Sex and Woo

No, this post isn't about some herbal Enzyte or whatever. This is about sexism in woo. Granted, I do have a stereotype about some female woos who worship Sylvia Browne and Oprah, who allegedly have some kind of superior "women's intuition" that trumps the scientific method because they say so, but I do my best to prevent that from influencing my arguments.

One thing that really sickens me in various threads, usually about female frauds claiming to be psychic or Oprah herself is that inevitably some woo, flailing desperately to find something to latch onto will sputter out an accusation from nowhere: "You're just bashing them because they're women!"

This sounds sexist to me for the same reason "You just voted for Obama because he's black!" is racist. When we complain about woos, we complain about their departure from the knowledge we've acquired through science, and the harm such an ivory tower attitude can bring. And then some troll comes along and tries to make the argument about who has what genitals, or what hue and value a commentator's skin is. That's what sexism and racism are: Ad hominem fallacies based on meaningless biological factors. In the real world, arguments rely on logical soundness.

I think from now on, if a troll comes along and makes that accusation, I'll call them sexist to their face and demand apologies for attempting to derail the thread.

An Interesting, if Familiar-Sounding Encounter

Between Robert Lancaster and Sylvia Browne. I need to catch up on his new stuff.

Well, That's Embarrassing

I generally don't know anything about celebrities, nor do I comprehend the level of buzz about them. Well, it seems Sylvia Browne couldn't do much better than I could in regards to predicting what Jennifer Lopez was going to do with her life.

Doggerel #125: "Wonder"

Welcome back to "Doggerel," where I ramble on about words and phrases that are misused, abused, or just plain meaningless.

One eternally irritating thing woos often like to tell me is that I have no wonder in my life or that skepticism somehow sucks it all out. But just what is wonder?

I think wonder is a positive, optimistic feeling: When I see something weird and unexplained in a telescope, microscope, or whatever tool we're using to closely examine something, or even when I think about something I didn't bother with before, generally there are two thoughts that combine into what I know as wonder: "That's cool!" and "How does it do that?"

The latter is where woos typically fall short: First, there's the very strong probability that we already know how it's done. What's so special about that? If they want to claim it's something unknown, they have to prove it's not done through known means. That's why magicians typically strive to do their tricks faster and under new constraints: If the box he's stuffed in is well above the stage floor, we can't simply say 'it's a trap door.' If you want to prove someone's psychic, force them to work under very tight conditions so that we can't claim it's a well-known trick. Showing us a magic trick when we already know how it's done isn't wondrous. It's boring.

Second, whether or not we know the answer, woos typically provide answers that don't lead anywhere. When science answers a question, we typically get more questions. If I'm recalling this correctly, the question of how galaxies stick together was answered with "dark matter," which brings up follow-up questions like, "What are the properties of dark matter particles?" "Does dark matter have any interactions other than gravitational?" and probably lots more detailed ones than my level of understanding currently allows. Woo "research" negates curiosity: Once they say "psychic power!" or "magic!" or "the designer did it!", there's nowhere to go. The woo universe ends there. Everything that can be known is known.

Third, woo answers typically aren't useful. You can't do much with them. There's no reliability. No specific predictions, and those who claim otherwise are typically much, much worse at it than their public relations department and fan clubs claim. What makes learning wonderful is that new ideas have the potential to change the world for the better. Woo often ends up maintaining the status quo, despite claiming to be able to cure all sorts of ills. Science marches on. It may not do so at the speed we'd like, but it's better than languishing in vacuity.

Is She Ever Right in a Non-Trivial Way?

Robert Lancaster was busy this weekend. He covers more on the Shawn Hornbeck case, another set of failed predictions, and one of my favorite entries of the moment: Sylvia is definitively caught lying (or 'misremembering' if you want to be the most charitable soul out there) about one show where she claimed her failure was due to the audience being German. How do we know the audience wasn't German? YouTube!

You'd Better Hurry Up!

Not too long ago, Robert Lancaster pointed out a "quality issue" regarding some jewelry sold by Sylvia Browne's church, "Novus Spiritus."

Diamonds, cubic zirconiums, what's the difference?

Anyway, if you've got one of those things, and want diamonds in place of your cube-z's, you'd better hurry up: They won't replace them after June 1st. Look for it in the text of their jewelry section for the notice. Beware of the leopard.

Ouch! Sylvia Fails Spectacularly Again

New post at StopSylviaBrowne.com.

Sylvia once again gets the dead/alive thing wrong, and something far, far worse:

And notice: Amanda gestures off-camera twice to her husband in the studio audience. This means that the man who murdered Lynda McClelland was in the same room with Sylvia Browne, and yet her "psychic powers" didn't pick up on that fact when supposedly trying to figure out what had happened to the woman.

I Just Got Another Reason to Hate Montel

We all know he's not afraid to endorse con artists like Sylvia Browne. Now he's apparently part of the mercury nuts.

Do Those Talons Make Her SLAPPs Extra-Painful?

Sylvia tries to take on Robert Lancaster from the shadows of frivolous copyright-related accusations. Gee, I wonder why she resorts to such cowardly means, rather than publicly prove her abilities by taking a simple test.

Edited to add: Cue "Imperial March"

Sylvia Browne Roasted on CNN

I luv YouTube --- Sorry, it's been taken down.



Via Memoirs of a Skepchick.

It's Up!

Stop Sylvia Browne is now open to the public, and it's off to a good start. Knowing the job Robert did with Kaz, we can bet Sylvia will be getting the same thorough treatment.

Someone Not Making The Same Mistake Twice

Just found another good thread on the JREF forums. This one's much less silly than that one about the R-9 orbital space fighter wave cannon that did 9/11: JREF newcomer sonja got duped by Sylvia Browne and her son, Chris Dufresne, and admits it. It takes a lot of strength to admit you've made a mistake. It takes even more to have that mistake shown to the world as a warning: sonja's currently talking with Robert Lancaster of Stop Kaz fame to tell her story at Stop Sylvia Browne. (EDIT: It's up, now!)

Welcome to the world of skepticism, sonja. I hope you enjoy your stay. We've got magic acts, card tricks, and maybe the ghost of Houdini. He's quiet now, but boy did he know how to put on a show!

---

The Big Sylvia Brown Thread

Under the Microscope #2: Sylvia Browne 9/27/2006

Well, I'm making another post about one of Sylvia Browne's appearances on Montel. Haven't started the recording yet, and as before, I'll be going somewhat stream of consciousness.

Play.

Well, after the lead-in, Montel makes a standard defeatist woo statement: "There are powers in the universe that are just too vast for us to understand." Of course, all us skeptics know the forces that are most likely going to be involved on this episode: Cold reading, self-deception, shoehorning, etcetera. Book plug.

Sylvia comes on, Montel says something about unspecified natural disasters and holiday travel. Sylvia says people shouldn't be too worried, but she does have concerns about trucks.*

She claims that everything has two levels in some kind of duality in the "seven upper levels" likening them to stages of growth. Talks some gibberish about religious versus spiritual and some kind of acceleration that woos are always promising.

Comments that some people don't ask if they're "on track," and sets a date on when mankind'll be wiped out: "95 years or so." It's a fairly safe bet: With all the nukes floating out there, there's some chance of it, though we can debate over the likelyhood. And if she's wrong, no one'll care by that time.

First guest and home movies: Murdered friend named Adrian. Didn't show up after a game, some team members went to their house, and Adrian's entire family was murdered: Strangulations, shooting, and all that horror for Sylvia to exploit. Over a year, no suspects.

Sylvia describes some unspecified person as a "ticking bomb" involving jealousy, turning the thing allegedly personal. Describes a heavy-set man, of course, since if it was one person, he'd probably have to be strong to subdue an entire family. Claims he lives nearby, but the guest shouldn't be concerned for herself. Of course. It's been a whole year.

Upcoming preview: Something about a haunted restaurant.

Sweet commercials.

My DVR has lost sound. Rewind and play brings it back. We're back, though.

Restaurant is described as one of the oldest buildings in Texas. Woman and little girl ghosts, supposedly. Tale of a bucket of water falling off a ladder. No mention of witnesses for that, yet, so my initial suspicion: Someone bumped into the ladder and snuck off, not wanting to take credit for the spill. Second thing mentioned: A closet that was clean, and then showed up with a dusty footprint. My guess: The footprint was there, just unnoticed the first time.

Witness stories: Kids singing ring around the rosy, moved lamp, depression in a bed like someone slept there.

Sylvia says it's one spirit named "Priscilla," supposedly a mistress. (How are they going to verify that?) Describes it as some kind of "energy imprint," unknowingly encouraging me to hurry up with a Doggerel entry for that word. She's describing it essentially as they described an "empathic echo" in an episode of Star Trek: Next Gen. Even sounds Star Trekky, so it must be science! Apologies to any sarcasmometers overloaded as a result of that last sentence. She also comments that she said "mistress" because she was sure the original owner was married, as if that was unusual. I think she said it because it'd be harder to verify, since people typically want to keep mistresses covered up. Says she was half-black/half-white. Extra incentive to cover it up, knowing those days.

Next woman wants to know about her marriage status: Sylvia claims she'll get married in a year.

Next guest: Wanted to know if her daughters were important in a past life. Sylvia plays the odds and says "no."

Next guest: Asks if she was an American Indian in a past life. Sylvia says yes. (How do we verify?)

Lovely commercials.

Next guest: Old lady wants to know where some silver bracelets are. Sylvia says they were given away. Don't think we'll be hearing about verification.

Next guest: Talking about her dead father-in-law. Sees her kid looking at unseen things, supposedly getting tickled. Sylvia's selling the psychic children thing, saying that he's seeing his grandfather. Reality: Sometimes kids act weird. Claims they'll have a daughter.

Commercial lead-in: Woman wanting to know more about Ouija Boards. Click here for everything you need to know.

I like commercials.

Next guest: Young blonde wants to know if her sick mother'll get better. Sylvia says something about people "programming themselves" into a life expectancy. Sylvia says she's "concerned about" her thyroid and adrenal glands. Will we hear anything about verification? Doubtful.

Next guest: Young woman wanting to know if there was foul play involved in her boyfriend's death. Sylvia makes general statements about stress in life convoluting things, as if stress wasn't a normal thing in a lot of people's lives.

Next guest: Woman with a supposed haunting. Doors close, lightbulbs break, voices. Says the ghost follows her daughter around. Ghost is supposedly a woman who committed suicide there, as suggested by the guest. Doors closing aren't unusual: I've had a few that were set not-level and tended to open themselves. Lightbulbs breaking: Call the electrician before you invoke magical entities like ghosts. Ghost sightings: Pareidolia. Shows a supposed ghost photo with a ghost's face appearing in one of those painted boards with the holes in it. Says she set the timer and tried to run behind with her daughter. My guess: There was a guy there, but she didn't notice him in her haste. Mentions of supposed ghost stranglings. Sylvia responds by saying that ghosts don't do that, and supposedly Warner Brothers wanted her to play something in the Amytiville Horror, but she refused. Quick Google search doesn't show any rumors that she was going to be involved. Says the suicidal girl needs to move on.

Next guest: First man: Looking for a medal or something (hard to make out what he's saying, despite three rewinds). Sylvia says he's lost it, and won't be able to find it. Suspect that's somewhat self-fulfilling.

Wonderful commercials.

Back. Next guest: Not speaking terribly loud, but Sylvia says that someone (apparently dead) wants to tell her, around Christmas time, that he's still around, and will make sure someone sends her a flower. Suspect that that wouldn't be an unusual event at all.

Next guest: Her dad and aunt died on New Year's. She says her dad called her 25 times that day. Really wanted to make sure she was going to show up. Got robbed, apparently after his death. Sylvia said that he had a suspicion that he wouldn't be there. No hints as to what he died from, so he might have known he wasn't doing well.

Next guest: This one about the Ouija board, showing the pointer absolutely flying across the board with their hands. Claimed that it was moving that fast on its own. Spelled out "choking" and apparently scared herself into experiencing that feeling. Sylvia says they're evil. Something made by Parker Brothers is very evil. Says it hooks up with deranged people. I wouldn't go as far as saying deranged, but it involves some people involved in magical thinking: The ones holding the pointer.

Truly great commercials.

Back. Next guest: Guy asking about a daughter who was stillborn. Sylvia says they don't "come in" because there's "no point".

Next guest: Asking about inheritance problems. Sylvia says she'll "prevail" after dealing with three people who'll "give her Hell." Think we'll get any verification?, Bronze Dog asked rhetorically.

Next guest: Asking about her father who died 14 years ago. Dreaming about him after a big move in her life. Asking for approval. Sylvia says he approves.

Next guest: Asking about her soulmate. Sylvia plays some word games on the term before applying the "true love" definition. Says it's a guy named Jack.

Rockin' commercials!

Next guest: Woman thinking her (presumably dead) mother is trying to contact her. Sylvia says she's just visiting, using flower scents.

Next guest: Woman asking about guardian angels. Sylvia says they don't talk, only guides talk. (Where do these rules come from?)

Next guest: Woman asking about a sibling of hers adopted at birth, if he/she is still alive, and if they'll meet. Sylvia says she's a female, and they'll meet in Cleveland, Ohio. Now we're getting specific, at least. I am, however, worried that this woman's going to end up paying for an unproductive trip.

Next guest: Woman asking about a house they're trying to sell. Sylvia tells them to get a hard-working real estate guy. As if that was paranormal advice.

Next guest: Guy asking about the 2008 elections. Sylvia takes the world's safest bet, and says that whoever it is will be better.

Funderful commercials.

Back. Next guest: Woman asking about facilitated communication. Claims it works. Sylvia says it taps into the spirit guides of the mentally/physically handicapped.

Book plug by Montel, followed by Sylvia mentioning her upcoming publications. It's over, and I certainly don't feel any more enlightened about the world. Maybe if Sylvia would put her powers to the test...

*Sylvia's concerns about trucks are likely moot nowadays: Large trucks (especially the ones that carry hazardous stuff) now often have GPS locators and remote control of their engines: If a truck goes off course, the driver would be notified, suspicions would arise, and that would lead to an engine cut-off.

---

The Big Sylvia Browne Thread

Under the Microscope #1: Sylvia Browne 08/30/2006

Welcome to the first edition of Under the Microscope, where I'll hopefully be cutting Sylvia Browne's most recent appearance on Montel to pieces. I'll be watching the show via DVR, so I'll be rewinding a lot to catch choice quotes as they happen.

WARNING: This is really long. Be gentle with your scroller-roller thingy if you want to read an earlier entry.

Already partway through the starting preview, and it's looking extra-silly, speaking of repressed memories by aliens. "Sylvia's clearest vision ever" is a featured line. How much do you want to bet nothing will come of it? Or even that it will ever be mentioned ever again?

2 minutes, 11 seconds: We're not off to a terribly good start, with Montel seeming almost proud of how shamelessly he promotes her book. I know that's a standard thing, but this seems a bit more excessive. I'm willing to suspect that's my bias showing. Not going to pretend I'm unbiased. At least he doesn't go into too much detail.

First other guest: A woman broken up about the ghosts in her house. Mentions a woman's head peeking around the corner. Yeah, and I always end up seeing fellow residents thanks to blurry peripheral vision. Some scenes are spookified by putting them in negative. Vague man in a suit and another in a hooded coat. Claims they were seen by her family, probably after she mentioned them herself. Wonder what would happen if they independently told some police sketch artists some descriptions. Probably would be a lot of variance.

Moving along, she mentions a physical attack. She says she was in bed, going to sleep and heard an electrical humming in her head and wound up paralyzed. Fellow skeptics probably know the most parsimonious explanation for that. A fairly typical description of one of the related nightmares/hallucinations follows, including fears that the ghost or whatever'll steal her soul.

It's situations like this that demonstrate that magical thinking and all that isn't gumdrops and lollipops, like woos are fond of implying.

~5:00 Sylvia says the ghost (which one?) is named Carl, along with a female named Darla. How we verify this, I don't know. Says that she's doing this to herself, describing it as "Astral catalepsy." Says the subconscious is powerful, which I don't doubt, but she's saying it's her trying to get back in her body or something. The guest doesn't seem to be very willing to accept it. Sylvia then waters down her assertion it was her fault by saying the ghost made her vulnerable or something.

~6:00 She describes a Native American ghost, and Sylvia manages to stutter out "Silver Dove" as his name (something that'll probably go unverified), probably because she's used to typical non-native American set of names. Says he comes and goes. Mostly concerned about Carl and Darla from earlier. Only after the vict guest asks if Carl is the one in the suit does Sylvia confirm that's who she was describing. After all, the one in the hooded jacket has more stereotype potential. Kept her options open like a good cold reader. Says the solution is to tell the ghosts to "go to God" or something. Montel interrupts to mention that how to do that is written in the book. I think I can hear the sounds of cash registers going off in their heads, but I'll wait until I can pass the Randi Challenge to ask you to trust me on that.

~7:00 Montel brings up a good point. If ghost attacks were so effective, wouldn't people be dying (literally) for a chance to get revenge on someone? Of course, this question seems to be raised to defend the whole "Astral catalepsy" hypothesis over the ghost attack one.

~7:30 In an abrupt change, and audience member asks if she'll meet "somebody" in her future. Great. We've got a woman spiralling downward as a result of sleep paralysis, and someone changes the subject to her love life. Montel comments with mock frustration about the commonality of the question.

Preview before first commercial break: Seems someone lost an hour in their car. My gut is already telling me that they forgot about daylight savings time.

Sweet annoying commercials. Takin' a break.

Return: She's going to find a Richard in 3 1/2 years. Turns out her ex is named "Michael-Richard." Weird name. Think we'll be seeing her again in 2009/2010ish to verify? No, I don't, either. I hope she doesn't take Sylvia seriously and pass on a soulmate because he isn't named "Richard." More likely, she'll keep doing what she's doing and will look for a tenuous "Richard" link to justify it.

Next guest is someone who went stargazing. Saw three stars in a triangle (along side a dramatization showing an equallateral triangle, though she didn't specify that, yet). As we all know, humans can perfectly perceive angles and recall them with exactitude. Joined together and went neon green. Saw some grays with a flashlight. And another sleep paralysis-like dream/hallucination-sounding experience where she has trouble escaping. She wakes up, has a little car trouble that probably got exaggerated, and manages to get going on the second try. Gets home and notices the clock indescrepancy, which was probably around since fall, assuming they remembered to set the in-house clocks.

Notices a large bruise in the morning. Nothing all that special about that. Sylvia says she did have an encounter, but wasn't abducted. Talks about her own experiences with lost time, says the guest got neuralized after talking with the alien. Doesn't really tell the guest what's up with her bruise, despite it being a primary concern.

Guest says lots of weird things happen with her kids. Describes a "perfect" triangular burn mark on one of them. I get the impression that this was a long time ago, and as a UFO/UAP woo, I doubt she kept her memory intact. Wonder if she'll show a photo. Says she has medical records, doctors couldn't figure it out (therefore, it's obviously aliens!), and something about heightened white blood cell count. Non-medical guess: An infection of some sort, in a roughly triangular shape, maybe?

~16:00 Says her body temperature went down to 34.2. No units. According to my conversion, that's about 93.5 degrees F, if the 34.2 was in Celsius. Probably looked at the wrong lines or something on the thermometer. Otherwise, I don't think she'd survive being just barely above the freezing point.

~16:30 Sylvia tells the guest that "You've always had a ticklish nervous system." And goes on about a friend who has a varying body temp... Were those thoughts related. Wants the guest to get in touch with her angels or something. Says that she's not questioning the UFO encounter... But what about the alien encounter? Anyone can see something unfamiliar in the sky.

~17:30 Audience guest member. She mentions health problems and stays thankfully vague, other than the doctors having trouble pinpointing it. Sylvia's diagnosis ...Fibermyalgia? That's a new one on me. Think I may save this for Orac or someone with more medical knowledge. She says that there are lots of tests that can't detect it. Says it comes with something called Candida, chronic fatigue (what doesn't come with that?) Says they can't find it in a fecal matter test, but they used to be able. Weird. This is definitely Orac's territory. She gives some advice that she tells people "again and again and again and again" to drink juice and up her protein. Juice, definitely. Protein, not so sure that's so near-universally good advice... Green juice? We know that tends to get associated with nonsense.

Commercial break preview: Mother wanting to know how her son got killed. I think we know where this may be going.

Sweet, sweet commercials.

~22:00 Back from break. Audience question. ([Possible sexism] Are there any males in the building? I'm not sure Montel counts. [/Possible sexism]) She wants to know the outcome of her mother's "condition".

Sylvia: "Um... It looks like there's some surgery going to be involved. Were you going to be worried about that?"

Guest: (smiles and nods.)

Sylvia: "Are you aware of that? Well, it's going to come out alright."

Such profound insight. Who would guess that a middle-aged woman's mother would be facing surgery?

Next guest: Mid-late 30ish woman. Mentions her marriage, wanting to know if there are going to be any more children in her future. Sylvia says it'll be a boy, which she seems glad about. I doubt we'll be hearing from this guest ever again. Sylvia estimates birth at 2 years, 4 months. I'll mark my calendar.

Now onto the woman with the murdered son. Understandably upset. Murder took place November 24th, 2004. Biography montage. He was coming home from work, got shot, his car veered to the right. Took place 3 blocks from home. $1,000 in his pocket, and other items of value, so it wasn't a robbery.

See if you can remember this name: Christopher Abraham Mader. I doubt Sylvia will be solving the case.

Sylvia: "Samantha, when I work, and I work with a lot of police..."

Last time I checked, Sylvia doesn't work with the police. "Psychics" work with the survivors, who tend to yank the police along wild goose chases. Note that to date, there has never been a case of a psychic being helpful in a police case.

Sylvia almost gives a name, but interrupts herself. Since this woman seems to be from a small neighborhood, Sylvia seems reluctant to name names, since she could get one very angry innocent on her. Tries to pass it as road rage. It's my understanding that road rage tends to get people out of their cars, and this guy's car was apparently in motion enough to veer off the road. Anyway, Sylvia says the argument started with unappealing food. Talks about getting aggrivated over stuff like that. Samantha seems hesitant to nod. Sylvia then talks about the son's dislike of injustice. (Who doesn't dislike injustice... Jambo?)

Says the cook was crazy/stupid with an elevator euphemism. Says the cook was passing by and shot him. I wonder if some innocent but short-tempered cook is going to wind up with the blame, now. Says the attack was car-to-car, which strikes me as a little on the unlikely side, unless we're talking about fairly ideal conditions or high rates of fire.

Of course, I don't expect to hear anything further about this from Montel or Sylvia.

They hand a guest the microphone. Our first XY chromosome member. Apparently the guy lost his vision for as yet unknown reasons. Montel spoke with him before the show, so we've got a probable big info leak. At least he admitted it upfront. Sylvia says it's part of a "macrodegeneration" (macular?) instead of neurological. "It assimilates that." Huh? Says they'll be able to fix it in a year or year and a half with some kind of lens transplant. The guy seems unimpressed to me, probably because it's not a lens problem. Montel will probably see to it that we'll never know. Keep your eyes open (Ugh. Pun not intended) for some kind of surgical treatment for macro/macular degeneration about a year from now.

Next guest: Woman mentions her old grandmother who can recall events from a hundred years ago but, with Sylvia accurately, and unimpressively interrupting with short-term memory loss as the problem. Guest asks if her grandmother will ever recover. Sylvia goes with the odds and says no, saying she'll about to die (big surprise.)

Next guest: Another marriage-seeker. Someone really great in early spring. Yeah. Real specific, there. I doubt we'll be hearing of a return.

Lovely commercials.

Back. Almost. 'Nother book mention.

Guest: Father passed away when she was five. Close to him. 40. Only recently got around to planting flowers at his grave. Wants to know if he's still looking over her. The answer is always yes. No need to prove it, though. Nope, nope.

~32:00 Another guest wants to know if Sylvia sees a "big move" coming up in her life. Sylvia says she sees a move to someplace warmer. Around Florida. Wishes her luck with the hurricanes.

Next guest: She could be Meg from Family Guy, or a plain woman with a young voice. Says she was diagnosed with scarred fallopian tubes. Got pregnant with twins. Lost the son. 29 weeks eruption. Wants to know if she can get pregnant naturally. Sylvia takes the safe bet and votes for adoption. Next question: How'd her son die? Sylvia says something about air flow. Doesn't strike me as an impressive guess. Doctors said he erupted and bled to death. Sounds like a definitive miss to me. First one I spotted, especially since Sylvia's been sticking with the big unknown and the perfectly reasonable so far.

Featured guest: Man with a wife who was murdered. July 2004. Fire department chief was the one who told him. Closed casket funeral. Death certificate said she was stabbed.

Delicious commercials.

Back with the husband. Montel asks if there was a computer in the office. No cameras in the store she was working in.

Sylvia determines the murderer was male. I don't know crime statistics, but that strikes me as the safe bet. Says he was a maniac and tried to get sexy with her. Big guy. Starting to gray, heavy eyebrows. Tail end of an argument. Husband seems to be getting incredulous. Fingerprints and DNA are mentioned by the husband.

Squeaky clean commercials.

Audience: Asking about career changes. Says she'll go into "media work". She doesn't seem convinced.

'Nother audience member: Has an anxiety experience getting worried about her kid, yet she implies that there was a big time between when she reacted, and when the problem showed up: Kid tried to tie a rope around his neck 9 times. When asked why, he said "the white man" told him to do it. Had nightmare experiences and more white man scenes.

Sylvia reasonably links hallucinations with mentioned seizures. Leans towards medical. Guess she does it now, to avoid sounding dogmatic.

'Nother audience: Soul being pulled out of her feet while she was paralyzed. Scroll way up. Sylvia says she's astrally projecting because she wants to travel.

Ad for Sylvia's website. Here comes a better one.

Scary commercials.

Mid-reading on return. Stuff about saying goodbye. Another book plug.

Audience member asking if her dead father wants to say something. Something about dropping coins. She hasn't found any mystery coins. She takes Montel's word for it that he's around.

Another audience member asking about her father. He was found in his car near a bar, drunk and then shot. Wants to know why. Sylvia says it was 3 men. Said that he knew them. Montel interrupts before Sylvia gives names. Talks about friends with him, as if it's weird for a guy to have friends at a bar. Website plug interrupts.

Wonderful commercials.

Back. Yet another book plug. Montel comments on the number of women and the divorce rate. Talks about male perceptions and that women should sometimes keep their mouths shut. Sylvia should take her own advice. At least I won't have to listen to her until I do the next episode.

---

The Big Sylvia Browne Thread

The Big Sylvia Browne Thread

Well, Ryan's first post is still getting comments after over a year, thanks to a fair number of search engines. I'm not all particularly fond of the post itself, but I think it's forgivable, being pretty much Ryan's first trip into the blogosphere.

I typically try to play good cop to Ryan's bad cop. Or something like that.

Anyhoo: This is intended to be the big place where everyone can post their thoughts on the matter. Specifically, the matter is "Does Sylvia have psychic powers?"

General suggestions:

For the Sylvia supporters:

• Please don't resort to doggerel. Most of those involve changing the subject, which is not a nice thing to do.
• If you make a statement involving the Randi Challenge and Sylvia's reluctance to take it, make sure you've looked at the FAQ first, and, if necessary for the objection, that you have evidence.
• Please, no personal anecdotes. Human perception is quite fallible, as are memories. If you recorded the anecdote, though, that would be more than acceptable.

For my fellow skeptics:

• Please don't dismiss ideas on simple silliness. Point out logical fallacies and internal contradictions.
• Watch your language. Ryan may be a potty-mouth, but this is intended to be a family thread. I don't want that real sicko anonymous skeptic to show up again. (You probably didn't see him. Deleted him rather quickly. Trust me, it was ugly. Maybe even illegal.)
• Please, no guilt by association. If one of the Sylvia supporters mentions a belief in a different type of nonsense, please don't dwell on it. We need to keep the thread on topic.

8/31/2006: In other news, I've got a Sylvia episode of Montel on my DVR. I'll detail it this weekend. If anyone knows offhand an easy way to stick it onto YouTube or something, that'd be nice.

Robert Lancaster Moves Onto Bigger Game

The creator of Stop Kaz is opening a new website: StopSylviaBrowne.com. Right now, it's just an intro page, but knowing the treatment he gave Kaz, we can expect that Sylvia Browne won't be able to breathe in a dishonest manner without being heavily analyzed for it.

And that is exactly as it should be.

I think I may start a weekly analysis of her appearances on Montel, since I've been told she shows up every Wednesday. May even catch a rather nasty mistake like this one sometime... Though I think I should probably figure out a way to put some of the better clips online for perusal. My DVR has a USB port, so there might something I can do with that.

Montel Gave Sylvia Enough Rope...

...and here's what she did with it.

Of course, almost none of her fans will care.

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The Big Sylvia Browne Thread

[Appeal_to_Ridicule] #3.0: A Slight Twist on a Birthday Wish

Inspired by an anonymous commenter in the first entry.

[Appeal_to_Ridicule]

Police officer: Sylvia Browne, you're under arrest for fraud! Your mass email campaign from Nigeria appears to be a scam to cheat investors out of money! You have the right to remain silent...

Sylvia Browne: You can't prove that investors didn't make money!

Police officer: That's not the problem. The problem is that you can't prove there was a legitimate business model behind the whole thing. There's even some evidence to suggest you used a few tricks to inflate stock prices and fudge the books. You'll get off if you can prove otherwise.

Sylvia Browne: But I donated some of the money I took in to charity!

Police officer: Trying to ease you conscience? You still lied to get that money, and you still spent some to selfishly improve your quality of life. Donating to charity just means you're slightly less evil than the purely selfish con artists who keep all their ill-gotten gains.

Sylvia Browne: Stop being so negative! I gave people hopes and dreams, just like those guys who sell X-ray specs to kids so that for six-to-eight weeks, they'll have hopes and dreams of being able to see through walls... and other things.

Police officer: And you think that's a GOOD thing? Giving people false hopes so that they can live in denial? You're one sick puppy. I hope they lock you up for a looooong time.

[/Appeal_to_Ridicule]

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The Big Sylvia Browne Thread

Foamin' at the Mouth Runoff: "Who Cares?"

The topic: A recent post at Skeptico, justifiably deleted just before I posted my response. It's no longer in my browser cache, so I'll paraphrase: "You sound like you're the ones with something to prove! Get a life!" Lots of mindless laughter included.

The topic was the eternally evasive Sylvia Browne, specifically when she predicted those miners were still alive. Only, she got it very wrong.

Of course, we don't really have something to prove: Sylvia's got the burden of proof. Especially since she takes money from people. All we have to do is point out a bunch of embarrassing failures to instill reasonable doubt.

Skeptics like us are out there to protect people from these drains on society, yet Sandy seems to think such efforts are a waste of our lives (or at least she seems to consider it a waste of her life to listen to our arguments and motives). Like Jambo of the JREF forums once said (I'll need to dig up the exact quote sometime), "What business of yours is it if some con artists are scamming people you've never met out of thousands of dollars?"

Do people like Sandy and Jambo really and truly lack the most basic civility? I've heard somewhere that Nigeria has developed so that scamming Americans is an accepted way of life, but I would think that these people would be born in some country where exploiting people rendered vulnerable by feelings of loss for your personal financial gain is regarded as monstrous.

Rockstar's Mailbag #1 - Sylvia Browne

Ever since I posted the Rockstar classic Sylvia Browne is a Big Fat Idiot, I've received at least one e-mail or comment a day about my post. Some people are not really happy with my portrayal of their hero, like this anonymous commenter, whom I believe looks like this:



For those who don't want to make the click, here is their excellent rebuttal to my demolishing of Sylvia:

i am a beleiver in sylvia and i think that u r a big fat idiot,she makes perfect sense, but u believe wat u want

Indeed.

While the evidence would point to the fact that your 5'10" 180 lb. Rockstar is neither big nor fat, I could be an idiot. Anonymous commenter reveals her evidence:

Obviously your a negative person who doesn't care to believe in anything positive as Sylvia Browne.

Ah, I'm an idiot because I'm negative and "don't care to believe in anything positive". Well Anonymous, I do believe in sexual intercourse, and that's pretty damn positive. You should try some sometime. Finally, Anonymous asks this question:

If you don't believe in what she does, get the #@%$^& off her website and do something worthwhile with your lousy life instead of spending time putting her down.WHAT HAS SHE EVER DONE TO YOU!!!

So I am writing an open letter to Anonymous and the rest of the 40 year old divorced women's club who e-mail me to tell me I'm a loser. Put down the power crystals and read on.

April 1, 2006

Dear Sylvia Browne Fan Club,

It is with great sadness that I read you all don't like my blog. Really, there's lots of nice stuff in there. But I digress. The question I'd like to answer is: WHAT HAS SHE EVER DONE TO YOU!!

She's done nothing to me directly. The reason I don't like Sylvia Browne is that she convinces people like you, even with evidence to the contrary that I provided, that she has magic powers. That leads to irrational thinking.

You see, SBFC, If you believe that Sylvia has powers similar to Professor X even though there is no good reason to think so, what's to stop you from believing everything? You know, like astrology, homeopathy, bigfoot, leprechauns and invisible gremlins?

I don't know who you all are, but you could be my child's school teacher. You could be a police officer or a doctor or a judge. If you buy Syl's load of shit for no reason, what's to stop you from grading my child's test based on her "predictions" or because a magical elf that lives in your ass told you to flunk her? What's to stop Syl's magic from interferring with jurisprudence? It's even possible that you might consult a psychic when my fucking health is on the line. Take these herbs and your cancer will clear right up! Hell, why not?

That is why I point out this nonsense to you all. Maybe one of you will listen and tragedy in your life can be avoided. Now quit fucking e-mailing me and go back to the couch; Oprah's on in 5.

Your friend in Randi,

Rockstar

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The Big Sylvia Browne Thread