that most of us don't, but this vile woman did not have any except for the power to be a money-grubbing, callous manipulator.

[CrawlingChaos]

21. That was an interesting read. I actually saw Sylvia once

Growing up in the Bay Area, it seemed like Sylvia was on local TV constantly, and one day my Mom and I were at the mall on a day they happened to be taping one of those local shows in the mall courtyard. My Mom got to ask a question and she asked something general about what the future held for her, and Sylvia said "I see... Holstein". My Mom said, "Holstein? Like the cow?" Sylvia shrugged and that was it, they moved on. Needless to say, nothing "Holstein" ever materialized in my Mom's life, but we had a good laugh from it.

I thought she often seemed bored and put out, and I never thought she was a very good cold reader. I thought her real talent was being able to sound absolutely confident and certain of whatever BS she was ladling out. When I used to see her back in the day, her answers seemed designed to bring comfort -- telling people their loved ones didn't suffer, were happy on the other side, etc. -- which made her, in my eyes, a relatively benign grifter. But clearly, she had a far more sinister side.

Interesting to read how much contempt she clearly had for the people she was fleecing. I read an article once by a guy who worked undercover at one of those psychic telephone hotlines. I was surprised to read that most of the psychics working the lines actually believed they had some sort of psychic gift. But Sylvia wasn't one of those - she was pure con artist.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

22. Montel's attempt to laugh off responsibility in that article is disgusting:

Montel Williams was once asked in a radio interview why he has Sylvia Browne on his show. He said, "She's great! She's a funny character! She's hysterical!" She doesn't seem particularly hysterical to me.

Funny - on his show, he sung a different tune:

"Well, let's get this straight. I want to make it very clear. Sylvia Browne is a very dear personal friend of mine and I've got to tell you, over the years it's been just a pleasure being able to work with her. I've said it on the show clearly, I don't believe in psychics, but guess what. I believe in Sylvia Browne. I believe in her ability to take her intuition and take it to places other people can never take theirs. As long as she wants to be here on the show, she can be here."

and to think Mark Green gave that fucker a show on Air America after he fired Seder, Randi and Malloy.

Montel and Larry King should be hounded for the rest of their for promoting this fraud and exploiting tragedy for cheap ratings.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

23. Oh, and heres another classic:

Sylvia confronted with a list of her failures at 2:26 and not realizing she's being pranked:

[Javaman]

24. I don't think anyone could have predicted this! nt

[freshwest]

39. I was going to say 'No one could see this coming.' Thanks for going there first.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

25. I am ashamed to say that, for a few months in my life, i really liked this woman

I was down on my luck, depressed, directionless in life and I started reading her books and got drawn in by them (thank goodness I never wasted any money on them -the comfortable armchairs in Borders really deserve my thanks). Thankfully, I woke up to her and her crap and eventually recognized her for the fraud and charlatan that she was

What really makes me angry s that she preyed on people who were much worse off than me at the time I was drawn to her. People who had lost their parents, children, siblings, loved ones and the like. Or people who were seriously ill, going through marital problems and the like. Her advice was often heartless, cruel and sometimes had disastrous consequences on people's health choices, marriages and goodness knows what else. She exploited and preyed on their vulnerabilities for her cheap profitable gain


This website is particularly good for exposing her for what she was. There are some horrible and heartbreaking stories about the consequences of the advice she so callously dished out
http://www.stopsylvia.com/home/

One of the stories from that site about the "advice" Sylvia gave:

"What Sylvia told my grandma"
http://www.stopsylvia.com/articles/email_whatsylviatoldmygrandma.shtml

[Rozlee]

28. Don't beat yourself down. She got to my step-daughter the same way.

I'll admit I'm a stone cold atheist and at a time when she was going through so many problems, I tuned her out when she turned to Sylvia Browne and mysticism. I figured if she didn't go to therapy, go out with her friends and vent or become an alcoholic, she wasn't handling her problems with her marital breakup and its aftermath very well. She was struggling financially, but still paid almost $5,000 to go on a "psychic" cruise hosted by Sylvia Browne. She borrowed money to pay for readings with her son, yet another charlatan that will go on in her name to fleece the believers. She took her entire lump sum divorce settlement from the sale of her home and spent it on expenses related to this fraudulent woman. And what did she ever learn? She would find love someday. She would be financially secure someday. She would be surrounded by love, peace and unicorns and fart puffs of Shalimar parfum. Today, my step-daughter is still a wonderful person that remains deeply spiritual and devoted to many New Age beliefs. But, she's a lot more circumspect and guards her wallet. Sylvia Browne and her family prey on people like my step-daughter; people who are at vulnerable periods in their lives and are tormented by uncertainty or who are desperate about people they love. It's one thing to shill people by selling them magic beans. They should know better. But, exploiting their agony is evil.

[Myrina]

29. That, unfortunately, is the prime demographic they prey on.

"... down on my luck, depressed, directionless in life ..."


So glad you got past it, and her.

[4bucksagallon]

35. Huh I bet she never saw it coming....n/t

[jessie04]

41. There goes 80% of Montel's guests.

good bye you huckster.

[jsr]

44. Now anyone can talk to her

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

47. I reckon they'll send her back!!