Amanda Berry

Grief Vampire Sylvia Browne has once again proven herself to be the worst possible psychic medium in known history. Skeptics should be happy she is back in the news this time for her ”incorrectly predicting”(?) the outcome of the Amanda Berry disappearance. Chalk up another totally reprehensible miss to her worthless career.

Words cannot be used here at Skepticblog that could express my utter contempt for this bottom-feeding woman and her supporters. This time out she not only caused untold grief to family and community members, but also may have contributed to Amanda’s mother Louwana’s untimely death:

From:  http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_berrys_mother_louwana_m.html

“The case was featured on “American’s Most Wanted.” Louwana Miller appeared on Montel Williams’ nationally-syndicated talk show in November 2004. On the show, a psychic (read as Sylvia Browne)  told Miller that Amanda was probably dead.

“I still don’t want to believe it,” Louwana Miller said in an interview after the show. “I want to have hope but . . . what else is there?”

Louwana Miller: Amanda’s Mother: Dead of a Broken Heart?

Activist Art McKoy befriended Louwana Miller during her ordeal. He said he could tell that the stress and heartache were wearing her down. The visit with the psychic was the breaking point, he said.“From that point, Ms. Miller was never the same,” McKoy said. “I think she had given up.”

For those who say psychics like Browne, Edward et. al. somehow help or comfort those in need and repeat the phrase “What’s the harm?” there should be a real answer in what has taken place here. How much more can we stand without getting The Law involved in these sorts of horrible mind games? This is not comforting or entertainment – this is blatant criminality of the worst kind. Sylvia and her ilk make a very good living doing this day in and day out. How many other people have had their lives, hopes and dreams shattered by these predatory harpies?

The Hornbeck Family

In a related development: French television news program “Enquete exclusive – Voyants, mediums, mentalistes revelations sur leurs mysterieux pouvoirs’” which featured myself and CFI/IIG’s Jim Underdown, showcased through amazing interview footage the entire Shawn Hornbeck drama. If you are not already familiar with Browne’s mis-deeds in this matter – it’s too much to go into here. Let’s just say once again, Sylvia told Shawn’s parents on nationwide television he was dead when he was later found quite well and alive.

French program here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Iji3aMAa0

Not only do the Hornbeck parents come forward and speak out about the emotional damage that ravenous bad-tempered shrew Browne inflicted on their lives, they also give a very negative shout out to that other slimeball James VanPraagh for doing the same sort of “comforting.”

Maureen Hancock

In the “Enquete” program, “The Medium Next Door,” everybody’s darling Maureen Hancock also gets her fair share of explicit exposing when Jim and I reveal the latest trend in mediumship: using “hot reads” taken from credit card information to later reveal dramatic “hits” in a live audience performance. This isn’t a magic or mentalism show folks, this is a con pure and simple.

Later in another segment of the program, Hancock is also shown in her opulent home psychically picking out suspects and leading police (and another mother of a missing woman) on wild goose chases that lead everybody off the track. It is obvious Maureen is bluffing her way through the whole segment. Hancock has absolutely no track record anywhere for her claims as a successful “psychic detective” – other than her known background an “associate member” of the Licensed Private Detective Association of Massachusetts. What might that tell us about her ability to suss out information on people? So why isn’t this mis-use of private information a crime? Isn’t this tantamount to filing a false police report? Having the French television crew capturing her deceptions on camera in the presence of their own law enforcement officers should be extra embarrassing for the police involved. How do you feel about being seen internationally as dupes for this woman?

It is heartening to see Hornbeck’s parents speaking out so freely on the “Enquete’” special that has been seen by millions of French and European audiences, but where are the American counterparts in all this? There must be hundreds of stories and victim files on this sort of fraud. Why are we not seeing people stepping up who have been so abused by these media vultures?

As I have asked here at Skepticblog over and over: Isn’t this kind of money making enterprise. i.e. selling a product; (life and death information) under false pretenses (unproven psychic skills) against the law? Shouldn’t such conscious manipulators have to show in a court of law they can come up with the verified proof before they are allowed to waste time, money and manpower by continuing such outright deception?

I don’t understand how this goes on day after day without people so horribly burned by these cons seeking legal intervention or speaking up to the media. If they are so dispirited or too depressed to deal with coming forward themselves, well okay we have seen enough. Isn’t the justice system set up to protect those who cannot protect themselves? Are our law makers and police personnel really that inept and plain stupid? Sadly, (at least here in America) I think we all know the answer to that question.

I realise it may be way to soon to expect anyone to step forward an speak up against psychic mediums in the Amanda Berry case, and with Mom dead, …well who is to do the speaking up? It’s a double tragedy this time.

Give up Sylvia.

For whatever it’s worth: I’m calling out the family of Amanda Berry and Amanda Berry herself, along with her community, local media and law enforcement to DO SOMETHING about the rising tide of scum-bags like Sylvia Browne and the damage they inflict on everybody concerned in these fiascoes. Pretending to receive messages from beyond or deferring to any form of “psychic powers” concerning missing persons has to stop or at the very least be exposed as the terrible scam it is.