Following The Amaz!ng Meeting 6 last weekend, the famed and justly popular Robert Lancaster had the chance to see Sylvia Browne perform her show at a Las Vegas casino. Not only was he allowed in (with a ticket), but he was chosen to ask a question! Of course, since it’s Robert, he asked a very fair, straightforward question about Sylvia’s supposed education, then thanked her and returned to her seat. That’s where the story gets fun . . . go read more on Stop Sylvia!
I’m a bit torn about the whole thing. I love that Robert got a chance to see Sylvia’s awful, awful show, but it annoys me that she got about $300 richer from the trip. Still, I’m confidant Robert will make the most of it — he even managed to engage some other audience members and probably planted the seeds of doubt.
Anyway, well done Robert!
For further reading, here are all Skepchick posts tagged Sylvia.
It made my day to read Robert’s post. Required skeptical reading.
Very nicely done, Robert!
Thanks, all.
Rebecca, what kind of a marketer are you, not to take this opportunity to mention that a semi-nude photograph of me is available in the 2009 Skepdude Calendar for a mere $20? :D
That was an absolutely fantastic read. I’m really glad you wrote up the coverage of the event, Robert.
Yup you are quite definitely THE man, Robert! It did my heart good to hear about the other audience members voicing their doubts.
And hey, I’m in the calendar, too!
I appreciate the manner in which Robert dealt with security… really showed he had the class Sylvia sorely lacks!
I admire your restraint. I would definitely have been tempted to ask her something she couldn’t guess, then shout “HA!!! You’re WRONG! Suck it!”
You certainly took the high road on that one ;o)
JSug: “I admire your restraint. ”
Here, here. Restraint and patience are the qualities I marvel at the most in people who do these sorts of things.
I’m a pretty mild-mannered guy, but I really don’t think I could keep my cool.
It would have been a great photo to see Robert and Sylvia (sort of like Stephen Colbert with his black-woman-indian-gay-jewish etc. friend).
Excellent work from Robert, as always.
I’ve been reading the StopSylviaBrowne website since it went up, and I’m amazed that she’s still in business.
Kudos on handling the situation with grace and tact.
Bravely done, Robert!
(also, testing, testing my avatar.)
I am struck how easy it is for skeptics to be covert party crashers (i.e. Dawkins at Expelled, and now, this brilliant caper). It’s so funny, because as a whole the TAM goers were very cool, down to earth and polite. And I think, if the tables were turned and true believers came to our shindigs like TAM and Skeptrack (see it live at DragonCon 2008!) we would show them the respect that we would show our friends. How sad that most people like Sylvia Browne who consider themselves spirtually enlightened show such a contradiction to the doctrines they claim to revere. Robert, it was an honor to meet you at TAM, thanks for signing my book and we hope you will be back at TAM 7.
Wonderful.
Very well done.
And… Sylvia was right, for once.
You were very well taken care of, by security.
In fact, they basically invited you back any time that horrible woman is out of town.
That couldn’t be often enough for me, but they’ve got a tough job to do.
I’m sure they’ll always remember and appreciate that you, not Sylvia Browne, showed them the proper amount of respect.
rod
“How sad that most people like Sylvia Browne who consider themselves spirtually enlightened show such a contradiction to the doctrines they claim to revere.”
I don’t believe Sylvia consideres herself enlightened. She’s a total fraud, and she knows it. You only have too watch the contempt she shows her fans to realize it.
And, just when I thought life couldn’t get any more surreal…
http://cectic.com/164.html