Most people have always been interested to know what will happen to them in the near future, and what fate awaits them or their loved ones. Therefore, even in ancient times, the first soothsayers appeared, who tried in various ways to find out information about a particular person or even an entire state.
They wondered on bones, on the flight of birds, on the behavior of animals, and later on the lines of the hands, on the cards, etc. For the most part, the information obtained by such methods was incorrect and rather vague, which did not allow to take the profession of fortune tellers, palmists and diviners seriously enough.
However, there were also rare exceptions, when people were born on Earth with the real gift of clairvoyance and foresight. As a rule, the prophecies expressed by them were presented in a veiled manner, often in the form of allegorical images, which became clear only after the event had happened.
Perhaps the most famous predictions in the world by Michel Nostradamus. The prophet who lived in the 16th century accurately predicted the events that took place four centuries later. He named the dates of the First World War, the Civil War in Russia and the revolution.
“The iron spider loves the bank of the Danube, where the Germans prepare slaves from prisoners, their homeland will lose heaps of gold rubles, leading retribution from the deep snows” - these lines refer to Germany, which will be defeated in the Great Patriotic War. And the "iron spider" - doesn't this image look like a fascist swastika?
Michel Nostradamus, court physician and astrologer of Catherine de Medici, recorded many of his prophetic visions. A number of them remained undeciphered, others have already been confirmed in history. You can, of course, consider the messages of Nostradamus a figment of the imagination, and is skeptical about them. Nevertheless, the soothsayer knew exactly the date of his death, and it was on that day that he died of a heart attack.
Another famous person who lived in France in the 17th century, Cyrano de Bergerac, had the gift of “technical foresight”. Scientist and writer, long before the appearance of rockets, he predicted a man's flight to the moon, the use of nuclear weapons, tape recorders, etc. In addition, like our contemporaries, he believed that in fact mythical Gods are aliens from other planets who once visited Earth.
The flight to the moon was also described by another famous writer, Jules Verne. In his novel, he described the feeling of weightlessness and some other detailed flight details that surprise: how could Verne in 1865, a hundred years before the launch of Apollo 11, know about this?
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Another famous seer - a medium who predicted a number of global events in the world, was born in 1877. His name is Edgar Cayce. Among the many prophecies he made, there are also the invention of the nuclear bomb, natural disasters, indicating the parts of the world in which they will occur, the death of President Kennedy, a number of political prophecies and many other events.
In addition, Edgar Cayce predicted contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations and travel to parallel worlds that will soon become available to mankind.
And here is another name of the soothsayer, though not as famous as the previous ones - Albert Robida. This man, who became famous not only as a writer, but also as an artist, was born in France in 1848. His books "The Twentieth Century" and "Electric Life" were published in Russia as well.
In them, with amazing perspicacity, Robida looked into the future, making amazing predictions not only in the field of technological progress, but also in the political sphere. In Electric Life, the writer portrayed a terrible catastrophe that occurred as a result of a tank accident.
Despite the fact that the indicated date (1955) was 30 years ahead of the events in Chernobyl, on the whole, the picture described by Robida surprisingly coincides with the one that took place in Ukraine in 1986.
The illustrations made by the author for his novel are also striking: there is a subway, submarines, air ships, chemical weapons and much more, which is not a wonder for modern man, but was a figment of fantasy for people who lived at that time!
His contemporaries considered it amusing that in his work Robida made the Prime Minister of England of the 20th century … a woman (which later became a reality), and the artist's drawings seemed a magnificent invention. However, Albert Robida managed to live up to the First World War and see cities destroyed by bombs, air vehicles and ground equipment, which he himself once painted.
Foresight of the future was often possessed by people who dedicated their lives to God. Often after the death of these seers, they were canonized as saints. However, during his lifetime, such a gift could often cause persecution and even death. An example of such a difficult fate is clearly illustrated by the life of the Russian monk Abel (Vasily Vasiliev). The credibility of his existence is confirmed by church books and criminal cases brought against him as a state criminal for his prophetic predictions.
Abel was born in 1757, at the age of 28 he left his wife and children and took tonsure at the Valaam monastery. In 1976 he wrote a book in which the monk indicated the date of the death of Catherine II. He showed this book to the abbot of the Nikolo-Babayevsky monastery, and he, hesitating for a short time, presented it to Bishop Paul.
For such "clairvoyance" Abel was cut and imprisoned (by personal decree of the empress). However, at the time named by the monk, Catherine died, and Abel was released by decree of the new emperor Paul I, with whom he had a personal conversation, and was again allowed to take tonsure.
However, the restless Abel writes a new book again, where he again indicates the date of the death of Paul I. Abel was sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress, from where he was released after the death of the emperor. Then - again arrest, for predicting the war of 1812, several years of freedom and again in prison - already for a prophecy about the future fate of Nicholas I.
In the end, the fortune-teller monk died. However, the documents of the "cases" on arrests and releases, with attached rewritten sheets of "predictions" have been preserved. And in them in some detail, with dates, the further fate of Russia is described: revolution, civil and Patriotic wars … One involuntarily recalls the words from V. Vysotsky's song: "and clairvoyants, however, like eyewitnesses, were burned by people at the stake in all ages."
What can be said in conclusion? People never cease to be interested in the future, and many, (often unreasonably), declare themselves to be clairvoyants and soothsayers. But nevertheless, ordinary people often show an inexplicable gift of foresight at least once in their lives, so there may be someone more gifted in this area, although such chosen ones are born extremely rarely.