Nostradamus was all about the future, but when we try to decipher his prophecies we look to the past. Are there any past events that confirm his 16th century prophecies? The A&E documentary TV series “Biography” ran an episode called Nostradamus: Prophet of Doom in 1995. From the perspective of 1995, was there reason to believe Nostradamus was really a psychic? And why is this article focusing on a documentary from 1995?
The reason this article is exploring the 1995 view of Nostradamus is because that is how old the author’s used VHS copy of the episode is. The author of this column found the old VHS in a store full of old records, cassette tapes, and other used entertainment items. When she looked inside the VHS box, there was a last name and a date written as “1-3-97.” It can be assumed someone purchased the video brand new in 1997, a couple of years after the show aired on A&E, and then it wound up in the hands of this writer nearly twenty years later. A quick tip to TV lovers: buying up used VHS copies of TV shows is a good way to get quality entertainment on the cheap.
The 1995 take on Nostradamus is a fun one. A&E used this fifty-minute program wisely. There’s lots of imagery and eye candy. There are re-enactments of Nostradamus using a mystical stick, staying up late into the night with pen and paper, and writing the prophecies that would appear in his book “The Centuries.” Even if Nostradamus was not a psychic, then he at least seemed to believe that he was (based on the episode’s images).
Perhaps, the best visual used to describe Nostradamus came when the narrator stated that the famous prophecies were compared to witchcraft and were taken as a sign that Nostradamus was beholden to Satan. Black and white film footage was then shown of demons having some kind of Satanic ritual. It was corny and looked to be from a silent film. The demons possess female captives wearing clothing from the Middle Ages. It was a little bit of humor to go with the history.
Whether or not Nostradamus worked for Satan is unclear, but what we do know is that he was writing predictions that seemed to be eerily accurate depictions of Napoleon, Hitler, major world events, and technological advancements that we know of now but no one knew about back then.
Napoleon and Hitler were two of three “Antichrists” (his words) that Nostradamus is thought to have predicted. The video states that the third Antichrist, or at least someone meeting his description, has not shown up yet. However, we must bear in mind that this film was made twenty years ago. Since then, there has been speculation that the third was Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. By 1995 standards, Nostradamus may very well have been a psychic. However, we may now have had a third Antichrist to judge his prophecies by.
