And then there’s Sylvia. I’ve been listening to her on the radio every week for well over a year now, where she has a one-hour call-in show. And you know, the more I listen to her, the more I wonder just how gullible people can be to believe that she is a good psychic. If you listen long enough you will hear the pattern…she has a grab-bag of standard answers that she uses on most callers and she repeats them over and over again…and I often wonder how it is that people listening to the show don’t notice. Maybe they don’t want to. I suspect that many are so desperate to hear what they *want* to hear that they tune out to the obvious.

Here’s a sample of what you will hear in a Sylvia reading on any given program:

Caller: “Can you tell me what’s wrong with me? I feel achy and tired and the doctors don’t know what it is.”
Sylvia: “Get your thyroid checked. It’s your thyroid.”
Caller: “But they tested it already. Twice. They said it’s fine.”
Sylvia: “Yes, but you have to ask for the T3, T4. Most doctors won’t test that unless you ask for it.”
Caller: “Are you sure it’s my thyroid? The doctors think it might be something to do with my blood.”
Sylvia (long sigh): “Oh yes, but doctors don’t know what they’re doing half the time. I’m telling you, it’s your thyroid.”

Caller: “Sylvia, can you tell me where my career is going?”
Sylvia: “Oh, you’re going to find something in the medical field.”
Caller (confused): “Medical? Really? But I don’t even like hospitals.”
Sylvia: “Yes, but it won’t be in a hospital; you’ll be doing paperwork for the hospital.”

Caller: “Sylvia, I don’t know what to do; I have no money and the bills are piling up. Can you see what’s going to happen?”
Sylvia: “Yes…you’ll be getting into real estate.”
Caller (confused): “Real estate? But I have no money.”
Sylvia: “That doesn’t matter. You won’t be buying expensive houses, you’ll be buying those cheap places and flipping them.”
Caller: “But…how would I pay for them?”
Sylvia: “Oh, you can get those places for a song. I know a woman who bought a house for $3000 and she flipped it and sold it and made a nice profit. That’s what you’ll be doing.”

These are some answers I’ve heard over and over and over again from Sylvia. Health is either thyroid (that’s the biggest pat answer for her) or reaction to dairy, or she tells the person they don’t get enough protein, and to eat more of it. She’s told people that doctors don’t know what they’re talking about, and then she goes ahead and gives her own medical advice. (In one call I heard, a woman phoned and said her stomach was always in pain and drs hadn’t found the cause…Sylvia advised the woman to lie off the end of her bed every day and do stomach crunches…that would *cure* her.) For people calling about employment, she generally tells them ‘medical field’, ‘data entry’ or - if it’s a man - ‘technical/computer’ work. For relationships, she goes according to what the person has told her and then ‘predicts’ whether they will stay or go by info the person has already given. (e.g., “Our relationship seems like it’s been going downhill for the past year, Sylvia”; “Well, you will be finding someone else soon, you won’t be staying with this guy, he’s a loser anyway.”)

I must admit I listen to Sylvia on the radio just to get my ire up…it’s kind of refreshing to have one’s emotions riled every so often, and Sylvia does that for me. She has to be the most obvious fake psychic I’ve ever seen, but what’s scary is her ‘advice’. I often wonder how many lives she’s harmed with her so-called predictions, and how many she will continue to harm.

Oh, and today I heard her son Chris for the first time, on Sylvia’s radio spot. Forty minutes into the show he abandoned ship, leaving the radio host hanging…but before this he did several readings for callers. And what’s scary…he’s hashing up the same pat answers that his mother does. It seems to be genetic. And I’m not referring to psychic abilities.