StopSylvia.com - another nice email

[RSLancastr]

Got the author's permission to share this with you:

Mr. Lancaster,
I am not a TV watcher so I had not seen or heard of Ms Browne. While browsing a tag sale, I picked up a book of hers. I found quite interesting her use of phrasing and ideas that have been mine since I was a child, but had never heard from anyone else. (I don't pal around with espoused psychics). About 1/2 way through the book I was thrilled at the connection so decided to look her up on line. I was shocked to find so many sights disclaiming her. After reading much of the material on your site I have decided to toss the book into the recycling bin and move on. I feel duped.
Thanks for being there.
[name]

 

[Anthem]

"What book was it...and please can you donate it to Mr Lancaster" =)

 

[Halfcentaur]

That's what makes speaking out against this sort of thing all worth it.

I had a friend today (who loves to argue with me about his special idea of god and how it has to be true since AA keeps him sober) recommend I watch a little movie called What the Bleep Do We Know?. Now, if you haven't heard of this movie, I will be surprised. It's basically a bunch of woo dressed up in pseudo science and vague allusions to quantum mechanics. JZ Knight had the thing created as a front for her "cult", in a nutshell, where she channels the 30,000 year old ghost of Ramtha the Warrior, or something to that effect.

While my friend insists his idea of pantheism is infallible, I managed to show him why this movie was not special and life changing, and he thanked me for the clarity.

It feels good when they realize you aren't just being this way because you're a self absorbed skeptic without the ability to surrender to the idea of a greater power,...

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Yay!

You do feel really sorry for all of the people who think they've found "the answer" in Sylvia's philosophy only to later realize that she's a fraud, too. Just when they think they've finally figured it all out, the rug gets pulled out from under them again.

For someone as cruel as she is, Browne attracts an awful lot of really nice folks. Her fans tend to be really sweet people.

 

[GeorgeDorn]

I'm a little puzzled by this anti Sylvia Browne "movement". What's so especially heinous about this Sylvia Browne that you feel the need to be on a personal crusade against her? I don't symptathize with Sylvia Browne. I'm sure she's a vulture who feeds on the fears of the gullible, but the gullible aren't entirely without resonsibility either. The person who send you that email for instance... I have trouble understanding how a person, who can obviously read and write, can believe in ghosts and whatnot. Personally, I almost think that enlightenment is wasted on people who believe in the supernatural. If you manage to assure them one blindly held belief is bunk they would probably find another gap to stuff god in. At any rate I could easily find people I think are doing a lot more harm and are more important to oppose than Sylvia Browne. Is there something special about her I should know or is she just one of the "phenomena" you're trying to debunk?

Regards,

[EDIT: spelling mistakes.]

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

To GeorgeDorn:

I cannot speak for Robert but, speaking for myself, there are many great reasons why Sylvia Browne is "special".

The way she has victimized the families of missing/murdered people (and victims of suicides in the family, victims of deadly accidents in the family, families of war victims, rape victims and other types of cases like that) is unspeakable.

A poster named QG and I researched the readings she gave those people and compared them to the outcomes and we found some cases that were absolutely shocking.

For example, she once told two rape victims- women who were raped when they were just 17 and 19 and, if memory serves, kidnapped for nearly 18 hours, drugged, viciously beaten and threatened with murder by the assailant- to stop looking for their attacker and to forget about bringing him to justice because he was already dead.

This is an obscene thing to tell a rape victim unless you can know that it is true.

In another case, she told a woman that her brother (who had most likely fallen into a river while quite drunk and drowned after leaving a Halloween party) that he had been murdered. She invented a killer and gave the sister clues on how to find him.

If this woman believed her, she (and the man's other survivors) will forever think that the brother was killed. She will forever tie this to her brother's memory and will likely waste years of her life looking for his killer.

We found numerous cases of Browne telling the relatives of suicide and accident victims that they were actually murdered and, vice versa, telling the relatives of murder victims that, no, honey, there was no murder, it was a suicide/accident/other.

If she falsely tells a suicide/accident victim's relatives and friends that he/she was murdered, she plants terrible images in their minds, prolongs their grieving process, screws with their memories of their loved one and wastes their time, effort and money.

If she falsely tells a murder victim's survivors that he/she wasn't murdered, she interferes with a police investigation and allows the killer to remain at large. She also robs the survivors of the opportunity to get some real answers and also screws with the real memories of these people.

It must be so frustrating to be told that someone you lost was killed in an accident or committed suicide when you know he/she was murdered. If they were murdered, the families need to know this. They shouldn't be told a lie.

 

[Sledge]

What's so especially heinous about this Sylvia Browne that you feel the need to be on a personal crusade against her?

Well, you see

she's a vulture who feeds on the fears of the gullible

Any questions?

 

[GeorgeDorn]

Well yes, I can see how that is a disgusting way of abusing grieving people. So, it basically boils down to Sylvia Browne being a particularly abhorrent and loathsome individual? I can understand that.

Regards,

 

[GeorgeDorn]

Any questions?

Well, in a way my question still stands. I realize she's a thieving manipulative cold-reader, but there are so many of those out there trying to make a buck off of naïve and / or stupid people. My questions was what Sylvia Browne had done to deserve the extra personal attention, and the answer seems to be that her level of downright greedy nastiness warrants it.

Regards,

[EDIT: Inserted a little smiley to lighten the mood a little.]

 

[RSLancastr]

I'm a little puzzled by this anti Sylvia Browne "movement". What's so especially heinous about this Sylvia Browne that you feel the need to be on a personal crusade against her? I don't symptathize with Sylvia Browne. I'm sure she's a vulture who feeds on the fears of the gullible, but the gullible aren't entirely without resonsibility either. The person who send you that email for instance... I have trouble understanding how a person, who can obviously read and write, can believe in ghosts and whatnot. Personally, I almost think that enlightenment is wasted on people who believe in the supernatural. If you manage to assure them one blindly held belief is bunk they would probably find another gap to stuff god in. At any rate I could easily find people I think are doing a lot more harm and are more important to oppose than Sylvia Browne. Is there something special about her I should know or is she just one of the "phenomena" you're trying to debunk?

Regards,

[EDIT: spelling mistakes.]

George, please read my site's FAQ page and see if it answers your question.

If it doesn't, I can point you to a few articles which unerscore just how abhorrent Browne is.

Will people disabused of a belief in her "abilities" subsequently transfer those u
nfounded beliefs to someone or something else?

Some will, of course.

Others will apply the lesson they learned about Browne to other psychics/mediums.

One of our regular users here, ExMinister, was so deeply involved in Browne's teachings that she was a minister in Browne's Church of Novus Spiritus.

Once she freed herself from belief in Browne, she started reading up on skepticism, lost/dropped her beliefs in Browne, Edgar Cayce and other New Age nonsense, and hasn't looked back.

 

[RSLancastr]

"What book was it...and please can you donate it to Mr Lancaster" =)

I've got almost all of them at this point.

 

[RSLancastr]

That's what makes speaking out against this sort of thing all worth it.

I had a friend today (who loves to argue with me about his special idea of god and how it has to be true since AA keeps him sober) recommend I watch a little movie called What the Bleep Do We Know?. Now, if you haven't heard of this movie, I will be surprised. It's basically a bunch of woo dressed up in pseudo science and vague allusions to quantum mechanics. JZ Knight had the thing created as a front for her "cult", in a nutshell, where she channels the 30,000 year old ghost of Ramtha the Warrior, or something to that effect.

While my friend insists his idea of pantheism is infallible, I managed to show him why this movie was not special and life changing, and he thanked me for the clarity.

It feels good when they realize you aren't just being this way because you're a self absorbed skeptic without the ability to surrender to the idea of a greater power,...

Yes, every one of them is a victory that indeed feels good. That's why I share some of them here - to share the good feeling, and to remind everyone that what we do does make a difference.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Well, in a way my question still stands. I realize she's a thieving manipulative cold-reader, but there are so many of those out there trying to make a buck off of naïve and / or stupid people. My questions was what Sylvia Browne had done to deserve the extra personal attention, and the answer seems to be that her level of downright greedy nastiness warrants it.

Regards,

[EDIT: Inserted a little smiley to lighten the mood a little.]

Well, she is one of the most high profile mediums in the world today. So she is much more famous than most other cold readers (most cold readers haven't appeared semi regularly on Larry King's show, for example) and therefore victimizes more people.

So she's a worthier target than, for example, the lady who reads palms two blocks over from where I live.

 

[RSLancastr]

And yes, I sat through most of that Bleeping movie. What a steaming pile of Bleep.

 

[RSLancastr]

So she's a worthier target than, for example, the lady who reads palms two blocks over from where I live.[/QUOTE]

Besides, www.StopTheLadyWhoReadsPalmsTwoBlocksOverFromWhereEeneyMinnieMoLives.com would never get typed in correctly.

Yes George, when the site was first created, Browne was a weekly guest on the Montel Williams Show, and was arguably the most successful and well-known of her kind.

I felt that showing that there was good reason to doubt HER claims would go a long way towards implying the same of the rest.

 

[GeorgeDorn]

The page appears broken when I use your link with firefox for WIN32. It seems the wrong case in the URL is enough to confuse either my browser or your server. Anyway, I found the FAQ using google and you do indeed answer my question with the last entry about "picking your battles", and it makes perfect sense. It just seemed to me a little silly to devote all this effort to a relatively small trickster. Why not though? To quote "Rides-a-ten-speed-everywhere-guy" from Family Guy: "... and it's a great way to stay in shape".

I'm glad on behalf of ExMinister. One seldom hears of people who realize (and admits!) that their blindly held beliefs are wrong. I still have trouble understanding how anyone could believe such preposterous nonsense though. I can see you play it safe and profess yourself an agnostic, whereas I will gladly call myself an atheist. I find notions of gods and ghosts absolutely ridiculous and refuse to invest it with any credibility whatsoever.

I realize that some would call that view religious as long as there is no evidence, but I'm of the opinion that not all views and beliefs are equal. I'm sure some famous free-thinker said some famous words to that effect, but I can't be bothered finding it now as I'm off to see the sandman (yes, figuratively ). You probably know anyway.

Sweet Dreams,

[EDIT: Sprinkled some commas in there.]

 

[RSLancastr]

Yay!

You do feel really sorry for all of the people who think they've found "the answer" in Sylvia's philosophy only to later realize that she's a fraud, too. Just when they think they've finally figured it all out, the rug gets pulled out from under them again.

For someone as cruel as she is, Browne attracts an awful lot of really nice folks. Her fans tend to be really sweet people.

Like ExMinister! I wish you could have met her at TAM8!

 

[GeorgeDorn]

I had a friend today (who loves to argue with me about his special idea of god and how it has to be true since AA keeps him sober) recommend I watch a little movie called What the Bleep Do We Know? [...]

I've tried that too with a buddhist friend who wanted me to watch one of the Zeitgeist movies with him (maybe thinking that I would be impressed or "see the light" or something). I immediately recognized old conspiracy-"theories" (calling them theories is an insult to the word) and a buckload of what you call "woo". When we were finished I took him to a computer and entered the two words: "Zeitgeist" and "debunked" (being absolutely sure someone had done that) into google and lo and behold: Enlightenment for a buddhist!

Regards, and really now... goodnight!

[EDIT: I really should learn to use "preview"... ]

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Besides, www.StopTheLadyWhoReadsPalmsTwoBlocksOverFromWhereEeneyMinnieMoLives.com would never get typed in correctly.

It just seemed to me a little silly to devote all this effort to a relatively small trickster.

If this "relatively small trickster" was selling readings for 5 dollars a pop at a county fair, sure. However, that's not the case.

This small trick is costing people hundreds of dollars (not to mention their jobs, their peace of mind, their relationships, their marriages, their self worth, even their lives).

It's a small and simple trick but a BIG fraud.

Just to give you one very small example of how harmful her readings can be, at a taping of Montel's show that I attended, she told a very young Hispanic woman to become a housewife instead of going to college and getting a job and a career. She told her that the boy that she was dating was "the one" and that she should marry him and start a family with him. She encouraged her by saying "Being a housewife is a job, too!"

The damages that could have- and already might have- resulted from this one reading are fairly obvious.

Like ExMinister! I wish you could have met her at TAM8!

So do I!

Oh well, there's always next year...

 

[RSLancastr]

It just seemed to me a little silly to devote all this effort to a relatively small trickster.

Do you believe that cold-reading fraudulent psychics should be exposed for what they are? If so, she is hardly a "relatively small"one. she sells MILLIONS of books. Up until recently she was featured on a national tv show every week. She was arguably the most well-known of the lot. you are acting as though I did go after the woman who reads palms two blocks away from Eeney. James Randi thought it worth his time to focus on her in many of his Swift columns. she is a larger trickster than you seem to realize, George.