Oracles, prophets and seers……
Human precognition has always held a special place throughout human culture and history. In ancient Greece, for example, major (and even some minor) decisions were made with prior oracular consultations. Prophets from the East were revered for their perceived ability to foretell the future, and shamans within tribal societies were respected for their ability to divine the unknown. However, modern day fortune tellers have become somewhat of an anachronistic gimmick, as contemporary thinking generally accepts that no reliable way of seeing what’s around the proverbial corner exists. Or is there?
Clairvoyancy is a phenomenon within the panoply of paranormal human abilities that has been subjected to intense scrutiny over the decades. Similar to investigations into telepathy, studies to document, strengthen, and cultivate the human potential to perceive future events were seen as the ultimate strategic advantage by government-sponsored programs in possibly more than one country.
Certain historical individuals have enjoyed heightened mainstream attention for their powers of precognition. Perhaps one of the most popular of these is Nostradamus and his series of prophetic quatrains, often cited as having heralded world-shaking events such as the Great Fire in London, the rise of Hitler, and the fall of the Twin Towers. However, despite the seeming accuracy of the events foretold in his writings, one cannot ignore the indisputable fact that any event can be shoehorned into a pre-existing “prophecy” due to differences in interpretation of language and symbolic nuances.
While many individuals were believed to have been born with the gift to foretell the future, there were instances where a bit of… assistance… was necessary. Some historical accounts of precognition mention a type of catalyst required to induce “visions”, by helping an individual reach a higher plane of existence to facilitate communion with the spiritual divine. We now know that some of these catalysts were pharmaceutical substances (rather illegal by today’s standards) that assisted in “seeing” what lay ahead.
Despite all this skepticism, however, most people accept fortune telling as an entertaining diversion, something to participate in for fun to tell you where your career is headed, or how many kids you’ll have. And who hasn’t wanted precognitive powers before buying a lottery ticket?? Regardless of whether clairvoyancy is a product of divine communion or a latent ability hidden within the human mind, the allure of forecasting the future will always excite human imagination. Besides, if there are any legitimate prophets out there, they’re certainly not telling… or maybe we just need to learn how to listen.
Brad Lida
June 9, 2012 @ 3:33 pm
I had a dream once that came true when I was a kid.
To this day I believe I dreamed the future, but it only happened the one time.
bleachorange
June 9, 2012 @ 4:07 pm
hmm.the only form of precognition that is reliable isn’t precognition, but intuition. and intuition’s accuracy depends on observation and experience, whereon your subconscious mind biases you towards predicting a certain outcome. without that long-term experience and observation of the situation, intuition is little more than guesswork.