Welp. On the 12th March, Kim Kardashian shared a tweet of a passage from ‘psychic’ Sylvia Browne’s 2008 book that supposedly predicts the global COVID-19 crisis. The screenshot has been spreading on social media – Kim’s post alone was re-tweeted more than 48,000 times.
So what’s really going on here – could a ‘psychic’ have predicted COVID-19 (or anything, for that matter) and why are people so desperate to believe it’s true?
Where is it from?
The short paragraph is from ‘End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World’ by renowned ‘psychic’ Sylvia Browne, and was published in 2008.
The book does exactly what the title says it will: brings together a wide range of potential prophecies about the end of the world, including Browne’s own ideas, from sources like Nostradamus’ writings and the Bible’s Book of Revelations.
Browne passed away in 2013, but thanks to Kimmy K and others spreading this passage around ‘End of Days’ has had a sales spike – it hit #2 on Amazon’s nonfiction bestsellers chart.
How do ‘psychics’ work?
In terms of this specific prediction, it’s likely Browne was (knowingly or unknowingly) informed by events that had already happened. The SARS outbreak had occurred in 2004, only a few years prior to when ‘End of Days’ was published. It would not have been a stretch to think a similar event could occur again – in fact, COVID-19 is the second respiratory illness to affect the world since 2004, with isolated outbreaks of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 and 2018.
More broadly, being ‘psychic’ is a combination of: vague language; interpreting cues in people’s behavior or leveraging past events; and taking advantage of the fact, that really, most people have the exact same problems.
This fascinating account from a former ‘psychic’ explains it well. Felicity Carter says what convinced people to believe in her ‘potent psychic powers’ was:
- Using highly symbolic language, then allowing people to apply their own meanings (e.g.: claiming that someone in the room was “battered and bruised”, caused a woman to come forward who was suffering domestic abuse)
- Making safe assumptions about the problems people face; as Felicity explains: “Heartbroken young men, for example, talk about it to psychics, because it’s less risky than telling their friends. Sometimes I’d mischievously say, “Let her go. She’s not worth it,” as soon as one arrived.”
- Listening for cues in her client’s behaviour, like whether they sounded excited or sad when using certain words or names
On top of that, we tend to put greater emphasis on information that feels true to us, and dismiss or ignore information that doesn’t fit with our worldview. How often have you taken a personality test and brushed off the descriptions that you didn’t agree with about yourself?
The same principle is at work in ‘psychic’ predictions – it takes two to tango. If a psychic tells you what you were hoping to hear or info that matches your situation (regardless of whether it’s good news or bad), you’ll agree with them.
It’s up to us to be less gullible.
Is this kind of the same as how astrology works?
Yep! It’s precisely the same as how astrology is crafted – using purposely and carefully vague language to describe a general set of circumstances that could reasonably apply to a large number of people.
Otherwise known as the Barnum effect.
There’s a whole chapter on how to talk about Astrology in an intelligent way (and the one thing it’s actually useful for) in our book, How to Win Every Argument.
How accurate is ‘psychic’ work?
Like so many things in life, being a ‘psychic’ is a numbers game – if you shoot enough shots, some of them are bound to go in. And Browne was a controversial and inaccurate ‘psychic’.
Some of her many, many false predictions were relatively harmless:
- That Julia Roberts marriage would end; ‘predicted’ in 2004, Roberts and husband Danny Moder are still married to this day
- That David Letterman would quit The Late Show after his 2000 season; he went on to host the show for another 15 years
- That Browne herself would pass away at 88; she died aged 77
- That US troops would be pulled out of Iraq in June/July 2004; the US were temporarily ‘out’ of Iraq by 2011 – a full seven years after Browne claimed – only to return again in 2014. There are still US troops in Iraq, 16 years later
However, many were far more damaging as she unnecessarily increased the pain and suffering of those with missing loved ones, famously including:
- Claimed missing girl Amanda Berry was dead in 2004; Berry was rescued from her abductor in 2013
- Told parents of missing boy Shawn Hornbeck that he had died crushed between two boulders; he was rescued from his abductor four years later
The ‘End of Days’ book itself is full of multiple potential ‘prophecies’ – only one paragraph out of a 288-page book is currently circulating. What does that say about the ‘accuracy’ of the rest? The very nature of ‘psychic’ work is that only the stories that seem to ‘come true’ hold our attention and capture our imagination.
What did Browne have to say about her many, highly publicized false predictions while she was alive? After Amanda Berry was found alive, Browne reportedly responded with: “Only God is right all the time”.
Gross.
So why do people believe this stuff?
In a word: Hope.
The world is incredibly complex and random, and it’s human nature to search for stories that help us understand what happens to us.
It’s very similar to religion in that way: creating (mysterious, fantastical) explanations for life so that believers can feel safer, and behave ‘better’, in the knowledge that they know what is it come.
The unknown is scary – psychic predictions, like religion, is our attempt to remove some of that fear.
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