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From http://www.goerieblogs.com/news/writersblock/2011/10/my-and-sylvia-browne-2012-predictions:
Here are some of her predictions:
1) President Obama will not get re-elected. While not a fan, she favored Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
That is the third paragraph of the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AbbeenPP ( talk • contribs) 20:53, 16 December 2012 (UTC)
In 2004, Louwana Miller went on The Montel Williams Show to talk to psychic Sylvia Browne to see if she could get any insight into how her missing daughter was doing. And Browne told her that Amanda Berry was dead. In 2013, Amanda Berry has been found alive. Louwana Miller died in 2006, never getting to see her daughter again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.42.132.85 ( talk) 09:18, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
I take it then that she did not predict she was going to have a massive heart attack? I don't suppose this inference needs to be included in the article, since it is—or should be—self-evident. 108.246.205.134 ( talk) 21:01, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
Due to being criticized harshly in the news recently, and a spate of IP vandalism but also repair by an IP, I am pro-actively semi-protecting this article for the next three hours. Bearian ( talk) 18:24, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
I removed the part about being a convicted criminal in the first line. It's laying things on a bit thick in the first line. It's covered in the next paragraph anyway. IRWolfie- ( talk) 21:35, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
I see that there are a lot of anon editors who have been editing the page today with reports of her death. The death is also listed on her official Facebook page but we need to wait for a WP:RS before we do much on this page. I would like to add a Recent death template to help readers understand what is happening. Is there a better way to do it? Allecher ( talk) 00:45, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
Is this a bad time to mention that TMZ broke the news of Michael Jackson's death and that people who Syvia Browne claimed were dead turned up alive? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.137.150.35 ( talk) 02:37, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
[2] says, "Posted on: 7:34 pm, November 20, 2013" and "Browne died at 7:10 a.m. Wednesday". If that Wednesday is indeed November 20, 2013, then the article was posted 12 hours after her death on the same day and says "Wednesday" instead of "today". I find this unlikely.
So, even if Sylvia is right about her own death this time - last time she said she would die at an age of 88 [3] - that Wednesday should probably be November 13. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:37, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
References
Both the Randi challenge and the Sago Mine incidents appear to be giving WP:UNDUE weight to events that third parties do not seem to care that much about. There should be significantly broader coverage of them to merit stand alone sections. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 03:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
The Sago Mine prediction could probably use shortening, but $1,000,000 challenge section is fine the way it is. Browne's embracing of the challenge (and subsequent failure to follow through) has been covered by Time and CNN, even many years after the fact. Browne is undoubtedly the highest profile case in the history of the $1,000,000 challenge, and her backing out of it is one of the most glaring stains on her reputation and credibility. So it's both relevant and notable; I see no case for undue weight. - Hatster301 ( talk • contribs) 22:48, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
I disagree. Although the Sago Mine prediction was just another guess based on the information available to her, it is a clear example of her operating technique of cold and hot reading, and very succinctly demonstrates that, like everything else she spoke about, she had no more insight into the fates of the miners than anyone else watching the news. It is also a clearly documented example of the standard back-peddling and retro-diction of "psychics". I think the tag should be removed. Reporting the facts and explaining the deception is not "unbalanced". BeadleB ( talk) 23:15, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
Since sufficient sources have been provided for the James Randi section's significance, if no one else has any other arguments to present, I'll going to remove the "Undue Weight" message from that section. I'll leave the one regarding hhe Sago Mine section alone for now... - Hatster301 ( talk) 09:31, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
The tag from the James Randi section has now been removed. As for the Sago Mine bit, I propose changing it to one of the "bullet points" directly under "False Predictions" (instead of having its own subsection), and rewording it similarly to the following:
"On January 2, 2006, there was an explosion at Sago mine in West Virginia, which trapped several miners underground. The next day, Brown was a guest on US radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. At the start of the broadcast, it had been (erroneously) reported that 12 of 13 trapped had been found alive. When asked the lack of noise had made her think the men had died, Browne replied, "No, I knew they were going to be found." Later in the program, when it was discovered that the earlier news reports were incorrect, and that only one of the miners had survived, Browne claimed that in her previous statement that the men would be "found", she was only referring to their bodies being found, not that they would be found alive."
Feel free to comment. - Hatster301 ( talk) 05:26, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
Why did someone remove: "In May 2003, she told Larry King in an interview that she would die at the age of 88" ( http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/16/lkl.00.html )? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ArtKing50 ( talk • contribs) 18:48, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
Another user has repeatedly added a link to Rosemary Brown (spiritualist) in the Sylvia Browne article, and in that article adding the reciprocal link back to Sylvia Browne. No significant reason is given, other than someone the editor knows confused them and they were both mediums. This is hardly a reason to link to a person of a totally different name, especially when Rosemary Brown/e has 5 different people listed on its dab page. I'm inviting comment here. -- Dmol ( talk) 20:19, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
From [16]. Any reference to this prediction, beyond Browne's own claim in a book written by herself?
Browne correctly warned James Randi of a problem in his left heart ventricle, which he had to undergo emergency surgery on February 2, 2006 (" Insight," Sylvia Browne, Dutton Books, pg. 33, 2006). Although Randi, it seems, is only interested in reporting the 10-15 percent of her inaccuracies.
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:27, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
From [17]. Tested by who? Any reference to this test, beyond Browne's own claim in a book written by herself? Analysis of the reliability of the test?
Her accuracy was tested and shown to be at 85-90 percent (" Insight," Sylvia Browne, Dutton Books, pg. 33, 2006)
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:43, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
Admitted when? To whom? Didn't she use to predict things about her own life, maybe this happened after a few mispredictions? (Why is this written in present tense? Maybe copy/pasted from somewhere??)
Although she admits frequently to not having any psychic ability on her own life.
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:43, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
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@ Leoni98: Hello. As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia promotes the scientific literacy. Implying that she might have had psychic powers is not scientific. Mediumship and psychic powers are extraordinary claims which would require extraordinary evidence. Without that evidence, this is a WP:FRINGE perspective, and Wikipedia doesn't promote fringe views. While it's true that Browne's psychic powers have been widely discredited, that's only part of the story. Not only have her claims been discredited, they have also been proven false. None of her criminal predictions have been proven accurate, and many have been proven completely false. Reliable sources throughout the article demonstrate this. It is not just that these claims have been discredited, it's that that have been discredited by the only sources Wikipedia trusts for this kind of thing. A formal tone is important, but vague isn't always more encyclopedic, nor does neutrality mean that we have to humor fraudulent nonsense like Browne's claims. Simple facts should be stated in simple language. This is the primary purpose of an encyclopedia. Grayfell ( talk) 20:29, 8 August 2017 (UTC)
A Washington IP-hopper [18] [19] seems determined to push this page back to the hagiography it once was, citing the need for an "impartial" article. Fact is, Browne received enormous negative publicity, and Wikipedia is not in the business of censoring it. Nor is it in the business of celebrating fringe/pseudo science. Leoni98 ( talk) 18:26, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
I'm not interested in canonizing her, but it does seem biased to leave out any educational efforts on her part (e.g., a degree in education, going for her master's in San Francisco), psychiatrists she worked with--from Stanford and other places, her work as a hypnotherapist and the classes she held--all of which she claimed to have the files for. Any of these would be relatively easy to check, if you're not intent on debunking her. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.143.160.48 ( talk) 15:07, 14 July 2018 (UTC)
Numerous wikilinks seem to have been copy-and-pasted to the "See also" sections of various pages despite not having any particular relevance. I have removed several links from the "See also" section that did not have any direct relevance to the article subject other than to implicitly disparage the article subject, which would be a violation of the WP:BLP policy if she was still living, and are still inappropriate without any connection being made. I believe that that additional links should be removed if they are not relevant either. WP:SEEALSO says that "The links in the 'See also' section should be relevant, should reflect the links that would be present in a comprehensive article on the topic, and should be limited to a reasonable number." I do not think that lists of other mediums are relevant enough without some actual connection, or else any biography could have dozens of "see also" entries based purely on their profession. – wallyfromdilbert ( talk) 02:48, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
According to this Twitter post, Sylvia Browne had written on page 312 of her book "End of days":
Could somebody, who has this book, check whether the citation is correct. -- Túrelio ( talk) 13:41, 15 March 2020 (UTC)
Sylvia Browne didn't "predict" anything. Keldoo ( talk) 21:41, 15 March 2020 (UTC)
What really makes me mad about this article is the lack of facts. Sylvia Browne said she helped police with 250 or more cases, yet Wikipedia only sites a fraction of these. How many actual cases, statistically did Sylvia Browne work on with law enforcement officials, how many of each of the individual professional law enforcement personnel have been interviewed first on their general opinion of psychics ability to solve cases or help solve cases. Then, how many of those people have prejudice toward psychics or Sylvia Browne, and how many of these law enforcement departments don’t want to admit that a psychic could take credit for solving a case that they themselves thought they should have solved. How many of them would feel embarrassed or especially embarrassed or conflicted because the psychic who helped them was a woman? There are a lot of questions to be answered before Wikipedia does a through examination of Sylvia Browne’s work on these cases and their real facts and outcomes. Also, there are other ways that Sylvia Browne helped many people and that her assessments and psychic abilities testified to the fact that she was often correct about a lot of things. For example, I watched her frequently on The Montel Williams Show and remember one of her predictions for the upcoming year. She told people not to travel to India or anywhere in that area because some kind of a catastrophe was going to occur. Sure enough, sometime later in the year a terrible Tsunami hit the area killing many people and causing lots of damage. Also, her books and publications are phenomenal as were her public appearances, two of which I attended. Much more research and fact-finding needs to be done on the phenomenal person and Psychic and Clairvoyant that Sylvia Browne was. It needs to be a balanced report with more reporting on the positive and true accounts of this extraordinary woman’s life. 2600:1014:B06E:4437:7178:B219:1846:D656 ( talk) 22:45, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
Wow really? I'd love to hear the source of the claims on those 120 cases, that sounds amazing! Too good to be true even. 37.167.207.101 ( talk) 08:13, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
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From http://www.goerieblogs.com/news/writersblock/2011/10/my-and-sylvia-browne-2012-predictions:
Here are some of her predictions:
1) President Obama will not get re-elected. While not a fan, she favored Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
That is the third paragraph of the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AbbeenPP ( talk • contribs) 20:53, 16 December 2012 (UTC)
In 2004, Louwana Miller went on The Montel Williams Show to talk to psychic Sylvia Browne to see if she could get any insight into how her missing daughter was doing. And Browne told her that Amanda Berry was dead. In 2013, Amanda Berry has been found alive. Louwana Miller died in 2006, never getting to see her daughter again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.42.132.85 ( talk) 09:18, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
I take it then that she did not predict she was going to have a massive heart attack? I don't suppose this inference needs to be included in the article, since it is—or should be—self-evident. 108.246.205.134 ( talk) 21:01, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
Due to being criticized harshly in the news recently, and a spate of IP vandalism but also repair by an IP, I am pro-actively semi-protecting this article for the next three hours. Bearian ( talk) 18:24, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
I removed the part about being a convicted criminal in the first line. It's laying things on a bit thick in the first line. It's covered in the next paragraph anyway. IRWolfie- ( talk) 21:35, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
I see that there are a lot of anon editors who have been editing the page today with reports of her death. The death is also listed on her official Facebook page but we need to wait for a WP:RS before we do much on this page. I would like to add a Recent death template to help readers understand what is happening. Is there a better way to do it? Allecher ( talk) 00:45, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
Is this a bad time to mention that TMZ broke the news of Michael Jackson's death and that people who Syvia Browne claimed were dead turned up alive? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.137.150.35 ( talk) 02:37, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
[2] says, "Posted on: 7:34 pm, November 20, 2013" and "Browne died at 7:10 a.m. Wednesday". If that Wednesday is indeed November 20, 2013, then the article was posted 12 hours after her death on the same day and says "Wednesday" instead of "today". I find this unlikely.
So, even if Sylvia is right about her own death this time - last time she said she would die at an age of 88 [3] - that Wednesday should probably be November 13. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:37, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
References
Both the Randi challenge and the Sago Mine incidents appear to be giving WP:UNDUE weight to events that third parties do not seem to care that much about. There should be significantly broader coverage of them to merit stand alone sections. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 03:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
The Sago Mine prediction could probably use shortening, but $1,000,000 challenge section is fine the way it is. Browne's embracing of the challenge (and subsequent failure to follow through) has been covered by Time and CNN, even many years after the fact. Browne is undoubtedly the highest profile case in the history of the $1,000,000 challenge, and her backing out of it is one of the most glaring stains on her reputation and credibility. So it's both relevant and notable; I see no case for undue weight. - Hatster301 ( talk • contribs) 22:48, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
I disagree. Although the Sago Mine prediction was just another guess based on the information available to her, it is a clear example of her operating technique of cold and hot reading, and very succinctly demonstrates that, like everything else she spoke about, she had no more insight into the fates of the miners than anyone else watching the news. It is also a clearly documented example of the standard back-peddling and retro-diction of "psychics". I think the tag should be removed. Reporting the facts and explaining the deception is not "unbalanced". BeadleB ( talk) 23:15, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
Since sufficient sources have been provided for the James Randi section's significance, if no one else has any other arguments to present, I'll going to remove the "Undue Weight" message from that section. I'll leave the one regarding hhe Sago Mine section alone for now... - Hatster301 ( talk) 09:31, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
The tag from the James Randi section has now been removed. As for the Sago Mine bit, I propose changing it to one of the "bullet points" directly under "False Predictions" (instead of having its own subsection), and rewording it similarly to the following:
"On January 2, 2006, there was an explosion at Sago mine in West Virginia, which trapped several miners underground. The next day, Brown was a guest on US radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. At the start of the broadcast, it had been (erroneously) reported that 12 of 13 trapped had been found alive. When asked the lack of noise had made her think the men had died, Browne replied, "No, I knew they were going to be found." Later in the program, when it was discovered that the earlier news reports were incorrect, and that only one of the miners had survived, Browne claimed that in her previous statement that the men would be "found", she was only referring to their bodies being found, not that they would be found alive."
Feel free to comment. - Hatster301 ( talk) 05:26, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
Why did someone remove: "In May 2003, she told Larry King in an interview that she would die at the age of 88" ( http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/16/lkl.00.html )? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ArtKing50 ( talk • contribs) 18:48, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
Another user has repeatedly added a link to Rosemary Brown (spiritualist) in the Sylvia Browne article, and in that article adding the reciprocal link back to Sylvia Browne. No significant reason is given, other than someone the editor knows confused them and they were both mediums. This is hardly a reason to link to a person of a totally different name, especially when Rosemary Brown/e has 5 different people listed on its dab page. I'm inviting comment here. -- Dmol ( talk) 20:19, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
From [16]. Any reference to this prediction, beyond Browne's own claim in a book written by herself?
Browne correctly warned James Randi of a problem in his left heart ventricle, which he had to undergo emergency surgery on February 2, 2006 (" Insight," Sylvia Browne, Dutton Books, pg. 33, 2006). Although Randi, it seems, is only interested in reporting the 10-15 percent of her inaccuracies.
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:27, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
From [17]. Tested by who? Any reference to this test, beyond Browne's own claim in a book written by herself? Analysis of the reliability of the test?
Her accuracy was tested and shown to be at 85-90 percent (" Insight," Sylvia Browne, Dutton Books, pg. 33, 2006)
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:43, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
Admitted when? To whom? Didn't she use to predict things about her own life, maybe this happened after a few mispredictions? (Why is this written in present tense? Maybe copy/pasted from somewhere??)
Although she admits frequently to not having any psychic ability on her own life.
-- Enric Naval ( talk) 14:43, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
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@ Leoni98: Hello. As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia promotes the scientific literacy. Implying that she might have had psychic powers is not scientific. Mediumship and psychic powers are extraordinary claims which would require extraordinary evidence. Without that evidence, this is a WP:FRINGE perspective, and Wikipedia doesn't promote fringe views. While it's true that Browne's psychic powers have been widely discredited, that's only part of the story. Not only have her claims been discredited, they have also been proven false. None of her criminal predictions have been proven accurate, and many have been proven completely false. Reliable sources throughout the article demonstrate this. It is not just that these claims have been discredited, it's that that have been discredited by the only sources Wikipedia trusts for this kind of thing. A formal tone is important, but vague isn't always more encyclopedic, nor does neutrality mean that we have to humor fraudulent nonsense like Browne's claims. Simple facts should be stated in simple language. This is the primary purpose of an encyclopedia. Grayfell ( talk) 20:29, 8 August 2017 (UTC)
A Washington IP-hopper [18] [19] seems determined to push this page back to the hagiography it once was, citing the need for an "impartial" article. Fact is, Browne received enormous negative publicity, and Wikipedia is not in the business of censoring it. Nor is it in the business of celebrating fringe/pseudo science. Leoni98 ( talk) 18:26, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
I'm not interested in canonizing her, but it does seem biased to leave out any educational efforts on her part (e.g., a degree in education, going for her master's in San Francisco), psychiatrists she worked with--from Stanford and other places, her work as a hypnotherapist and the classes she held--all of which she claimed to have the files for. Any of these would be relatively easy to check, if you're not intent on debunking her. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.143.160.48 ( talk) 15:07, 14 July 2018 (UTC)
Numerous wikilinks seem to have been copy-and-pasted to the "See also" sections of various pages despite not having any particular relevance. I have removed several links from the "See also" section that did not have any direct relevance to the article subject other than to implicitly disparage the article subject, which would be a violation of the WP:BLP policy if she was still living, and are still inappropriate without any connection being made. I believe that that additional links should be removed if they are not relevant either. WP:SEEALSO says that "The links in the 'See also' section should be relevant, should reflect the links that would be present in a comprehensive article on the topic, and should be limited to a reasonable number." I do not think that lists of other mediums are relevant enough without some actual connection, or else any biography could have dozens of "see also" entries based purely on their profession. – wallyfromdilbert ( talk) 02:48, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
According to this Twitter post, Sylvia Browne had written on page 312 of her book "End of days":
Could somebody, who has this book, check whether the citation is correct. -- Túrelio ( talk) 13:41, 15 March 2020 (UTC)
Sylvia Browne didn't "predict" anything. Keldoo ( talk) 21:41, 15 March 2020 (UTC)
What really makes me mad about this article is the lack of facts. Sylvia Browne said she helped police with 250 or more cases, yet Wikipedia only sites a fraction of these. How many actual cases, statistically did Sylvia Browne work on with law enforcement officials, how many of each of the individual professional law enforcement personnel have been interviewed first on their general opinion of psychics ability to solve cases or help solve cases. Then, how many of those people have prejudice toward psychics or Sylvia Browne, and how many of these law enforcement departments don’t want to admit that a psychic could take credit for solving a case that they themselves thought they should have solved. How many of them would feel embarrassed or especially embarrassed or conflicted because the psychic who helped them was a woman? There are a lot of questions to be answered before Wikipedia does a through examination of Sylvia Browne’s work on these cases and their real facts and outcomes. Also, there are other ways that Sylvia Browne helped many people and that her assessments and psychic abilities testified to the fact that she was often correct about a lot of things. For example, I watched her frequently on The Montel Williams Show and remember one of her predictions for the upcoming year. She told people not to travel to India or anywhere in that area because some kind of a catastrophe was going to occur. Sure enough, sometime later in the year a terrible Tsunami hit the area killing many people and causing lots of damage. Also, her books and publications are phenomenal as were her public appearances, two of which I attended. Much more research and fact-finding needs to be done on the phenomenal person and Psychic and Clairvoyant that Sylvia Browne was. It needs to be a balanced report with more reporting on the positive and true accounts of this extraordinary woman’s life. 2600:1014:B06E:4437:7178:B219:1846:D656 ( talk) 22:45, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
Wow really? I'd love to hear the source of the claims on those 120 cases, that sounds amazing! Too good to be true even. 37.167.207.101 ( talk) 08:13, 19 May 2024 (UTC)