Pakistani skeptics face unique problems with the rise of lawless religious extremism on one hand, and a government that protects Islam on the other. Faith healing is an old tradition that no time period or culture has a monopoly on. Despite differences in religions, faith healers who claim to heal the sick through religious belief exist throughout the world. Some claim to be gods, prophets, or intermediaries between the physical and metaphysical realms. South Asia is no different in that regard.

Whether people follow Islam or Hinduism, the believers who accept faith healing have a wide range of people who will take their money for promises of spiritual healing. While the “rat children” of Pakistan can be seen begging for money on the streets, in recent years faith healers in several parts of Pakistan have disappeared from public view. Since 2008, many have taken their “healing” underground, making their activities more difficult to track. For skeptics, this would at first seem like a cause to celebrate. However, this drop should not imply the change is from public critical thinking and a growth of scientific skepticism. It has to do more with an alarming trend in the other direction, which has to do with the rise of religious violence in Pakistan.

As readers of the Skeptical Inquirer are well aware, faith healing attracts many types of people to its practice. These include outright frauds, people who believe their own unproven statements, and those who mix fraud and belief in their own claims. In North America and Europe, one might witness a pastor giving spiritual advice followed with an incantation where someone is “healed.” Likewise in Paki­stan, it might be a “Pir,” an “elder” who gives his followers spiritual advice and a blessing. One Pir told The News that while there are some frauds “there are many who are serving the public through the verses of the holy Quran” (“Faith Healers” 2009). Official statistics about faith healing in Pakistan are difficult to obtain. Yet in 2005, some official numbers about the “prevalence of fake spiritual healers” were published under Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui. Accord­ing to the Daily Times, the breakdown was: “91 fake faith healers and magicians operating in Sindh thus far, including 44 in Karachi, 31 in Hyder­abad and 16 in Sukkur” (“Practices of Fake Faith Healers ...” 2011).

In Gujrat, Pakistan, faith healing and child exploitation are combined with chuhas (“rats” in Urdu), which are better known as the “rat children” of Pakistan. On any given day at the shrine of Shah Dola (also spelled “Daula”), “hundreds of worshippers come to celebrate the life of one of Pakistan’s most revered Sufi saints” (Galpin 1998). People bring their mentally retarded children to the shrine for a blessing, hoping it will make them better (Bragg 2001). Women also gather at the tomb praying for a cure for infertility. Yet if they then conceive, the myth goes, “the couple can expect their first-born to be handicapped—a rat child with a tiny head. And it must be handed over to the shrine” (Galpin 1998). If the couples do not keep that commitment, God will punish them. Around the shrine are children who are mentally and physically deformed with microcephaly, or small skulls, supposedly with features like rats, and they cannot speak. These children beg for money from morning until night and usually have no problem getting it, since many believe the disabled are closer to God.

Many believe that people hand over healthy babies, which are then de­formed to look like “rats” using crude devices and then sold to criminal organizations. According to Anusheh Hus­sain, head of Sahil—a nongovernment organization against child abuse—the children are sold for as low as 40,000 rupees (about $10). Pirzada Imtiaz Syed, a trade union leader, said: “I have not seen this myself but I have heard from many people that they use iron rings which are placed on the baby’s head to stop it growing. I believe there are about 10,000 rat children in Paki­stan controlled by a mafia of beggars who are all over the country. These children are also physically and sexually abused” (Galpin 1998). While people associated with the shrine deny that, and claim the deformity is genetic, Qasim Mehdi, Pakistan’s top genetic scientist who studied the “rat children,” said that it is “medically impossible” because a genetic disease must be carried in the family and passed through parents to children, but these children are not related. According to the Integrated Regional Information Net­works, which is an independent part of the United Nations, the theory that the children are forced “to wear metal caps which constrain the normal growth of the head” was developed and re­searched “by one of Pakistan’s top scientists, who was then banned from talking about the issue following media exposure several years ago.” (Integrated Regional Information Networks 2002).

This picture, taken on July 17, 2008, shows a Pakistani devotee touching the feet of Nadia, a twenty-five-year-old microcephalic “rat woman” at the shrine of Shah Dola. According to local legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Dola's shrine will be granted children, but the first child will be born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine or else any further children will have the same deformity. AFP PHOTO/Farooq NAEEM

South Asia provides unique problems for skeptics in the region compared with North America and Europe. With centuries of tradition and severe economic inequality throughout the region, superstition is rampant in Bangladesh, Paki­stan, and India. In the case of India, since the 1970s, Indian rationalist groups have grown in number and influence but have also built ties with the international rationalist community. Basava Prema­nand (1930–2009) from Kerala, India, was an early post-independence rationalist speaker and writer, detailing how some Hindu gurus trick believers. In the 1970s, Premanand began criticizing Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011), an Indian “God man,” eventually founding the Federation of Indian Rationalist Asso­cia­tions, which coordinates the activities of dozens of rationalist associations through­out India. Another prominent figure is Prabir Ghosh who is a more recent Indian skeptic and writer who offers a cash prize similar to that of the James Randi Educational Foundation for demonstration of paranormal abilities in India. Their mission has not been easy. Indian skeptics have faced attacks in a variety of ways, including Premanand surviving four assassination attempts (Datta 2004).

Pakistanis have dealt with the problem differently, and due to political instability as well as blasphemy laws it also faces unique challenges. Moham­med Younus Shaikh is a medical doctor, rationalist, and human rights ac­tivist who started The Enlighten­ment, a rationalist society, in Pakistan in 1992. His organization came to a halt in October 2000, when he was charged with blasphemy for a lecture he supposedly gave at Capital Medical Col­lege. Not only did Shaikh deny committing blasphemy, he denied even giving a lecture there. Nonetheless, he was fined 100,000 rupees and sentenced to death (Price 2001). The law to prevent “derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed” was added to the Pakistani Penal Code in 1986, and remains on record despite attempts by President Musharraf to change the law just a year before Shaikh was arrested. For three years, the IHEU, the Sea of Faith, and Amnesty International campaigned for his release. He was finally acquitted of blasphemy in November 2003 and immediately fled to Europe. After his acquittal, he described the event as “Islamic terrorism through the abuse of law and of the state apparatus.” When Shaikh left the country, Pakistan lost a critical voice against superstition and encouraged would-be skeptics to remain silent about religion. Despite the absence of skeptics questioning belief, there has recently been a change in faith healing activity throughout Pakistan.

With the rise of lawlessness in some areas of Pakistan that border Afghan­istan, comes a trend that seems to be only increasing in areas without effective government. Since late 2007, places such as Peshawar, in the Federally Admin­istered Tribal Areas, have seen an in­crease of instability caused by the Pakistani Taliban. From the lack of effective law enforcement, radical Mus­lims have been emboldened to attack and murder those they disagree with or who do not follow their interpretation of the Quran, which includes faith healers. They have attacked and threatened faith healers with claims that the “healers” are fraudsters misusing the Quran and misleading Islamic believers, or that the healers are false prophets.

In 2008 and 2009, many Pirs who practiced faith healing were picked up from around Peshawar and were re­leased only when they promised no longer to engage in those activities. Others have not been so lucky. In Jan­uary 2009, one faith healer was blown up by explosives in Peshawar after he was told to stop his “illegal and un-Islamic” practice, but did not submit to the intimidation. Several others were attacked as well, including one who was beheaded, and a faith healing business was also destroyed. In fact, Phool Badshah, a faith healer, was murdered within the limits of the Yakatoot Police Station jurisdiction. The police, it appears, have been powerless to stop these attacks.

In 2011, some segments of the Pakistani government began listening to critics of faith healing in other parts of the country. In Karachi, which has felt the lower levels of militancy, hundreds of faith healers openly do business. Accord­ing to the Daily Times, “They are indulged in fleecing innocent masses with a sole purpose to extract money from them on the cost of their plights” (“Practices of Fake Faith Healers ...” 2011). Umair Alam, who was taken advantage of, explained his situation: “I don’t believe them any more as I have personally experienced their deceitful skills. I paid 25,000 [rupees] to a faith healer, who ran his business in Surjani Town, when I was trapped in a serious domestic problem. He initially assured me of getting all my problems solved within 45 days. But, subsequently, nothing happened and he refused to return my money, saying it will take more cash for solving the problem” (“Practices of Fake Faith Healers ...” 2011). With stories of fraud and abuse as well as intimidation and murder in other parts of the country, the government has shown some interest in addressing fraud.

In June 2011, Nadia Gabol, Sindh Minister for Human Rights, described spiritual healing as “no more than a matter of money making.” Gabol said that the practice should be banned. In fact, she announced, “It is a matter worth concern. After deliberations with our parliamentary leader, we will take this issue to the provincial assembly” (“Practices of Fake Faith Healers ...” 2011). Likewise, Fayyaz Ahmed Lag­hari, the Inspector General Police in Sindh, said that action will be taken against the fraudsters when the police receive formal complaints. Time will tell whether the Pakistani government can protect its citizens from attacks and whether the authorities can stem the fraudulent activities of faith healers. Yet, it seems that at least government officials speaking about the problem is a move in the right direction.

There is no doubt that faith healers, who make promises to mentally and physically heal sick people, need to be scrutinized and should be held accountable for their claims. But this should be done through laws and courts, not through intimidation. With the rise of Islamic extremism in Paki­stan, the country not only has to protect people from fraudulent healers but also has the challenge of protecting fraudsters from violence. Skeptics en­courage critical thinking. The silencing of opponents through threats is not critical thinking but rather the opposite. Both skeptics and faith healers can agree: the violent intimidation and threats to Pirs is not acceptable. It re­mains to be seen what, if anything, the Pakistani government can do be­cause the government needs to not only protect its citizens’ safety and stop fraud, but it also needs stability.

References

Bragg, Rick. 2001. Seeking miracles in a place of cruelty and beauty. New York Times (October 28). Online at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/world/seeking-miracles-in-a-place-of-cruelty-and-beauty.html.

Datta, Tanya. 2004. Sai Baba: God-man or con man? BBC (17 June). Online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3813469.stm.

Faith healers: Another casualty of lawlessness in Frontier. 2009. The News (February 23). On­line at http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=164058&Cat=7&dt=2/22/2009.

Galpin, Richard. 1998. The rat children of Paki­stan. BBC (29 June). Online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/122670.stm.

Integrated Regional Information Networks. 2002. Pakistan: Focus on rat-children. United Nations (14 October). Online at http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=18638.

Practices of fake faith healers unnoticed. 2011. Daily Times (June 6). Online at http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\06\06\story_6-6-2011_pg7_4.

Price, Susannah. 2001. Pakistani sentenced to death for blasphemy. BBC (18 August). Online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1498121.stm.

For Further Reading

Dugger, Celia. 2001. Pakistani sentenced to death for blasphemy. New York Times (August 20). Online at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/20/international/asia/20DOCT.html.

Faith healer killed near Peshawar. 2009. Daily Times (February 18). Online at http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C02%5C18%5Cstory_18-2-2009_pg7_37.

Kemp, Danny. 2008. ‘Rat people’ forced to beg on Pakistan’s streets. Sydney Morning Herald (August 2). Online at http://news.smh.com.au/world/rat-people-forced-to-beg-on-pakistans-streets-20080802-3oqf.html.

International Humanist and Ethical Union. 2004. Campaigning for the release of Dr Shaikh. (1 February). Online at http://www.iheu.org/node/1008.

Rationalist International. 2001. Dr. Shaikh sentenced to death. Online at http://www.rationalistinternational.net/Shaikh/2001.08.26.htm.

Occhino has conducted psychic readings for clients in Bay Shore on Long Island since the 1990s. After she established a devoted following, her first book, Beyond These Four Walls, was published in 2004 and was followed by Sign of the Dove in 2006. That same year, her daily radio show Angels on Call debuted on December 11. Each show consisted of personal readings based on a different theme, such as “Medical Mon­days” for “listeners’ current and future health” (quoted from Occhino’s SiriusXM webpage, which has since been taken down). Occhino is not a medical doctor, lacks formal credentials in medicine, and, according to her now-defunct radio show biography, “didn’t take college courses.” Rather, she claims that when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992, it heightened her psychic senses. A promotional sample highlighting Occhino’s “medical readings” in­cluded a caller telling Occhino, “You are right on the money.” After the caller de­scribes headache afflictions, there is this exchange:

Occhino: It’s like I got pains in my eyes.

Caller: Okay. Do you see anything in my stomach?

Occhino: Hold up. No, no. I gotta work my way down because what we think [sic] the minor things may be symptoms of other things.

Caller: Okay.

Occhino: Okay? So you may be getting headaches from the acid or bile in your stomach or whatever. You know what I mean?

Caller: Uh-huh.

Occhino: This could all be connected. So I just gotta work my way down. Now when I work my way [sic] into your in­testines.

Caller: Uh-huh.

Occhino: To the middle of your intestines. They’re long. In the middle it makes me feel, like there’s maybe some acid burn out. (Pause)

Caller: Uh-huh.

Occhino: It makes me feel like. (Pause) Have you ever been treated for duodenal ulcers or bleeding ulcers?

Caller: Yes.

Occhino: Okay because that’s what I’m seeing like little scabs.

Caller: Yep.

Occhino: In the lining of your intes­tines.

Caller: Yep.

Occhino: Have you checked? I would check. If I were you I would check. I would bring up to my doctor diverticulitis.

Caller: Yep. I have that.

This exchange, which has since been re­moved from Sirius’s website, is revealing. First, it is only when the caller directs Occhino to a part of the body that is troubling her that Occhino focuses on the stomach region and claims the affliction is an ulcer. According to the National Institutes of Health website, “abdominal discomfort is the most common symptom of both duodenal and gastric ulcers” (National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse 2010). Furthermore, Occhino asked, “Have you ever been treated for duodenal ulcers or bleeding ulcers?” That is very different from concluding that the caller’s current problem is a specific ulcer. Since twenty-five million people will suffer from an ulcer at some point, it is not unreasonable to assume that an older woman (as the caller’s voice seemed to indicate) with abdominal pain might have had an ulcer at one time. Once Occhino was correct, the rest of the show was built from this “hit.” Next, Occhino tells the caller she has diverticulitis, which Occhino tells the caller “can come with ulcers.” Furthermore, the National Insti­tutes of Health maintains that “diverticulitis is very common. It is found in more than half of Americans over age 60” (“Diver­ticulitis” 2010). Thus there is a 50 percent chance the caller will have this affliction after the age of sixty. Finally, Occhino offers other possible issues that are spun off from the ulcer “hit” before concluding with vague, noncommittal advice, telling the listener to get better by “calming down.”

Beyond “Medical Mondays,” Occhino is happy to mention her involvement in high-profile crime cases. A 2006 Newsday article claims she “may have helped crack the case of the disappearance of Patrick McNeill Jr.” (Dowdy 2006). There is no evidence or in­formation in the paper about what she predicted. Instead, the actual details about McNeill’s disappearance are that McNeill was drinking at a bar with friends and went to meet a girl. He was never heard from again. His body was discovered two months later after being spotted “floating near the 65th Street Pier” and was picked up “by an Army Corps of Engineers boat” (Cooper 1997). An autopsy revealed he had drowned with a “moderate amount of alcohol in his blood” (“Autopsy Shows a Fordham Student Drowned” 1997). It is unclear how Occhino was even involved with the McNeill affair, much less how she “broke” the case.

Occhino also claims to have “weighed in on local cases,” including the 1992 Katie Beers kidnapping and the 1999 disappearance of Katherine Kolodziej (Dowdy 2006). The Beers kidnapping ended when John Esposito told police Beers was “hidden in an elaborate chamber under his Bay Shore bungalow” (Blumenthal 1993). Thus, there is no proof the case was solved by psychic means; rather Esposito told police Beers’s location. In addition, Newsday also re­ported in 1999 that Occhino “said she had identified” Kolodziej’s murderer, who “was already on the police’s short list of suspects” (Dowdy 1999). Despite a police officer saying “We [have] got some very good leads,” the more than decade-old case remains unsolved. Occhino’s psychic insight was therefore not helpful enough to solve the case in the intervening decade.

In 2007, fresh from the celebrity of her radio show, Occhino used her “gift” to gaze into the celebrity world. She told the New York Post that Lindsay Lohan is “going to be blackballed and working in a 7-Eleven on Long Island” (Fleming 2007). While it is not much of a stretch to say a person with a drug problem might be “blackballed,” Lohan entered rehab in Southern California and has not worked at a 7-Eleven on Long Island. Occhino also said Mario Batali, a TV chef, must lose weight or will “have a heart attack within three years.” It does not take psychic power to advise that an overweight middle-aged man should lose weight or he’ll have health problems. The chef lost thirty-five pounds in 2010, but Occhino failed to predict his current business problems and the cancellation of his show.

In another failed prediction, Occhino asserted Whitney Houston would “be back and bigger than ever. . . . She will do a movie and win an Academy award.” Occhino further said, “She’ll work with Mel Gibson.” This prediction again fails on all counts as Houston has neither starred in a recent movie with Gibson nor won the award for a new project. Furthermore, no date was given, which hedges the possibility that the prediction may come true at some point the future. Houston’s 2009 tour suffered from trouble, and in 2010 Gibson faced public-relations problems in a custody fight with Oksana Grigorieva. Occhino then made a prediction that Star Jones would “never get divorced.” After three years of marriage, Jones filed for divorce from Al Reynolds in March 2008. Despite these abysmal predictions, Occhino’s star continued to rise.

In 2006, Occhino’s fee was $300 for an hour-long reading from her Long Island home or her Manhattan apartment on the Upper West Side (Padgett 2006). Two years later, she re­leased her third book, Awakened Instincts, coauthored with her daughter Jacqueline Sul­livan. Despite the fact that fortune-telling is illegal (except for “entertainment” purposes) in New York State, Occhino has built a following in New York and now conducts seminars and readings throughout the United States. In 2010, Atlas Media Corporation gave Occhino a one-hour television show on Syfy. The show premiered on July 15 and chronicled Occhino raising a family, even trying to find her daughter a husband, while coming into contact with people who were seemingly impressed with her psychic abilities. The reaction from the press was immediately negative. Newsday, the largest Long Island newspaper, graded the show a C–, explaining, “The producers slice, dice, nip and tuck hours of daily-life footage into lickety-split montages, and still nothing feels remotely fresh or real” (Werts 2010). The New York Post explained why “Mary knows worst” by saying the show “can’t de­cide if it’s a reality show about a Long Island family that is ripe for ridicule, or a show about a woman who was born with a gift that is no laughing matter.” A few weeks later, in the midst of poor ratings, Syfy cancelled the show. As Rob Vaux, of Mania.com, asked: “Did you see that coming, psychic lady?” (Vaux 2010).

Occhino uses her “involvement” in police cases to further her psychic career while failing to offer independent empirical proof of psychic abilities. Her biography cites an unpublished “test” by Gary Schwartz as validation for psychic powers. In fact, Schwartz’s educational credentials and affiliations are featured prominently in Occhino’s current biography, but the bio neglects her own education and the long history of criticisms about Schwartz’s methods and tests (“About Mary Occhino” 2010). She offered “virtual MRIs” to callers on her show without any medical education, which is potentially dangerous if people accept her claims without seeking proper medical diagnoses. In late December 2010, Occhino announced she would not “renew” her radio contract with SiriusXM, effectively ending her radio show in its current format. But her failed predictions and the end of her shows have not hurt her business. Occhino’s books, business, and seminars continue to attract desperate people, and her store, Mary O’s Celestial Whispers in Center Moriches, New York, remains in business. But does Mary know best? When it comes to her psychic predictions, it appears not.

References

About Mary Occhino. 2010. Available online at http://celestialwhispers.com/about/.

Autopsy shows a Fordham student drowned. 1997. New York Times (April 17).

Blumenthal, Ralph. 1993. The Katie Beers case; mystery surrounds suspect and underground chamber. New York Times (January 15).

Comeback Whitney hits a flat note Down Under. 2010. AFP (February 23).

Cooper, Michael. 1997. Body of missing Fordham Student is found off pier. New York Times (April 8).

Diverticulitis (encyclopedia entry). 2010. Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia. Available online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000257.htm.

Dowdy, Zachary. 1999. When all else fails, try a sixth sense. Newsday (October 6).

———. 2006. Seeking by sixth sense: Court TV profiles Bay Shore psychic who has more than stars in her eyes when helping in police work. Newsday (April 25).

Fleming, Kirsten. 2007. Divine secrets—Psychic Mary Occhino predicts the fates of the ultra-famous. New York Post (February 8).

Ghost host: At home with a real Long Island psychic. 2010. New York Post (July 15).

National Digestive Diseases Information Clearing­house. 2010. H. pylori and peptic ulcers. Available online at http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/hpylori/.

Padgett, Tania. 2006. Paranormal packs halls, sells books and floods airwaves. San Francisco Chronicle (June 18).

Shaffer, Ryan. 2010. Entertainment, fakery, and ambiguity: Examining the ‘Fortune Telling Law’ in New York State. Skeptical Inquirer (March/April).

Vaux, Rob. 2010. The TV wasteland continues. Mania.com (August 8). Available at http://www.mania.com/tv-wasteland-continues_article_124555.html.

Werts, Diane. 2010. LI psychic should know better on ‘Mary Knows Best.’ Newsday (July 15).

Sathya Sai Baba died in April 2011 after illness due to respiratory and kidney problems. He was a “living god” for nearly forty million people worldwide, and his believers have credited him with resurrecting the dead and healing the sick. To his Hindu followers, Baba was an avatar, or an incarnation, of a god who performed miracles, including materializing jewelry and vibuthi (holy ash) out of thin air. With schools in more than thirty-three countries and educational programs in 166 countries, Baba became a global figure despite having left India only once (to visit Uganda in 1968). His supporters, including high-profile Indian politicians and American businessmen, proudly celebrated his mystical feats and humanitarian efforts. But his critics denounced him as a fraud for decades, claiming his feats were common magic tricks. Later, former followers accused him of child molestation, after which the U.S. government issued travel warnings to its citizens about the allegations.

Sathya Sai Baba was born in 1926 in Puttaparthi, India. At fourteen, he declared he was the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi (1835–1918), an Indian guru who remains a popular Hindu figure and was rumored to levitate, read minds, and even heal the sick. In the 1940s, Baba began attracting attention when he started “materializing” items out of thin air. He then began traveling throughout South India building a following (Babb 1991). His celebrity was cemented when Americans traveled to India on spiritual voyages in the 1960s. In the past several years, Baba established many centers in the United States. For example, the USA Sai Organization lists eight locations in New York and twenty locations in Southern California.

Besides being a spiritual guru, Baba was well-connected politically in India, with high-profile believers in the two major parties: the right-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the left-leaning Indian National Congress (INC). These included former Prime Ministers A.B. Vajpayee and P.V. Narasimha Rao (Goldberg 2005). Journalist Khushwant Singh explained Baba’s ties to politicians in the 1995 documentary Guru Busters: “At many times some decisions and particularly the [political] appointments are made in consultation with him . . . people like Sai Baba have a national influence.” In the documentary, T.N. Seshan, then chief election commissioner of India, held up a ring Baba gave him and said, “He gave this ring out of nowhere, which is set with nine gems; there is a ruby in it, a pearl in it, sapphire in it, there is an emerald in it, there is a diamond in it . . . he realized this for me out of nowhere.” Seshan later explained, “I am not a jumbly person. I’ve got a master’s degree in physics; I have a master’s degree in administration economics from Harvard. I find nothing contradictory between the physics and the fact that I believe this [ring] came out of the blue.”

By 2011 the state’s tax department estimated the worth of Baba’s Sathya Sai Central Trust at about nine billion dollars. One of the Trust’s most notable projects was the building of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi with donations, including a twenty-million-dollar contribution from Hard Rock Café and House of Blues cofounder Isaac Tigrett. In mid-June, nearly two months after Baba’s death, 216 lbs. (98 kg) of gold, 676.8 lbs. (307 kg) of silver, and about $2.5 million in cash were discovered in Baba’s personal chamber after it was opened for the Trust to inventory items (“98 kg Gold Found . . .” 2011).

Baba’s critics and former followers accused him of serious crimes. P.C. Sorcar Jr., a well-known Indian magician, has been a Baba critic for several years. In 2000, Sorcar explained that Baba’s miracles, such as making vibhuti (holy ash) appear, are “common tricks” using sleight of hand (“P.C. Sorcar: Baba’s a Bad Trickster” 2000). In that example, he says, the holy ash is from a capsule hidden in the palm of Baba’s hand, which is then crushed with his thumb to make the ash appear. Likewise, Basava Premanand (1930–2009), one of the most respected Indian rationalists, started investigating Baba in 1968. Premanand, who was the head of Indian Skeptics and wrote thirty-five books (five in English), devoted years to examining Baba (Polidoro 2003). He released his findings about the sleight-of-hand techniques used in Baba’s “miracles” to the public as early as 1976.

Perhaps more damaging was Tal Brooke’s 1970 book Lord of the Air (later called Avatar of Night), which recounted the author’s doubts about Baba upon learning of his sexual activities with young boys. The allegations did not go away. In 2004, stories of sexual abuse and child molestation surfaced in the BBC2 documentary The Secret Swami, in which journalist Tanya Datta interviewed former Baba devotees in the United States who said they had been sexually abused by him. The documentary featured interviews with government leaders who called the claims “baseless.” On the other hand, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning in 2001 about “inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader” and later confirmed it was referring to Baba (Lewis 2006).

Datta’s report also explored a strange and still unexplained event in 1993. On June 6, 1993, four boys supposedly entered Baba’s bedroom with knives and were shot to death by local police. The police claimed they had to fatally shoot the boys after the boys attacked them with knives. A report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s organization to investigate corruption and special crimes, discovered flaws and contradictions in the police reports, and it was rumored that police killed the four boys in cold blood. Datta said, “Some police officers were arrested but never charged. The case was eventually dropped.” She further reported, “Critics say police connections ensured that Sai Baba wasn’t even interviewed, despite being one of the witnesses to the events of that night.” Attempts by the former Home Secretary to reopen the case were unsuccessful, and the reasons behind the killings as well as the boys’ motives for entering Baba’s bedroom remain unknown. Premanand later published a book titled Murders in Sai Baba’s Bed Room that discussed the CBI’s description of the police cover-up and destruction of evidence.

Indian police officials spread the national flag on the transparent casket containing the body of Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba. (PHOTO CREDIT: AFP PHOTO/Dibyangshu SARKAR/FILES)

On April 24, 2011, Baba died at the age of eighty-five. His death was likewise full of controversy. For one, Baba’s death contradicts his prediction posted on his website: “He is expected to leave His body [in] 2019” (International Sai Organization 2011a). After he was put on life support, medical specialists from the United States, Britain, and Australia traveled to Puttaparthi to help Baba. On April 5, as rumors of his illness spread, hundreds of devotees attempted to break into the hospital and attacked officials “for not allowing them to have a glimpse of the ailing Baba” (Das 2011). The next day, doctors reported progress when Baba’s alertness improved, but the state government worried about the impact of the organization becoming leaderless. Knowing the region was dependent on Baba, it sent a five-member team “to find out whether there is any system in place for running the scores of charitable schemes” created by Baba under the trust (“Andhra Govt Team . . .” 2011).

While Baba remained in the hospital, a miracle was proclaimed with followers and reporters flocking to see a four-foot wax figure of Baba “oozing perfumed oils from its feet” (Kumar 2011). The Times of India noted, “Devotees refused to consider that the wax idol could be melting in the sweltering heat and the oil was a resultant residue” (Kumar 2011). The same day, the Deccan Herald noted that the “idol stopped releasing the liquid after it was shifted to the ground floor of the residential complex” (“Axe Effect of Baba Wax Statue” 2011).

The next day, Baba’s liver stopped responding to treatment and he was pronounced dead due to multiple organ failure. The faithful flocked to Puttaparthi, paying their respects in prayer, and a memorial service was held with full state honors. In attendance were governors from two Indian states, four former or current chief ministers, and two Andhra Pradesh ministers (Krishnamoorthy 2011).

Baba’s death likely won’t bring an end to any controversy about his activities or supposed “miracles.” Many people are dependent on Baba’s humanitarian organization for free medical care and drinking water. With his unexpected death, it remains unclear what will happen to his organization and those who rely on it. One prediction is that there will be at least one person who will claim to be the third incarnation of Sai Baba. How that person will be received by Sathya Sai Baba’s followers is anyone’s guess. But an important lesson about supernatural claims can be learned from this case. During my 2010 visit to India, I was told a story by Lalitha Rajaram, who attended a Baba event in Delhi as a young girl decades ago. At the event, she was told by her friend to watch Baba carefully so as not to miss anything he did. She concentrated on Baba, closely following his movements with her eyes. Her concentration was abruptly shattered when Baba, through his handlers, told her to leave. Rajaram surmised that Baba saw her in the audience and, being wary of skeptics, did not want her there. Why would a god not want someone to watch him closely? More than likely because he was not a god but rather a human who lived within the laws of physics like the rest of us.

References

98 kg gold found in Sai Baba’s room. 2011. The Hindu (June 17). Available online at http://www.thehindu.com/news/article2113195.ece.

Andhra govt team to assess Saibaba trust takeover. 2011. Times of India (April 6). Available online at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-Article/articleshow/7880018.cms.

Axe effect of Baba wax statue. 2011. Deccan Herald (April 19). Available online at www.deccanherald.com/content/155075/axe-effect-baba-wax-statue.html.

Babb, Lawrence. 1991. Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Das, Ashok. 2011. Sai Baba remains critical, devotees asked to stay calm. Hindustan Times (April 5). Available online at www.hindustantimes.com/Sai-Baba-s-remains-critical-devotees-asked-to-stay-calm/Article1-681433.aspx.

Goldberg, Michelle. 2005. Untouchable? Salon.com (July 25). Available online at http://archive.salon.com/people/feature/2001/07/25/baba/index.html.

International Sai Organization. 1999. Sathya Sai Speaks 32(2). Available online at www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume32/sss32p2-01.pdf.

———. 2011a. A short history of Sathya Sai Baba. Available online at www.sathyasai.org/intro/history.htm.

———. 2011b. Introduction to Sathya Sai Baba. Available online at www.sathyasai.org/intro/message.htm.

Krishnamoorthy, Suresh. 2000. Sathya Sai Baba interred with State honours. The Hindu (April 28). Available online at www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1772631.ece.

Kumar, G. Arun. 2011. ‘Miracle’ in Puttaparthi, Baba statue oozes scented oil. The Times of India (April 20). Available online at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Miracle-in-Puttaparthi-Baba-statue-oozes-scented-oil/articleshow/8032118.cms.

Lewis, Paul. 2006. The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards. The Guardian (November 4). Available online at www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/nov/04/voluntarysector.india.

P.C. Sorcar: Baba’s a bad trickster. 2000. India Today (December 4). Available online at www.india-today.com/itoday/20001204/cover3.shtml.

Polidoro, Massimo. 2003. Don’t try this at home. Skeptical Inquirer 27(1) (January/February).

Secret swami. 2004. BBC2 (June 11). Available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3791921.stm.

Sathya Sai Baba passes away, leaves behind Rs 40000-cr worth empire. 2011. The Economic Times (April 24). Available online at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/sathya-sai-baba-passes-away-leaves-behind-rs-40000-cr-worth-empire/articleshow/8075953.cms.

Sathya Sai Baba’s gargantuan empire. 2011. India Today (April 5). Available online at http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/134423/latest-headlines/sathya-sai-babas-gargantuan-empire.html.

Tension in Puttaparthi, Sai Baba’s devotees attack district collector. 2011. India Express (April 5). Available online at www.indianexpress.com/news/tension-in-puttaparthi-sai-babas-devotees-attack-district-collector/771831/.

Psychic Allison DuBois has built an industry around her claims of helping law enforcement. A primetime network television show was based on her. She has three best-selling books and an army of devoted fans. But despite DuBois’s celebrity power, the evidence for her supposedly accurate predictions is less robust than her profits. She has made several claims that are hard to accept—even for those who believe in psychic abilities. Even still, DuBois has walked a careful line in order not to reveal too much information. That strategy, until recently, has worked for her. In 2010, DuBois was asked by KPHO-TV, a Phoenix, Arizona, CBS affiliate, about a missing baby. The case marks the first publicly reported event in which DuBois has been specific in her predictions and offered a timeline for a criminal case. As it turns out, DuBois’s predictions not only failed to solve the crime but were completely wrong.

Allison DuBois (KH1 WENN Photos/Newscom)

DuBois was raised in Arizona and still lives in Phoenix with her husband. In 2005 she told Dan Abrams of MSNBC that she has “read over 1,200 people”; in 2006 she claimed to have performed 2,000 readings (with a waiting list of 3,000) (Pierlioni 2006). She has long claimed to use psychic powers to help law enforcement, including the Texas Rangers, and has said that she is “used for jury selection in rape/homicide cases, in order to obtain the sentence the prosecution wants” (DuBois 2005). Yet these claims have never been verified, and the Texas Rangers deny any involvement with her (Radford 2005). Medium, the network television show based on DuBois, has highlighted the character Allison DuBois “using her psychic smarts to help the DA in his efforts to find twelve people happy to send Mr. Psycho to the chair” (Bell 2005). The real-life DuBois claimed to be working on 150 cases in 2005 and says she’s “never worked a case and not provided them with specific information” (MSNBC 2005).

When a crime story grips the nation, DuBois will typically discuss the event in an interview or claim involvement. In her 2005 book Don’t Kiss Them Goodbye, DuBois wrote that she correctly described the man involved in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Dubois wrote that her “friend Catherine” (no last name given) asked for a profile of the kidnapper, which DuBois gave, offering vague details that matched the kidnapper—that he was “a groundskeeper/handyman. He was a transient, but he managed to function in society.” DuBois notes, “These details could have helped much sooner if they had been used.” In the middle of this narrative, she writes, “All the information I provided is on record and verifiable.” The problem is that her claims are not verifiable because she supplies no names beyond her friend’s first name. There is no mention of who she talked to or what law enforcement agency or volunteer group had the information. The only public details of DuBois making a prediction about Smart in 2002 came from her 2005 book. In addition, DuBois’s own passage points out that her reading was not used in the high-profile Smart case. Smart’s family had suspected Brian Mitchell was involved with the kidnapping. Mitchell was captured in the company of his wife and Smart on a Salt Lake City street after his image was broadcast on America’s Most Wanted in 2003.

Similarly, during Natalee Holloway’s disappearance a few years later, DuBois appeared on MSNBC’s Rita Cosby Live to claim, “You have the right suspects. I mean, they’re completely guilty.” DuBois’s information was incorrect. The case remains unsolved and those suspects were not charged. More recently, a story about a missing baby garnered national headlines, and DuBois made a prediction that finally put her claims to the test.

In December 2009, Elizabeth Johnson took her eight-month-old son, Gabriel, from his father in a custody dispute. For the next five days, Elizabeth spent nights in two different hotels with the baby. In the process, she texted messages to the father, Logan McQueary, saying that she killed the baby and threw his body in a trash can after wrapping him in a diaper. She was arrested on December 30 but refused to help police locate the baby. As national interest in the case grew, police interrogations and interviews with friends and family members were reported in the news. On March 3, 2010, Allison DuBois spoke to CBS 5 (KPHO-TV) about Gabriel Johnson. This is one exchange that was televised:

Interviewer (voice-over): It’s something we all feel and why Allison feels investigators will find this baby boy, but not, she says, in a San Antonio landfill.

DuBois: I feel like he’ll be found. It does feel like helicopters are overhead. It’s a place they’re already looking.

Interviewer (to DuBois): Do you feel like we will find him soon or later?

DuBois: Sooner than later. I feel like he’ll be found within the year, within 2010. The people working this will make sure he’s found.

Much of what DuBois states early in the interview—which took place more than two months after the events in question—had already been reported in the press. The reporter said that she planned to share DuBois’s reading from the ninety-minute interview with Gabriel’s father. However, what the station aired was general information: details already reported about the mother’s text messages to the father, the ongoing custody dispute, and the actions of the mother. DuBois revealed the mother’s motive during the KPHO-TV interview, saying, “I think she did it because she wanted to hurt the father like she said” (emphasis added). As KPHO-TV reported, “What she can’t read from Gabriel, Allison said she can read from this video of Elizabeth in court and the sound of her voice on tape . . . and she also looked to the text messages Elizabeth sent Gabriel’s father Logan McQueary just after the boy was last seen.” The Phoenix New Times pointed out, “In the final analysis, after devoting nearly four minutes of airtime and a ninety-minute interview to the claims of a psychic, CBS 5 has told us nothing we didn’t know a week ago” (King 2010).

However, DuBois’s prediction that Gabriel would be found “within” 2010 was something that no one could have evaluated at the time. It is important to note that DuBois made no statement about whether Gabriel would be found alive or dead or where the baby boy might be. If DuBois is psychic, one would expect her to correctly predict the fate and location of the baby, but she didn’t. It is reasonable to think that a baby who is missing will be found—based on police interviews, a plea bargain with the mother, or finding the child’s body—as has happened in other high-profile missing-child cases. In any case, DuBois was wrong. Gabriel was not found in 2010. In January 2011, as police continued to look for him, the Tempe, Arizona, Police Department released documents detailing its search, including unconfirmable claims from an unnamed psychic about the baby. The mother had been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, and custodial interference, with a trial scheduled for later in 2011. Her son is still missing. DuBois has emphasized that her statements are based on psychic “feelings” and “impressions.” In particular, DuBois explained how she feels about the case is based, in part, on looking at “a picture of Gabriel, first thing I do is look in his eyes that’s my window in to him.”

DuBois had a rough start to the new year. First, CBS cancelled Medium, and its last show aired in January 2011. Then DuBois received criticism about her December appearance on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, a reality television show aired on the cable channel Bravo, in which she visited her friend Camille Grammer, now ex-wife of famed Cheers actor Kelsey Grammer (Phillips 2011). Sipping on a drink and smoking what appeared to be a cigarette, DuBois traded insults with other members of the show. One of the insults was aimed at Kyle Richards, who DuBois said “was every girl in a high school that made somebody kill herself.” While holding her cigarette, DuBois said, “I’m gonna shove this up her [censored] ass just to prove a point. Except I think she’d need a bigger one just to feel it. Oh yeah, I went there.” In response to questions about her behavior, DuBois blamed the show’s editing and denied being intoxicated. In early January 2011, DuBois told The Examiner she smoked an electronic cigarette, not a real cigarette, and added, “I had two to three cocktails in four hours and was most definitely not intoxicated. If it offended any fans I apologize.”

Then in February, Bravo aired the now infamous dinner party in a much longer format and made clips of the show, including “Allison’s Full Rant,” available online. The longer video was more revealing but probably not in the way DuBois wanted. During one part of the “full rant,” DuBois angrily told the women at the table about Richards, “I don’t give a [censored] what she thinks about me. She can [censored] off. I can tell you when she’s going to die and what’s going to happen to her family. I love that about me.”

In another clip, appropriately titled “Lisa Takes on the Psychic,” Lisa Vanderpump asked DuBois about Vanderpump’s deceased grandmother. As DuBois started giving Vanderpump a reading, the video cut to Taylor Armstrong, who pointed out that what DuBois was saying “didn’t make any sense.” The show then cut back to Vanderpump saying to DuBois, “you don’t know if she’s with me.” In response DuBois told Vanderpump, “You’re thinking, I’m feeling; that’s how we are different.” DuBois then followed with “She was the mother that raised you or that was the mother you needed and so do you.” The segment cut to Vanderpump telling the camera, “As soon as she said my grandmother raised me I lost interest because she didn’t.” Vanderpump disputed other claims DuBois made by bluntly saying “no” to her assertions, causing DuBois to look down and nervously laugh at one point. In reflection, Adrienne Maloof said the “reading sounds like a canned statement.” Clearly, a reading with DuBois convinced neither Vanderpump nor Maloof that DuBois is psychic.

Viewing Allison DuBois as a case study in psychic ability, we can see that her paranormal claims are not backed by evidence. When an incorrect prediction is made, even considering its likelihood, the psychic fails. Not only have her claims about working with law enforcement been denied, but third-party evidence supporting the assertion that she has psychic powers is lacking. This scenario should be construed as a lesson to the public: claims should be supported with evidence if they are to be accepted. In response to questions about skeptics, DuBois told the Sacramento Bee: “I’m very proud of what I do.” Perhaps DuBois is proud of what she does, but that doesn’t change the lack of proof for her claims and her incorrect prediction in baby Gabriel’s case. The evidence, not pride, speaks for itself. Although the character of Allison DuBois on CBS’s Medium solves crimes by using psychic ability, evidence for DuBois’s ability in the real world is sorely lacking. CBS cancelled Medium, but there is little doubt that the real-life Allison DuBois will continue to claim that she helps law enforcement even if she can’t supply evidence for her claims.

References

Abrams, Dan. 2005. The Abrams Report. MSNBC (February 8).

Anaya, Catherine. 2010. Allison DuBois: ‘Baby Gabriel will be found.’ KPHO-TV (March 3). Available online at http://www.kpho.com/story/14780080/allison-dubois-baby-gabriel-will-be-found-3-03-2010.

Bell, Ian. 2005. The psychic with a bad memory who prompted a mass superstition. The Herald (Glasgow) (September 14).

Bravo TV. 2011. Allison’s full rant (video). February 16. Available online at www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-1/videos/allisons-full-rant.

———. 2011. Lisa takes on the psychic (video). February 16. Available online at www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-1/videos/lisa-takes-on-the-psychic.

DuBois, Allison. 2005. Don’t Kiss Them Good-bye. New York: Fireside Books.

Gonzalez, Nathan. 2011. Baby Gabriel report released by Tempe police. Arizona Republic (January 18). Available online at www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2011/01/18/20110118baby-gabriel-tempe-police-report.html.

King, James. 2010. Baby Gabriel will be found, psychic claims; glad that’s cleared up. Phoenix New Times (March 3).

Phillips, Cheryl. 2011. Allison DuBois speaks about Real Housewives of Beverly Hills dinner party. Examiner.com (January 3). Available online at www.examiner.com/celebrity-social-media-in-national/allison-dubois-speaks-up-about-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-dinner-party.

Pierleoni, Allen. 2006. The medium has a message; hosting encounters with ghosts comes (super) naturally for Allison DuBois. Sacramento Bee (June 19).

Radford, Benjamin. 2005. Psychic detectives fail in the real world but succeed on TV. Skeptical Inquirer 29(2) (March/April).

Wilson, Kelly. 2005. Allison DuBois’ ability to talk to dead people is taking her on the ride of her life. East Valley Tribune (April 21).

One difficulty in judging the accuracy of psychics is the vagueness of their readings, which are often so general that they are worthless. Psychics who offer readings about missing persons and murder cases, however, allow researchers to examine their accuracy with independent information. When Sylvia Browne was a weekly guest on The Montel Williams Show, she performed supposed feats ranging from ghost detecting to offering details about missing persons and murder cases. Among the things Browne failed to predict was the availability of those transcripts on the Internet through databases such as LexisNexis. The authors, as well as several members of the James Randi Educational Foundation forum and StopSylvia.com, closely examined each transcript to track Browne’s accuracy. According to Browne, “my accuracy rate is somewhere between 87 and 90 percent, if I’m recalling correctly.” This article disputes that statistic by examining the criminal cases for which Browne has performed readings. The research demonstrates that in 115 cases (all of the available readings), Browne’s confirmable accuracy was 0 percent.

This article is structured in terms of known and unknown outcomes. The criteria for a correct prediction is that it mostly matches a case referenced in a newspaper, and the criteria for a wrong prediction is that Browne’s claim is the opposite of what actually occurred. The metric for the final accuracy count is based on what is correct compared to the unknown or wrong claims. As this article shows, in the 115 available cases Browne was correct zero times and wrong twenty-five times. Ninety out of the 115 cases have unknown outcomes. A previous examination of thirty-five cases Browne made predictions about was published in Brill’s Content. The magazine concluded: “In twenty-one, the details were too vague to be verified. Of the remaining fourteen, law-enforcement officials or family members involved in the investigations say that Browne had played no useful role.” This article greatly expands the scope of the Brill’s Content article by looking at Browne’s comments to the press and on television about missing persons and criminal cases. No case was excluded. We have listed each case Browne made predictions about as well as provided a reference or broadcast date. When we began to research this, we expected Browne to have been correct at least a few times, but as the list demonstrates, she was not. The references show that the only cases in which Browne was not proven wrong are those that remain unsolved.

Of the 115 cases reviewed with LexisNexis and newspaper sources, Browne was wrong in twenty-five, and the remaining ninety either have no available details outside of the transcript or the crime is unsolved, leaving no way to confirm Browne’s claims. The following data is organized as a list to allow the reader to conduct independent research. One should keep in mind that Browne claims to be at the top of her game. In June 2009, Browne told Seattle Weekly about her psychic ability: “I think you get better, like anything else you get better with time.” The authors welcome Browne to supply independent proof of even one case about which she was correct.

Browne’s predictions have a history of being wrong or unhelpful. In the course of this research, we examined a variety of sources to study Browne’s involvement with law enforcement. Browne was sometimes paid by families of the victims, charged at least one police department $400, and received money as well as publicity from her appearances on television. She is a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and, as reported in 2004, earned a minimum of $847 for each talk show appearance. Yet in all these cases, Browne has never supplied independent proof that she has ever helped law enforcement. More than that, she is repeatedly wrong. During the Sago Mining Disaster, she claimed the miners were alive when they were actually dead. She also said Richard Kneebone was alive in Canada, but his decomposed body was discovered a few days later in California. More recently, she predicted that a 9/11 firefighter was alive, but his body was found in the World Trade Center rubble two weeks later.

Sometimes Browne is not only wrong but also tells suffering families horrible things. In 1999, Browne did a reading for Opal Jo Jennings’ grandmother, who wanted to know what happened to Jennings, a six-year-old abducted from her front yard in Texas. Browne told the grandmother, “She’s . . . not . . . dead. But what bothers me—now I’ve never heard of this before, but for some reason, she was taken and put into some kind of a slavery thing and taken into Japan. The place is Kukouro. Or Kukoura.” Browne was wrong. Child molester Richard Lee Franks was charged with the kidnapping that same year and convicted the following year. Jennings’ remains were discovered in 2003. Medical examiners concluded that “Opal was killed by trauma to the head with[in] several hours of her abduction.”

Missing person Holly Krewson was a similar case, one in which Browne needlessly tainted the memories of a family’s loved one on national television. In 2002, Browne told Holly’s mother, “She is in Los Angeles, and when she was calling you, she was on drugs. But she’s still alive.” Browne also said that the girl was a dancer in an “adult entertainment nightclub,” and “you might get a Christmas card postmarked Los Angeles.” Holly’s family made regular visits to the Los Angeles area, scanning the clubs for their missing loved one, but to no avail. Holly’s mother, Gwendolyn Krewson, died of an aneurysm in 2003. Three years later, Holly’s body was identified. As it turned out, Holly was murdered, and her body was discovered in 1996. The remains were only identified as Holly in 2006, after sitting in the medical examiners office for ten years. Needless to say, Browne was completely wrong in every aspect of the case and hurt an already devastated family.

In a 2006 appearance on Montel, Browne did a reading about Robert Hayes, who was serving in the Army National Guard when he was killed at an ATM. Browne told Hayes’s crying fiancée that he met a man at a casino who “took Hayes,” then robbed him to get the casino winnings. The police later found that although Hayes told his fiancée he was going to a casino, he actually went to meet another woman, and there are no reports in the press about him being at a casino. In fact, Hayes was the victim of a conspiracy by four people, including a local beauty queen, who lured Hayes to meet her so they could rob him. Browne said Hayes was shot three times “in the head, chest, and over to the side,” to which the fiancée replied, “I didn’t know he was shot in the head. The police never said that.” The fiancée then added, “The police said he got shot in the hand.” When asked if the case would be solved, Browne said, “Yeah, but it’s gonna take them at least a good two years.” However, the police announced they arrested four people in connection with the murder on April 11, 2006. The first airing of Browne’s predictions occurred on April 26, 2006. Browne was wrong about who did it, the conspiracy, where he was shot, who was involved, and when the case would be solved. By October 2007, three of the suspects pled guilty and were sentenced for Hayes’s murder. The Montel Williams Show and other media outlets have been silent about this and other cases. In fact, a full transcript of this show no longer exists on LexisNexis; instead, there is only a brief summary that excludes the aforementioned details. The authors had to seek the transcript and video by other means to include the details in this article.

Browne’s failures are too extensive to explore in detail here, and more famous ones, such as the Shawn Hornbeck case, have been explored in this magazine before. For the sake of brevity, we have compiled a list of names of people Browne has performed readings about. Some of the cases marked “unknown” were already de facto solved by law enforcement. They know who most likely committed the crimes, but the suspects were never brought to justice and the cases went “cold,” so they are still officially unsolved and open. In other cases, Browne was consulted to confirm the families’ suspicions, determine how to bring the likely perpetrator to justice, or provide more information. This makes her predictions even less impressive, as she is “solving” exhausted cases that the police have already in large part solved and about which she can say almost anything, since any new developments are highly unlikely. On the other hand, some are official accidents and suicides that the families feared were actually murders.

Among the many harmful things that Browne does is convince the loved ones of victims of untimely deaths that foul play was involved and, conversely, convince the loved ones of murder victims that no foul play was involved. However, if the families are correct in their suspicions and these are actual murders, the last thing they need is a psychic involved in the case.

Conclusion

These 115 cases prove devastating to Browne’s claims of helping police and families. It is hard to understand how someone with such a dismal record continually tops bestseller lists and maintains a following. In a 2000 interview, Browne explained it best: “I’ve always said to so many people you’re only as good as your last reading. If you’re not good, if you’re not accurate, if you don’t find missing people and you don’t work with doctors and do health diagnosis with them then you’re, you know, you’re not good.” Indeed, we agree on that point. Judging from Browne’s lack of accuracy, it seems safe to conclude that, in her own words, she is “not good.” If she could really help police, then one would expect a statistically significant number of cases to be solved using Browne’s “predictions.” The only question that remains is why people continually support and seek her advice.

Cases Sylvia Browne Was Wrong About

List of cases Sylvia Browne made predictions about. The names are given in alphabetical order with brief descriptions of Browne’s predictions and the facts of the case.

1. Erica Baker. November 19, 2003, on Montel. Browne told Erica’s mother “she’s not dead” but in Michigan. Furthermore, Browne claimed someone “sold her for drugs,” and “there was a black woman” who helped “throw” her in an “old truck.” In 2005, Chris­tian John Gabriel was convicted of moving and concealing Erica’s body in Kettering, Ohio. Her body was not found, but Gabriel claimed to have buried it after hitting her with his “van.”¹
2. Jamie Barker. In February 2001 on Montel. Two months after Barker fell from a bridge while working, Browne told his widow he died “quick” and his body is “on the site, there’s no doubt about it,” but they won’t find it “unless they dig and I don’t think they will.”² Two months later Barker’s body was discovered downstream in LaSalle. An autopsy discovered he “suffered no broken bones or head injuries in the 15-storey fall,” but instead drowned.³
3. Eve Brown. September 30, 1999, on Montel. Browne told the family “that Eve Brown is well and living in Florida.”⁴ This was not true, as Eve’s body was found a year later at a Brooklyn, New York, construction site thirteen miles from where she was last seen.⁵ The murder remains unsolved.
4. Terrence Farrell. Browne told a woman that Farrell, a firefighter involved in 9/11, was alive.⁶ She was wrong. His body was found in the rubble one month later.⁷
5. Erica Fraysure. September 24, 1998, on Montel. Erica went missing in 1997. Browne did a reading for her mother, saying she was in water and someone named “Chris” killed her. The following day, Erica’s ex-boyfriend, Chris Mineer, killed himself. Police said Chris’s alibi checked out, and he was not a suspect. Chris’s mother sued Montel Williams, his producers, Paramount Pictures, and Viacom Inc., but the case was eventually dismissed. After the broadcast, the police searched the nearby lakes and found nothing. Police say Erica is still a “missing person” and continue to investigate.⁸
6. Robert Hayes. April 26, 2006, on Montel. (See description in this article.)
7. Shawn Hornbeck. February 26, 2003, on Montel. Browne told Shawn’s parents he was dead, but he was found alive in 2007.⁹
8. Sharon James’s son. Discussed January 19, 2007, on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. Browne claimed she located James’s son, but James was not so positive and would not have used Browne’s service in hindsight.
9. Opal Jo Jennings. April 29, 1999, on Montel. (See description in this article.)
10. Ryan Katcher. February 11, 2004, on Montel. Katcher went missing and Browne told his mother “two boys got terribly frightened” then “dropped him” in “a metal shaft of some kind.” Browne further said he is “still in the shaft” “close to twenty-five, twenty-six, maybe twenty-seven miles from where you would be.” On July 25, 2006, police found Ryan in his truck under water in a pond, and an autopsy showed he was under the influence. According to a discussion with Ryan’s mother on StopSylvia.com, Browne got more details wrong, but those parts were edited before the broadcast.
11. Richard Kneebone. According to Teresa Kneebone, Browne “said she feels he’s not dead and that he could be traveling in Canada . . . and have partial amnesia.”¹⁰ His “badly decomposed body” was found July 7 a “few blocks” from the tavern where he was last seen in San Jose, California.¹¹
12. Holly Krewson. November 27, 2002, on Montel. (See description in this article.)
13. Angie Lee. March 28, 2007, on Montel. Browne told Angie’s mother, “It’s a serial killer” who killed a college girl that was responsible for Angie’s stabbing death and “there’s a knife somewhere in that immediate location that may have DNA, may have some sort of evidence on it.” In 2008, Anthony Ashby pleaded guilty to her murder, and the motive for the crime was “home invasion and residential burglary.” Furthermore, a knife was not part of the evidence. DNA evidence from Ashby’s gun and witnesses caused him to plead guilty.¹² The law enforcement involved remarked, “The psychics did not provide any substantive leads.”¹³
14. Chandra Levy. July 17, 2001, on Fox News. Browne said Levy’s body was in “some trees down in a marshy area.” She made this prediction when it was public knowledge that police were searching Rock Creek Park since someone used Chandra Levy's computer to find directions to that park.¹⁴ Benjamin Radford noted, “The remains were found across a steep incline in a heavily wooded area—perhaps near some trees but clearly not ‘in a marshy area,’ since a marsh located on an incline is geographically impossible.”¹⁵
15. Lynda McClelland. March 13, 2002, on Montel. Browne said McClelland “is not dead” but in Orlando, Florida, taken by a man with the initials “MJ,” and her family would find her soon. One year later, in March 2003, McClelland’s body was discovered near her home in Pennsylvania. David Repasky was convicted of the murder after witnesses testified Repasky strangled her.¹⁶
16. Ashley Ouellette. In February 2000 on Montel. According to the Associated Press, “Browne said Ouellette’s killing will be solved within a year and two months.”¹⁷ According to the Scar­borough Police Department, the crime is still unsolved.¹⁸
17. Lori Pleasants. September 10, 2003, on Montel. Browne said Pleasants was “killed by a stalker” who got “kicks out of that,” but there was “not necessarily DNA” at the scene and “he was wearing gloves.” In 2006, William Gutersloh, Pleasants’s friend, admitted to killing Pleasants after the police found DNA that linked to him.¹⁹ While on the stand, he told jurors he wiped the knife clean to avoid leaving fingerprints.²⁰
18. Scott Renquin, Dan Nelson, and Roger DesVergnes. March 1999 on Montel. According to the Associated Press, Browne “told the families their loved ones had died in a boating accident near the Everglades in a hovercraft. She gave them the name of a man who allegedly owned the boat.”²¹ Police followed Browne’s leads and found nothing. Later, their bodies were discovered in their SUV in a drainage retention pond. Authorities believe they missed a sharp turn at the unlighted corner and their car flipped into the water.²²
19. Weyman Robbins. May 7, 2003, on Montel. On Robbins’s murder Browne said, “This was other kids. They were playing this stupid game.” She further claimed, “There were two or three other kids that did it,” but “I don’t think the kids meant to” and “one of the—the kids is named Danny.” Weyman’s uncle strangled him in front of his sisters and was convicted of murder.
20. Sago Mining Disaster. Browne first said she knew the miners would be found alive. During the live radio broadcast she appeared on it was announced all except one were dead.^23,24 After the announcement, she later said, “I don’t think there’s anybody alive, maybe one.”
21. Dana Satterfield. February 1997 on Montel. Browne said the murderer was an out-of-state construction worker that “has no connection to Satterfield, choosing her on a whim.”²⁵ Nine years later, Jonothan Vick was convicted of the murder following witness and DNA evidence. Vick was a local high school student who attempted to go on dates with Satterfield, but she rejected his advances.²⁶
22. Shannon Sherrill. November 19, 2003, on Montel. Browne claims Sherrill, who went missing in 1986, was “brainwashed and raised in a different family” but “is alive,” and the case will “break open” soon. As of 2009, Sherrill’s whereabouts are unknown and the case is unsolved.
23. John Slayton. May 14, 2003, on Montel. Browne said “indigents” killed Slayton, and his body was disposed in water and would not be found. In June 2003, Slayton’s body was found in shallow grave. In 2006, his killers, a pawnbroker and his son, were found guilty of the murder.²⁷
24. Richard Torres. October 20, 2004, on Montel. Browne told Torres’s widow that she would have a healthy baby boy. The June 28, 2005, update on Montel reported the baby was a girl and died five months premature. However, the segment omitted Browne making any prediction about the pregnancy.
25. Terry Webb. October 20, 1997, on Montel. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “His daughters said Browne told them she believes he was killed six months after he disappeared and that his body is buried somewhere at Fort Bragg.”²⁸ At the time of the reading, Webb had been listed as AWOL and was missing since 1991. In 2004, his body was eventually found buried “under a shed in Fayetteville.”²⁹ In 2006, the suspect pled guilty, saying “he shot Webb in self-defense when he sexually assaulted him” and was given three years in prison.³⁰ After the arrest, Montel did a follow-up on September 15, 2004, but the segment omitted Browne giving any specifics, including the location of Webb’s body.

Cases Sylvia Browne Made Predictions About That Have Non-confirmed Outcomes

Cases Sylvia Browne Made Predictions About That Have Non-confirmed Outcomes

1. Manuel Archambault. May 5, 2004, on Montel.
2. Crystal Arensdorf. April 2002 on Montel.
3. John Baglier. January 10, 1997, on Montel.
4. Michael Berrios. September 14, 2005, on Montel.
5. Amanda Berry. November 17, 2004, on Montel.
6. Johnia Berry. May 21, 2008, on Montel.
7. Molly Bish. September 17, 2003, on Montel.
8. Acacia Bishop. February 11, 2004, on Montel.
9. Jackie Blair. On Montel.³¹
10. Lori Bova. On Montel.³²
11. Kevin Brown. November 20, 2002, on Montel.
12. Charles Rhodes Campbell. February 19, 2003, on Montel.
13. Jose Concepcion. November 19, 2003, on Montel.
14. Rachel Cooke. February 26, 2003, on Montel.
15. Nicholle Marie Coppler. November 27, 2002, on Montel.
16. Joshua Wayne Crawford. September 14, 2006, on Montel.
17. Jerry Cushey Jr. On Montel.³³
18. Alexandra Ducsay. October 11, 2006, on Montel.
19. Michael Emert. February 18, 2004, on Montel.
20. Jill Lyn Euto. In July 2002 on Montel.
21. Miranda Fenner. Feburary 22, 2006, on Montel.
22. Anwa Abb Ford. May 4, 2005, on Montel.
23. Frank Forte Jr. September 6, 2006, on Montel.
24. Ashley Freeman and Laura Bible. November 5, 2002, on Montel.
25. Cecilia Garcia.³⁴
26. Joshua Guimond. February 11, 2004, on Montel.
27. James Harris. In September 2003 on Montel.
28. Sherri Hassett. May 14, 2003, on Montel.
29. Jason Henderson. September 17, 2003, on Montel.
30. Adrienne Heredia. In September 2006 on Montel.
31. Audrey May Herron. September 17, 2003, on Montel.
32. John Valentine Hope. May 30, 2007, on Montel.
33. Hunter Horgan. Browne was paid $400 by police for a half-hour reading about Horgan’s murder.³⁵
34. Girly Chew Hossencofft. Browne said her body was in mineshaft.³⁶
35. Patrick and Katelynn Hubbard. May 12, 2004, on Montel.
36. Wendy Hudakoc. May 8, 2002, on Montel.
37. Dustin Ivey. February 16, 2005, on Montel.
38. George Erik James. October 19, 2006, on Montel.
39. Sharon Jones. February 26, 2003, on Montel.
40. Douglas Jones. February 28, 2007, on Montel.
41. Steven Kraft. November 5, 2002, on Montel.
42. Donnie Kilby. October 29, 2003, on Montel.
43. Kristine Kupka. On Montel. Her sister discussed her appearance with Browne on ABC’s 20/20, hosted by John Stossel, on March 22, 2004.
44. The Langstons. October 21, 2002, on Montel.
45. Amanda Lankey. February 8, 2006, on Montel.
46. Kristin Laurite. November 20, 2001, on Montel.
47. Taurean Lewis, Terry Canty Jr., and Anthony Collins. October 20, 2004, on Montel.
48. Brookley Louks September 27, 2002, on Montel.
49. Nancy MacDuckston. November 19, 2003, on Montel.
50. Christopher Mader. November 30, 2005, on Montel.
51. Gail Matthews and Tamara Berkheiser. November 9, 2005, on Montel.
52. Marin assault case. I spoke with the police who said Browne worked on the case and it remains unsolved.37
53. Frank Mazzella. October 2, 2002, on Montel.
54. Louise Melgoza Macias.³⁸
55. Tristan Meyers. February 11, 2004, on Montel.
56. Dena McCluskey. February 26, 2003, on Montel.
57. Niqui McCown. November 5, 2002, on Montel.
58. Salvatore Minichiello. May 25, 2005, on Montel.
59. Anitra Mulwee. April 30, 2003, on Montel.
60. Michael Negrete. February 26, 2005, on Montel.
61. Jacqueline Elaine Nix. February 9, 2005, on Montel.
62. Michelle O’Keefe. November 2, 2000, on Montel.
63. Janice Powers. Browne had an interview with the sheriff’s department.³⁹
64. Shamika Riley. July 6, 2005, on Montel.
65. Rochelle Robinson and Michael Johnston. July 13, 1994, on Montel.⁴⁰
66. Christopher Scarbell and C.J. Scarbell. September 10, 2003, on Montel.
67. Jan Scharf. September 17, 2003, on Montel.
68. Tina Sinclair. November 19, 2003, on Montel.
69. Jonathan Skaggs. July 6, 2005, on Montel.
70. Bryan Keith Smith.⁴¹
71. Erica Heather Smith. November 24, 2004, on Montel.
72. Tammie Smith. October 20, 2004, on Montel.
73. John South. November 27, 2002, on Montel.
74. Leah Tagliaferri. November 26, 2003, on Montel.
75. Ryan Thompson. March 13, 2002, on Montel.
76. Yvonne Torch. November 30, 2005, on Montel.
77. Tabitha Tuders. February 18, 2004, on Montel.
78. Max Uffelman. October 21, 2002, on Montel.
79. Anthony Urciuoli. January 31, 2002, on Montel.
80. Terressa Lynn Vanegas. March 21, 2007, on Montel.
81. Pat Viola. February 11, 2004, on Montel.
82. Leanna Warner. November 19, 2003, on Montel.
83. Elizabeth and Nicole Watkins. September 24, 2003, on Montel.
84. Lindsay Wells. February 26, 2003, on Montel.
85. Amber Wilde. In July 2000 on Montel.⁴²
86. Carrie Ann Williams. November 9, 2005, on Montel.
87. Gina Williams. November 5, 2002, on Montel.
88. Sherita Williams. September 15, 2004, on Montel.
89. Wayma White. April 30, 2003, on Montel.
90. Carol Wood. April 11, 1997, on The Sally Jesse Raphael Show.

Notes

1. Rob Modic, “Conviction doesn’t settle much in Erica Baker case,” Dayton Daily News, October 9, 2005.
2. Donald McArthur, “Barker’s body embedded in riverbed, psychic says,” Windsor Star, February 22, 2001.
3. Sarah Sacheli, “Safety rope failed,” Windsor Star, June 15, 2004.
4. Zachary Dowdy, “When all else fails, try a sixth sense,” Newsday, Octo­ber 6, 1999.
5. Al Baker, “Remains unearthed in Brooklyn are those of a missing woman,” New York Times, November 25, 2000.
6. “Terrorist attacks: Marrow donor ‘moved mountains,’” Newsday, Sep­tember 16, 2001.
7. “Firefighter survives in girl who received bone marrow,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2002.
8. Wendy Mitchell, “Erica Fraysure: Questions remain unanswered,” The Ledge-Independent, October 20, 2005.
9. Benjamin Radford, “Sylvia Browne’s biggest blunder,” SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, May/June 2007.
10. Jack Foley, “No clues in Hollister man’s disappearance,” San Jose Mercury News, July 6, 1990.
11. Jack Foley, “Body found in Hollister is identified; coroner says man died of broken neck, injuries to head,” San Jose Mercury News, July 11, 1990.
12. Maggie Borman, “Man pleads guilty, sentenced in Angela Lee murder,” The Telegraph, November 12, 2008.
13. Maggie Borman, “Man faces charges in Angela Lee slaying,” The Telegraph, April 27, 2007.
14. Joe Nickell, “Levy case a psychic failure,” Center for Inquiry, March 11, 2009.
15. Benjamin Radford, “Psychics wrong about Chandra Levy,” SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, November/December 2002.
16. Michael Fuoco, “N. Braddock man held in mother-in-law’s killing,” Post-Gazette, March 18, 2003.
17. “A year later, police call slaying ‘very solvable,’” Associated Press, February 7, 2000.
18. Susan Kimball, “Ashley Ouellette murder investigation ongoing,” WCSH-TV, February 9, 2009.
19. Owen Moritz, “DNA links cop’s son to old slay,” Daily News, October 10, 2006.
20. Shawna Morrison, “Trial in ’00 death begins in Radford,” The Roanoke Times, February 27, 2007.
21. Alison Fitzgerald, “Six months later, still no trace of missing Attleboro men,” Associated Press, April 10, 1999.
22. Paul Edward and Elisa Crouch, “A missed turn led to tragedy in Fla.,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, June 23, 1999.
23. Benjamin Radford, “Art Bell’s show broadcasts Sylvia Browne failure about mine tragedy,” SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, March/April 2006.
24. “TV psychic misses mark on miners,” Fox News, January 5, 2006.
25. Chase Squires, “Psychic predicts leads in murder; victim’s spouse seeks help on TV talk show,” Herald-Journal, February 15, 1997.
26. Rachael Leonard, “Vick gets life in prison,” Herald-Journal, December 1, 2006.
27. “Jefferson County pawnbroker gets life plus 20 years in murder of jeweler John Slayton,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 25, 2006.
28. Monica Haynes, “Psychic, local women appear on ‘Montel,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 20, 1997.
29. “Schofield soldier charged in murder,” Star Bulletin, April 29, 2004.
30. “Former soldier gets three years for ’91 NC killing,” WIS News, April 25, 2006.
31. Steve Hensley, “Mountain cold case—Jackie Blair—2000,” WKYT-TV, June 15, 2008.
32. “News at Five 5:00 PM NBC,” Global Broadcast Database, June 7, 2006.
33. “Still missing, 4 years later,” Valley Independent, October 15, 2005.
34. Eric Louie, “Police seek new leads in 2002 killing of Livermore woman,” Contra Costa Times, January 8, 2005. The paper reported: “family members are still hoping for some type of closure. They continue to pass out fliers. They had also . . . paid psychic Sylvia Browne $700 for help.”
35. John McMillan, “Psychic gives police clues into priest’s 1992 slaying,” The Advocate, September 14, 1997.
36. “You’ll find Girly’s body in mineshaft, psychic says,” Albuquerque Tribune, December 19, 2002.
37. Erik Ingram, “Psychic helps Marin cops in assault case,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 20, 1986.
38. Stacey Wiebe, “Killer still at large,” Merced Sun-Star, December 21, 2002. According to the article, the daughter paid for “expensive phone call” with Browne and later appeared on Crossing Over with John Edward.
39. “Psychic asked to help solve woman’s murder,” The Daily Oklahoman, February 27, 1998.
40. John Hubbell, “Families offer $15,000 reward in double slaying,” The News Tribune, July 14, 1994.
41. “Mom asks sheriff to listen to psychic,” Star-News, January 28, 1998.
42. “Family of missing woman turns to psychic for help,” Star Tribune, July 18, 2000.