Sylvia Browne

144

Sylvia Browne : biography

19 October 1936 –

Personal life

Sylvia Browne, born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker on October 19, 1936, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father was Jewish and had many jobs, including mail delivery, jewelry sales and time as a vice president of a major freight line. Her mother was Episcopalian,Browne, Sylvia; & Antoinette May (1990). Adventures of a Psychic. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc. ISBN 0-7394-0178-5 and her maternal grandmother Ada Coil was a devout Lutheran. However, Browne said in 2001 that she was Jewish.

Browne claims that visions started appearing at age five and that her grandmother, who claimed to be a psychic medium, helped her understand why she had them. Browne also asserts that her great-uncle was also a psychic medium and was "rabid about UFOs."

Browne started to give psychic readings in 1974 and has attracted both supporters and detractors. She has given thousands of one-on-one readings with a wide variety of groups and individuals. As of 2008, she charges $850 for a 20–30-minute telephone reading. Browne claims to have provided information to police departments and the FBI as a psychic detective. However, in at least one case that James Randi researched, a police officer that Browne claimed to have worked with did not even work at the police department.

In May 2003, she told Larry King in an interview that she would die at the age of 88. On March 21, 2011, Browne suffered a massive heart attack in Hawaii and her website asked for donations to her church.

Marriages and children

Browne was married to Gary Dufresne from April 1959 until 1972. During that time, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri. In a February 10, 2007 interview, Dufresne related a conversation with her after a tarot party in their home: "I said to her as we were washing dishes and she was wiping, I said, ‘Sylvia, how can you tell people this kind of stuff? You know it’s not true, and some of these people actually are probably going to believe it.’ And she said, ‘Screw ’em. Anybody who believes this stuff oughtta be taken.’" Dufresne again called Browne a "fraud" in a 2010 interview with KMOV-TV.

Sylvia acquired the surname Brown from Kenzil Dalzell Brown during the third of her five marriages, and added a final e after she was indicted on security fraud charges. In September 2002, she and Larry Lee Beck ended their marriage.Santa Clara County Court, Number: 1-02-FL-104268, Larry Lee Beck And Sylvia Celeste Browne, Dissolution Of Marriage/No Minor Children On February 14, 2009, Browne married a man she calls "Michael, my archangel," an owner of a jewelry store.Neville, Anne "Psychic Sylvia Browne sees better days ahead.," Buffalo News, 2009-03-26

Sylvia says her son Christopher Dufresne is psychic and attributes this to a genetic predisposition. Her website says "If Sylvia is the best psychic around – then Chris is the second best."

Predictions

Although Browne has made many public predictions, scientific skeptic James Randi says her accuracy rate has been no better than educated guessing. Among her claims were:

  • That Bill Clinton was falsely accused in the Lewinsky scandal – proved incorrect.
  • The cure and prevention of breast cancer by the end of 1999
  • That Bill Bradley would win the 2000 U.S. presidential election with the Reform Party coming in second – neither event occurred.
  • The "hiding in caves" of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein – Hussein was found in a "spider hole" in the ground near Tikrit and Osama bin Laden was hiding in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
  • The death of bin Laden – later revealed by the Central Intelligence Agency and by his 2011 killing, to be incorrect.
  • A guilty verdict in the 2005 child molestation trial of Michael Jackson – Jackson was acquitted of all charges.
  • That Amanda Berry was dead. Browne told the girl’s mother in a 2004 episode of The Montel Williams Show that "She’s not alive, honey". Amanda Berry escaped from her kidnapper and was found alive on May 6, 2013.. 2013-05-07.Sutyak, Kara (May 6, 2013). . Fox 8 Cleveland.