Sylvia Browne

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Sylvia Browne
Born	October 19, 1936 (1936-10-19) (age 71) Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation	self described psychic and medium
Children	Christopher Dufresne, Paul Dufresne
Website www.sylvia.org

Sylvia Browne (born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker October 19, 1936) is a best-selling American author on the subject of spirituality and is a celebrity psychic and medium.^[1]

She was a weekly guest on The Montel Williams Show and hosts her own hour-long show on Hay House Radio, discussing paranormal issues and giving callers advice in her role as a would-be psychic.

Critics such as James Randi have argued that Browne uses mentalist techniques to produce the illusion of mind reading and clairvoyance. Reports about her false predictions and claims have appeared in several newspapers.^[2]^[3]^[4]

1 Biography
- 1.1 Marriage and children
2 Paranormal claims
3 Television and radio
4 Books, business, and church
5 Legal issues and criminal conviction
6 Criticism and controversy
7 Bibliography
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Biography

Browne was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Bill and Celeste Shoemaker; she is the eldest of two daughters.^[5] Her father was Jewish and had many jobs including mail delivery and jewelry salesman, and was vice president of a major freight line. Her mother was Episcopalian,^[6] and her maternal grandmother Ada Coil was a devout Lutheran.^[6] To establish stability; the family decided to convert to Roman Catholicism and they were all baptised together when Browne was a young girl,^{[citation needed]} but Browne said in 2001 that she was Jewish. ^[7]

Browne says that visions started appearing when she was three years old and that her grandmother Ada Coil, who she said was a psychic medium, helped her understand why she had them. Browne also asserts that her great-uncle also says to be a psychic medium and was “rabid about UFOs.”^[8]

Browne started to give claimed psychic readings in 1974 and has attracted followings of supporters and detractors.^[5] She has given thousands of one-on-one readings and with a wide variety of groups and individuals; as of 2007, she charges $750 for a 20-30 minute telephone reading.^[9] Browne claims to have provided information to police departments and the FBI. ^[7]

[edit] Marriage and children

She was married to Gary Dufresne from April 1959 until 1972, and is divorced from Kenzil Dalzell Brown. Sylvia acquired the surname Brown during the third of her four marriages, and enhanced it with a final e after she was indicted on Security Fraud charges.^[10] In September 2002 she and Larry Lee Beck ended their marriage.^[11]

Sylvia says her son Christopher is psychic, and attributes this to a genetic predisposition.^[12] Her website says "If Sylvia is the best psychic around - then Chris is the second best."^[13]

[edit] Paranormal claims

Browne says she knows what it is like in heaven. In her book Life on the Other Side, she says the temperature is a constant 78°F (25.6°C), that there are no insects–-unless one wants there to be, that pets go to heaven, and that one can build one's house wherever one wants unless it obscures the view of a river or some trees, in which case one needs permission.^[14] She asserts that the "other side" exists approximately three feet above ground level and at a "higher vibrational level" and so is difficult for humans to perceive. However, like other psychics, she claims to have been born able to perceive a wider range of "vibrational frequencies".

Browne declares that she can see angels and that they look similar to depictions in paintings, but have different traits depending on their "phylum". She has also claimed that they do not speak. Her granddaughter, who is purportedly psychic, claims to have witnessed the angels that Browne states surround humans.^[15]

Browne professes the ability to speak with her spirit guide, "Francine," and has given details of fifty-four of her own former lives as divined by her.^[16] Browne identified herself as having abilities beyond communication with spirits. During a Larry King Live discussion which included James Randi on 3 September 2001 she claimed to have "...helped child [sic] with seizures, that I cured a child with seizures. That I worked with 350 doctors. I mean, you don't know anything about this."^[17]

[edit] Television and radio

Browne is a frequent guest on US television and radio programs. She has appeared numerous times on Larry King Live as well as the Montel Williams Show and Coast to Coast AM. In 2005 Browne told Newsweek that Larry King, a believer in the paranormal, asked her to do private psychic readings.^[18] During these appearances she usually discusses her abilities with the host and then performs readings of audience members or callers.

On some occasions other guests at her appearances have included skeptics, with James Randi being one of the more frequent. These shows often feature verbal sparring between the two, with both trying to convince the audience that the other is wrong. In March 2004, their feud escalated on the popular St. Louis radio program The Paul Harris Show when Randi came out and called Browne a liar.^[19]

Browne has also appeared on the television soap opera The Young and the Restless as herself in December 2006.^[20]

[edit] Books, business, and church

Browne is the head of the Sylvia Browne Corporation, Sylvia Browne Enterprises, and the founder of a church in 1986 in Campbell, California, known as the Society of Novus Spiritus.

According to its website, the church employs forty ministers, though only a small number are actually paid employees, and those who are paid also work for Sylvia Browne Corporation and Sylvia Browne Enterprises, and are members of the Board of Directors of Novus Spiritus.

Novus Spiritus refers to itself as "Gnostic Christian."^[13] It states that it follows the same traditions and teachings which Jesus himself followed, yet does not exclude Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, or Hinduism. The society teaches the Biblical works of Jesus Christ while also incorporating the Gnostic Gospels (ex: Gospel of Mary Magdalene), and says that while the Bible is a "marvelous book" and should be used as a teaching tool, it is not the "unaltered word of God".^[21]

Novus Spiritus Study Groups and Churches are not allowed to teach anything other than what Sylvia Browne has written, thus excluding any other religious or spiritual texts.

The tenets of the church have expanded, as discussed in her 2006 book "Exploring the Levels of Creation", including the idea of a "Mother God" and "Father God". She further elaborated about this during a segment on the Montel Williams show while promoting the book. ^[22]

Though Sylvia Browne claims publicly to support her forty ministers and churches, neither she or Novus Spiritus has financially supported any of the satellite churches that were formed. These churches rely solely on their founding ministers for funding, and they are required to send money to Novus Spiritus headquarters in Campbell, California. These churches are also required to purchase all of their material (Study Group Books, Sylvia Browne Books, etc.) from Novus, and are only allowed to cover and teach Sylvia Browne's written work.

[edit] Legal issues and criminal conviction

In 1992, Browne and her estranged husband were indicted on several charges of investment fraud and grand theft.^[23] The Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, found that Browne and her husband sold securities in a gold-mining venture under false pretenses.^[23] In at least one instance, they told a couple their $20,000 investment was to be used for immediate operating costs.^[24] Instead, the money was transferred to an account for their Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research.^[23] Browne pleaded no contest to securities fraud and was indicted on grand larceny in Santa Clara County, California on May 26, 1992.^[25]

Sylvia and her estranged husband Kenzil Dalzell Brown pleaded no contest to a felony charge of "sale of security without permit," made restitution, and received one year probation each.^[23] Dalzell's disposition included "County Jail 4 months with credit for time served of 21 days," while Sylvia's included 200 hours of community service.^[23]

[edit] Criticism and controversy

Main article: Criticism of Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne has been involved in numerous controversies regarding her claims and predictions. She has had a long-running feud with skeptic James Randi, who has said that her readings are indistinguishable from those achieved by mentalists using cold and hot reading techniques. In addition, reports about her psychic abilities by independent observers and the press have cast doubts on them.^[26] Her first husband, Gary Dufresne, said in a February 10, 2007 interview that he does not think Sylvia has any paranormal abilities, and that she admitted it, saying that the gullible deserve to be taken advantage of.^[26]^[27] Also supporting this conclusion are several incorrect predictions shown when the actual truth was revealed through other than psychic means, including those of Holly Krewson,^[28]^[29] Opal Jo Jennings,^[30]^[26] Lynda McClelland,^[31] Ryan Katcher,^[32] and Shawn Hornbeck.^[33]

Browne has often spoken of working with the police and FBI as a psychic detective, but according to The Skeptics Dictionary, in 21 of Browne's 35 cases, the details she gave were too vague to be verified, and in the remaining 14 Browne played no useful role. ^[34]