I was leafing through Sylvia Browne’s website the other day and I was checking out the hypnosis training that is offered by her church. 
My mind was blown!!

From the site:

Hypnosis Certification Training includes a minimum of 150 hours including classroom training, and practical application. Training begins with ten days of intensive classroom instruction, which will take place at our headquarters in Campbell California. Experienced Sylvia Browne Hypnosis Training Center Master Hypnotists < That must be the now infamous Vera Espana and Darren English and the like...>, who have been approved by Sylvia Browne to train you, will conduct all training.

Before completion of the classroom training at our headquarters, students will be required to take a written exam and an oral exam.

Following the initial classroom training, students must complete practice hypnosis sessions using a variety of techniques and methodologies. Practice hours will be completed at the student’s own pace, in their community or location of their choosing.

Students must successfully complete the oral and written exams before conducting practice hypnosis sessions and additional requirements to be applied toward certification as a hypnotist.

Upon completion of all requirements, students must provide evidence of all practice hypnosis sessions to be considered for certification by Sylvia Browne Hypnosis Training Center.

The first thing that got me was the cost.  The training registration costs $2000!! <say what??>
Now, because the training happens in Campbell California, you have pay your own airfare, hotel and food for at least 9 days which is the length of the course.

So, let’s see…
Airfare = (average airfare from Expedia.com from Phila. to San Jose which I believe is the closest airport equals $400 one way) = $800
Transportation from Airport to Hotel (avg for round trip to and from airport) = $200
Transportation to and from hotel to Novus Spiritus = unknown
Hotel (average fee per night for 10 nights since it’s a 10 day course $110 for lower-end hotels) = $1100
Food = I have only heard of the high cost of living in California so I can assume that 2 weeks worth of dining will run you up to about $50 a day (give or take…some meals will be quickies and I’m sure you’ll get invited along for some outings with your fellow classmates) = $500
Hypnotherapy Course = $2000
Odds and ends and souveniers = intangible but probably more than you plan on spending

$4600 <that you know of> to go and BEGIN your training ONLY to have to be recertified again in 2 years and if I understand the Training Catalog correctly, you have to go back to Campbell for the 15 hour recertification training!!!

After you’ve completed all of this, it is up to you to get your own place to conduct your skills as it is a requirement to have 50 hours of documented out-of-class or “practical” training so you’re going to have to set yourself up with somewhere to conduct these hours unless you do friends and family.

But wait!  That’s not all!

You also MUST purchase and maintain malpractice insurance plus the cost of possibly renting a small space to conduct this as many people won’t go to you house for hypnotherapy.  Some would but I wouldn’t if I were to go for hypnotherapy that is…

Any monies you collect through your practice MUST be documented and forwarded to Novus regularly (control issues?) and if you get any referrals from the Campbell office, you are required to send a percentage of the fee you collected from the referral.

It’s the same as when you become a Minister and you open your own church.  You’re contracted to send them monthly reports including a recording of your service so that they can assure that you are following their strict guidelines AND you have to tell them how much you collected.  YES!!  You’ve seen it all.  Organized Gnostics tithing!!!  A lot of people believe that Sylvia pays to keep these churches up and running but the truth is that you pay for it yourself and after one year you are required to send Sylvia 10% of your collections!!!!! 
 
It’s just another lie that is spread by carefully planted inner people of the organization…

So, back to the hypnotherapy certification

In the end, you’ve spent thousands of dollars and only wound up with the experience and a cheaply made certificate with the Sylvia Browne signature stamp on it like you receive when you’re a Novitiate with the church.  I am a Novitiate so that is first hand information although I couldn’t tell you where my certification is.  I might have burned it along with her books.  We heat with wood so it was a very spiritual “green” experience. 

And get this…
In the Training Catalog under the Refund Policy section is states that “not receiving your enrollment confirmation before the course begins is not justificaiton for seeking a refund.”
Are you freaking kidding me??
They don’t even have to confirm that they have received ALL (no partial payments allowed) of the tuition!  They don’t have to confirm that you are, in fact, enrolled in the training!  That is a trip!!!
So, if you sent in your money and you expect customer service like you get with anyone else that you give money to, lower your expectations.  And if you sent in your money and have not been notified that you’re been accepted and if you have not been told which dates you’ve been placed in and you don’t show up? YOU’RE SCREWED!!

And then it gets worse!!
“If it is necessary for SBHTC to cancel a course, the full course fee will be refunded.  We do not reimburse travel or accomodation costs or any expense other than the full course fee in the event of a course cancellation.”
Again!!  Are you freaking kidding me?!
IF you get out there and they cancel the course unexpectedly, you are screwed!

Whatever you do with the training is up to you but controlled by Novus because if there’s a dime to be made, they’ll be hovering over you like the crow in Stephen King’s “The Stand” and I don’t use that book as an example by coincidence!!

These people are sick!  They are preying on people who want more out of their spiritual life who possibly out of desperation, through reading and comraderie have found Sylvia’s books and have chosen to go forward with Novus Spiritus possibly without the knowledge (and therefore power) that Sylvia Browne is a fraud, a fake and has been a con artist for as long as anyone who’s known her can remember.

If you have stumbled into my inner thoughts and think “why is this girl so obsessed with stopping Sylvia Browne?”, go to StopSylviaBrowne.com and read a few of the articles and discuss this with others on the JREF Forums.

A lot of good people get involved in this stuff.  I was lucky to have benefited from the books in a self-help sort of way but I kept my head on and had my husband holding my pant’s belt-loop in case I decided to dive into the Kool-Aid party!  Many will stumble upon one of her books and think “WOW! This is what I always believed but I never knew that somebody else did!!” The reason it sounds familiar you guys is because her Church Sanctioned Fluid Organized Tax Shelter Church has taken beliefs from many religions and concocted their own. 

Check this out…Sylvia claims to go into trances at which time Francine, her spirit guide comes through, but there have been people who have experienced first-hand Sylvia slipping during these trances and answering questions in her own voice and getting angry at her side-kick Mike McClellan for not controlling the situation (the questions) better as I believe they are pre-screened.  It’s equivalent to the magician swallowing the key to the handcuffs accidentally, you know?  She probably kicks him when one of her many contradictions makes it through the editing process and gets published in her recycled book list!  (yes, many of her books are repeated info with a new title and cover)  GASP!!

Gnosticism is a very ancient belief.  It is not an organized religion and I’ve rarely met one who is into the hypocrisy of many religions including Sylvia Browne’s lame-brain effort to make millions by creating yet another organized religion where she is the pope. 
Sylvia has been known to say that she is Satan’s Soul Mate!!  Can you believe it?!!
One of those things is a leap…one isn’t.

THAT’s why I write about it and support Robert  in his effort to Stop Sylvia Browne!! 
Just in case you were wonderin’ …

CYa

I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;
therefore, be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16-23