![]() |
![]() -- Robert J. Sawyer, Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer, author of Calculating God
|
--James Randi, author of The Mask of Nostradamus
![]() |
![]() --Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic magazine, author of Why People Believe Weird Things and How We Believe. |
--Charles L. Harper, Jr., D. Phil., Executive Director and Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
--Dr. Jack Cohen, Institute of Mathematics, University of Warwick, U/nited Kingdom
![]() |
For countless generations people of every culture have practiced a broad range of dramatic and sometimes frightening techniques in an attempt to peer into the future. In this fascinating book, acclaimed author Clifford Pickover presents an exhaustive list of fortune- telling methods, from the ominous practice of human sacrifice to reading tarot cards. Pickover not only explores a vast and colorful array of methods of prediction-including dreaming-he also evaluates the accuracy of some of the most astonishing prophecies made throughout history. Just how accurate were such famous soothsayers as Nostradamus, the Delphic Oracle, Edgar Cayce, the children of Fatima (whose third vision has only recently been revealed), and dozens more? |
Dreaming With The Gods
Dream divination, or predicting the future by interpreting dreams, was employed everywhere in the ancient world. For example, the Chester Beatty Papyrus,46 discovered in 1931, is a record of Egyptian dream interpretations from around 1800 BC. Heroes in Greek, Indian, Babylonian, Islamic, and Old Testament legends and myths often received messages in dreams, and the prophet Muhammad was so concerned about dream divination he forbade the practice. More recently, Joseph Smith (1805-44), the founder of Mormonism, said he had a dream in which the angel Moroni told him where to find hidden golden tablets.47 Once the tablets' text was fully translated, the material became the Book of Mormon, which tells us that in about 600 B.C., prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, a Jewish family fled the city and traveled by ship to North America. According to Smith, Native Americans are the descendants of this family. Today, a forty-foot-high statue of Moroni stands near Palmyra, New York, where Smith said he discovered the buried tablets.
The ancient Greek world saw dreams as visitations from gods and the souls of the dead. The onieropolos, or dream reader, played an important role in Greek society. The most famous dream interpretation book is the Oneirocritica (from the Greek oneiros, "a dream") by the Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus who lived in the second century AD.48 Professional diviners read this book to interpret thousands of dreams. When the Christian Church gained political power, it made all forms of divination capital crimes and burned the dream books. The Church declared all dreams false and sent by demons. Modern dream books are popular and profitable today. (Just type "dream interpretation" at Amazon.com on the World Wide Web, and you'll find over 200 books on the subject!)
Dream interpretation varied significantly from culture to culture. Many of the Christian seers suggested that dreams often meant the opposite of what they seemed to mean. Thus, if you dream of poverty and filth, you will acquire something valuable. If you dream of the dead, you will hear news of the living, and so forth.49 Even the occurrence of specific flowers and vegetables in dreams were thought to have meaning. For example, asparagus tied in bundles was an omen of tears, but if the dream asparagus was growing, it was a sign of good fortune. The appearance of artichokes suggested that a person would receive a favor from an unexpected direction. Cauliflower meant you would become poor.50 I wonder how many people have dreams with vegetables in them?
Often a dream was supposed to reveal the future only when the dream occurred on a precise date. For example, British legends of the late 1800s suggested that only on January 1st,
Here's another ancient British recipe that will work only in the midsummer:
Future-Life Progression
Probably many of you have heard about past-life regression in which a person seems to be hypnotically "regressed" to recall information from past lives. Believers in past-life regression say that people are able to recall details about life in earlier times, and this is proof of reincarnation and the existence of past lives. For example, in Jeanne Avery and Nann Gatewood's A Soul's Journey: Empowering the Present Through Past Life,53 we hear from regressees who vividly recall suffering at the hands of Nazi war criminals. None of these people were aware of such experiences until they attempted to regress to a previous life. In Jenny Cockell's Across Time and Death: A Mother's Search for Her Past Life Children,54 Cockell recounts her former life as Mary Sutton. Jenny describes how, after years of painstaking searching, she finally reunited with family members from her previous lifetime. Skeptics of past-life regression say that, under hypnosis, people can recall all kinds of information learned during their normal lives and then incorporate the information into a realistic fantasy.55 Similarly, the hypnotist's precise words may implant in a regressee's mind a past that never actually existed.
Less well known is the practice of future-life progression in which a person attempts to give information about the future while under hypnosis. Here are a few interesting examples. In 1960, California psychologist Dr. Helen Wambach, author of Life Before Life,56 began a series of studies in hypnosis in a desire presumably to debunk reincarnation. Using over a thousand subjects, she conducted a long-term survey of past-life recalls under hypnosis. Dr. Wambach asked specific questions about past time periods in which people said they lived. She asked subjects to recall their clothing, footwear, utensils, money, and housing. Wambach believed that these people were actually having recollections and that they were often quite accurate. She wrote that "fantasy and genetic memory could not account for the patterns that emerged in the results." Surprisingly, Dr. Wambach also found that some hypnotized clients seemed to see their future lives where they lived in a devastated and depopulated Earth. Over the next few years, Dr. Wambach conducted a study of over 2000 people undergoing hypnotic future-life progression. During hypnosis, Wambach offered the participants a choice of three past time periods and two future time periods in which to enter. Of the 2,500 people in the study, six percent reported being alive in 2100 AD, and 13 percent said they were alive in the 2300 AD period. In other words, only a few of the subjects progressed to the future.
Based on what people said under hypnosis, Wambach came to believe there was evidence that 95 percent of the Earth's population would be wiped out within a few generations. Concerned, Wambach asked one of her students to progress to a specific date in the late 1990s but had to rapidly bring the woman out of hypnotic trance after the woman found herself "choking to death on a big, black cloud." Wambach found predictions for the last years of the century to include severe earthquakes, a new US currency, severe weather patterns, financial crises, bank failures, an increase in volcanic activity, and the death of a large number of people. In 1999, there was supposed to be an isolated incident in which a European nuclear explosion killed many people (Figure 1.19).
[-- Insert Figure 1.19 --]
Between 1983 and 1985, Wambach worked with Dr. Chet Snow who, after her death, published Mass Dreams of the Future,57 which contained the results of many future-life progressions performed in the 80's. In an interview published in the Rainbow Ark magazine,58 Snow said the massive changes in the Earth would take place. The hypnotic subjects had foreseen changes in 1996, 1998/99, and then in the years 2002, 2007 and 2012. There were some fleeting images of an Arab-Israeli war in 1996 but no details. Snow said, "With regard to atomic weapons, there will be one more atomic explosion before the end of the atomic era. This explosion will be so terrible and will shock humanity so badly that no one will dare to use that weapon again."59 Later, Snow described how a portion of California would slip into the sea in 1998. "The dates could change," Chet said in his book. "The left-brain linear time-dating system is the most difficult aspect of right-brain psychic predictions. However it should not be incorrect by more than a few decades."60
In an interview in the Leading Edge Newspaper, Dr. Snow suggests that the future is not set in stone, and that the mind can somehow alter the timeline:
Dr. Snow describes two different regions of time on which he focussed: 2100 to 2200 AD and 2300 to 2400 AD.62 At these times, the population is only about two billion, and there seems to be four different societies. Twenty-five percent of the test group whom he progressed into the future found themselves either living on a space station orbiting Earth or on another planet. Their society was high tech and had contact with friendly extraterrestrials. Thirty-percent of the group lived on Earth in a high tech society with machines, and they lived in domes or underground. They wore jumpsuits and did not seem happy. Eighteen percent of the group were vegetarians, wore lose, flowing robes, and lived happily in harmony with nature. Twenty percent of the group lived in small rustic towns resembling villages of the 19th century. They wore jeans, boots, and tunics, raising farm animals and eating meat. A small percentage of the experimental group reported living in the ruins of major cities like New York and existing in a primitive fashion. In 1999, some progressees predicted that Soviets would take over parts of eastern Europe.
Another famous practitioner of future-life progression is Dr. Bruce Goldberg, author of Past Lives, Future Lives, originally published in 1982 but with newer editions in 1997.63 Early in 1981, Dr. Goldberg believed it was possible, under hypnosis, to rise above the stream of time and look ahead, just as one can rise in a helicopter above a highway and view traffic congestion to be encountered by cars traveling down the road. In a sense, one would be reading the future of cars on the road. Dr. Goldberg has performed thousand of hypnotic regressions and hundreds of progressions. He's even regressed and progressed himself. His clients appear to recall past events with great detail, but future progression is far "less stable," and it is more difficult to obtain information on future events. By "less stable," I mean that the client appears to quickly move from one scene to another without instructions from Dr. Goldberg. For example, a client could be describing a scene in some futuristic city, and then suddenly the city has disappeared and a grassland scene has replaced it.64
Many of Dr. Goldberg's clients supposedly report similar observations while in a trance. Here are some common themes sorted by century:65
While I find the long-term predictions of Dr. Goldberg's clients fascinating, I have to admit that many of them seem to be insufficiently futuristic and perhaps based on the client's mindset when they were progressed. As just one example, the predication that "sophisticated computers" and "video equipment" are household appliance in the 23rd century seems to be absurdly non-futuristic, considering this has happened before the 21st century. I also believe that humans will uncover the biological mysteries of aging in the 21st century, making humans virtually immortal. We certainly won't have to wait until the 26th century to achieve a life span of 125 years, as predicted by Dr. Golberg's clients.
Nonetheless, the fact that clients give information about the future is something to investigate, and their very short-term predictions are more interesting to me. Wouldn't it be interesting if certain kinds of short-term predictions seemed accurate because hypnosis helps subjects tap vague, subconscious intuitions about future trends? This seems to be territory for further scientific research, though it may well turn out to be wishful thinking.
As an informal test of short-term prediction, Dr. Goldberg progressed a man named Harry Martin who worked in newsroom. Goldberg asked Martin to look at a newsroom assignment board to see if he could read news items about events that hadn't occurred yet.66 This seemed to be a worthwhile test of hypnotic progression. After this test, Dr. Goldberg went further and attempted to progress Martin into a future life.
Here are the details of the journey. On February 2, 1981, Harry began his first trip into the future. Goldberg progressed him one week forward to February 9th and told Harry to read from the newsroom assignment board one hour before airtime of his broadcast or read from the actual script of the day's newscast. Harry complied and did a week in the future he saw state aviation officials investigating the crash of a light plane near Route 406. It turned out that a plane did crash in nearby Bowie, Maryland on February ninth, although the item did not make it on the air.
Next, Harry said he saw a very long name on the newsroom assignment board. Dr. Golberg's session was as follows:67
On February 9, Stanislaw Kania, Poland's labor leader, was told that he might soon be fired unless he instructed his workers to return. You can read Dr. Goldberg's book for a complete list of short-term predictions involving accidents, interviews, and fires to decide for yourself if these are simply minor coincidences or something more meaningful. Later, Harry Martin is progressed to the year 2271 at which point he is living a different life and his complete name is "Amygdala."
Skeptics would ask why no one has used future life progression to predict stock values or lottery numbers. Dr. Goldberg says he considers this an unnatural use of our natural psychic abilities and, in any case, the dates are not always accurate. For example, a progression of one week in the future may, in actuality, be three days or ten days hence. (Still, that would be good enough to make a killing on Wall Street.)
Dr. Goldberg found that in order to progress people into a future life, it is almost always necessary to first regress people into several past lives. He reasons that the idea of going into the future is much harder for people to handle than going into the past. People create too many "blocks" related to what society tells them they can and cannot do. Goldberg says, "We are told that the future cannot be predicted or perceived. Our culture informs us that only charlatans or evil people delve into the future."
Even if past-life regression and future-life progression do not actually lead people to past and future lives, Dr. Goldberg has found that such exercises make people feel better, and they find their present-day lives transformed in positive ways. He suggests that current psychological problems are reduced as a result of the patient's dramatic voyages of self-discovery through centuries past and future. The journeys eliminate the fear of death for many of Dr. Goldberg's patients. However, others find it dangerous when regression-like hypnosis is used to elicit "recovered" and sometimes imagined memories about past child abuse, and to awaken "recollections" of alien abduction and past lives. Psychiatrists must be particularly vigilant not to inadvertently train patients into behavior that fits preconceptions. For example, various reports suggests how practitioners can "find" whatever they look for such as child abuse or multiple personality disorder (MPD) -- now known formally as dissociative identity disorder and characterized by the existence of more than one personality within the same individual. The recent epidemic of MPD may have many causes: clinicians' diagnostic practices such as hypnosis that prompt patients to exhibit MPD; expectations communicated by the media; and widely available information regarding MPD's diagnostic features. It is chilling to think that certain disorders may be as much sociological as psychological in origin. Today people are accused, tried, and convicted of heinous crimes on speculative "evidence" provided by memories that did not exist until a person underwent hypnosis or was given drugs to recover repressed memories. The crimes excavated by the therapist include horrifying animal cruelty, incest, and satanic ritualistic abuse performed or suffered by the patient. Families are destroyed. Children are removed from homes and sometimes coaxed to confirm parents' stories. Sadly, uncritical acceptance of "recovered" memories trivializes any genuine memories of abuse and increases the suffering of real victims.68
Aborigine, 357 Achad, 326 Acquinas (St.), 243 Adams, Evangeline, 289 aeromancy, 183 Agrippa, Henry, 262-263 akashic records, 98 alchemy, 267 Alcock, James, 385 alectromancy, 81 alectryomancy, 81 alepouomancy, 77 aleuromancy, 185 Alexander the Great, 210, 228, 231 Alla-an, Jyoti, 340 almond tree, 26 alomancy, 185 alphitomancy, 186 Ambres, 325 ammosomancy, 201 amniomancy, 70 Amos, 260 Anastacy (St.), 291 Anatolians, 30 Anderson, George, 331 anemosomacny, 184 Anka, Darryl , 340 Anselm (St.), 291 anthomancy, 87 Anthony the Abbot (St.), 290 anthropomancy,70 anthroposomancy,70 Antinous prophecies, 367-375 ants, 85 apantomancy, 77 Apocalpsye, 234-236, 247, 256, 384, 402, 407 arachnomancy, 84 arithmancy, 169 arithmomancy, 169 armomancy,70 arrows, 133 Asahara, Shoko, 292 ashagalomancy, 133 aspidomancy, 99 astraglomancy, 133 astragyromancy, 133 astrology, 36, 104-119, 309, 394 and Hitler, 110, 113 and Regan, Ronald, 13, 104 astromancy, 120 Atlantis, 346, 386 augury by duel, 71 augury, 30, 82 Augustine (St.), 149, 290 aum shinri kyo, 44, 292 austromancy, 184 auto-manzia, 133 automatic writing, 169 auxpex, 82 ax, 133 axinomancy, 133 axiomancy, 133 Azande, 37, 82 Babbitt, Elwood, 340 Babylonians, 51, 195, 209 Baha'u'llah, see Balam, Chilam Bailey, Alice, 294 Baker, Robert, 340 Balam, Chilam, 263 Bank, Hong Kong, 13 Bar-Hillel, Maya, 153 beetles, 86 belief generation, 385, 402 Bell, Art, 353 Bell, Barbara, 340 belomancy, 133 Berosus, 251 Bible code, 152-153 Bible, 146, bibliomancy, 146, 241 biorhythms, 170 birds, 181, see augury Blacker, Carman, 19 Blavatsky, Helena, 98, 294, 295-297 bletonism, 187 bletonomancy, 187 blood type, 38, 120 boat divination, 227 Bodine, Echo, 331 bodiomancy, 78 bone divination, 78 bones, 67-69, 73 books, 137-139 Bosco, John (St.), 291, 297 botanomancy, 88 Brahan Seer, 274 brain 389-391, 403 breastplate, 221 bridge divination, 189 Bridget of Sweden (St.), 291 Brinkley, Dannion, 298-299 bronchiomancy, 53, 78 Browne, Mary, 331 Browne, Sylvia, 331 Buddhists, 180, 257, 323 bumpology , 71 Bush, George, 13 butter lamp, 181 butterfly divination, 85 Byron, Lord, 244 Caesar,Julius, 208 Caesar (St.), 290 Cage, John, 127 Cagliostro, Alessandro, 265 cake, 186 Cali, John, 341 Calvat, Melanie of La Salette, 303-305 candles, 182 Cannon, Dolores, 341 capnomancy, 181 captromancy, 193 card trick, 381 Cardano, Girolamo, 107, 265 cards, 137-139 Carroll, Lee, 341 Carroll, Robert, 20 cartomancy, 149 cartopedy, 71 Case, Paul Foster, 300 casting lots, 134, 136-137 catoptromancy, 192 cats, 79 causimomany, 182 Cayce, Edgar, 26, 301-303, 311, 313 cephalomancy, 78 ceraunoscopy, 184 ceremancy, 187 ceromancy, 187 ceroscopy, 187 channeling, 99 cheese, 187 Cheiro, 305 cheiromancy, 63-67, 71 cheliomancy, 84 Cherinkov patterns, 376-380 Chevreul, Anton, 228 chiao-pai, 133 Chilam Balam, 263 chirognomy, 71 chiromancy, 63-67, 71 chresmomancy, 189 chresmonancy, 99 Christianity, 241 Chrysostom, John (St.), 290 Cicero, Marcus, 24, 209 clairaudience, 190 clairvoyance, 193, 268 cledonomancy, 190 cleidomancy, 196 cleromancy, 134 clidomancy, 196 Clodius, Publius, 29 clouds, 120, 183 coconut divination, 88 coconuts, 135 code, Bible, 152-153 Columba (St.), 290 Columbkille (St.), 290 Cook, Florence, 305 cookie fortune, 46-48 copromancy, 72 coscinomancy, 197 Creme, Benjamin, 306 crickets, 84 critomancy, 88 Croiset, Gerard, 307 cromniomancy, 88 cross-roads divination, 190 Crowley, Aleister, 308 crystal gazing, 194-195, 268 Crystal, Ellie, 20 crystallomancy, 193, 268 crystalomancy, 193, 268 Cummins, Geraldine, 341 cyclomancy, 197 d'Arles, Cesaire (St.), 290 D'Ascoli, Cecco, 237 dactyliomancy, 198 dactylomancy, 198 dactyomancy, 198 dahmo, 181 Dalai Lama, 232 Daldianus, Artemidorus, 90, 252 Daniel, 252 Daniel, 260 Daniels, Keith, 19, 79, 84 daphnomancy, 190 Daruwalla, Bejan, 309 Davis, Andrew Jackson, 310-313 de Billiante, Francesca, 313 de Mello, Anthony, 395 de Sabato, Mario , 313 de Vatiguerro, Jean, 270 Dead, talking to, 331, 359 dead, 99 Dee, John, 266-268 Deguchi, Onizaburo, 314 Delphi, 211, 229-231 demonomancy, 99 dendromancy, 182 Derlette, Marion , 315 dermatoglyphics, 72 deSouza, Lar, 147 dice 133, 136 Dick, Phillip, 121, 129 dielectrokinesis, 35 dilitiriomancy, 82 divination, appeal, 390-393 brain 389-391, 403 by tossing, 133 dreams, 90-92, 99, 102, 222-225, 387 electronic, 364-365 fear of, 30, 148 for love, 15-16 history, 207-247 overview, 23-25 patents, 34-36, 406 physical calamities, 385-386 plants, 16, 87-88 Roman, 53 science and skepticism, 363-390 tests 363-390, 398 why believe, 385, 402 with books, 146-150 with cards, 137-149 with creatures, 49-51, 70-80 with fire, 181-183 with food, 185-188 with land, 201-203 with lights, 192-194 with liquids, 187-188 with numbers, 165-169 with sounds, 189-190 with wax, 15, 187 with wind, 183-185 Dixon, Jeane, 13, 315-316 Dodona, 102, 223-224, 226 Dogon, 85 Donati-Evstigneeff, Rosa, 133 Doomsday, 234-236, 247, 256, 384, 402, 407 dowsing, 198 dreams, 90, 99 Drosnin, Michael, 152-153 drugs, 397 Druids, 212 Dudley, Underwood, 173 Dunne, John, 317, 393 dwarves, 213-214 Edward, John, 331 eels, 84 eggs, 83, 237 Einstein, 396 Elizabeth, Queen, 269 Emmanuel empyromancy, 182 End of world, 233-236, 247, 256, 384, 402, 407 Enochian, 269 enoptromancy, 193 epatoscomancy, 78 ephod, 221 epilepsy, 391 eraomancy, 184 Eschaton, 240 eternity, 243 Ethiopia, 390 Etruscans, 51, 87 evening divination, 190 excommunication, 148 extispiciomancy, 78 extispicium, 78 extispicy, 50-51, 53 eye, 75 Ezekiel, 79, 253, 260 Fatima, 246 fawl hafez, 149 felidomancy, 79 feng-chiao, 184-185 feng-shui, 13, 16, 201 Ferrer, Vincent (St.), 291 fetomancy, 72 Finnessy, Arthur, 173 fire, 181-183 Fitzgerald, Caroline, 341 floods, 386 flower oracles, 88 Ford, Arthur, 317 forehead lines, 74 fortune cookie, 46-48 Fox, Katherine, 318 Fox, Margaret, 318 fractals, 146, 171 fractomancy, 171 Francis of Paola (St.), 291 fui chi, 170 Gall, Joseph, 75 Gandhi, Indira, 13 Gardner, Martin 384 gastromancy, 190 Gauquelin, Michel, 116 gelomancy, 191 geloscomancy, 191 gematria, 171 genethlialogy, 120 genies, 212-214 geomancy, 13, 67, 201-205 Georgian, Linda, 331 Gilmore, Laurie, 341 Goldberg, Bruce, 92-95 Graham, Billy, 319 graphology, 37, 171 Greece, 211-212, 222, 226, 230, 251 Gregory I the Great (Pope), 288 Grettir, 25 Grey, Alex, 20 ground hog, 31 grylomancy, 84 guinea pig, 38, 39 gyromancy, 172 halomancy, 182 Hamon, Louis, 305 handwriting, 37, 171 Hanussen, Erik, 113-114 harp divination, 191 Hartal, Paul, 20 haruspication, see haruspicy haruspicy, 12, 22, 50-51, 79 hashi-ura, 189 Hawking, Stepen, 403 Hebrew, 211, 220-222, 226, 255 Henry, Cyril, 342 hepatomancy, 79 hepatoscopy, 52, 79 Herman, Ronna, 341 Herodotus, 226 hieromancy, 80 hierscopy,, 80 80 Hilarion, 342 Hildegard of Bingen (St.), 291, 320, 390 Hindley, Charles, 239 hippomancy Hitler, Adolf 104-107, 110, 113, 333 ho-no-hanna sampogyo, 43 Hogue, John, 19 Holloway, Lisa, 342 Holzhauser, Bartholomew, 271 Homer, 15 Hoomi, Koot, 294 horoscopes, 109,116, 120 human sacrifice, 212 Hurkos, Peter, 103, 321 hydromancy, 187 hypertime, 243 hypnosis, 92, 97 I Ching, 14, 67, 121-127, 387, 407-408 iatromancy, 73 ichthyomancy, 84 Icke, David, 323, 342 ideomotor action, 227 ifa, 391 Imperator, 343 impetrativa, 28 Incas, 53 incense, 182 incubation, 102 Indians, 257, 347 intestine, 210 Ireland, 223 iridology, see oculomancy Irlmaier, Alois, 324 Isaiah, 254 Isidore of Seville (St.), 291 Israel, 211, 220-222, 226, 255 Jahn, Robert, 398 Jehovah's Witnesses, 402 Jeremiah, 255 Jerhoam, 343 Jerusalem, 226 Jerusalem syndrome, 249 Jesus, 107, 261, 366, 385 Jews, 29,103, 211, 220-222, 226, 255 Joachim Of Fiore, 272 Joel, 256 Johansson, Anton, 325 Johansson, Sture, 325 John of Patmos (St.), 256, 261 John of Vatiguerro, 270 John XXIII (Pope), 288 Jones, Charles, 326 Jormungand encounter, 380 Jung, Carl, 119 Kabbala, 139, 171 Kahunas, 270 Kammerer, Paul, 132 kaphalomancy, 80 Karcher, Stephen, 19 karydaomania, 135 Kate-Zahl, 257 katoptromancy, 193 kephalonmancy, 12, 80 keriomancy, 193 King, Jani, 342 Kingsford, Anna, 327 Knight, JZ, 328, 342 kokalomancy,73 kollomancy, 199 Koran, 133 Kotel Kam, 226 koto-ura, 191 koupaomancy, 200 Krafft, Karl, 110-112 Kunz, Emma, 329 Kuthumi, 343 laksanas, 180, 257 lampadomancy, 193 laws, anti-divination, 241, 365, 399 Lazaris, 343 lead, 188 lecanomancy, 188 leconomancy, 188 Lee, Siu-Leung, 20 Leonard, Gladys, 330 lepdiomancy, 85 libanomancy, 182 liquids, 187 lithomancy, 136 liver, 209 Loewe, Michael, 19 logarithmancy, 172 Long, Kathleen, 342 Loomis, Jean, 342 Luke, 261 lynchomancy, 182 Mackenzie, Kenneth, 274 maculomancy, 74 magic squares, 159-162 Mahapurusa, 257 Mala, 180 Malachy (St.), 273, 291 Mambila, 58 mancies, 49 mar-me-tag-pa, 181 Marciniak, Barbara, 342 margaritomancy, 136 Margolis, Char, 331 Mark, 261 Mars effect, 116 Matrix, 344, 345 Matthew, 261 McKay, Brendan, 153 McKenna, Terrance, 268 medicines, 400 Melchizedek, Drunvalo , 331 Merlin, 258 Mesmer, Franz, 250 Messing, Wolf, 332 metagnomy, 99 meteoromancy, 120 Methodius (St.), 290 metopomancy, 74 metoposcopy, 74 Micah, 259 Milanovich, Norma, 343 Millerites, 233-236 ming sticks, 136 mo, 136 moleomancy, 74 moleosophy, 74 molybdomancy, 188 Montanists, 238 Montgomery, Ruth, 334 moon, 120 Moranaa, 343 Morehouse, David, 377 Moses, William, 335 multiple personality disorder, 98 muscle reading, 75 myomancy, 80 myrmomancy, 37, 85 Nanshe, 259 Nao, Deguchi, 336 Native Americans, 257 Nechung oracle, 232 necromancy, 99, 241, 331 Ngodup, Thupten, 232 Nibiruan Councils, 344 Nickell, Joe, 359 nigromancy, 99 Nilus (St.), 290 ninso, 75 Norsemen, 236 North Carolina, 241 Nostradamus, 26, 249-259, 276-284, 367-375, 393-394 numerology, 169, 173-176 O'Brien, Paul, 13 oblavita, 28 oculomancy, 75 Odilia (St.), 260-262 Odyssey, 15 oenomancy, 188 oil, 188, 195 oinomancy, 188 Okada, Mokichi, 336 oligomancy, 86 Oliver, John, 343 ololygmancy, 80 omens, 28 Omni, 343 omphalomancy, 75 oneiromancy, 99 onieropolos, 90 onimancy, 188 onomancy, 176 onomantics, 177 onychomancy, 75 onycomancy, 12, 188 oomancy, 83 oomantia, 83 ooscopy, 55, 83, 413 ophiomancy, 86 Opsopaus, John, 55 oracles, 27-27, 99, 102, 222-224, 227-232 orniscopy, 83 ornithomancy, 83 Osborne, Gladys, 342 ouija, 22-23, 227 ovomancy, 83 p'ungsuchirisol, 204 palmistry, 63-67, 75 papyromancy, 149 patents, 34-36, 406 Patrick (St.), Purgatory pattern seeking, 402-403 Paul (St.), 261 Paul, John II (Pope), 288 Paulos, John, 387 Payne, John, 343 pearls, 136 pegomancy, 189 Peloponnesian War, 210 pendulum, 227-228 Persia, 230 pessomancy, 136 phrenology, 75 phyllomancy, 88 phyllorhodomancy, 88 physiognomy, 76 Pitcher, Moll, 337 Pius X (Pope), 288 Pius XI(Pope), 288 Pius XII (Pope), 288 plastromancy, 67-69, 86 Pleiadians, 342 podiomancy, 81 podomancy, 76 poison divination, 82 poison oracle, 82 polygraph, 227 popes, 288 Poughkeepsie seer, 310 precognition, 100 Presson, Julie, 343 Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR), 398 progression, future-life, 16, 92-92, 393 progression, past-life, 16, 92-95 projective tests, 100 prophecy, 25-27 prophets, New Testament, 261 prophets, Old Testament, 260 psephomancy, 136 psychic, 307 psychography, 177 psychomancy, 100 psychometry, 100 Pursel, Jach, 343 Puthoff, Harold, 376 Pynchon, Thomas, 149-150 pynchonomancy, 150 pyromancy, 182 pyroscopy, 182 Pythia,27-28, 223, 229-231, 390 quercusmancy, 89 querent, 13 Quigley, Joan, 13 radiesthesia, 200 Rael, 347 Rampa, 342 Ramsey, John, 247 Ramtha, 328, 342 Randi, James, 11, 19, 198, 359, 399 Rasputin, Grigory, 405 Rebeck, Richard, 343 Regan, Nancy, 13, 104 Regan, Ronald, 13, 104 Regina, Seeress, 338 remote viewing, 376-380 Remy (St.), 290 Revelation, 256 rhabdomancy, 200 rhapsodomancy, 150 Rice, Anne, 245 river ordeal, 189 Roberts, Jane, 338, 343 Robinson, B. A., 241 Rodegast, Pat, 343 Rogers, Sandra, 331 Rorschach test, 103, 394 Rother, Steve, 343 Royal, Lyssa, 343 rune divination, 155-157, 178, 412-413 Sacks, Oliver, 390 saints, 290-291 salt, 182 Sanada, 344 Savage, Marshall, 339 Scallion, Gordon-Michael, 344, 345 scapulimancy, 81 scapulomancy, 81 scatomancy, 77 Schizophrenia, 126 sciomancy, 100 sclerology, 75 scrying, 21, 194-195, 268 selenomancy, 120 Senanus (St.), 290 Seth, 338, 342, 342, 343 shadows, 103 Shakespeare, William, 208 Shaw, Eva, 19 shells, 67-69 Shermer, Michael, 402 Shipton, Mother, 238-240 Shiptonists, 238-240 Sibylline oracles, 28-29 sibyls, 29 sideromancy, 183 Sikyea, Tim, 347 Sitchin, Zecharia, 347 Siwah, 227, 228-229 skatharomancy, 37, 86 skoniomancy, 189 Smith, Lisa, 344 Smith, Paul, 144 smoke, 181 snakes, 86 Snow, Chet, 92-95 , 361 Solara, 349 Sollog, 349 soot, 183, soothsayer, 208-210 sortes virgilianae, 148, 149 sortes, 151 sortilege, 136 sounds, 189 Southcott, Joanna, 350-352 spatulamancy, 77 spider divination, 58, 84 spodomancy, 183 squares, magic, 159-162 Star Trek, 403 Starr, Jelaila, 344 Stevens, Ramon, 344 stichomancy, 150-151, 365 sticks, 136 sticky oracle, 200 stolisomancy, 77 stones, 136 Stormberger, 352 Stowe, Harriet Strieber, Whitley, 353 surveillance systems, 363 Swann, Ingo, 376 Swaziland, 399 Swedenborg, Emanuel, 285-286 sycomancy,151 Sylvia, Madame, 354 synchronicity, 131, 392 tabloid predictions, 362, 378 Taigi, Maria, 287 Talmud, 99 Tarabich, Mitar , 354 Targ, Russell, 376 tarot, 40-41, 137-151 tarusomancy, 81 tasseography, 186 tasseomancy, 186 tea, 186 Tennyson, Alfred, 355 tephramancy, 183 teraphim, 221, 222 teratoscopy, 72 Terelya, Josyp, 356 termites, 87 termitisomancy, 87 theiromancy, 87 therapies, 400 Thomas, Guboo, 357 Thummim, 137, 220,221, 241 Tibet, 133, 136, 178-182, 232 Timarchus, 225 time, 32-33, 243-244, 393, 395-396 tiromancy, 12, 187 Titanic, 214-220 Toye, Lori, 358 Tra, 178-179, 390 transatuaumancy, 191 tree bark, 183 trees,89 Tring-ba, 179 Trophonius, 225 tsuiji-ura, 190 turtles, 67-79 tyromancy, 187 uranai, 38, 120 Urim,137, 220,221, 241 urimancy, 137 uromancy, 77 Valentines' Day, 15 Van Praagh, James, 331, 359 Vaughan, Alan, 360 von Flue, Nicholas, 291 Wambach, Helen, 92-95, 361 Washington, George, 405 water, 187 wax, 15, 187 Whiston, William, 237 Wilson, Colin, 393 Wilson, Damon, 19 wind divination, 183-185 wine, 188 witches, 37-38, 242, 399 wood, 137 worms, 86 Xenophon, 211 xylomancy, 137 yin yang, 130 Yoruba, 135 Zechariah, 260 Zeitlyn, David, 20, 60-62 Zelazny, Roger, 21 Zephaniah, 260 Zeus, 226 zoanthropy, 183 zoomancy, 87 11:11, 349
Click here to see "Dreaming the Future" at Amazon.Com!
As all American schoolchildren learn, George Washington was the American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775-83) and subsequently first president of the United States (1789-97). Most people today are not aware of the vision and prophecy he is alleged to have received at that time he commanded the army.
In 1859, an old soldier named Anthony Sherman gave the following account of George Washington's vision to a writer, Wesley Bradshaw, who published it. In the vision, George Washington speaks of three great perils that America would face. I present here Bradshaw's account as it was reprinted in the U. S. war veterans' paper The National Tribune, in December, 1880, volume 4, number 12. The National Tribune is now called The Stars and Stripes. This article was reprinted in the Stars and Stripes December 21,1950. Wesley Bradshaw wrote, "The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on the fourth of July 1859, in Independence Square. He was then ninety-nine years old, and becoming very feeble. But though so old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he gazed upon Independence Hall, which he came to visit once more."
Some people have interpreted Washington's his visions to represent events such as the American expansion westward, slave trade and the civil war, and finally nuclear attacks on the United States. I would be interested in hearing from readers who can verify whether this vision attributed to George Washington is, in fact, genuine and not apocryphal.
I write and leave behind this letter at St. Petersburg. I feel that I shall die before January 1st. I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa, to the Russian Mother and to the children, to the land of Russia, what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear, remain on your throne and govern, and you, Russian Tsar, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for 25 years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for 25 years there will be no nobles in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigory has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death then no one of your family, that is to say, none of your children or relations will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people... I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family. "Mankind is going in the direction of the catastrophe. The less able ones will be guiding the car. This will happen in Russia, in France, in Italy and in other places. The humanity will be squashed by the lunatics' roar. The wisdom will be chained. The ignorant and the prepotent will dictate the laws to the wise and to the humble person. So, most of the humanity will believe in the powerful ones and not more in God. The punishment of God will arrive late, but it will be tremendous. And it will arrive before our century ends. Then, finally the wisdom will be free from the chains and the man will return entirely to God, as the baby who goes to his mother. In this way, mankind will arrive on the terrestrial paradise.