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Arts InsIder Must-see By Gioia Patton

SYLVIA BROWNE

You Say Goodbye…

and I Say Hello

I meditate for about 15 minutes and ask God that I do no harm and

that my channel is clear. Afterwards,

I’m just high as a kite! I feel so euphoric,

in fact, that sometimes I can’t get

to sleep until 2:00 in the morning.

— World-renowned psychic, Sylvia Browne, describing her process immediately before and after

one of her public stage appearances.

It was just after 1:30am and I was getting nowhere with a title idea for this article while rummaging through my interview

notes as well as back through the pages of Sylvia Browne’s 2010 memoir PSYCHIC: My Life in Two Worlds (HarperCollins) and her current book, Afterlives of the Rich & Famous (HarperCollins), when suddenly I realized that I’d been singing over and over under my breath the following lyrics to The Beatles’ song Hello, Goodbye by Paul McCartney: You say goodbye…and I say hello…hello, hello. I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.

Seconds later, after wiping the ‘Well, duh!’ look off my face I chuckled to myself before acknowledging my spirit guides, who must have whispered the lyrics in my ear as an affectionate nod and a wink to the 74-year-old Browne’s reputation as a world renowned spiritual teacher, psychic, author, lecturer and researcher in the field of parapsychology.

During my 25-minute phoner with Browne from her San Jose, CA. home, she talked about the origins behind the belief that ‘dead is dead,’ named her most important ‘teacher’ in this life, commented about what it’s like to be in a profession where to make even one mistake can cause irreparable harm to one’s reputation, and finally, revealed the back story to a particularly damaging incident in her professional life as to set the record straight once and for all.

“The ‘dead is dead’ belief started with Judah religion and also way back in the Hindu religion,” explains Sylvia Browne at the top of her interview. “No one knew what was beyond this (life) because I don’t think anybody bothered to research. But I did extensive research for fifty years about death and dying, astral projection and dream sequences,’ she continues. “And everybody, regardless of religion or where they came from saw the same thing…the tunnel, the topography, the beautiful meadows. (Pause) You know, everybody can’t be lyin’!” she wisecracks in her husky speaking voice.

When I mention to being a big believer in the philosophy that everyone we come in contact with is our teacher — from how to act, to just as importantly, how not to act, Browne suddenly interjects: “Absolutely…even bad ones!” before naming her late mother as the person who was her most important ‘teacher’ in this life.

“My mother was a mess…but I learned from her, honey,” she says with a sigh. “She was just a terrible woman. But I really thanked her before she died, because, for whatever she did, I became the opposite of. And I also forgave her,” she adds.

I then tell Browne I find it fascinating that many people can’t conceive of the idea that a world-renowned psychic could ever be wrong with a reading/prediction, and to be wrong even once in a blue moon can make that psychic’s authenticity suspect.

“(You) can’t be human!” Browne declares, echoing my sentiments.

As to what role she thinks being wrong now and again plays in the life of a psychic, Browne muses:

“I think it would be terrible to be right all the time. I think only God is right 100 percent of the time. You’re human…nothing more than a vehicle and a tool,” she continues. “And maybe you (as a psychic) get it screwed up sometimes because you’re human. (Pauses) Doctors make mistakes all the time…lawyers too, and (we) don’t say anything about that,” she mentions. “But psychics aren’t allowed to be (human.) But

I’ve gotten past that,” she says sincerely, about dealing with naysayers’ very vocal criticisms during those few ‘human’ moments in her career.

“I’ve been in this business so many years, and it’s been part of my life for so long that (you) just have to bless (criticism) and let it go,” explains the Kansas City, MO. native, born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker, who was only three-years-old when she first became aware of her psychic abilities.

Although I then tell Browne (that) I believe her “bless (it) and let it go” philosophy to be sincere, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a singular damaging incident in the history of her career which she feels deserves a follow-up explanation.

Barely have I gotten those words out of my mouth before Browne begins to answer in a rapid tone: “The Shawn Hornbeck case that I did on the Montel Williams Talk Show (February 24, 2003,) where I said the 11-year-old Richwood, Missouri boy was dead and he wasn’t. (Sighs) I was actually doing that reading for another (famous) psychic, whom I won’t name, and who had called me from Richwood and said ‘please Sylvia, the boy’s family is going to be on the show. Just say he’s dead.’ And I just went with it, which I shouldn’t have,” she admits. “But I was really tired, so it was my fault.” Browne pauses a beat then adds, “I really liked this psychic…he’d been on every television show, and I’d thought to myself ‘if he wants me to go along with him, I will, as ‘we are a brotherhood!’ But noooo…psychics are not (a brotherhood,)” Browne continues, now speaking in a tone that suggests being still genuinely disappointed at that realization even though it’s been more than eight years since the incident itself.“Psychics, for some reason…and I’ve tried to get them together…are the meanest people to one another, and I have no idea why that is!” she adds, sounding exasperated.

As for the aforementioned unnamed famous psychic, who got Browne involved in the Shawn Hornbeck case in the first place, Browne mentions: “He’s never once come forward. So I just bit the bullet on that one and took it from all sides,” she adds, referring to the plethora of national and international ‘psychics are fakes!’ venomous-laced publicity she received once Hornbeck was found not dead but alive.

“But I just kept on and kept on with my career in spite of the skeptics,” Browne recalls, “to the point where I started being referred to in the press as ‘The Unsinkable Sylvia Browne,’ which I considered a compliment.”

But what if Browne, who believes each of us charts our own life path just before we’re born, could somehow turn back time. Would she still write down ‘world-renowned psychic’ for this lifetime?

‘Yes, I’d still chose (it,)” she answers, matter-of-factly. “I followed in my grandmother’s footsteps, and her mother, and her mother. We go back 300 years as psychics. And my son, Chris, is (one), and my granddaughter Angelia is, also,” she adds. “So I mean (laughs), it’s just running rampant!”

— Gioia Patton

GIOIA PATTON IS AN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRITY PROFILER.

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GIOIA PATTON IS AN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRITY PROFILER.

Barnstable Brown Best-Dressed 2011

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IOIA

PATTON