Sylvia Brown and many other "psychics" are just frauds, plain and simple. They may be talented and charismatic, but that doesn't make them legit. They are consciously and deliberately decieving gullible and superstitious members of the public who pay to hear what they want and need to hear from people like Sylvia Brown and John Edward. When these people went on Larry King Live a while back to confront skeptics, they sounded like babbling children desperately trying to cover up an obvious lie. They outright refused to do scientific testing, most likely because they realize that what they do will NOT hold water in a clinical and controlled environment.
These people don't want to be put under the scrutiny of scientists and fellow magicians (since they are a type of stage magician entertainers with a "mentalism"
theme to their "tricks") and offer the lamest of excuses when declining these challenges. They become easily flustered and frustrated, and default to the weakest of logical arguments to justify their backpedaling. Their only powers lie in Cold Reading, self marketing, and the extreme nerve to claim mentalism magic and psychological tricks as legitimate supernormal powers. God I hate psychics.
I know that all may sound hypocritical coming from a person who enjoys and supports the work of Stewart Swerdlow, but I will defend my thoughts on this if anyone calls me out on it. Perhaps it just comes down to opinion.