Larry asked a caller from Yonkers why she had asked Sylvia about "fault," and Sylvia very softly and quickly whispered to Larry "She's afraid it was a suicide." The caller immediately stated, "It was a car accident," and Sylvia smoothly changed tack and continued, as if she'd known that all along, "Yeah, she was trying to veer off from something." Note: all of this procedure is in exact conformance with the methods offered in Ian Rowland's book, "The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading," which we mentioned last week.
Larry asked me, as I expected, what's the harm in what Sylvia does? Let me give you an example, sent to me by a viewer. Many months ago, on another show that featured Sylvia as a guest, the grandmother of a local missing child was also on the program. The child was a six-year-old named Opal Jo Jennings, from north Texas. She had been in the news a lot because of her disappearance. On national TV, Sylvia said that the child was still alive but had been sold into white slavery and was currently in Japan! She even gave a city name. But there is no city in Japan by that name. Currently, there is a man sitting in prison in Texas who has confessed to Opal Jo's abduction. "What's the harm?" How about false hope? To tell such a far-out and freaky tale just for TV ratings....?
On the King show, Sylvia provided a motherly warning to me that I should "check" my "left ventricle," a cheap shot on her part, obviously designed to provide viewers with a spicy prediction that cannot immediately be checked on, as well as diverting attention from her rather ineffective performance. And not too wild a try, since I'm on public record as having had heart attacks and an angioplasty. I told King that I would consult my cardiac surgeon in that regard. Well, now I've had a "Persantine" stress test performed, using radioactive thallium, a very thorough, definitive, cardiac examination, including an echocardiograph. No enlargement of the left ventricle, nor of the coronary artery supplying it, though that would be expected in a man my age. It appears that Ms. Browne might be playing the odds, but I just don't match the picture. I obtained 96 points out of a possible 100 in my tests. I'll let you evaluate her accuracy on that one.
In one of Sylvia's many books, titled "Life on the Other Side," a reader points out that on page 18 she relates the story of how her beloved college professor led her to a bookstore and showed her books by authors including Jean-Paul Sartre and Bertrand Russell. Her professor said these authors were "like you" (Sylvia). Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't these guys rather vehement atheists?
http://www.randi.org/jr/090701.htmledit: here's another paragraph, it's a letter to James Randi
"I went to Sylvia's web site, she charges $750 a half hour, I guess that guarantees she is going to get customers that will pay anything rather than claim responsibility for their own lives. I have never come across a psychic or astrologer that doesn't use the famous two words "Free will." Now mind you, this is from people who believe it is all pre-destined. "Free will" translates as "just in case I don't get it right." By the way her son, who is also a psychic, only charges $375. Does this mean he's half as accurate?"