Home >The WTC Tragedy: Was It Prophesied? - Unexplained Mysteries
The WTC Tragedy: Was It Prophesied? - Unexplained Mysteries
Was the unspeakable horror of September 11 foretold by prophets and psychics? While the best-known names of prophecy seem to have failed, some eerily accurate visions and predictions have come from unexpected sources.
After the initial shock of the deeply tragic and violent attacks of September 11 on New York and Washington turned to grief, confusion and anger, many who believe in ESP, psychic predictions and prophecy were asking: Where were the psychics? Why didn't they predict this monumental act of terror and loss of human life?
Perhaps the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon were foreseen, but apparently not by Nostradamus:
NOSTRADAMUS, the most famous astrologer who ever lived, was born in France in 1503 and published his barely scrutable collection of prophecies, The Centuries, in 1555. Each four-line verse (or "quatrain") purported to foretell world events far into the future, and ever since Nostradamus' time devotees have claimed his work accurately predicted wars, natural disasters and the rise and fall of empires.
Yet it's plain to see that Nostradamus couched his "prophetic" verses in language so obscure that the words can be, and have been, interpreted to mean almost anything. What's more, the interpreting is always done after the fact, with the benefit of hindsight, and with the concerted aim of proving the relevance of a given passage to an actual event.
Nostradamus
Very soon after the terrorist attacks, Internet e-mail and certain websites were flooded with "prophecies" that were said to come from the writings of the famed 16th century French astrologer, Nostradamus. Whenever some great tragedy strikes, it seems, Nostadamus's quatrains (four-line verses) are scrutinized to see if some significance can be found. Some interpreters of his writings believe he has successfully predicted the rise of Hitler, the assassination of President Kennedy and other significant events of the 20th century. Sure enough, a quatrain widely spread by e-mail was purported to be a clear reference to the destruction of the WTC:
In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos,
while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.
The only problem with this prophecy is that Nostradamus never made it. It was entirely fabricated by some Internet prankster whose identity will probably never be known.
One actual verse - the so-called "King of Terror" quatrain - has been applied to the WTC disaster, but as you can see, it bears little relevance to the events of that day:
The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror.
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.
From the sky came terror, for certain, but the year is wrong and the month is wrong. And what the last two lines might mean with regard to WTC is anyone's guess. The bottom line is that Nostradamus apparently has struck out on this one.
Song Lyrics and Album Covers
It is inevitable when some great tragedy strikes that by coincidence a previously created work of art, fiction or music will be seen as a foretelling. One of the most famous examples of this was a short story called "Futility" by Morgan Robertson that eerily foretold the sinking of the Titanic. In the story, written 12 years before the Titanic disaster, Robertson wrote of a ship called the Titan that met its fate by striking an iceberg on its starboard side and sinking. In size and capacity, along with many other parallels, the Titan's resemblance to Titanic is uncanny.
Similarly, song lyrics and an album cover have been cited as being predictive of the WTC attack. A song called "Mesias" (Messiah), written and performed by Guatemalan pop artist Ricardo Arjona, contains lyrics that have some interesting similarities to the WTC case:
The Messiah was born in New York
He drives an armored car out of precaution
The Pope fears some massive loss. ...
[The Messiah] is preparing a blow, and no one knows the date. ...
He has an associate in Japan, another in Afghanistan
He speaks with God daily through the Internet
He promotes change and he's made enemies.
The Church accuses him of heresy
And the Pentagon [accuses him] of [being a] terrorist. ...
It's on the front page of the New York Times
And a cloud of doubt casts a shadow on the sun.
An album cover that was planned for an upcoming release by the hip hop group The Coup is far more disturbingly accurate. The cover art for the album "Party Music," created about two months ago, depicts two members of the group posed in front of the World Trade Center's twin towers, which are exploding. The fire and smoke billowing from the buildings in the artwork are startlingly similar to the photos and video taken shortly after the second terrorist-controlled plane struck the towers. The coincidence - or foreshadowing - is astonishing. The label, 75 Ark, has decided not to use the artwork on the album cover.
The "Cursed" Towers
Psychic Joyce Keller believes that a colleague predicted the fate of the 9/11 WTC. "During the time that the WTC was being built, around 1973," says Joyce, "I was in a NYC meditation class conducted by a pretty well-known psychic, Irwyn Greif. He was also employed by New York City as a building inspector. During one of his classes, he said, 'Do not go into the WTC after it is constructged. It will come down in our lifetime. It is cursed!' Mr. Greif currently lives in Florida. I e-mailed him after 9/11 to congratulate him on his accurate but extremely tragic prediction. I was in the WTC quite a few times, and knew that his prediction would be correct, but did not know the time. I was in the WTC a few days before 9/11 and became extremely nauseous and upset, and felt the attack would be imminent. I also realized that there was no way it could be prevented."
Astrologer Predicts "Shocking news"
In July, 2000, astrologer Louis Turi posted some predictions on his website about disastrous events that would take place in September, 2001. Turi, who claims to make "predictions in the art of Nostradamus," made this forecast, in part:
Bad news ahead for any and all denominations where religious figures will “pass over.” In 1998 the same type of celestial energy produced a murder in the Vatican followed by a suicide, which forced the Pope to address to the world in sadness. The Middle East "US surprising bombing attack" on Saddam Hussein forces in Iraq also took place under these circumstances. This energy can affect sophisticated electronic equipment and produce a bad aeronautic accident. Deception, illusion and secret affairs are on the agenda. The same Neptunian energy produced the Valdez disaster and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Expect a general feeling of hopelessness plaguing the media and the church authorities. Deceiving news will take place and affect many of us; some desperate souls will fall for Neptune’s suicidal tendency and some will end up in jail or a mental institution. This trend will be very difficult for some, but do not lose faith in yourself and trust the Universe; get all the help you can to fight Neptune’s depressive tendencies; amuse yourself, keep busy and let go of the past. Life must go on. Expect anything surprising, even incredible to take place soon and see the real power of both Uranus, the planet of sudden release of energy in action and Saturn forcing the government to take drastic actions.
It's easy to pick out many of the key words and phrases that can relate to the WTC attack. Was the tragedy foretold in the stars and planets, or is this just another remarkable coincidence?
Fifth-Grader's Vision
Another disturbing prediction came from the mouth of a fifth grade student in a Dallas suburb. On September 10, the before the attack, the boy, whose name was kept confidential because of his age, made an incredible, unexpected statement to his teacher. The boy said that World War III would begin the next day. "It will begin in the United States," he said, "and the United States will lose." On the day of the attack and the following day, the boy was absent from school. After the attack took place, school officials notified the FBI of the boy's statements, although the boy and his family are not suspected of having any special advance knowledge of the events.
What prompted the boy to make such a declaration to his teacher? Was it just a coincidental child's fantasy? Or did he have a special vision of the terrorist act? And, of course, it remains to be seen whether or not the attack will be the first strike in a third world war.
Valerie Clarke's Amazing Prediction
Where were the psychics with regard to the WTC tragedy? Perhaps she was in the UK. Valerie Clarke, a psychic from Lancashire, UK appeared on the BBC's "Kilroy Show" last June. On that program, which has been recorded, Clarke told host Robert Kilroy Silk that she had received a vision of a massive explosion caused by an aircraft crashing into the second tower of the World Trade Center. She told the BBC TV audience:
I had this dream a while ago and I thought it was a bombing at the World Trade Center. In my dream I was at the World Trade Center wandering the streets – I was in some sort of barricade when the building blew up. At the same time this plane went down behind it. In my dream I was not sure if the plane had gone into the building.
Clarke's nightmare will undoubtedly be regarded as the most accurate psychic premonition of the devastating WTC attack.
What About the Other Psychics?
Why did all of the other well-known psychics - those we know from their frequent television appearances and websites - fail to foresee the events of that awful day? Does their failure mean they do not truly have psychic powers? Not at all. Whether they are really psychic or not may be open to argument, but failure to predict doesn't necessarily mean they are fakes. A psychic cannot be expected to be able to predict any given future event, no matter how significant it might be. The nature of such gifts, which we do not fully understand, itself seems to be unpredictable.