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Why Stop Sylvia Brown?

tapman

Thinker
T
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
125
I am new here, and found my way to your site from the Stop Sylvia Brown campaign. I'm really glad I found you, thanks for having me.

So here's my question: Why do we need to stop Sylvia Brown?

Isn't it enough that she is an embarrassment to herself? I mean no one really believes her nonsense do they? Do we really need to stop someone that is so obviously mentally ill that they have lost touch with what could be considred believable? If we stop her, Montel Williams might gain some of his credibility back. Isn't it more fun to watch him decend into the abiss as a complete joke? What if she is stopped? Then who will we have to go after? Bad question, someone will assuradly pop up from somewhere, but you have to admit; she's pretty fun to go after. Can't we just feel pitty for our lovely Ms. Brown? After all we feel pitty for the homeless person muttering nonsense on the street corner, is she so different?

Thanks for letting me post.

tapman.
 
The homeless person on the corner didn't get fabulously wealthy from spouting fresh droppings at vulnerable people, and homeless people are usually capable of apologizing when they hurt someone.
 
Thanks Tumble, I guess she really is horrible. I just see her as an insignificant fool that no one would ever believe.
 
I think one of the most important reasons to stop Sylvia Browne is to show the general public how easily they can be scammed. It will hopefully make someone think twice before paying extortionate amounts of money to someone who's nothing more than a carnival sideshow.
I've read some e-mails on Robert Lancaster's website StopSylviaBrowne from people who have been grateful for his articles because they've opened their eyes to this woman to whom they were going to pay large amounts of money to for a reading over the phone. Trying to stop Sylvia Browne will hopefully also send a message to other con merchants WATCH OUT YOU COULD BE NEXT. :idea:
 
Tapman, please be sure to take a close look at the articles on the Stop Sylvia Browne web site, too - it will be well worth your time and will help answer your question. On it, you'll find missing persons cases, health-related issues, and other dramatic personal stories that illustrate what harm there is.

Why stop Sylvia Browne? I was a minister for her and involved with her organization off and on for 20 years, and I've said it before but had there been a Stop Sylvia Browne web site 20 years ago, it would have saved me lots of grief. Maybe I'm different because I was looking for truth, and that search has, through Robert, eventually led me to a much more skeptical way of thinking, but having the truth about someone like this available in such an accessible way is a great service, and it is making a difference. Interestingly, the how of stopping sylvia Browne is telling because it involves educating people on how she operates, what cold reading is, and how to evaluate her claims critically, and that is also key to answering why it's important - to provide education so that these types of people are rendered powerless in the future.
 
I think people need to be made aware of how evil she is- this is a woman who makes most of her money by taking advantage of people in pain, yet she has a huge following of devoted followers.

People all over the place believe in her- I'm amazed at the number of times people bring her up as "proof" of psychic capability, they often mention her as having "helped solve crimes" even though there's no evidence of that.

I hate seeing people getting taken advantage of, so Sylvia really chaps my hide (and I don't think they're stupid, I think that when people are hurting they want to believe all sorts of things to feel better).

There's also the larger issue of her as a symbol of woo. Overcoming that is a victory on the side of sanity and reason.
 
She can't be stopped, nor will she, no matter what. It's an exercise in futility.

"I think one of the most important reasons to stop Sylvia Browne is to show the general public how easily they can be scammed. It will hopefully make someone think twice before paying extortionate amounts of money to someone who's nothing more than a carnival sideshow."

Do you really think that the general public could be shown that? Stuff like this has been going on for centuries, there is nothing that will change the thinking of those prone to believe in this crap, today or tomorrow. It will always be there.
 
Well, to answer your question, let's look at the type of people that would pay $750 for a psychic reading and allow themselves to be placed on a years long waiting list to do so.

1. They've lost a loved one and are overwhelmed with grief. They harbor some kind of guilt or remorse over something that happened prior to that person's death and want to rectify this. The person who passed wasn't particularly religious and they want to make sure that this person crossed over to heaven. This is just preying on human vunerability, because she has no idea whether a person has crossed over, what they think or how they feel.

2. They're ill or someone they love is ill and they want to know how the "real" prognosis of the disease. The problems here are obvious. Sylvia Browne doesn't know any better than you or I do about how long a person is going to live. To say that a person will die soon may cause them to ignore their doctor's advice or to stop treatment, as they may believe that the end is inevitable. If she tells them that they won't die for several years, the person may put off saying goodbye to loved ones, pursuing their "bucket list" or putting personal affairs in order.

3. They're in a desperate financial or social situation. First of all, taking $750from someone who's already in dier straits financially is only going to make the problem worse. And it's wasted money, because this woman has no useful advice about getting the caller out of this horrible financial situation. Also, Sylvia Browne is not a licensed couselor and has no idea about who a person will marry, whether a current relationship will work out or anything of that nature.

4. They're "seekers" or "lost" and need some direction in life. What good will she actually do for these people?

I don't believe that people who call her are stupid. Rather, I believe that they're naieve, vunerable, misinformed and desperate, which we've all been at some point in our lives. They're human and making human mistakes.

When we were told that my step-father had maybe 6 months to live after a heart attack, my well educated, intelligent mother fell for Nutritional Response Testing. It cost a fortune, did very little for them and my step-father's life was saved by a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, not a bunch of expensive dietary supplements.

My Daddy's fine and he's healed to a point that it's hard to tell he had a massive heart attack, thanks to a great surgeon and someone realizing that he's diabetic. Go conventional medicine!
 
Agular

In that case SSB follows the same reasoning as to why people still bother to engage with "truthers", harm minimisation. You can't make people read the site, they have to do it on their own, and the fanatical will never listen (mostly), but to everyone else you can tell people that yes, there is another side to her and it ain't pretty.
 
Agular said:
Do you really think that the general public could be shown that? Stuff like this has been going on for centuries, there is nothing that will change the thinking of those prone to believe in this crap, today or tomorrow. It will always be there.
Click to expand...

I was an ardent believer in Browne and "woo" in general, now I am not - quite the opposite in fact. Many here, particularly Robert Lancaster, are providing the general public with facts thereby creating opportunities for considered thought. Most people will weigh the evidence and then choose what to believe. Many have and many more still will choose to abandon unrealistic perspectives as a result of this process. Can this truly be considered futile? Not for me personally since it's prevented me from wasting the rest of my life sacrificing reality for fantasy.

BTW RSL - thank you (and Claus and Mrs. RSL) for that last article.
 
Thanks for the education. I knew I signed up to the right forum. It is amazing to me that people are conned by someone who is so bad at it. It is people like you all that responded that are directly responsible for helping those people that are so easily taken advantage of. We all owe you a big thanks.

Tapman
 
Agular said:
She can't be stopped, nor will she, no matter what. It's an exercise in futility.

"I think one of the most important reasons to stop Sylvia Browne is to show the general public how easily they can be scammed. It will hopefully make someone think twice before paying extortionate amounts of money to someone who's nothing more than a carnival sideshow."

Do you really think that the general public could be shown that? Stuff like this has been going on for centuries, there is nothing that will change the thinking of those prone to believe in this crap, today or tomorrow. It will always be there.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you need a refresher course on StopSylviaBrowne.com. Lots of articles are now up on the site showing that the website IS making a difference. Yes, I believe the general public can be shown and are being shown that Sylvia Browne is a fraud and a despicable (sp?) human being. I hear the emails Robert gets, almost on a daily basis, of people who are, at first, angry with him; then they read a little more on the site and go into defensive mode; and he gently nudges them with evidence until they concede that it's at least possible he's right - but surely John Edward is the real deal! Sometimes all it takes is one reply from Robert for them to change their minds.

No, you can't bully the general public into realizing it's all a con. You can't scream at them, tell them they are being stupid, convince them by strong-arming that you know better than they do. But you can provide the evidence in a kind, even-handed way, allowing them to scream at you while you maintain your reserve and resolve and continue to provide the evidence. You can let someone know that something angers you without being angry at the person you are talking to. It works. I've witnessed it.
 
If I can add a few points, she also harms completely innocent people who neither asked for or wanted a reading from her at all. She's harmed people you can't possibly blame for "turning to her themselves" - because they didn't.

For instance, she once accused a completely innocent man of murder. On national TV. His only connection to the original crime seems to have been living in the same region as the victim and being acquainted with her family, who were the ones who asked for the reading.

The story: a teenager by the name of Erica Fraysure disappeared one night in Kentucky. (Her murder or kidnapping is still unsolved to this day.) A distant acquaintance named Chris Mineer was briefly questioned about it and immediatly ruled out as a suspect (I believe he had a provable alibi for that night).

Some time later, Miss Fraysure's mother appeared on the show and Browne told her that the perpetrator was currently in prison and that someone with the first name of Chris had information about the murder. Though the name was bleeped, it could apparently be very easily lip read.

Mr.Mineer happened to murder his fiancee and commit suicide shortly after that in a completely unrelated incident. Montel Willaims and Sylvia Browne then retrofitted the prediction to claim that Chris Mineer was the killer and he had committed suicide because Browne had exposed him.

I believe Montel's exact words were "She gave up the name and the next thing you know, the guy who probably commited the murder to begin with realized "the law is on my tail.' He killed himself and his other girlfriend. That's what the lieutenant told me, too.”"

This resulted in a lawsuit by Chris' mother against Montel Williams, his show and his production company for defamation. It was only thrown out on a technicality.

Results: an innocent man's good name defamed by lies, a suicide-murder and a young girl's murder taken advantage of, a terrible tragedy for a grieving mother made worse and thousands of dollars and the district court's time wasted on a entirely avoidable lawsuit.
 
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