Today the name Nostradamus needs no introduction. Perhaps, he is the most renowned crystal gazer the world had ever known. Even after four centuries, his reputation remains untarnished. He stands out as the one man whose predictions are read, debated, discussed, analysed and understood by more and more people around the globe.
For most of us, the future stays in the womb of time. It is unpeeled, layer by layer, like an onion. The events tumble out one by one. Many of them take us by surprise. There are unexpected changes, stunning developments, shocking reverses, dangerous movements, risky operations, daring encounters which the future when it becomes the present, parades before us. The revelations make us yearn for a chance to foresee things in advance. Many of the steps we undertook in the past, look silly, ridiculous, absurd in hindsight. All because the future is not ours to see.
Yet, Michel de Nostradame, born at St Remy de Provence in France on 14 Dec 1503 had this gift. He could see the future clearly. What supernatural force helped him read the future, we don't know. Did the spirits reach out to him, across time and space, to tell him the trend of events? If so, why did the spirits pick him to be their media? Did they choose him because he had the requisite skill and ability to record the future when he gained insight?
These are questions to which we shall never find satisfactory replies. In fact, there are no right answers to such phenomena. Strange phenomena are not questioned, if they lie beyond the ambit of science. Yet, some efforts are on by the scientist who follow parapsychology to understand whether some of us can overcome the limitation set by time, travel in Einstein's fourth dimension, move back and forth in time to see future events in advance.
Michel had this power.
His unusual talent was perceptible even when he was a boy. He had boundless curiosity. He read, widely, he posted questions which showed how original he was in his approach. His parents were proud of him, their first son. In their eyes, he loomed as a genius, a boy who would go places. But there were problems which the boy created. His forefathers had given up the practices of the Jewish clan to which they originally belonged and had taken to Christianity.
Fifteenth century marked the period of religious tyranny. Even minor aberrations from accepted forms of the nature of the universe were enough to earn the wrath of the clergy. Religious intolerance marked the era. It was, therefore, blasphemous, when Michel spoke of the Copernican theory, enquired why educated people refused to accept the rotation of the earth round the Sun. This was just one of the many beliefs which the young Michel often questioned. His parents were worried about him, he was far too intelligent, far too receptive to new themes and far quick to grasp new ideas. He did not fit in with the conventions of the time. In order to avert any danger, his parents let him be with one or the other of his grandparents before he finally chose to go to Montpellier to pursue medical studies. Michel had a deep and clear understanding of the human body. He had befriended nature and had a very clear idea of the ecology and life systems. So, the career he chose was one akin to his taste.
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