The Gathering of the Flakes in Calgary

You too, can be at the centre of the universe – for $63.00

Can you imagine how lucky I am, living here in Calgary? My home town is a site of a great convergence, a gathering of two of the worlds greatest flakes – Deepak Chopra and Sylvia Browne. Actually three flakes, Sarah Palin is coming too, but she is somewhat off topic for this blog.

Deepak, evidently, has come and gone. I missed him. You’d think that would be hard to do, given that attendees were taught the 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment.

The event was preceded by promotional pieces in the Calgary Herald masquerading as hard news. The Calgary Herald likes Deepak Chopra a lot.  According to the Herald, Deepak has taken on the US establishment single handed  (See: Author Deepak Chopra takes on U.S. establishment, ahead of Calgary visit.) Although, strangely enough, The Herald doesn’t bother to mention what it means by the U.S. establishment or what it means by saying Deepak is taking it on. The article does say that Deepak believes that politics in America has become divisive.  Wow! Thanks for the alert Deepak. I wonder how in tune with the universe you must be to figure that out.

Needless to say, The Calgary Herald was an event sponsor. For all the promotional effort, however, I haven’t met anyone that actually attended the Deepak event.

Then again, I don’t know that many wildly naive or downright stupid people. I wonder where they are? Well, on April 7, 2010, they will be at Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium listening to Spiritual Teacher and Psychic Sylvia Browne.

That’s right, the same Sylvia Browne who used the news of a coal mine disaster in West Virginia to prove her psychic abilities only to end up demonstrating that she;

i) has no psychic abilities and

ii) she will do virtually anything to pretend otherwise.

If you missed it, Sylvia was appearing on the Coast to Coast Radio Program with George Noory, when news broke that 12 of the 13 miners trapped in the Sago Mine Disaster had been found alive.

Noory: Of course, this is after the fact, with the 12 or 13 coal miners they found successfully.

Browne: I know.

Noory: Had you been on the program today, and had they not been found, would you have felt as if, because they had heard no sounds, that this was a very gloomy moment, and they might have all died?

Browne: No, I knew they were going to be found. Uh, you know, I hate people who say something after the fact. It’s just like I knew when the Pope was dead and I said it on, thank God I was on Montel’s show, and I said, according to the time, it was 9-something and whatever Rome time was, and I said he’s gone, and he was.

And then minutes later, when the news came that the miners were in fact dead, Browne reversed herself, saying:

Browne: I didn’t believe that they were alive.

Noory:  What’s that, the miners?

Browne:  Yeah, I didn’t think — and see, I’ve been on the show with you, but I don’t think there’s any that are going to make it.

Noory:  They say there are 12 gone. I think we threw you a curveball, we were telling you after the fact.

Browne: Yeah, no, I did believe that they were gone.

What kind of person does something like this? Whatever happened to shame? 

Well you won’t find it at The Calgary Herald as they are sponsor of Sylvia’s visit here.

In March 2004, James Randi, (The Amazing Randi), called Browne a liar on Paul Harris’ popular St. Louis radio show and continues to run a Million Dollar Challenge to Browne (and others) who claim psychic abilities. Browne, at one time, accepted Randi’s challenge to prove her abilities but she has since chickened out and now refuses to participate, claiming she doesn’t need the money. Which is very likely true.  There are plenty of  suckers around willing to spend between $63 and $126 a ticket – even in Calgary.

Then again, if she really did have psychic abilities (and any ethics) why wouldn’t she take Randi’s million and donate it to a worthwhile cause – say to Haiti? Come to think of it, if she has psychic abilities, why didn’t she warn the people of Haiti of the oncoming quake?

Oh right, I guess you have to buy a ticket first.