NEW YORK -- The special events hall at the Jacob Javits Convention Center is not an easy space to fill.
But on a balmy spring night, Sylvia Browne packed the 30,000-square-foot space as easily as a global trade show or a jobs and careers fair.
And her product? Immensely more entertaining.
Browne is a psychic- medium, meaning she -- at least according to her -- receives information beyond her five senses and hears the musings of the dead.
Her greatest gift, some would argue, is her exceptional showmanship, or ability to present psychic-mediumship, spiritual ponderings and personal memoir with theatrical flair.
For the 3,000 people -- some who had paid as much as $75 a ticket to see her -- she did not disappoint.
Seated on stage with a flowing print blouse and dark slacks, Browne, 69, a brassy blonde with fire-engine red nails and a searing wit to match, answered questions from audience members about loved ones who have passed, love lives that have gone off-kilter and health concerns that baffle doctors.
Some audience members looked relieved at her answers; others, downright puzzled; and still others, doubtful. Nevertheless, at the end of the event, lines to get her books, audiotapes, CDs and autographs ran the length of the walls.
Real, or not?
Is Browne authentic? Should any psychic-medium be considered so? The debate is an old and disputatious one.
And the answers always seem to come back with the sing-songiness of a nursery rhyme. Yes. No. Maybe so. What is certain is that purveyors of the paranormal are no longer dismissed as sideshow or carnival attractions.
Instead, they have moved into the mainstream, maneuvering their way into areas once handled solely by therapists, religious counselors and life coaches, some sociologists say. And in the process they are creating a booming cottage industry.
"There is no question that psychics-mediums have become much more respected," said Patricia Baker, a sociologist and psychotherapist in Boston who is working on a book about people's changing attitudes toward authority.
"And it definitely seems that people are turning to them more for their problems, particularly when terrorism, war and scandals have caused people to question our political and religious leaders."
Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe in the paranormal, which includes extrasensory perception (ESP), communication with the dead and channeling spiritual entities, according to a poll last year conducted by the Gallup Organization. That's up from the half or more Americans who said they believed in the paranormal in a similar Gallup Poll done in 1990.
TV on the bandwagon
TV and cable stations have been banking on believers who are fueling the psychics-mediums phenomenon.
Cable's CourtTV has launched "Haunted Evidence," a show about a psychic, a paranormal investigator and a medium who team up to help solve cold police cases.
It's no surprise that producers are scrambling to put more paranormal fare together.
James Van Praagh, psychic and co-producer of the top-rated drama "Ghost Whisperer" on CBS, and Allison Dubois, the psychic-medium who is the inspiration for "Medium" on NBC, boast viewers in the millions and have both written books that have scaled The New York Times best-seller list.
And another celebrity psychic-medium is on the way. Mary Rose Occhino, a rising star from Long Island, has already written two books: "Beyond These Four Walls" (Berkley Books, 2004) and "Signs of the Dove" (Berkley Books, 2006), which chronicle her life as a psychic-medium and her battle with multiple sclerosis
Source: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 007/LIVING
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