July 8, 1998
While clicking through cable channels the other day, I stumbled on one of those NBC documentaries about "Ancient Prophecies." While I watched with a healthy skepticism, I have to admit, I felt some trepidation once it was done.
The documentary covered the great seers from Nostradamus and St. John through some of the modern folks like Edgar Cayce and Paul Solomon, and focused on their virtual universal message predicting dire things for the end of the 20th Century.
Think of a catastrophe, and someone's predicted it.
Many of the predictions, for example, forecast a global thermonuclear war. Most pinpoint that war starting somewhere in the Middle East — the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan take on even more ominous meaning, in that light.
For example, the Cabalists, an ancient sect descended from Hebrew priests, appear to have a firm belief that Israel will touch off a nuclear exchange after being attacked with chemical and/or biological weapons by someone like Iraq.
For all that the Cold War is over, it would seem, we're no safer from that ominous shadow. All it takes is one lunatic — and let's face it, we've got quite a few of 'em out there.
Many of the prophecies would appear to foreshadow some catastrophic ecological disaster, either man-made or natural.
The documentary's producers — being documentary producers — applied the liberal brush quite freely in noting that we're tearing up the planet and we're going to melt Antarctica soon if we don't stop using hair dryers. Since I haven't had enough hair to use a blow-dryer on for years, I feel I'm doing my part there.
Some of the other predictions revolve around some natural disaster — a naturally-occurring shift in weather patterns or a visitor from space.
Some of the prophecies, for example, lend credence to the belief that El Nino is something that shows up every few hundred years, sometimes stronger than others, and is responsible for prior worldwide catastrophes. Others hold that the continuing shrinking of the Earth's mantle will one day cause the planet's axis to rotate, melting the current ice caps and creating some new ones.
Then there are the "planet-killing asteroid" prophecies. Notice how all of a sudden we have a plethora of movies on that subject?
A pretty sizeable segment of the scientific community is — pardon the pun — rock-solid in the belief that just such an event caused the extinction of the dinosaur. While the possibilities are astronomical that a chunk of rock big enough to do that to the planet would ever hit us, what good are odds when a rock the size of Texas is headed your direction?
What I found most fascinating about this documentary, though, was the fact that some of the modern seers figure at least some of us will survive long enough to have to use new maps — and through their "spirit contacts," they've thoughtfully provided us with those maps.
There's one that was featured on the program called "Island America," done by a Lori Toye, who received her information from the "Ascended Masters."
(Privately, between you and me: these "Ascended Masters" are the same guys who gave Marilyn Ferguson her Aquarian Conspiracy idea; Ferguson inspired Marc Tucker, William Spady, Lauren Resnick and Willard Daggett and I'll go out on a limb and assume the "Ascended Masters" include Eleanor Roosevelt, who talks to their buddy Hillary Clinton. LSD, anyone?)
While I may disparage the source, I have to admit, the results are tempting.
For starters, most of the West Coast will be under water, clear up to Salt Lake City and Denver. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York — and Houston — will all disappear beneath the waves, according to Toye. Literally billions of lives will be lost in the cataclysm.
She's even got a web site where she sells maps and advice on where the best places are to move in order to survive: http://www.baproducts.com/iamamer.htm. (I know, I know, most reputable prophets tend to avoid going commercial.)
There is, however, a plus side to this prophecy: according to Toye, Katy will become beachfront property.
I've always wanted to run my own
surfboard shop.