StopSylvia email "I was conned!"

Sometimes these threads let people know that what they do is worthwhile. I know that I am much more motivated to design games or write music when people compliment my work.
 
Baffled said:
I'd like to toss in my thanks to everyone working so hard to counter the absurd psychic claims by people like Sylvia Browne. Without websites like yours, where would I turn when I encounter another enthusiastic victim who wants to tell me how "great" psychics are? You've created a wonderful repository of information.

Thank you.
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I agree, Baffled. I think SBs star began it's fall after the debacle with Shawn Hornbeck but there are others lining up to take her place. The Long Island Medium/moron needs some investigation before she does more emotional damage.

Sometimes I go back and read the articles again so when the subject of SB comes up in conversation, I can easily debunk all her snowflake specialness. :D
 
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KatieG said:
I agree, Baffled. I think SBs star began it's fall after the debacle with Shawn Hornbeck but there are others lining up to take her place. The Long Island Medium/moron needs some investigation before she does more emotional damage.

Sometimes I go back and read the articles again so when the subject of SB comes up in conversation, I can easily debunk all her snowflake specialness. :D
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I think it was RSL who pointed out the error with Shawn Hornbeck. If it was not for him then no-one who know that Shawn Hornbeck and Sylvia Browne were connected.
 
rjh01 said:
I think it was RSL who pointed out the error with Shawn Hornbeck. If it was not for him then no-one who know that Shawn Hornbeck and Sylvia Browne were connected.
Click to expand...

Okay, this ended up being far longer than I had intended:

Yes, the article on Stop Sylvia about Browne's involvement in the case was, to my knowledge, where the story of her involvement was first published, on January 12, 2007 - the day that Shawn was found alive:

http://www.stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_shawnhornbeck.shtml

I wish I could say that I "scooped" the story due to some brilliant sleuthing on my part, but it was much more mundane than that:

I got home from work early that day and, as usual, checked my StopSylvia email immediately upon my arrival.

In it was an email from a woman in (IIRC) Missouri.

It read simply "They have found Shawn Hornbeck."

Clueless, I replied "I'm glad, but...who is Shawn Hornbeck?"

A reply came back quickly, "Turn on your television."

I did, and sure enough, the footage of Shawn being escorted by police into the police station was on every channel.

Still pretty clueless, I replied to the woman, saying "Well, now I know who Shawn Hornbeck is, but...why did you write to me about this?"

She replied, saying "I thought you knew: " and went on to say that Shawn's parents had spoken with Sylvia Browne on the Montel Williams Show sometime back, and Browne had told them that Shawn was dead.

I did a web search on "Shawn Hornbeck" and "Sylvia Browne" together, and found a news report of the Montel Williams Show appearance.

Between that story and some images of Shawn, I felt that I had enough information to write a Stop Sylvia article about it, I cranked one out, wanting to get it out there while the story was "hot".

Little did I know just HOW "hot" Shawn's story would be.

The article went up on the site around 4:30pm PST on January 12 2007.

As luck would have it, the article got indexed into search engines almost immediately, and appeared on the first page of Google when Shawn's name was searched for there.

Not realizing how much attention the article would garner, I left for Las Vegas to attend TAM 5 (January 18-21 2007).

I did not have a laptop computer back then, so on my first morning at TAM 5, i paid to use a PC at a kiosk in the lobby of the hotel (The Riviera) to check my email.

I normally received perhaps four or five emails per day on SSB back then.
On that morning, there were dozens upon dozens!

As I started combing through them, one which caught my eye was from a reporter with (I believe it was) the New York Post, asking for an interview regarding Browne's connection to the Shawn Hornbeck story. I replied with my cell number, telling her that I would be more than happy to speak with her.

In a daze, I started wandering the hotel lobby, hoping to find someone to speak with about all that was happening. As I approached the elevators, who should I see but James Randi, examining a poster on the wall by the elevators.

I hesitated to approach The Amazing One, as I had only met him briefly at the previous TAM, where I had presented a Sunday morning Paper about Stop Kaz.

Not sure if he would even remember me, I hesitantly approached him, introduced myself, and quickly outlined the situation, asking if I could get his advice about speaking with the media on the topic. He listened attentatively, told me he was just on his way to have breakfast with Hal Bidlack in the hotel cafe, and told me that I was more than welcome to join them if I'd care to.

I jumped at the chance, and we walked to the cafe, where we sat at a table where Hal Bidlack and Elaine Gillman were already eating their breakfast.

Randi and I ordered, and I told them all about the invitation to do an interview with the Post.

As Randi started giving me advice on how to handle such an interview, my cell phone rang. It was the reporter, wanting to conduct the interview right then and there!

I did not want to put her off and potentially miss this opportunity, so I agreed, and the interview began, with Randi, Hal and Elaine listening to my side of the conversation, all three of them giving me "thumbs up" at various points.

As I have said before (both here on the forum and in a presentation I gave at TAM 5.5 later that year), I found myself thinking at one point: "I am sitting here, having breakfast with James Randi, being interviewed by the New York Post about Sylvia Browne. WHAT UNIVERSE DID I WAKE UP IN TODAY?!?!?"

At one point, I told the reporter that Randi was there with me and that he might be the better person to talk with about this. I offered the phone to Randi who demured, saying to me "No, this is your baby!"

At the end of the interview, the reporter told me that she hoped the article would appear in the following morning's edition.

When I checked my SSB email at the kiosk the following morning, there were more than a hundred new emails!

The first several I read mentioned the Post article, which had indeed made that morning's edition.

Another talked of hearing about my site on the Howard Stern Show that morning, where Stern had evidently read the Post article on the air, and promoted my site. Another email spoke of the site being mentioned on that morning's Dr. Dean Edell radio show. Holy smokes!

There were also emails from producers of both CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and Fox's The O'Reilly Factor asking me to appear on those shows to discuss Browne's involvement in the Hornbeck case.

Yikes!

I used a pay phone in the lobby to accept both invitations, and recommended to both that they also ask Randi to participate. When the O'Reilly Factor producer asked me if I knew how sge could contact Randi, I told her that he was standing not twenty feet away from me at the moment.

We both ended up being invited to appear on both shows (although O'Reilly later cancelled, deciding to do another topic instead).

Later that day I answered about fifteen or twenty minutes' worth of questions at a taping for AC 360 at a studio a few blocks from the hotel. I was told that they would probably pick only a few answers to use in the segment, which would air that Friday evening (IIRC).

When I returned to the hotel, Hal Bidlack grabbed me in the lobby and said "There is someone here who wants to meet you." and escorted me down hallways until I saw Penn Jillette standing, head and shoulders above a crowd of people.

Hal steered me up to Penn and said "Penn, this is Robert Lancaster who I was telling you about!"

Penn stuck out his sizeable paw and shook my hand, saying "Hello, my name is Penn Jillette. I have a radio show. You wanna be on it?"

I said "Sure, but...when?"

He checked his watch and said "what about now? We have the equipment set up in Randi's room upstairs and are recording shows with people from TAM, so...no time like the present!"

I was still in a daze from all that had happened that day, but gamely agreed, and went with Penn (and his co-host, Michael Goudeau) to the elevators and up to Randi's room, where we sat at a table, put on headphones, and recorded an hour-long show about Browne (with some about Kaz as well, Penn being fascinated with that topic).

When I got back to my hotel room, my cell started ringing.

When I answered it, a voice said "Hello, Bob!" and started talking about "our interview".

It took me a few seconds before I realized it was Randi. James Randi, calling me!

After that, I called Susan and told her all about my incredible - no, my Amazing day.

That Friday evening, I sat in the Riviera's ballroom with a few hundred TAM attendees and watched the [Anderson Cooper 360[/i] episode about Browne and the Hornbeck story. The hotel had arranged to show it on a large projection screen on the ballroom stage.

Despite all the concern many at TAM had expressed to me that the show might somehow re-edit my interview to give the segment a pro-psychic slant, the segment - in which I only appeared for a few seconds, but Randi had more time - was VERY pro-skeptic, with Cooper repeatedly referring to Browne as a "purported psychic" and "self-proclaimed psychic".

Back then, each TAM had a theme, such as "Skepticism and Medicine".

The theme for TAM 5, the week of which I was interviewed by a newspaper (The New York Post), a television show (Anderson Cooper 360) and a radio show (Penn Radio)?

"Skepticism and the Media"!

So yes, my site broke the story of Browne's involvement in the Shawn Hornbeck case, but I can take little credit for that. The topic was pretty much handed to me on a silver platter, and I just ran with it. It was largely a matter of my being in the right place at the right time.
 
Thanks for that post Robert. A fascinating read which made me think of something I read, from whom, I know not:

"Good luck comes when preperation meets opportunity"

Please don't stop posting updates at this site, no matter how trivial, or self-congratulatory other people may think they are. Any new thread by you, is ALWAYS the first thing I click on when entering the forum.
 
RSLancastr said:
So yes, my site broke the story of Browne's involvement in the Shawn Hornbeck case, but I can take little credit for that. The topic was pretty much handed to me on a silver platter, and I just ran with it. It was largely a matter of my being in the right place at the right time.
Click to expand...

It was handed to you because you were there. You had the website, you were the one that person could contact. You can't take credit for the stuff you didn't do, but you did the things that got the job done.

So yes, absolutely, the credit for breaking the story goes to you. Because you were the one who did all the groundwork ahead of time, and had the tools and the skills to carry things out when the moment came.
 
Baffled said:
It was handed to you because you were there. You had the website, you were the one that person could contact. You can't take credit for the stuff you didn't do, but you did the things that got the job done.

So yes, absolutely, the credit for breaking the story goes to you. Because you were the one who did all the groundwork ahead of time, and had the tools and the skills to carry things out when the moment came.
Click to expand...

As usual someone else says what I wanted to say only better. It was you who did the interviews, not the lady who sent you the e-mail.

I just wonder if that was the beginning of the end for all TV psychics. The result being this thread
Well known 'TV' psychics in 2012..How many actually still have 'new' shows on tv ?

Edit. You in this post refers to RSLancastr
 
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RSLancastr said:
Good to know, thanks!



Not sure I agree, though I thank you for saying so.

I do think that it has "Made a difference" written all over it (in my eyes, at least).
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I believe your site has made a difference. Recently, some previous believers in Sylvia heard through the grapevine that Sylvia's phone readings of $850 and Chris' readings of $500 have been recently reduced. Sylvia's readings "for the next two months" are half off and Chris' readings are $215 (Doesn't say how long for his discount)......

I thought at one point she had a two year waiting list and now she is charging half-off? I would say she is hurting for business a bit.....
 
jennifer62978 said:
I believe your site has made a difference. Recently, some previous believers in Sylvia heard through the grapevine that Sylvia's phone readings of $850 and Chris' readings of $500 have been recently reduced. Sylvia's readings "for the next two months" are half off and Chris' readings are $215 (Doesn't say how long for his discount)......

I thought at one point she had a two year waiting list and now she is charging half-off? I would say she is hurting for business a bit.....
Click to expand...

Thanks, jennifer.

I recently received an email from someone who was dissatisfied with a reading she had received from Chris, even though it was for an amount far less than he used to charge (I don't recall the amount, but the $215 you quoted sounds about right).

I wondered why the discounted rate.

Interesting to hear it may be his going rate now...
 
Reno said:
Thanks for that post Robert. A fascinating read which made me think of something I read, from whom, I know not:

"Good luck comes when preperation meets opportunity"

Please don't stop posting updates at this site, no matter how trivial, or self-congratulatory other people may think they are. Any new thread by you, is ALWAYS the first thing I click on when entering the forum.
Click to expand...

Thirded.
 
RSLancastr said:
Okay, this ended up being far longer than I had intended:

Yes, the article on Stop Sylvia about Browne's involvement in the case was, to my knowledge, where the story of her involvement was first published, on January 12, 2007 - the day that Shawn was found alive:

http://www.stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_shawnhornbeck.shtml

I wish I could say that I "scooped" the story due to some brilliant sleuthing on my part, but it was much more mundane than that:

I got home from work early that day and, as usual, checked my StopSylvia email immediately upon my arrival.

In it was an email from a woman in (IIRC) Missouri.

It read simply "They have found Shawn Hornbeck."

Clueless, I replied "I'm glad, but...who is Shawn Hornbeck?"

A reply came back quickly, "Turn on your television."

I did, and sure enough, the footage of Shawn being escorted by police into the police station was on every channel.

Still pretty clueless, I replied to the woman, saying "Well, now I know who Shawn Hornbeck is, but...why did you write to me about this?"

She replied, saying "I thought you knew: " and went on to say that Shawn's parents had spoken with Sylvia Browne on the Montel Williams Show sometime back, and Browne had told them that Shawn was dead.

I did a web search on "Shawn Hornbeck" and "Sylvia Browne" together, and found a news report of the Montel Williams Show appearance.

Between that story and some images of Shawn, I felt that I had enough information to write a Stop Sylvia article about it, I cranked one out, wanting to get it out there while the story was "hot".

Little did I know just HOW "hot" Shawn's story would be.

The article went up on the site around 4:30pm PST on January 12 2007.

As luck would have it, the article got indexed into search engines almost immediately, and appeared on the first page of Google when Shawn's name was searched for there.

Not realizing how much attention the article would garner, I left for Las Vegas to attend TAM 5 (January 18-21 2007).

I did not have a laptop computer back then, so on my first morning at TAM 5, i paid to use a PC at a kiosk in the lobby of the hotel (The Riviera) to check my email.

I normally received perhaps four or five emails per day on SSB back then.
On that morning, there were dozens upon dozens!

As I started combing through them, one which caught my eye was from a reporter with (I believe it was) the New York Post, asking for an interview regarding Browne's connection to the Shawn Hornbeck story. I replied with my cell number, telling her that I would be more than happy to speak with her.

In a daze, I started wandering the hotel lobby, hoping to find someone to speak with about all that was happening. As I approached the elevators, who should I see but James Randi, examining a poster on the wall by the elevators.

I hesitated to approach The Amazing One, as I had only met him briefly at the previous TAM, where I had presented a Sunday morning Paper about Stop Kaz.

Not sure if he would even remember me, I hesitantly approached him, introduced myself, and quickly outlined the situation, asking if I could get his advice about speaking with the media on the topic. He listened attentatively, told me he was just on his way to have breakfast with Hal Bidlack in the hotel cafe, and told me that I was more than welcome to join them if I'd care to.

I jumped at the chance, and we walked to the cafe, where we sat at a table where Hal Bidlack and Elaine Gillman were already eating their breakfast.

Randi and I ordered, and I told them all about the invitation to do an interview with the Post.

As Randi started giving me advice on how to handle such an interview, my cell phone rang. It was the reporter, wanting to conduct the interview right then and there!

I did not want to put her off and potentially miss this opportunity, so I agreed, and the interview began, with Randi, Hal and Elaine listening to my side of the conversation, all three of them giving me "thumbs up" at various points.

As I have said before (both here on the forum and in a presentation I gave at TAM 5.5 later that year), I found myself thinking at one point: "I am sitting here, having breakfast with James Randi, being interviewed by the New York Post about Sylvia Browne. WHAT UNIVERSE DID I WAKE UP IN TODAY?!?!?"

At one point, I told the reporter that Randi was there with me and that he might be the better person to talk with about this. I offered the phone to Randi who demured, saying to me "No, this is your baby!"

At the end of the interview, the reporter told me that she hoped the article would appear in the following morning's edition.

When I checked my SSB email at the kiosk the following morning, there were more than a hundred new emails!

The first several I read mentioned the Post article, which had indeed made that morning's edition.

Another talked of hearing about my site on the Howard Stern Show that morning, where Stern had evidently read the Post article on the air, and promoted my site. Another email spoke of the site being mentioned on that morning's Dr. Dean Edell radio show. Holy smokes!

There were also emails from producers of both CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and Fox's The O'Reilly Factor asking me to appear on those shows to discuss Browne's involvement in the Hornbeck case.

Yikes!

I used a pay phone in the lobby to accept both invitations, and recommended to both that they also ask Randi to participate. When the O'Reilly Factor producer asked me if I knew how sge could contact Randi, I told her that he was standing not twenty feet away from me at the moment.

We both ended up being invited to appear on both shows (although O'Reilly later cancelled, deciding to do another topic instead).

Later that day I answered about fifteen or twenty minutes' worth of questions at a taping for AC 360 at a studio a few blocks from the hotel. I was told that they would probably pick only a few answers to use in the segment, which would air that Friday evening (IIRC).

When I returned to the hotel, Hal Bidlack grabbed me in the lobby and said "There is someone here who wants to meet you." and escorted me down hallways until I saw Penn Jillette standing, head and shoulders above a crowd of people.

Hal steered me up to Penn and said "Penn, this is Robert Lancaster who I was telling you about!"

Penn stuck out his sizeable paw and shook my hand, saying "Hello, my name is Penn Jillette. I have a radio show. You wanna be on it?"

I said "Sure, but...when?"

He checked his watch and said "what about now? We have the equipment set up in Randi's room upstairs and are recording shows with people from TAM, so...no time like the present!"

I was still in a daze from all that had happened that day, but gamely agreed, and went with Penn (and his co-host, Michael Goudeau) to the elevators and up to Randi's room, where we sat at a table, put on headphones, and recorded an hour-long show about Browne (with some about Kaz as well, Penn being fascinated with that topic).

When I got back to my hotel room, my cell started ringing.

When I answered it, a voice said "Hello, Bob!" and started talking about "our interview".

It took me a few seconds before I realized it was Randi. James Randi, calling me!

After that, I called Susan and told her all about my incredible - no, my Amazing day.

That Friday evening, I sat in the Riviera's ballroom with a few hundred TAM attendees and watched the [Anderson Cooper 360[/i] episode about Browne and the Hornbeck story. The hotel had arranged to show it on a large projection screen on the ballroom stage.

Despite all the concern many at TAM had expressed to me that the show might somehow re-edit my interview to give the segment a pro-psychic slant, the segment - in which I only appeared for a few seconds, but Randi had more time - was VERY pro-skeptic, with Cooper repeatedly referring to Browne as a "purported psychic" and "self-proclaimed psychic".

Back then, each TAM had a theme, such as "Skepticism and Medicine".

The theme for TAM 5, the week of which I was interviewed by a newspaper (The New York Post), a television show (Anderson Cooper 360) and a radio show (Penn Radio)?

"Skepticism and the Media"!

So yes, my site broke the story of Browne's involvement in the Shawn Hornbeck case, but I can take little credit for that. The topic was pretty much handed to me on a silver platter, and I just ran with it. It was largely a matter of my being in the right place at the right time.
Click to expand...

That only happens to the good guys.
Well done
 
Baffled said:
It was handed to you because you were there. You had the website, you were the one that person could contact. You can't take credit for the stuff you didn't do, but you did the things that got the job done.

So yes, absolutely, the credit for breaking the story goes to you. Because you were the one who did all the groundwork ahead of time, and had the tools and the skills to carry things out when the moment came.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Baffled!

Yes, my site was already in place, providing the perfect platform for the story when it happened, and gave that woman someone to contact when it happened. I'll take the credit for that, and for striking when the iron was hot.

I guess I just don't want anyone to think I broke the story through some brilliant investigative reporting or anything like that.

rjh01 said:
As usual someone else says what I wanted to say only better. It was you who did the interviews, not the lady who sent you the e-mail.

I just wonder if that was the beginning of the end for all TV psychics. The result being this thread
Well known 'TV' psychics in 2012..How many actually still have 'new' shows on tv ?

Edit. You in this post refers to RSLancastr
Click to expand...

Well, I had said from the first that one of the reasons I chose Browne as the focus of a Stop Site was that I hoped that if the site was effective in exposing her nonsense for what it was, many people would take what they learned about Browne from my site and use it to view other "psychics" with a new, more skeptical lens, thinking "If she (Browne) could fool me, perhaps this other psychic is too!"
 
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