1 00:00:00,662 --> 00:00:18,224 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:18,224 --> 00:00:22,744 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:22,744 --> 00:00:26,825 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:26,825 --> 00:00:35,146 Four hundred years ago, a renowned French doctor decided to put in writing strange 5 00:00:35,146 --> 00:00:43,427 visions that he summoned up by occult means. He believed they foretold the future, and they 6 00:00:43,427 --> 00:00:50,267 have become known as the prophecies of Nostradamus. Many people have trusted them 7 00:00:50,267 --> 00:00:58,868 completely and even planned their lives around them. Adolf Hitler was one. The words of Nostradamus, 8 00:00:58,868 --> 00:01:07,149 although written four centuries earlier, seemed to describe Hitler uncannily. In the court of 9 00:01:07,149 --> 00:01:15,430 Henry II and Catherine de Medici, Nostradamus was believed. Were they all deluded? Or was 10 00:01:15,430 --> 00:01:21,391 there some mystic formula which Nostradamus used to foresee events yet to happen? 11 00:01:21,391 --> 00:01:36,193 Early in the 16th century, Nostradamus gained fame as an astrologer after he published 12 00:01:36,193 --> 00:01:41,033 prophecies in verse form. Nostradamus described his method of predicting the future. 13 00:01:42,033 --> 00:01:49,634 Sitting alone at night in secret study, it is placed on the brass tripod. A slight 14 00:01:49,634 --> 00:01:54,795 flame comes out of the emptiness and makes successful that which should not be believed 15 00:01:54,795 --> 00:02:03,356 in vain. The wand in the hand is placed in the middle of the tripod's legs. With water, 16 00:02:03,356 --> 00:02:11,236 he sprinkles the hem of his garment and his foot. A voice, fear, he trembles in his robes. 17 00:02:11,236 --> 00:02:16,517 Divine splendor, the God sits nearby. 18 00:02:26,038 --> 00:02:31,399 Since the beginning of history, advice has been sought from prophets who foretold disasters 19 00:02:31,439 --> 00:02:41,040 yet to come. Mankind's belief in free will and control of our own destiny sits uneasily 20 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:47,360 with a suspicion that catastrophes, natural and man-made, are in some way preordained. 21 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:57,962 Nostradamus himself believed that his predictions were of fates that could be avoided, 22 00:02:58,722 --> 00:03:00,722 destinies that could be changed. 23 00:03:08,243 --> 00:03:11,523 He never doubted that he was genuinely seeing the future. 24 00:03:14,523 --> 00:03:21,364 He chose to write his prophecies in what are known as quatrains, four-lined rhyming verse in the 25 00:03:21,404 --> 00:03:28,845 Provençal dialect of southern France, which was his home. It was the time of the Inquisition, 26 00:03:28,845 --> 00:03:35,606 when men and women were burned for lesser heresies than the one he practiced, so he deliberately 27 00:03:35,606 --> 00:03:43,567 disguised and confused the quatrains using anagrams Latin and Greek. Specific dates are rare. 28 00:03:44,567 --> 00:03:50,287 Even so, his verses evoke vivid images of calamities on earth. 29 00:03:50,287 --> 00:04:01,329 At sunrise a great fire will be seen, noise and light extending towards the north. Within the globe, 30 00:04:01,329 --> 00:04:07,649 death and cries are heard. Death awaited them through weapons, fire and famine. 31 00:04:08,649 --> 00:04:17,370 The greatest army on the march put to flight will scarcely be pursued further. 32 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:26,611 The army reassembled and the legion reduced, they will be driven out of France completely. 33 00:04:38,613 --> 00:04:46,173 He organized his quatrains in groups of 100 called centuries. Nearly 1,000 predictions have come down to us. 34 00:04:46,173 --> 00:04:54,094 His fame spread with extraordinary speed after publication of the first volume in 1555. 35 00:04:54,094 --> 00:05:02,895 At the court of Henry II and Catherine de Medici, they were read avidly. 36 00:05:03,895 --> 00:05:10,056 One was of particular interest because it was thought to predict the manner of the king's death. 37 00:05:10,056 --> 00:05:15,697 The young lion will overcome the older one in a field of combat in a single fight. 38 00:05:15,697 --> 00:05:23,858 He will pierce his eyes in their golden cage. Two wounds in one, then he dies of cruel death. 39 00:05:23,858 --> 00:05:32,219 An Italian prophet had already warned Henry II that both the beginning and end of his reign 40 00:05:32,219 --> 00:05:38,379 would be marked by a duel. The first duel had been fought without injury and now it was thought that 41 00:05:38,379 --> 00:05:46,420 the king's jousting days were over. But the occasion of a double royal wedding of his sister and his 42 00:05:46,420 --> 00:05:57,981 daughter to foreign nobility proved too much of a temptation. He faced his young lion, Count 43 00:05:57,981 --> 00:06:06,662 Gabrielle de Montgomery. The young lion will overcome the older one in a field of combat in a single fight. 44 00:06:06,662 --> 00:06:16,823 The king wore a protective visor according to contemporary accounts made of gold. 45 00:06:16,823 --> 00:06:25,424 Was this as Nostradamus called it a golden cage? A field of combat in a single fight. 46 00:06:25,424 --> 00:06:53,747 The two horsemen raced towards each other. 47 00:06:54,148 --> 00:07:04,589 Montgomery too late tried to withdraw his lance. The lance splintered, fragments driving up under 48 00:07:04,589 --> 00:07:14,110 the protective gold visor. Henry II took ten agonizing days to die from septicemia. It seemed 49 00:07:14,110 --> 00:07:19,630 such a striking confirmation of Nostradamus' prediction that Catherine de Medici made him 50 00:07:19,750 --> 00:07:28,791 Medesan du Roi, a doctor and soothsayer by royal appointment. For the rest of his life he was 51 00:07:28,791 --> 00:07:35,712 famed throughout Europe and after his death in 1566 people began to interpret lines from his 52 00:07:35,712 --> 00:07:43,593 quatrains as referring to their own time. Erica Cheatham, a scholar of medieval French who has 53 00:07:43,633 --> 00:07:49,234 made a special study of Nostradamus, finds some of these supposed prophecies significant. 54 00:07:49,234 --> 00:07:55,674 One of the things I find most convincing about Nostradamus and personally made me 55 00:07:55,674 --> 00:08:01,315 really interested in following him through was the fact he gave specific dates that occurred 56 00:08:01,315 --> 00:08:07,316 after his death. He writes that in 1666 the city of London should be destroyed by fire. He gives 57 00:08:07,316 --> 00:08:14,596 the date of the death of King Charles I, 1649. The Parliament put the King of London to death. 58 00:08:14,596 --> 00:08:20,237 Louis Pasteur, the great biologist, he not only gives his name but in the same verse he gives the 59 00:08:20,237 --> 00:08:32,798 founding of the Institute 1895. London burnt by fire in three times twenty plus six. The great 60 00:08:32,798 --> 00:08:52,401 fire of London happened in 1666. The French Revolution in 1791. By night he will come through 61 00:08:52,401 --> 00:09:02,002 the forest, two partners in a roundabout way. The Queen, the White Stone, the Monk King dressed in 62 00:09:02,002 --> 00:09:11,243 grey at Barren. Marie Antoinette, her hair turned white through shock, escaped with Louis the 16th 63 00:09:11,243 --> 00:09:18,123 secretly through the town of Barren. For not wanting to consent to the divorce, which then will 64 00:09:18,123 --> 00:09:25,564 be recognized as unworried, the King of the islands will be forced to flee and one put in his place 65 00:09:25,724 --> 00:09:34,845 who has no sign of kingship. King Edward VII of Britain abdicated because of his love of Mrs. Simpson 66 00:09:34,845 --> 00:09:43,246 and spent the rest of his life in exile. His brother George, who never expected nor wanted to become 67 00:09:43,246 --> 00:09:53,087 King, ruled in his place. But for those who see Nostradamus as having an outstanding prophetic gift, 68 00:09:53,407 --> 00:10:05,209 two names are always put forward. Napoleon, Hitler. Both names, if they were truly foreseen by 69 00:10:05,209 --> 00:10:14,570 Nostradamus, were disguised or coded. Napoleon was written as an anagram. Paul, Ney, Loron. 70 00:10:15,570 --> 00:10:25,731 Juggle these around and they become Napoléon Roy, Napoleon the King. Napoleon, after his defeat at 71 00:10:25,731 --> 00:10:35,412 Waterloo, was exiled on the tiny island of Elba. After his escape and his victorious 100 days, 72 00:10:35,412 --> 00:10:42,013 a new empire began to grow for him. Stained with murder and enormous adulteries, the great 73 00:10:42,053 --> 00:10:49,813 enemy of all mankind, he will be worse than his ancestors, uncles and fathers in steel, fire and 74 00:10:49,813 --> 00:11:05,415 water, bloody and inhuman. Out of nearly 1000 such court trains that Nostradamus wrote, 75 00:11:05,415 --> 00:11:11,856 how many can be interpreted as having come true? Scholars such as Erika Cheetham think 76 00:11:11,896 --> 00:11:18,537 the proportion is very high. In my opinion, I think perhaps 73% is a rough average of what has 77 00:11:18,537 --> 00:11:26,858 come true. But remember that does cover a span of 400 years. As Hitler advanced through Europe, 78 00:11:26,858 --> 00:11:33,778 his colleague, Gerbos, was busy orchestrating a propaganda campaign based on the 400 year old 79 00:11:33,978 --> 00:11:42,779 prophecies. True or not, they were to have an effect on the strategy of the Second World War. 80 00:11:42,779 --> 00:11:54,101 It was Frau Gerbos, wife of the Nazi propaganda minister, who first alerted Hitler to the strangely 81 00:11:54,101 --> 00:11:59,061 accurate way that Nostradamus seemed to describe events leading to the war in Europe. 82 00:12:00,061 --> 00:12:08,902 Elic Howe, a former British intelligence agent, detailed to assess the influence of Nostradamus 83 00:12:08,902 --> 00:12:19,223 on Hitler, explains what happened. Around the 20th of November 1940, once Gerbos was actually 84 00:12:19,223 --> 00:12:25,464 sleeping at home with his wife, she was reading a book about ancient prophecies and she was so 85 00:12:25,504 --> 00:12:33,025 excited about what she read about a particular prophecy which had been attributed to Nostradamus 86 00:12:33,025 --> 00:12:39,306 that she woke her husband up and said, Joseph, Joseph, you must listen to this. This is a prophecy 87 00:12:39,306 --> 00:12:44,546 that there would be a war in Poland in 1939 and it would be the end of the British Empire. 88 00:12:44,546 --> 00:12:55,267 A couple of days later, Gerbos was instructing his students at the propaganda ministry to 89 00:12:55,267 --> 00:13:02,788 prepare without delay a Nostradamus leaflet for the benefit of the French in order to depress and 90 00:13:02,788 --> 00:13:11,229 mislead. No fewer than 13 quartrains seemed to refer to Hitler, sometimes calling him 91 00:13:11,229 --> 00:13:18,470 Hister, sometimes the great or greatest leader and describing the swastika as the crooked cross. 92 00:13:19,470 --> 00:13:26,031 Even before hostilities began, military leaders on the French side began to dig the Maginot line, 93 00:13:26,031 --> 00:13:29,991 according to instructions apparently given by Nostradamus. 94 00:13:29,991 --> 00:13:40,272 A great trench, earth excavated. The water will be divided into 15 parts. 95 00:13:41,272 --> 00:13:48,833 The Nuremberg rally and the invasion and occupation of France. 96 00:13:48,833 --> 00:13:53,354 When the greatest man carried off the prize of Nuremberg, 97 00:13:53,354 --> 00:14:00,955 battle is joined with the French. He makes preparations. Some will regard him as good, 98 00:14:00,955 --> 00:14:04,675 others bad or uncertain. 99 00:14:11,276 --> 00:14:19,797 Italy and the Pact with Mussolini. Not far from Venice, the two greatest ones of Asia and Africa 100 00:14:19,797 --> 00:14:29,038 will be said to come from the Rhine and Hitler. Mussolini's black clothed fascists and the Pact with Hitler. 101 00:14:30,038 --> 00:14:41,399 Liberty will be occupied by a black, proud and villainous man. By Hitler, the Republic of Venice will be vexed. 102 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,400 Aerial warfare at the Battle of Britain. 103 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:59,761 He will use thunderbolts. So many in such an array. The machine of flying fire will come. 104 00:14:59,761 --> 00:15:27,124 A skeptic would call these quatrains obscure and irrelevant. And was Nostradamus genuinely foreseeing a swastika when he wrote the following? 105 00:15:28,124 --> 00:15:39,485 The great Pontiff by the Wallite Party who will subjugate the borders of the Danube. The cross pursued by hook or crook. 106 00:15:39,485 --> 00:15:44,486 Captives, gold, jewels, more than 100,000 rubies. 107 00:15:44,486 --> 00:15:52,487 And are even the references by name to Napoleon and Hitler as accurate as they first appear? 108 00:15:53,487 --> 00:15:57,487 Author John Sladek does not think so. 109 00:15:57,487 --> 00:16:09,489 There are hundreds of Napoleon quatrains in the prophecies. Mainly because I think the 19th century French scholars kept going over and over in Nostradamus and digging out anything that could be anything to do with Napoleon. 110 00:16:09,489 --> 00:16:22,490 The one I noticed particularly is the post of an anagram of Napoleon, which is P-A-U-N-A-Y-L-O-R-O-N. If anybody can make Napoleon out of this, they're a pretty good mystic themselves. 111 00:16:22,490 --> 00:16:27,491 In fact, it could be an anagram of just about anything. It could be an anagram of Europal Anon. 112 00:16:27,491 --> 00:16:36,492 There are a number of predictions which refer to something or someone called Hister, H-I-S-T-E-R. 113 00:16:36,492 --> 00:16:51,493 And this is usually taken by the Nostradamus believers as Hitler. But in fact it was a reference to the Danube River, which was called the Easter River in Nostradamus' time. 114 00:16:52,493 --> 00:17:01,494 It is said in defense of Nostradamus that he made his prophecies deliberately obscure in order to escape the charges of heresy and witchcraft. 115 00:17:01,494 --> 00:17:16,496 Moreover, if it is possible to look into the future, everyone in history who has attempted to do so has said that the picture is uncertain and indistinct, as if they are permitted only glimpses of what might be. 116 00:17:17,496 --> 00:17:26,497 Ron Wormuth, modern psychic, often consulted by the business community, explains foretelling the future. 117 00:17:26,497 --> 00:17:40,499 The true psychic part, or precognitive part, which is being able to sort of see around the bend in the river as Einstein put it, is relatively rare in that sense where it's completely without any sort of an input. 118 00:17:40,499 --> 00:17:59,501 I do believe that we can prevent future events. I'm not a fatalist. I happen to believe that we do have free choice. And I feel that being forewarned is being forearmed, which means that if a psychic tells you something that's negative, you can change it. 119 00:18:00,501 --> 00:18:07,502 If the Nostradamus' predictions come true in our lifetime, might they help to establish his authenticity? 120 00:18:10,502 --> 00:18:18,503 They speak of actions begun by a man in France leading to a crisis in Persia, the land now called Iran. 121 00:18:19,503 --> 00:18:28,504 It was indeed in France that the Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile before returning to take over from the Shah. 122 00:18:28,504 --> 00:18:32,504 Erika Cheetham finds this completely convincing. 123 00:18:32,504 --> 00:18:38,505 When I enraged it initially, I said that this particular prediction was rubbish. 124 00:18:39,505 --> 00:18:51,507 It's number 70 in century one. It talks of a man in a turban who shall sit in France plotting the downfall of the Emperor of Persia. Unbelievable. 125 00:18:55,507 --> 00:19:03,508 Another quatrain can be taken to predict that the Prince of England will marry and that he will be the last prince on the English throne. 126 00:19:04,508 --> 00:19:10,509 Lastly, he seems, according to Erika Cheetham, to speak of the San Andreas Fault. 127 00:19:13,509 --> 00:19:27,511 A great earthquake. He gives an astrological date, the sun in 20 degrees of torus, which means May the 10th. He does not give the year. 128 00:19:34,511 --> 00:19:44,512 The overthrow of Ayatollah Khomeini, the last King of England, the eruption of the San Andreas earthquake on May the 10th. 129 00:19:46,513 --> 00:19:50,513 If all these happened, would it be just coincidence? 130 00:19:51,513 --> 00:20:02,514 One striking aspect of the prophecies of Nostradamus is that where they seem to mean something, they have often been unfulfilled. 131 00:20:05,515 --> 00:20:14,516 Hitler saw himself as the conqueror of Europe and Russia. Neither Nostradamus nor any of his astrologers foresaw his downfall. 132 00:20:15,516 --> 00:20:22,517 Napoleon believed he would win at Waterloo, as predicted by Nostradamus. He lost. 133 00:20:25,517 --> 00:20:38,518 The certain quatrains which were taken to mean the French Revolution and then were taken to mean the Napoleonic Wars and then were taken to mean the First World War and then were taken to mean the Second World War. 134 00:20:39,518 --> 00:20:48,519 So I don't suppose anything that's that vague really is of any value at all as far as predictive power. 135 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:57,520 So far a lot of the things he said have come true or there has been accuracy there because I believe he did predict the Second World War. 136 00:20:58,521 --> 00:21:04,521 He's predicted also to do with the massacre of the Jewish race. He also predicted a great deal to do with Hitler. 137 00:21:04,521 --> 00:21:13,522 He also predicted a lot of our problems we have with Russia and many different things and he has been very accurate. I mean I think it has to speak for itself. 138 00:21:14,522 --> 00:21:28,524 In the end, perhaps most prophecies mean just what the listener intends them to mean. Possibly those rare true glimpses of the future that some people seem to have are half coincidence and half foresight. 139 00:21:29,524 --> 00:21:35,525 Perhaps they owe as much to self fulfillment as to the supernatural. We cannot be sure. 140 00:21:44,526 --> 00:21:51,526 Coming up next in search of continues with a look into the future at the end of life as we know it. 141 00:21:51,526 --> 00:21:57,527 Then 20th century with Mike Wallace takes a look at people who live on the edge in earthquake zones. 142 00:21:58,527 --> 00:22:06,528 And later tonight, Madame Hall's brothel, Alexander Graham Bell's bullet detector and other extraordinary things with stories to tell on history's lost and found. 143 00:22:07,528 --> 00:22:10,528 At 8 here on the History Channel where the past comes alive. 144 00:22:21,530 --> 00:22:22,530 .