Syvlia Browne

[Showmeproof]

Sylvia Browne was on the Montel show and they were going over her predictions. In 2004 or 2005 she predicted earthquakes in mexico city and in India and both occured. From a scientific or rational/logical POV, how is it possible to accurately get two specific hits like that?

[Enlighten]

Sylvia Browne was on the Montel show and they were going over her predictions. In 2004 or 2005 she predicted earthquakes in mexico city and in India and both occured. From a scientific or rational/logical POV, how is it possible to accurately get two specific hits like that?

Do you have a transcript/video of what she said in 2004/2005? If there is no record of what she said before then Browne/Montel could have been retrofiting the 'prediction' to the earthquake.

[kosai]

Looks like to get any predictions in the future you will have to (pay to) subscribe to her Newsletter.

[darnell11]

What people don't realize is that earthquakes are very common and occur all over the world everyday. Do you know how many earthquakes occur in those areas she predicted on a regular basis? You should research that and then decide how accurate she was.

[GT/CS]

Sylvia Browne was on the Montel show and they were going over her predictions. In 2004 or 2005 she predicted earthquakes in mexico city and in India and both occured. From a scientific or rational/logical POV, how is it possible to accurately get two specific hits like that?

Don't Mexico City and India have have earthquakes every year, sort of like California?

ETA: Aarrgghh, Darnell beat me to it.

[Kilgore Trout]

Sylvia Browne was on the Montel show and they were going over her predictions. In 2004 or 2005 she predicted earthquakes in mexico city and in India and both occured. From a scientific or rational/logical POV, how is it possible to accurately get two specific hits like that?

First, although I don't know her exact words, that doesn't seem specific at all. How severe of an earthquake? During what part of the year? To say that those locations will have an earthquake of any intensity during an entire year doesn't seem specific at all.

Just to quickly have a look, I googled for "earthquake india" and "earthquake mexico city" one turned up a map that showed locations of several 6+ (Richter scale) earthquakes in India the other made mention of explaining why Mexico City is especially vulnerable to earthquakes. I suspect her prediction was rather like saying it'll snow in Alberta next year.

[Lisa Simpson]

I love it when psychics predicts earthquakes for places that are on fault lines and hurricanes for the Atlantic/Gulf Coast and tornadoes for Tornado Alley.

[panchov]

I love it when psychics predicts earthquakes for places that are on fault lines and hurricanes for the Atlantic/Gulf Coast and tornadoes for Tornado Alley.

Its like predicting Brittany or Lindsay will get into alcohol/drug problems (sometime next year). THere will also be some issues with their parents. And Brittany's kids will be in the news too.

I AM psychic!

[Minarvia]

This isn't pertinent to the OP but the name of the thread is just "Sylvia Browne" so I'll comment here that I find it interesting and amusing that Montel is trying hard as hell to keep promoting her. Has anyone noticed his new feature to have a viewer win a free private reading with Sylvia? I've seen a couple of the readings for the "winners" and to me they were totally unimpressive even tho the advertisement said that what happened in her private room "you wouldn't believe!" Well, I couldn't even figure out what the big surprise was supposed to have been. Of course, the readee gushed about how fabulous the reading was and how fantastic Sylvia is.
Also, Montel is trying really hard to point out to the audience things Sylvia is supposedly so psychic about. He says "see, how could Sylvia possibly have known that?" And, predictably, she says, "I'm psychic!" :rolleyes:

[Enlighten]

This is a prediction from 2005 about earthquakes and other disasters:



TRANSCRIPT: THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW
DATE: December 30, 2005 Friday
SHOW: The Montel Williams Show 5:00 PM EST SYND
TITLE: The Friday Show: Sylvia Browne Predicts; Psychic Sylvia Browne gives predictions for 2006
LENGTH: 7464 words
...

WILLIAMS: What number is this one?

Ms. BROWNE: Thirty-two, I think.

WILLIAMS: Thirty-two. And again, on The New York Times best-seller list. OK, wait. You're going to talk about predictions for 2006, but let's start with this one. Are you going to write any more books in 2006?

Ms. BROWNE: Two more.

WILLIAMS: Two more? All right, so we got that to look forward to. Now, let's talk about some other--look, this last year I don't think could have been any worse when it comes to...

Ms. BROWNE: No, no.

WILLIAMS: ...natural disasters all over the world.

Ms. BROWNE: Tsunamis, everything.

WILLIAMS: Everything.

Ms. BROWNE: But, you know, Montel, and you know I hate to be a doomsday prophet because I'm not, but this--this next year coming is going to be just as bad.

WILLIAMS: Just as bad?

Ms. BROWNE: Just as bad, if not worse.

WILLIAMS: If not worse. Do you--do you see--let's--let's go down the list, because this last year, you know, the tsunami was caused at the end of l--the year before by a huge earthquake in the sea. We've gone a year without one.

Ms. BROWNE: Earthquake underneath, yeah. I'm concerned about New York getting hit.

WILLIAMS: Oh!

Ms. BROWNE: And I'm concerned about, you know, parts of LA getting hit. Not as bad as what we saw, you know?

WILLIAMS: How about the hurricane season? Is it going to be on again?

Ms. BROWNE: Yes, absolutely. What, did we have something like 30? I think we're going to have at least that many.

WILLIAMS: Wow.

Ms. BROWNE: See, Montel, we don't understand, we destroyed this planet. It's a warming trend, you see what I'm saying? People say, `Oh, it's the wrath of God.' Wrath of God my foot, it's the wrath of us. We've done it.

WILLIAMS: So how about in the rest of the world, do you see another huge thing like the tsunami?

Ms. BROWNE: Yeah. And then--and then I see another earthquake in India, I see another earthquake in--in Mexico. I see volcanoes going up everywhere. I mean, it's just depressing.

WILLIAMS: How about the world of politics? We're off a year here. We're in the odd election year. Anything strange going to happen around election time this year? The gubernatorial races are up, right? A couple of Senate seats are up.
...


Source (http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademi)

So her prediction is for earthquakes in New York, LA, India and Mexico and volcanoes "everywhere." (Note: There is New York City and Mexico City, but Browne gave the state and country, which is larger than the city/state area.)

An earthquake in India isn't a prediction, its a fact:

Earthquakes. The Asia-Pacific region alone has recorded 70 per cent of the world’s earthquakes measuring 7 or more on the Richter scale, at an average rate of 15 events per year (ESCAP, 1995a). The countries of the region which are badly affected by earthquakes include Japan, the Philippines, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Pacific Islands. Many of the countries in the region are located along, or adjacent to, the Pacific Ocean Seismic Zone or the Indian Ocean Seismic Zone. For example, 50–60 per cent of India is vulnerable to seismic activities of varying intensity (ESCAP, 1995a), particularly the areas in the Himalayan region and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The earthquake in Maharashtra State in Western India in September 1993 claimed over 12,000 lives (ESCAP, 1995a).

http://www.rrcap.unep.org/apeo/Chp1h-nathazards.html

[Silly Green Monkey]

Wasn't 2006 extraordinarily quiet, in terms of hurricanes?

[Leftus]

Predicting an earthquake in Mexico with a timespan of a year is like predicting rain. It's going to happen. Mexico doesn't go without earthquake. The timespan is the issue. Predicting the month would be better. Predicting the day would really prove something. Coming down to the minute would be awesome. Providing some level of details, such as magnitude, would even narrow the scope down. A year? Simply not good enough since it happens every year without fail. India is no different.

It's not good enough to say that it will rain in any given year. It's going to rain in december in California isn't a prediction with any weight as it always rains in California in December. To qualify as a prediction worthy of note one would have to say something like "It's going to ran 2.1 inches on the 21st of December 2007 in Sacramento California." (I did that without even looking up the averages btw). Otherwise it's shooting fish in a barrel.

---

As for the hurricanes I'm going to take the easy way out and quote the Wikipedia:

The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The season was unusual in that no hurricanes made landfall in the United States of America, the first such occurrence since 2001.

Predicting the expected, such as in the case of hurricanes, isn't a big deal. When the expected is predicted and the outcome is so vastly different than the expected, as is the case with no hurricanes hitting land and the pure number of them was well below normal, then one would have to look at the source of the prediction. How could someone be getting it so fundamentally wrong if the sources had a superior knowledge? We aren't talking missing by an inch but not even shooting in the same direction as the target after all.

And I don't see any evidence of any unusual volcanic activity. And we could use some as they are a great source for global cooling.

[alfaniner]

Just curious... Did Sylvia ever predict a tsunami before Dec 26, 2004?

[sthomson]

WILLIAMS: How about the hurricane season? Is it going to be on again?

Ms. BROWNE: Yes, absolutely. What, did we have something like 30? I think we're going to have at least that many.

I'm going to assume that she means "tropical and subtropical storms formed in the Atlantic" (generally what people think of when they speak of hurricanes in the US). There were 28 in 2005, 15 of which developed into hurricanes. 2005 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record.

By contrast, in 2006 there were only 10 storms, 5 of which developed into hurricanes. A pretty slow season, thanks to El Nino.

In other words, Browne predicted that the US would get at least 30 tropical storms in 2006. She was WRONG.

[sthomson]

Sylvia Browne was on the Montel show and they were going over her predictions. In 2004 or 2005 she predicted earthquakes in mexico city and in India and both occured. From a scientific or rational/logical POV, how is it possible to accurately get two specific hits like that?

In other words: she didn't. She made common sense guesses based on the history of each region. In the case of the hurricanes (see above post), she made a terrible guess.

If I predict that Los Angeles and the Bay Area will experience an earthquake some time in July or August of next year, is that a specific hit? No. A specific hit would give at least the date and specific epicenter, IMO, or would predict an extrememly unusual event.

For example, if Browne predicted that it was going to snow in downtown Los Angeles this February, and it did, then I would count that as a hit. If she predicted that it would snow in downtown Denver in January, then that's not really a hit.

[PastBrowneFan]

I was sent a link from the "independent, non-endorsed Sylvia fan site", which is run by the former fiancee of Sylvia's son Paul, and I find it amazing how well Sylvia has been able to hide her lavish lifestyle from her fans, and how those same fans believe that she does not live like a celebrety.

Yes $750.00 is a lot of money, but do you know what that money is used for? I am willing to bet you don't really know. That money goes to pay her overhead, ministers, teachers, and then whats left goes to all kinds of charities. She does not live lavishly by any means. She don't have fancy cars, or a fancy house, and gives a lot of her stuff to other ppl. She does this to make a difference in the world, to make it better, and to fill it with love.

What church can you go to that you can actually take money out of the tithing dish?

First off, Sylvia does have a fancy house (in fact, she has many fancy houses and properties; she forgets about things like pulbic record). Last time I counted, it was around $14,000,000 worth of houses/property.

Secondly, Sylvia does not financially support her ministers. The ONLY ministers who are paid by Sylvia are the Board Members of Novus Spiritus who happen to work in Sylvias' office and also work for Sylvia Browne Corporation and Sylvia Browne Enterprises. All of the other ministers that she publicly claims to "support" do NOT get paid. In fact, they paid $1000 for the honor of being a minister.

Thirdly, she does not support her churches. These churches must give 10 percent of their offerings/income to Novus Spiritus in Campbell. They do not get any financial help at all from Sylvia or Novus.

Fourthly, what is left of the millions Sylvia makes off her readings, book royalties, lecture fees, cruise fees, product sales, etc... does not go to charity, it goes into her bank accounts. Ask her sons, who push her to make more money so they do not have to work after she dies.

Fifthly, the stuff she gives to other people are the gifts sent in to her office by her fans. She does not keep that stuff, it is of no value to her, so she boxes up what her staff doesn't want and gives the rest away.

Lastly, how many people who have attended services in Campbell have heard her ministers say "take money out of the offering plate if you need it?" I haven't, and commented to others how they so handily forgot to mention that. Besides, Sylvia makes a fortune off of the sale of her books to her Church and Study Groups, especially since they are required to study and talk of her work only.

Not only is Sylvia and her cronies a con artist, but she is a very wealthy one at that. And for those who are naive enough to believe the garbage she spews out about not having money, well, then I guess they deserve to be defrauded by this crook.

[thaiboxerken]

I predict Japan will have many, many days where multiple earthquakes will occur and people won't even feel most of them because they are too mild. See, I'm psychic too.

[ExMinister]

And for those who are naive enough to believe the garbage she spews out about not having money, well, then I guess they deserve to be defrauded by this crook.

Speaking of which, she lies. They believe this because she lies to them and does it convincingly - at least convincingly enough for the general public who read her books and don't bother to search further. What's so crazy is that she's a habitual liar from everything about whether she smokes to how many churches she has at any given time, to her financial status. I've read interviews where she defended the amount she charges for readings by telling a bold-faced lie about how many churches she had, and Michael agreed with her. I think it's sick.

[PastBrowneFan]

Yes, Sylvia built herself up, and built Novus Spiritus up on lies. Oh yeah, also on the money that she stole from the mine investors and embezzeled.

Simple math from her readings alone shows she is wealthy, not counting the royalties from the books she recycles, I mean she "writes".

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I predict Japan will have many, many days where multiple earthquakes will occur and people won't even feel most of them because they are too mild. See, I'm psychic too.

And I predict it will snow in December, get warmer in the summer, that the tide will rise and fall and that the sun will rise and set tomorrow.

God, I scare myself sometimes! :D

[ExMinister]

Here's another amazing psychic prediction:

Sylvia will continue to make her vague predictions as long as the public buys it, and unless people wise up and start to do a little intelligent research, the financial fortune she claims not to have will continue to grow...

[RSL's better half]

Here's another amazing psychic prediction:

Sylvia will continue to make her vague predictions as long as the public buys it, and unless people wise up and start to do a little intelligent research, the financial fortune she claims not to have will continue to grow...


This is a generalization, I know, but "people" are generally a lazy lot. Most believe what appeals to them, or what a trusted friend says to them. If they researched something, their "friend" or possibly themselves could be proven wrong, then what would they do?!

[ExMinister]

Most believe what appeals to them, or what a trusted friend says to them. If they researched something, their "friend" or possibly themselves could be proven wrong, then what would they do?!

Agree. But I also have seen a few people convinced by the sheer amount of evidence presented on Robert's web site, which is encouraging. Interestingly, I have found a lot of people, when I've shared my own rude awakening about Sylvia Browne, responded with, "Oh, I knew it! She does seem so callous on TV." Or, "I knew it! I have a friend who had a reading which was all wrong." In other words, once they see the evidence, in hindsight they are willing to look at what their instincts were telling them all along.

[JoeTheJuggler]

I nominated this post--really good stuff. As I think about it, Robert, could this be expanded to an article about what is known of SB's finances?

I don't think anyone official has made the claims that this "fan" site is making, but I'd bet that a great many of her followers think that she's not living lavishly. (Just as they imagine she is treasuring the little gifts they send her.)

I was sent a link from the "independent, non-endorsed Sylvia fan site", which is run by the former fiancee of Sylvia's son Paul, and I find it amazing how well Sylvia has been able to hide her lavish lifestyle from her fans, and how those same fans believe that she does not live like a celebrety.



First off, Sylvia does have a fancy house (in fact, she has many fancy houses and properties; she forgets about things like pulbic record). Last time I counted, it was around $14,000,000 worth of houses/property.

Secondly, Sylvia does not financially support her ministers. The ONLY ministers who are paid by Sylvia are the Board Members of Novus Spiritus who happen to work in Sylvias' office and also work for Sylvia Browne Corporation and Sylvia Browne Enterprises. All of the other ministers that she publicly claims to "support" do NOT get paid. In fact, they paid $1000 for the honor of being a minister.

Thirdly, she does not support her churches. These churches must give 10 percent of their offerings/income to Novus Spiritus in Campbell. They do not get any financial help at all from Sylvia or Novus.

Fourthly, what is left of the millions Sylvia makes off her readings, book royalties, lecture fees, cruise fees, product sales, etc... does not go to charity, it goes into her bank accounts. Ask her sons, who push her to make more money so they do not have to work after she dies.

Fifthly, the stuff she gives to other people are the gifts sent in to her office by her fans. She does not keep that stuff, it is of no value to her, so she boxes up what her staff doesn't want and gives the rest away.

Lastly, how many people who have attended services in Campbell have heard her ministers say "take money out of the offering plate if you need it?" I haven't, and commented to others how they so handily forgot to mention that. Besides, Sylvia makes a fortune off of the sale of her books to her Church and Study Groups, especially since they are required to study and talk of her work only.

Not only is Sylvia and her cronies a con artist, but she is a very wealthy one at that. And for those who are naive enough to believe the garbage she spews out about not having money, well, then I guess they deserve to be defrauded by this crook.

[Locknar]

I was sent a link from the "independent, non-endorsed Sylvia fan site", which is run by the former fiancee of Sylvia's son Paul, and I find it amazing how well Sylvia has been able to hide her lavish lifestyle from her fans, and how those same fans believe that she does not live like a celebrety. <snip>
Great post...are you able to post the link to the site?

[JoeTheJuggler]

Great post...are you able to post the link to the site?
I'm pretty sure he means the GSB site.

[Locknar]

I'm pretty sure he means the GSB site.
Well don't I feel stupid :)

I took the "I was sent a link from the "independent, non-endorsed Sylvia fan site", which is run by the former fiancee of Sylvia's son Paul" to imply that she had spun off onto her own site and was "dishing dirt" (as it was).