(Investigator 19, 1991July)

The book PREDICTIONS (1980) by Joe Fisher & Peter Cummins discusses prediction throughout history. The authors also list predictions made by famous psychics especially for inclusion in the book.

I'll quote PREDICTIONS exactly so as to assess the psychics without prejudice objectively.

Firstly the predictions for "the next twenty years" that "cropped up with the greatest frequency" (p. 99):

    * Space exploration will flourish. We will make contact with beings from outer space and learn where UFOs come from.
    * Medical science will be revolutionized and major breakthroughs made in the treatment of cancer, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.
    * Devastating volcanoes and earthquakes will change the face of the world. California will be among the worst hit areas.
    * Some form of nuclear war will break out within ten years.
    * A United States president will die in office in the 1980s.
    * New York will be destroyed.
    * Great advances will be made in psychic research and greater use made of psychic perception in everyday life.

Next consider the effort of Irene Hughes – "America’s first lady of the parasciences" (p.102):

    * An oncoming ice age will be "very evident" by 1983 and fully upon us by 1989.
    * Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee will suffer from terrible earthquakes in 1981 and 1982. On or near March 10, 1986, a giant quake will rock         San Francisco.
    * The world will be on the verge of nuclear war in 1983. China will stir up Africa and other nations against the United States, and in 1985                     sophisticated nuclear, weapons small enough to tuck into a pocket will be used in the conflict which 'will not be an all-out destructive war.'
    * Quebec will secede from Canada no later than 1985.
    * Queen Elizabeth will abdicate and Prince Charles will take over the thrown for about three years, then step down. Illness will cause the                     Queen's abdication.
    * Paris will be burned to the ground before 2000, Italy will suffer famine and destructive earthquakes between 1983 and 1989 and Rome will be         destroyed shortly after 2000.
    * The next pope will be assassinated and cardinals will rule the Church until the papacy is no more in 1989.


Next Sandra McNeil of Los Angeles "most glamorous of the modern psychics" (p.104):

    * As early as 1981, robots will be used in the home, not only as messengers, cooks and cleaners, but as companions. By 2000 computer robots will be introduced in the classroom as 'teachers aids.'
    * A wrist device to inform diabetics of blood-sugar levels will be on the market shortly. This will be followed, in 1981, by an injection that will arrest diabetes for fifty years.
    * A serum that prevents hardening of the arteries and reverses senility and aging process will become available in the 1980s. By 2000 average life expectancy will be increased to 120 years.
    * Synthetic repair will provide a cure for heart disease by 1993. The 1990s will see cures for arthritis, cancer and multiple sclerosis.
    * By 1990 a device will have been invented to enable us to communicate with plants. A computer analyzer will translate a plant's vibrations into human voice.
    * Hypnosis and 'conditioning tapes' will be used in schools by the turn of the century. These programming techniques will make it possible for physics, languages, astronomy and calculus to be taught to pre-schoolers.
    * By 1987-88, airplanes will cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than twenty-five minutes.
    * By 1990, there will be proof of life in outer space when a Russian mission encounters and 'captures' an organism from another planet.
    * The United States will establish an experimental space station in the early 1990s that will house several hundred people for over a year

Maha Yogi A. S. Narayana of Canada's Espon Corporation was charging $3000 per page of predictions of alleged 90% accuracy. His public predictions had, the Yogi warned, an 'error factor' of 25%. The following 'public predictions' (p.105) seem nearer 100% wrong:

    * A new Watergate involving close to $17 million is in the making in the United States.
    * By 1985, all the world's dictators will either be dead or in hiding on obscure islands.
    * The United States of North and Central America will be founded within five years.
    * The Japanese economy will break down between 1980 and 1984.
    * Pierre Trudeau will be appointed to a top-ranking post in the United Nations by 1982.
    * Bad harvests in the Soviet Union between 1980 and 1987 will help reduce that country to a second-rate power.
    * A world state, using a currency 'something like the kilowatt,' is less than ten years away.

It seems that all three "psychics" were close to 100% wrong.

PREDICTIONS lists a lot more "psychic" twaddle and I recommend the reading of the entire book. The great shame is that people are paying, in some cases, $3000 per page!
"Psychics" known in South Australia may charge only $30 per short visit. But isn't even that too much considering that science has never demonstrated any psychic abilities?
(B M)