Silvia Browne, spiritual teacher and psychic, poses for a portrait at the Lucky Eagle Casino on Wednesday evening in Rochester. Browne will be doing a two shows over the weekend at the casino. She will be performing on Friday, June 21 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Many remember psychic Sylvia Browne from her appearances on the Montel Williams Show throughout the 1990s and into the next decade. Now, the bestselling author and self-proclaimed psychic spiritual leader is bringing that same format to the Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester for two shows this week.
“It’s a little bit of philosophy, a little bit of spirituality and a lot of questions,” Browne told The Chronicle.
The 76-year-old said she first manifested her clairvoyant sensitivities at age 3. She said the gift is both genetic and from God.
Browne cites 300 years of psychics in her family history, including her great-grandmother, grandmother and her son, who also uses his ability professionally.
Since she has always had an extrasensory perception, Browne said, it is difficult to describe to a regular person.
“It’s like if I asked what’s it like to be you,” she said. “It’s awfully hard to explain.”
In her psychic endeavors, Browne often has to deliver bad news.
“I think part of being a psychic is to prepare people to go around bad things,” she said.
“Bad news can always be overcome by good news. You can lighten the load by telling them what’s on the other side.”
But being a psychic does not imply omniscience, a common misconception, according to Browne.
Browne mistakenly told Amanda Berry’s mother she was dead in 2004 on the Montel Williams Show. Berry escaped earlier this year along with two other women who were held hostage for nearly a decade in a Cleveland house.
Browne also wrongly told the parents of the missing Missouri boy, Shawn Hornbeck, where to search for his body on the Montel Williams Show in 2003. After four years, authorities found Hornbeck alive with another kidnapped boy in suburban St. Louis in 2007.
Still, Browne told The Chronicle, two inaccurate predictions in the five plus decades she has used her abilities professionally is not a bad track record. She said she simply “blurts out” what she sees and like any other profession, she too makes mistakes.
“It’s not God’s fault,” she said. “My communication gets screwed up.”
Browne’s critics, such as paranormal debunker James Randi, accuse her of preying on grieving people. Randi told CNN Browne charges for readings where she gives information about past lives, spirit guides and other realms but doesn’t address specific questions people are looking for answers to.
Browne’s manager confirmed phone and in-person readings range in price from about $525 to $850.
Randi alleges Browne uses a scam technique called cold reading, where a so-called psychic will provide vague details such as a letter or image the person can then look for some kind of connection with.
Randi offered Browne $1 million to take a test of her psychic abilities, which she accepted on Larry King’s CNN show but did not follow through with.
Still, others claim to have validated Browne’s insights and many of her predictions on the Montel Williams Show have proven accurate.
“I’ve worked with numerous psychics in the past and very few are really on target, but Sylvia Browne is probably one of the most accurate psychics in the country,” retired FBI senior special agent Ted Gunderson told CNN.
Accurate or not, Browne made predictions on local events, a missing person, as well as area spiritual teachers who claim enlightenment, in an interview Tuesday.
Browne predicts the next flood to hit Lewis County will occur in 2023.
“But it’s not going to be a big one,” she said. “That was awful.”
Browne said county officials will start building a dam in the next couple years, which will solve the problem.
Browne also offered insight on the 19-year-old woman who disappeared in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest wearing nothing but a fanny pack nearly two weeks ago. Maureen Kelly, of Vancouver, Wash., reportedly went on a spirit quest in the woods and has not been seen since June 9.
“I don’t think she’s right in the head,” Browne said.
Browne said Kelly’s body is in a ravine near a place called Mountain Peak.
Browne called Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm a cult.
J.Z. Knight established the school in 1988 and claims to channel a 35,000-year-old being named Ramtha, who teaches humans to have the ability to create their own reality.
“All she does is take the money,” Browne said.
Browne also said James Gilliland, who has a ranch near the base of Mount Adams, where he claims to have enlightened contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, is a fraud.
“He’s nuts,” she said.
In addition to psychic abilities, Browne considers herself a spiritual leader.
She has written more than 50 published works with 21 of her books appearing on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
Brown has a hypnosis training center and has established her own church, The Society of Novus Spiritus.
“You seek out your own God,” she said. “God is love.”
Though she considers herself of the Gnostic Christian faith, Browne said her spirituality encompasses all other religions as long as a higher power is recognized.
Browne said she believes in reincarnation and that a soul has many lives before moving on to an afterlife of nirvana.
“God gives you more than one chance to be stupid,” she said.
Fans willing to pay $35 can see Browne live at the Lucky Eagle Casino on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.
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