Blog Post #1: The Allure of Prophecy

In my English class we are currently studying Macbeth and we find out that there are three witches who are involved in the play. They play a major role in predicting what will happen to Macbeth and Banquo. The prophecies are bizarre but are truly accurate as we find out later on. Ms. Sylvia Browne does the same thing, she makes predictions about the future. Is she the modern day witch?

But unlike Macbeth, which is a fictional play written long ago by William Shakespeare, Ms. Sylvia Browne is reality, she’s for real, but does the same go for her predictions? I think otherwise. There have been records that people in the past have been able to predict what will happen in the future. Ever herd of a person called Michel de Nostredame aka Nostradamus. Well he was a French apothecary who is world renown for his prophecies. Nostradamus has been credited with predicting many events in world history from the Great Fire of London, to the rising of Adolf Hitler, to the September 11 terrorists attack in the USA. Both World Wars, the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Apollo moon landings, the death of Princess Diana, and the Space shuttle Challenger disaster are a few of his so called predictions which came true. Most of his prophecies involve tragedies, disasters, loss of life or death. All of Nostradamus' claims can be considered reliable since all of these events actually happened. But many of Sylvia's claims have been wrong.

Personally, I have never been to a psychic nor has anyone in my family. Can a psychic actually tell you about your present, past, or future? I don't believe in this but in the religion which I follow (Hinduism), many people do. There are many people in our society who have the ability to do palm readings and predict your whole future by using numbers from the day in which you were born. They claim that they can predict your whole entire future based on the time, date and the star on which you were born. I partly believe in this because I was raised up in a culture where everyone believes in this. But this doesn't stop me from picking up the paper everyday and turning to the back page to check my horoscope. Even though sometimes I feel that doing this is a waste of time, I still do it day after day. Does this mean that I believe horoscopes? No, it just simply means that since I was raised up the Hindu way, there will always be a part of me that will follow the Hindu culture.

Personally I feel that Sylvia Browne is a fraud. First of all, she is very intelligent. Her careful chose of words enables her to make predictions that are so vague but yet have the ability to come true. By appearing on the Montel show, Larry King Live and so forth, it gives her credibility which tends to lead people into believing her prophecies. Her prices for consultations are ridiculously high ($700 for a 20 minute phone call in addition to the 20 min long distance phone bill). Let alone her high prices, most of her predictions are wrong. A classic example was on the Montel show when the parents of a lost child asked her where their child was. She simply said that the child was dead. Her answer was simple, straightforward, quick and dead wrong! A few days later the missing child was found. Sylvia's prediction lead law enforcements officials to abandon the search and look in the wrong area, costing thousands of extra dollars out of the taxpayers pocket and wasting valuable man power.

When it comes to her predictions for 2007, all I can say is that they were completely absurd. The London underground bombs happened in 2005 and never again. Who doesn't know that the value of property always increases? The environment has always been changing. For the past fifty years glaciers have always been breaking apart. Texas has always been the major city to be hit by tornadoes and who doesn't know that the Yukon has the coldest winters in Canada (like duh its in the most Northern part of Canada). For many years she has kept on saying that a tsunami will hit New York and for many years she has been getting this prediction wrong. And even I can predict that Bush's approval rating will rise after he brings the troops home.

But this is completely my opinion. I'm not saying that all psychics are fake or that there aren't people in the world who can't make predictions. All I'm saying is that all this is a matter of your opinion and what you believe in. A persons belief is very strong and it takes a lot of effort to change the mind of somebody who really believes in something. So in the end its really up to you to decide what you believe in. Please feel free to leave your comments on this mind boggling but yet controversial issue.

I leave you with a clip in which Sylvia Browne gets debunked on Anderson Cooper 360°. Enjoy!!! (Please turn off the music on my blog before you view this clip – media player in located in the column on your right hand side :-) )