Wow, it’s only Monday, but I think it’ll be awfully unlikely that we see anyone limbo under the bar of sucky vileness set by Sylvia Browne this week. Watch her lie to a grieving woman. It’ll make you want to take a loofah to your eyeballs.
Oh, wait…am I being stupid in my certainty that Browne is a despicable con artist?
Damnit, PZ, I just barfed AND lost my faith in humanity. A little much for a Monday…
Sylvia Browne?
The Sylvia Browne, the lady with an elephant totem and is Montel Williams’ favorite psychic?
…
Meh.
For some reason, my opinion of her credibility became very low when she said that Osama Bin Ladin would die before we find him, rather than when she recounted her son’s out of body experience on the shag carpetting.
Oh yeouch. I think the look on the woman’s face when she said, “Ummm, no it was 9/11,” was priceless. Like you could see the faith draining away.
In a way, that was a very positive, hopeful video. Whatever foolish ideas that poor woman in the audience came in with, she walked out without them.
That is just despicable. Despicable.
The poor victim, she just sat down again looking confused, and there’s Montel nodding, “Hmmm,” Makes sense, doih! and bailing out this heartless huckster by moving onto the next willing victim.
The problem is, I get called “cynical” and even “heartless” for 1) not believing in fuzzy paranormal crap, and 2) telling people why. I’m a woman; I’m supposed to fall for this stuff, or at least approve of it. Women’s magazines are full of this garbage, and while the exploitation of women’s fears get good analysis in them, their editors aren’t too interested in freelance articles that debunk the exploitation of women’s pain.
And I’m not so sure that the victim changed her mind about Browne’s psychic “abilities.” You notice that she starts nodding.
Unbelievable. You can see the “Oh shit..” moment on Brown’s face. And the desperate attempt to save her ‘he’s in water’ bullshit…”Well, if he was putting out the fire…”, like maybe his hose got turned around and shot into his mouth BEFORE THE FUCKING BUILDING FELL ON HIM? Guess that slipped his mind when he was ‘telling’ Brown about his death.
The fact that the audience didn’t rise en masse and throw Brown out of the studio is just incredibly sad.
Kristine, I strongly suspect that womens magazines are the root of much evil in the world. So many conflicting messages…
You could clearly see that woman jolt back into reality when Brown mention the water. I think the look on her face when she sat down was because she completely didn’t get what she came for, so now what? There’s gotta be pressure to “go along with it” with the cameras and audience. Bet that woman talks trash about Brown now.
God, the women’s magazines! It’s embarassing as a woman to have that representing our interests, not to mention level of intelligence.
Disgusting. But the clip should be good for reason and common sense. in that it illustrates in a few seconds how psychics and seers are total frauds. She should join with D. James Kennedy; they’ve got much in common.
Jesus Christ on a bicycle! Browne’s pretty slick most of the time, but slick and actually having the ability to chat with every dead person who comes up in conversation are a ways apart.
Those damn, selfish, 911 widows. Why do they hate America so much?
Unfortunately, the occasional “slip” doesn’t sway the TrueBelievers(tm) – they’ve been indoctrinated with the notion that the æther is too crowded today, or the spirits just testy.
I watched a John Edward show one afternoon – he’s fucking brilliant: the speed at which he delivers his comments dazes the audience and his ability to read body language and shift gears rapidly all combine to make him convincing to the desperate masses. In a different time, he’d be selling snake oil panaceas; today, he’s selling “spiritual” ones.
The wife of a friend is convinced that Browne and Edwards are the real deal. At a party I started playing with her: (I’m getting a message from a male relative whose name begins with “W” — Who doesn’t?)
After a while, with common sense, a reasonable amount of Irish blarney and a feel for body language I had her going. I’m going to work on it and take my show on the road.
PZ, I’m getting a message for you from a nice bivalve with a really irritating affinity for pearls.
Browne’s greatest benefit to society is that she helps define a lower limit in so many categories.
I like to believe there is some essential goodness in all humans. I wonder where hers might be.
I like to believe there is some essential goodness in all humans. I wonder where hers might be.
In the water?
The person who brought us http://stopkaz.com/, a website about “Dr. Kaz deMille Jacobsen,” is putting together a web site about Sylvia Browne. It is located at http://stopsylviabrowne.com/. If any of you would like to assist the cause, RSLancastr on the James Randi Educational Foundation forums (http://randi.org/) is the creator of both sites. See the thread at http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=62492 for more info.
-David
The links in my previous post should be:
http://stopkaz.com
http://stopsylviabrowne.com/
It appears that the punctuation after the URL was added to the URL. That’s what I get for not testing the links in the preview.
-David
Yeah, women’s magazines are pretty crappy but guys have stuff to be embarrassed about too: SpikeTV (when they aren’t playing any Trek!), Sports Illustrated, Maxim, etc. What I find weird is Lifetime TV. It’s supposed to be for women but time after time my mother has told me about a show that they aired where the woman is killed, battered, or raped etc. This isn’t television for women, it’s television for people who hate women. It has gotten to the point where she will start telling me about it I usually ask her which situation it is. She needs to upgrade to a dish so that she can get away from basic cable.
Wow, and I thought I knew some crazy psychics.
Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia,
If you get sloppy like that again we’ll have to take away your Huckster(tm) Certified Professional credentials. At the very least, we’ll have to haul you off to Huckster(tm) Boot Camp for a remedial course.
We both know the Huckster(tm) Three Step System works, but you have to remember to use it. You know the drill: you start with vague assertions that aren’t really asserting anything at all but angling for information. You even missed out the pivotal step two! Repeat after me: assess your mark’s credulity and decide whether to fish or cut bait. You didn’t do any of that. You just heard “they never found him” and immediately equated that with “I have no idea where he is”. You thought that was a gimme, and thought you could just skip straight to step three, pulling stuff out of your ass. Well, we all saw the results. Just stick to the damn system, Sylvia. It’s not difficult.
That deer in the headlights look doesn’t reflect well on the Huckster(tm) organization, Sylvia. You’ve got to understand it’s all about brand image these days, and frankly, you’re letting the side down.
Worst of all, you actually had lined up for you a bona fide 9/11 widow and you completely blew it. On fucking live television. Do you know how hard that stuff is to arrange? Opportunities like that are pure gold. Ugh. I’m going to have to stop now before I get really angry with you.
I’ll be watching. Don’t screw up like that again or I’ll have your badge.
Did the poor woman hope to hear something about her husband from Sylvia?
Then she’s not operating on all cylinders either.
Takes two to tango.
Now that Sylvia Brown is spending as much time with that mush-head Montel as she does shouting at the poor kid at the convenienve store to get her cigarettes faster, I’m betting that James Randi & Co. are going to start planting people in the audience.
That’s going to be a laugh riot.
Given their skills at cold reading you’d think that some of these clowns would try their luck on the pro poker circuit instead of fleecing the desparate of the contents of their wallets. Perhaps they’re afraid the pros are too good at hiding their body language to be easily read.
This isn’t television for women, it’s television for people who hate women.
Ran-dumb thought…
I once had a post deleted from a message board because I called Lifetime TV “Television for Doormats.” In light of many of the strongly-worded posts I made on that board over the years, that one’s being deleted stands out because it in no way violated any TOS rules. Guess the mod that night was a Lifetime fan or something, heh.
One can only hope that the 9/11 widow in the clip, and everyone who ever sees it, will come to their senses and stop supporting these con-artists like Sylvia Browne who prey upon the grieving and fleece them while they’re at their most vulnerable.
Mena, I’m more or less with you on Maxim and SpikeTV, but Sports Illustrated? What’s there to be embarrassed about?
I think you would have a better shot with hoping for lasting peace in the Middle East. Overnight.
Maybe the swimsuits editions?
Greg:”Wow, and I thought I knew some crazy psychics.”
Close, you know some crazy frauds.
Yeah, it was the swim suit editions. The last time I saw it it was pretty much stuff that would be illegal on most beaches in the US but too soft core porn for me to think that guys would be all that interested in it. Am I wrong?
What I see here is, at least from my perspective, pretty average-sized, even for swimming pools, let alone a beach, so yeah, I wouldn’t pay to see it. Well, I did pay for a magazine just for the photos of Daniella Sarahyba, but that’s an exception.