Historian investigates the prophets who foresee disasters
Historian Tony McMahon delves into humanity’s enduring obsession with prophecies of doom and the mystics, seers and celestial signs we’ve trusted to warn us of the end.
Image: Tony McMahon is an investigative historian, author and journalist
In this guest article, investigative historian, author and journalist Tony McMahon names the prophets who, across the centuries, have predicted devastating disasters. While their claims about the end of the world are yet to come true, there are plenty of other dark divinations that have come to fruition.
Since biblical times, humanity has revealed a strong appetite for those predicting our doom and destruction. For thousands of years, we have wanted to know when the world is going to end and how it will happen. There has never been a shortage of prophets prepared to map out the grimness for us.
Baba Vanga (1911-1996) was a Bulgarian mystic hailed as the ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’, a supernatural saint who could foretell the future. On climate change, she was predicting melting polar ice caps and rising sea temperatures back in the 1950s.
She foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist system, the Chernobyl disaster, September 11th attack on the Twin Towers in New York, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear spill. It’s claimed her powers also foretold the Arab Spring, the revolts that shook the Middle East around 2010, and the emergence of the terror group, ISIS.
But not all of Baba Vanga’s prophecies have hit the mark. She believed that World War III would rage between 2010 and 2014 and that an artificially built sun, built to illuminate the dark side of planet Earth, would malfunction causing a massive and lethal drought.
Comets have long been viewed as portents of doom. 1997 saw members of the Heaven’s Gate sect, near San Diego, commit mass suicide in the belief that they could rendezvous with a passing extraterrestrial spaceship that was travelling behind the oncoming Hale-Bopp comet. All they had to do was get rid of their earthly bodies.
The cult’s leader, Marshall Applewhite, spent years scanning the heavens for signs the end was near. In March that year, he ordered his followers to end their lives and fulfill the prediction. They did so in the belief that the Earth was due for what they called a ‘spading under’ or ‘recycling’.
In 1910, Halley’s comet was scheduled to make one of its rare appearances in the night sky. There was both fascination and trepidation as it approached. An Oklahoma group, the Sacred Followers, decided they needed to sacrifice a virgin to ward off catastrophe. Fortunately, the police turned up in time to put a stop to the ritual. While in 1066, the same comet appeared in the sky just before the Battle of Hastings where Normans and Saxons battled furiously for control of England. The Normans read it as a positive sign of God’s approval for their cause while the Saxons thought the opposite – and duly lost the battle.
Cosmic disasters have been a popular theme among prophets of doom. As 2012 approached, many noted that it marked the end of the first ‘Great Cycle’
of the Mayan Long Count calendar. What did that mean? Without going into the complex mathematics involved, it was thought that this ancient central American civilisation had created a calendar that would end time itself and lead to our total annihilation. One man in China even constructed a large ark in anticipation of a huge flood.
Predicting plagues also has a centuries-long pedigree. In recent times, the Japanese artist Ryo Tatsuki predicted the Covid pandemic, along with the Kobe earthquake, and the deaths of Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana. Covid was also foreseen by Baba Vanga and the UK-based psychic Nicolas Aujula.
Back in the 17th century, the London astrologer Richard Edlyn (1631-1677) predicted the Great Plague of 1665 that ravaged his home city. He referred to the stars, believing that the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Sagittarius could be interpreted astrologically as a medical calamity on the way.
During the 1665 plague, a preacher, Solomon Eagle, ran through the streets half naked with burning coals on his head prophesying the city’s doom. And sure enough, the Great Fire of London devastated the city in the following year, 1666.
From the earliest years of Christianity, predictions of the second coming of Christ have been a regular occurrence. Even when Christ has failed to appear at the appointed time, the same prophets have pushed the date back and still managed to attract a loyal follower base.
One of the most curious end-of-times prophets was the Englishwoman, Joanna Southcott (1750-1814). Aged 64, she claimed to be pregnant with a Messiah and identified herself as the ‘Woman of the Apocalypse’ described in the Book of Revelation. She sold paper ‘seals of the Lord’ to about 144,000 people that would guarantee them eternal life. On Boxing Day 1814, she died. There was no evidence of a pregnancy though her followers held on to Joanna’s body for a few days in the hope that she would resurrect.
In 1916 and 1917, three children in Portugal experienced visions of the Virgin Mary at the town of Fatima. The mother of God relayed a series of prophecies that included visions of hell, World War I ending and World War II beginning, and a so-called ‘Third Secret’ that many believe foresaw the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981. Fatima grew into a major pilgrimage site and attracts thousands of visitors today.
For those looking forward to what 2026 will bring, be aware that Nostradamus may have predicted the end of the world for around this time with these haunting words:
'From the cosmos, a fireball will rise / A harbinger of fate, the world pleads / Science and fate in a cosmic dance / The fate of the Earth, a second chance.'
Don’t make too many plans then!
Tony McMahon is an author and historian. His latest book - Downfall of the Templars: Guilty of Diabolic Magic? - is published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon.
