Sylvia Browne

Did You Know?

• Browne said she started seeing visions at age three, and that her grandmother, also a psychic medium, helped her understand them.
• In 2007, she had a four-year waiting list for readings by telephone.

Career

Browne began working as a psychic in 1973. In 1986 she founded a Gnostic Christian church in Campbell, California, called the Society of Novus Spiritus, and also headed the Sylvia Browne Corporation and Sylvia Browne Enterprises. Her business manager stated in a 2010 interview that her businesses earned $3 million a year. Browne claimed to observe Heaven and angels, to communicate with a spirit guide named Francine, and to perceive a wide range of vibrational frequencies. She authored some 40 books on paranormal topics, several of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list; many were written with collaborators such as Lindsay Harrison and Chris Dufresne. Browne was a frequent guest on programs including Larry King Live, The Montel Williams Show, That's Incredible!, and Coast to Coast AM, where she discussed her purported abilities and performed readings for audience members or callers. She also hosted her own hour-long online radio show on Hay House Radio. In 1991 she appeared in an episode of Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories, and in December 2006 she appeared as herself on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.

False predictions

Browne made many public pronouncements that were later proven false. In 2002 she told the parents of missing 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck that he had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned Hispanic man with dreadlocks and was deceased; Hornbeck was found alive in 2007, and his kidnapper was Caucasian and short-haired. In November 2004 she told the mother of missing Amanda Berry, 'She's not alive, honey,' adding that Berry was 'in water' and that she had seen Berry's jacket in the garbage with 'DNA on it'; Berry was found alive in May 2013. On Larry King Live in 2003, Browne predicted she would die at age 88; she died in 2013 at age 77. In 2000, Brill's Content examined ten Montel Williams episodes covering 35 cases: in 21 cases the information was too vague to verify, and in the remaining 14, law enforcement or family members said Browne played no useful role. A 2010 study in the Skeptical Inquirer examined Browne's statements about 115 missing-persons and murder cases; in the 25 cases where the outcome was known, she was completely wrong in every one. Among the cases studied, in 1999 Browne said six-year-old Opal Jo Jennings had been forced into slavery in Japan; later that year a local man was convicted of kidnapping and murdering her, and an autopsy showed she died within hours of abduction.

Criticism

Skeptics frequently called Browne out. Robert S. Lancaster kept a detailed log of her failed predictions and legal troubles, and he described her comments about missing children as "incredibly offensive." Jon Ronson labeled her "America's most controversial psychic," noting that she often turned out to be "psychically wrong" and earned "a fortune saying very serious, cruel, show-stopping things to people in distress." Fox News reported that she was "often criticized for her predictions," and even other people who claimed to be psychics disapproved of her. Her harshest critic was James Randi, a retired stage magician who investigated paranormal claims; he said her accuracy was no better than a guess. On September 3, 2001, Browne went on Larry King Live and said she would take the James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge to prove her abilities in a controlled test. By April 2003, she still had not contacted Randi to set it up. On May 16, 2003, back on King's show, she explained she had not taken the test because Randi would not put the prize money in escrow. Randi responded by mailing a notarized copy of the account showing a balance over one million dollars, but Browne refused to accept the letter. Later in 2003, Randi offered to put the money in escrow just for her, despite the challenge rules, but she did not accept or acknowledge the offer. In 2005, Browne posted online that she had never gotten confirmation the prize money existed, even though Randi said he had a certified mail receipt showing she refused the package. In 2007, on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, her business manager Linda Rossi said Browne would not take the challenge "because she has nothing to prove to James Randi." In a 2019 episode of HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver criticized the media for promoting Browne and other psychics, saying it allowed them to take advantage of grieving families.

Publications

Browne authored or co-authored numerous books. With Antoinette May she wrote Adventures of a Psychic (1990). With Lindsay Harrison she co-wrote The Other Side and Back (1999), Life on the Other Side (2000), Blessings from the Other Side (2000), Past Lives, Future Healing (2001), Visits from the Afterlife (2003), Book of Dreams (2003), Prophecy: What the Future Holds for You (2004), Psychic Children (2007), and End of Days (2008). Solo works include God, Creation, and Tools for Life (2000), Astrology Through a Psychic's Eyes (2000), Meditations (2000), Soul's Perfection (2000), The Nature of Good and Evil (2001), Prayers (2002), Conversations with the Other Side (2002), Book of Angels (2003), Mother God (2004), Lessons for Life (2004), Contacting Your Spirit Guide (2005), Secrets & Mysteries of the World (2005), Phenomenon (2005), If You Could See What I See (2006), Exploring the Levels of Creation (2006), Insight (2006), The Mystical Life of Jesus (2006), Light a Candle (2006), Father God (2007), Spiritual Connections (2007), Secret Societies (2007), The Two Marys (2007), Temples on the Other Side (2008), and Mystical Traveler (2008). With Chris Dufresne she co-wrote Animals on the Other Side (2005), Christmas in Heaven (2006), and Spirit of Animals (2007).