How accurate were Nostradamus's premonitions?

Question

How accurate were Nostradamus's premonitions?

Answer 1

Actually, they were not predictions, they were postdictions.  Meaning hard core believers looked at today's events, and try to relate to something that Nostradamus wrote.  And much of what he wrote were so obscure, they could easily state that this quatrain predicted 9/11 or what I had for lunch yesterday.

Answer 2

not particularally accurate

Answer 3

It was after an event happened that people began saying that he "predicted" the event.  It does not qualify as a prediction unless you can say it's going to happen ahead of time.

Answer 4

Depends on how you want to interpret them . . .some can look pretty uncanny ! !

Answer 5

Some of his predictions were straight forward and some were really wrong, but I believe he was really inaccurate. Edgar Cayce was much better and his predictions seem to be spot on in many areas.

Answer 6

Nostradamus has been debunked properly.  It's all nonsense.

Answer 7

It is impossible to know, since we don't have any clear statements as to what he meant by his various poetic writings.  As far as I know no one has predicted an event beforehand by relying on Nostradamus's words -- and many who have were wrong (for example, a Nostradamus interpreter predicted in 1984 that New York City would be destroyed by an earthquake in 1985; didn't happen!).  All the supposed 'hits' based on Nostradamus are discovered after the fact -- which sort of defeats the purpose!

Answer 8

I recommend the History Channel

Answer 9

close

Answer 10

Not at all.

The art of Nostradamus isn't what he wrote so much as how his writings are interpreted.  Like an astrologer, Nostradamus was rarely specific in his readings.

More on Nostradamus:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4066

Answer 11

Nostradamus tended to write with a lot of imagery and wordplay, anagrams and so forth.  This is probably because, at the time of his writing, prophets were seen as working in concert with the devil and subjected to extreme persecution, most likely execution. Therefore, when we read and interpret his writings, we use post-diction, rather than prediction.  Something happens, and then we read Nostradamus' prophecies and are able to see that he predicted it.  However, it is extremely difficult - some may say impossible - to read his predictions and use it to predict events in the future.  So while many people say that his predictions were accurate, they have not necessarily been helpful when it comes to avoiding future events.

I do believe that he had a gift. The night before he died, even though he was in good health, he called a priest over to give him the last rites. He said "I will not be alive at sunrise." The next morning his son found him dead.  He also wrote that he would die right after returning from an embassy, which he did.

Answer 12

Not accurate whatsoever! Some people interpret some verse after the fact to say it predicted something, but prediction is before the fact.

Answer 13

The greed of man flies like clouds to the sunset

First hot, now cold, our weeping eyes perceive

Mountains of ice, once our despair

Sweet hope, can you temper our desires?

Thus I did predict either global warming or snow cones.

Answer 14

He was extremely inaccurate. You can make up almost anything within reason and somewhere in the future something simular will happen. He was so vague that his prophecies could fit many, many different events.

I find Edgar Cayce to be intresting.

Answer 15

The best book on the subject maybe "The Mask of Nostradamus" by James Randi (Scribner's, NY/90). A biographical study of the 16th-century seer who turns out to be a Renaissance con-man with secrets that are revealed here. The most famous quatrains from Nostradamus are examined and shown to be examples of revision, misinterpretation, fraud, and wishful thinking by devotees of prophecy.

Chicago Tribune calls the book “[an] imposing and fascinating investigation of the world's most famous visionary...The Mask of Nostradamus is an outstanding book, full and rich, a meticulous and thoughtful work of historical scholarship.”

Randi's research and analysis illuminate Nostradamus' historic origins, his bona fide role as a physician, what his amazingly ingenious prophecies forecast, the factual truth of his alleged prophetic successes, and how the rationalizations of Nostradamus' armies of followers have perpetuated his fame through the ages.

Renowned for his exposes of "New Age" charlatans, Randi explains how this cleverest of all astrologers flourished in his own time. He shows how Nostradamus skillfully used ambigous phraseology and sometimes "predicted" events after their occurence. But Randi is more understanding of Nostradamus than implacably hostile, and drawing on recent research reveals how Nostradamus risked deat in the Inquisition for his genuine Protestant beliefs.