Sylvia Browne: Dead? Wrong!!!

[skepticalfred]

Here is a list I compiled of Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker’s (Sylvia Browne) famous misses. After perusing the below, is there any doubt she is just guessing?

The West Virginia Mine Tragedy:
Sylvia: “I knew they were going to be found.“ (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180681,00.html)
Result: All but one died. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5082049)

Shawn Hornbeck:
Sylvia: When asked “Is he still with us?” she responded “No.“ (http://www.stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_shawnhornbeck2.shtml) (Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWlscV3mvL4))
Result: He was found alive. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/24/48hours/main4474670.shtml)

Martha Stewart:
Sylvia: “Martha Stewart’s show will be canceled [by the end of 2007]. (http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpJkNljY7nSM)”
Result: The next new episode airs tomorrow, 12/18/2008. (http://www.marthastewart.com/affiliateinfo)

Iraq War:
Sylvia: “Bush will bring the troops home.“ (http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpJkNljY7nSM)
Result: President Bush sent even more troops to Iraq. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2785532)

The Economy:
Sylvia: “The economy will bounce back [in 2007], although the stock market is a real rollercoaster. (http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpJkNljY7nSM)”
Result: The economy is in terrible shape. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/19/tent.cities.ap/index.html)

Molly Krewson:
Sylvia: [When asked, "Is she alive?"] “Yes.” (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_hollykrewson.shtml)
Result: Molly had been dead for 10 years and was identified using dental records. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/27/usa.jonronson)

Ryan Katcher:
Sylvia: [When asked about the location of the body] “Your son… aspirated. He was so… um… you know… in so much alcohol, he aspirated. Two boys got terribly frightened, dropped him in a shaft of some kind. I don’t know, it looks a metal [sic]… a metal shaft of some kind.“ (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_ryankatcher.shtml) (Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADb18aEfczA))
Result: Ryan crashed his truck and drowned in a pond. (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/07/26/ui_students_body_found)

Opal Jo Jennings:
Sylvia: “She’s … not… dead. But what bothers me – now I’ve never heard of this before, but for some reason, she was taken and put into some kind of a slavery thing and taken into Japan.“ (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_opal.shtml) (Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnGS0mmXGFE))
Result: Opal was killed a few hours after her abduction and found near her home. (http://www.tarrantcounty.com/emedicalexaminer/cwp/view.asp?A=732&Q=446624)

Lynda McClelland:
Sylvia: “Okay. Um… See, she’s not dead.“ (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_lyndamcclelland.shtml) (Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu64Bq9456k))
Result: Lynda was found dead. (http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_east/20030318arrest0318p1.asp)

Terrence Farrell:
Sylvia: “Terry [is] still alive. (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/terrencefarrell.shtml)”
Result: Terry is still dead. (http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/memorial/wtc/farrell_terrence_ff_res004.shtml)

The Pope:
Sylvia: “He’s going to die . [I]But I think within the next year or two we’re going to have a black pope . . . Yeah, and then after that, they’re going to have a triumvirate of popes, which is something they’ve never had before.“ (http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/b/sylvia-browne/predictions.html)
Result: Pope John Paul II died in 2005. There has never been a black pope, nor a trio of popes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope)


Interest Rates:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope)Sylvia: “ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope)Interest rates will rise very slowly until spring and then will level off and begin to go downward. (http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm)” (mirror (http://web.archive.org/web/20070829021651/http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm))
Result: Rates climbed throughout the year. (http://www.moneycafe.com/library/fedfunds.htm)


The 2000 Presidential Race:
(http://www.moneycafe.com/library/fedfunds.htm)Sylvia: “Democrats will win the election with Bill Bradley, with close competition from the Reform Party.“ (http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm) (mirror (http://web.archive.org/web/20070829021651/http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm))
Result: President Bush was re-elected - the Democrats never ran Bill Bradley.

(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/08/bn.02.html)Courtney Cox:
Sylvia: “ (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/08/bn.02.html)Courtney Cox will get pregnant this year [2000] and have a baby boy. (http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm)” (mirror (http://web.archive.org/web/20070829021651/http://www.sylvia.org/home/2000pred.cfm))
Result: Courtney Cox gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, in 2004. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courteney_Cox#Personal_life)
(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/08/bn.02.html)

Eve Eskin Brown:
Sylvia: “Eve Brown is well and living in Florida.” (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/montel_evebrown.shtml)
Result: She was found dead. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE6D6113AF936A15752C1A9669C8B 63)

Richard Kneebone:
Sylvia: “He’s not dead and could be traveling in Canada . . . and have partial amnesia.” (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/richardkneebone.shtml)
Result: Richard is dead, with no evidence of traveling in Canada. (http://stopsylvia.com/articles/richardkneebone.shtml)

The Dana Chyleen Satterfield murder:
Sylvia: The murderer is “probably in his 30s,” “has a thick scar over his eye,” and ”has a dark complexion.“ (http://search.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970215/NEWS/702150317)
Result: The murderer is a scarless ,fair-skinned 19-year old. (http://www.goupstate.com/article/20051025/NEWS/510250327)

The Dana Chyleen Satterfield murder:
Sylvia: The murderer is “probably in his 30s,” “has a thick scar over his eye,” and ”has a dark complexion.“ (http://search.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970215/NEWS/702150317)
Result: The murderer is a scarless ,fair-skinned 19-year old. (http://www.goupstate.com/article/20051025/NEWS/510250327)

Madrid Earthquake:
Sylvia: “A very large earthquake in Madrid, about 7.8, in May [1998].“ (http://www.ufomind.com/misc/1998/feb/d18-001.shtml)
Result: There is no evidence that a quake like this ever occurred during 1998. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=31l&q=Madrid+Earthquake+may+1998&btnG=Search)

List Compiled by: Fred Cipriano (http://www.cmdrfred.com/)
Edited by: Jennifer Shipon

See the article with images, Sylvia Browne: Dead? Wrong!!! (http://cmdrfred.com/?p=135)

[ma1ic3]

Nice list.

Maybe this should be added to the skepticwiki or the Sylvia Brown section here.

http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Sylvia_Browne

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/sylvia-browne.html

[skepticalfred]

thanks it took a while to compile but I wanted a list of only things that are easily provable and not really open to interpretation. Feel free to add this list anywhere a link to my article would be appreciated but not mandatory, I will be updating it if I find more good examples.

[scratchy]

To be fair we should also have a list of the predictions she got right. So, here it is:

-
-
-

Keep'em coming!

[rjh01]

www.stopsylvia.com

[KarlG]

Damn, only read half of the thread name and got my hopes up, thought she was dead.

[Minarvia]

Damn, only read half of the thread name and got my hopes up, thought she was dead.

That shouldn't have made me chuckle, but...:D

[malbui]

The Pope:
Sylvia: “He’s going to die . [I]But I think within the next year or two we’re going to have a black pope . . . Yeah, and then after that, they’re going to have a triumvirate of popes, which is something they’ve never had before.“ (http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/b/sylvia-browne/predictions.html)
Result: Pope John Paul II died in 2005. There has never been a black pope, nor a trio of popes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope)


In the interests of pure JREF nitpicking, I should perhaps point out that there was a period when there were three simultaneous Popes, or at least claimants to the Papacy, not that any of them could command overwhelming loyalty. This was the Western Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1417 and saw Popes doing their stuff in Rome, Avignon and Pisa. So Sylvia can't even predict the past accurately.

[skepticalfred]

In the interests of pure JREF nitpicking, I should perhaps point out that there was a period when there were three simultaneous Popes, or at least claimants to the Papacy, not that any of them could command overwhelming loyalty. This was the Western Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1417 and saw Popes doing their stuff in Rome, Avignon and Pisa. So Sylvia can't even predict the past accurately.

Thanks for that info, I did not know that I will update my article accordingly.

It seems I cant update my previous post so I will add the fix here and on my blog (http://www.cmdrfred.com).


The Pope:
Sylvia: "He's going to die . [I]But I think within the next year or two we're going to have a black pope . . . Yeah, and then after that, they're going to have a triumvirate of popes, which is something they've never had before." (http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/b/sylvia-browne/predictions.html)
Result: Pope John Paul II died in 2005. There has never been a black pope. From 1378 to 1417 there was a trio of popes but this never happened again, it seems Sylvia cant even get the past right. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope)

[RSL's better half]

Seeing the title of this thread, I, too, thought perhaps you were going to tell us of a report of her demise - and then recant.

With her track record, there is really no telling, but she did say she would live into her 80's. Was it 88? I've forgotten now. I'll have to read www.stopsylvia.com to find out.

Your list IS a good one! And an accurate one. Well done!

Susan Lancaster

[Anna Karenina]

When Sylvia Browne dies I'm going to pretend to be a medium, reach enormous fame and then claim she talks to me all the time and told me she was a massive fake...and that she used to suffocate kittens....and that she used to let Uri bend spoons on her bum.

[malbui]

Having just re-read what I posted last night, I must confess to an error - the Schism ended with a period of nearly a decade where there were three Popes, but before then there were only two - Rome and Avignon. So maybe we should correct our correction. Sorry for misleading you, Fred.

[desertgal]

Seeing the title of this thread, I, too, thought perhaps you were going to tell us of a report of her demise - and then recant.

With her track record, there is really no telling, but she did say she would live into her 80's. Was it 88? I've forgotten now. I'll have to read www.stopsylvia.com to find out.

Your list IS a good one! And an accurate one. Well done!

Susan Lancaster

Although, since she says she believes that we are all "dead" and those dead are "alive", then how would one phrase the announcement of her death?

"Sylvia Browne Lives...But Not Really." :D

[JcR]

I wonder if she really believes in herself, or is knowingly selling snake oil
to her woo crowd. I had seen her act once before, At that time she was really too vague for me and she was constantly drawing up first letters of people's names, when she was trying to contact lost or dead souls.
Talk about hit and miss with that game.
It is funny when she claims she had known certain details after the fact
and is all vague and fuzzy during her readings, if that is what ya call them.
Or if she gets it all wrong she can easily explain it all away. using that funny phycic worm out of this one fashion they have.
Maybe she can make mistakes to, and accidentally read somebody living under a rock on the moon, instead of who she is really trying to read... who knows.
Maybe it was another one like her i remember.
Doesn't matter to me, as far as i can see
they all go to the same cold reading snake oil school.
Sorry if i sound too harsh...
but i can't stand the taste of snake oil....blah