With Psychic Friends Like These...

...who needs enemies?




I watch little TV, and even less daytime TV. I haven't had cable in years. So, having a free day but feeling a little tired I lied down on the couch and stared at the TV for a little bit. I expected the offerings on the tube to be pretty idiotic, but I wasn't expecting this.

The Montel Williams talk show was featuring world-famous, "real-live psychic" Sylvia Browne. She then proceeds to wrap the audience around her pinky finger with her amazing psychic insights and predictions. What an absolute fraud! She is obviously cold reading her victims. Even sleazy used car salesmen can do a better job of cold reading potential custumers than she can.

Actually, I have more respect for used car salemen than psychics. At least you get a crappy car out of the deal. I have little tolerance for people who intentionally and cynically spread falsehoods and lies, making the world a more fucked up place than it already is, for their own gain and greed. What I find particularly repugnant is that these psychics are weaving pure fantasies to people with serious real-world problems; some of their problems require a professional psychologist rather than a professional psychic. Some people I remember from the show were looking for signs of hope from loved ones who died from random violence, a mother grieving for a stillborn child...serious, heavy shit.

It takes a special breed of inhumane, hypocritical, exploitative soulless sleaze to prey on such vulnerable people, and charge big bucks to boot. Browne, for example, charges $700 for a half-hour reading on the phone.

There ought to be a law for people like Browne.

An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, Hoaxes...

The Naked Quack