I have long watched Ms. Sylvia Browne in her performances, particularly on the Montel William’s show, with a mixed reaction of wonder and anger – Wonder that anyone could be as cold and calculatingly callous as she and anger at the same thing. Yet, still I watch… and after all, this is the point of her appearing on television. Love her or hate her, believe in her ability of not, Sylvia Browne receives high ratings, and high ratings mean money, for her and the network. But is she really a psychic?
Well, the debate is still open on exactly what a psychic is anyway, so it’s hard to really put a finger on the crux of the question about Sylvia Browne’s psychic ability, but I’m going to take a brave stance and say – sure! Why not? Or maybe, No! She’s not! I’m so confused!
I was looking up what the definition of what a psychic was, because I wanted to see if Sylvia Browne qualified under the standard definition. What I found was a bit duplicitous. One definition said: “denoting the supernormal character of certain phenomena. (psychic ability)” Supernormal, supernatural… okay what’s THAT mean?
According to Wikipedia, it means “forces and phenomena that cannot be perceived by natural or empirical senses, and whose understanding may be said to lie with religious, magical, or otherwise mysterious explanation -yet remains firmly outside of the realm of science.”
That made me wonder about exactly what the word science means, but then I realized I could very possibly be looking up definitions all day and not truly get down to what being a psychic really is, because it’s not the same for every person, and not being a part of science, it cannot be defined, uhm, definitively.
Let’s look at another definition of psychic though: “A person with the ability to see, hear and feel by use of senses other than the natural senses.”
Okay, do I believe that Sylvia Browne is a real psychic? I said yes and no, right? No, under the first definition of the word psychic, I do not believe Sylvia Browne is a real psychic. Yes, under the second definition of the word, I do.
Sort of.
Let me explain. I do not believe Sylvia Browne, and most people like her, actually use a sense that is supernatural or supernormal in order to do what it is they do. I do, however, believe that these television psychics use an ability that, while all human beings have it, they have honed to the point where their abilities appear supernatural.
As a student of psychology, I have studied human behavior extensively. I’m a people watcher. I notice things about people most miss. I know things about people from watching behavior most do not see, and there have been times in my life where I can really freak people out because of it. There’s nothing supernatural about what I do though.
No, what I do is simply notice the things that go unnoticed. Think about an FBI profiler. There’s been a lot of shows recently on television about characters who have exceptional powers of observation. When it is not understood how these people function, their abilities can appear supernatural indeed.
These television psychics are no different. These psychics pay attention to the little things most people miss. These psychics notice when your breathing increases, when your hand comes up to your heart, when your eyes shift to the left or right. Do a little investigation into neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and you will discover a technique many counselors use to ‘see’ beyond what their clients are saying.
Is it supernatural? Hardly, but it is beyond what a layperson might notice. Of course, NLP goes a lot more in depth than just this, but we won’t get into that just now.
Do I believe in psychic ability and phenomena? Sure. I do believe that there are occasions in which things outside of our five limited senses occur, and there is no true measurable test or definitive reason why these things occurred or how a person might know these things. Do I believe that the television psychics really have psychic ability? A resounding NO on that one.
What I do believe is that they notice things: increase in breath rate, a flutter of the eyelids, perspiration, eye movement, a hand covering the heart, shifting of the feet. The trained psychic will notice these things and use them to guide the conversation. It’s a skill, and someone who is really keen on the powers of observation will probably be quite good at it.
So sometimes psychics make predictions, and sometimes they come true and sometimes they do not. There is usually a ‘success rate’ for psychics, and the higher their success rate, the more powerful their psychic ability appears to be. However, there is not a single psychic in the world today or in the past who has been 100% correct in their predictions.
There’s several reasons for that too. One, if you believe in the Bible or if you are an atheist or agnostic, then you will believe that we are in control of our own, what shall we call it-fate. It’s called free will. Just because a ‘psychic’ sees something in the future, our free will intervenes and says we can change that. Nice little cop out, really, if you ask me, since there’s no way to prove or disprove that the psychic ‘reading’ was or was not accurate, because, by the very nature of predictions, just knowing that it might happen affects the fact that it might happen – conundrum? Paradox? You betcha, and there’s no way to prove or disprove it, scientifically or otherwise.
As for the psychic mediums, the ones who talk to dead folks or channel others, the truth of the matter is, again, there is no scientific way to prove this either. Through powers of observation, a good psychic medium will be able to guide the conversation to tell you what you already know, by simply observing your body clues, verbal clues, and tapping into your willingness to believe. You actually give more information to the psychic during the reading than any supernatural force ever will.
After all, again, how can you prove or disprove that a psychic is really talking to or for a dead loved one anyway? If you want to believe, you probably will believe. If you don’t want to believe, you probably won’t. Either way, you will never know for sure until you yourself die, and perhaps not even then.
I’ll tell you another reason I don’t believe the telephone psychic, the television psychic, or the palm reader on the corner who charges an arm and a leg for a reading are actually real psychics.
There are many sects of paganism, and it’s truly not fair to lump them all into one heading of ‘pagan’ and think that defines them properly, but for the sake of this article, I will say that pagans believe in supernatural ability, such as psychic phenomena. If you really do an in depth study of some pagan beliefs in this area, it’s really quite fascinating and a truly beautiful sentiment. In the new age philosophy and the pagan beliefs, anyone who truly believes in psychic ability will tell you that you are not supposed to personally profit from the psychic gifts you have been given.
Therefore, someone who charges for a Tarot reading taints that reading by the very fact they charge for it. A real practitioner of these psychic ‘arts’ will never charge for using their abilities. They treasure these gifts as special, given for a higher purpose, and that purpose is not to make an almighty buck at someone else’s expense.
I know that it is human nature to want to know the unknown, to define the un-definable, to make sense out of things that don’t make sense in the natural world. The possibility of psychic ability fascinates both the believer and the non-believer, and most human beings have very strong emotion, either for or against, psychic ability. Many of us, even the skeptics, want to believe. I personally think this is why those who seek so actively to debunk psychics do so – they want to believe, but they don’t, so they constantly seek to disprove the psychic’s ability, but I personally think that those who actively rail against psychics secretly hope inside that one day their ‘proof’ might actually find a real psychic ability.
All that being said, there is much about the way the universe and the human mind works that we do not understand. There are documented cases of people knowing things that simply could not be known through traditional means. Intuition is something I believe in strongly, but I would be hard pressed to call this psychic ability. I submit that intuition, that sixth sense, what many call psychic ability is a combination of our brains working in ways we simply do not understand, based in science and on electrical impulses and signals, and human conditioning and experience all rolled into one.
After all, if experience has shown me that most of the time X happens when Y is introduced, and I know how to read human behavior and reactions well, and with no scientific way to verify the accuracy of a prediction or reading, then I can make an educated guess, based on all the variables, and my success rate as a psychic would be high. The few times that I am wrong, I’ll simply put off to negative energy in the subject or the fact the subject withheld or was somehow skewing the results of the psychic reading.
I regularly make psychic predictions. For example, I know when my son wakes in the morning, based on his human behaviors and attitude, whether or not he’s going to have a good day at school. I know when I role out of bed that morning and stump my toe and then discover I’m out of toothpaste and coffee that it’s going to be a bad day. I predict that if a girl has sex without protection numerous times, she will become pregnant. I know that if you drive your car drunk frequently, you will eventually have a wreck or get arrested for DUI/DWI. I know that if you are pregnant, chances are you are going to have either a boy baby or a girl baby. The list goes on and on of all the ‘psychic’ predictions I can make.
I know, you’re probably saying that’s not what psychic ability really is, and you would be correct. It’s not what psychic ability truly is supposed to be, but for the television psychic, I believe this is really all that is happening. The psychic simple observes human nature, understands probability, notices that which usually goes unnoticed, and then falls behind the veil of not being able to verify anything that has been said.
And they make billions of dollars per year by doing so. Not a bad racket if you ask me. After all, as long as there is money to be had, there are people to be had too.
Save your money and don’t pay a psychic to tell you what you probably already know yourself. If you really feel powerless and need assistance beyond what you can figure out for yourself, a good therapist or counselor will probably be more accurate in their ‘predictions’ than any television psychic or telephone psychic ever will be – and they can help provide tools for you to cope with the repercussions with which a psychic never has to contend after their predictions.
