Original subtitles

Throughout history,

the allure of prophecy has captured the human imagination,

drawn to the shadowy realm

between the known and the unknown.

Cultures across the globe have yearned

for glimpses into the future

and insights into the human condition.

In the early 20th century,

a mystic named Wolf Messing emerges,

able, apparently, to read the minds of people

and predict future events.

In the depths of ancient China,

a mystical text takes shape,

one whose wisdom will echo through millennia.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes,

has been revered as a powerful oracle.

Its complex system of hexagrams has guided emperors,

philosophers and seekers alike in their quest

for wisdom and foresight.

And on the windswept plains of North America,

a sacred prophecy awaits fulfillment.

The White Buffalo prophecy is something

that many Indigenous people believe in.

And when a white buffalo is born,

it's a hope of our culture coming back

and our spirituality coming back.

Are these merely coincidences

and cultural myths,

or do they represent a deeper connection

to forces beyond our understanding?

In the shadow of Nazi-occupied Poland,

Polish mystic Wolf Messing is locked in a cold, damp cell.

His crime?

A prophecy that has enraged the Fuhrer himself.

The heavy footsteps of Nazi guards echo

through the corridor,

a constant reminder of the 200,000 Reichsmark bounty

on his head.

While his situation appears dire,

this is not the first time Messing has faced

seemingly insurmountable odds.

Wolf Messing really is an unusual character

of the 20th century.

There are these kind of incredible stories

that are coming out from Messing,

where through his power of persuasion,

he's able to do these kind of incredible feats.

For example, in one story,

he's jailed by the Gestapo,

and he claims to have been able

to kind of use his persuasive tactics,

this kind of power of persuasion, to get out of jail.

This escape is just one chapter

in a life filled with remarkable claims.

He not only speaks

of meeting the likes of Einstein and Freud,

but he makes daring predictions about the future,

one which leads the Nazis to throw him into jail.

But are these tales rooted in truth

or carefully crafted illusion?

He leads a life

that almost seems to be something out of a fantasy book.

It's difficult to distinguish between what is real

and what has been entirely fabricated.

But he tells stories of having started in a circus.

He then goes on to meet the Nazis.

He's imprisoned by the Nazis.

He escapes from the Nazis.

He then ends up in the Soviet Union.

He becomes a kind of sorcerer to Stalin.

Who knows what the truth is

between what Messing made up about his life

and what actually happened?

Who exactly is this man,

and what exactly are the powers that he possesses?

Was he really able to outmaneuver Hitler's secret SS

with the powers of his mind?

According to most accounts,

Wolf Massing is born in 1899,

in a Jewish shtetl near Warsaw.

Messing grows up in Poland in really dire poverty.

He is from a Jewish background.

It's a poor Jewish family

that suffers discrimination, social exclusion.

A time when Eastern Europe

in particular was changing rapidly.

The forces of modernization were putting pressures

on everybody.

Despite his father's dreams of him becoming a rabbi,

Messing believes he is destined for a life

that far exceeds his humble origins.

Particularly families that had

such a strong traditional backing,

it must have put a lot of pressure on young people

to make decisions about whether they were going to conform

or whether they were going to take part

in the new opportunities

that the 20th century was presenting to them.

Fleeing the confines

of traditional expectations,

Messing leaves home with an unshakable belief

in his own destiny.

The 11-year-old runaway reportedly boards a train to Berlin.

Imagine this, Wolf Messing is just 11 years old

and he hops on a train to Berlin.

Now that would be crazy in any time.

But this is a kid who is rejecting

his traditional upbringing.

He's rejecting the life that his father was offering to him.

And he goes in the completely opposite direction.

He goes to a foreign city to start a new life.

Without fare money,

Messing hides under a seat to avoid being seen.

But when the ticket inspector discovers him,

Messing faces a critical moment.

We have this image of Messing boarding a train

as an 11-year-old with no ticket

and trying to escape a life and find something new.

But because he has no ticket,

he knows he could be found out.

Thinking quickly, he picks up a scrap of paper

from the floor.

Handing it to the inspector,

he focuses intently on willing the man

to see it as a valid ticket.

To the young boy's amazement,

the inspector examines the piece of paper,

punches it and hands it back.

This is when he really discovers the skill he has.

That skill, of course, must be one of being able to,

in a very strong way,

project a reality that other person should not accept.

Messing is one of these children

who has a very powerful sense of imagination,

almost creating an imaginary world.

You know, the sort of person who has invisible friends

as a child.

The question is, to what degree, is this true?

To what degree, is this false?

To what degree, is Messing locked forever

into this strange childhood character?

This anecdote will become the cornerstone

of Messing's legend,

and Messing himself will cite it as the first manifestation

of his mystical abilities.

Whether or not they're real, however,

has long been a topic of speculation.

You can imagine how someone might think,

"Well, maybe they believe it

because they're more connected to it,

and maybe we lose our connection to the spiritual world

as we age."

And if you accept that sort of notion,

then if you're going looking for psychic abilities,

maybe that's the place to look.

But, is it possible

that Messing's abilities have a more logical foundation?

So at the crux of all of these stories

is this kind of power of suggestion

and this ability and this kind of persuasive ability

that Messing claims to have,

which is that merely by kind of suggesting something,

people are, you know, likely to believe it,

and they're able to kind of act

based on these small suggestions

or these small kind of nudges of their behavior.

Extensive research has shown that suggestion,

including subtle changes in language or questioning,

can significantly influence an individual's perception

or memory of events,

altering their subjective experience of reality.

It has even shown the ability to create false memories.

When Messing is sort of wearing this confidence

and wearing this honesty when he's being deceptive,

that confidence and honesty is a force of suggestion,

and it's basically telling that other person,

"No, no, I'm cool. Everything's okay.

This is normal. There's nothing to see here."

And that's really Messing's power,

is the ability to not alert suspicion.

In Berlin, Messing struggles to make ends meet.

While out delivering a package as an errand boy,

exhausted and malnourished, he collapses.

At the hospital, doctors reportedly pronounce him dead.

He is considered dead for three days.

Now, it's actually not implausible that this could happen.

A misdiagnosis of death was not completely unheard of

at the turn of the century, and in the 19th century.

Medical science as we know it was in its infancy

at that point in time,

very little was known about conditions like comas.

So it is plausible, at least, that that happened.

As the story goes,

signs of life were miraculously detected

while examining Messing's body.

The doctor, Professor Abel, revives the boy.

Three days after presumed dead, he awakens.

Doctor Abel takes an interest in young Wolf.

He believes that Wolf has the potential

to have psychic abilities,

and he begins to train him in these psychic powers.

According to Messing's biography,

Doctor Abel takes the young boy under his wing

as his telepathy teacher,

believing he possesses otherworldly talents.

They meet routinely for psychic training

as the doctor attempts to draw out new variations

of Messing's abilities.

It's interesting to think about that at that time,

there wasn't quite the same distinction

between the paranormal and science

the way we understand it today.

At the turn of the century,

there was very little that we knew

about how the human brain worked.

And it wasn't completely abnormal

to actually be exploring that from the point of view

of someone who was a respected doctor.

By his teenage years,

Messing claims to have become proficient in his techniques,

but his life will reach a true turning point

at the age of 14,

when he begins to turn his abilities

into a profitable career.

And so at some point,

he decides to leave home and to try and find his fortune.

And in doing so, he ends up joining a circus.

Messing details his work

in one of the leading circuses in the world.

The Circus Busch,

which was a traveling circus

that traveled throughout Germany

and much of Central Europe including Italy,

and during that time,

we know that Harry Houdini actually was also a member

of this same circus.

And it's during that time

that Wolf Messing perfects his skill as a mentalist

and gains a reputation as a powerful psychic.

Messing's performances supposedly evolve

from simple mind reading tricks to complex demonstrations

of telepathy and hypnosis.

Soon, his perceived ability to read minds,

find hidden objects,

and even influence people's thoughts,

is captivating audiences across Europe.

The interesting thing about the circus phase is,

you know what a great training ground they extend.

If you're trying to build a skill,

then what builds it is practice and feedback.

And so this opportunity to kind of do readings

on a bunch of different people and to get their feedback

and to find out what seemed to work well,

what impressed people, what didn't,

this is the context in which a skill can develop.

Blending his alleged telepathic abilities

with captivating stagecraft,

Messing draws increasingly large audiences across Europe

as his reputation as a psychic entertainer begins to grow.

As his fame reaches new heights,

so do the tales of Messing's integration

into a new realm of society.

After World War I,

Wolf Messing's reputation

as a mentalist and psychic continues to grow.

Messing frequently talks

about interacting with famous celebrities.

He later would suggest

that he had met Marilyn Monroe, Gandhi.

In Vienna, Messing reportedly meets

with two of the greatest minds of the time.

He says that he met Einstein and Freud in Vienna,

where he performed a mind-reading exercise on Einstein

and apparently astounded them both.

However, this account goes unmentioned

by both of these meticulous scientists.

Could it be a grandiose lie to help Messing's reputation?

Or, if true, what tactics could he have used

to convince such intelligent minds?

Some of Messing's abilities are attributed

to reading muscles,

a concept similar to what modern mentalists call

cold reading.

Somebody wants you to tell you something about themselves,

maybe something they even sort of know.

And they want to see if you can make predictions

or you can tell them things about themselves.

If you give them something general and vague

and then you're very attentive to their feedback,

vague enough that if that person starts to go, "Yeah,"

or if they look puzzled, if they look puzzled,

go somewhere else.

And so it's not just about him projecting the non-verbals,

it's about him reading the non-verbals as well.

Could this skill,

combined with the power of suggestion,

create the illusion of mind reading?

Whether or not Wolf Messing had true psychic abilities,

there is no doubt that he was incredibly skilled

at feats of mentalism, cold reading, and suggestion.

And it takes years of practice.

And some people will never be able to do it.

This is perhaps his true superpower.

Not necessarily real psychic ability,

but something to be respected nonetheless.

Messing's interactions

with the intellectual elite would pale

in comparison to a fateful confrontation that would pit him

against the most notable figure of the era.

In 1937, as Hitler's Third Reich tightens

its grip on Germany

and casts an ominous shadow across Europe,

Wolf Messing makes a bold public prophecy.

Messing makes the astonishing claim

that he predicted that if Hitler turned east,

then either defeat or, according to another account,

the death of Hitler would be the result.

He then told people that he knew for a fact

that Adolf Hitler was so enraged by this prophecy

that he put a bounty on Messing's head.

By 1939, Europe is on the brink of conflict.

Adolf Hitler has demonstrated

his aggressive expansionist policies

with the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia.

And, now, his eyes are set on Messing's home country.

So in the years leading up to the invasion of Poland,

Wolf Messing's homeland,

the world had been doing everything that it could

to prevent a second World War.

Britain, for example, had taken on a leadership

under Chamberlain of appeasement,

trying to give Hitler just enough

so that he would hopefully be appeased

and not actually go further.

It didn't work.

Hitler secretly made a deal with Stalin,

with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in the summer of 1939.

That was all Hitler needed.

And in September of 1939,

the German armies marched east into Poland.

On September 1st, 1939, Germany invades Poland,

marking the official start of World War II.

As the Nazis occupy Warsaw, Messing is forced to flee.

During the 1930s, the world had watched

as Nazi Germany had increasingly placed restrictions

on Jewish people,

what they could do, where they could live.

Outside of Nazi Germany,

people feared that if Hitler expanded,

that those same policies would come with him.

So it must have been absolutely terrifying

for Wolf Messing as a Polish Jew

watching his country be annexed by Hitler.

In 1945, Hitler and his forces are defeated

as Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally,

marking the end of World War II in Europe.

Adolf Hitler has committed suicide.

The Reichstag is on fire.

The Soviet Union has taken over Berlin.

And at that point,

Wolf's Messing's prediction about Hitler

had finally come true.

Following his escape from Nazi clutches,

Messing flees eastward to the Soviet Union,

where his reputed powers draw the attention of a figure

whose iron will shapes the destiny of millions.

Wolf Messing comes to the attention of Josef Stalin,

who's gotten wind

of this man's supposed remarkable psychic abilities.

So, according to Messing,

Stalin challenges him to prove

that he actually can do what he says that he can.

He tells Messing that he has to find a way

to get into his country house

without any of the proper paperwork or permissions.

According to Messing,

he does this by pretending to be the head

of the Soviet secret police, Beria,

and he manages to pass through all the security checkpoints,

convincing the guards that he is this man

by using his psychic ability.

I think we can say with a fair level of certainty

that this would have been an impossible task,

or at least a very, very difficult task

to do with the mere power of suggestion or persuasion.

Messing's influence is said to have extended

beyond tricks and performances

into the very highest levels of Soviet national security.

Another claim that we hear is

through this kind of impressing of Stalin,

Messing is actually able to gain a high position

within the Soviet intelligence agency

and works with intelligence officers

to train them in his kind of techniques of suggestion

and muscle reading, cold reading,

and is in Stalin's employ in that way.

The true nature of Messing's role

in Stalin's inner circle remains shrouded in obscurity,

much like the feared leader's regime itself.

He claims that he ends up holding a position in the KGB,

that he is training KGB operatives in psychic techniques,

that he is helping Stalin see the future.

Now, the only bit of credence one might give to this is

that Stalin, of course, was well-known

for his massive paranoia.

Anything could set him off.

And it's just about feasible

that somebody like Messing might appeal to Stalin,

who really wanted to know what everybody was thinking,

especially those closest to him.

As Messing's reputation grows,

so does the weight of Stalin's decisions on the world stage.

There's going to be so many different decisions

that Stalin is faced with,

both in the war and in the postwar rebuild.

It's kind of the height of his power

and the height of his kind of decision making.

And this is the point in which Messing is trying

to involve himself in Stalin's inner circle.

Could Stalin,

a man known for his protagonism and distrust,

really have relied on a supposed psychic for guidance?

Who is Stalin turning to in these times,

and what type of decision-making forces is he looking for?

During the Cold War,

we see this kind of scramble from all angles

to kind of gain either a foothold in this kind of escalation

and also just kind of gain some sort of reputational power,

whether that be kind of material gains

or kind of reputational gains.

And so Messing becomes this kind of,

just another figure in the mythos

of what the Soviet Union would like to put forward.

Wolf Messing's legacy as a psychic

and mentalist continues to captivate people's imagination

long after his death in 1974.

So we don't actually know

whether Josef Stalin met Wolf Messing

or whether they had a relationship.

There is absolutely zero

independent historical documentation to prove that,

that this relationship existed

or that Messing had any role within the Soviet government.

All of this comes from Messing's account alone.

Messing's enduring legacy was to push

to the extreme the human potentialities,

while also blurring the distinction

between the explainable and the unexplainable.

While Messing's showmanship,

and supposed ability to foresee world changing events,

captivated the 20th century.

Another form of divination with ancient roots has held sway

over the psyches of millions for millennia.

In 1046 BCE, King Wu of Zhou stands at the edge of his camp.

His army of over 45,000 is poised

to challenge the mighty Shang dynasty.

Across a field,

a force of 170,000 enemy troops stands waiting.

In this moment of uncertainty,

the ancient wisdom of the I Ching looms large.

Throughout history, divination has played a vital role

in ancient Chinese warfare.

The story is that Wu's father, King Wen,

is the person who first developed this system

of the 64 hexagrams.

The hexagrams are designed

to represent everything in the universe.

King Wu gives the signal.

His outnumbered forces surge forward,

catching the Shang army off guard.

On the eve of the battle,

the Wu army is vastly outnumbered by the Shang.

The king consults the I Ching,

and he learns that for victory, he has to strike right now.

The battle that unfolds is like a prophecy fulfilled.

The Shang army is caught completely off guard.

The troops flee, some of them defect to Zhou,

and the last Shang emperor is forced to retreat in defeat.

As the dust settles, a new era dawns.

The Zhou dynasty rises,

its victory inexorably linked

to the ancient wisdom of the I Ching.

This pivotal moment in Chinese history marks

more than just a military triumph.

It represents the ascendance of a new philosophical

and divinatory tradition.

From mythical emperors

to battlefield strategies,

the I Ching is woven into the fabric of Chinese history.

But what is this oracle,

and what powers does it truly possess?

The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes,

is one of the oldest and most revered texts

in Chinese culture.

For over three millennia,

it has shaped philosophy, art, literature,

and even governance in China.

I Ching is not merely a book,

but the embodiment of Chinese wisdom.

And it permeates all aspects of Chinese thinking

and Chinese culture.

The I Ching has existed for thousands of years,

but we still don't really know the origin

of this divination system.

The I Ching has evolved

into a comprehensive guide

for understanding the principles of change, destiny,

and harmony in the universe, using a system of 64 hexagrams.

The traditional approach involves asking a question,

using yarrow stalks or tossing a coin,

and this generates a hexagram

which can be used to answer that question.

The hexagrams are symbols made of six lines.

And the lines are either straight across or broken in two.

And these represent the two fundamental forces

in the universe according to Daoist philosophy theology,

yin and yang.

The diviner then interprets those hexagrams

based on a text,

that explains what each of the hexagrams stands for.

Typically, the hexagrams convey

archetypal situations or states of being,

which gives its users a glimpse of their own destined path.

By combining the forces of yin and yang

in all of these different, you know, permutations,

you have a set of symbols

that kind of represent like the coding, almost,

of the entire universe.

Over centuries,

it has been consulted by emperors, scholars,

and ordinary people alike,

seeking guidance on matters ranging from state affairs

to personal dilemmas.

The interpretation of the I Ching is, at this point,

a practice with a very, very long history.

And with a long history, of course, you get variations.

At the heart

of the I Ching's divination process lies a paradox.

The ancient oracle relies on seemingly random methods

to generate its profound insights.

There's this idea that within divination,

generally speaking, randomness is extremely important

because it can either bypass rational thought,

and you can glimpse the energy at play

within that random moment.

But there's also this belief

that there is no such thing as randomness.

But the elements of chance

and confirmation bias can raise doubts.

It is said that, you know,

something that is so random can't actually have

any true kind of explanatory or predictive power.

And it's by this kind of act of interpretation

that is where the kind of prediction is coming into play.

And there's this very subjective kind of moment

in which the person is looking at the randomness

and making a subjective judgment,

and that can have things like confirmation bias

or kind of different forms of suggestion there as well.

The perceived accuracy of a reading

could also be closely linked to the Barnum Effect,

a phenomenon where vague statements seem personally relevant

to many people.

I believe that the choice

of how you engage with the I Ching,

whether you use coins, whether you use stalks,

whether you don't use either,

the power is in the person asking the question

and the technique that they are bringing to the book.

Throughout Chinese history,

the I Ching is frequently consulted

by emperors and officials as a way to interpret omens,

determine auspicious dates for important events,

and guide policy decisions.

Among the many figures that are said to be drawn

to its wisdom is Confucius,

one of China's most revered philosophers.

Confucius is a very important figure

in Chinese history and culture.

He's a scholar, a philosopher,

and ends up being kind of instituted

as this founding father of Chinese social morality.

Confucius was fascinated by I Ching,

which he kept on bamboo tablets.

And so much so did he read through these tablets

that the binding had to be changed numerous times.

Some accounts credit the philosopher

with the writing of "Ten Wings,"

a series of commentaries that transforms the I Ching

from a divination manual

into a comprehensive philosophical text.

The question of what Confucius actually contributed

to the I Ching is a subject of scholarly debate.

He is believed by many to have written the "Ten Wings,"

which are these textual interpretations.

This is part of how Chinese scholarship has functioned.

You know, for a very, very long time,

there will be these kind of foundational texts,

sometimes of somewhat mysterious or legendary origins,

but over centuries.

For Confucius,

the study of the I Ching is not just scholarly,

but deeply personal.

At the age of 50,

Confucius muses that he could spend the rest of his life

studying these ancient texts.

As the I Ching evolves throughout history,

it sets the stage for centuries of intellectual exploration.

In the 18th century,

the I Ching forms an unlikely connection

with the future of modern computing,

forged through the mind of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,

a polymath whose work would lay the groundwork

for the digital age.

In the late 17th century,

the European philosopher Leibniz encounters the I Ching.

He's been in correspondence

with Jesuit missionaries in China.

A number of European Jesuits went

on these missions to China.

And this is the first real body of sustained correspondence

that we have in the European tradition,

between Europeans and Chinese.

Leibniz recognizes that these hexagrams

can be interpreted as a binary system

with broken lines representing zero,

and unbroken lines representing one.

So he's been working on this philosophy,

this kind of mathematical philosophy,

that the world consists of arrangements of binaries.

And when he sees the hexagrams,

which are also a system of organized binaries,

he feels like he has tapped into something

that is evidence, that his philosophies are correct,

because they're being confirmed by a culture

as far away as Chinese culture.

While Leibniz's work

on binary mathematics is groundbreaking,

its full impact wouldn't be realized for centuries.

The same kind of binary

that is underlying the I Ching also underlies

all of our kind of digital technologies today.

And it's really interesting

because the I Ching almost represents this initial,

very early moment of, you know,

turning something that's like a spectrum or continuous

into something that's discrete,

that is kind of at the foundation of our modern science

and this kind of confirmation of presence and absence

that becomes tied together.

The I Ching is still used today.

It is a system of interpretation,

a system of guidance that has been in practice

at this point for millennia.

Its enduring quality is tied to how it focuses in

on really fundamental aspects

of both human experience in the world

and human tools of interpretation.

Just as this ancient tool guided

Chinese sages through change,

across vast oceans,

Indigenous peoples of America fostered

their own sacred methods

of interpreting the spiritual world.

On a seemingly ordinary summer day in 1994,

on a modest farm in Wisconsin,

a remarkable event takes place.

Amidst the distant hum of farm life,

a buffalo calf is born.

Its coat is not the usual brown.

It's entirely white.

This is a momentous occasion,

because the birth of a white bison is extremely rare.

Although the frequency of white buffalo

has not been formally recorded,

some estimates say it's a once in a million occurrence.

As word spreads of the arrival of the calf,

named Miracle by her caretakers,

visitors begin to pour in from far-flung places.

The birth of this white bison, or white buffalo,

is not only statistically significant,

it also carries remarkable cultural significance

for a number of Indigenous cultures in the Americas.

In the eyes of many,

Miracle's birth is a living prophecy

signaling an end of monumental transformation.

The unassuming calf, with her stark white coat,

stands as a beacon of hope and a symbol of sweeping change.

Why had Miracle appeared now?

What changes might she herald?

And what ancient stories do her birth awaken?

Dating back millennia,

the white buffalo holds profound significance

in various indigenous prophecies and traditions,

including the Lakota oral tradition.

To the Lakota people,

the white buffalo calf woman is a sacred figure

who has visited them.

She's given them the sacred pipe that they smoke.

And she is a promise of future harmony.

And one day she is going to return.

And this is basically the promise

inherent in the birth of this white buffalo,

that this signals the return of the white buffalo calf woman

who brings harmony, who brings peace,

who brings prosperity to the Lakota people.

Before departing,

she prophesies that one day she will return

to purify the world,

bring back spiritual balance and harmony.

It's essentially a prophecy

that pretends a time of unified peace,

when all people would live under this banner

of really world-wide peace.

And it is extremely important.

Whether we are Indigenous people or non-Indigenous people,

we have been living in a culture of fracture, fragmentation,

and real cultural violence.

When a white buffalo is born,

it's a message to the people

that our spirituality will return.

And when a white buffalo is born,

we have to question what is coming,

what is the message that is coming?

The birth of Miracle would be

just the beginning.

More white calves are born at this same site,

at Heider farm, against all statistical odds.

As news spread of these successive births,

the farm evolves from a quiet, rural homestead,

into a pilgrimage site of profound importance.

As the years pass,

the Wisconsin white buffalo herd remains

a source of wonder and inspiration,

its very existence challenging

the understanding of coincidence and fate.

There seems to be something extraordinary

and meaningful happening with the particular bison

at this farm,

and people begin traveling to visit the farm

and to be in touch with whatever it is

that's happening there.

Humans are very much impressed

by rare events of different sorts.

And they sometimes read a lot into that,

and especially if it has cultural relevance.

So if we think of First Nations peoples,

the buffalo, of course, is one of the things

that we connect with them very strongly.

They made all their livelihood, et cetera, from the buffalo.

And this notion of a white buffalo, which is extremely rare,

would be like a spirit version of an animal.

So we can imagine that the import that would have for them,

and the feeling that there has to be something significant,

if a white buffalo enters the world, it must mean something.

While the Heider farm becomes

a modern-day pilgrimage site,

the true significance of these white buffalo births

can only be fully understood

through the lens of ancient tradition.

Born in 1954 on the Cheyenne River Reservation

in South Dakota,

Chief Arvol Looking Horse is a pivotal figure

in the modern interpretation

and propagation of the White Buffalo prophecy.

When Arvol Looking Horse was given the sacred pipe,

which was the white buffalo pipe, he was 12 years old.

So he was the youngest person

to be the caretaker of this pipe.

And he was also given the responsibility

of taking care of the Lakota Dakota Sioux Nation,

which is three separate branches of people,

all the same people.

The white buffalo calf pipe is

a sacred artifact central to Lakota spirituality.

The white buffalo calf pipe,

also known as the sacred pipe or Chanunpa,

holds immense spiritual significance

for the Lakota and other Native American tribes.

So the pipe is really significant

to many Indigenous people.

And that pipe is something that you use medicine with.

For a lot of us, it's asemaa or tobacco.

And that pipe allows us to connect with our ancestors

or with Gitche Manitou, with our spirit, God, if you will.

So this pipe, that was gifted,

became a symbol of the white buffalo.

And I think it was significant to many Indigenous people.

And that bowl represented Earth,

and the pipe represented air, or like the spirit world,

all that is Earth, and air, which is how we survive.

And that pipe became very significant

to many Lakota, Dakota Indigenous people.

But is there a deeper connection to the land

that enables communication with nature

and interpretation of the arrival of these beasts?

For many Indigenous people,

the white buffalo is almost the same as the eighth fire.

That's also a prophecy that comes from the same time

when we're talking about how much we've lost,

the impact of colonization,

and the only way to move forward is to find harmony again.

So that means reconnecting with our spiritual,

our right to spirituality,

our right to our original instructions,

and our creation story,

and also a commitment to rebuilding connection to the Earth

and to our environment and protecting the land.

So Looking Horse really felt like,

this was part of prophecy,

that this white buffalo being born was part of the story

when they talked about,

this moment on Earth when things would start to change.

30 years after Miracle's arrival,

the ancient prophecy finds renewed resonance

with the birth of another white buffalo,

this time in Yellowstone National Park.

Yet, this birth carries a double-edged significance.

While celebrated as a profound blessing,

it also resonates with a dire warning,

urging humanity to heed its message before it's too late.

Arvol Looking Horse,

who was actually the 19th keeper

of the sacred white buffalo pipe,

said that in 2024, when the white buffalo calf was born,

it was another white buffalo calf,

that this was the fulfillment of the prophecy

and that because that white buffalo was born,

it was to signify that we actually need to do more,

that whatever that first warning was, it wasn't enough.

We need to do more to protect the environment

and to bring harmony and balance to the world.

We can look at this moment as this tumultuous moment in time

where we need to do even more to protect the environment.

And that's what is also being said about this white buffalo,

is that this is a double-edged sword,

as though this is a great blessing, it is also a message.

Shortly after the Yellowstone calf's emergence,

the prophecy takes an ominous turn.

Several days after the white buffalo calf is born,

they disappear.

And as of this moment right now,

they still have not found that white buffalo.

So it actually caused this real sense of concern and alarm

and speculation as to whether this was a bad omen

or a sign that we didn't do what we were supposed to.

Many prophecies come with instructions.

And so perhaps this is a message saying that,

"No, we need to do even more,"

or, "Whatever we thought we were doing,

we need to think of a different strategy

to really protect the people and the Earth."

This is a moment when we are asked to consider

our own grief, our own loss, but not just loss.

It's also about reclamation.

When you have lost something that matters to you,

you always have the opportunity to reclaim it.

It might not be in the same way you once had it,

but you can reclaim it in a new way.

And it's also a conversation around unity.

Indigenous people have faced tremendous trauma

and have a history of the worst, the worst things happening.

And, yet, the only way to move forward is

to continue to align ourselves

with all of the people of the world,

to connect with all communities,

and to ask for the support of everyone in the world.

The sacredness of animals is something

that different groups of people recognize.

And I think, the more connected you are

to your indigenous traditions,

and the more steeped you are in Earth-honoring ways,

the more you will understand the sacred position,

the position of animals as teachers, as guides,

and as beings of wisdom who can show us as human beings

a better way to live.

For many, this ancient promise

of transformation bridges the physical world

with what may lie beyond.

Like the sacred wisdom inscribed in traditional texts,

or the visions foretold by a famed psychic,

the power of prophecy may ultimately rest not in certainty,

but in the lens we choose to hold.