Top 10 Prophets, 👁👁 Prognosticators, & Visionaries #5

This is the 5th and final part of this series, a countdown in chronological order of the Top Ten Greatest Prophets & Visionaries of All Time.

For this final installment of this list, I had choices. Three of the four are fairly obscure. For instance…

Have you ever heard of Nicholas Black Elk? He was a native American of the Lakota Sioux Nation. At the age of nine, he had a vision that would become a cry for peace. He lived from 1863-1950 and was young during the age of 'Manifest Destiny', when the worst massacres of the American Indians were taking place, including the one at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. A noted medicine man with special powers to cure the sick, Black Elk said, “Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.” Believing the only hope of Native Americans was to find a way to coexist with whites, he eventually joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a dancer. He traveled all over Europe and even performed for England’s Queen Victoria.

And how do you feel about Jeane Dixon?

Jeane lived from 1918-1997 and was the most famous psychic of my remaining choices. Her sensational prediction that John F. Kennedy would be assassinated was widely pre-publicized– well in advance of 11/22/63. She also predicted Martin Luther King JR would be murdered (but she didn’t believe James Earl Ray was the real assassin). She accurately predicted the 1964 Alaska earthquake; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the second assassination attempt of President Ford; and said in 1962 that Ronald Regan would be President (which didn’t happen until 1980).

Instead of those two☝☝ , I went with a couple different choices to complete this lightning list. There’s a good chance that you might not have heard of either of these men. 👇

Let me fill you in…

#9) Edgar Cayce—1877-1945

Hailed as “America’s Sleeping Prophet”, he is the most documented psychic of the 20th Century.

Edgar Cayce (pronounced "Cay-see") was born in rural Kentucky on March 18, 1877, one of six children in a fundamentalist Christian family. As a child, Edgar claimed to be able to see the spirit of his deceased grandfather. He loved going to church, but he was bad in school. Considered slow by his teachers and by his father, he was especially horrible at spelling. Then one night an angel spoke to him, saying, “Sleep now, and we will help you.” He dozed off with his spelling book under his head. Then next day when he awoke, he realized he had all the words cemented in his memory; he knew every lesson. His father became upset with him again, this time because he then thought Edgar had been faking when Edgar had previously been so inept at spelling.

After that, Cayce used the same technique for every subject. He slept on all his textbooks and became the best student in the school.

Gradually, Edgar became aware of what he referred to as “the thing I do.” At the age of 24, he first used a trance to help another person. It wasn’t until he was 46, however, before he decided to devout his life’s work to his cultivating his extrasensory abilities.

Cayce had a plain green couch in a small office where twice a day he would lie down and step-by-step take himself into a state of altered awareness. While in a trance, he would answer questions put to him by people in the room, sometimes questions sent in letters, read aloud by his wife Gertrude. Other people took notes, recording Cayce’s answers. When they were through with a reading, Gertrude would direct Edgar to wake up. He would open his eyes, stretch, and ask what happened. “Did you get anything?” He never had any conscious recall of the things he said while he was entranced.

Cayce was a simple Christian man who read the Bible in its entirety once for every year he was alive. He taught Sunday school, helped recruit missionaries, and was a devout member of the Disciples of Christ. He never called himself a “psychic,” but he could see auras around people. He spoke to angels and to dead people. Since it was commonly believed that such abilities were acquired by making some pact with the devil— in his early years, Cayce agonized about whether or not his talents were truly delivered from a Higher Source.

While in his sleeping (hypnotic) state, he spoke languages he had never learned, used technical terms that were foreign to him, and seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge. A local hypnotist named Al Layne became a proponent of Cayce, believing Edgar to be clairvoyant. Cayce accurately prescribed effective cures for ailments that Layne had while he was in a hypnotic state. It was Layne who then urged Edgar to present his gifts to the public. Cayce agreed under one condition: all his therapeutics would be given for free.

Over his lifetime, Cayce gave over fourteen thousand recorded readings. Nearly seventy percent of them were medical diagnoses, suggested treatments for diseases and other ailments. He had no medical training (and, indeed, would be arrested later in life for practicing medicine without a license), but he was prescribing healing formulas made from natural ingredients. Some of his herbal remedies are still sold today. He is regarded by many as ‘the Father of Modern Holistic medicine.’

In 1910, Cayce made headlines nationwide. The New York Times proclaimed, “Illiterate Man Becomes a Doctor When Hypnotized.” After that, he started getting letters from people all over the world. Cayce refused every lucrative offer to go into business with others, never using his gifts for profit.

After he became world famous, a committee of “experts” came to test him. Edgar put himself into a trance and while he was under, these men shoved a pin through his cheek and peeled back one of his fingernails. He exhibited no pain. He didn’t even start bleeding heavily until he regained consciousness. For years afterwards, Cayce’s finger ached. After that, Cayce refused any more investigations into his abilities. He would only do readings for people who needed helped and believed in his gifts.

Cayce believed that every person is psychic, to varying degrees, and that we can all develop our natural intuitive capabilities. He said…

The mind, Cayce espoused, is especially powerful in shaping health and wellness. Over and over throughout his entire life, he talked about how our minds shape our own realities. And he didn’t believe we should seek extrasensory experiences to satisfy our curiosity about having them, but instead to help others and thereby further our own spiritual growth.

Cayce tried to duck publicity. A shy man who often couldn't speak above a whisper except when he was in a trance, he hated the idea of becoming a celebrity. When glamorous movie star Joan Crawford called him once to ask him to come to Hollywood to give her an urgently needed reading, he told her he might be able to work her into his schedule… in a year or two.

Constantly poor, he filed repeatedly for bankruptcy. His wife was often ill. Tragically, he couldn’t seem to help her with his psychic gifts and one of his children died; he certainly couldn’t save that baby. Cayce was often depressed by his own unworthiness.

While he had his fans, the general public viewed him with suspicion. It was widely believed at that time that people who engaged in hypnosis were prone to going insane. Basically, he was a freak, or in his own words, “very eccentric in many ways,” but he was respected in his hometown... and that actually said a lot about his character.

Cayce was born only a few years after the Civil War ended. Kentucky was a state in turmoil when Edgar was young, dealing with a freed black population that had formerly been slaves. Cayce's father was an alcoholic and a racist. And when Edgar was an adult and began giving his readings, everything he was saying was contrary to the general thinking of everyone around him. He talked about reincarnation and karma, which was especially in conflict with the teachings of his fundamentalist Christian church. We have to wonder if one of the reasons Cayce went into sleeping trances in the first place was to disassociate himself from the things he was saying in his readings. Indeed, in the last years of his life, Cayce could give readings for people while he remained conscious, just by looking at them.

In 1931, wealthy supporters of Cayce’s banned together on a mission to give Edgar a measure of protection and stability. Construction began on a hospital in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It became the Association for Research and Enlightenment, INC and it exists to this day. 🌈 The A.R.E. is a nonprofit organization that has catalogued Cayce’s readings on more than ten thousand different topics, everything from medical readings, to historical questions, to topics raging into the metaphysical.

In April of 1929, Edgar warned all his friends to sell every stock they had. He accurately predicted the stock market crash that would happen in October of that year. Many people became rich (and/or staved off financial disaster) because of Cayce’s advice.

In 1931, Cayce was traumatized by visions of a coming World War in which millions of people would die. He went on to later predict the rise of the Nazis, and foretold which countries would engage in World War II. {He inaccurately thought Hitler's intentions were pure at first. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Nobody's perfect.} Edgar predicted that Communism would end in the Soviet Union (at a time when such a prospect seemed like madness); he knew that both India and Israel would become independent nations; he foresaw the invention of the laser; predicted the deaths of FDR and JFK; and even gave a fascinating prediction (in 1929) of how large communication companies would one day consolidate their power.

Cayce’s critics were/are many and they were/are quick to point out how many of his predictions were spectacularly wrong. He predicted a catastrophic earthquake in California that never happened. He said parts of Alabama would become submerged between 1936-1938. 🤷🏻‍♂️ He said New York City would slide into the Atlantic in the 1970s. One of his more interesting errors was predicting that the city of Livingston, Montana, would become the financial capital of the world. 🤔 He also falsely predicted that China would be a Christian nation by now.

Cayce brought back information from his trances that challenged his own worldview, especially those regarding reincarnation. Over the years, several of his readings that were dealing with ailments indicated the root cause of the condition was karma from a previous lifetime. The word ‘karma’ is never mentioned, of course, in the Bible, but the concept is not unknown to Christian belief; it’s simply described differently, worded as “you reap what you sow.” Yet another way of recognizing the same universal truth is stated as, “What Goes Around... Comes Back Around.”

When asked to explain his own abilities, Cayce said that he consulted “the Akashic Records”, also called “The Book of Life” and/or “God’s Book of Remembrance.” The Akashic Records was a kind of spiritual storehouse of all the thoughts, deeds, words, feelings, and intentions of every individual who ever lived. This abiding record has tremendous influence over our daily lives and the potential we draw to ourselves. In Reading 1650-1, he described this cosmic source…

"Upon time and space is written the thoughts, the deeds, the activities of an entity – as in relationships to its environs, its hereditary influence; as directed – or judgment drawn by or according to what the entity's ideal is. Hence, as it has been oft called, the record is God's book of remembrance; and each entity, each soul – as the activities of a single day of an entity in the material world – either makes same good or bad or indifferent, depending upon the entity's application of self..."

These Akashic Records connect every living soul. They are portions of the Divine Mind, archetypal patterns of human experience that have inspired dreams and shape all levels of consciousness. The Records also embody ever-changing possible futures, shaped by our intentions and interactions.

Cayce was heavily influenced by the thinking of Carl Jung and his theory of the Collective Unconscious.

Edgar died in 1945 at the age of 69. He was labeled by the press as “America’s Nostradamus” (see Part 3 of this 5-part series for more on the original Nosty. ⚡😁👍 ) Despite the catastrophes that Edgar Cayce foresaw, despite the atrocities of two world wars that happened during his lifetime, he remained optimistic about humanity’s future. He believed an age would finally dawn when people would work together to build hope and community for all.

⚡⚡___________⚡⚡

On A Personal Note— I went through a stage in my own life in my late 30s-early 40s when I was an agnostic who was one easy shove away from being an atheist. And I was bitter, too. I saw no reason to 'love thy enemy' or respond with peace to another person's violence (the way I do now). I had major issues with God's ascribed behavior, especially in the Old Testament. When I learned about Cayce and began a lifelong study of him— that was a contributing factor in helping me reconcile those problems. Aspects of Divinity that had that never made any sense to me suddenly became crystal clear when I factored in Cayce’s concepts regarding karma and reincarnation. I have no personal recollection of any past lives; I’ve never met anyone who could engage me with hypno-regression therapy; but I nonetheless believe we have all been here before... and might likely return again.

I also found the case of a boy named James Huston JR especially compelling. 👇

The work of Edgar Cayce helped me personally to become a Believer again. I’m still flawed, for real, and still struggle with my imperfections (especially my volatile temper), but I am a much kinder and gentler human because of my Faith. I believe in a God of Unconditional Love. I believe in Unconditional Forgiveness. I also believe it's impossible to fight fire with fire; darkness can only be challenged by light— only Love repels Hate (not more hate). I further believe every one of us has a unique path to walk, each of us learning personally tailored lessons over the course of multiple lifetimes, but we all eventually return to our Creator—no exceptions (it just takes some of us a little longer than others).

Evil is transitory. Good maintains.

These are merely the values that I have come to believe in over the course of my troubled lifetime. You are, of course, under no obligation to believe the same. ⚡ 😁👍

⚡⚡___________⚡⚡

#10) Marshall McLuhan—1911-1980

This professor of English literature presented himself in the 1950s as a kind of oracle who could foretell the future effects of the electronic media. He famously questioned,

“What have you noticed lately?”

At the end of World War II, in 1945, Americans were still enthralled by the news and entertainment they received from the relatively new invention: radio. A year later, television sets became available for purchase, a device that amazed Americans by allowing them to both listen and watch events. By 1955, TVs were selling at an astonishing rate of five million black-and-white boob tubes a year. History was indelibly changed by mass media. By the 1990s, people were watching their televisions one out of every four hours they were awake.

Marshall McLuhan was born in Canada in 1911, an odd, quiet boy who grew up to become an odd, quiet professor. He wore mismatched socks, hats too small for his big head, and alternated between an ill-fitted brown tweed suit or gaudy Hawaiian shirts. He began his professional career teaching at the University of Wisconsin, which is also where he became interested in studying American society. He later remarked,

“I was confronted with young Americans I was incapable of understanding. I felt an urgent need to study their popular culture in order to get through.”

Observant in a way only an outsider can be, McLuhan analyzed his students… and he began to worry.

Marshall McLuhan was not a psychic conveying messages from divine sources. McLuhan had examined the new electronic age so thoroughly, he believed he could see where things were headed. He warned that people were becoming numb— “like tulips,” he said. Human beings had a blank acceptance of their surroundings. McLuhan saw it as his crusade to shock ⚡ us awake. He had a lot to say on this subject. He wrote thirteen books, over six hundred articles, and seventy-five thousand letters. He recorded hundreds of hours of audio and videotape. He was admittedly eccentric, somewhat bristly in private. The public saw him as All Knowing. He seemed to articulate many people’s deepest fears. Some of Marshall's expressions became legendary. He wrote of “the global village.” And he famously said…

The medium is the message.

What he meant by that 📺☝ was: the means by which people communicated was rapidly becoming more important than the content of the communications. He observed that watching television had broken up the normally straightforward ways that people used to think. He said the very act of watching immersed the watcher in events. Over time, McLuhan lectured, new media would totally reshape human existence.

He cautioned it would be the media that would cause the fragmentation of American unity. 🤔 There would be an erosion of our institutions. Ultimately, there would be violence in the streets.

McLuhan believed children would be the most adversely affected among us by this information overload. It was all a kind of mental poison, to one degree or another, everything from movies to video games. New technology was undoubtedly transforming the human nervous system. Children's brains were physically altered because of the speed at which they received information. "Several lifetimes” could be experienced before the average teenager finished school. Children knew things about sex, war, prejudice, violence, addiction, all manners of vice and corruption, things previously only known to adults. Attention spans were getting shorter. The younger generation quickly became impatient with “linear” activities, like reading books. They craved “nonlinear” adventures, like video games.

Much of what McLuhan envisioned is now commonplace in the 21st century. Can you imagine your life without electronic media? How are you reading these words right now— on what device? It was Marshall MuLuhan who (dramatically) warned,

“If you don’t study the effects of technology, you’ll become its slave.”

McLuhan died in 1980, the same year that CNN was born. Since his death, the number of television sets in the world has tripled. MTV debuted a year later, in 1981, offering videos intended specifically for people with short attention spans. It was like MTV had taken McLuhan to his literal extreme; he had once described TV as, “music for the eye.”

Twelve years after MuLuhan’s death, the Internet launched exactly what he’d envisioned: the simultaneous sharing of electronic data. By 1995, enough information had been contributed to fill thirty million books of seven hundred pages each. Creating a community without borders where users can live anywhere on earth, the Internet is the fastest-growing form of communication in human history. McLuhan foresaw a day when cities would no longer be needed as work centers and when every person could be their own publisher. He was talking more along the lines of copy machines, but personalized Web sites expand on his original concepts. McLuhan believed that media would eventually surpass, “any possible influence Mom and Dad can now bring to bear.” Another first in human history: children have the ability to access information without adult restrictions, to find their own voice, to form relationships that were impossible in the past, and to examine previously off-limits topics.

Other of McLuhan's fears relating to children focused on schools, which he believed were likely to become irrelevant, basically prisons without bars. Old-fashioned reading methods weren’t suited to this fast-paced age of information. There was simply too much that needed to be taught and simplistic educational systems that relied primarily on antiquated textbooks weren’t fit for the task. Marshall believed children would become increasingly less involved, less stimulated, less likely to ask questions (which he believed was infinitely more important than acquiring answers.) He foretold that society would see more dropouts and a lot more chaos if classrooms weren’t completely updated/upgraded with modern technology.

A computer magazine called Wired labeled the worried Canadian as “Saint Marshall” because of his capacity to foresee the dangers of technology. The ‘information superhighway’ is intoxicating, potentially isolating and addictive... not to mention a serious waste of time. McLuhan warned of a coming conflict between the individual’s “claim to privacy and the community’s need to know.”

All that ☝ seems inspired, if we know one thing about all human beings, it’s this… Nobody is perfect!

Am I Right?

The majority of the flying machines built by Leonardo Da Vinci never got off the ground! (see Part 3 of this series.)

Certainly Marshall McLuhan was far from perfect. And many of his ideas haven’t aged well. He thought women were “constitutionally docile, uncritical, and routine-loving.” But he also thought women would eventually take over the government and support a class of male loafers and warriors. WTF?!? 🤯 He foretold that books would soon become obsolete. And check this👉: he once patented a spray that eliminated the smell of urine from underwear! For some reason, 🤷🏻‍♂️ he couldn’t get any company to manufacture it! 🤯🤯🤯

He loved bad quips, annoying everyone with them. He scribbled puns on scraps of paper, kept his pockets stuffed with them, and started virtually every conversation with some new groan-producing joke. He could talk for hours. He called friends at all hours of the night. One student kept track of McLuhan’s contradictions and pointed out he’d made twenty-eight of them in a single half-hour speech. Marshall confessed he was incapable of understanding his six children (especially notable, don't you think, when you read his views about children! ☝)

If someone criticized him, he would snap back, “You don’t like those ideas? I got others!” 😂

He sometimes talked about how the future held great risk for war, violence, pain, even mass terror. But despite everything, he also generally exhibited great optimism about human resiliency. He believed the entire world would one day be full of art and creativity. He said…

“To be born in this age is a precious gift, and I regret the prospect of my own death only because I will leave so many pages of man’s destiny tantalizingly unread.”

A devout Catholic who began each morning reading the Bible in one of five different languages, Marshall McLuhan didn’t like being viewed as the bearer of bad news about humanity's future. He was a man of many contradictions. But he was particularly fond of the Biblical quote that he had engraved on his tombstone…

The truth shall make you free.

⚡⚡_________________⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

This concludes my lightning list of the Top Ten Prophets, Prognosticators, and Visionaries of All Time! 👀

No… I did not include the MyPillow guy’s predictions about Donald Trump being reinstated as the 'true' President of the United States! I realize that for an atheist, the entire premise of this Top Ten List/series, especially the idea that the future can be predicted—it’s crazy. ⚡ I get that. But even I am not crazy enough to consider giving a moment's credence to a wacko like Mike Lindell! 🤷🏻‍♂️ Just sayin...

So this is...

The End... (?)

I hope, gentle reader, that you enjoyed our jaunt through all of human history! ⚡😁👍

Let's do it again sometime soon, shall we?

I greatly appreciate all the wonderful feedback I’ve received on this series. Your encouragement is a dream come true. 😉

Additional Source Material! ⚡😁👇

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ABOUT ME: I’m sixty-years old. A year ago, I started suffering from seizures. I haven’t worked since, and I can no longer drive. I have meds that mostly protect my brain from these assaults, but every so often, without warning, I’ll have a ‘breakthrough seizure’… and they wreak havoc on my memory. Since I can’t work and haven’t been able to secure disability, I currently have no income. If you tip or make a pledge to me, I would be eternally grateful… and I will do my best to entertain!

Thank you kindly for your support!

_____________Bolt ⚡