• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

StopSylvia email: "Your site is cool as hell and has inspired me"

RSLancastr

www.StopSylvia.com
RSLancastr
Joined
Sep 7, 2001
Messages
17,135
Location
Salem, Oregon
I have been inundated this week with emails on SSB, mostly making sure I had heard that Amanda Berry had been found alive, and asking me if I was going to update the article about Browne's reading for Amanda's mother on the Montel Williams Show.

I ended up replying to most of them like this:

Yes, I am aware of this week's developments, but thank you for making sure I knew of them.

I intend/hope to update the 2007 article, and/or add a new, follow-up article to the site reflecting the events of this week, but health and tech issues are making that difficult at present.
Click to expand...

Probably my favorite email this week was this one, with the subject "Your web site is cool as hell, and it has inspired me":

Dear Mr. Lancaster


I'm a [Age]year-old student studying [Subject]in [City]. I found your website in a news article by Colleen Curry. The article takes Sylvia Browne to task for incorrectly predicting kidnapping victim Amanda Berry was dead. I trust you have read it so I won't belabor the point. It's refreshing to see a headline like that as the media tends to coddle psychics.

Your website is just cool as hell. I really enjoy your frank, straightforward style of writing. The articles I have read are all on point. I can't imagine how a fan of Sylvia's could argue with the mountain of evidence you've accrued. It's been a pleasure to browse.


More than this, though, your website has strengthened my own resolve. Stop Sylvia has reminded me why I try to practice skepticism in my life. It has given me strength and hope. It has inspired me. Allow me to explain a bit more;

I'm a heroin addict in recovery. I used heroin daily for several years up until about six weeks ago. As you might imagine my life became completely unmanageable. As a result of the things I did to get drugs, and the things I did while using drugs, my life was a train wreck. I got to a breaking point and reached out for help. Since I've done that, my life, and the lives of people who love me, has gotten better.

I've gone to many, many NA meetings since I got clean. The community of fellow addicts is invaluable to my sobriety. I've been to SMART recovery meetings, (a recently founded alternative to traditional 12 step programs) and they just don't have the same punch, or bustling community, that NA meetings do around here. Graduate students writing papers seem to enjoy SMART, however :]

As you may know, the twelve steps largely revolve around faith in a higher power, or to many addicts, faith in God. The steps require addicts to identify a higher power, believe in a higher power, and pray to a higher power. Many NA members will tell you conscious contact with God is a necessity for sobriety

I am agnostic, leaning towards atheism. I first walked into NA fearful, empty, desperate, and open to suggestion. All of this higher power stuff contradicted my personal values, but I promised myself I would do whatever it takes to stay off heroin. I prayed for a bit, and I tried hard to believe in God. It seemed to work, a little, although I felt like a phoney. But what else could I do?


Fortunately, I eventually found a group of like-minded people within NA who share my spiritual beliefs. One of the guys I've met has a ham sandwich for a higher power, and he's been sober for close to ten years. A higher power does not have to be God, it seems.

Still, I often worry. Open agnosticism and atheism are frowned upon in NA. Will people accept me? Am I being closed minded and uncooperative? Will I stay sober without a belief in God? I am terrified of my future sometimes.

I was doubting myself and feeling hopeless when I stumbled onto Stop Sylvia. Your website represents all the best parts of skepticism to me. The clarity of the site's goal is beautiful and principled. Stop Sylvia has strengthened my resolve, and reminded me of why I identify myself as agnostic.

The definition of a higher power given in NA literature (there are a few) is 'something outside of yourself that restores you to a state of sanity.' So for tonight, your website was my higher power. It took from fear, anxiety, and self doubt to serenity and sanity. I cannot thank you enough.


Sorry this was so long winded, but seriously, thank you. Your site has touched my heart tonight.

I hope your own recovery is going well, and that today was a little better than yesterday, like my recovery.


Take care,

-[Name]
Click to expand...

Here is part of my reply:

[Name]

Thank you so much for writing.

You say that my site touched your heart last night.

Well, your email has definitely touched mine this morning.

I have several things I want to say to you:

First, i know too well the feeling of being an Agnostic within a community of Believers.

Long-winded story follows (brace yourself):
Click to expand...

I went on to tell him the story of my meeting, falling in love with and marrying my Better Half, and our attending church together for the past two years, despite my being Agnostic.

I then went on to say:

I am greatly impressed with your determination to stay off of heroin - an addiction that I'm sure puts to shame my jones for KFC :D (I hope you don't think I am making light of your addiction there, because I'm not.)

And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for saying that Stop Sylvia has put you back on track in your pursuit of Skepticism. I have neglected the site for so long now (due to both health and technical issues) that I sometimes wonder if it is even pertinent any more, given Browne's relatively low profile in recent years (I hope that Stop Sylvia can take some of the credit for that). But the site, including my article about Browne's "reading" for Amanda Berry's mother, was in place when Amanda turned up alive earlier this week, and that article helped point a big spotlight on Browne, and what she did there.

Between the public and media outcry over Browne' involvement, and your kind email, I know without a doubt that Stop Sylvia is still pertinent, and is still doing its job.

Please keep in touch,

Robert S. Lancaster
Founder & Webmaster,
www.StopSylvia.com
Click to expand...

We have corresponded back and forth a couple of times since.

[/QUOTE]
 
This may be addressing the arguer rather than the argument, but I'll happily take a yellow card for it. There are several twattish science groupies, antitheists, irrational rationalists and other poor representatives of the need for critical thinking on this forum, but I follow your work enthusiastically. I had never heard of Sylvia before finding JREF. I have known a few 'psychics' who try to earn a crust in tired old English seaside towns, who never seemed to be a significant problem to me, they only take money from people who hand it over willingly. But what I've seen of Sylvia before this latest incident was bad enough, and to see her reaction to it on FB sickened me. Alas, her FB page contains hundreds of messages of support as well as a great many calls to come and claim the $1m.

I'm rambling now, aren't I? What I mean to say is 'Keep Up The Good Work!'.
 
Sherman Bay said:
I could have predicted that.
Click to expand...

<== Runs and checks availability of www.StopShermanBay.com :)

HighRiser said:
You da man, RSL!
Click to expand...

at least until I'm in the LPGA! ;)

jiggeryqua said:
But what I've seen of Sylvia before this latest incident was bad enough, and to see her reaction to it on FB sickened me.
Click to expand...

What was her reaction?

Alas, her FB page contains hundreds of messages of support as well as a great many calls to come and claim the $1m.

I'm rambling now, aren't I? What I mean to say is 'Keep Up The Good Work!'.
Click to expand...

Thanks, jiggery!
 
RSLancastr said:
What was her reaction?
Click to expand...

Oh, she's claiming that when she 'saw' Amanda was dead under water, it was actually that she was being "held down" and that's almost exactly the same thing so no wonder she was confused and nobody can be right 100% of the time (conveniently ignoring the fact she's been wrong 100% of the time).
 
jiggeryqua said:
Oh, she's claiming that when she 'saw' Amanda was dead under water, it was actually that she was being "held down" and that's almost exactly the same thing so no wonder she was confused and nobody can be right 100% of the time (conveniently ignoring the fact she's been wrong 100% of the time).
Click to expand...

Yeah, i did see that <insert vomiting smiley>, just forgot it was on FB. Thanks!
 
Well, you certainly don't have to ask yourself if you're doing good or not.
 
Thanks, devnull!

I'm not aware of mention of the site on nbc.com, but the article mentioned in the email in the OP (written by Colleen something) is on abcnews.com.

Perhaps that is what you saw?
 
Cool email, RSL!

Perhaps her "higher power" could be Knowledge?

But I also love the idea of a ham sandwich. :)
 
That was one of the most touching letters to you that I've ever read, Robert. I'm so glad that you also took the time and effort to respond in such length. It must be very difficult due to your health and difficulty for typing to have done that, but it was doubtless quite worth it.

It's also nice to know that even with the Site inactive for several years that yes, it does INDEED do it's job! Nicely done. :)

Yes, the "higher power" required for the AA meeting and such are disturbing. I guess for me lately, my "higher power" would be the bathroom scale...
 
I wonder what a Talmudic scholar would make of that.

Since the pig would still, I assume, have cloven hooves, I would think that would still make it non-kosher.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom