The Allure of Prophecy

The play Macbeth by Shakespeare has the three witches that make a prediction to Macbeth’s future. He would be future king, but he began doubting as the king announced his son to take his place. He took matters into his own hands and eventually paid the price with his life. Back then people believed in spirits and would believe in prophecies. Today in the 21st century spirits are never taken into consideration for anything more than beliefs, but there are still people who predict the future. A very well known psychic would be Sylvia Browne.
She claims that she can communicate with the spirits, which in turn can tell her predictions, talk to the dead, and advice you about your future. In my opinion, I would trust the daily horoscope on the newspaper over her predictions. What I am trying to say is that her “predictions” are too general and some are just common facts. In the Hindu culture there are also predictions made, most of them are from using astrology and numerology. I do not believe in them, but I have heard many predictions coming true. An example would be my father’s prediction about his working visa. He asked a priest in July whether he will be accepted or denied for the visa, and the priest said that he will get it in the month of October. That would be something worth believing as the priest gave the time range for the prediction.
I watched several video clips with Sylvia Browne on the Montel Show, where she made predictions for the audience. Most of the questions were about a person missing, how the victim died, if the victim is still living or not and etc. Browne’s answers were completely off for many of them, they had no relation to the victim. An example was “My boyfriend is been missing for over 5 years, what do you think happened to him?” Sylvia replied with no thoughts that she sees him drowning. When the woman replied that he was missing from 9/11 and he was a firefighter, the entire audience was confused whether Sylvia’s answer had any relation to what could have possibly happened.



For the most time that she has been wrong she tries to cover up what she says with “bizarre” words to try to persuade the person asking the question.
Psychics such as Sylvia Browne use words in a way that would persuade the audience. She is completely wrong and has caused many breakdowns for people with her predictions. On the other hand she has gained the trust of many people using clever words and not getting into anything specific. People who claim to have such abilities are definitely not sincere, especially Sylvia Browne. Charging $700 for a phone consultation which is under one hour is just business and nothing more.
I do respect the prophecies in other religions, but back to Sylvia Browne she doesn’t claim to have these “powers” from any religion, philosophies, or even principles. As a Hindu, believing in talking to the dead would be absolutely out of the question as in Hinduism the soul leaves the body and goes to the next one after death(reincarnation).
Out of all of the predictions Sylvia made for the year 2007 not very many came true and it should make us wonder why people still look up to her for answers after the breakdowns people have suffered from her words.