Since time immemorial man has been fascinated by time travel. Some people are eager to look into the past, but the majority desire to know the future.
The Oracle of Apollo at
In ancient times, people – great and ordinary alike – would converge in
In 67 AD, Emperor Nero, who was only 30 years old at the time and had killed his mother eight years previously, visited the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi and was told:
“Your presence here outrages the god you seek. Go back, matricide! The number 73 marks the hour of your downfall!”
The End of Emperor Nero and Shaka
Angered by this foretelling, he had the Pythia (the Priestess who went into a trance while the spirit of Apollo overtook her) buried alive. In his arrogance he assumed he would have a long reign and die at 73. But his reign was short: put to an end by a revolt led by Galba who was 73 years old at the time.
In African and Native American cultures it is the sangoma or shaman, as custodians of ritual and custom, who are seers. In fact, it is said that a great traditional healer, Sithayi, predicted the rise and strength of Shaka the son of Senzangakhona. It is also a wise man to whom Shaka was close who predicted that his death at the hands of his brothers was imminent.
Visiting a Psychic to Predict the Future
While the same pomp does not exist over two hundred years later, people still look to psychics or clairvoyants to predict the future. Unsurprisingly, despite the success of technology and mode of urban life, mankind is no closer to predicting the future now as it was then.
Some things we have no control over. Or do we? Peter Harris, a 53 year old man decided to consult a psychic during one of the most emotionally arduous moments of his life. He was going through a painful divorce, he was estranged from his children, many of his friends had deserted him and he didn’t have the same passion for his career as he once did.
The Clairvoyant is not always Right
A sceptic who believes in neither religion nor clairvoyance, he realised he had nothing to lose, and through one of life’s coincidences met a psychic who he turned to for guidance. During their session, she told him she could ‘pick’ from his energy field great negativity, and without possibly knowing beforehand she went on to describe in detail the personal trauma he was facing at the time.
So shocked was he by this information, he thought one of his friends had spoken to the psychic before he had had his consultation. The clairvoyant went on to describe how everything was working out for the best and in time, he would find his feet again as far as family and career were concerned. She emphasised repeatedly that he would come into a large amount of money. As he tells it, ‘she was right about everything else but the money. I am still waiting for that!’
The ‘Science’ of Clairvoyance and Nostradamus
The essence of clairvoyance cannot be explained scientifically. Scientists are not generally enthusiastic about people who say they can see into the future - the reason being that there is no palpable evidence to support what they say. Nostradamus, almost five hundred years ago, predicted so many world events which he wrote in undated quatrains. Possibly the most famous psychic next to Edgar Cayce, his written work is cryptic and open to many interpretations.
Enthusiasts of his predictions say he predicted both World Wars, Hitler’s rise, and the fall of the
Free Will and Predictions
For many, free will pre-empts certain situations occurring because by you choosing a certain direction, you inevitably change a whole course of events. So, for example, if you choose to take a different route to work you miss the accident that the psychic predicted.
In the book, Conversations with God Book 3, Neale Donald Walsch has a conversation with God and in it God says that the psychic does not predict the future, ‘merely offering a glimpse of one of the “possible possibilities” observed in the Eternal Moment of Now. It is always the subject of the psychic reading who has made the choice. He could just as easily make another choice – a choice not in concert with the prediction’.
I Have Visited with Psychics
I always think of this when I book my reading with a psychic. I have been to many clairvoyants, clairsentients (who predict using feeling) and clairaudients (who predict using hearing) and each time, armed with a set of questions, I am always told things will work out.
When I released my first work of fiction last year one psychic promised that this work would make me famous internationally and bring in a sack load of cash. It’s a year later and I am not amused. Another told me I was about to make a breakthrough in my career and I needed to meditate. I am confused as to what she meant as life continues on as it has before.
A very well known psychic whom I visited a couple of years ago told me I would meet a man of foreign origin who was tall with big feet. She was right in every respect, including the information she gave on my work and personal life.
A Clairvoyant Sees Into My Future
Sometimes the guidance comes unbidden. One day at a show, I had a woman come up to me and tell me how my immediate future would pan out. At this time, the cynic in me was laughing as she talked. I was told I would live on a farm (I already was but she said a bigger, more beautiful farm), that I would meet an American cowboy with whom I would fall in love and that I would live in peace and harmony surrounded by farmyard animals.
Siener van Rensburg
Maybe sceptics are right to take every advice given with a pinch of salt, but what happens when a great travesty like a natural disaster is predicted? The world of clairvoyants and psychics is filled with those who tamper with the good name of those who are skilled and true in what they practise.
However, the game of prediction, in my mind at least, must be tempered with a healthy dose of reality and an understanding that everyday, you change your course.
In the Afrikaans community, Siener van Rensburg is believed to have been a prophet of God and was the advisor of General De La Rey. Over 700 predictions of his have been recorded, many of which, if not all, were purported to be true.
He predicted the fall of the apartheid government and the rise of a black party, which has indeed unfolded. However, he has also predicted that in time, the Afrikaaners will rise again. Again, this remains to be seen. It could all be true, but it also could be just a game of chance.
