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Book Review, © Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
James Randi is also called "The Amazing Randi." He is a magician, escape artist, and investigator of the supernatural. He has also written the excellent book, Flim Flam!
Michel Nostradamus was a prophet and astrologer, who lived in 16th century France. People think that he predicted, among other things: the death of Henry II, the invention of the hot-air balloon, the Great Fire of London, the flight and capture of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the execution of Charles I of England, Napoleon Bonaparte and the imprisonment of the Popes, Adolph Hitler, and the life and death of Elizabeth I.
Randi has done a huge amount of research, viewing and translating original editions. He certainly has done more research than the believers of Nostradamus have. Randi has sorted out fraudulent editions of Nostradamus' writings, ones with changes and predictions added long after his death. He has found many errors in books about Nostradamus.
In this book, we see that Nostradamus' prophecies were normally so cleverly vague (in the spirit of most prophecies, through all of history) that almost any event could be said to have been predicted by them. Some of his more specific prophecies were actually done after the predicted event, or else never came true. Several famous prophecies were modified, or made up, by other people, long after Nostradamus was dead.
Another kind of prophecy is somewhat specific, but has all of time to be fulfilled. His prediction of a vague catastrophe for London is one of these. If the Great Fire, and Great Plague had not occurred, then we would still be waiting for the catastrophe. And the prophecy could never be called a failure.
And, it takes quite a stretch to find Hitler in the prophecies.
To order this book, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).