Today marks the one year anniversary of the Stop Sylvia Brown web-site. It is a site dedicated to providing facts - backed up with references - about the so-called "psychic" Sylvia Browne and her multitude of predictions.
Sylvia Browne, for those of you not familiar, is a famous psychic who does everything from private readings to shows where she makes predictions for audience members to starting an actual religion based on her "knowledge" of the afterlife and of god. It is the opinion of many skeptics, including myself, that she is a fraud who feeds on the insecurities and emotional heartache of her clients and makes alot of money doing it. She lies again and again, gets away with it, and she knows it. In my book, that counts her as Evil or something very close to it.
The site is run by a gentleman named Robert S. Lancaster who has done alot for the skeptical community by maintaining this site in as unbiased a manner as is possible. When she makes a correct prediction (a rarity or due to statistical probability) he notes it. When she makes inaccurate predictions, that gets noted as well. When things pop up that she didn't actually do, he makes sure that is made known also. It's a fair web-site. It just so happens that her predictions are so severely off that the site, on first glance, appears biased. In reality, Mr. Lancaster simply calls them as he sees them - for or against Browne.
I HIGHLY encourage you to check out this site (particularly the articles section)and see for yourself what Browne's claims are and how little she has to back them up.
In closing this post, I'd like to quote from Mr. Lancaster's site - I think he says it best:
"I am a skeptic. That means that I require evidence of something before believing it. And, with controversial topics such as psychic phenomena, I would require very compelling evidence indeed.
So, given that:
1. Sylvia Browne steadfastly avoids any scientific testing of her purported powers.
2. Her performances on television seem to be indistinguishable from "cold reading" (a method used by stage magicians and phony psychics to simulate "real" psychic powers).
3. Her track record of "psychic predictions" (as put forth on her web site and on television and radio appearances) appears to be no better than that obtained by educated guesses.
Given all that, I firmly believe that Sylvia Browne has not shown that she has 'real psychic powers', and that she should either prove them, or stop pretending she has them."
Robert Lancaster's Stop Sylvia Browne site can now be found at http://www.stopsylvia.com/
Posted by: Michael C | November 08, 2008 at 08:24 AM