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Many of you may have already heard of Sylvia Browne as she has been a guest on television shows with Larry King and Montel Williams several times.

Sylvia Browne was born in Kansas City, Missouri and, apparently, discovered that she was a psychic at the tender age of three.

She is well known for giving psychic readings and even started her own church, Novus Spiritus, in 1986. Holding an alleged Master’s degree in English literature, she is a New York Times #1 best seller.

So is Sylvia Browne the owner of a strange and powerful gift or is she a psychic fraud, much like Sara Freder?

“Take what you like and leave the rest behind.”

Sylvia Browne claims that, as a psychic, she is able to see spirits and talk to them. She also makes the claim that she can put people into contact with their past lives.

She also questions modern medicine, preferring to promote her own highly priced medical advice as an alternative.

If you visit Sylvia’s home page then you will quickly realise that she is very good at promotion.. there are many products for sale, ranging from books to jewelry, including silver pendants for $70 and miniature swords to fight negativity that are priced as high as $495!!

You can also arrange to have a reading from Sylvia, over the phone, for a mere $750 for 20-30 minutes.

Sylvia would claim some authenticity through her predictions, were they accurate. However, some that she makes are really basic, such as ‘the economy will grow’ which are pretty certain to pan out. In all, it is estimated that out of all her predictions, only around 6% come to pass… not very convincing is it?

Sylvia Browne has been known to help in cases of children disappearing, with variable results. In one instance she told a boy’s parents that their son was dead, having been taken by a Hispanic man. She then offered to help them further at $700 a time. A few weeks later the boy turned up, having been held captive by a caucasian man who appeared nothing like Sylvia’s prediction.

In another case she told a woman that her granddaughter had been enslaved by Japanese traders. A while later, police discovered the girl’s remains where they had been buried 4 years before.

James Randi

A well known magician and skeptic, James Randi has a standing challenge to mediums and psychics - he will pay them $1,000,000 if they can prove, under scientific conditions, that they have paranormal powers.

Randi starts with a simple preliminary test followed by more formal examinations. So far, no-one has even passed the preliminary stage.

Would Sylvia Browne pass the test?

We may never know, as she has accepted the challenge on many occasions but never gone through with it, claiming that Randi could not afford to pay her when she was proven to be a real psychic.

When Randi obtained proof that the money was available he sent the following letter to Sylvia Browne, via certified mail -

Ms. Browne:

Though proof of the JREF prize money is easily available on request, you have not made any such request. Your May 16appearance on the Larry King Live TV show seemed to indicate that you were ignorant of the facts, and since we are an educational foundation, we therefore enclose a notarized copy of the account status showing the balance in a special “James Randi Educational Foundation Prize Account” in excess of one million dollars. Also enclosed is a formal statement from the agency holding these assets, verifying that the funds are in place. I’m sure that you are aware of the grave legal consequences that would result against the JREF if either of these documents were to be found false or altered.

As you are also aware, we have legally committed ourselves to awarding this prize money to anyone who successfully passes both the preliminary and then the formal test, as agreed to between the applicant and the JREF This is described on our Web page, which also clearly states all the conditions for assuring that the prize money will be awarded if the conditions are met. Since you have already heard and accepted the terms and protocol of the test, and your understanding and agreement have been broadcast across the world via CNN, it only remains for you to give us a date upon which we can conduct the test.

One caveat: Several of the persons who responded more than a year ago to our request for suitable subjects–one of which would be chosen at random–have since died. It would be necessary for us to re-issue the request, of course, and that would mean that a suitable date would have to be set sometime in July, but no sooner.

Now that this issue of the prize money has been resolved, and there can no longer be any impediment to your involvement, we anticipate hearing from you with a renewed acceptance of our challenge. Of course, if you are afraid of taking the test, or you are aware that you cannot pass a simple double-blind test of your claims, you may wish to further obfuscate the matter by producing more excuses and problems. That’s entirely up to you.

Since Larry King has agreed to “arrange” that you be assured of the existence and availability of the prize money, a copy of this letter is being sent to him for his information.

Strangely, Sylvia Browne refused to accept delivery of the above letter. (I wonder why?!?)

So what do you think about Sylvia Browne?

Is she amazingly gifted or a total fraud?

Personally, I don’t believe in psychics at all and so I’m sure you can guess my opinion - but what do you think?

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