Psychic Parasites

by David B

As I write this, it is almost exactly two months after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The anger at these actions is still palpable, but it is slowly being overwhelmed in me by the anger at some fellow Americans.

These Americans prey on death, prey on those who fear death, prey on those who are grieving. I am talking about the James Van Praaghs, the John Edwards, the Sylvia Brownes of the world. They make their money by selling their false visions to a public that is all-too-willing to believe. They put out best-selling books full of nonsense, have highly-rated television shows, and are supported by fawning talk-show hosts.

Of these types of people, five deserve special mention here: Sylvia Browne, John Edward, Terry and Linda Jamison (the "psychic twins"), and James Van Praagh. Other than those who perpetrated this attack, I can think of nothing more heinous than the actions of these individuals and others like them. I consider them to be parasites, feeding off of the blood of the victims. I realize these are strong words. But they are well deserved, as I will explain below.

Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne was the first to earn my utter disgust. Like Edward and Van Praagh, Browne claims to talk to the dead. But she also is in the business of making predictions. Needless to say, she didn’t predict this horrible tragedy - not that this minor detail would stop her from trying to make money off of it.

After the attack, Browne set up a pop-up screen on her website. This screen came up whenever anybody went to her homepage. The text noted that Browne had not predicted these attacks because she is not “omniscient.” Well, that’s as good an excuse as any. But then it went on to state that she had, indeed, predicted terrorist attacks for 1999. So she said her timing was just off. She failed to mention, by the way, that her 1999 prediction was for terrorism in London and Florida. So she was two years off and wasn’t even close to the actual locations. Yet she’s trying to claim some sort of “hit” for this? Forget, for a moment, the fact that she’s trying to take advantage of a horrible situation for her own personal gain. She’s still trying to claim an accurate prediction where there is absolutely no way it could be interpreted that way! Add to this the fact that she’s using the deaths of thousands of people to do this and, well, you begin to see my cause for disgust.

But wait, there’s more. On that pop-up, she informed readers that she had gotten some important information (implying, but not stating outright, that it came from the spirit realm). Osama bin Laden “and another group” is behind it. Really?! Wow. What a revelation. I’m sure glad we had her around to tell us that. Better call the FBI and CIA to alert them. She also provided a couple of Arabic-sounding names which she claimed we should “watch for.” And claimed we should be aware of “Triad of Jordan” and “Palestinian Republic of Burundi.” She also claimed, “A weapon or bomb known as the ‘Z’ was involved with the aircraft.” The Z? Last I checked, boxcutters and knives were not referred to as anything other than, well, boxcutters and knives. All of these were part of the standard ploy of throwing some things out and hoping that one of them sticks. The others, of course, will be forgotten. (For more on this technique, see my Staff Reports on why the police continue to use psychics, at http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpsychiccop.html.)

Now we get to the really bad part. At the bottom of this pop-up was an advertisement for readers to pay her up to $4867 to “take a sacred journey with Sylvia to Greece and Turkey.” (Emphasis in original.) Mind you, this was not just some ad that happened to be on a page that her prediction was on. I wouldn’t expect people to pull ads that normally appeared on their websites just because they were discussing this tragedy. This was an ad in a pop-up screen that was specifically designed to capitalize on the deaths of thousands of people.

But who am I to judge her? After all, her webpage says she “is truly on a mission for God. Simply put, she is determined to show the world that the soul survives death.” Apparently, she does this by advertising cruises and taking advantage of those very deaths. She also says she “feels that all people can reach God by knowledge and reason, rather than relying upon faith alone.” Baloney. Whenever reason has been tried with her, it has failed, just as she has.

Her incorrect prediction about terrorism was only the tip of the iceberg. In her list of 1999 predictions, we see the usual meaningless pap (such as “Tornadoes do great damage in Illinois in April and May”), but we also see that the U.S. was supposed to have called for an air attack on Iran in July. There should have been Embassies attacked in Egypt and South Africa in July. Breast cancer should have become “absolutely preventable and cured by year's end.”

For 2000, she predicted another Democratic president, a thwarted airline hijacking out of Florida in August, Courtney Cox (of Friends) getting pregnant and having a baby boy, and David Letterman quitting his show.

But if you want to have a personal reading, which I’m sure is just as good as these predictions, you can have one over the phone for just $700. Wow, what a bargain!

Of course, Browne was not the only parasite. Others followed in close pursuit. But other than Edward (see below), she is certainly one of the most well-known. Even with all of this going on, I psychically predict that Browne will come out of it smelling like a rose. People like her manage to every time. Part of it is that interviewers like Larry King are too busy fawning over her to point out her glaring errors. Part of it is that her True Believers won’t bother to pay attention to the incorrect predictions of past years, and will probably read no further than the pop-up screen, unless they decide to pay for the cruise, of course. And she will continue to prey on them.

The Psychic Twins

The Jamison sisters came to my attention because they made predictions for a TV Guide article on the new season. This issue hit the stands only a few days before the attacks, yet none of the four “psychics” included any predictions that involved the biggest TV news - not to mention that it postponed the start of the very Fall series they were supposed to be predicting. Among the predictions they made in that article were that Jason Alexander’s new show would be brilliantly funny; in fact, it was just canceled after only a few episodes for being quite the opposite.

When I went to their website to look further, I found that they were claiming they had specifically predicted the World Trade Center attack on Art Bell’s radio show a couple years ago. Intrigued, I e-mailed to ask for details. They sent some information plus a CD with portions of their discussion with Bell. They claimed these portions showed they had correctly predicted various things, including the WTC attack, the election of Bush, and Y2K being a non-event.

But what struck me about their mailing was not the CD, but a full color glossy page showing their photo superimposed over the World Trade Center with one tower already aflame and the second plane just feet away from the other tower. The large bold text shouted that they had predicted it! I do not believe I have seen anything so incredibly low-class in my entire life.

Trying to put that aside, I listened to the CD. Keep in mind that they only copied five minutes of their entire time on the show, so we have no idea what else they might have said that wasn’t even close to coming true - not to mention the thousands of other predictions they might have tossed out on other shows. Even so, we see that their claims to having predicted this attack simply are not true.

They were asked about coming disasters, both natural and not. They responded with the following (it was never clear which twin was speaking because they both sound alike and one would pick up a sentence where the other left off):

Particularly South Carolina or Georgia, by July 2002. And also the New York Trade “We are seeing terrorist attacks on federal government - excuse me, federal buildings. Center - the World Trade Center in 2002, with something, with a terrorist attack.”

So, did they mention terrorist attacks? Yes. Did they mention the World Trade Center? Yes. But they still got it wrong. There were no attacks in South Carolina or Georgia - the only federal building hit was the Pentagon, and they didn’t get that one. They predicted the federal attacks by 2002, but predicted the World Trade Center attack in 2002. So they got the place wrong in one portion and the date wrong in the other. Plus, since the World Trade Center was already the target of a mostly-failed attack once, throwing it out as a potential target for another one is not exactly a great leap. All told, we can see that their claim to have predicted this attack is simply not correct.

Let’s look at a couple of the other claims as a side note. They predicted that Y2K would be a non-event. Maybe this was an amazing thing to say on Art Bell’s show, but by November 1999 (which is when this interview took place), most sane people already realized this. It was not exactly a tough prediction to make.

They also predicted Bush’s election. Let’s look at the actual discussion:

Q: “Do y’all know who the next president might be?”

Art: “The presidential elections are looming ahead. They may be a crashing bore. Actually, that’s what I think they’re going to be, is a crashing bore.”

Twins: Laugh.

Art: Do you know the outcome?

Twins: “I think Bush is going to win. We both do.”

So they “think” Bush would win. OK, they had a 50/50 shot. But the real thing to look at here is that Bell characterized the race as probably being “a crashing bore.” I think that the end of that race could be characterized by a lot of terms, but “crashing bore” is definitely not one of them. Yet the twins made no comment whatsoever. Why not? Because, of course, nobody predicted this incredible occurrence, just as nobody predicted the terrorist attacks.

Yet that doesn’t stop them from promoting themselves by using the deaths of thousands.

John Edward

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, I predicted that John Edward, host of the television show Crossing Over , would have a special World Trade Center edition of his show. I echoed that in various discussions – both personal and in e-mail – and also in a newsletter article for the local skeptics group I chair in the October edition, saying: “I would not at all be surprised to see a ‘special’ World Trade Center victim edition of his show, which has moved from the Science Fiction Channel to syndication across the country. In fact, I will be surprised if he does not have such a special.”

I should open my own psychic hotline, because I was far more accurate than any other psychic in the country was in predicting the original attack.

Various media outlets announced on October 25 that Crossing Over would indeed feature John Edward claiming to talk to those who perished in the September 11 attacks – in several episodes during November sweeps. The president of Studios USA domestic syndication, Steve Rosenberg, claimed they would “be done tastefully … and won’t be exploitive.” I’m sorry, but how the hell do you use pretend powers to prey off the families of murdered people and not have it be exploitive? We’re supposed to believe that maybe it just accidentally happens to fall during sweeps?

Rosenberg added, “It seemed wrong not to do it.” Sure it did! It seemed wrong to miss out on a golden opportunity to pull in some extra dough!

But it was not meant to be.

Advertisers and the stations that air the syndicated show were less than happy with this idea. It seems that they actually have consciences. This appears to differentiate them from Crossing Over team, who failed to think that perhaps this wasn’t such a great idea after all. E! Online described the affiliates’ view that the idea “was a crass attempt to cash in on a national tragedy.” Ya think?

I mean, normally the show is just a crass attempt to cash in on the individual tragedies of everyday life and death. Apparently, that is okay with the affiliates and advertisers. But cashing in on a big tragedy is not. It’s no wonder John Edward didn’t see it coming. He probably figured he’d gotten them all used to cashing in on tragedy.

Still, Studios USA defends the idea and goes so far as to say that they have “been inundated with calls and pleas for readings from grieving families of the World Trade Center victims looking for comfort and closure.” They want comfort and closure? Fine. Send them to a grief counselor, not a parasite. Alas, that’s not their plan. They add, “Many of these readings have been done privately and will continue to be done privately.”

Looking at it, this was really a great opportunity for Edward. Usually, he has to guess how a person died. With the World Trade Center, it’s pretty obvious. And even if he’s wrong – for example, saying that a person died in the fire rather than in the building’s collapse – who’s going to know? An automatic hit. Plus, since these people have been contacting him and the show, he or his production crew know their names, which can easily be looked up in the various articles, obituaries, whatever. He doesn’t need to worry about cold reading – all of the information is already in the public eye. Add in a few nice tokens of love and kindness like, “He loves you, but wanted to try to save the handicapped woman before saving himself,” and voila, he’s got the reading done.

No word on if he was going to try to talk to the terrorists themselves to find out how hot Hell was or if, perhaps, they have since decided they made a mistake. Just think how much help he could have been to the FBI. Maybe dead terrorists aren’t as talkative, though.

Edward made a mistake. He overestimated just how far he could push the limits of good taste. I would like to think that perhaps those who objected to this “special” might take this opportunity to realize that he really wouldn’t have been doing anything different from what he always does – making money by preying on traumatized family members. Unfortunately, I know better than to even hope they would figure that out.

James Van Praagh

For a while I was wondering where James Van Praagh was in all of this; indeed, the original version of this article for Teemings didn’t include him. But shortly after I submitted it, he popped back onto my radar screen.

Van Praagh preceded both Edward and Browne in the “medium” game, getting famous with several books, including Reaching to Heaven (you can read my review of this book here: http://www.nonfictionreviews.com/article1004.html), where he claims to talk to the dead as Edward does.

He has a new book out, Heaven and Earth: Making the Psychic Connection, and of course needs to promote it. So it wasn’t surprising to find that he was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. The online interview from November 9 talks about his new book, his new show coming up (as if Edward’s wasn’t bad enough), his claim that many actors are psychic, etc. One thing he discusses is a reading he did on Bonnie Bakely – Robert Blake’s wife who was murdered. He gives the standard crap about reading things only certain people would know, but when asked specifically if she said who killed her, Van Praagh says, “She gave me several different situations…” Excuse me? You’d think the woman could say who killed her if, of course, he is actually speaking to her. What’s this “different situations” baloney?

Anyway, he has not done as much with September 11 as others, but he’s still trying to use it to promote himself. In the interview, he claims he had a premonition last November that there was going to be a war on our soil. He says he had a vision of glass flying and smoke, and knew it would be on the East Coast and near water (I had to laugh at the “near water” reference, since that is perhaps the most frequently used statements in “psychic” predictions). Of course, we have no actual evidence for this premonition, since he didn’t talk about it until after September 11. That doesn’t stop him from mentioning it and knowing that the True Believers won’t question it, and those who don’t believe weren’t going to buy his book anyway. And Heaven forbid the interviewer should ask a real question to look into it more deeply.

All of these are no better than parasites. And all of them simply disgust me.