Visions or hallucinations: did Nostradamus really foresee the future?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On the eve of the New Year, astrological predictions become as relevant as possible, everyone wants to know what the coming year promises. In the top list of soothsayers, for four centuries, the leading place has been Nostradamus, it is believed that he managed to predict the future of the whole world for millennia ahead. Historians still argue about whether Michel de Notre Dame possessed the gift of foresight. Some see him as a prophet, while others argue that the fate of mankind can hardly be encrypted in vague quatrains.

Michel de Notre Dame was born on December 14, 1503, that is, exactly 513 years ago. He was born into an intelligent and wealthy family: his father was a notary, and both grandfathers (on the paternal and maternal side) were doctors. In the family circle, Michel received an excellent education, he studied Latin and Ancient Greek, mathematics and astronomy. The guy followed in the footsteps of relatives: he received his medical education at the University of Montpellier, began to conduct medical practice. Not very much trusting the practice of bloodletting, he delves into the study of traditional medicine, successfully uses medicinal plants to treat various diseases. While still a very young doctor, he successfully helped patients during the plague in France in 1525, for which he gained fame as a real professional.

It is worth noting that in medical practice Michel often resorted to the use of drugs with narcotic properties. He often experienced their actions on himself, and there is a version that in the quatrains-predictions he often described the images he saw during hallucinations. The career of a doctor went uphill with Michel, he managed to get a doctorate at the age of 26, his treatment practices were recognized … Michel traveled a lot and, after a while, finally decided to settle down, moved to Agen, he had a wife and children. But fate was not favorable to him: an epidemic of an unknown disease took the life of his family, Michel could not save the closest people. Needless to say, he immediately met a wave of mistrust among the local residents: how can a doctor fail to cure his wife and children? Michel had to leave.

Only a few years later, while living in Aix, he managed to restore his reputation: during a terrible plague, he invented a medicine, thanks to which many townspeople were saved. Authorities praised Michel's contribution to saving Aix and gave him life support. It was then that the first-class physician began to think about the preparation of astro forecasts. He did not need money, he could devote time to the study of astronomy, alchemy and occult sciences.

In fact, making predictions was a blessed business. Everyone wanted to look into the future - kings, feudal lords, and the bourgeoisie. At first, Nostradamus (Michel chose this name for himself) tried to publish annual forecasts in which he spoke about disasters, droughts, epidemics and famine. Such little books did not cause a stir, but it was not difficult for an educated person to create them. The likelihood of disasters in that era was quite high.

In 1555, Nostradamus decided to master a new genre and call it "prophecy."He begins to publish anthologies with the predictions of The Century. They contain quatrains with very vague allusions to certain events. Nostradamus was sure that you need to write in such a way that even an unenlightened crowd could understand. In principle, this played into his hands: the appeal to simple images made it possible to interpret them completely differently in the future.

Perhaps one of the most striking examples of such ambiguous interpretations may be the prediction according to which "the Republic will be disturbed by new people … the whites and reds will switch places." Of course, this prophecy was seen as an omen of the Civil War in Russia, but it is enough to remember that Nostradamus called Roman soldiers red, and soldiers of the French army white, to understand how such interpretations are.

Nostradamus himself, carried away by drug experiments, seems to have believed in his visionary mission, but on this score one should not be too deluded. In addition, so many hoaxes have been published over the centuries (in particular, Nazi ideologists are known for “finishing up” the predictions of Nostradamus in the spirit of actual propaganda and scattering such leaflets over France and Belgium during the war years) that it is not always possible to find the original text …

Since ancient times, people have entrusted their fortunes to fortunetellers. For example, the Greeks lived according to the guidelines Delphic Oracle.