Don’t you hate it when you take your kids
camping in a National Park, but the lake is missing and it’s an early warning sign of
an impending apocalypse that the Mayans predicted thousands of years ago? Your day just goes downhill from there. But in all seriousness, you may have recently
received a chain email or seen posts on a forum discussing how the coronavirus is the
fulfillment of a prophecy and the end of the world is near. Granted that email came from your freaky great
aunt, the one who believes that actors are sending her coded messages through TV shows,
so you‘re rather skeptical. But are the doomsayers right, is it true that
coronavirus was prophesied? Are there any other ancient predictions that
have come true? Yes, although it clearly depends on how much
belief a person put into the teachings of a particular soothsayer or religion. Some people have pointed to a passage in the
Bible, second Chronicles chapter 7, verse 13. God appears to King Solomon and tells him:
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the
land or send a plague among my people.” This year we have had wildfires in Australia
which raged for weeks before it rained. Currently parts of the Middle East and East
Africa are struggling with huge locust swarms and the Covid-18 pandemic is affecting people
worldwide. The next verse calls for people to seek God
and turn from their wicked ways for God to heal their land. Other people point to Luke chapter 21, verses
9-11 which suggest the beginning of the end times: “ 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings,
do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end
will not come right away.” 10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines
and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.” Too non specific? Perhaps. Some Christians find people pushing these
theories problematic and fear mongering. They point to the book of Matthew chapter
24 verse 36 which says that only God himself knows the end time. While it’s not exactly an ancient prophecy,
in 2008, medium Sylvia Browne wrote a book called ‘End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies
About the End of the World’. Though Browne died in 2013, recently her book
has been very popular; ‘rare’ hardcover versions of it now sell for hundreds of dollars. Some celebrities have tweeted a screenshot
of a passage from the book: "In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness
will spread throughout the globe attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and all
known treatments," Browne wrote. "Almost more baffling than the illness will
be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years
later and then vanish completely." Eerie, however although there’s no vaccine
yet, medical professionals do know how to treat coronavirus. Also we’d like to point out that Sylvia
Brown had a long history of being wrong about many predictions she made, some of her predictions
about missing children ended up causing needless further grief for their families. She even wrongly predicted her own death--she
said she’d die at age 88, but was, well, a little off. She was actually 77 when she died. Other than Covid-19 there are many other historical
predictions made regarding world events which are said to have come true. There are the predictions of French writer
Michel de Nostredame. You may have heard of him under Nostradamus,
his more commonly known name. Nostradamus lived in the 16th century and
in addition to being a writer, was a physician, an astrologer, and allegedly a seer. His book Les Prophéties which was first published
in 1555, is a collection of 942 poetic quatrains, those are four-line rhyming verses, that are
divided into chapters called centuries and are said to foretell future events. Email chains and memes referencing Nostradamus
have been floating around the internet for some time. Often enhanced and bad translations as well
as faked poems of Nostradamus’ original writing make his musing seem far more specific
and accurate than they actually are. Most famously, Nostradamus was said to have
predicted September 11, but most of the quatrains being passed around aren’t his original
writing. We turned to Les Prophéties for the truth. In century I quatrain 87 Nostradamus wrote: “Earthshaking fire from the center of the
Earth will cause tremors around the New City. Two great rocks will war for a long time,
Then Arethusa will redden a new river. Some people take that to mean that 9/11 was
either an inside job or the US is the center of the earth, aka the most powerful nation. Two great rocks perhaps the US and Islamic
terrorists will fight long term. It’s unclear how Arethusa, who was a Greek
nymph fits in, but redden a new river may be a river of blood. People often mention a second verse which
also may predict 9/11 century 6, quatrain 97 says:
At forty-five degrees the sky will burn, Fire to approach the great new city:
In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,
When one will want to demand proof of the Normans. New York lies at 40 degrees North Latitude
and unfortunately a devastating fire was part of the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack. ‘Proof of the Normans’ is puzzling though. Nostradamus is said to have predicted several
other world events such as the Great Fire of London. In century 2, quatrain 51 he wrote: The blood of the just will commit a fault
at London, Burnt through lightning of twenty threes the
six: The ancient lady will fall from her high place,
Several of the same sect will be killed. The ‘fault’ or accident was possibly a
fire that started at a bakery owned by Thomas Farriner in September of 1666. The fire soon spread and became a raging inferno
which engulfed the whole city. It’s estimated 70,000 inhabitants of London
lost their homes. Three times 20 equals 60 and plus the 6 gets
you 66, the year it happened. London could be described as an ‘ancient
lady’. Then as well as now, London was a bustling
commercial metropolis with the busiest market and port in Britain. The fire devastated the city and it ended
up being almost completely rebuilt. While only 6 people officially died in the
fire, some historians argue that the deaths of lower class residents weren’t recorded
and probably several thousand died. Also the intense heat of the fire may have
cremated many victims, leaving little recognisable evidence between. On the other hand, ‘same sect’ may not
refer to citizens or a social class, but the fact that some Londoners blamed the conflagration
on Catholics and the Dutch. Mobs attacked and lynched members of these
‘sects’ while the city still smoldered. Another event Nostradamus is said to have
predicted is the French Revolution. In century 1, quatrain 24, he wrote: From the enslaved populace, songs, chants
and demands, while Princes and Lords are held captive in
prisons. These will in the future by headless idiots
be received as divine prayers This one seems a little more specific. The French Revolution saw the overthrow of
the monarchy and a new republic created. The lower class common people of France known
as the Third Estate, were poverty stricken and downtrodden by the First Estate, the clergy
and the Second Estate French nobility and elites. The Third Estate rose up and marched through
the streets in several towns chanting their demands. In Paris, they ended up storming the Bastille. The mobs arrested and imprisoned many of the
aristocracy, including the king and introduced them to Madame Guillotine. Nostradamus also predicted the rise of Adolf
Hitler. In century 3 quatrain 35 he wrote: From the very depths of the West of Europe,
A young child will be born of poor people, He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop:
His fame will increase towards the realm of the East. Believers often couple that quatrain with
century 2 quatrain 24: Beasts ferocious from hunger will swim across
rivers: The greater part of the region will be against
the Hister, The great one will cause it to be dragged
in an iron cage, When the German child will observe nothing. Hitler experienced poverty while young and
was even homeless for a while. He had a way with words, he was a great orator
who was definitely able to seduce a great troop. He quickly rose to power and became fascist
chancellor, uniting most of Germany behind him. The beasts crossing rivers are often considered
to be Germany invading France and other countries in Europe. Hister could be Hitler, although it’s thought
Nostradamus was using the Latin name for the Danube River. The last two verses could be referring to
the censorship and blame of Germany by other countries after Hitler commited suicide. The rise of Hitler wasn’t the only World
War II event that Nostradamus seemingly predicted. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing were allegedly
described in century 2, quatrain 6: Near the gates and within two cities
There will be two scourges the like of which was never seen,
Famine within plague, people put out by steel, Crying to the great immortal God for relief. The dropping of the atomic bombs on these
two cities was a scourge which had never been seen before. The bombing caused widespread devastation
including food shortages and radiation poisoning for the citizens in the affected areas, some
of them definitely cried out to God for relief. In century 1, quatrain 26, Nostradmus may
have predicted the death of President John Kennedy and also the death of his brother
presidential candidate Robert Kennedy: The great man will be struck down in the day
by a thunderbolt. An evil deed, foretold by the bearer of a
petition. According to the prediction another falls
at night time. Conflict at Reims, London, and pestilence
in Tuscany. JFK, a well respected president was struck
down by gunshot on November 22, 1963, and it had a thunderbolt effect on society, if
not the whole world. Prior to his assasination, he received many
death threats--petitions. RFK was a presidential front runner and many
felt that he was the heir to his brother’s position. He was assassinated just after midnight at
12:15 am on June 5, 1968. As for conflict in Reims and the other countries,
the assassinations of the Kennedys caused a societal shift in America and also affected
citizens in other countries. Last but not least, there are emails currently
circulating that claim Nostradamus predicted the Covid-19 Pandemic. Some point to century 2, quatrain 6--yes,
the same verses that may have predicted the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That would be extremely upsetting because
it means coronavirus is only the first of two scourges. Others point to century 2, quatrain 53: The great plague of the maritime city
Will not cease until there be avenged the death
Of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime,
Of the great lady unwronged by pretense. Wuhan isn’t a maritime city, it’s actually
quite far inland and is landlocked, however the origins of Covid-19 were traced to a seafood
market. It’s a stretch though. We’ll report back to you if any other event
happens that fulfills the rest of the verses. We began this video by joking about a Mayan
prediction as interpreted by a Hollywood blockbuster. Actually, the Mayans never predicted the end
of the world as December 21, 2012. Some researchers, psychics and pop culture
took a few facts of what the modern world has interpreted from ancient Mayan culture
and ran with it. According to interpretations of some glyphs
[https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mayan-pictograph-tikal-ruins-guatemala-234810364], the Mayan Long Count Calendar started with
“creation” on August 11, 3114 BCE [Before Current Era in the Gregorian calendar], and
ran a total of 13 b’aktuns or a cycle of 144,000 days that lasted a total of 5,125
years. The glyphs also indicated that some sort of
event would happen at the end of the 13th cycle which was 12-21-12. There’s a suggestion that a god or a collective
totality of gods called Bolon Yookte’ will descend.... Unfortunately, the rest of the sentence is
missing due to the glyph having deteriorated over time. Not much else has been found in the records
regarding this prediction, so it’s impossible to know what the ancient Mayans intended. Ultimately, what we’re suggesting is that
you shouldn’t read too much into or worry about any particular predictions. People have made educated and uneducated guesses
about the future. They have been inspired by religious ceremonies,
societal problems, fueled by sickness, drugs and liquor, allegedly communed with the dead,
followed the whims of animals and just about any other way you can think of to offer up
a prediction of what tomorrow will bring. Don’t let their guesses keep you awake at
night. Take a deep breath and seek to enjoy your
life now, living as best you can. And now that you've reached the end of our
video, why not keep the watch party going?! Did you know that Sir Issac Newton once predicted
the end of the world? Find out about his prediction here
Does the possibility of zombies running rampant keep you up at night? Check out our tips for surviving a zombie
horde here Whichever video you click, hopefully we can
provide some insight on how to cope with an apocalypse.
