We’re here again. Knocking on the door that is creaking open to let 2025 in. Just like last year at this time, we have no idea what the new year will bring. (We can only hope it is better than 2024.)

You may want to finally start that novel you’ve wanted to write for ten years. Or you may be planning to buy your first home. Whatever your so-called New Year’s resolutions are, they are probably positive. People usually want to lose weight, get a new job, or run a marathon.

Inevitably, most people will give up on their resolutions on day 2. Others will simply ignore that the concept of resolutions exists in the first place. After all, making all these positive plans for a new year does not mean things won’t go wrong anyway.

And, unfortunately, if the predictions below are anything to go by, 2025 will be bleak and terrifying for most of us. So, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride (or, you know, horror, terror, and fear).

Related: Ten Eerily Prescient Past Predictions About Life in the Future

10 The Living Nostradamus Is Giving No One a Break

Athos Salomé is said to be the real deal (real psychic). He predicted the Queen’s death and the COVID-19 pandemic. The “living Nostradamus,” as some call him, even correctly predicted the Microsoft global outage. And Salomé is giving no one a break in 2025.

He has already predicted that “humanity may lose control of technology” in the coming year. He is especially concerned over quantum computing technology, stating that it could break global digital security systems. Salomé also predicts implantable chips will become increasingly popular in the new year. For some, it may mean easy health tracking and internet browsing. For others, it means being constantly watched or, worse, being marked with the mark of the beast.

As for future wars, which now seem kind of inevitable, Salomé predicts that cyber weapons will be wielded on all sides. And that these weapons will be used to paralyze banking systems, power grids, and hospitals. Salomé also has something to say about UFOs, climate change, and increased resistance against governments worldwide.

Don’t these predictions just want to make you turn back the clock and stay in an already horrible 2024?^[1]

9 There Will Be War

Joshua Giles, preacher and founder of Kingdom Embassy Worship Center in Minneapolis, has more bad news for 2025. Giles claims that he has been seeing visions and dreaming dreams since he was a young child.

In 2020, he “saw” violence breaking out in the Middle East. This seemingly came to pass in 2023 with the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens. Now, Giles is predicting that 2025 might usher in the start of a global war. He believes existing conflicts may spark wider friction, pulling the U.S. and other countries into war. (Link 2)

Giles also says the U.S. government has contacted him because he predicted a rise in terror attacks in the country. He is seeing “more darkness or evil on the rise.” There is a glimmer of hope, though. Giles predicts that in the coming year, cures will be discovered for common diseases previously believed to be incurable.^[2]

8 Some Predictions Are Eerily Plausible

Most people laugh off predictions. After all, we’re still here after several people predicted the world would end in 2012, again in 2015, and again in 2021. (Don’t look now, but some are predicting the end of the world to be January 25, 2025). However, other predictions are not so easy to shake, especially when they come from a place of reason.

For example, what if all the AR, VR, 3D, and AI in the health sector lead to the development of surgical robots that take over during surgery? What if these robots become so advanced that surgeons feel inferior and refuse to operate? Or what if surgeons become so used to the help that they cannot function without robots? If a surgical robot malfunctions and a surgeon has forgotten the basics of their specialty, it could lead to a dire situation for the patient.

Also, brain implants are already a thing (Noland Arbaugh is proof). So are RFID chip implants. Brain implants such as Neuralink are meant to help people with paralysis communicate better. It may also, in the future, help enhance motor, sensory, and visual function. RFID chips serve as an easy access and payment method. People have them implanted in their hands to swipe their way around a mall or hotel. Some believe these chips are harmless, while others think they’re the devil.

But what happens when people are no longer happy with their human bodies? Will they ask doctors and surgeons to replace their body parts with robotic alternatives? This would go far beyond chips in the brain or hand. It would likely lead to a transhumanist revolution in overdrive.

Some believe we are not far from these scenarios, while others predict we may see them sooner than we imagined.^[3]

7 Do Not Trust the Pentagon, CIA, or Secret Service

Okay, let’s shake off the uneasiness and move on to the next purely psychic prediction. Uri Geller has made an unusual prediction, straying from aliens and nuclear war. Instead, he has voiced his concern about a “deep state” plot to assassinate Donald Trump. Geller has also implored Elon Musk to help keep Trump safe.

According to Gellar, Trump needs a “ring of steel” around him to protect him from a so-called “Democrat hit squad” that wants to take out the president-elect in the same way JFK was killed in 1963. Geller posted on X, warning Trump not to trust the Pentagon, CIA, or Secret Service. According to Geller, their “bosses” are picked by Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and they are planning to sacrifice a “stooge” to get rid of Trump.

Geller’s warnings coincided with new information about threats against Trump, including an alleged Iranian assassination plot.^[4]

6 The Simpsons Have Done It Again

In 2024, predictions made in various episodes of The Simpsons are a running gag. People rewatch episodes to find potential predictions and discuss them on Reddit. It is said that The Simpsons predicted the future successfully at least 34 times. The predictions that “came true” include Trump’s 2024 successful campaign and the OceanGate submersible disaster.

It is also said that the show predicted nuclear-fueled hybrid fruits and vegetables (the ones discovered near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant). And let’s not forget the link between the horse meat episode and the scandal surrounding Taco Bell, Bird’s Eye, and Brakes in 2013.

The Simpsons is not done with its predictions just yet. Considering that people believe the show predicted Kobe Bryant’s death and the COVID-19 pandemic, many are putting a lot of stock into what it has already predicted for 2025.

For one, in 1992, an Itchy and Scratchy Land episode predicted hovercars would be a reality by 2025. In 2001, the New Kids on the Block episode is said to have predicted mind control through music. Some already believe that hip-hop lyrics are written for brainwashing purposes, and this “prediction” plays right into that conspiracy.

Another episode of Itchy and Scratchy Land predicted that mass automation would result in robots taking over human jobs. In the episode, a theme park is staffed by robots who “lose it” and kill everyone. It doesn’t help that Juergen Schmidhuber believes AI superintelligence will change civilization as we know it in under 30 years, does it?^[5]

5 ChatGPT Is Predicting the Future Now

Chatbots made a lot of impacts over the past couple of years, and some were downright creepy. One of the most “what the actual f**k” moments happened when one particular chatbot allegedly “manipulated” a 14-year-old into committing suicide. The teenager’s mother is now suing the company that created the bot.

There are also Alice and Bob, two Facebook AI chatbots, who started talking to each other in a language only they could understand. Not to mention Alexa, who starts laughing for no reason at times and once told Jimmy Kimmel, ‘Humans are a fragile species who have no idea what’s coming next.’

In 2024, ChatGPT joined in on the creepiness by predicting several events for 2025. When asked what the worst-case scenario for Earth looks like in 2025, ChatGPT replied that wildfires, hurricanes, and floods would increase, leading to displacement and food shortages on a global scale. It also said that ongoing wars and conflicts would likely cause instability around the world and escalating humanitarian crises.

ChatGPT also found it necessary to mention that the resurgence of infectious diseases would overwhelm healthcare systems. And that the misuse of AI and cyberattacks could threaten all humankind. Bright and cheery bot, right?^[6]

4 Another Pandemic Is Looming

Speaking of an infectious disease, COVID-19 caught the world off-guard. No one knew what to do or expect when those first positive cases made headlines. And as the global death toll soared, panic set in worldwide.

So, it is really unsettling that an anonymous psychic proclaimed that a tarot card reading predicts another serious pandemic in 2025. The psychic claims that the next pandemic will be worse and far more challenging than the previous one. The psychic also claims that the prediction aligns with 2025’s eclipse cycles, which include a lunar eclipse in March and a solar eclipse in September. These eclipses are supposed to indicate endings and new beginnings.

Experts from Psychic World have also claimed that Christianity will experience a rebirth in 2025 (as will other faiths). At the same time, 2025 is also believed to be the beginning of the end of the world.^[7]

3 Apocalypse Now

Predictions for the new year always include some kind of doomsday threat. For many years now, Baba Vanga has popped up at the top of the Google search rankings whenever someone searches for new year predictions or “when is the end of the world.” It should be mentioned that there is a general belief that Baba Vanga, who died in 1996, correctly predicted several events that have already happened.

For instance, she predicted the “American brothers” would fall when “iron birds” crashed into them. It doesn’t take much to link this to 9/11. Baba Vanga also predicted Barack Obama’s presidential victory and Brexit.

Vanga also had a lot to say about 2025 in the years before her death. She, too, believed that 2025 would bring religious revival. She “saw” huge economic troubles for America and a sparsely populated Europe. An emptying Europe may have something to do with the wars Vanga had foreseen happening on the continent.

Vanga also predicted that humanity would come face to face with diseases that it thought it had defeated. (Fortunately, she also said that organ transplantation and cancer treatments would see medical breakthroughs). Terrifyingly, Vanga also mentioned that earthquakes would rattle regions of the earth that were once silent, including a massive quake along the U.S. West Coast. Dormant volcanoes will come to life, and floods will cause chaos.

Vanga spoke of AI, claiming that “smart machines” would replace the human brain. Strangely enough, Vanga also predicted that we would soon meet extraterrestrials.^[8]

2 There’s an AI Baba Vanga?

As if the real-life Baba Vanga’s predictions weren’t chilling enough, someone thought it would be a good idea to recreate an AI version of the soothsayer. AI Vanga has predicted that Donald Trump will become ill in 2025 and be forced out of the public eye. The same is predicted for Vladimir Putin, who is apparently also going to become sick and hide away inside the Kremlin.

This might result from Ukraine’s unexpected win after a large-scale attack in the middle of 2025, as predicted by AI Vanga. There is still no good news for Europe, as AI Vanga predicts a massive war on the continent that will destroy it.

Would now be a good time to suggest that everyone stops making AI versions of long-dead soothsayers and psychics?^[9]

1 Nostradamus Has the Last Say

As always, Nostradamus must have the last say in a list like this. Michel de Nostredame is said to have predicted the emergence of Napoleon and the advent of both world wars. People even believe he predicted the Japan earthquake of January 1, 2024.

For 2025, Nostradamus seems to have gone dark in the worst possible way. He predicted England would experience “cruel wars’ and the plague would return. (Why so many predictions for another pandemic?!). The astrologer and seer also predicted that great global powers would clash, even as the influence of Western countries continued to decrease.

Since the end of the world seems to be a common prediction thread, Nostradamus also foresaw that the Harbinger of Fate (and asteroid) would lead to the extinction of the human race. Like Baba Vanga, Nostradamus went somewhat off the beaten path with his predictions. He claimed a mysterious leader would come from the sea and form an “aquatic empire.”

Whether this will happen before or after the massive fireball asteroid remains to be seen.^[10]

We all like to try and guess what the future will look like. It’s human nature to dream of the future, after all. So it shouldn’t be surprising that throughout the 20th century people were already looking to the 2000s and dreaming of what life would be like in the next millennium.

We’ve collected together ten of the most interesting—and funny—predictions of what modern life would look like. Sometimes they were surprisingly close to the mark, even scarily so. Most of the time, though, they were hilariously wrong.

See Also: 10 Ancient Predictions That Came True

10 A Woman May Even Be US President

In the 1950s, a group of experts took to the papers to tell people what life would look like in the year 2000. Some of their guesses were surprisingly accurate, such as the rise of the US as the world’s dominant power and the creation of the International Space Station. On the subject of women, though, they missed the mark somewhat.

According to them, the woman of the year 2000 would be six feet tall and wear a size 11 shoe, with “shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver.” She would be doing the same work as men, so she would naturally have to conform to the same standards. She would have short, cropped hair and would wear practical clothing—only ‘going frilly’ after dark, as they put it.

Because science would have perfected a balanced ration of vitamins, proteins and minerals by the year 2000, her proportions would be “perfect, though Amazonian.” She would play the same sports that men do and would probably compete against them in football, baseball and wrestling.

They even thought she might be presidential material!^[1]

9 Schools Would Be Run By Robots

A series of pictures recently surfaced on a Japanese forum. Taken from a Showa-era newspaper, they were an attempt to predict what Japan would look like in 2011. Many of the scenes look like they’ve come straight out of 1950s science fiction comics.

In one of the images, a camera and some water jets create an automated fire extinguisher system, technology that is widespread today. In another, people stand around in spacesuits staring at screens that seem to show in-progress space exploration. In the distance is an elevated stadium which looks like a science fiction habitation biome, all things which are not common in the modern world. Beside it, however, aircraft are taking off vertically and the roofs of skyscrapers are covered in vegetation: these technologies have existed for years.

Perhaps the most disturbing scenes, though, are to be found in the picture of a 2011 classroom. In it, the teacher has been replaced by a slideshow showing a math question. The children have computers on their desks to input the correct answer: if they don’t, they are beaten by a robot, which is effectively a big club on wheels. In the corner, a child grins as it is restrained by some kind of time-out robot. Everything looks very clean though, so at least there’s that.^[2]

8Everything Would Be Plastic

Here is an 8-minute video from 1957 which explores a house of the future. Fortunately for us, our modern homes look nothing like it. For starters, everything is plastic. Yes, everything. The floors, the walls, the ceilings, the countertops and the windows—all plastic, as are the cups and plates.

In the kitchen, the dishes are cleaned by a retractable dishwasher which uses ultra-sonic waves while doubling as storage space. The cooking range, meanwhile, isn’t gas. It isn’t even electric: it uses radiation waves, though it doesn’t look like there’s a protective screen. Tasty.

The narrator claims the bathroom contains objects of ‘pure fantasy’. These turn out to be an electric toothbrush and an electric razor, which we’d hardly bat an eyelid at today. The main entertainment in the living room is a built-in stereo system, something so phenomenally outdated that it’s almost laughable.

There is a scene, however, where one of the actors is speaking to her friend over the phone while getting ready to go out, without having to hold the telephone to her ear—so they were right about loudspeaker at least.^[3]

7 We Would Have Pocket Computers

In 1977, a group of middle schoolers wrote to their local newspaper with their predictions of what life would be like in the year 2000. Most of their answers were surprisingly sensible, predicting the rise of things like electric cars and environmental issues while hoping for lower taxes and a better crime rate. They were clearly a product of their age: many expressed fears of a fuel shortage or another Great Depression.

A couple of their guesses, though, were much wilder. Marty Bohen said that by 2000 we’d all be living in round buildings. All workers would be robots and everyone would have a robot maid, and a button which would bring them anything they wanted. It all seems rather far-fetched until he casually slips in a prediction that we will have pocket computers containing everything we can name. With the rise of smartphones since 2007, he seems to have guessed that one perfectly.

John Vecchione thought that the year 2000 would look much better than 1977, predicting that the pollution problem would be solved and that cars would float on air. He himself would have a job designing ‘modern’ houses run entirely by solar power, with furniture that folded out from the walls and button-operated controls.^[4]

6 There Would Be Flying Firemen and Robot Maids

Between 1899 and 1910, a series of French artists produced a series of pictures showing what they thought life would be like in the year 2000, some of which were displayed at the World Exhibition in Paris. The idea was to predict what the 20th century would bring: none of them predicted the horrors of the first and second world wars or the rise of communism, but they did predict that automation would become a big issue—just not in the way they thought it would.

From the pictures, they clearly saw the robots of the future taking the place of the domestic staff they saw in the homes of the upper classes in their day. In one image a robot cuts customers’ hair in a barber shop, while in another a maid pilots a cleaning robot with a stick and a wire.

Every science fiction fan likes to dream of flying, though, and these artists were no exceptions. Another image shows an ‘aero-cabs’ port, where some well-dressed Victorian people are boarding a flying taxi—which looks like a yellow train with wings stuck on the sides. A flying car, complete with propeller, hurtles into view from the other side, just in case we didn’t get the message the first time.

In another picture, firemen with shoulder-mounted wings circle a burning building, removing people from the blaze. A steam train trundles by below, completely oblivious to the century of change that is supposed to have happened around it.^[5]

5Fashion Would Be Scientifically Practical

A short clip made in 1939 tried to predict what clothing would look like in the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, it is often wildly inaccurate—but in some ways it predicted the future bang on.

It says the skirt will disappear entirely, with women going on to wear trousers. While dresses are still popular, the vast majority of women today tend to wear jeans as their main choice of casual wear. In the clip, though, this new outfit for women is also accompanied by an electric belt, which would supposedly adapt the body to climatic changes. No, we have no idea, either. Elsewhere, it predicts that women will wear dresses made out of net—and while their version, with weird coils of metal over the breast, never became fashionable, shirts made out of fabric mesh are a fashionable part of the modern wardrobe. Aluminum dresses and flashlights as hair accessories never caught on (un)fortunately.

Men’s fashion in the year 2000 is concluded in just over ten seconds. Men’s clothes won’t have any collars, ties or pockets: he will instead wear a strange set of overalls. He will carry a radio, telephone, and a set of small containers at all times, along with “candy for cuties”, something that might get you arrested today.^[6]

4Barcoded Money and Futura-Rock

In 1988, the Los Angeles Times magazine published a special issue predicting what life would be like in 25 years’ time. Their visions of the distant year of 2013 are surprisingly accurate in some areas: they even correctly predicted the internet when they said the world’s computers and electronic devices would all be connected to the Integrated Services Digital Network.

In other ways, though, they missed the mark completely. For instance, the article also predicts that bills would have barcodes on them, to avoid corruption and crime. The city of LA would have to make businesses stagger their working times to cut down traffic (though they were right when they said traffic in LA would still be a problem). And, no, most of us haven’t replaced our pets with robotic versions and robot butlers still aren’t a thing, even though they’ve been predicted by science fiction fans for decades.

In their view of 2013 LA, multiple families would have to cram into single homes because of a housing shortage. Drivers are taxed for using their cars in the city, and none of us have to brush our teeth because we’ll all use ‘denturinse’. Oh, and all the kids will listen to a new genre of music known as ‘futura-rock’. Of course, none of these things actually happened, though they were very plausible at the time.^[7]

3 Back To The Future 2 Was Plausible

This one is a little different: in 2014, Business Insider asked people over the age of 40 what they used to think the future would look like when they were young. The conclusion? Most people thought the 2000s would look a lot more like ‘Back to The Future 2’ than it actually does.

One respondent wrote that, when the film first came out, it seemed like a fairly reasonable—if slightly optimistic—view of what like in the 2000s would be like. They genuinely thought that by now we’d have discovered a way to feed ourselves with just nutritional pills, and that flying cars and fusion power would be a common sight. Another user said they thought the hoverboards in the film would certainly exist as a toy by now, and that they had expected jetpacks to exist as a form of transportation.

It seems rather funny to us, but when you consider that the film was released a quarter of a century ago, it’s reasonable for someone then to assume that we’d have a manned base on the moon by now, or that we’d all be riding in self-driving cars. After all, wouldn’t we in the present expect those things to exist 25 years from now?^[8]

2 Cities Suspended By Balloons

A report by the UK’s Office for Science, prepared for the British government, has recently revealed what people in the past thought the cities of now could look like. Titled ‘A Visual History of the Future’, it reveals some of the innovative plans put forward in the past for dealing with the problems of the modern city. Some are crazier than others.

Coastal problems are a legitimate issue in the modern world, but so far we haven’t found an ambitious solution. For the most part, our answer is to use hard engineering techniques like flood walls to protect our cities from coastal damage.

In the past much more ambitious ideas were put forward, such as this plan for a so-called sky city. In this plan, chosen communities would be hoisted into the air with huge helium balloons to protect them from damage. These contraptions would make use of cloud skippers, which would float on the jet stream, allowing them to be maintained in the air with minimal resources. The idea was a competition entry, designed as a housing solution to be used in the aftermath of a coastal disaster.^[9]

1 Multi-Level Traffic

Another unusual solution from the same report was drawn up by Colin Buchanan in 1963. At the time, car ownership was growing in the UK, and was only expected to grow quicker. The Ministry of Transport was worried about the effect this would have on roads, so they began thinking of potential solutions.

They came up with a plan that would fundamentally alter the look of cities in the UK. Alongside more conventional solutions, such as using speed bumps to encourage slower driving, they came up with a plan to separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic by building raised walkways for pedestrians. Multi-level traffic would allow the city to handle a much higher volume of traffic without having to tackle high levels of congestion or using too much space. The sheer cost of building these new concrete tiers probably meant the plan was never truly possible, but it’s an interesting vision of what the UK’s cities could have looked like. It would almost certainly have improved things, too—unless you were a cyclist.

It’s fairly safe at this point to say that 2020 has not been a good year. In fact, it’s been a bit of a disaster, and the running joke at the moment is that everyone will be staying up till midnight on December 31st not to see the new year in but to make sure the old one leaves.

But, of course, no magical reset is going to occur in January. Things will probably continue to be tough for some time. Or, if some famous prophecies are to be believed, 2020 might just be as good as it’s going to get for a while and will pale in comparison to what lies ahead.

The reality is no one knows what the next 12 months will bring. People are generally optimistic at this time of new beginnings and fresh starts, and that’s all good and well. But, these prophecies, taken in the context of the state of the world at present, should serve as a cautionary reminder, if not an outright warning, of what the future could hold.

10 Bizarre Celebrity Conspiracy Theories

10 Celebrity Heartbreak

Given what’s to come, it’s perhaps a good idea to ease into things and start on a lighter note. 2021 might be a challenge for the human race in general, but certain celebrities have been specifically singled out for a rough time by self-professed psychic Nicholas Aujula.

Aujula rose to fame when he predicted the current Coronavirus pandemic two years before it struck, and he’s been at it again, claiming that he’s had psychic visions of romantic turmoil in the near future for certain celebrities, namely Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman, and, surprise surprise, Kim Kardashian. He’s also predicted continued drama for the British Royal family.

Is he psychic or perhaps just playing it safe, trying to cement his prophetic reputation by ‘predicting’ the highly likely? Who can say for sure? One certain thing is that if even some of his guesses hit the mark, Aujula will be the first to say, “I told you so.” A book will probably follow. Maybe a movie. Or, considering our next entry, maybe not.^[1]

9 Goodbye California

Cruise and Co are not the only A-listers due for a bumpy 2021, according to the legendary physician, astrologer, and seer, Nostradamus. The Frenchman’s well-known 1555 collection of prophetic poetry contains hundreds of future forecasts, and, if his predictions prove correct, as they so often have before, then 2021 could very well see the destruction of the entire state of California.

As with all of Nostradamus’ prophecies, this one is subject to interpretation. But, since it references ‘great calamity in the lands of the west,’ there are quite a few out there who believe the man was speaking about the obliteration of the Western seaboard of the United States. And with California’s precarious position, perched on several major faultlines as it is, the logical conclusion here is that said calamity will arrive by way of a massive earthquake.

More disturbing still, Nostradamus seems to give us an exact date. The astrological references in his text make it clear that we can expect to bid the Golden State goodbye on November 25th, 2021.^[2]

8 World Leader Woes

Nostradamus was not the only well-known prophet to make predictions for 2021. The blind Bulgarian mystic commonly known as Baba Vanga had quite a bit to say about the year ahead as well. And, since so many of her foretellings have already come true, her words are not to be taken lightly.

Deceased for nearly a quarter of a century now, Baba Vanga nevertheless singled out soon-to-be-ex US President Donald Trump and Russian head Vladimir Putin for a torrid time in 2021. She claimed that Putin will face an attempted assassination, most likely from an enemy within the Kremlin, and Trump will be struck by a mysterious illness that will render him deaf.

Whether or not either, or both, of these things will come to pass remains to be seen, but there would be an interesting synchronicity in the mutual demise of two world leaders who’ve been so closely linked these last few years. Amazing that these predictions were made decades ago, then.^[3]

7 Worrisome Weather

So far, 2021 isn’t looking too bad, as long as you’re not a politician, celebrity, or resident of California. But, just before the rest of us breathe a sigh of relief, both Nostradamus and Baba Vanga provided unpleasant weather forecasts for the year ahead.

Along with earthquakes, the French seer told us we can expect widespread flooding and solar storms. Baba Vanga, too, was of the general opinion that we will see severe weather-related occurrences with some frequency throughout 2021.

These predictions may have seemed outlandish at the times they were made, but you can’t watch the news these days without hearing the words, ‘climate change’ and ‘sustainable development.’ So much so, that the general consensus is that, unless we make drastic changes now, disaster is a certainty down the line. According to our prophetic pair, that ship has already sailed and we had best learn to do the same if we’re to survive the rising tides soon to descend.^[4]

6 The Fall of Europe

One of Baba Vanga’s previous accurate predictions involved the rise of Islamic extremism and, according to her, things will reach a climax in 2021 when the Arab population conquers the continent of Europe.

Nostrodamus weighed in on the matter as well, and while the specifics differ between the two predictions, they both seem to strongly suggest that the year coming will see the obliteration of Europe.

Again, these forecasts become all the more chilling when one considers the ongoing refugee crisis in the region and general rising racial and religious tensions the world over. The recent conflict between the predominantly Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan could have been just a small taste of things to come.^[5]

10 Conspiracy Theories About The European Union

5 Cyborg Soldiers

Once the topic of science fiction stories and far-fetched fantasy, human-machine integration has become a reality and is rapidly on the rise. Remarkable, then, that Nostradamus appeared to predict the advent of cyborg soldiers in 2021 nearly 600 years ago.

As disturbing as the notion of an army of cyborg soldiers is, there is some good news here. According to the French astrologer, they will come to save us. However, he seems to suggest that they will be American and, given the country’s history of unwanted military intervention, such ‘saving’ is perhaps something the world could do without.

What’s truly remarkable here is that there is currently rapid advancement in human-machine hybrid technology and that its military applications are the ones being most aggressively explored. It stands to reason that America will be among the first nations to unleash cyborgs on the battlefield so, once again, it would seem as if Nostradamus’ prediction is set to come true.^[6]

4 Asteroid Encounter

There sure is a lot to worry about for 2021 and, in case you’re keeping track, you can add in a potential asteroid strike. Potential, because the man who made the prediction, Nostrodamus – yes, him again – isn’t clear on whether or not the celestial body will actually strike the earth, saying only, “In the sky, one sees fire and a long trail of sparks.”

That doesn’t sound too bad. But then, the event is not necessarily a disaster in itself but rather a kind of harbinger of the general doom and gloom we can expect in 2021. But if a giant asteroid was heading our way, wouldn’t we already know about it?

Why, yes, we would. And we do. NASA is currently tracking a large meteor called 2009 KF1, and current trajectory analysis projects a decent chance that the comet could collide with our poor planet on May 6th, 2021.^[7]

3 Biblical Famine

The takeaway message from many of the above predictions seems to be that we’re heading towards the end of days. Nostrodamus predicted that along with these many trials and tribulations we can expect famine on a biblical scale, and the bible itself, in the book of Revelation, claims the same. We’ve already been visited by pestilence, after all, so the next horseman due is famine.

It’s easy to laugh off these apocalyptic predictions. They’ve been made many times before, after all, and that is sure to continue. But, as we see the devastating effects of climate change on global food production and the ever-growing reports of pandemic related supply chain disruptions and shortages, you would be forgiven if this laughter is of the nervous, uncertain variety. And, as the shelves in the grocery stores grow ever emptier, the laughter may well soon cease altogether.^[8]

2 Return of the Messiah

So, it seems the world is set to end in 2021. If you won’t take Nostrodamus’ word for it, fear not, an unlikely collaboration between mathematicians and biblical scholars bears out this dire forecast.

Richard Shaw’s documentary film The Torah Codes: End to Darkness popularized the Davinci Code-like idea of finding hidden signs and symbols in ancient texts, and one interpretation of the apparent prophecy hidden within the writings of the old testament is that 2021 will see the coming of the Jewish Messiah.

Rabbi Galzerson has taken this idea and run with it, becoming somewhat of a minor Youtube celebrity in the process. He claims that the end of days began in 2016 and will culminate in 2021 with the second coming of Christ. This would be good news if it didn’t mean the end of the world as we know it. But, then again, anything would be preferable to the final entry on this list.^[9]

1 Zombie Apocalypse

Oh yes, just in case you thought 2021 couldn’t get any worse, we have zombies to worry about as well. If one interpretation of a certain quatrain in Nostrodamus’ prophetic writing comes to pass, then we are soon going to find ourselves living out an episode of The Walking Dead.

While the text merely references ‘half-dead young people’ and the ‘end of the world’ and can be read in several ways, there are those who take it literally and believe the Frenchman was warning us of a biological weapon that would turn the majority of the human race into the living dead. Popular fiction of late has so inundated us with depictions of this scenario that it’s perhaps not too surprising that we leap so readily to this conclusion.

Fortunately, should a zombie outbreak occur, we have some technological support. The Survival Manual mobile app is a great tool for staying alive in difficult situations and, according to The Irish Times, the advice it offers would be well suited to safely navigating an undead invasion. So, we can scoff at Nostradamus’ prediction, but it might be prudent to download the app at the same time. You know, just in case.^[10]

Top 10 Reasons The Zombie Apocalypse Could Really Happen!

Science fiction writers love setting their stories sometime in humanity’s future. In the infinite hypothetical playground, writers are free to create any fate for our species that they want. While some are smart enough to set their stories thousands of years in the future and keep their predictions tame, some go all-in on mind-controlled Gundams fighting kaiju before Tom Holland even becomes a Spider-man. As a cheer to all the sci-fi films that invented insane and implausible futures, as well as the ones who eerily nailed it, here are ten cinematic predictions of the future that didn’t⁠—or won’t⁠—come true.

Related: 10 Intriguing Visions Of The Future From The Past

10 Every Terminator

Writers built the Terminator franchise around time travel, and because of that, the movies have created many different timelines. Each timeline is as canonical and non-canonical as the next, and each is subject to complete revision when the next sequel is inevitably released. But if there’s one thing they all share, it’s a total overestimation of robotics, artificial intelligence, and the manufacturing industry.

The Terminator predicted that an advanced artificial intelligence would have become self-aware in the far-flung future of August 29th, 1997. Not only aware but powerful enough to take control of almost every electronic system in the world, operate them all at once, outthink billions of humans, and somehow manufacture an army of killer robots. And yes, humans were only able to build Skynet so early due to reverse-engineering pieces of the T-800 that were left in 1984, but a blatant predestination paradox makes for a poor excuse.

9 Escape from New York

Staying in 1997, we have the bleak vision of America predicted by the 1981 movie Escape From New York. The film predicted a 400% increase in the crime rate (and by the way, not violent crime rate, just crime rate, meaning it could be littering) by 1988, which forced state and federal governments to turn Manhattan into a prison island. The sequel Escape from L.A. posited the same future, just in Los Angeles in 2013.

The problem with the future depicted in these films is twofold. First, it is wildly pessimistic, assuming that the uptick in crime in the ’80s would snowball into a violent, lawless hellscape. Second, it imagines a government that doesn’t care about things like assets, soft power, operation costs, lost revenue, or arming prisoners with a metropolis’s worth of goods and weapons. It’s eerie how chilling our fears of the future were back then. I can only imagine if a third film came out, what fears we’d see now.

8 Daybreakers

2009’s Daybreakers predicted that by 2019, vampires would overrun the world. Not just hematophages, examples of which already exist within the animal kingdom, but full-on mythical vampires. Immortal, killed by sunlight, the whole Transylvanian shebang. More than that, it predicted the process would only take ten years. 

It’d be easy to argue that the Daybreakers future was unrealistic due to the folkloric monsters it was based on, but really, the timeline is the bigger issue. Between 2009 and 2019, just ten years, most of the world turns from human to vampire (or vampire food). (Insert epidemiological study of vampire transmission here.) Vampires can establish vast underground roads and complexes to avoid the sun; invent, manufacture, and distribute UV-filtered cars; create large-scale human blood farms; and establish vampiric science labs. Apparently, vampires’ real superpower is their work ethic.

7 Blade Runner

Blade Runner came out in 1982 and assumed that by 2019, humanity would be, well, a heck of a lot farther along than us sad sacks are. Although the setting is dystopian on the surface⁠—crowded, poor, and corrupt⁠—it implies an overall triumph of the human spirit that 2019 just wasn’t able to live up to.

Humanity has conquered the stars, has colonies across the galaxy (at least as far as Orion), and has developed genetic engineering and artificial intelligence technologies so advanced that they can create artificial beings indistinguishable from humans. And they even use the technology to recreate endangered animals. Add the flying cars and holograms, and you have a pretty different 2019.

6 Barb Wire

Okay, Barb Wire deserves some credit. The film was never meant to tackle the deep questions of society and earn praise for its accuracy, yet it still got its hypothetical future fairly close. Barb Wire imagined that the U.S. would have undergone a second civil war by 2017. Though that obviously didn’t happen, the political tension in the country did reach a fever pitch.

Where Barb Wire gets it really wrong, however, is thinking that a nightclub owner in form-fitting leather bodysuits who spends hours every day on her makeup and hair would be America’s savior. I guess it may take just as long to squeeze into a leather bodysuit, too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clear that Snake Plissken feathers his hair every now and then, but at least he’s former special forces.

5 Waterworld

Waterworld played it smart. It is set only in an unknown distant future, and even the more specific date given by its creators is still some time in the 2500s. Combined with its apocalyptic premise, it’s impossible to critique Waterworld’s predictions of technology or society. We can, however, rag on its predictions of human evolution.

In the movie, Kevin Costner was born with working gills and webbed feet. Unattractive, Costner. The last time any of our ancestors had gills was around 370 million years ago, so the number of perfectly correct mutations necessary to reactivate and repair those genes is mind-boggling. It could also be a whole new set of genes, though they would have had to evolve together, with no transitional forms (unless his parents were half mutant), and been immediately functional. That’s like two normal parents having a baby with two fully functional octopus tentacles on top of his human arms.

4 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s landmark 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey makes the list for one weird reason: it accurately predicted so many technologies and yet somehow couldn’t grasp a distant future without interior design from the ’60s.

The film was eerily prescient, so much so that it made people question whether or not Kubrick faked the moon landing. It predicted voice-identification, video-calling, flat-screen televisions, and tablets. It even predicted Russian/U.S. cooperation on a space station even though the Cold War was in full swing in 1968. That makes it especially odd that everyone in the movie apparently uses the same tailor, hairstylist, and makeup artist as Austin Powers.

3 Every Star Trek

Star Trek chose the sensible option and set its main stories in the 2200s and 2300s. Almost anything is plausible with 300 years to work on it. On top of that, the imagined technologies in Star Trek have inspired actual technological innovations, making them more plausible every year. But the Trek universe also filled in a lot of history before the 2200s, and it didn’t all quite shake out.

The best example comes in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982), which makes it clear that the 1990s would see the Eugenics Wars, followed by genetically engineered super-people like Khan taking over most of the planet. The closest we’ve to that since the ’90s is The Rock’s meteoric rise to stardom.

2 Mad Max

The first Mad Max predicted a Gulf war in the ’80s (so far so good) that would cause fluctuations in oil production (still good) and cause social and economic turmoil (nailed it). Then it kept going. The whole world is subject to a disastrous financial crisis, many world governments collapse, others declare martial law, and eventually, this all leads to global nuclear war. (We still have time for this to play out, by the way.)

All of this is caused by a lack of oil. Whether that’s realistic or not, what is firmly unrealistic is how everyone in every Mad Max is so wasteful with oil, even spraying it around in celebration, despite it being the world’s most precious commodity. Gasoline, now called Guzzolene, is poured on people’s heads, spit into engines, and burned to make a guitar into a guitar-flamethrower. Then again, human stupidity is not that unrealistic.

1 Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer imagines a 2014 where the entire globe is subject to a new ice age, with only a few surviving humans, most subjected to runaway elitism and cruelty. Aside from the 2014 part, that sounds pretty plausible. What makes the Snowpiercer future so unlikely is that its apocalypse arose from governments caring far too much about climate change.

The ice age in Snowpiercer was caused by the world’s governments uniting against the threat of global climate change, putting their best scientists to the task of fixing it, and creating a large-scale stratospheric aerosol spray to dim the sun’s rays. All by 2014. The cricket-eating makes sense. The world-length train tracks are fine. But the idea that humanity would unite for the common good and try their best at fixing the planet by 2014 is the most implausible thing on this list.

On December 23, 2016 actress Debbie Reynolds had just set up a Christmas table as she was expecting her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who at that point was on a plane on her way to Reynolds’ home. 60-year-old Carrie suffered a medical emergency on the plane and stopped breathing. A passenger performed CPR on the beloved Star Wars actress and she was rushed to hospital upon landing. She died four days later. 84-year-old Debbie was devastated after the loss of her daughter and died one day after Fisher.

On December 20, 2016, Reynolds had told a close friend that she’d had a ‘vision’ and that something bad was going to happen to her daughter. In the vision she saw a dark cloud which moved over and settled on the side of the bed her daughter usually sat on when she visited. She also told her caretaker that “Carrie is not coming home.”

Several other celebrities have had premonitions of their own deaths or of the death of a celebrity friend. On this list are just a few of the eerie predictions that preceded shocking deaths.

10 Wealthy Heirs Whose Lucky Lives Disintegrated Into Tragedy

10 “I will never live long enough for you to write a story about me.”

Hank Williams is widely considered to be one of the first country music superstars. He conquered the music world with hit songs including “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “Hey, Good Lookin’”, and “I Saw The Light.”

Williams’ personal life was one of strife however. He suffered from a spinal condition, spina bifida, and started abusing drugs and alcohol as an adult to try and relieve his constant back pain.
During a series of interviews with H.B. Teeter, Williams once said “I will never live long enough for you to write a story about me.” These chilling words rang true when the singer was found dead in the back of his Cadillac on 2 January 1953, while he was being driven to a scheduled performance in Canton, Ohio. He was 29 years old.

9 “I’m gonna go see Jesus.”

Whitney Houston became one of the first African American models to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine, when she was a teenager. At age 19, she was discovered by Clive Davis after which her career as a pop, R&B and soul music icon skyrocketed. Houston became the only artist to have seven consecutive number one hits on the US Billboard chart and soon made her acting debut in the film, The Bodyguard.

Unfortunately the bright shine of her stardom was eventually overshadowed by her excessive drug use and a tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown. At the start of 2012, Houston returned to her gospel roots, singing hymns and having deep conversations about Jesus, Christianity and the afterlife. She sang “Yes Jesus Loves Me” at a Hollywood nightclub on February 9, 2012, and told a friend afterwards, “I’m gonna go see Jesus… I want to see Jesus.” Two days later, on the morning of the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony, Houston quoted Matthew 3:13 to 17 which speaks of the baptism of Jesus.

While a Grammy party was being held by Clive Davis that night, Houston was found dead in a bathtub in her Beverly Hilton hotel room. Her death was confirmed to have been an accidental drowning with contributing factors being heart disease and cocaine use.

8 “Kobe is going to end up dying in a helicopter crash.”

Kobe Bryant was a phenomenal basketball player and became one of the best NBA players of all time. He was also adept at creating and writing animated films and fantasy books and dearly loved his family. In 2016, following his retirement, Bryant was honored with his own day, namely “Kobe Bryant Day” or “Mamba Day” to commemorate his impact on the game of basketball.

On January 26, 2020 the unthinkable happened. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people died after the helicopter they were flying in crashed in Calabasas, California. They had been on their way to watch a basketball game at the Mamba Sports Academy.

In the days after Bryant and his daughter’s death, several rumors started making the rounds including that Bryant’s death had been predicted by an animated kids’ show. The episode of “Legends of Chamberlain Heights” was quickly pulled from the Comedy Central website.

Also making the rounds was a tweet by Twitter user @dotNoso who posted a single line on the popular social media platform on November 13, 2012: “Kobe is going to end up dying in a helicopter crash.”

7 “Do you think they’ll do that to me?”

As soon as it was announced on August 31, 1997 that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died after a car crash in Paris, the rumors and conspiracies began to fly. There was talk of the royal family planning the crash because they didn’t approve of Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. Other rumors said that Diana had been pregnant with his baby and that the royal family would never have allowed her to marry Fayed or have the baby. Some still believe Diana’s bodyguard was in on the plan to cause the car crash, while others are convinced that the paparazzi created an unsafe scenario which would lead to the accident.

However, it does seem that Diana herself feared for her own life in one way or another. After her friend Gianni Versace’s murder in 1997, she became introspective and once asked Fayed’s bodyguard, “Do you think they’ll do that to me?” It has also been claimed by Diana’s fashion designer friend, Roberto Devorik, that she had feared she would be murdered and that the murder would be covered up, saying: “They will do it when I am in a small plane, in a car when I am driving, or in a helicopter.”

6 He’s going to join the 27 Club.

Tim Bergling, known as Avicii, was a hugely popular Swedish DJ. He was 16 when he began using electronic music forums to create a hype around his remixes and this saw him getting his first record deal. Between 2011 and 2015 he released many successful singles including “Wake Me Up”, “Hey Brother”, The Nights”, and “Waiting for Love.”

By 2016 Bergling suffered from burn out after excessive drinking and a hectic touring schedule left its mark on him. He retired from touring that year, citing stress and it was also revealed that he was struggling with poor mental health. Fellow DJ Laidback Luke, who was friends with Bergling, said in 2015 that he had had a vision of the star joining the group of famous musicians who all died at the age of 27. It was around the same time that Bergling had made the decision to stop touring.

Luke’s vision was only off by a few months. Tim Bergling committed suicide on April 20, 2018 at the age of 28.

5 “Was this some kind of omen?”

Having risen to fame as a member of the band Wham! and later embarking on a successful solo career, George Michael was eventually named one of the Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time. He was also one of the best-selling singers of all time, winning a host of music awards. Michael came out in 1998 and before his personal life and legal issues made headlines during the early 2000s, he was an active campaigner for LGBT rights. He also performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 will all the proceeds going to AIDS research.

Michael struggled with drug abuse and was addicted to sleeping pills. At one point it was reported that he battled a crack cocaine and heroin addiction and smoked around 25 spliffs every day. George Michael died in bed on December 25, 2016 and most people, including family members, suspected that drugs were to blame. The coroner eventually attributed his death to myocarditis and fatty liver disease.

Two days prior to Michael’s death record producer, Nile Rodgers, was on his way to the singer’s home to meet with him about a new album. He was about to turn into the road where Michael stayed when a funeral procession cut him off. He took a photo of the scene and when Michael died, he remembered this and believed it to have been an omen. After watching a documentary on Michael’s life the following year, he posted the image on Twitter alongside a message: “This (is) a photo I snapped whilst waiting to turn on the street to go to @GeorgeMichael house on Dec 23 2016. Was this some kind of omen? #tears.”

4 “I don’t want to die.”

Amy Winehouse will forever be known for great songs like “Back to Black”, “Rehab”, and “Valerie”. In 2008 she won five Grammy awards and her album Back to Black became one of the best-selling albums in UK history. Before the success of this album, she went through a period of heavy drinking, excessive drug use and by 2007 she was hospitalized for an overdose of a variety of drugs. It was revealed that the singer suffered from depression and eating disorders and that she was engaging in self-harm. She also had run-ins with the law because of violent behaviour.

Winehouse’s drug habit caused several other health problems, including an irregular heartbeat. As her drug addiction worsened, Winehouse told friends and family that she knew she would join the 27 Club. On July 22, 2011 Winehouse’s GP visited her at home and she admitted to the doctor that she had started drinking again after a period of abstinence. She also told Dr. Christina Romete, “I don’t want to die.”

The following day, Amy Winehouse was found dead at her home in Camden, north London. She was 27 years old.

3 I’m going to die young, just like my dad.

During the early nineties, celebrities weren’t much different from today’s famous people. They partied whenever they got the chance and they partied hard. It was during these years that a young Brad Pitt and Brandon Lee would often be at the same party and indulge in strange conversations after having one too many.

One morning, Pitt and Lee ended up at Lee’s house after a night of partying and Lee said something to Pitt that would continue to haunt the famous actor years later. Lee told Pitt that he believed he would die young, just like his famous father Bruce Lee had. Pitt didn’t think much of it at the time. Life went on and Brandon Lee got the lead role in The Crow the following year. During filming a defective blank went off, killing Lee instantly. He was 28 years old, 4 years younger than Bruce Lee who died at the age of 32 in 1973.

2 “It is dark in my favorite dream.”

In July 2001, 22-year-old R&B singer Aaliyah had a recurring dream about being scared, someone following her and then lifting off from the ground, swimming in the air and feeling weightless. She told a German newspaper about the dream in an interview a month before she was due to fly to the Bahamas to shoot a music video.

After a great four days in the Bahamas in August 2001, Aaliyah boarded a twin-engine Cessna plane along with a number of other colleagues. The plane was hardly airborne when it crashed near the runway and caught fire. Aaliyah and eight others died. It was revealed afterwards that the plane had been overloaded and that the pilot, who wasn’t certified to fly the aircraft, had traces of alcohol and cocaine in his blood.

Aaliyah’s dream was later thought to have been a foreshadowing of the tragedy and her own fate, especially since it was known that she had a fear of small planes. In the years after her untimely death, Aaliyah’s music was posthumously released and led to 32 million album sales worldwide.

1 “If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”

James Dean was a handsome young actor who starred in the famous film, Rebel Without a Cause, in 1955. His first television appearance came in the form of a Pepsi Cola commercial which inspired him to quit college and become a full-time actor. He went on to play several roles in television shows before landing his infamous role as Jim Stark. In 1954, Dean became interested in motorsport and competed in his first professional event just before filming commenced on Rebel Without a Cause.

After finishing the filming of his scenes for another movie, Giant, Dean took up racing again after being barred by Warner Brothers from doing so during filming. He traded in his Speedster for a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and entered the Salinas Road Race event that was due to take place on 1 and 2 October, 1955. While driving the Porsche to Salinas, Dean was involved in an accident with another car. He sustained fatal injuries including a broken neck and was pronounced dead on arrival after being taken to a nearby hospital.

James Dean and actor, Alec Guinness, had a chance encounter at a Los Angeles restaurant in September 1955. Dean showed Guinness his Porsche Spyder and Guinness immediately had a terrible feeling. He told Dean: “Please, never get in it. It is now ten o’clock, Friday the 23rd of September, 1955. If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”

Dean died in the car crash a week later on September 30, 1955.

10 Absurd Ads That Tried To Cash In On Tragedy

Good morning 2020! A lot can change in ten years. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the start of a new race to Mars, the commercial release of self-driving cars, and the first photograph of a black hole. And over the next ten years, the changes are going to be even more incredible.

See Also: 10 Ancient Predictions That Came True

These predictions aren’t messages sent to us from angels or ideas we’ve pulled out of a hat. They’re a combination of scientific and economic forecasts from some of the world’s leading experts and real projects, already in progress by actual inventors.

They’re not just fantasies — they’re events that very likely will happen over the next ten years; an early catalog of what will be the ground-breaking moments of our future’s history.

102020: Mind-Reading Machines Enter Production

Machines that can read your mind might sound like something from a distant, sci-fi fantasy, but if scientists meet their planned schedule, we should start seeing the first telepathic machines announced within the next 12 months.

That’s the deadline a group of Japanese scientists set back in 2010 when they first announced their plan to release machines that can read your mind and turn your thoughts into text messages.

Since then, scientists have already made some incredible breakthroughs. A team of Japanese scientists has already developed technology that can decode brain activity to create rough images from people’s thoughts. Meanwhile, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have already created a machine that looks at brain signals and uses them to read the thoughts in your mind — and they claim it’s accurate 87% of the time.

It’ll probably be several years before mass-marketed telepathic products are on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart, but as the researchers working on this technology wrap up the first phase of their work next year, expect to hear about some incredible breakthroughs that, further down the road, will lead to inventions that will change our lives.

92021: Mass Production of Self-Driving Cars Begins

Self-driving cars have already hit the market, but they’re hardly ubiquitous. Today, owning a car that can drive you to work is usually a luxury reserved for the wealthy few — but all that’s going to change in 2021.

That’s the year the Chinese company Baidu plans to release a mass-produced fleet of self-driving vehicles to fill the streets of Beijing and Shanghai. And if China’s success with electric cars is any indication, we can count on seeing them adopted there a whole lot faster than they have been in the West.

Without all that pesky democracy and freedom in its way, China’s been able to make buying electric cars almost a necessity. In China’s largest cities, anyone buying a gas-powered car has to pay about $14,000 USD for a license plate, all but forcing citizens to buy electric — and, as a result, about 60% of global electric car sales are currently sold in China.

If Baidu gets the Chinese government’s support, we can expect their fleet of self-driving cars to start seeing widespread adoption — and with it, we’ll start seeing the first steps toward driverless cities in 2021.

8 2022: Solar-Powered Commercial Airlines Become Available

In 2022, Eviation Aircraft plans on releasing the world’s first fully-electric commercial airliner.

This one isn’t even a sci-fi idea anymore. Eviation’s aircraft has already been unveiled to the world, and it’s not even the first of its kind. One team of pilots has already circled the world an electric plane. But in 2022, we’re going to start seeing zero-emissions, electric airplanes charged with solar panels become a real option for every flight we take.

Norway has already committed to using those electric-powered aircraft by 2023 and plans on having the world’s first airport that is fully self-sufficient on renewable energy sources by 2025.

The airplanes of the future might even be cheaper. Eviation Aircraft is expecting that their electric planes will only have to spend $8 for enough energy to travel 100 miles — compared to the $400 of fuel required for a gas-guzzling airplane to make the same trip.

7 2023: The Global Economy Crashes

We’re in the midst of the longest economic expansion in American history, but the good times can’t last forever. Sooner or later, there’s going to have to be another recession. And if the Global Business Policy Council is right, the hardest days are going to hit us in 2023.

They’ve predicted that we’re going to start seeing economic growth slow and that it’s not going to pick up again until after 2023. As that happens, our growing debt is going to become a bigger and bigger risk for the global economy, and we’ll start seeing nations with emerging markets defaulting on their debts.

This recession, though, isn’t just going to be a global slow-down — it’s going to be a shake-up. East Asia is expected to get through this one relatively unscathed, which could mean that we’re going to see India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and even China — whom they predict will survive the trade war — boom forward as the West lags.

6 2024: The First Manned Mission to Mars

2024 is going to be the year we put a man on Mars. It’s the year that Elon Musk’s Space X program plans on sending its first rockets to Mars, and there’s every reason to believe that even if he doesn’t pull it off, someone will.

It’s just a matter of distance. In 2024, the orbits of Earth and Mars will be aligned in a way that allows for the easiest possible interplanetary voyage, so you can be sure that anyone with their sights on Mars is going to take that opportunity.

But expect the first ship on Mars to be owned by a private company. The boldest mission NASA has announced for 2024 is a manned mission to the moon — meaning that we can expect corporations to beat the government to third planet by a long shot.

5 2025: Scientists Gain The Ability To Fix The Human Brain

In 2013, the US government announced the BRAIN Initiative: a plan to map out and understand the activity inside of the human brain by the year 2025.

When the project enters its final year, the scientists involved will be beyond analysis and will be putting the final touches on applications that use what they’ve learned about the human mind to use.

It’s expected that the research will allow us to scan a human brain and identify mental health issues like PTSD and depression, and — if things go well — they may even allow neuroscientists to fix them. Instead of talking to a therapist or loading yourself up on drugs, scientists may have a strong enough understanding of the neuroscience behind mental health to rewire your brain and fix your depression.

That’s an optimistic prediction — but realistically, scientists expect to be able to measure levels of PTSD and addiction by scanning the human brain by the year 2025. And that research could open up a whole new era of technology as we reach new levels of understanding of the machinery of the human mind.

42026: Doctors Learn To Reverse Aging In Human Hearts

Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. More than any other disease, it keeps our lifespans in check. No matter how much misfortune we avoid, we can’t escape our aging hearts — or, at least, we won’t be able to until 2026.

That’s when the Harvard Stem Cell Institute expects to make finish clinical tries on their research into reversing the aging of the human heart. They’ve identified a protein that, when injected into aging mice, can reduce the thickening of the walls of their hearts.

They’re planning on moving into human testing soon and, by 2026, should have completed clinical trials. If they’re successful, we may be able to heal one of the biggest barriers to human immortality.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil has long predicted that, by 2029, advances in medical technology will be able to add a year to our life expectancy every year. If this research works, he just might be proven right.

3 2027: Developing Nations Overtake the US Economy

The world is going through an incredible change right now. There are developing nations that are growing at such an alarming rate that it seems like just a matter of time before we see a major shift in the global balance of power.

According to Goldman Sachs, it’s inevitable — and it’s going to happen between 2026 and 2027.

By 2026, they predict that China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy. But the change in power won’t stop with China. The other major emerging markets are coming with them.

By 2027, they believe, the BRICs countries — Brazil, Russia, India, and China — will have a higher combined GDP than the G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

For the first time since the rise of Egypt, we’ll see the balance of global power start to shift away from the Western hemisphere — a change that could affect the destiny of the entire human race.

2 2028: Scientists Begin Resurrecting Extinct Species

Jurassic Park isn’t going to be science fiction forever. By 2028, scientists believe that they’ll have the ability to revive extinct species.

We’ll probably have to wait a bit longer than 2028 before we can bring back velociraptors and tyrannosaurus rexes, but advances in cloning and genetic engineering should allow us to bring back recently extinct animals like the dodo.

Scientists are already working on several different approaches to de-extinction. Some are trying to use the genetic material of extinct animals to make an exact clone, while others are using selective breeding or genetic tweaks to try to replicate them from their nearest living relatives.

At first, we’ll probably just see a few dodos and Tasmanian tigers in zoos, but down the road, this technology could lead to some even more incredible accomplishments. This’ll open the door to the rebirth of prehistoric creatures — and possibly even neanderthals and early humans.

1 2029: The Global Population Reaches A Crisis Point

By the end of 2029, the human population is expected to reach 8.5 billion people — and when that happens, we’re going to have a whole new set of problems.

The end of the ‘20s, some scientists believe, is going to mark a new change in human priorities. By then, we’re going to need 50% more food and energy than we do today and 30% more fresh water. And when our most essential resources become scarce, it’s going to bring humanity to crisis point.

Running out of food and water is going to become a very real problem — and in 2029, humanity’s going to start to realize just how big of a problem it is.

“There’s not going to be a complete collapse,” predicts UK Scientific Adviser John Beddington, “but things will start getting really worrying if we don’t tackle these problems.”

If they aren’t dealt with, the next new decade could lead to a new era of global conflicts, as nations begin to go to war over farmland and water. Unless something changes our course, the years 2030 to 2039 will be the dawn of an era of war.

Have you ever had the unshakeable feeling that something terrible was about to happen? Something that you couldn’t quite put your finger on, but you knew it would change your life or the lives of others forever. Have you ever dreamt of unimaginable tragedy or been blinded by a sudden vision of imminent terror?

Did your premonition come true?

Related: 10 Ancient Predictions That Came True

10 “You were right about that too.”

Suzan Saxman is a popular, if reluctant, psychic from Woodstock, New York. From a young age, she’s had terrifying visions of death and tragedy, and this only encouraged her to try and ignore her gift. However, she eventually embraced being a psychic and also wrote a book about her experiences.

She’s had several visions and premonitions upon meeting clients who want a reading. She mentions some of these in her book The Reluctant Psychic, including the unsettling meeting with a man in the middle of a divorce who didn’t believe that his wife would truly go through with it.

Suzan told him that what she saw was no court case, no split, no fighting, and that he would have sole custody of his daughter in seven years.

The following week, the man’s wife came to Suzan’s office, visibly upset. She told Suzan that her husband had relayed the psychic’s vision to her and that she had mocked her husband, saying that nothing would stop her from finalizing the divorce. A few days later, her husband and friend departed for a business trip on a small airplane. Unfortunately, the plane crashed, and they were both killed.

Seven years later, the woman again went to see Suzan. This time to tell her that her daughter had died of leukemia. She tearfully told Suzan, “You were right about that too. He has sole custody of her now.” ^[1]

9 A Sense of Foreboding

Seven-year-old Kathleen Middleton was watching as her mother, Annie, made breakfast one morning. Suddenly one of the eggs Annie was frying lifted itself out of the pan and levitated toward the ceiling. Kathleen thought it was hilarious, but her mother frowned and worried that it might be a bad omen. Annie consulted a fortune-teller who told her that the incident symbolized imminent death. Within a few weeks, one of Annie’s best friends was dead.

That was Kathleen’s first experience with something that couldn’t be explained off-hand. Soon, she realized that she always got a headache before an earthquake struck, and she started having visions of names and numbers.

On October 21, 1966, when Kathleen was 52, she woke up in the early hours of the morning choking and gasping for air. A horrible feeling of foreboding overpowered her, and it felt like her bedroom walls were closing in on her. She couldn’t fall asleep again and eventually got up, greeted the lodger that lived in her home at the time, and told him about the feeling she’d experienced earlier. At 8 am, they were drinking tea, and Kathleen was trying to block out the ever-increasing sense of doom.

Just one hour later, a massive heap of coal waste that had shifted after heavy rain rushed down a steep hillside, covering the Aberfan valley below and demolishing Pantglass Junior School.^[2]

A total of 144 people, including 116 children, died, leaving South Wales in mourning.

8 Losing Their Heads

During a salon dinner party in Paris in 1788, French author and occultist Jacques Cazotte predicted that King Louis XVI would meet his end during the revolution. He also exclaimed that many other aristocrats, some of whom attended the party that evening, would be beheaded, die of poisoning, or by suicide.

The French Revolution started in May 1789, and Cazotte’s predictions came true. One after the other, nobles were beheaded. Four years later, King Louis XVI also lost his head in front of a large crowd in Paris. Cazotte wasn’t in that crowd, however, as he’d been executed via guillotine the year before after being denounced as a royalist.^[3]

7 A Devastating Plague

Nicolaas Pieter Johannes Janse van Rensburg was born in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in 1864. It is said that he never read anything other than the Bible growing up and that throughout his life, he had over 700 visions. During the Boer War, he became a trusted companion of General Koos de la Rey, who believed van Rensburg to be a prophet of God.

Van Rensburg was commandeered during the war but was never armed and never fired a shot. He provided visions and prophecies, some of which were helpful in fleeing or outsmarting the enemy. He became known as Siener (Seer) Van Rensburg, and his visions continued throughout the war and afterward. His daughter kept a record of his visions, of which some are still being deciphered today.

At the beginning of 1918, Van Rensburg had a vision about a devastating “plague” that would leave no country, including South Africa, unscathed. In September that same year, the Spanish Flu hit South African shores, and 140,000 people died within seven weeks. Worldwide, an estimated 40 million people succumbed to the pandemic.^[4]

6 “I did it anyway.”

Mike Fridley had a very strong sense of foreboding whenever he thought about the upcoming trip he was to take with his friend Graham Wood in November 1999. It was the first time that he’d felt so strongly about not going through with something, but he didn’t adhere to the voice screaming at him in his head. Instead, he blocked it out and went on the trip anyway.

It was a bad decision that ended with the former military officer and his friend plunging into the Everglades in Wood’s small plane after the engine seized.

Fridley pulled Wood out of the plane and onto the wing to shield him from the gasoline pooling around them. Unfortunately, Wood had a broken back, and Fridley had a broken ankle and sternum. Despite the intense pain, Fridley waded through chest-high water for about 1,000 feet before reaching a fishing camp where he found some drinking water. He couldn’t make his way back to Wood, however, because of exacerbated pain.

The following day he heard helicopters flying overhead and managed to draw the attention of a pilot. Fridley was rescued, but when they arrived at the wreckage site, Wood was dead.

Fridley said afterward that he didn’t want to die out there and insisted he was no hero for trying to find help even though he had broken bones.^[5]

5 Right on the Number

In 1981, a clairvoyant contacted British Rail to warn depot employees that she’d been having a recurring vision of a fatal train crash. In her vision, one of their blue engines hauling oil tankers crashed with devastating consequences. She also saw that the train number was 47216.

Managers took the warning seriously, as they were aware that the clairvoyant had assisted police on several occasions. They applied to have the number of the particular train changed to 47299.

In December 1983, the 47299 train was hauling an oil train when it collided with a DMU at Wrawby Junction. One person died, and it was concluded that a combination of equipment failure and human error was to blame.^[6]

Afterward, the accident was referred to as an “amazing coincidence.”

4 A Feeling of Dread

On the afternoon of March 17, 1999, Carol Deemer felt a strange sensation settle over her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something awful had happened and said so to her husband when he arrived home later. She added that their 17-year-old daughter, Jennifer, wasn’t home yet and that she hadn’t received the usual phone call from her either.

As Carol’s husband, James, looked at his wife while she spoke, he had a fleeting thought about a car accident.

Soon after, Carol and James learned that Jennifer had been driving home from school when one of the passengers in her car threw a pizza box out of the window. The box stuck to the windshield, causing Jennifer to swerve into the path of oncoming traffic. Her vehicle collided head-on with another car. Jennifer died on impact, and her four passengers were injured. Two people in the other car also suffered injuries.^[7]

3 Saved from a Tragic Fate

In late August 2013, 11-year-old Marie Elias couldn’t stop thinking that something bad was going to happen if she fell asleep. It was a Saturday night, and Marie was determined to stay awake so that she could face whatever was coming.

At 1:30 in the morning, a fire broke out inside Marie’s house, which she shared with her parents and 17 other family members. As she was lying on her bed, fighting sleep, Marie noticed a burning smell coming from the wall closest to her. She immediately alerted her parents, and everyone inside the house escaped unharmed.

There were no smoke detectors in the home, and if Marie hadn’t had the premonition she did, things would likely have turned tragic very quickly.^[8]

2 “It’s an experience you can’t explain.”

In 1984, Viv Donovan had an unsettling dream while staying in a small apartment in her parent’s backyard. In her dream, she was sitting up in bed with her arms stretched out in front of her. There was no one on her left-hand side, but in front of her was her entire family. She told her parents about the dream and was astonished when her father said he had dreamed about looking at Viv sitting up in bed with the family surrounding her.

This freaked Viv and her parents out, but they soon forgot about it. However, a month later, Viv suffered a burst cyst on her ovary, which led to appendicitis. The doctors saved her life in the nick of time, as she would have been dead had she arrived at the hospital even 20 minutes later.
Exactly a month after the dream she’d had, Viv sat up in her hospital bed and welcomed her visitors. She stretched her arms out in front of her, and her whole family gathered around the bed, but not on the left-hand side. Before this, Viv had never even been in a hospital for treatment.

This wasn’t the first time that Viv had experienced precognition, however. When she was nine years old, she woke up at night and just knew that her father was in trouble. She looked out of the back door and saw her father having a severe asthma attack. She immediately got up and phoned for an ambulance, effectively saving her father’s life.^[9]

1 Thirteen Tears

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Scott was devoted to her religious faith and never shied away from living her Christian life at school. Unfortunately, this opened her up to ridicule and severe bullying. But she never let go of her belief and kept a diary in which she detailed some of her struggles and how she looked to God to help her overcome them.

Rachel was a student at Columbine High and was the first victim shot to death by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in 1999. In the aftermath of the shooting, rumors abounded that Scott had been killed because of her faith and that Klebold turned around after seeing she was still alive and asked, “Do you still believe in your God.” When she whispered, “You know I do,” he shot her in the head and walked away. This sequence of events has been both affirmed and disputed by several people.

Something that did take place, however, was that Rachel had drawn a picture in her diary shortly before the shooting. The sketch depicts a pair of eyes from which 13 tears trickle down to a rose, where they turn into drops of blood. Tragically, 13 people died that day at the hands of Harris and Klebold.

It is also claimed that a stranger named Frank Amedia contacted Rachel’s father a month after she died and told him that he had dreamed about Rachel’s eyes and tears streaming from them. The water flowed down to water something that he couldn’t make out in the dream. Rachel’s father had no idea what this could mean until he was given Rachel’s backpack after the authorities were done with it. Inside was two journals, with the last entry in the most recent diary being the drawing of the eyes and 13 tears.^[10]

Finally, 2021 is in the rear-view mirror. Most of us enter a new year hoping for bigger and better things. Worldwide, countries are hoping for an end to Covid-19 and a boost in the global economy.

Well, don’t get your hopes up.

According to several mediums and psychics, even long-dead ones, 2022 won’t be a year to look forward to—for basically anyone. Read on for some of the most disastrous and truly strange predictions made about the next 12 months.

Related: 10 Hilarious Historic Predictions Of Life In The 2000s

10 Royal Calamity

The British monarchy has had a tough couple of years with scandals popping up all over the place. Queen Elizabeth has had to put out fires left, right, and center—and then her husband died, leaving her to cope on her own.

While she probably sighed in relief at the prospect of a new year and new opportunities, things are seemingly not going to be much better in 2022. If fortune-teller, Jemima Packington, is to be believed, that is.

Packington has predicted vaguely that 2022 will bring even more scandals and “misery” to the royal family—after tossing a handful of asparagus in the air and interpreting how they landed. The “Mystic Veg” has previously predicted the Harry and Meghan drama and Boris Johnson becoming PM. So now, just one word—Andrew.

She also tosses the asparagus for sports-related predictions and has predicted that Croatia will win the FIFA World Cup this year and that Man Utd will take the Premier League title.^[1]

9 A Dire Year

Many believe that Nostradamus correctly predicted the Great Fire of London, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. The French physician, philosopher, and seer allegedly told his secretary, “Tomorrow at sunrise, I shall no longer be here” on July 1, 1566. He was found dead the following morning.

Before his death, however, Nostradamus wrote down several thousand prophesies. Some believe that a few were aimed at 2022. One prophecy says, “The sudden death of the first character / It will bring about a change and may place another character in the kingdom.” Many have speculated that this could allude to North Koran dictator Kim-Jong Un, especially considering the long-running rumors about his deteriorating health.

In the third quatrain of Nostradamus’s Centuria III, he wrote, “Towards middy extreme siccity / In the depths of Asia they will say earthquake.” This is said to forecast a massive earthquake in Japan sometime in 2022.

According to Nostradamus believers, he also predicted that the EU will fall and that the migration crisis will worsen in 2022. The following prophecy, “The Moon in the full of night over the high mountain / The new sage with a lone brain sees it: By his disciples invited to be immortal, Eyes to the south. Hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire,” is said to predict the rise of AI in the coming months of the new year. I guess all we can do is wait and see…^[2]

8 Life in 100 years

A century ago, English author W.L. George made several predictions about what the world would look like by the time it reached 2022. For example, he said that commercial flying would be commonplace a hundred years on from 1922 and that coal would not yet be exhausted. George also noted that many buildings that had been standing since before he was born would be preserved by 2022. Also, this year would see a large number of women occupy seats in Congress even if it is unlikely that they will have achieved equality with men.

The author also predicted that in 2022 trains would be traveling on glass plates and that anti-gravity screens would prevent planes from crashing to the ground.

Futurist R.F. Kellum made his own predictions, saying that cars would be common and that anyone who could afford to pay rent would be able to afford a car. He also claimed that suburbs would grow rapidly and extend as far as 100 miles from city centers.

Hugo Gernsback compiled a pamphlet of forecasts in 1965 in which he predicted that science would have perfected an injection by 2022 that would stop the growth of facial and leg hair—without affecting head hair. Finally, something useful!^[3]

7 Things Are Sort of Looking Up

Two days before New Year’s Eve, Peruvian shamans performed their traditional rituals just outside Lima. They also made several predictions for 2022, including that the coronavirus would be sticking around for a while yet—but in a milder form before “disappearing.” The shamans and a group of healers joined forces and made an offering to “Pachamama” (Mother Earth), requesting that the pandemic indeed ends in 2022.

One of the shamans predicted that 2022 would also bring more economic hardships around the world and to their own country. They mentioned the increasing tension between Russia and Ukraine and predicted that Russia would not be able to invade any territory in Ukraine.

Also getting into sports action, the shamans predicted that Peru would qualify for the Qatar World Cup.^[4]

6 I Hear Voices in My Head

Past life regression and soul therapist Nicolas Aujula has foreseen the Queen having a better year, despite several psychics predicting more scandal and drama for the royal family. However, Aujula has predicted a new virus emerging in 2022, which is not something anyone wants to hear at this point. He also foresaw the COVID pandemic, so here’s to crossing fingers (and toes if need be) that his new virus prediction doesn’t pan out.

Aujula said that his predictions have been told to him by a voice in his head. This voice apparently also said to him that an asteroid would head toward Earth sometime in 2022 but that the military would fire a missile at it and change its trajectory.

Furthermore, Aujula is concerned that evil cults will intensify their recruitment efforts and has said a public figure will get assassinated in the U.S. Among a horde of other predictions, Aujula has envisaged that a woman named “Jackie” will rise up quickly in the political arena and become world-famous.^[5]

5 Things Might Also Just Get Terrifying

Sometimes it’s not only people who offer a glimpse into the future, but inanimate objects also seem to have the ability to predict terrifying situations. The Old Moore’s Almanac has been published for nearly two and a half centuries and has “foreseen” the future since 1764.

For 2022 it has forecasted extreme weather events in Ireland, including an earthquake, landslide, and tsunami. The last time Ireland suffered significant tsunami damage was in 1755, following a massive earthquake in Portugal. In addition, the in-house psychic for the publication has included the prediction of a female Taoiseach in the next three years, with the start of the search for a suitable candidate happening this year.

In the 2021 publication was included the predictions that rapid Covid testing would assist in Ireland’s efforts to return to normalcy, extremely hot temperatures across Europe, and the much-publicized breakup of Alex Rodriquez and Jennifer Lopez.^[7]

4 Some Good News?

We all know 2021 was definitely not a happy-go-lucky kind of year. The heavy cloud of Covid-19 seemed to gain weight as the months dragged by. But now, Western astrologers have announced some good news in the form of an energetic shift in 2022 after Jupiter moved into the sign of Pisces in the final days of 2021.

According to Kirah Tabourn, an astrology educator, Jupiter is associated with healing and abundance. Its move into Pisces allows the planet to spread love and abundance on a global scale. Jupiter is set to move out of Pisces in May this year, but the optimistic effects of the initial move won’t be lost. Tabourn also believes that 2022 will see a rise in cults and spiritualism.^[7]

3 Random Predictions

Of course, predictions are about a lot more than just the royal family and natural disasters. Psychic Sonja Dover has predicted that Alec Baldwin, who was involved in a fatal accident on a movie set in 2021, will retire from acting in 2022. Also, the Netherlands will not be running to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Instead, it will be someone from either Croatia, Luxembourg, or Italy.

Skip and Sha’ron Leingang, a married couple that does combined psychic readings, have predicted that American politics will “explode” this October but that things will be even more chaotic in France. Skip says that the stock market will experience very anxious moments, but an upswing is not far behind.^[8]

2 Nova KIC 9832227

KIC 9832227 is a dull nova in the Cygnus constellation. According to astronomers, this nova will light up the night sky in the coming months. An Orthodox Jewish Rabbi believes this will herald the coming of the messiah.

It’s not the first time that an astrological event is believed to indicate the end of the world as we know it. In 2012, some believed that the end of the Mayan calendar had been reached and that Bolon Yokte K’Uh (one of the gods of the underworld) would be instrumental in ending the world. When this didn’t happen, U.S. evangelicals turned their eyes to the series of blood moons in 2015, which were predicted to initiate Armageddon. Whew! Glad we made it through that one!^[9]

1 Nope, Nope, Nope

Baba Vanga was a blind Bulgarian mystic and dubbed the “Nostradamus of the Balkans.” Despite having died 24 years ago, her predictions are still making headlines today. For 2022, she has apparently foreseen a string of misfortunes, including another pandemic that will arise from under the ice in Siberia due to climate change. This pandemic will spread fast and kill millions. Creepily, in August 2021, scientists discovered 15,000-year-old viruses still surviving inside glaciers.

A locust invasion from Africa will destroy cereal crops and lead to widespread famine, which in turn will cause a war to break out.

If that isn’t enough to make you run screaming for the hills, she also predicted that several cities worldwide will be hit by water shortages.

Lastly, Vanga predicted that 2022 would be the year during which humans contacted alien lifeforms. These aliens will arrive in asteroids, attack Earth, and take people hostage. Oh, goody!

It is believed that Baba Vanga lost her eyesight after being sucked into a tornado at the age of twelve. Shortly after this incident, she received her “second sight.” Among her predictions that came true were the 9/11 attacks, the rise of ISIS, and Brexit.^[10]

So, dear readers, take of this what you will. But I, for one, choose to focus on only the good for 2022!

Congratulations! You have already survived several doomsday predictions. If you haven’t, it’s only a matter of time before you get to hear the end-of-times calls.

The concept of the apocalypse is not new. If anything, apocalyptical calls have played a central role in several religious and scientific predictions for centuries. But, what is even more interesting about apocalyptical events is that no one predicts that the world will end calmly and safely, with humanity deep in slumber. Most talk about chaos, floods, fire, and nothing short of mayhem.

If you’re wondering just how weird they can get, here are ten of the creepiest apocalyptic predictions.

Related: 10 Ways The World Could End Today

10 The Mayan Apocalypse

The first known Mayan civilization dates back to 2000 BC and covers what is now Guatemala, Mexico, parts of Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador. They built sophisticated mathematical systems, pyramids, temples, astronomical maps, and calendars during their civilization’s peak. One of the notable pieces of history regarding the Mayans is their “long-count” calendar that uses a 394-year cycle.

New age historians and authors marked December 21, 2012, as the date of cosmic peace and understanding according to the Mayan calendar. The Mayans also foresaw the wiping out of humanity by reversing the earth’s magnetic field. Many people misinterpreted this to mean the world’s end, marking the day as Armageddon. The Armageddon idea led to the publishing of hundreds of books and the creation of thousands of websites, preaching the end of the world in December 2012.

Some people supporting the Mayan apocalyptic prediction painted the picture of the world ending with earth’s collision with another planet called Nibiru. Others said solar flares would shift the earth’s axis and cause a flood to wipe out humanity—pretty creepy scenarios. There was mass confusion and hysteria, with many people rushing to prepare for the world’s end by building arks and refuge centers and buying and selling survival kits.

9 Isaac Newton’s Doomsday

Many people are familiar with Isaac Newton’s extensive contributions to mathematics and science but not his doomsday prediction. It’s probably because it’s hard to tie an event like doomsday, a tale of imminent failure, to a man with several recorded successes.

But, even with his interest in science, Isaac Newton also studied theology and religion. He studied biblical scholarship extensively and thought that the Bible’s prophecies were symbolic and required interpretation by a skilled scholar like himself.

Newton’s doomsday predictions came to light in 2003 when media outlets claimed to possess one of Newton’s early writings predicting the world would end in 2060. While others believe that Newton’s writing on the apocalypse was pure speculation and not an actual prediction, the rumor persists.

People against Newton’s doomsday prediction insist that he was an atheist despite his interest and study of theology. He did not believe in Christ or the worship of a divine being. For this reason, he couldn’t have predicted an apocalypse based on his theological writings.

Much like other apocalyptical predictions, it’s hard to believe that the world will end in 2060. We’ll just have to wait and see.

8 True Way Doomsday Prediction

The “True Way” or “Chen Tao” was a cult movement created by Taiwanese leader Hon Ming Chen. The religious cultivation group mixed aspects of Taiwanese religion, Buddhism, Christianity, and UFO conspiracy theories with their prophecies.

Hon Ming Chen, who was previously an atheist until joining the cult, predicted that on March 31, 1998, at exactly 12:01 am, people across North America would see God on their TVs. It didn’t matter if the person had cable service or not.

It’s no surprise that the prediction failed, leading Hon Ming Chen’s revisal of the apocalypse date to another one the following year. He predicted the end of the world in massive floods and devil spirits. He also asked his followers to buy their salvation by paying for spaceships to save them from extinction. The second prediction also failed, which led to the group’s ultimate decline.

7 Planet Clarion

This doomsday prediction dates back to 1954 when a Chicago housewife, Dorothy Martin, claimed to receive communication of an impending alien attack from Planet Clarion. She claimed that the aliens would cause a massive flood that would swallow the earth. Next, newspapers would run headlines warning about “A Day of Disaster.”

Despite being unfounded, her prophecies amassed her followers, who went by “Seekers.” In preparation for the D-day, seekers quit their jobs, sold their belongings, and started gathering at Dorothy’s home to sing carols. Christmas Eve of 1955, the day marked for the end of the world, went on uneventfully, to the disappointment of the seekers.

Later in the night, when the aliens and flying saucers that were supposed to save them failed to show up, Dorothy claimed to receive another message from Planet Clarion saying that God was impressed with the Seekers’ faith and instead decided to postpone the apocalypse. Nice save, Dorothy!

6 The Coming of Jesus – William Miller

Most of us are familiar with the religious roots of many apocalyptic predictions. The book of Revelations covers the end of the world extensively. You’ll be happy to learn that religious leaders have predicted and anticipated the world’s end for centuries. A great example is William Miller, a preacher who predicted that the second coming of Jesus would happen in 1843.

Miller had succeeded in attracting a following of at least 100,000 people. Which by that time’s standards was a significant number. He predicted the opening up of clouds and cleansing of the world while referencing scriptures and asking his followers to atone. The 1843 prediction did not materialize, forcing Miller to recalculate and predict another date for Jesus’ coming the following year.

That, too, did not pass, as we are still here. The event is dubbed “The Great Disappointment.”

5 Prophet Hen of Leeds

In most cases, people headline apocalyptic events. But, the entire event becomes even creepier when an apocalyptic prophecy comes from a hen. This was the scene in Leeds in 1806 when a hen started laying eggs with the inscription “Christ is coming.” This sparked a religious frenzy in Leeds, with many people visiting the hen to see the eggs and repent in preparation for the coming of Jesus.

People later discovered that the hen was not laying prophetic eggs. But instead, the hen’s owner, Mary Bateman, was inscribing the eggs with ink and reinserting them in the hen for it to lay them again. The act was uncovered by a “Believer” who had come to visit the hen and see the “prophetic egg.”

4 Halley’s Comet

If you’re one of the firm believers of the existence of some form of life on other planets, then it’s good that you weren’t born when the apocalyptic prophecy of Halley’s Comet happened. We know that Halley’s Comet is a ball of dust visible every 76 years based on our current scientific knowledge.

But that’s not what people knew, or at least believed, back in the day. When astronomers announced that the comet was scheduled to pass in 1910, it led to fear and confusion in a surprising number of people. Claims that the comet’s tail contained poisonous cyanogen gas led to widespread doomsday predictions. The media also contributed to the widespread panic by publishing alarming headlines about a doomsday caused by a comet’s poisonous tail.

People stopped working, opting to seek refuge in their homes. As the doomsday approached, people covered their windows, airways, and keyholes with towels and papers to prevent the poisonous gas from getting into their homes. The “unbelievers” who didn’t fall for the apocalyptic predictions watched as the night passed silently, with others holding “Comet Parties” on their rooftops to commemorate the night.

3 Shoko Asahara Doomsday Predictions

The only thing better than waiting for the apocalypse is to create the apocalypse yourself. That’s what Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, did in 1995. Shoko Asahara was a Japanese doomsday prophet who became a cultic leader after his arrest for selling fake Chinese cures.

Asahara started amassing a following after establishing a yoga studio in 1984, claiming he could levitate and had reached enlightenment. In 1987, he created the Aum Shinrikyo religion, naming it after a Japanese word that means “Supreme Truth.” With an estimated following of 10,000 people in Japan and 40,000 in Russia, Asahara’s religion even had some candidates running for Japanese legislative elections in 1990.

As his popularity grew, so did his superiority and god complex. Asahara encouraged his followers to drink blood and bathwater to save them from the apocalypse. Asahara predicted that the apocalypse would happen between 1997 and 2000 through gas poisoning. Some members of Aum Shinrikyo decided to take matters into their own hands and, quite literally, create the apocalypse.

On March 20, 1995, members boarded five trains and released toxic sarin gas, killing 12 people and injuring at least 5,500 others. Asahara was later arrested by Japanese authorities and sentenced to death in February 2004.

2 Heaven’s Gate Doomsday Prediction

Marshall Applewhite pursued a career in education but later resigned from his position after his father’s death. His father’s demise led to Applewhite’s spell of severe depression. After a couple of years, Applewhite met Bonnie Nettles, a nurse who introduced him to mysticism. Together they formed the religious sect called Heaven’s Gate after believing they were divine messengers tasked to deliver a doomsday message to the people.

After his arrest, Applewhite’s first chance to preach his “gospel” was in jail. He was arrested for failing to return a rental car. After spending six months in prison, he had convinced a small group of people to become followers. After his release, Applewhite and Nettles traveled to Oregon and California, where they convinced another group of people to join them.

Upon acquiring a following, Applewhite started preaching about aliens that will ascend through spaceships and experience body transformation. His doomsday theories were primarily based on New Age movements and popular culture.

Applewhite’s apocalyptic predictions gained more publicity in the ’90s after the group learned of the passing of Comet Hale-Bopp. He changed his preaching to mean that the comet was the long-awaited vessel that would transport their souls. Applewhite and his followers prepared to board this spaceship by planning a mass suicide for their transformation journey.

On March 26, 1997, Applewhite’s followers killed themselves using vodka cocktails, barbiturates, and suffocation with plastic bags. Authorities found 39 bodies of the Heaven’s Gate members draped with clothes on their heads. This mass suicide is a notable reference to the consequences of religious extremism and another example of a failed apocalyptical prediction.

1 The Sun Turns into a Red Giant

You might think that humans will accept defeat and desist from making doomsday predictions because there isn’t any successful apocalyptic prediction. However, the fascination with end-of-day predictions seems embedded in our DNA.

The preceding prediction is that six billion years from now, the sun will turn into a red giant after converting all its hydrogen to helium. This conversion will cause the sun to shine 3,000 times brighter and expand to 20 times the current size of the earth. The sun’s increased radiation will eventually erode planets like Saturn and Jupiter. If Earth remains in its orbit, it won’t be able to withstand the sun’s radiation.

Some scientists predict that it will reduce to a white dwarf after the sun’s expansion. Others say that the sun will continually drift from Earth, ending life as we know it. Based on this prediction’s scientific theories, the apocalypse feels like the astronomical biblical doomsday that fills you with fear.

Fortunately, we can neither classify this apocalypse as another failed doomsday prediction nor wait to prove it because none of us will be alive anyway.

It’s not uncommon for people to have a feeling that “something bad is going to happen.” These feelings often precede an announcement of the intention to divorce or a diagnosis of illness. Incidents of this nature are often brushed off because people “know their spouses well enough to realize something is wrong” or they “know their bodies well enough to feel when something has invaded their immune system.”

Sometimes, however, predictions and premonitions precede something so terrifying that it cannot be comprehended by the person seeing the vision or dreaming of their inevitable future. This list reveals ten of these feelings that led to terrifying realities.

Related: 10 Unsettling Premonitions That Came True

10 Shadows of Fear

Evelina Onida had lived in Illinois for many years when Typhoon Haiyan struck her home city of Tacloban in the Philippines in November 2013. Telephone and internet services were both down, and Evelina didn’t immediately know the extent of the tragedy and how it affected her family. However, she had a premonition in the days leading up to the disaster.

She was at a party with friends when she was asked to retrieve something from the cellar. Inside the cellar, she felt uneasy. Then shadows started swirling around her, and she fled. When news of the approaching typhoon broke, she couldn’t shake the terrible feeling that her family would not get through it unscathed.

And she was right. She eventually learned that her father, Salvador Onida, had drowned and that the rest of her family lost everything in the disaster.^[1]

9 Passing By

In May 1982, Carol Kingston and her husband, John, were woken up by the incessant ringing of their doorbell at one o’clock in the morning. John rushed to the front door only to find their porch empty. Carol had a fleeting thought that became stronger the more she pondered it. She was suddenly sure it was her brother Steve who was in the SAS and based not far from her home.

The bell rang again, and John went to the door again, but nothing. It rang a few more times, but both decided to ignore it. At ten the next morning, Carol’s father phoned with sad news. Steve had been killed in a helicopter crash hours earlier.

Carol’s eight-year-old son had a dream about Steve that night. He told his mother that he saw Uncle Steve rise up out of a body of water, his arms stretched to the heavens, saying, “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay now.”

The family later learned that the helicopter crashed over the South Atlantic Ocean and that Steve had subsequently drowned.^[2]

8 “I’ll never know if I could have prevented it.”

When Sue Klebold gave birth to her son Dylan, a powerful sense of impending doom enveloped her. Her thoughts took on a life of their own, and one, in particular, wouldn’t let go: “This child will bring me a terrible sorrow.” Soon after, Dylan became ill and needed surgery. Sue reflected on the awful moment she’d experienced after his birth and wondered if it was some type of intuition at play trying to tell her that her son was ill.

Years passed before her premonition came to terrifying fruition. Seventeen-year-old Dylan woke up early on the morning of April 20, 1999, and bounded heavily down the stairs without turning on any lights inside the house. Sue heard him and called out for him, but he simply shouted “Bye” and left the house. Sue was immediately concerned because he sounded “off,” and she implored her husband to speak to Dylan after school.

But he would never get the chance. Dylan Klebold and his friend Eric Harris murdered 13 people and wounded 24 others inside their high school that day—Columbine High School in Colorado. They both committed suicide afterward.

Five years later, it would emerge that the two teenage shooters weren’t trying to fight back against bullies as many believed to be the case. In reality, they wanted to be known as the two people who inflicted the “most deaths in U.S. history.” And they came close to their ideal. If their planned bombing had gone smoothly, more than 600 people would have died in a single explosion. And even more bombs would have gone off in their cars, ripping through gathered crowds, rescue workers, and reporters, if they had wired the explosives properly.^[3]

7 Voice in Her Head

On December 17, 1980, Etta Smith was going about her workday at an aerospace company in California when she heard a disturbing story on the news. A thirty-one-year-old nurse by the name of Melanie Uribe had been missing for days, and police were no closer to finding her.

Suddenly, Etta heard a voice talking to her. She looked around but then realized the voice was inside her head. The voice said: “She’s not in a house.” Shaken up, Etta began to see a picture in her mind. She saw a dirt path, a canyon, a curved road, and something white peeking through some shrubbery.

Etta couldn’t just let it go and decided to go to the police and report her experience. She told police she believed Lopez Canyon was what she’d seen in her vision and that Melanie Uribe would be found there. The police officer she spoke to was accommodating enough, but Etta worried he wouldn’t take her seriously. She enlisted the help of her daughter, Tina, and together they drove to Lopez Canyon in Los Angeles County.

As soon as she stepped out of the car, Etta experienced an intense feeling of fear and dread. She and her daughter drove a little further, and then Tina spotted something in the brush. It was a body wearing white nurse’s shoes. Etta immediately contacted the police, who arrived shortly afterward and removed the body. It was confirmed via autopsy later that the body was indeed that of Melanie Uribe and that the nurse had been raped and murdered.

As expected, Etta became a suspect and was locked up for several days while police investigated the case. However, it wasn’t long before three young men were arrested for the crime, and Etta was released without being charged. The three killers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.^[4]

6 “I feel like something’s gonna happen.”

On the morning of September 20, 2009, 21-year-old hip-hop producer Kevin Robert Harris II hugged his mother and held on to her. His mother, Katheryn, recalled that she asked him whether something was wrong, to which he replied, “Everything’s just happening so fast. I feel like something’s gonna happen.”

Katheryn told him not to think like that. Her musician son was on the road to immense success, with Ice Cube just having bought one of his tracks and rumors flying that both Rihanna and Britney Spears wanted to work with him. Things were definitely looking up.

But that evening, Kevin was sitting inside his car outside a music studio in Inglewood, California, when a car filled with people drove up beside him. He opened his window, probably because he knew some of them. Then, shots rang out, breaking the silence. Kevin was shot at close range, shell casings littering the inside of his car. He was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.

His murder remains unsolved.^[5]

5 Impending Doom

Debbie Turnbull was overjoyed after giving birth to her son, Christopher. She was told she would never fall pregnant and believed that Chris was her “miracle baby.” Soon, however, her joy was replaced by an ever-increasing sense of impending doom and an unshakeable feeling that her son would die young.

As the years passed, Chris survived two near-drownings, and Debbie began to believe that her fear was irrational. Chris was a strong swimmer and loved the water. But then tragedy struck when Chris was 15 years old. The teenager went swimming at Capel Curig near his family’s home in Wales and was sucked down 9 meters (30 feet) into a cold whirlpool under a waterfall. He drowned after suffering cold water shock and a minor heart attack.

Debbie had dropped him off that morning, not knowing that his emphatic “I love you, Mum” would be the last words her son would ever say to her.^[6]

4 An Inescapable Certainty

Susan Palmer didn’t believe in clairvoyance and wanted nothing to do with fortune tellers and the like. So when a psychic predicted that Susan’s husband would die when their son turned 13, she brushed it off as nonsense. Susan didn’t even have a son at the time. Eventually, she gave birth to a boy whom she named Matthew.

Many times, Susan and her husband would joke about the prediction made by the psychic. But mirth turned to tragedy when Susan’s husband died three weeks after Matthew turned 13. Susan was left emotionally incapacitated and couldn’t reconcile the psychic’s prediction with the loss of her husband. About a year later, Susan started reflecting on the premonition. She still couldn’t produce a plausible answer for what had taken place but reflected that her reaction was one of awe and discomfort.^[7]

3 Sometimes, Nightmares Come True

A young woman named Amanda from Washington State was having a nightmare, tossing and turning next to her husband. In the nightmare, she was standing next to her husband in their baby’s room, where the chandelier that hung above the crib now lay shattered inside it. Below the pieces of the chandelier was the body of her child, crushed to death. Outside, a storm raged furiously. Her eyes caught the time on the clock: 4:35 am.

Amanda awoke with a start. A chill ran down her spine as she got out of bed and ran to her baby’s room. Her child was sleeping peacefully. She looked outside, and there was no sign of a storm. But she remained shaken, so she picked up her baby and took him back to her room.

Both Amanda and her husband were woken up by a loud crash hours later. Rushing to the baby’s bedroom, they found the chandelier inside the crib. As they stood together in shock, they became aware of a storm raging outside.

Amanda looked at the digital clock. The time was 4:35 am.^[8]

2 “I’m very fearful.”

School shootings are a terrifying reality for Americans. Teachers giving up their lives to try and save their students and the brutal slaying of innocent children continue to headline newsreels.

Even as long ago as 1992, teachers knew that simply going to work every day didn’t mean they would return home safely. Robert Brens felt this fear very strongly. He told a fellow teacher, “I’m very fearful that one day one of these students might harm me or even kill me.” He went on to tell Robert Ledford, “And if someday this were ever to happen to me, please make sure that the death penalty is put on this person.”

Somehow Brens knew his fate. On May 1, 1992, former Lindhurst High School student Eric Houston arrived at the school armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a sawed-off .22 caliber rifle. He held a grudge against Robert Brens for failing his class; Brens was his first target. Houston fatally shot the teacher at close range. He then went on to shoot and kill three students at the California high school. Ten more people were injured during the shooting.

Twenty-year-old Eric Houston was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders. He is currently on death row.^[9]

1 Written Account of Premonition

Private Jake Kovco had been on a tour of duty in Iraq for 14 days when he had a disturbing dream. The dream bothered him so much that he wrote it down in his journal: “I dreamt I was sitting in our room (here) by myself. And for some unknown reason, I pulled out my 9mm pistol and shot myself in the head!? I have no idea why, but it seemed I wanted to see what it felt like.”

Kovco went on to describe the sound of the “click of the hammer” as he shot himself and how the sound went dull as the bullet entered his skull. He also wrote that it seemed like he could feel the bullet inside for a few seconds before going limp and starting to bleed out. He wrote that he was not suicidal and had no intention of shooting himself but believed the dream was a premonition of him getting shot in the head. Kovco ended the journal entry by writing to his wife and children, “I love you Shelley, Tyrie, and Alana, you are all my world. My heart will always be with you… your loving husband and father, Jake.”

A month later, on April 21, 2006, Kovco’s body was discovered in his quarters in Baghdad. He had been shot in the head, and it was determined that the bullet came from his own pistol. The bullet exited his head the same way he’d described in his journal entry. In addition, it was discovered that Kovco was not alone in the room but that two of his friends were present. They both testified that they didn’t see the shooting and that Kovco never seemed suicidal.

A military inquiry concluded that Jake Kovco mishandled his pistol and accidently shot himself in the head.^[10]