Rating: 
Summary: Thanks, Sylvia
Review: One of the reasons I enjoy most of Sylvia Browne's books, as I did this one, is that she is very forthcoming about where she has been and that she conveys just how difficult it really is to be spiritually intuitive. To improve their credibility and keep their egos in check, it would be well that others in the New Age/New Thought circles would follow Sylvia's example in this regard. One of her most famous truisms, one that I appreciate greatly, is that a psychic is rarely able to predict what will happen in their own life...a bit humbling to come to that realization, but if we all (including highly spiritually intuitive people) come here to grow, then this limitation would seem a given. However, there is an aspect of her personality that comes through in the blunt assertions she makes about the reality of our progression through spiritual and physical existences. My own sense is that, while very sincere, she may actually be oversimplifying and even exaggerating the process. Three things she appears to assert that I am not convinced of:
(1) All the "evil" people and most suicides don't get to go to her version of heaven because they take an almost immediate u-turn after death and come back into another life, which would seem guaranteed to make for yet another unfortunate and miserable existence on earth, not only for themselves, but (even worse) for many others.
(2) After death, everyone essentially goes to the same place to deliberately plan their next existence on earth. While this may eventually happen for many souls, I would tend to believe that a great many folks just go to a reality that fits their most recent earth experience and that they stay there indefinitely until their spirit has a yearning to grow and seeks out an understanding that will lead to another opportunity to facilitate that growth.
(3) Spiritual beings cannot read our minds unless we consciously allow them to. If psychic people here on earth are able to do this (and I have experienced it myself), then why is it that spiritual beings cannot do it? My own sense is that while some information is profoundly personal and off limits to others, we spiritually project our intentions here on earth and in the spiritual realm to facilitate the work we are intended to do. I am also not sold on her notion that the spirit world is a squeaky clean place and, except for the suicides and "bad guys" who are sent right back to earth after they die, we all essentially go to the same wonderful and resplendent location after our physical death. Based on the NDEs described by folks like Betty Eadie and Dannion Brinkley, I am inclined to believe that the afterlife location she describes in her books may very well exist, but, as Jesus said, "my Father's house has many rooms". From personal experiences and readings of other authors' works (P.M.H. Atwater, Howard Storm, Bruce Moen, Robert Monroe, among others) my belief is that the spirit realm is actually a very complicated set of realities, with many layers and many shades of light and dark within those layers. I think our world here on earth is a reflection of that complexity. It would be interesting if some day we could see some of the well known spiritual intuitives and serious researchers of reincarnation and paranormal events come together to have a discussion on some of the more controversial aspects (i.e. where they do not always agree) regarding what they assert about:
(a) Life after death
(b) The nature of good and evil
(c) The power that we possess individually and collectively to create our realities. Such a gathering might contribute to a better understand of the source or basis of some of their more controversial and intriguing ideas. As it is, the more I read books like Sylvia's, more questions are generated than answered.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoy "The Other Side and Back?" You'll Enjoy This too !
Review: After reading, enjoying and writing my review of Sylvia Browne's "The Other Side and Back" for Amazon.com, I was inspired to read this book. Her 249 page book details her interesting life and her special gift of prophecy. She describes what a psychic is, and how her life revolves around this special God given "gift." This is a gift that doesn't really make one's life easier. She tells about how her gift has helped her advise police departments searching for missing persons and criminals, and how some of her predictions helped others avoid dangerous situations. She also struggles with tragedies that she warned about, which resulted in deaths when her warnings were ignored. This book may bring comfort to believers (and some skeptics) and clarify their thinking about the present and the future. The book's 15 chapters include: A Psychic in Love, Growing Pains, Following the Blueprint, The Other Side, Haunting Expressions, Why Am I Here, Medicine and the Medium, and more. It's a very interesting read, and you might find yourself going back and reading some sections again in the future. It is thought provoking, even if you're a non-believer. The work may even make a believer of you! Whether or not you believe in psychics, knowledge is power, and you can only gain with this knowledge. Worth reading. I found it well worth the $ 10.36 price.
Rating: 
Summary: What those with lost loved ones want to hear
Review: The name Sylvia Brown sounded vaguely familiar to me when a friend of mine told me about this book and borrowed it to me so that I could read it. She grew up in a non-religious household and seemed eager for something to believe, and so she enthusiastically recommended it to me. I suppose I fit comfortably into that category of people that "believers" classify as "skeptics," and I am amazed by some of the reviews for this book that recommend it to all skeptics, saying that it will make a believer out of them. It will not.
If anything, it just strengthened my skepticism of this type of...belief system, if that's what one could call it. My biggest gripe about Sylvia's "religion" is that it tells gullible, grief-stricken people who have lost friends or relatives exactly what they want to hear. I don't think I could have come up with a more appealing, happy-ending scenario for life and death if I tried. But believing that you got a new car for Christmas just because that's what you really really wanted doesn't make it true.
Other gripes: I got the impression that Sylvia is somewhat (if not very) self-important. If she can't go and pick winning lottery numbers because you can't use your "gift" for selfish reasons, why not donate the money to charity? How can the surface of the "other side" be three feet above our own (that's why ghosts appear to float, of course) and infinite, whereas earth is of finite size? And what is with this whole New Age vibrational frequency thing anyway? What exactly is supposed to be vibrating?
If this is the best that the New Age religious/spiritual movement has to offer, I think I'll look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome self-promotion
Review: Detailed autobiography (though 3rd person) of the celebrity she thinks she is. If you can get through it - good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Adventures?
Review: This is a well-written book telling us about Sylvia and her experiences growing up with her strange "gift." She is a person with whom we can identify. She is a regular girl, no phony attitudes or "hocus-pocus" and she explains herself, her experiences, and her attitudes clearly to the reader. Knowing her roots are composed of a traditional religous heritage, a blend of several religions, and trying to retain those beliefs along with her psychic gifts, we have Sylvia. Interesting read. Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three
Rating: 
Summary: It was ok, but not enough
Review: This is the first of Ms. Browne's books that I have read. I stayed glued to each and every page. Wanted it to go on longer. In my life time, I have had a few things happen that I would classify as odd but they were true. The biggest thing that I have happened is when my oldest daughter was 7 yrs old (she's now 29)I could visualize seeing her with a cast on her right arm. I had no explanation or reason as to why thid was happening. It became very scary to me. At the time my husband was in the NAVY and stationed in Key West, Florida. This vision kept coming to me again and again and again. Finally one day I got a call from the elementary school where my daughter attended the first grade. They told me that she had fallen off of the monkey bars and sprained her arm. At that time, I could hear her screaming/crying in the background. I said no, she has broken her arm-of course they disagreed with me and I again told them that she had fractured her arm. I then told them that I was on my way over there to take her to the doctor. I told them to make sure they had a splint on her arm. When I had arrived, no splint or ice pack had been applied to her arm. So, I made them give me something to splint her arm with. They weren't really concerned so I said fine and gathered her arm up in a pillow (which I had to sign in blood that I would return)to where she could not move her arm and got her into the car and headed to the hospital. After x-rays and a shot of pain medication, I was told that she had indeed broken the upper bone of her right arm in the growth area. With that diagnosis, I really began to think that I was going crazy-visually seeing in my mind what had happened 3 weeks before it had happened. After having read this book, I discovered that it was not such a weird occurance afterall. It took me 2 days to read this book. I wish it had been much longer. Well worth the time to read.
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