Sylvia Browne: Psychic or Charlatan?
It seems like the more I engross myself in the metaphysical subculture, the more I hear that Sylvia Browne (psychic medium) is a deceiver. When I initially began hearing these rumors, I thought it was just the skeptics. After all, she’s one of the most well-known psychics in the world, so I figured the skeptics were targeting her because they deemed her as the exemplar of psychics. However, I’ve had a few ‘gut-feeling’ experiences, that made me feel somewhat uneasy about Browne. I didn’t think too much about these experiences at the time. However, I’m now starting to hear these accusations come from a different batch of people –other psychics!
My Initial Feelings about Sylvia Browne
A few years ago, when I really started absorbing any metaphysical information I could get my hands on, I downloaded a lecture given by Sylvia Browne on spirit guides. I remember feeling a little ‘off’ by the whole lecture. I couldn’t really pinpoint it at the time, and still can’t exactly, but something about it didn’t feel right. I remember having the feeling that she was more focused on entertaining than educating. At the time, I didn’t think she was a fake; after all, she’s a celebrity psychic –how can she be that popular and be a phony (I knew it was possible, but not probable). I figured I just didn’t like her style.
A few months later, I was at my local Borders scanning the New Age section. I saw a whole row of books written by the same author, Sylvia Browne. Now, I know this may sound prejudice, but as soon as I saw more than a dozen books by the same author, I was immediately turned off. When leafing through some of the books, it seemed like she was regenerating her old books into new ones. I started