It's hard to think when you're not used to it.
Sylvia Browne: What’s the Harm?
31Mar2008 Filed under: Critical Thinking, Don't Be That Guy, Psychic Powers, Sylvia Browne Author: Smug Baldy
Over on the comments on my Sylvia Brown’s 2007 predictions post, Bethany asked this:
WHO CARES IF SHE IS FAKE?! WHAT HARM IS SHE DOING?!?!?!?!
I almost let this slide, but couldn’t do that in good conscience.
You tell me:
Most famously, Sylvia tells Shawn Hornbeck’s parents that their child had been murdered. Oops, he’s alive and well. No harm there, right?
Also, in the wake of the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia, Sylvia mistakenly claimed, on camera, that she knew the miners would be found alive. Oops again, they were really dead. Good thing there’s no harm in telling the dead miner’s families they would all be OK, right?
Also, and this is the kicker for me. She’s created her own religion corporation. I’m not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but I’d say it would take some astronomically-scaled balls to create a new religion. Her “Society of Novus Spiritus” is supposed to be based on Gnostic Christian teachings, which are, by most Christian definitions, heresy at the least. Couple that with the fact that all satellite Novus churches pay their “Mother church” a 10% cut of all donations they receive, and they require all their study groups to BUY their materials from Sylvia Brown Corp and the Novus Society. No harm asking people to pay for that spiritual bliss, right?
By the way, don’t take my word for it. Read the Novus Conditions of Acceptance Agreement and Required Study Materials pages yourself. Also, before you decide to join, make sure you sign that “Hold Harmless” agreement, which is essentially a blanket liability waiver in which you give up your right to hold any Novus Spiritus employee responsible for any and all liabilities or damages that could occur as a result of taking their special brand of kookiness seriously.
Yes folks, the answer to the question, “What’s the harm?” is this – it doesn’t matter because with Sylvia Brown, you have to both suspend reasonable disbelief as well as waive any and all liability anyway.
2 Responses to “Sylvia Browne: What’s the Harm?”
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I spend much of my time trying to understand people, and why some of us are such freaks. OK why you are the freaks.
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Beatmeclever
November 1st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Although I agree with the main jist of this. However, I really think it odd that even in the Christian faith, churches send part of the annual tithing to the parent organization, and even (sometimes) the state convention as well. The parent organizations cannot function without this passing of the bucket. So where do you get off attacking the Novus Spiritus, or whatever, for maintaining their system in the same way? I am more offended that she would claim the teachings are based on Gnostic Christian beliefs; although I am also offended by your assertion that those beliefs are heretical as they are only such according to mainstream Christianity, which was directed by one body for so long that any alternate ideas are deemed heresy.
I think that if you are looking to enlighten people about the Truth, perhaps you should begin looking at how the Truth you believe to be enlightened to works.
I do still agree that Sylvia’s predictions have been harmful and she needs to be better about that in the future; if she really is able to see the future or at a distance she should remember that the future is not set and that she might have blurred vision at a distance.
Joshua Parker
November 5th, 2009 at 7:02 am
Gnostism is heretical and mainstream Christianity does not hold to it.