SEE FOR YOURSELF PSYCHIC SYLVIA BROWNE PREPARES FOR HER NEXT PAY-PER-VIEW EVENT.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

Before offering her take on the Chandra Levy disappearance and the killing of Robert Blake's wife, celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne motions for a visitor's tape recorder to be shut off.

Some things are apparently a tad too ticklish for publication, even though Browne's version of events might correspond to yours.

Browne, who has been working as a clairvoyant for almost half a century, appears tonight in her fourth interactive pay-per-view special, ``Ask Sylvia Browne - Your Spiritual Advisor,'' produced by Showtime Event Television.

On the program, telecast from Las Vegas, she'll discuss reincarnation, spirituality and the presence of evil. Audience members and viewers will ask questions. And sure to arise during the Q&A is the Levy case. While Browne doesn't wish to assign blame, she will say only that she believes the missing intern is dead and the body submerged in water.

For somebody who makes a good part of her living communing with the no-longer-living, Browne is downright normal about the paranormal.

When you drop by her comfortable West Los Angeles apartment, there are no crystal balls, tarot cards, candles or incense. No scarves draped over lamps. No eerie organ music or creaking floorboards.

If Browne wasn't so famous for her series of best-selling books, top-rated TV spots and pay-per-view specials, you probably wouldn't think twice as you passed her on the street.

But she might notice you.

``When I was younger, I'd go into a crowd of strangers and automatically know who was getting divorced, who had a sick stomach, who had a brain tumor,'' Browne says. ``I eventually realized I could turn (the ability) lower but not entirely off. But the minute someone asks me a question, I'm off and running.''

Clients come to Browne for a variety of reasons: to hear what the future may bring, how to deal with day-to-day troubles, to communicate with the dead or to get a sense of their past - past lives. Browne says she will not ordinarily announce in advance the date of a client's passing - unless they especially request the information.

Browne thinks most health and relationship problems have their roots in our unresolved past lives. Recurring dreams and even birthmarks, she insists, can be traced back to these previous existences.

``We carry stuff over with us from past lives whether we're aware of it or not,'' Browne, 65, says. ``God is an equal opportunity employer. We don't get just one chance to be dumb or beautiful or rich or whatever. We get many chances.''

There seems to be a lot of psychic activity on TV lately. USA Cable's late-night hit ``Crossing Over With John Edward'' explores after-death communication, supposedly linking the living with the dearly departed. And singer Melissa Etheridge returns for her third season as host of Lifetime Television's ``Beyond Chance,'' a weekly reality-based series featuring people whose lives have been touched by fate.

The challenge is to sell Browne to viewers, particularly females, who might be on the fence about paranormal patter.

``Pay-per-view offers very little for women,'' says Suzan Couch, senior marketing consultant for SET Pay Per View. ``It's a very male-oriented event line. There's a huge potential in women-friendly shows, and we wanted to see if we could build Sylvia well beyond where she was.''

The potential pay-per-view audience is 47.7 million households, ``but you never know until the night of the event'' how many bought the program, Couch says, explaining 95 percent of the business is done on broadcast day with 83 percent ordering during the hour before show time.

Browne, born in Kansas City, Mo., and a California resident since 1964, says she realized she had unusual powers at the age of 5. She says her family line includes several practicing psychics and mediums while her grandmother, Ada, was an established healer. There were also uncles and cousins involved in the paranormal.

``As a kid, I wasn't treated any differently than anyone else,'' Browne says. ``I mean, my head didn't turn around and I didn't spit pea soup. I've always fought for legitimacy and legality my whole life. If you're the real thing, you don't need props. Look, I'm not against tarot cards and crystal balls, but how'd you like to go to a doctor and he consults a pendulum? There's a false image genuine healers must always fight.''

Along with writing, media appearances and lecture tours (the venue for an Oct. 27 date in L.A. will be announced), Browne counsels clients who come to her home from all over the world, paying $700 for a 40-minute session. A son, Chris Dufresne, has joined the family business, charging $350 for phone-only readings.

Following tonight's pay-per-view show, Browne appears Tuesday on Fox News' ``The Edge With Paula Zahn'' to plug the just-published ``Past Lives, Future Healing: A Psychic Reveals the Secrets to Good Health and Great Relationships.'' She is also a regular on Montel Williams' show.

But unlike competitors in the field, Browne refuses to endorse the familiar accessories: psychic hot lines and 900 phone numbers.

With all her success, Browne is thankful she doesn't have the ability to train her perceptive powers on herself.

``It's really the same thing as a surgeon unable to operate on himself or psychologists who can't work out their own problems,'' she says. ``And I think that's been a grace from God. Because I had to learn the same lessons as everyone else.

``I always say, 'I fall in the same mud puddle you do.' ''

``ASK SYLVIA BROWNE - YOUR SPIRITUAL ADVISOR''

Where: Showtime Event Television Pay Per View.

When: 6 tonight.

Cost: $20 suggested retail price; call your cable company to order.

Information: www.sylvia.org or www.sho.com.dlim!

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Photo:

Sylvia Browne, in her West Los Angeles home, says of her chosen career: ``I've always fought for legitimacy. ... If you're the real thing, you don't need props.''

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer