Unveiling the Mysteries: The Skeptical Biography of Sylvia Browne

By Jon Donnis

Sylvia Browne, a name often synonymous with the realm of psychic phenomena, gained both fame and notoriety throughout her lifetime. Born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker on October 19, 1936, in Kansas City, Missouri, she rose to prominence as a self-proclaimed psychic medium, author, and television personality. However, behind the veil of mystique and purported psychic abilities lies a controversial figure whose career was marked by skepticism, criticism, and numerous instances of being exposed for her fraudulent practices.

Browne's journey into the world of psychic phenomena began in her early childhood, allegedly experiencing visions and prophetic dreams. She claimed to have inherited her psychic gifts from her maternal grandmother, who she asserted was also gifted with psychic abilities. Despite lacking any formal education or training in psychology or parapsychology, Browne embarked on a career as a professional psychic in her late twenties.

Throughout her career, Browne amassed a significant following, bolstered by appearances on popular television shows such as "The Montel Williams Show" and "Larry King Live." Her seemingly accurate predictions and purported ability to communicate with the deceased endeared her to many believers, who sought her guidance and insight into the mysteries of life and death.

However, Browne's rise to prominence was accompanied by a barrage of skepticism and criticism from skeptics, scientists, and rationalists who questioned the validity of her claims. One of the most prominent skeptics of Browne's purported abilities was James Randi, a renowned magician and skeptic who offered a cash prize of $1 million to anyone who could demonstrate genuine psychic powers under controlled scientific conditions. Despite Browne's initial interest in Randi's challenge, she ultimately failed to participate in the tests, citing various reasons, including health concerns and the negative energy surrounding the challenge.

Check out this list of James Randi's Books

Moreover, Browne's credibility took a significant hit when several of her high-profile predictions turned out to be false or inaccurate. One of the most notable examples occurred in 2002 when Browne appeared on "The Montel Williams Show" and informed the parents of missing teenager Shawn Hornbeck that their son was dead and his body could be found near two large jagged rocks. 

The following is the transcript of the exchange between Craig Akers (Shawn's stepfather) and Pam Akers (Shawn's mother) and Sylvia Browne:

CRAIG AKERS: Can you tell how far from the area he was taken?

SYLVIA BROWNE: Maybe about 20 miles.

CRAIG: And he's still within a 20-mile radius even now?

BROWNE: He's still within a 20-mile radius of -- let's say, here's where you are, 20-mile radius, but it's really southwest of where you are.

CRAIG: Southwest.

BROWNE: So whatever is southwest, because it looks like this is -- here we go again with the wooded, with the -- you know, the wooded areas. So southwest of you.

PAM AKERS: Is there any landmarks around?

BROWNE: Yeah. Strange enough, there are two jagged boulders, which look really misplaced. Because everything is trees, and then all of a sudden, you've got these stupid boulders sitting there.

MONTEL WILLIAMS: And he could be found near there?

BROWNE: He's near the boulders.

PAM: Is he still with us?

BROWNE: No.

CRAIG: Do you see the bicycle anywhere?

BROWNE: I think the -- see, here's what's strange. I think the--the--the bicycle is in another state in a dump.

However, Shawn Hornbeck was found alive more than four years later, and Browne's prediction was proven unequivocally false.

For more watch The Survival Story of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. By Savannah Brymer.

Another instance that tarnished Browne's reputation occurred in 2004 when she incorrectly predicted the outcome of the presidential election, forecasting that John Kerry would win against incumbent President George W. Bush. Browne's erroneous prediction further fueled skepticism about her purported psychic abilities and raised questions about the reliability of her insights.

Furthermore, Browne faced allegations of exploitation and unethical behavior, particularly concerning her lucrative business ventures, including psychic readings, books, seminars, and merchandise. Critics accused Browne of preying on vulnerable individuals seeking solace and guidance, often charging exorbitant fees for her services and offering vague or generic predictions.

In addition to her failed predictions and allegations of exploitation, Browne's credibility suffered further blows when several of her past clients and associates came forward with allegations of deception and fraud. In 1992, she was sued by a former client who alleged that Browne had falsely claimed to communicate with her dead father and charged exorbitant fees for her services. Although Browne denied the allegations and the case was eventually settled out of court, it underscored concerns about the ethical practices within the psychic industry.

Despite facing numerous controversies and being exposed on multiple occasions, Browne remained defiant in defending her purported psychic abilities. She dismissed skeptics' criticisms as baseless and attributed her inaccuracies to the inherent uncertainties of psychic phenomena. Browne maintained a loyal following of believers who continued to seek her guidance and validation, seemingly unaffected by the mounting evidence against her.

However, Sylvia Browne's legacy remains deeply polarizing, with supporters hailing her as a gifted psychic and spiritual healer, while skeptics regard her as a charlatan and opportunist. Her career serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of uncritical belief and the exploitation of vulnerable individuals in the pursuit of profit and fame. Ultimately, Sylvia Browne's life and career are shrouded in controversy and skepticism, leaving behind a complex and contentious legacy that continues to divide opinions long after her passing in 2013.

Sylvia Browne Predicted the Covid19 Coronavirus and Skeptics are going crazy!

UPDATE: Please Read This First
I hate that I have to write this, but due to the abuse I am getting from the so called Skeptic community I think it is best I say a couple of things.

1. READ THE WHOLE DAMNED ARTICLE!
2. The whole point of this article is about the difference between a good skeptic and a great skeptic. Taking a deliberate "click bait" type headline and breaking it all down. A good skeptic just debunks a claim. A great skeptic gives the claim the benefit of the doubt, gives the claim every possible chance to be real, puts the claim on a pedestal and STILL debunks it. And by doing so removes all doubt.
3. If you read the whole article I actually expose Sylvia's claim, yet I have skeptics who only read half the article and then call me a "Sylvia Browne Apologist". You people are not true skeptics, you are imbeciles. And you are the very people I reference in the headline about "going crazy".


By Jon Donnis
I have always wanted to write a ridiculous click bait type headline like that, and now I have my chance.

So before I start let me make a few things clear. Sylvia Browne is dead, she died on 20th November 2013, and up until the day she died she maintained that she was a real psychic medium, who could communicate with the dead and see the future. That was a lie. She was a fraud. Like literally, a convicted fraudster. In 1992, Browne and her then-husband Kenzil Dalzell Brown were indicted on several charges of investment fraud and grand theft, she was found guilty.

So to make absolutely clear where I stand on Sylvia Brown, she was a fake, a fraud, a con-women, a charlatan, in fact I was exposing her as such decades ago, and in fact I helped the late great Robert Lancaster start his "Stop Sylvia" website, and when he started that, I stepped back from writing about her, as he was going to only concentrate on her.

Now with that out of the way, let's get back to the lovely click bait headline, that any hack at the Tabloid media would be proud of.

Sylvia Browne predicted the Covid19 Coronavirus.

This was bizarrely first brought up by everyone's favourite tooth shaped celebrity Kim Kardashian.

Kourtney just sent this on our group chat pic.twitter.com/XyjGajY71d

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 12, 2020

Sylvia wrote a book in 2008 called "End of Days" whereby she recorded many future predictions.
And yes in that book is the very passage that Kim shared on her twitter account.

She wrote
"In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tunes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely."

Now let us ignore the ten years later bit, as we will have to wait until 2030 to see if that happens.
So did she get this prediction correct? Yes.

Unlike the vast vast majority of psychic predictions she was very specific. She gave a year, she described the symptoms of the disease, and how no treatments would work.

These claims are objectively true. Let us look closer at what she said.
"around 2020"
Well the virus officially started in 2019, but it became a global pandemic in 2020, so for her to use the word "around" is actually more accurate than it is vague. A lot of skeptics have tried to use that as an excuse to dismiss it.

"a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tunes"

From a laypersons point of view, she perfectly describes the symptoms of the Covid19 Coronavirus. This is not some vague "he felt a pain in his chest before he died" type of claim you often get from mediums. This is an accurate and very specific description of the main symptoms of the virus that people suffer with who get very ill and then die.

She also stated it "will spread throughout the globe", again this is objectively true. She could have easily just said the United States, in fact if I was to make a vague future prediction, it would be easier to just say one country, that way if there was a bad flu outbreak that year (which there was at the end of 2019) you could claim that you were correct. But instead she clearly states it will spread around the globe. Unlike any other major outbreak of this kind in history, this virus has spread around the globe, to more countries than SARS, MERS, or any of the big name coronaviruses you will have heard of.

Next up she stated "resisting all known treatments" again so far this is objectively true. China knew of the virus at least 6 months ago, if not longer, but at the very least 6 months, so after 6 months can you name a single confirmed treatment that works? There has been some promising results with a few treatments, but at the best they may help you recover a couple of days sooner if at all. So 6 months after the virus is out there, and we have no truly workable, accepted treatments. Now that doesn't mean there wont be one, but as of writing this, her prediction is objectively true on the treatments aspect, and even if there is a treatment found tomorrow, that's 6 months worth of her being right.

The rest of her prediction we can't answer since we don't know if it will just vanish itself, or if it will come back, so that has to be left open.

Up to this point of the article I can see you all scratching your heads and asking "I thought Jon was supposed to expose fake psychics and mediums, yet all he has done so far is point out Sylvia Browne was right".

And now we get to the problem I have with this whole story. As skeptics we are supposed to look at the evidence and build our opinion based on that evidence, and so far pretty much every skeptic has blindly dismissed Sylvia Browne's prediction, just rubbished it without any real explanation. I have seen some skeptics just say she was vague, others just refuse to even talk about it, yet I have shown here she was not at all vague, she was incredible specific. Others have pointed out that she was a proven fraud so what's the point of giving any credence to this prediction, and yes there is some weight to that argument, but there is also the counter "black swan theory". In other words it only takes one black swan to prove that black swans exist. (They do exist by the way, the theory was talked about when there was a presumption that none existed).

So where does that leave us?
It leaves me annoyed with the skeptic community, for they do the very thing they accuse others of doing, ignoring the evidence, being closed minded, dismissing out of hand something just because it seems impossible or unlikely.

As skeptics the thing we demand more than anything from psychics is for them to be specific, we don't want vague comments that could apply to anyone, we want specific dates, times, names, descriptions, we harp on about this all the time, and this one time we get the kind of super specific example of a psychic prediction, and the skeptic community buries its head in the sand.

I refuse to do that.

So I am stating here that in 2008, in her book "End of Days", Sylvia Browne made the single greatest, most accurate, self proclaimed "psychic" prediction in history. Her prediction on any level of understanding was correct and it could yet further come true as time passes.

But now the big problem. I am a skeptic, I have accepted that her prediction came true, it was not at all vague, how do I deal with this. Quite simply really. Of the thousands and thousands of predictions she made in her life, she got one right. It's that simple. She had a failure rate of 99.99999%. She was a fraud, a fake, and just once, she got something right.

If I make a pinhole in a wall, pick up a handful of sand and throw it at the wall, and one single grain of sand lands in that pinhole, I can claim correctly that I threw a single grain of sand and it landed in a pinhole, something so impossible to do, that the fact I did it means I have magic sand throwing powers.

Now we can talk about how and where she came up with the idea of the prediction, well the SARS outbreak happened a few years before she wrote her prediction, that virus infected over 8000 people around the world, killing 774. It infected people in 29 different countries, so very much a "global" disease.
But here is where it gets interesting, the SARS virus came, it then went, it then came back and then it disappeared, and there has not been a single case of it in over 15 years. Sound familiar?

There was no treatment for SARS and no vaccine was every created, and in fact Covid19 is a strain of that virus, so if we had have developed a treatment for SARS it would likely help in the fight against Covid19.

When you look at the SARS outbreak, the lack of treatment etc, it kinda sounds like what Sylvia predicted does it not?

Since she released her book there has actually been 4 different outbreaks that had she used a different year in her prediction, they would also fit.

Swine Flu 2009-2010 (200,000 Dead)
MERS 2012-2020 (850 Dead)
Ebola 2014-2016 (11,300 Dead)
Covid19 2019-2020 (270,000+ Dead)

Remember no where in her prediction did she actually state number of people who would die.
So if a virus had killed less than 1000 people like MERS has then her prediction is just as accurate as Swine Flu which killed 200,000 people.

Before the SARS outbreak, with the exception of HIV, there had not really been any major worldwide virus since the late 60s and the Hong Kong flu.

The question you have to ask yourself, would she still have made the same prediction had the SARS virus never have happened? or if it had not gotten media attention? Probably not.

So when you look at these things as a whole, when you put things into context, then you can figure out the more likely reasons behind the prediction, but to just dismiss it, is a mistake, for when you just dismiss such things, you make yourself a target of the deluded.

Never back away from such a claim, I didn't, and I'd like to think I explained away her prediction pretty well. But let us not pretend that her prediction was not in itself, and on its own, and without further context, the single greatest "psychic" prediction in history, it was. But that still does not make her psychic.

By Jon Donnis.

(Some of my numbers might be off, or might change as time passes, so please if anything is wrong feel free to correct me in the comments, also please feel free to leave your opinions, and if you think I am wrong, then say so.)

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A Response to Sylvia Browne fans about her death and respect

We do not forgive or forget, at least not until those who commit acts make amends to those wronged
By Robert Lester

Sylvia Browne is Dead - Robert Lancaster will need a new hobby!

Robert S. Lancaster of www.StopSylvia.com fame has announced that he was contacted and told Fake Psychic Sylvia Browne is dead!

Sylvia Browne WAS a vile disgusting witch of a woman, who made a fortune from pretending to speak to the dead and making future predictions, including one that predicted the death of James Randi 12 years ago!
Who is still alive by the way!

She also predicted that she would die aged 88, she was only 11 years off in that prediction, so a fraud all the way to the end!

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but this is one occasion whereby I am happy to say good riddance!
And just incase any of you feel a tinge of sympathy for her, here are some of her most despicable acts

Just another Sylvia Browne victim

This is the heartbreaking story of what is now sadly known as just another Sylvia Browne Victim.

Psychics/mediums are doing harm. They may wrap up their lies and fraud in a false justification of helping people, but to believers their words are so strong, to them its real. And all it takes is one wrong word from a psychic, and you are left with an eternity of hurt and regret.

Here is a news story from KMOV on just such a victim.

KMOV's hidden cameras capture self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne making bold predictions about a mother's dying son. Not one of Browne's predictions came true. The woman's son died two days later. This story was on KMOV-TV in May 2010.