My name is Sarah and I’m a massive sceptic. Of everything. There; I’ve said it.
I approach almost everything with more than a pinch of disbelief, a raised eyebrow and a sardonic smirk.
It literally blows my mind when I hear about people going to visit psychics. I mean; why on earth would you pay someone to fill you full of a load of BS!? Whilst I’m not saying they’re all fraudsters; they might really believe that they know things about your dead loved ones or can see into your future… they can’t. In my humble opinion of course. I’m absolutely on board with people believing in whatever they like, whether there’s evidence for it or not. But for me; I like proof. I believe in what I can see.
I feel the same about God, About fairies. About ghosts. About ‘asking the universe’.
I’m a practical (some would say close-minded) type of gal. If there’s no concrete evidence for it; don’t waste my time.
So that’s why, in the words of my 14 year old, I’m kind of ‘losing my shiz’ over a long-dead Bulgarian psychic named Baba Vanga… My mate told me about her and her predictions that the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it, would happen in 2025. As usual when I’m told such clap-trap (great underused term clap-trap dontcha think?), I rolled my eyes and told my friend she was crackers for believing any part of it. What’s next babes? We find out the earth actually was flat?
But I have to admit; the more she talked, the more my interest was piqued. So much so that I embarked on a little google search whilst lying in the bath that night. A time where I should’ve been relaxing, soaking up the essential oils and practising some mindfulness… and there I was falling down a rabbit-hole of fear and amazement as I read about this woman and her predictions. I mean; what if she was right? What if 2025 meant World War 3 and the end of civilisation as we know it? I hate to make this all about me but I’ve had a rough few years and I’m now finally back on my feet, very happy and looking forward to lots of exciting developments over the next few years. In all honesty I’ll be pretty cheesed off if it all goes Pete Tong now.
So, a little bit about Baba Vanga and her predictions so far.
An impoverished Bulgarian woman who lost her sight at the age of just 12, she began to have visions and premonitions in her childhood. She became widely known in the 1970’s and 80’s when some of these premonitions appeared to come true. She died in 1996 but her predictions live on. She has some evangelical supporters on line, let me tell you.
Now excuse me if I put my sceptic’s hat back on here but Baba unfortunately did not write down her prophecies, nor are there many clear recordings of her. This means that there appears to be a lot of “my neighbour’s son’s girlfriend’s cat heard her say Princess Diana was going to die…”
Let’s pick out a key few:
● The Twin Towers
Reportedly Vanga had exclaimed on having a vision ‘Horror! Horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds.’
OK on first reading I admit I was impressed with that one. Then I decided it was too vague. Jury’s out for me.
● Barack Obama to be 44th President of the USA
Now the specificity on this one is pretty good. If she actually said it. Reportedly Vanga claimed the 44th president would be a black man. But did she say it? Did she though?
● The assassination of Indira Ghandi
It’s claimed (there’s that vague phrase again) that Vanga said re Ghandi; “ The dress will destroy her. I see an orange-yellow dress in smoke and fire.” On the day Ghandi was killed she was indeed wearing a saffron coloured dress.
Now the next prediction feels pretty pertinent after last weeks’ developments in Syria where the Assad regime was finally overthrown…
It’s been long reported that Baba Vanga, often called the Nostradamus of the Balkans, predicted that there would be a major war in 2025 between the east and the west after the fall of Syria.
The night the news from Syria hit our TV screens I admit I did fall back down my Google black hole, and I’m not sure what I was hoping to find. Probably some proof that Vanga’s previous predictions have all nosedived and we’ve all got nothing to worry about. FYI; she’s got plenty of stuff wrong thankfully.
But the fact of the matter of course is that was time wasted. If the world really did come to an end in 2025, I’d wish I hadn’t wasted so much time googling a long-dead mystic.
I’d wish I’d spent more time with the people I love. I’d wish I worried less about work. I’d wish I’d put my phone down and listened properly to what my children are saying. I’d wish I’d spent less time stressing about what people think of me and more time laughing and dancing and eating cake.
Maybe the lesson this flicker of fear teaches us is to live in the moment a bit more. To be grateful we’re not one of the millions of people in the world currently living in war zones. To not let some obscure predictions lost in decades of folklore ruin one minute of our Christmas.
Sorry Baba. This old sceptic’s not having it just yet.
// Sarah Lawton