|
 "Clifford A. Pickover is the heir apparent to Carl Sagan: no one
else does better popular science writing than Pickover. Dreaming the Future is an engrossing exploration, compulsively readable and
wonderfully entertaining. My prediction for this book's future?
Expect to see it on the bestsellers' lists."
-- Robert J. Sawyer, Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer, author of Calculating God
|
"Having myself dealt only with a very specific and highly regarded
'prophet,' Nostradamus, I must admire the thorough and admirable work
that Pickover has given us in Dreaming the Future. I now have a
reference work to which I can point inquirers, saving myself much
discussion and fuss. . . . There has always been a seductive quality
to the claims of the astrologers, the religious figures, the
'psychics' who offer an attractive solution to life's problems, and
this author gives us an excellent analysis and summary of much of the
field in this book."
--James Randi, author of The Mask of Nostradamus
|
"Dreaming the Future is the best single volume on divination and
prediction I have read, and I know it will become a bestseller because
both my psychic and my astrologer told me so. Help make this a self-
fulfilling prophecy by buying this book!"
--Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic magazine, author of Why People Believe Weird Things and How We Believe. |
"Pickover is an astonishingly talented person -- and this new book
adds yet more amazement to my sense of the extensive range of his
reading and the impressive recall of his nimble and creative mind."
--Charles L. Harper, Jr., D. Phil., Executive Director and Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
"Pickover has done it again: here is the answer to those annoying
people who won't give you your books and CDs back, because the world's
going to end on Tuesday anyway. He has collected a representative
sample with his usual insights and wit."
--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:
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
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.
Dr. G: What is the next item on the assignment board?
Harry: It's the name of a place, I think, but I can't make it out.
Dr. G: Can you spell it?
Harry: It's a long name. It's a very weird combination of consonants. It's the name of a man.
Dr. G: What letters can you make out?
Harry: ST W KI... It's a long Russian-type name.
Terms Indexed in Dreaming the Future
(This is meant to give a clearer indication of topics covered.)
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
Clifford A. Pickover, Ph.D., is the author of many books,
including Wonders of Numbers, The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Time: A Traveler's
Guide, and Surfing Through Hyperspace; and the holder of many U.S.
patents. Wired magazine described Pickover this way: "Bucky Fuller
thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes
them both."
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.