Nostardamus disease or how we continue to believe in predictions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the early 1990s, in Moscow, Leningrad, and any other large city in the post-Soviet space, one could observe the following picture.

"Flying over the precipice": how we "got sick" by the French prophet

An intelligent-looking citizen, talking with his own kind, ardently persuaded: “Understand, according to the prediction of Nostradamus, the country will fly over the abyss, and then the“golden age”will begin.

“There is no doubt about that,” replied the interlocutor, “Nostradamus is not mistaken. The whole question is how to survive the flight over the abyss."

The interviewees were not mentally ill patients who had escaped surveillance. Nostradamus and his predictions at that time were even brandished by politicians from the high rostrum, convincing the people that the medieval Frenchman accurately predicted the fall of Soviet power. And if this is so, then it is necessary to accept these processes as something given from above.

In terms of its authority with the Russians, in 1992, hardly anyone could compete with Nostradamus. Perhaps the Bulgarian soothsayer Vanga. But the Bulgarians still doubted the words, believing that a contemporary could be a swindler. Nostradamus is a different matter!

Student from a refugee family

In fairness, it must be said that the Russians were not the first to fall under the influence of the soothsayer. During the Great French Revolution, the centuria of Nostradamus was also considered proof of the inevitability of the fall of the monarchy and the execution of the king. Then the prophecies still walked a lot in Europe, confusing the minds of respectable citizens, until they got to our edges.

"And there is a little more, and Provence" - this phrase was sadly relevant for the Sephardic Jews, expelled from Spain, and who took refuge in this region of France.

In a new place, not wanting to run into further troubles, the refugees converted to Catholicism.

It was in such a family of refugees in the town of Saint-Remy that a boy was born on December 14, 1503, who was named Michel.

Michel de Nostradam came from a wealthy family. His ancestors, who moved to France, went into business and succeeded. So it was not a problem for them to send Michel to study at the University of Avignon when they turned 14. Having become a master of arts by the age of 18, the young man set off to travel the world to “find himself”.

Some of the forbidden

The journey stretched for as many as eight years, until Michelle finally decided. Of all the possible professions, he chose the specialty of a doctor - a highly respected and well-paid, if you put it smartly.

In 1529 he entered the University of Montpellier, where he showed himself both on the good side and on the bad side.

The fact is that Mr. de Nostradam, over the years of his travels, has acquired extensive knowledge in the field, which was called "prohibited pharmaceuticals." So extensive that he sometimes allowed himself to scoff at teachers who did not reach his level.

The professors were itching to expel Michel, but in the end he received his doctorate.

But this "forbidden pharmaceuticals" will pursue Dr. Nostradamus (in the Latin manner they began to call him after graduation) all his life.

If you call a spade a spade, Nostradamus was a real ace in the field of psychotropic and narcotic substances. And even during his lifetime, many suspected that the doctor was making predictions with his own, as they say, "high".

Talented Mr. Nostradamus

But let's talk about the good first. Michel Nostradamus was indeed a very good doctor. In 1546, he managed to defeat an outbreak of plague in Aix-en-Provence, for which the admiring local authorities awarded the doctor a life pension.

Nostradamus was a famous beautician of his time, making popular perfumes. The doctor did not rise to the results of the hero of the work "Perfumer", although the ingredients of his products today also cause shock. How would you like a fox-based perfume, for example?

Among other things, Dr. Nostradamus was fond of cooking and left behind many recipes, primarily confectionery.

So how did predictions appear in the life of Michel Nostradamus?

High-powered prophecies

In 1547 the doctor married Anne Ponsard Gemelier. This was his second marriage, the first family perished during the plague, and a middle-aged man, by the standards of the 16th century, dreamed of a family hearth.

Anna did not disappoint - she regularly gave birth to her husband's children, of which there were six in total. Accordingly, the needs of the family grew, and additional income was needed.

Sometimes strange things happened to Dr. Nostradamus - he seemed to get sick, he began to hallucinate, but then everything went away. The fact is that Michelle has not abandoned the habit of using "forbidden pharmaceuticals" acquired during his tempestuous youth.

One day, the visions that covered the doctor turned out to be associated with current political events in Europe. When Nostradamus "let go", he, reflecting on what he saw, suddenly realized how you can earn extra money.

“Well what can I say, what can I say, people are arranged this way, they want to know, they want to know, they want to know what will happen … - the song from the Soviet film reflects the peculiarity of human psychology, which Nostradamus decided to play.

In the 16th century, the services of astrologers and other soothsayers were of great value. And Nostradamus entered the struggle for the market, publishing in 1555 in Lyon an almanac entitled "The Predictions of Dr. Michel Nostradamus."

Bestseller of the 16th century

Many people still think that Nostradamus kept his prophecies secret, leaving them to posterity. In fact, the newly-minted prophet worked as the author of women's novels, publishing more and more "Predictions".

One was selling for roughly the price of a pound of beef. And if we consider that the circulation of Nostradamus was measured in tens of thousands of copies, it becomes clear that the clever doctor found a real "gold mine".

How did Nostradamus bribe the audience in the face of fierce competition? First, he declared that he sees the future right up to the end of the XXXVIII century. If your eyes are dazzled by Roman numerals, we will repeat in Arabic - until the end of the 38th century. There were simply no such impudent people in the 16th century. Secondly, the doctor published his predictions in verse, which added to the mystery. Thirdly, his predictions were as vague and blurry as possible, and they could be interpreted in any way.

It turned out to be just the same brilliant find. For example, Nostradamus writes that crises, cataclysms, wars, epidemics are ahead. His admirers exclaim - look how exactly he predicted! We begin to check - and it turns out that there are about two or three dozen events that past interpreters have already tied to the same lines.

Nostradamus also wrote about the arrival of certain strong people who will change the world. The doctor was an educated man and understood that such people exist in every century, in different countries, so it is impossible to miss. And who exactly the descendants will see in the description - Lenin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein or Olga Buzova - the author is not responsible for that.

Reach out for the queen

But, in addition to the broad masses, Nostradamus worked for individual clients. Dr. Michel was clearly a skillful psychologist, because he could feed every money-bag who came to him for a forecast of the future with vague and meaningful information that suited the sufferer.

As a result, Nostradamus became so proficient that he got into the credibility of Catherine de Medici herself - the master of palace intrigues and the inspirer of "St. Bartholomew's Night". In 1564, the queen made him a court physician and astrologer.

French astrologers of that time considered Nostradamus a swindler, claiming that he did not understand anything either in the movement of the heavenly ones, or even in the location of the constellations.

But the doctor did not have time to disappoint the queen - he died in 1566. And this is the case when the death of a rock star … sorry, soothsayer, only fueled interest in his predictions. Posthumous editions were sold with great success, replenishing the budget of the heirs.

Why Nostradamus did not write anything about Russia

Every year in December in various Russian editions there are articles with a title like "The Prophecy of Nostradamus about Russia 20..year"

But to be honest, the French doctor did not write anything about our country. The mentions of a certain Slavic people and the "northern land" in none of his predictions are clearly linked to Russia. Which is understandable - Nostradamus, writing the future, started from real events of the past, which took place mainly in Western Europe. Russia was far away, little was known about it, and the editions of the Predictions were not sold in our country at that time.

In addition, it must be borne in mind that the real poems-prophecies of Nostradamus are hardly translatable even into modern French, and when translated into Russian, nothing remains from the original at all. And a good half of the "predictions of Nostradamus" walking on the Internet are completely fakes, composed today.

The whole essence of decoding the predictions of Nostradamus, in fact, was described by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov in their immortal work "The Twelve Chairs": “Elena Stanislavovna, alarmed by the disappearance of the entire Old Town Areopagus, threw cards with outrageous negligence. The cards heralded either the end of the world, or an increase in salary, or a meeting with her husband in the state house and in the presence of ill-wishers - the king of spades.

And the fortune-telling itself ended in a strange way. Agents came - the kings of spades - and took the soothsayer to the state house, to the prosecutor."

Remember this when they once again begin to tell you about how Michel Nostradamus “predicted everything exactly”.