 |
| Impenetrable prophecies |
Why are predictions only relevant after the fact, why are profits only recognised after they are dead?
You will all be familiar with the
predictions of Nostradamus, the 16th century French seer who
published his book of prophesies, Les
Prophéties in 1555. The book is a collection of 942 poetic quatrains, almost impenetrable
four line stanzas that when interpreted with the power of hindsight “foretell”
significant events in history and the future. The point is that his “Predictions”
are vague and so open to interpretation that they only seem to be of any value
after the event. The same cannot be said of this prediction from the 2008 book,
End of days.
“In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely.”
This comes from Sylvia Browne’s End of Days: Predictions and
Prophecies about the End of the World, originally published in June 2008. And, I
think you’ll agree, it is pretty specific.
Sylvia Browne was an American psychic and fortune teller who
gained huge notoriety for her predictions. She used her ‘gift’ to help in numerous
missing persons cases and murders.
She was challenged by many, not least James Randi, stage
magician and scientific sceptic who offered Browne $1 million to prove her
skills under controlled conditions.
Of her own life, Browne predicted that she would live to the
age of 88. She died in 2013, aged 77. I guess
you could say that she didn’t see that coming.
Why it will be the most significant event of the 21st Century... and it's nothing to do with the death toll.
Why it will be the most significant event of the 21st Century... and it's nothing to do with the death toll.
