"But Sylvia's Predictions Were Correct!" [Archive]

Gr8wight

3rd January 2007, 09:17 AM

There should be an RSS feed icon at the bottom of the page on the left side. Let me know if it is not appearing on your browser ( it's optimized for Firefox) and I will try to make adjustments. Thanks for reading! :)

It does not appear on the main page, but I see it at the bottom of each of the pages labeled 'articles', 'reviews' and 'journals'. They do not, however, appear to link valid RSS feed urls. They simply link directly to the page they are on. I cannot add them to my feed reader, as it does not recognise them as 'feeds'.

I am using Firefox, BTW, and the SAGE feed reader for Firefox.

Minarvia

3rd January 2007, 09:45 AM

Your answer, Vampire, to the reply to "Sylvia Sez" is good. The drug IS old news. I doubt that the believer will get your point, tho.

Miss Whiplash

3rd January 2007, 10:12 AM

It does not appear on the main page, but I see it at the bottom of each of the pages labeled 'articles', 'reviews' and 'journals'. They do not, however, appear to link valid RSS feed urls. They simply link directly to the page they are on. I cannot add them to my feed reader, as it does not recognise them as 'feeds'.

I am using Firefox, BTW, and the SAGE feed reader for Firefox.

Thanks for letting me know about that Gr8wight. I'll see if I can get this working and an RSS feed on the page proper.

Lisa Simpson

3rd January 2007, 10:17 AM

Miss Whiplash

3rd January 2007, 10:29 AM

Somewhere a glacier is melting due to the hot air released by Sylvia every Wednesday. RUN!!!

JonnyFive

3rd January 2007, 10:36 AM

Somewhere a glacier is melting due to the hot air released by Sylvia every Wednesday. RUN!!!

So that thing about global warming and glaciars would be a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Miss Whiplash

3rd January 2007, 04:07 PM

I put the little clip of Sylvia saying a woman shouldn't be President because of PMS up on youtube and of the six comments, two are positive.

"I love sylvia"

"Sylv's The best.. I love her"

It's not quite as bad as I thought it would be.

If I could run for president in 2008, I would. Since I'm so even tempered and friendly, I'd win by a landslide. Then Sylvia would get on her broomstick and leave the country.:D

RichardR

3rd January 2007, 09:59 PM

It does not appear on the main page, but I see it at the bottom of each of the pages labeled 'articles', 'reviews' and 'journals'. They do not, however, appear to link valid RSS feed urls. They simply link directly to the page they are on. I cannot add them to my feed reader, as it does not recognise them as 'feeds'.

I am using Firefox, BTW, and the SAGE feed reader for Firefox.Doesn't work for me either - Sage can't find the feed.

RichardR

3rd January 2007, 10:03 PM

Seems like Sylvia's fans have found my blog entry and are singing her praises this morning.

Sylvia's Predictions (http://www.mondoskepto.com/node/69)

Is this National Nut Week or something?No more than normal. If you Google sylvia browne predictions 2007 (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=sylvia+browne+predictions+2007) your post is # 4 on the page, which is why you're getting them all. (My post is #7 btw, and I'm getting them too. :D )

Miss Whiplash

4th January 2007, 06:10 AM

No more than normal. If you Google sylvia browne predictions 2007 (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=sylvia+browne+predictions+2007) your post is # 4 on the page, which is why you're getting them all. (My post is #7 btw, and I'm getting them too. :D )

I saw late last night. I thought it was marvelous! Thanks for linking me in your article!

I've added an RSS feed to the front page. Why this is not working is puzzling. I'll see what I can do again tonight.

Gr8wight

4th January 2007, 08:49 AM

I saw late last night. I thought it was marvelous! Thanks for linking me in your article!

I've added an RSS feed to the front page. Why this is not working is puzzling. I'll see what I can do again tonight.

The feed appears to be working right now, although I won't know for sure until you add new content. However, it does not have a title associated with it.

ponderingturtle

4th January 2007, 02:10 PM

Seems like Sylvia's fans have found my blog entry and are singing her praises this morning.

Sylvia's Predictions (http://www.mondoskepto.com/node/69)

Is this National Nut Week or something?

Also Polio is a postdiction as well, as polio has been on the rise in some areas of the world for years. The only things that seem to be actual predictions is the celebrity stuff.

Miss Whiplash

4th January 2007, 02:41 PM

The feed appears to be working right now, although I won't know for sure until you add new content. However, it does not have a title associated with it.

D-oh!

We'll try it again! :D

Also Polio is a postdiction as well, as polio has been on the rise in some areas of the world for years. The only things that seem to be actual predictions is the celebrity stuff.

She went on camera saying "I read it in JAMA" but her fans either don't hear that or just filter it out.

Minarvia

16th April 2007, 10:13 PM

Okay, I just got my Sylvia Browne newsletter today (okay, shoot me, I used to believe her!) and it states that Sylvia had predicted that in 2000 -

"Addictions will be a thing of the past because of a brain stimulation which eradicated all addictions, with no side effects." On January 25, 2007, the Associated Press reported that "damage to a silver dollar-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction.

The newsletter goes on to say that the January 26 edition of the journal "Science" told of a case of a stroke patient, that due to his memory loss, forgot that he was addicted to cigarrettes. Doctors worked to pinpoint the region of the brain involved with "striking results."
They say that Dr. Nora Volkow said that studies show a little known region called the "insula is a key structure in the brain for perceiving the urges to take the drug," urges that are "the backbone of the addiction."

Soooo...is Sylvia actually right in this instance? Do any of you educated sorts out there know about this, or is Sylvia's camp putting a positive spin on what is not really a true validation of Sylvia's "abilities?"

Slimething

16th April 2007, 10:28 PM

So, all a smoker needs to do to quit is suffer brain damage? So easy, why didn't I think of that? Why not just get a lobotomy? And all this with no side effects!

I'd rather take up smoking, thanks.

rjh01

17th April 2007, 02:55 AM

The results may not be as good as what Sylvia says Link Damage to the Insula Disrupts Addiction to Cigarette Smoking (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/315/5811/531)

A number of brain systems have been implicated in addictive behavior, but none have yet been shown to be necessary for maintaining the addiction to cigarette smoking. We found that smokers with brain damage involving the insula, a region implicated in conscious urges, were more likely than smokers with brain damage not involving the insula to undergo a disruption of smoking addiction, characterized by the ability to quit smoking easily, immediately, without relapse, and without persistence of the urge to smoke. This result suggests that the insula is a critical neural substrate in the addiction to smoking.

In short, this is not a hit. No drugs have been invented that can cure addictions without side effects. They have only found an area in the brian that is involved. That would be years away.

Also she made the prediction in year 2000. Did she put a time frame on it? If not then it is one of those things you can say that is highly probable to happen sometime.

This is another lesson on psychics claiming hits on anything that they can.

Cuddles

17th April 2007, 04:15 AM

So severe brain damage and memory loss counts as no side effects? Put me down for two please.

Jackalgirl

17th April 2007, 05:57 AM

Seems like Sylvia's fans have found my blog entry and are singing her praises this morning.

Sylvia's Predictions (http://www.mondoskepto.com/node/69)

Is this National Nut Week or something?

Nice article, nice blog! As for the comments, well...geez. The world is so much cooler AS IT IS -- Sylvia Brown tries to make it painfully, pitifully boring. : (

JeffJ

17th April 2007, 06:23 AM

Again I'll point out that Sylvia is always "thinking" things. She "thinks" J-Lo wants a baby... she "thinks" this and "thinks" that yet she never comes right out and makes a confident prediction that she positively "knows" will take place (from Francine's tips, etc..) and exactly when this is going to occur, etc, etc...

Minarvia

17th April 2007, 07:39 AM

All my newsletter says is Sylvia made her addiction prediction in 2000; it doesn't specify a time frame. If the research about the insula is older than that, then it cannot be a "hit" for Sylvia. If it was unknown then maybe it is a "hit" for her. All I've been able to find about the insula is all articles from 2007, so I don't know if this was discussed prior to that and Sylvia had clues about this, or not.

fls

17th April 2007, 08:25 AM

Soooo...is Sylvia actually right in this instance? Do any of you educated sorts out there know about this, or is Sylvia's camp putting a positive spin on what is not really a true validation of Sylvia's "abilities?"

I've written a bit before on how to score "hits" when attempting to validate psychic abilities here (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=2478742#post2478742). If anyone is accepting that bit of research as a "hit", it looks to me like any research associating any addiction with a specific area of the brain, or any treatment for any addiction, during the 10 years after the prediction was made, will count as a "hit" for the statement "addictions will be a thing of the past because of a brain stimulation which eradicated all addictions, with no side effects." Since it has already been established that the brain is involved with addiction, and the area of addiction research is active, with hundreds of studies published every year, there will probably be hundreds of ways/opportunities in which Sylvia's prediction could be considered a hit. For example, a drug that "stimulated" a particular receptor and was effective in modifying cocaine dependence would be counted as a "hit". This makes that particular hit only worth about 0.01 points.

Linda

JoeTheJuggler

17th April 2007, 09:31 AM

I can't wait to see if her prediction that we'll discover another amino acid comes true!

Or did she mean a new protease inhibitor that consists of one amino acid???

gerdbonk

17th April 2007, 02:16 PM

"Addictions will be a thing of the past because of a brain stimulation which eradicated all addictions, with no side effects."

What exactly is predicted:

1) Addictions will be a thing of the past
2) because of a brain stimulation which eradicated all addictions
3) with no side effects

Does this study fulfill the prediction?

1) Miss
2) Miss
3) Miss

nails3jesus0

17th April 2007, 04:47 PM

So, all a smoker needs to do to quit is suffer brain damage? So easy, why didn't I think of that? Why not just get a lobotomy? And all this with no side effects!

I'd rather take up smoking, thanks.

it gives us a clue on how do develop treatment for addictions, perhaps develop prescription drugs to wipe out addiction.

Slimething

17th April 2007, 08:35 PM

it gives us a clue on how do develop treatment for addictions, perhaps develop prescription drugs to wipe out addiction.

I disagree. Whereas a physiological catastrophe can point to a specific region of the body involved with a certain effect, that observation reveals nothing about the biochemistry involved in the process. For example, there's the famous incident where a railworker had a steel spike shot right through his brain which resulted in a sudden and dramatic change in personality. Confirmation of brain involvement in personality, yes; therapeutic insights, none.

Also, I looked up Dr. Volkow and I could find nothing in her publications or reports that resembled anything like the event in the newsletter, not that I would ever insinuate that sylvia browne would lie to her followers. :D

nails3jesus0

17th April 2007, 09:17 PM

I disagree. Whereas a physiological catastrophe can point to a specific region of the body involved with a certain effect, that observation reveals nothing about the biochemistry involved in the process. For example, there's the famous incident where a railworker had a steel spike shot right through his brain which resulted in a sudden and dramatic change in personality. Confirmation of brain involvement in personality, yes; therapeutic insights, none.

Also, I looked up Dr. Volkow and I could find nothing in her publications or reports that resembled anything like the event in the newsletter, not that I would ever insinuate that sylvia browne would lie to her followers. :D

I read something about the event on cnn. it did happen.

youre crazy to say that fidning functions of parts of the brain has nothing to do with how drugs are developed to help psychological and neurological problems. for instance parts of the brain not functioning properly can be connected with what chemistry that part of the brain regulates and therefore what needs to be replaced to develop normal functioning(like in cases of depression and add, seritonin and norepinephrin).

Soapy Sam

17th April 2007, 10:11 PM

I put the little clip of Sylvia saying a woman shouldn't be President because of PMS up on youtube and of the six comments, two are positive.

"I love sylvia"

"Sylv's The best.. I love her"

It's not quite as bad as I thought it would be.

Bush doesn't get PMS then?

So...what's his excuse?:boxedin:

Slimething

18th April 2007, 12:01 AM

I read something about the event on cnn. it did happen.

I could be wrong. The event is not on Volkow's webpage so she apparently wasn't as impressed as the wire services and I must agree with her.

youre crazy

If only I had a nickel for every time...never mind

to say that fidning functions of parts of the brain has nothing to do with how drugs are developed to help psychological and neurological problems. for instance parts of the brain not functioning properly can be connected with what chemistry that part of the brain regulates and therefore what needs to be replaced to develop normal functioning(like in cases of depression and add, seritonin and norepinephrin).

I don't believe that what you're seeing is the result of a distinct biochemistry in any part of the brain. There are nodules in the brain that secrete different neurotransmitters but they're usually not located all in the same place. If you read the article carefully, you'll see that the writer makes contradicting claims in (1) finding the locus of nicotine addition and (2) saying that the smoker "forgot" the addiction, implying that it was more a serious mechanistic disruption than a biochemical deficit.

When you refer to the use of psychotropics, you must be aware that they were developed to mimic deficient neurotransmitters, block the receptors of excess neurotransmitters or prevent the resorption of an insufficient neurotransmitter. Bullets through brains, ischemic attacks and accidents with sharp things had nothing to do with these advances. If you know of a case that proves me wrong, I'd love you to post it.