All language subtitles for The UnXplained s05e05 The Power of Prophecy.eng

Ancient prophets who predicted

the fall of empires.

Mysterious oracles

who accessed unseen truths.

And three small children

who received a revelation

from a heavenly being.

Throughout history, there
have been certain individuals

who were believed
to have the power

to see into the future.

These so-called
mystics, prophets,

clairvoyants received visions

of events that would
change the course of history.

Just what secrets

did their stunning
prophecies reveal?

And what predictions
did they leave for us

about the future of mankind?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

In our modern world,

it might be tempting to
assume that prophecy

is merely an antiquated
fantasy from the past

that has no relevance today.

But the surprising truth

is that millions
of people still rely

on psychics, palm readers

and fortune tellers of all kinds

for guidance about the future.

People
want to know about the future.

Our hopes get
projected into prophecies,

the things that
might get better.

Our fears get projected
into prophecies,

the things that might go bad.

And various writers and mystics

attempt to tell us

what is coming.

Sometimes they get it right.

Predictions
continue to garner attention today

because human nature tends to

go in the direction

of something that it
considers beneficial.

And so, when we
speak of prognostication,

or peering into the future,

we at least have to give
credence to the possibility

that prophecy works.

Is it possible
that some people do, in fact,

have the ability to
peer into the future?

Well, for thousands of years,

humanity has turned
to so-called prophets

for information about
what the future holds.

So perhaps a close examination
of some ancient clairvoyants

and their bold predictions

will shed light on
the mysterious power

of prophecy.

Deep in this remote
mountainous region

lies a small village
called Nan'tian Township.

In the center of this community,

there is a commemorative square,

within which stands
a 15-foot-tall statue

dedicated to an ancient prophet

named Liu Bowen.

Liu Bowen

is one of the most
well-known figures

in all of Chinese history.

He's born in 1311,
he dies in 1375.

He was a close adviser

of the emperor of
the Ming dynasty,

or the Hongwu Emperor.

In the surviving
letters that we have,

the emperor
repeatedly and explicitly

refers to Liu Bowen's ability

to see the future.

On account of Liu Bowen's access

to this untapped
knowledge about the future,

the emperor was able to

predict where enemy troops were,

when they would strike,

and he was able to

defend or attack
them successfully.

Very famously,
there's a story that says

he helped the Ming
emperor secure the throne

and overthrow the Mongols,

who ruled over China previously
for a few hundred years.

So, Liu Bowen was
a very useful adviser,

and he's seen as a kind of

a cultural hero
nowadays in China.

Liu Bowen
made thousands of predictions

related to Chinese
affairs of state,

but his most famous prophecy
was of an event that took place

not during his
lifetime but rather

more than 500
years after his death.

All across China, uprisings
occur against the Qing dynasty.

The revolution
culminates in the abdication

of the child Emperor Puyi

and the end of the
Chinese monarchy.

This is one of

the most important events
in all of Chinese history

because it's the end
of a dynastic system

that had been in play

since at least 221 BC.

So, we're talking about

2,000 years of history

that ends.

And Liu Bowen is credited
with having seen this,

having seen the revolution
in the 20th century.

For some, the idea that a man

who lived in the 1300s

could successfully
predict the overthrow

of the last emperor
of China in 1911

might sound impossible.

But many Chinese people
believe that Liu Bowen

did, in fact, do just that.

And as evidence, they
point to a cryptic poem

Bowen wrote that is called

the Song of Shaobing.

One of the most
important parts of the song

is, it has a line about
one of the last emperors

dying prematurely in his palace,

and this actually occurred.

The penultimate
emperor died as a result

of what was probably poisoning

at a relatively young
age in the palace.

And it happened only a number
of years before the revolution.

Following this description

of the emperor's
premature death,

there is a line about
the appearance

of a "golden dragon."

Now, the term "golden dragon"

in Chinese culture
refers to a ruler

who is adored by his people.

And this is, indeed,
what happened

when Sun Yat-sen came to power

as the first
provisional president

of the Republic of China
following the revolution.

He was the savior and
father of the Chinese nation.

Because of
its parallels with the events

of the 1911 Revolution,

the ancient Song of Shaobing

is considered an authentic
prophecy in Chinese culture.

And in fact, many people believe

that Liu Bowen's predictions

continue to have
relevance today.

You can go online, social media,

YouTube, et cetera, et cetera,

and there are lengthy,
detailed discussions

of Liu Bowen's prophecies

and how they might
match current events.

People read current events

in light of those prophecies.

And he's credited now
with having foreseen

coronavirus.

The prophecy describes

a massive plague

that will ravage China

and the rest of the world.

It mentions that the
brunt of this plague

will occur in the
Year of the Pig

and the Year of the Rat,

and this corresponds to

2019 and 2020.

The details are
incredibly precise.

People revisited Liu
Bowen's prophecies, and they see

this reference to the
eruption of an epidemic.

And then this seems
to provide answers,

to provide some sense of
order, offer guidance and clarity.

He did foresee this, just as
he's foreseen other things.

The predictions Liu Bowen made

over 700 years
ago are remarkable.

But he's not alone.

History is filled with
stories of mystics

who had the uncanny ability
to know what the future held.

For instance, in Russia
there were two prophets

who both foresaw the fall

of the Romanov dynasty.

Thousands of people
gather to celebrate the coronation

of Czar Nicholas Romanov II

and his wife, the
Empress Alexandra.

For more than 300 years,
the Romanov dynasty

ruled the vast Russian Empire.

But Nicholas's reign
would be a troubled one

during very troubling times.

Nicholas II,

the last Romanov on
the throne, was probably

the last person who ever
should have been on the throne.

He was weak,
indecisive, passive.

And at the time,
Russia was modernizing.

And so Nicholas was
facing all sorts of challenges

from a society that
wanted a greater voice

in politics and the economy.

But, in fact, Nicholas was
dictatorial, authoritarian,

in many ways very brutal,

and he insisted on
plunging the country

into what would become
the First World War.

And was never
able to sort of guide

the political institutions
into the modern era.

And he failed in just an epic,

epic fashion.

Less than
ten years into his reign,

Czar Nicholas was
confronted with worker strikes

and military mutinies.

Russians across the country

were upset that
while the aristocracy

lived a life of luxury,

average people struggled
to make ends meet.

With civil unrest building
momentum throughout the empire,

the Romanov family
lived a secluded life

in the capital city
of St. Petersburg.

In 1904, Alexandra gave
birth to their fifth child,

a boy whom they named Alexei.

But the joy of having
an heir apparent

to the Romanov dynasty
was quickly overshadowed.

Alexandra gives birth to a son.

Glory, glory, glory.

Except the son has a
hereditary medical condition.

Hemophilia.

He lacks a
component in his blood

that allows it to clot.

So, to understand Alexandra,

you have to understand,

this is one of the reasons
she will become drawn

to mysticism.

In order to
ensure Alexei's well-being,

Nicholas and Alexandra
sought the help

of a mysterious Siberian mystic

named Grigori Rasputin.

Grigori Rasputin
was born around 1869.

And he was a strannik,

a kind of traveling... preacher.

Not a priest, not a monk.

But what he really
was was a shaman.

Because what
he's claiming is that,

"The spirits have spoken to me,

and they have given me powers."

So, what are the powers
he claimed to have?

Well, the two most important,
prophecy and healing.

In the early 20th
century, Russians as a whole

were obsessed by
the notion of mystics

and peasant holy men.

And that's the way that Rasputin

was finally able

to gain access to the palace

and to meet Nicholas and
Alexandra for the first time,

because they were...

they were also fascinated
by people like this.

Beginning in 1906,

Rasputin acted as an important
faith healer for young Alexei

and a trusted prophet
for Czar Nicholas.

From the very beginning

that Rasputin makes
contact with the Romanovs,

and is embraced
by them as a friend...

That's the actual
word they use...

People become jealous,
they become envious.

You have courtiers
and mighty aristocrats

who don't get to go to court.

They would say,
"Here, this 'dirty peasant'

gets to go in. Why
don't I get to go in?"

Which was the sign
of an aristocratic family.

By late 1916, there's
already been several attempts

on the life of Rasputin,

and he begins to
come to this realization

that he's a marked man.

He is not going to
live much longer.

Rasputin tells the empress,

"If I'm killed by the nobles,

"that will mean the end
of you and your dynasty,

and none in your family
will live more than two years."

Now, that's a pretty
scary prophecy because,

you know, he had mystical
powers from the forces beyond.

Shortly after
making his dark prediction,

Rasputin was invited

to the Yusupov Palace
in St. Petersburg,

where several Russian
noblemen poisoned,

shot, and ultimately
drowned the Siberian mystic

in the freezing waters
of the Moika River.

It took
a lot of effort to kill Rasputin,

but it was a treacherous murder,

and they did kill him.

It was at a very bad time
because there was nobody else

to give advice to Nicholas II.

But it was not as bad
as what came after.

After 300 years of Romanov rule,

Czar Nicholas II is overthrown
by the Communist Bolsheviks.

In the aftermath
of the revolution,

Nicholas, his wife Alexandra,
and their five children

are exiled to the remote
town of Yekaterinburg.

At that time,

the decision is made
to execute the family.

They are awakened at night

and forced to go down

to the cellar.

The person in charge,

he says, "By the
decree of the people,

"to prevent your liberation,

you are to be executed,"

and shoots the czar.

The czar is killed immediately,

and so was his wife,

and of course the royal family.

Rasputin prophecy of
doom was absolutely correct.

He was killed by aristocrats,

and after that, less than
two years, czar was gone

and his family was gone.

Did Rasputin
somehow channel mystical powers

that allowed him to foresee the
execution of the Romanov family?

Perhaps, but what's
even more extraordinary

is that there is another
Russian who is also said

to have predicted the
fall of the Romanovs

more than 300 years earlier.

After a period of
lawlessness and civil war,

Mikhail Romanov
becomes czar of Russia.

Mikhail is the first czar
of the Romanov dynasty,

but he also faces an
immediate threat to his power

because one of his rivals
who was killed in the war

left behind a four-year-old son

named Ivan Dmitriyevich,

and some Russians think

that young Ivan is the
rightful heir to throne.

The new czar
Mikhail Romanov is not going to

let this Ivan, who's
only four years old,

survive and be some sort
of pretender to the throne

around which various
factions might mobilize.

So he sends forces to seize Ivan

and has this
little boy taken out

and hanged publicly.

News of the cruel
execution shocked the country,

and no one was more
affected than Ivan's mother

Marina Mniszech,

an influential noblewoman

who had been imprisoned
by the new czar.

When she
learned of her child's gruesome fate,

Marina reportedly uttered
a vengeful prophecy

about the collapse of
the Romanov dynasty.

There's a story that
when Marina heard about

the gruesome hanging
of her four-year-old child,

that she said that,
"As your reign began

with the hanging of
little Ivan," her son,

"so shall your reign end,

with the death of a male
son to inherit the throne."

And in fact, 300 years later,

the Romanov
dynasty would then end

with the death of Alexei,
the hemophiliac son

of Nicholas and Alexandra,
after the revolution.

Marina was obviously devastated,

and with the prophecy
that she authored,

this bloody prophecy
against the Romanovs,

it seemed that
she had this insight

into the future of Russia.

And so you have
two people that were

around the Romanovs,
one way or another.

And their destinies was
to have precognition,

which played out
in a very bad way.

Here, on the
slopes of Mount Parnassus,

lie the ruins of several
holy sanctuaries

that were constructed
by the ancient Greeks.

The most famous
of these structures

is the Temple of Apollo.

Built in the fifth century BC,

the Temple of Apollo was
the site of a sacred ceremony

in which farmers,
merchants and even kings

would come to hear
prophecies about their future

from a high priestess
who was known

as the Oracle of Delphi.

The Oracle of Delphi is a
unique individual in the past.

This is a woman who,
through her prophecy,

was able to see the future.

And people are coming to her
and expecting to get information

that helps sway their actions.

So, the Oracle at Delphi

was one of the most powerful
women in ancient Greece.

Inside the Temple of Apollo,

the Oracle was
seated on a high tripod

and would be open
for consultations,

and people would come
from all over the world.

So, kings would come.

Farmers would come
if they wanted to know

about the next harvest.

Everybody came, in the
ancient world, to Delphi

with a life-changing question,
and she could then prophesy,

give you a sign, what's
the right way to go.

Her magical power to channel

the prophetic gods
was at your service.

The Oracle of
Delphi reportedly predicted

numerous important
events in the ancient world,

including the rise of
Alexander the Great

and the death of the
Roman Emperor Nero.

Many historians believe a
clue to her powers of prophecy

can be found in the writings
of an ancient Greek historian

named Plutarch.

Plutarch wrote three
long pieces about Delphi.

And Plutarch described
how, when the Oracle

was in the trance, the
ecstasy of the prophecy,

this "breath" came
up from Mother Earth,

and Plutarch also said it
smelled sweet like perfume.

And when Mother Earth
is breathing at Delphi,

the Delphic Oracle
goes into an altered state

and she becomes like
a ventriloquist dummy,

but the ventriloquist

is the wisdom of Mother
Earth spoken through

the Delphic Oracle in Greece.

What was the
mysterious "breath" from Mother Earth

that gave the Oracle
her prophetic powers?

Well, in 2003,

a team led by
archaeologist Dr. John Hale

uncovered evidence
which suggests

that the answer to
this ancient riddle

does, in fact, lie
in the earth itself.

The Temple of
Apollo had been built

around a subterranean cleft.

We wanted to collect
some rocks and see if,

by any chance, that
big geological fault

that runs under the temple
released intoxicating gases

that the woman got into
her altered state from.

So we took our rock samples,

we had them
analyzed in the labs,

and they showed a cocktail

of light hydrocarbon gases:

methane, ethane, and ethylene.

Ethylene is what puts the
sweet smell in every flower,

in the grapes you harvest,

in living things
that smell sweet,

and it is one of the most
instantly intoxicating gases

known to humanity.

It's the ethylene that does it.

The woman is
seated on that tripod

directly above the cleft.

And as the gases come
up and she inhales them,

these sweet-smelling gases,

with the first whiff she
would be in an altered state

because it could go straight
through her nasal passages

and into her brain.

The Oracle
of Delphi may have been

in a state of intoxication

that would give visions
to the prophetess.

Psychedelic substances

bring about a
relaxation of inhibitions,

and there are experiments
that have been done

that have raised
tantalizing questions

about the possibility
of precognition

using what we would
call narcotics today.

Did inhaling
gas that rose out of the earth

allow the Oracle of
Delphi to see the future?

It's a fascinating possibility.

And, in fact, for
thousands of years,

priests, prophets and
shamans from all over the world

have used exotic substances

to unlock prophetic abilities.

One of the best-known examples

is a curious drink
called ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca is a brewed

concoction made amongst a
number of Amazonian tribes

and contains a number
of different kinds of plants.

Ayahuasca has
been purported to elicit

feelings of flying, and shamans

use ayahuasca to have
an ability to see the future

or to be able to make prophecy.

Ayahuasca is often ingested
in religious ceremonies

in the Amazon basin

and used as a sacred

ceremonial substance
or sacrament.

It is said to release the mind

into a deeper, realer

state of being, of vision,

to help somebody
glean information

that they might be closed off
from under normal circumstances,

in an effort to
foretell the future.

The fact that
ancient cultures around the world

used mind-altering
substances to enable prophecy

raises a fascinating question.

Did these concoctions actually

help our ancestors
see the future,

as people have
believed for centuries?

Anytime you're
playing with intoxicants

and your brain,
especially, is being affected,

you can't always be sure
what's going to happen.

Delphi shows us an
example of a culture

in which, when they say
there was an external force

coming up out of the rock
that triggered the trance,

we can back that up with
the geology to show people,

"Take these ancient
accounts seriously."

Will scientific research
prove that drinking

or inhaling certain substances

allowed the ancients to
see visions of the future?

It's an exciting prospect,
but on the other hand,

there are many who
believe that prophecies

come not from earthly sources

but rather from
divine inspiration.

For example, in 1917,
three young children

reportedly received
holy revelations

from the Virgin Mary.

In the
hills located just outside

this small farming village,

three young children are
walking through a sheep pasture

when suddenly

a bright light
appears in the sky.

They are shocked to see
what looks like a heavenly angel

floating above them.

The children believe
that this otherworldly figure

is the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the mother of Jesus Christ.

These three shepherd children...
Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia...

They are out in the
field, and Our Lady,

the Blessed Mother,
appears to them.

When Our Lady began speaking
to these children in F�tima,

she told them that
she would come back

on the 13th of each month.

And those children,
they immediately

told this story of this
apparition to their parents.

When these
children go and tell this story

to the people of the town,

they don't believe them.

Three little kids, you know.

Shepherds up there
in the mountains,

they're not gonna believe them.

People said, "You're lying."

Despite the skepticism,

the children insisted that
they were being visited

by the Virgin Mary on
the 13th of every month.

In fact, they reported
that the apparition

had specifically told
them she would return

to perform a miracle
on October 13th.

For months, the residents
of F�tima wondered

whether this extraordinary
prophecy would come true.

And so, on October 13, 1917,

thousands of people gathered
with the children to see

if the Virgin Mary would appear,

and the crowd witnessed

an incredible celestial event

that came to be known

as the "Miracle of the Sun."

There was a crowd of
anywhere between 70,000 to 100,000 people

on that day, and it
had been pouring rain.

Everybody was drenched.

And everybody looked up.

The clouds had parted,
they could see the Sun,

and the Sun was
going all around the sky.

And then it was coming
crashing into the Earth.

People were crying,
they were screaming,

some were openly
confessing their sins.

But then, gradually,
the Sun went back

to its place in the sky.

And when everybody
looked around,

their clothes and the
ground were completely dry.

So, after all of
this had happened,

that changed the
opinions of many people

because you can't
explain those things.

If they had doubted,
now they believed.

After conducting
a thorough investigation,

the Catholic Church declared
that the Miracle of the Sun

was an event that was
"worthy of credence."

Also taken seriously were
visions and prophecies

the Blessed Mother shared
with one of the children.

At one point,
one of these children,

Lucia, was given three secrets.

The first was
that she got to see

what hell looked like...

to see how horrible it is.

And the second was
that there would be

an end to the war...

This is World War I... but

that another war would come.

This would be World War II.

Our Lady said,
"When you see a night illuminated

"by a great light in the sky,

"know that it is when God

is about to punish the
world for its crimes."

Well, that great light
happened in January of 1938.

It was reported as
an aurora borealis.

Even The New York Times
had a story on it back then.

And shortly thereafter,
Hitler annexed Austria,

and some believe that to be

the real beginning
of World War II.

For the faithful, the
second secret was further proof

that the children had received
prophecies from the Virgin Mary.

However, for decades,

the third and final secret

was kept in a sealed
envelope in the Vatican.

But then, on the
64th anniversary

of the first vision of F�tima,

an event took place

which ultimately led to the
third secret being revealed.

This secret remained
sealed until May 13, 1981,

when Pope John Paul
was in Vatican Square

and an assassination
attempt was made on his life.

He was shot and
very close to death,

but he survived.

After recovering
from his gunshot wounds,

Pope John Paul II decided
to open the envelope

containing the third
secret because he believed

that the attempt on
his life taking place

on the anniversary
of the F�tima vision

was not a coincidence.

The third secret of F�tima
talks about this vision

of a man in white who
is walking about a city,

and then he arrives at a cross,

and then at this cross

he is shot with
bullets and dies there.

A lot of those who have looked
at this third secret of F�tima

really see that this man in
white has to be the Holy Father.

If the bullet went
a fraction one way or the other,

it would have killed the Pope.

And because it
happened on May 13th,

which is the anniversary
of the first apparition

of Our Lady of F�tima,

he believed that it
was the Virgin Mary

that had saved his life.

Pope John Paul II

saw this as verification

of these three children,

the Miracle of the
Sun, all of it being true.

So Pope John Paul II then
beatified two of the children,

and they became saints,

and the third one,
who recently died,

is now in the process
of canonization

and becoming a saint.

Now, does this prove
the children's story?

We don't know.

But a lot of people,

from a long time
ago and to today,

believe this story.

In the past 105 years or so,

the town of F�tima has become
a huge place of pilgrimage.

And we're still, to this day,

trying to make sense of it.

And as we put those
pieces together, we realize

the importance of F�tima

is only being more
proven over time.

The apparitions and prophecies

received by the three
shepherd children at F�tima

are profound spiritual
and historical events.

But believe it or not,
there are other people

who claim to have had even
more extraordinary visions,

including a 20th
century American prophet

named Edgar
Cayce, who, it's said,

had the power see
both the distant future

and the ancient past.

In this small
city at 21 Broad Street

stands what looks like
an ordinary brick building.

But curiously, a historic
marker plaque explains that

this was once the home

of an extraordinary man
named Edgar Cayce.

In the 1920s, people
from all over the country

came to Selma to visit Cayce

and seek information
about the future

from the man known as

the "Sleeping Prophet."

Edgar Cayce was a man born

in the agricultural South

in the late 1870s.

But as he grew older,
he detected in himself

the ability to enter into
a sleep-like trance state

and be able to perform

what were considered

medically clairvoyant
readings of subjects.

He was said to have the ability

to diagnose and prescribe cures

for different bodily ailments.

In his writings,

Edgar Cayce
described the process

as accessing information.

And he would read
that information,

speak it in trance.

Edgar believed that
his abilities were a gift...

but that it wasn't
a power of his own.

He was channeling

a higher power.

Cayce comes at the time when

there was a strong interest

in fortune tellings of all kind.

For one thing,
there were tea rooms

in which you could sell tea

and someone could
look at the tea leaves,

usually a fortune teller.

But, on the other hand,

Edgar Cayce is
a little different.

The level of prophecy,

the predictions
he's making are-are

way beyond anything that
happens in a gypsy tea room.

At first, it was
just local people

coming for these consultations,

but gradually, over
time, his fame spread.

And Thomas Edison, Nikola
Tesla, Woodrow Wilson

asked his advice about
what might be coming up.

Edgar Cayce had a
series of readings we call

the World Affairs Readings...

in which he actually
predicted the crash

of the New York Stock
Exchange in 1929.

He also described
the Asian involvement

in the European
war of World War II.

Another fascinating

aspect of Edgar Cayce's readings

is that he foresaw
and talked about

the Dead Sea Scrolls

long before they were
discovered in 1947.

He was talking about
it in the '30s and '40s.

And so Edgar Cayce had
a great deal of success

with his psychic readings.

Edgar Cayce
is considered by many to be

the best documented
prophet of the 20th century.

Unlike most of his
contemporaries,

Cayce was widely believed to be

not a showman or an entertainer

but rather a
genuine clairvoyant.

But just where
was this information

he prophesied coming from?

Cayce's method to

perform acts of
clairvoyance was to

glean information from
what he called "the source,"

or what he at other
times referred to

as the Akashic records.

The concept of
Akasha extends back

to ancient Vedic culture,

and, according
to Hindu tradition,

it was like a ethereal
hall of records

in which all events that
ever occurred were imprinted.

And Edgar Cayce said
that this was the record book

that he was using to gain
access to extrasensory information.

Was Edgar
Cayce somehow able to tap into

a universal source of knowledge

that existed outside
of his own mind?

For now, the answer is unclear.

But people continue to read
Edgar Cayce's predictions

in hopes of uncovering
more prophecies

that actually came true.

Edgar Cayce's readings
first started being recorded

systematically in 1923, and

there are 14,308
surviving readings.

And there are
thousands of readings

that have never
been fully explored.

There is a vast amount that
could be studied that might have

information about the future.

And it's fascinating
to theorize about.

Did Edgar Cayce, the
so-called Sleeping Prophet,

tap into the power of
the subconscious mind

to access the past
and the future?

For the moment,
the answer is unclear,

but it's a question
that certainly

deserves our attention.

Because Cayce,

along with many
other clairvoyants,

warned of deadly events

that might one day take place,

including predictions concerning

the end of the world.

An opinion poll
conducted by the organization YouGov

reveals that almost
30% of Americans believe

that there will be an
apocalyptic disaster

in their lifetime.

But while it may seem
like fears about doomsday

are at an all-time high,

the truth is that,
for centuries,

humanity has been strangely

fascinated by prophecies

concerning the end of the world.

Some of the oldest of
these dark predictions

are contained in the Bible.

In the Holy Bible

we can look and see
what the end of the world

might look like.

For example,

Noah was told by
God to build the Ark.

And there was this
prophetic nature to this.

And then he builds the Ark,
and God floods the Earth.

And so Noah does
what God asks him to do,

and he was able to survive.

Another expectation
of some Christians

would be looking at
the Book of Revelation.

There was kind of this
Armageddon-type reality

that will be the
judgment of the world.

And there will be a new
heaven and a new Earth.

This is something

that we've believed
for thousands of years,

as it's been handed
down in the holy scriptures.

The fact
that doomsday predictions

have captivated
people from antiquity,

up through modern times,

raises a fascinating question.

Why do human beings
believe so strongly

that clues about the end
of the world can be revealed

by the power of prophecy?

Generally speaking,

prophecy always contains

some element of the apocalyptic.

"End of the world" is usually
the number one people think of.

So, for example,
especially in media,

people have written about this.

And this is important because

people are scared
of the unknown.

It's our nature.

Humans want to
understand the future

because there is anxiety about

being able to prepare

for what's coming.

So it makes sense that people

would seek out individuals

who are known to have
an ability to see the future.

The fact is, there are
enough people alive

at any point, at any generation

who will tell you

of instances in their own lives

in which prophetic methods,

whether astrology or the I Ching

or tarot cards or clairvoyance

has proven true,

has saved them from a disaster.

We pay attention to
prophecies because

sometimes they
turn out to be true.

Will one of the many
doomsday predictions

that have been made
throughout history

eventually come true?

It's impossible to say for
sure, but one thing is certain.

Visions, prophecies,
forecasts of the future

will continue to be
a source of intrigue

and fascination that,
for the moment,

remain unexplained.

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