A look at the claims, predictions and behavior of a media "psychic".
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A look at the claims, predictions and behavior of a media "psychic".
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| Email: "My Thoughts"A grieving young woman seeks comfort and answers in a Sylvia Browne book.
BackgroundI recently received an email which I found to be another good example of how tragic circumstances can make a person a prime target for Sylvia Browne's nonsense. The EmailHere, with the author's permission, is that email:
My Opinion: "Sylvia Browne and Comforting Lies"(Note: I generally try to stick to facts in my articles, and when I express an opinion, I try to clearly label it as such. This section of the article falls squarely into the opinion category.) I'd like to address the young woman's statement where she said that Browne's book "...was helping quite a bit in my state." I receive emails from time to time from people who say that Browne has helped many people. Sometimes, it is even in the form of "So what if she's a fraud, her books have comforted millions of people!" I have no doubt that there are many people who have read Browne's books and have attained some degree of comfort from them. But as has been shown many times on this site, the validity of much of what is in those books is highly questionable. In my opinion, her books are, for the most part, fiction being passed off as fact. There is another word for that: lies. I can think of circumstances in which it is okay to tell a "comforting lie." For instance, if someone asks if you think that their deceased loved one suffered much at the end, and you know for a fact that the loved one suffered greatly, telling the person "no, your loved one went very quickly and didn't suffer at all" is, to me, an acceptable "comforting lie." So then, are Browne's lies acceptable because some people find comfort in them? I say no. First, in the above example, there was no benefit to the person knowing the truth: that their loved one had suffered. But in the case of Browne's lies, they can keep the person being lied to from finding out truths which may be beneficial to them. Her "medical diagnoses" are a clear example of this. Second, not everything which comforts a person is necessarily good for them. In fact, many find comfort in things (smoking, overeating, etc.) which are extremely harmful. Third, Browne isn't telling these lies simply to comfort people. She is profiting hugely from her lies. In the "suffering loved one" example above, if the second person had charged the first person twenty dollars to tell them the comforting lie, would that make you look at it differently? What if they charged the first person seven hundred and fifty dollars to tell them comforting lies over the phone for twenty minutes? Lastly, not all of Browne's lies are comforting ones, but are in fact, hurtful. The lies she tells to those who come to her for help with a missing or murdered loved one. The lies she tells to those who come to her for medical advice. These are lies which give false hope, lies which take away real and true hope. To me, Browne could have comforted a million people, and it would not excuse nor justify these lies. AnalysisThe email is yet another example of how tragedy can lead someone to a vulnerable and desperate place in their life where they turn to someone like Sylvia Browne for help. ConclusionMy thanks to the correspondent for sharing her story with me, and for allowing me to share it with you.
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