Sylvia Browne

Associated Organizations 

• The Society of Novus Spiritus
• Gnostically Speaking

• Spirit Guides
• Psychic Readings
• Psychic Predictions
• Om & Anza

Doctrines:

From the 21 Tenents:

  V - Turn thy power outward, not inward, for therein shines the Light and the Way.

XIII - God does not create the adversities in life. By your own choice they exist to aid in your perfection.
 
 XX - We believe that Our Lord was crucified but did not die on the cross and went on to live out His life in France with his mother and Mary Magdalene, his wife.

XXI - We, the Gnostics, kept this knowledge hidden that Christ's lineage exists even today and the truth, long-buried is open to research.

From commentary:

III - Purity  God is pure and constant in Their love. People are erratic and subject to petty behavior. Never ascribe to God such pettiness, for it is not in Their nature, only ours.
Negativity abounds in the world. Did God create it? No. Man alone is responsible for it. Through free will choice, some people invert good to make a negative. This is one aspect of your perfection, to choose a path of Light or Darkness.

IV - Creator  You are an actual part of God; you carry within your soul a spark of the Divine. This spark has marvelous abilities, largely untapped, and can perform miracles. The most pressing need in this world is to make it your heaven. Call upon the strength within. Allow this innate goodness and beauty to mold the world around you. Let your God-Center view life as a heaven. Control negativity. Do not allow it to control you.

XIII - Perfection  Does God send damnation and pain to you? Never. Do you send such things to yourself? Yes. And the reason is to provide obstacles which aid in perfecting your soul. People having many trials in life are perfecting faster, by their own choice, where others may want to take it slower. The end result is the same. We will all arrive at a point of self contentment. and remain with God in our home called the Other Side.

 Goals

Novus is dedicated to eliminating the false concepts of Satan, hell, sin, guilt, and the fear of God, all of which are contrary to our understanding of a benevolent Creator. We know that an all-loving God does exist, One who is infinitely concerned about our welfare and state of being. The pain of life is not punishment from God, rather it is a learning tool, and a very necessary one in the larger scheme of life.

In Short

• God is all loving, never judgmental.
• God is dual Beings, Mother AND Father.
• Life on Earth is for our learning, to overcome the old, control-oriented concepts of guilt, sin and fear.
• Because Mother and Father God love us, we are given many opportunities to live (Reincarnation).
• Before and after each lifetime, our Home is on the Other Side, a place of peace, lightness and continued learning.  Prior to incarnating, we sit with our counselors and design our lesson plan (including Spirit Guide; life Chart with Themes and Option Lines; etc.).
• While incarnated, we have support from a whole host of beings on the Other Side, so we are never alone.
• The goal in life -- Sylvia's short version -- is to 'love God, do good, then shut up and go Home.'

 - Sources: Official Web Site

Self Description:

 KING: Sylvia, what do you do?

SYLVIA BROWNE: I feel that I channel most of what I get from God. I really do believe that. I don't think anybody can ever discredit the fact that we are tubes. I just happen to be born with it.

KING: Why you?

BROWNE: I don't know. It's the same thing as...

KING: When you get this channeling what do you do? What do you mean by channeling?

BROWNE: Channeling means that I just am like an open tube. What goes on with Sylvia is entirely different from what I get. I mean Sylvia can have her own problems but there's a side of me that's like a tube in which it just comes through.

KING: In which you see things about people?

BROWNE: See things about and I'm like with the rest of them, I'm much more into the whole idea of God's goodness and the survival of the soul after death.

Source: CNN LARRY KING LIVE, Are Psychics for Real?, Aired January 7, 2006

Fees:

Browne charges  $750 per phone reading. (Up from $400 in 2000.)

And an undisclosed but obviously much larger amount for personal reading.

Conclusion

Browne's idiosemantic use of the term "gnostic" is an addition to a New Age world view with no connection to the Gnostic tradition. Although her group claims to favor gnosis over faith, this 'gnosis' is one individual's, Browne's, and so there must be faith in her. This is typical of the revealed religions that use the terms "gnostic" and "gnosis." Faith in someone else's Faith, becomes faith in someone else's Gnosis. Changing words without changing pragmatic meanings.

 All of Browne's other claims rest upon her claim of "psychic" abilities. However, she is very much the performing "stage psychic": charging enormous amounts for her readings, and making many public predictions that are false. Her doctrines also seem to contain little that might be mistaken as challenging, and certainly there is nothing that would injure it's marketability. Seemingly another form of religion as a defense against a spiritual experience.

Although entirely focused on Browne, her son is the chosen successor as head of her church: as she claims that her powers are hereditary.