Ok. I've had time to digest and think about this. I was ready earlier to rage away and say every nasty thing that came to mind about Sylvia's so-called medical advice. Then I thought "well, ok we should really just take this and dissect it dispassionately, point out what is wrong, reckless, and downright sleazy in such a way that doesn't look as if we're on a mission to slander."
So let me take a second to calmly discuss the OP and the quoted exchange between SB and the audience member.
1) The woman told her two things wrong with her mother, and Browne then took what she thought was the most immediately dangerous and ran with it. Referring to Lupus, Browne used that fact gleaned from the woman's introduction to then assume she could safely say "well the lupus is probably what is immediately dangerous." MS is not a fast acting disease, at least not like lupus or cancer can be.
2) Browne stuck her foot in her mouth with this, because she could not then recant and say "oh, now they found a tumor?" The reason she could not go back on her leap into cold reading is that she says she is psychic, and maintains she has an accuracy rate, and despite her excuses that she cannot be right all the time, she uses an appearance of knowledge to bolster her cold reading. This is how she is taken seriously. If you forcefully say something to someone, most likely (if that person is not a critical thinker) they will assume you know what you are talking about.
3) This is what makes Browne's reading on this woman so dangerous. She has now dismissed a very specific ailment in favor of maintaining an air of knowledge. She's backed into a corner, and has to verbally bully her way out to save face. Unfortunately this means outright dismissing a tumor as a lesion, which is a mistake that doctors are not going to make when diagnosing with advanced imaging.
4) Tumor is not a term that is thrown around easily by doctors. If an oncologist, or a radiologist who is doing the imaging says "I see a tumor" they are usually pretty knowledgeable enough in how a tumor appears in an MRI, CT, or X-ray to distinguish it from a lesion. Especially if they are using radioactive dyes during the scans. Generally, however, they will stick to "This is consistent with a tumor" or "This appears to be a tumor" and then want to biopsy to be absolutely sure, but do not mistake that level of thoroughness for a lack of understanding of how a tumor appears in advanced imaging.
Here is a pic of a spine of someone with MS with a lesion:
Here is a pic of my spine with a tumor:
Both are MRIs. Despite not being the same patient, or even ailment, the difference in coloring and appearance is enormous.
If you can't figure out where the tumor is on the second one, start counting vertibrae and discs.
Note that the lesion is blurry edged, and not well defined except in the middle, at the center of the irritation. Note that a tumor has solid, clearly defined edges.
I'm not a doctor, or a radiology tech, but even I can see the differences.
To explain further, imaging of tumors is reviewed not by one doctor, but by a whole panel. This is called a "tumor board." It may be possible for one doctor to make a grossly incompetent mistake, but it is highly unlikely the whole tumor board will make the same mistake.
To sum up: This is exceptionally dangerous of Browne. This reading is a classic example of her jumping before she's milked enough information in her cold readings, and has to outright dismiss a fact/symptom that is an enromous red flag to someone who has actual medical training. If a doctor were to gain the knowledge of a tumor after making the assumption/diagnosis that the lupus is what is causing the problem, and then once discovering the tumor, continue to insist on the lupus and saying "it's probably a lesion, not a tumor" that doctor would be sued out of business.
So let me say this to the lurkers/anyone else reading this that may think they want to go to Browne to ask about a medical problem they or their loved ones are having: Just don't do it. There is no better source of information and knowledge to diagnose and treat medical problems as what doctors go through. The not only spend many years in med school, and learning on the job as interns, etc but they also continue their learning each year through mandatory seminars, classes and reading. While you may find an incompetent doctor (as you will find someone in every profession who is substandard in their abilities) the vast majority of the medical profession - all of it, nurses, doctors, interns, specialists, etc - is extremely highly trained and have the tools and knowledge you need to be treated.
This, however, does not mean everything can be cured. It does mean, though, that you will have the best chance of being treated successfully for whatever the problem may be.
Sylvia Browne does not have this training, nor does she have this knowledge. She does not understand basic medicine, as has been repeatedly demonstrated by her incompetence in even understanding the difference between how a lesion appears, and how a tumor appears in advanced medical imaging. Sylvia does not have the ability to do anything but perform blind guesses and hope you will reason those guesses post hoc into something resembling correct. It is dangerous, irresponsible, and completely unethical for her to give any appearance of having knowledge of any medical kind, and to then pretend to pass that on to someone who is genuinely in need of real doctors and specialists.
Now, having thought about this further I have also decided that our shock, disgust and derision of Sylvia's behavior should also be very openly displayed. Now that I have calmly explained what is so wrong, and dangerous about Sylvia's behavior, let me now spend a moment telling you exactly how I feel about it as a cancer patient:
It's ****ing ********. I cannot express in any amount of swearing how horribly offensive someone who would pull a diagnosis out of their ass and pretend they know what is best without so much as a day of medical training when the person asking for help is so clearly in need of an entire team of specialists. I cannot fathom how someone would ever be able to look themselves in the mirror or sleep at night knowing they outright lied about having any firsthand knowledge of the ailments of their customers/clients when they knowingly use cold reading techniques and outright ******** lies to make a living. This person's mother has some VERY serious and complicated medical issues, which probably need an entire hospital full of specialists working as a team to treat. The LAST thing this person, or their mother, needs is to have some two bit ******** con artist pretend to know what's best and tell them to ignore or second guess the opinions of highly trained professionals. Were this any other type of opinion - for example, were Sylvia to give legal advice without being a member of the bar, and charge for it, she would be in jail faster than you can blink. Make no mistake, Sylvia was paid to dispense this advice. She was paid by Montel's show (whom I consider an accomplice) and she dispensed dangerous, and incompetent medical advice. This, in my not so ****ing humble opinion, makes for an arrangement that puts Montel and Sylvia in business together working as doctors without a license. It needs to stop before she ****ing kills someone.
Were I at that taping, I would have stood up, and while walking up to Sylvia to smack the ugly off of her for her actions, I would have been shouting every obscenity in the book. Her actions are inexcusable and an affront to medical science. She is a disgrace and a fraud.
If I believed in hell, I would wish her to burn in it. Since I don't I can only hope that nasty bitch someday ends up with a cancer of her own. Were that to happen, I can ****ing guarantee that chain-smoking trailer trash harpy would have an entire team of oncologists, and not one ****ing psychic to diagnose and treat her.
What a ****ing evil evil evil bitch.
