Top 10 Prophets of All Time

"The most powerful force on earth is collective intention!"

Stephen A. Schwartz

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Recently here on Vocal, I profiled my choices for the Top Ten Prophets, Prognosticators, and Visionaries of All Time.

This addendum brings everyone together in a comprehensive list, along with more information on each.

This list is in chronological order. As to who is the greatest and/or most influential visionary— you choose.

1. The Oracles of Delphi — from about 700 B.C. to A.D. 362
2. The Sibyls of Rome — from around 1200 B.C. to A.D. 83
3. The Maya — at their height between A.D. 250 and 900
4. Hildegard of Bingen — 1098-1179, Middle Ages Germany
5. Leonardo Da Vinci — 1452-1519, Renaissance Italy
6. Nostradamus — 1503-1566, France
7. Jules Verne — 1828-1905, France
8. H.G. Wells — 1866-1946, Great Britain
9. Edgar Cayce — 1877-1945, Kentucky, U.S.A.
10. Marshall McLuhan —1911-1980, Canada

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What follows is additional info on each of these ten luminaries.

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__⚡The Oracles of Delphi

In so many ways, these ancient priestesses set the standard for all future diviners. Several extraordinary prophets were known in ancient times. Among them were the Oracle of Zeus from Dodona; the Oracle from Klaros in Turkey; and the Oracle of Amun in the Siwa oasis in Egypt. But no ancient visionaries were more famous than the pythias from Greece.

The independent city of Delphi was unattached to any of the large and powerful Greek city-states: Athens, Sparta, and Corinth. That unique location was special in many ways.

According to ancient mythology, Apollo, the Greek god of prophetic divination, came to a place where a great serpent called Phython guarded a fissure for its mother Gaia, the goddess of the earth. That was Delphi, the navel of the world. Apollo killed Phython— who was more like a dragon than a snake— and the spilled blood of the monster transferred its clairvoyant powers to the site.

Potent vapors rising from the crevice were what allowed the Oracles to have their prophetic visions.

In Delphi, the Greeks instituted annual "Phytic games," meant to honor both Apollo and Phython. At first, the competitions were musical, but then later included athletic tournaments.

Do you want to know more?

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__⚡The Sibyls of Rome

The sibyls were the female soothsayers of Roman mythology. Their predictions were given as riddles and ramblings, to be interpreted by learned priests. Over time, the sibyl's numbers varied from one to twelve.

Just like with the Oracle of Delphi, Sibyls prophesied under the inspiration of Apollo, the god of divination. The most famous description of a Sibyl's oracular method comes from the Roman national epic, Virgil’s Aeneid. In this tale, the Sibyl demanded the sacrifice of seven bulls and seven ewes from the hero Aeneas. She then went into an ecstatic state...

“As she spoke neither her face nor hue went untransformed, nor did her hair stay neatly bound: her breast heaved, her wild heart grew large with passion. She seemed taller to their eyes, sounding now no longer like a mortal, since she had felt the god’s power breathing near.”

This legendary Sibyl lead Aeneas into the underworld to consult with his dead father Anchises. It was the soul of Anchises who foretold that the world's greatest empire was coming. And so it was, according to tradition, that Aeneas's descendants became the founders of Rome.

Do you want to know more?

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__⚡The Maya

The most popular belief about the Maya is a misconception. It's a falsehood that Mayan priests predicted that the world would end in 2012. In actuality the Maya had a dynamic view of time.

They saw great cycles of time based on the movements of the universe where the past, present, and future all fused together.

The Maya civilization spanned many different periods, including the Archaic Period: 7000-2000 BCE;- the Olmec Period: 1500-200 BCE;- the Zapotec Period: 600 BCE-800 CE;- the Teotihuacan Period: 200-900 CE;- the El Tajin Period: 250-900 CE (also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history);- and the Post-Classic Period: 950-1524 CE.

Do you want to know more about these visionaries?

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__⚡Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis), was called the Sibyl of the Rhine.

A Benedictine abbess, she was renowned as a playwright, composer, mystic, and philosopher. I included links to some of her music in the more detailed profile I wrote for part 3 of this series⚡ .

There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages.

The Ordo Virtutum, written by Hildegard, is perhaps the oldest surviving morality play.

Hildegard once said...

There is the music of Heaven in all things... but we forget to hear it until we sing.

Looking back through the lens of modern history, this visionary could be considered one of history's first feminists.

If you have never heard of Hildegard before, you should consider reading this.👇

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__⚡Leonardo Da Vinci

Yeah.

Him. 👇

🤯

I know you've heard of him. He even had a ninja turtle named after him!

But would you like to know more?

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__⚡Nostradamus 👀

Michel de Nostredame (usually Latinized as Nostradamus) was a French astrologer, physician, and psychic. His most famous book, published in 1555, is entitled Les Prophéties. It is a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the prophecies of Nostradamus have been the subject of hundreds of books, both fiction and nonfiction. His life has been depicted in several films.

In 2012, the History Channel and other media co-opted Nostradamus's prophecies to suggest that the end of the world was imminent. In fact, Nostradamus never once mentioned either 2012 or the end of the world.

Want to know more?

I did not foresee that so few people would read my story about Nosty. 🤷 I never claimed to be a prophet myself.

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__⚡Jules Verne

Said Verne...

"Ah! Young people, travel if you can, and if you cannot - travel all the same!"

What follows is a complete list of all the books Verne wrote. The dates provided here are the dates when each novel was published.

1. A Drama In Mexico (1851)
2. Drama In The Air (1851)
3. Martin Paz (1852)
4. Master Zacharius, Or, The Clockmaker Who Lost His Soul (1854)
5. Five Weeks In A Balloon, Or, Journeys And Discoveries In Africa By Three Englishmen (1863)
6. The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras (1864)
7. The Count Of Chanteleine: A Tale Of The French Revolution (1864)
8. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (1864)
9. From The Earth To The Moon (1865)
10. The Blockade Runners (1865)
11. In Search Of The Castaways/The Children Of Captain Grant (1868)
12. Around The Moon (1870)
13. Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea: A Tour Of The Underwater World (1870)
14. A Floating City (1871)
15. The Adventures Of Three Russians And Three Englishmen In South Africa (1872)
16. Dr. Ox's Experiment/A Fantasy Of Doctor Ox (1872)
17. The Fur Country (1873)
18. Around The World In Eighty Days (1873)
19. The Mysterious Island (1874)
20. Doctor Ox (1874)
21. An Ideal City (1875)
22. The Survivors Of The Chancellor: Diary Of J. R. Kazallon, Passenger (1875)
23. Michael Strogoff: The Courier Of The Czar (1876)
24. The Mysterious Document (1876)
25. Off On A Comet/Hector Servadac (1877)
26. The Child Of The Cavern/The Black Indies (1877)
27. Dick Sand, A Captain At Fifteen (1878)
28. The Begum's Fortune/The Begum's Millions (1879)
29. The Tribulations Of A Chinaman In China (1879)
30. The Mutineers Of The Bounty (1879)
31. The Great Navigators Of The Eighteenth Century (1880)
32. The Steam House (1880)
33. Ten Hours Hunting (1881)
34. Eight Hundred Leagues On The Amazon/The Giant Raft (1881)
35. The Green Ray (1882)
36. Godfrey Morgan:A Californian Mystery/The School For Robinsons (1882)
37. Kéraban The Inflexible (1883)
38. The Vanished Diamond/The Southern Star (1884)
39. The Archipelago On Fire (1884)
40. Frritt-Flacc (1884)
41. Mathias Sandorf (1885)
42. The Waif Of The Cynthia (1885)
43. A Winter Amid The Ice (1885)
44. Robur The Conquerer/The Clipper Of The Clouds (1886)
45. The Lottery Ticket/Ticket No. "9672" (1886)
46. Gil Braltar (1886)
47. The Flight To France (1887)
48. Texar's Revenge, Or, North Against South (1887)
49. Two Years' Vacation (1888)
50. The Purchase Of The North Pole/Topsy-Turvey (1889)
51. Family Without A Name (1889)
52. In The Year 2889 (1889)
53. César Cascabel (1890)
54. Mistress Branican (1891)
55. Adventures Of The Rat Family (1891)
56. The Carpathian Castle (1892)
57. Claudius Bombarnac (1892)
58. Foundling Mick/Lit'l Fellow (1893)
59. Captain Antifer/The Wonderful Adventures Of Captain Antifer (1894)
60. Propeller Island (1895)
61. Clovis Dardentor (1896)
62. Facing The Flag (1896)
63. An Antarctic Mystery/The Sphinx Of The Ice Fields (1897)
64. The Mighty Orinoco (1898)
65. The Will Of An Eccentric (1900)
66. The Castaways Of The Flag/Second Fatherland (1900)
67. The Village In The Treetops/The Aerial Village (1901)
68. The Sea Serpent/The Stories Of Jean-Marie Cabidoulin (1901)
69. The Kip Brothers (1902)
70. Travel Scholarships (1903)
71. A Drama In Livonia (1904)
72. Master Of The World (1904)
73. Invasion Of The Sea (1905)
74. The Lighthouse At The End Of The World (1905)
75. The Golden Volcano (1906)
76. The Danube Pilot/The Beautiful Yellow Danube (1908)
77. The Chase Of The Golden Meteor (1908)
78. The Survivors Of The "Jonathon"/Magellania (1909)
79. The Secret Of Wilhelm Storitz (1910)
80. The Eternal Adam (1910)
81. The Barsac Mission (1914/1919)
82. Backwards To Britain (1989)
83. A Priest In 1835 (1991)
84. Paris In The Twentieth Century (1994)

☝ 84 published books!!

The world's oldest science fiction movie, A Trip to the Moon, is based on the Jules Verne novel.

Do you want to know more about one of the Founders of Science Fiction?

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__⚡H.G. Wells

I present just a few of the cooler passages written by this innovative Englishman...

“This isn’t a war… It never was a war, any more than there’s war between men and ants.”

War of the Worlds🛸⚡🛸

“At any rate, whether we expect another invasion or not, our views of the human future must be greatly modified by these events. We have learned now that we cannot regard this planet as being fenced in and a secure abiding-place for Man; we can never anticipate the unseen good or evil that may come upon us suddenly out of space. It may be that in the larger design of the universe this invasion from Mars is not without its ultimate benefit for men; it has robbed us of that serene confidence in the future which is the most fruitful source of decadence, the gifts to human it has brought are enormous, and it has done much to promote the conception of the commonweal of mankind.”

War of the Worlds🛸⚡🛸

“Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life.”

The Time Machine⚡

“I hope, or I could not live.”

The Island of Dr. Moreau🏝⚡

“All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.”

The Invisible Man⚡

H.G. Wells said...

“Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.”

... and...

“Our true nationality is mankind.”

Here's a list of his books...

1. The Time Machine (1895)
2. The Wonderful Visit (1895)
3. The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
4. The Wheels of Chance (1896)
5. The Invisible Man (1897)
6. The War of the Worlds (1898)
7. When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
8. Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
9. The First Men in the Moon (1901)
10. The Sea Lady (1902)
11. The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
12. Kipps (1905)
13. A Modern Utopia (1905)
14. In the Days of the Comet (1906)
15. The War in the Air (1908)
16. Tono-Bungay (1909)
17. Ann Veronica (1909)
18. The History of Mr Polly (1910)
19. The Sleeper Awakes (1910) – revised edition of When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
20. The New Machiavelli (1911)
21. Marriage (1912)
22. The Passionate Friends (1913)
23. The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
24. The World Set Free (1914)
25. Bealby: A Holiday (1915)
26. Boon (1915) (written as Reginald Bliss)
27. The Research Magnificent (1915)
28. Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916)
29. The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
30. Joan and Peter: The Story of an Education (1918)
31. The Undying Fire (1919)
32. The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
33. Men Like Gods (1923)
34. The Dream (1924)
35. Christina Alberta's Father (1925)
36. The World of William Clissold (1926)
37. Meanwhile (1927)
38. Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
39. The Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930)
40. The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
41. The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
42. The Croquet Player (1936)
43. Brynhild (1937)
44. Star Begotten (1937)
45. The Camford Visitation (1937), novella
46. Apropos of Dolores (1938)
47. The Brothers (1938)
48. The Holy Terror (1939)
49. Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
50. All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
51. You Can't Be Too Careful (1941)

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Do you want to know more about the other Father of Science Fiction?

Isn't it interesting that both Verne and Wells are now remembered not for the novels they wrote when they were seasoned authors, but stories they conceived at the very beginning of their careers.

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__⚡Edgar Cayce

"What is consciousness? And what is information?"

Ask those questions ☝ of fifty different scientists and you're likely to get fifty different answers.

Simply put: Consciousness is not yet understood.

Only recently have some new studies made strides in explaining awareness. For the first time in history, scientists are grappling with the idea that information is the foundation of reality.

Max Planck, the father of quantum mechanics, famously said...

"Consciousness is causal and fundamental. Space/time arises from consciousness; consciousness doesn't arise from space/time."

An expert on Edgar Cayce speaks of concepts regarding: "nonlocalized consciousness" and "nonlocalized perception," which essentially explain what Cayce experienced while in a trance.

The Sleeping Prophet employed "intentional focused awareness", which is way of explaining both the benefits of meditation and the power of prayer.

Edgar Cayce spoke on topics like Consciousness, God, Space/Time, Spirituality, Numinosity, Holistic Medicine, Reincarnation, Karma, and, of course, Psychic Awareness.

Science is now looking at these concepts to study them impartially, instead of dismissing them as myth.

Do you want to know more?

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__⚡Marshall McLuhan

This quirky professor hated media, but he appeared in a Woody Allen movie... as himself. He was a dichotomy and the ultimate geek.

This man spoke about the dangers of mass media, in ways especially relevant now. He famously said, "The medium is the message." He talked about how we could all become slaves to technology.

He was definitely capable of slinging a lot of bullshit, but much of what he predicted did happen.

Do you want to know more?

And that concludes my 👁⚡️👁 Top Ten List of Historic Visionaries.

Check out the individual chapters, if you'd be so kind.

I hope foresaw this jaunt through history!

~

_____________Bolt ⚡

1. The Oracles of Delphi — from about 700 B.C. to A.D. 362
2. The Sibyls of Rome — from around 1200 B.C. to A.D. 83
3. The Maya — at their height between A.D. 250 and 900
4. Hildegard of Bingen — 1098-1179, Middle Ages Germany
5. Leonardo Da Vinci — 1452-1519, Renaissance Italy
6. Nostradamus — 1503-1566, France
7. Jules Verne — 1828-1905, France
8. H.G. Wells — 1866-1946, Great Britain
9. Edgar Cayce — 1877-1945, Kentucky, U.S.A.
10. Marshall McLuhan —1911-1980, Canada