Original subtitles

To believers, the powers of the paranormal

can manifest in many ways.

They have the potential to aid humanity

in the most unlikely of ways by the most unlikely of people.

Dorothy Allison looks like a very unassuming housewife

from New Jersey, but she is also arguably

the most successful psychic detective in the world.

Dorothy Allison's gifts put her at the center

of many of the most famous crimes of the 1970s.

From the kidnapping of Patty Hearst

to the crimes of the Son of Sam.

While some use their power to help humanity,

others use their powers for much darker ends.

John of God claims that he has the power

to do psychic healings with the power of touch,

cancer, HIV, really severe medical conditions.

He becomes massively popular, a media sensation.

But at the same time,

there are rumblings that darker forces are at play.

And in first century Roman province of Judea,

revolution and prophecy meet in the most unlikely of ways.

Josephus is taking this prophecy

and tying it to a Roman general.

Now, was this pure politics,

or was he tapping into something else?

May, 1976. Staten Island, New York.

14 year old Susan Jacobson leaves her family home

to meet some friends at a nearby ice cream shop.

As the sun sets, her parents are worried

as Susan has yet to return.

As days turn to weeks, a frantic search is underway

for the missing child.

The police are stumped.

It is as if Susan has disappeared without a trace,

leaving no clues.

Enter Dorothy Allison, a New Jersey homemaker

who claims she can find Susan

thanks to her psychic abilities.

Dorothy Allison was a pretty unassuming

New Jersey housewife

and somebody you wouldn't think was a psychic detective.

And yet that's exactly what she was,

the kind of person that was called on by the police,

by the FBI when they couldn't crack a crime.

But can this ordinary woman

help the Jacobson family find their missing daughter?

And who exactly is this person

the media has dubbed "the psychic detective"?

Born in Jersey City in 1924,

she grows up in a working class family

and claims to have psychic impressions from a young age.

When she's young, she has visions

of her father falling ill and dying.

Soon after her father dies.

When something like that happens

that can really produce this confirmation effect,

that makes her truly start to believe,

I do have this power to see the future.

As she grows older, Dorothy begins to view

her apparent powers as a gift

and seeks to assist families in need,

helping them find their missing loved ones.

She eventually develops a reputation

as a psychic detective,

and she's someone that the police will turn to

when traditional methods of investigation fail.

It's not altogether uncommon for police departments

to turn to psychics and mystics in these kind of

last ditch efforts for particularly difficult cases.

One of Dorothy's first cases

revolved around a missing boy in Nutley, New Jersey.

Dorothy becomes involved when she approaches

the Nutley police, telling them she has had a vision

that the boy's body

will be found with his shoes on the wrong feet.

And when the boy's body is found,

the police are shocked to find that his shoes

are as Dorothy described from her vision.

Whispers of her work with the missing boy

from Nutley begin to spread, drawing the attention

of not just law enforcement, but families

who are in similarly desperate situations.

In 1974, her supposed powers reach headlines

when the daughter of a prominent American businessman

is abducted by a militant organization.

When the heiress Patty Hearst, gets kidnapped

by members of the SLA, her father

actually turns to Dorothy Allison for help.

And she does make a number of predictions

that turn out to be accurate.

She predicts that Patty would initially be in Pennsylvania,

then in New York, both of which prove to later be accurate.

And she also notably predicts that the heiress

would join her captors in robbing a bank,

which also proves to be true.

With such high-profile successes,

Dorothy Allison's abilities bring her national attention,

and she becomes a fixture in the media.

But what is the source of her abilities?

Dorothy Allison claims that her psychic visions

come to her through a process

akin to tuning into a hidden channel of information.

First, she tries to quiet her mind,

often holding an object or photograph

connected to the missing person.

She believes that by physically touching something

imbued with that individual's energy,

like a piece of clothing, she can bridge a link

between herself and the person's experiences.

After calming herself,

Allison says she begins to see flashes or mental pictures.

These are rarely straightforward.

Instead, she receives symbols, images of landmarks,

letters, numbers, or colors

that come to her as fleeting impressions.

Sometimes she hears sounds or words.

She notes that her visions are more like pieces of a puzzle

rather than a full, coherent narrative.

So Dorothy Allison claims

to have multiple modes of psychic ability.

She has not just clairvoyance, which is the ability

to see things in the mind's eye,

but she also has clairaudience,

which is an ability to hear messages passed orally,

and clairsentience, which is the ability

to feel things with the body.

Of course, there are going to be a lot of skeptics,

who have ways of explaining

her ability to predict or see things.

They will explain it as coincidence,

they'll say "you say a lot of things,

some of them are gonna turn out to be right"

but the people who are working with Dorothy,

the police departments who are working with her,

many of them really swear by her abilities.

Allison soon establishes

a prophetic reputation, which prompts police

to seek her help again in 1974

after a particularly strange missing person's report.

John DeMars is a happily married,

30 year old New York banker and family man

with two young children.

But when he boards his evening commuter train

to Nutley, New Jersey, on December 20th, 1974,

he disappears, leaving his family

and police scratching their heads as to what happened.

The police entertain all of the possibilities

they can imagine but the fact is they don't know

where he is, and so eventually the police

call on Dorothy Allison to help them.

Allison tells detectives

that she sees John falling off the train and drowning.

While she cannot say where this occurs,

she mentions a bow and arrow and the numbers 2 2 2.

Law enforcement cannot make immediate sense of these clues,

and soon the case becomes cold,

until a chance encounter blows the case wide open.

Two months later, on February 22nd,

a father and son are practicing archery

by the shore of the Passaic River,

which runs along DeMars train route,

and one of the arrows

lands beside DeMars' body in shallow water.

And thanks to Dorothy Allison's visions,

police believe they know how John DeMars disappeared.

What Police believe happened, is actually that he was

on a train that made an unscheduled stop,

and he must have fallen asleep on the train.

And when the train stopped,

it was on a bridge over the river.

And when the doors opened, half asleep,

he literally just got off the train,

falls into the water and is carried upstream.

Her breakthroughs with John DeMars

opens the floodgates across America.

Word spreads through police departments from coast to coast

about the psychic detective

who somehow knows things she shouldn't.

Throughout the 1970s, she becomes a household name,

regularly brought in by families and law enforcement

to help them solve some of the most difficult

and controversial cases of the decade.

Perhaps the most famous case that Dorothy Allison

is involved in was the investigation of Son of Sam.

Son of Sam,

also known as the 44 Caliber Killer,

terrorized New York City

with a deadly spree of murders in the 1970s.

She does provide details in this very high profile case.

She offers a description of Son of Sam

that does resemble Berkowitz,

and she predicts that he's going to be caught

in the course of a traffic violation,

which is actually what happened.

Yet despite the familiarity with Son of Sam,

one of Allison's most famous cases will be the disappearance

of a 14 year old girl named Susan Jacobson.

In May 1976, in Staten Island, New York,

14 year old Susan Jacobson disappears.

At first, the police believe Susan just ran away from home

and do not take the case too seriously.

But after a few days, Susan is still missing

and the police have to jump into action.

Investigators comb the area, question the neighbors,

and follow leads, but each path is frustrating.

As days stretch into weeks, the family and law enforcement

grow anxious, fearful that time is running out.

Into this tense atmosphere

steps Dorothy Allison,

contacted by a desperate police force

hoping for any clue to break the case.

The decision is unconventional,

perhaps even controversial.

But when all logic and leads meet a dead end,

the authorities find themselves with no choice

but to engage with the inexplicable.

Dorothy Allison meets with police and the Jacobson family.

She asks to have some possessions of Susan's

so she can begin her process.

And the images that flood

into Dorothy Allison's mind paint a haunting picture.

She sees a rock with the letters M A R on it.

She can see a steeple-like structure,

and she describes what she calls "a feeling of oil."

Although Allison's clues are not a direct roadmap,

they spur detectives on to look in areas

where they previously had not.

Encouraged by these cryptic hints,

detectives and family revisit neglected leads.

Acting on Allison's descriptions,

they search regions throughout the city

looking for anything that matches her details.

While this initial search turns nothing over,

soon after Dorothy Allison's visions,

a group of young boys find a strange oil drum in the woods.

Inside is the dead body of Susan Jacobson.

And when Susan Jacobson's body is found,

there is a rock nearby, and there is a building

like the one that she described.

The confluence of these details is stunning.

The discovery of Susan Jacobson's body

brings heartbreak and a grim resolution to the family,

but also closure.

After finding the body of their daughter,

the Jacobsons become some of Dorothy Allison's

biggest advocates and defenders,

as are the police investigators who worked the case.

The aftermath of the Susan Jacobson case

brings about murder charges on her boyfriend

for the slaying, and to many in America,

Dorothy Allison is now seen

as a legitimate psychic detective.

So the Susan Jacobson case is really

what seals Allison's reputation as a serious consultant

in these kinds of police cases.

There are skeptics, and there are many people

who question the reliance of police on people

who claim to be providing information via psychic means.

But the success of Allison's career in this line of work

and the confidence that the people with worked with her

does suggest that there is an important role for people

who introduce unorthodox methods

into the solving of mysteries.

While Allison is championed by many,

she does have her doubters

who question the validity of psychics and the paranormal.

What is termed as a psychic detective

may actually be a fresh pair of eyes

that starts looking at the evidence

and makes random suggestions.

It may just be through that interchange

that the police begin to form new ideas,

but they convince themselves

that they are being exposed to some kind of psychic process.

Some skeptics argue

that her correct predictions

stem from coincidence, selective interpretation,

or the sheer volume of cases she addresses.

Dorothy Allison was not always successful, however,

and her critics point in particular

to two very high profile cases that she was involved in

from the late 1970s to the early 1980s

involving two young boys, Etan Patz and Adam Walsh.

Critics argue that not only were her visions very vague,

they actually ended up being dead ends.

Yet there are times when Allison's predictions

seem eerily on target.

In one case, she describes a submerged car

and the letters on a license plate that match

a missing person's vehicle found at the bottom of a lake.

In another instance, she describes a distinctive piece

of clothing worn by a victim,

a detail that is later verified.

Although her methods never gained

full acceptance in the law enforcement community,

Allison's legacy persists.

She represents that rare intersection of belief and doubt

where psychic impressions sometimes align

startlingly with the truth

yet often fail conventional verification.

Police departments rarely rely solely on her input,

but a few credit her with providing leads

they might never have considered.

Dorothy Allison passes away in 1999,

leaving behind a reputation

as one of America's most celebrated psychic detectives.

Dorothy Allison is involved in over 5,000 cases.

She helps to solve over a dozen murders,

and she helps to locate over 50 missing people.

Dorothy Allison's story

stands as a curious chapter

in criminal investigation history,

illustrating how hope, desperation, belief, and skepticism

meet at the hazy boundaries of what we can and cannot prove.

The legacy of Dorothy Allison

we can look at it in different ways.

One is that she had a very mixed legacy

in which she had some success with certain cases

and not very much success at all in others.

And so whether she truly is a successful psychic

is, I guess, open to question.

But for those that she helped,

she remains someone that they staunchly defend.

And we have to take the longer view

that police departments will still consult with psychics

to this day when they cannot resolve the cases themselves.

Locating the lost is one thing,

but what if one's psychic abilities

could do something far more powerful?

While Dorothy Allison's visions led police to hidden graves

and missing loved ones, halfway around the world,

in the heart of Brazil, another purported diviner

claims to perform miracles,

curing the incurable and cheating death itself.

Throngs of thousands gather in rural Brazil

to hear the words of a spiritual healer

and self-described psychic surgeon, John of God.

John reaches his hands out to the waiting crowd,

promising that his touch has the ability to heal.

Many claim that he has cured them

of chronic and debilitating illnesses with his abilities.

John of God is this curious figure from Brazil

who claims that he has the power to do psychic healing

through the power of touch through his hands.

And he acquires an international following.

He becomes massively popular, a media sensation.

Devotees travel from across the globe to be close to him,

including the rich and famous.

To many, John of God is seen as a living saint.

But underneath the surface of his miraculous acts,

dark rumors swirl that will challenge

the faithful to their core.

John of God's real name is Joao Teixeira de Faria.

He is born into poverty in 1942,

in the state of Goias, Brazil.

As a young man, John of God claims to experience visions

and sudden bursts of healing power

that he claims is a gift given to him from God.

John has no formal education.

He grows up steeped in the Catholic Church.

He's a very active member of his church.

He can often be found there, and he traces the roots

of his gift to his childhood experiences of vivid visions

and direct communication with spirit guides.

These spiritual guides

tell John that he has the ability

to cure the sick with his touch.

He begins to treat people in his region.

And many believe he has cured them of cancer

and other deadly and chronic diseases.

He claims the spiritual entities are working through him,

guiding his hands in invisible operations,

and his reputation starts to spread across South America.

John of God is kind of plugged into Roman Catholicism,

and especially a long history of saints

in the Roman Catholic Church that perform healing powers.

Often women, like Saint Rita, for example,

who are said to have healed people

through the power of miracles.

In the hagiographic tradition,

healing and healing powers

have always been associated with saints.

Nearly every saint, in some form or fashion,

expresses healing power,

and so by associating himself

with the saints of old in this way,

what he's really trying to say is, "Well, I'm a saint too."

Over time, his practice blossoms

into the Casa De Dom Inacio De Loyola,

a spiritual compound where the sick, the desperate,

and the curious line up for his healing touch.

He develops this spiritual center,

which is a space of sanctuary and healing, right?

It's a sacred gathering place.

And he is really cementing his reputation

among his followers as a healer.

They believe that he has mystical abilities to heal.

And his reputation grows so vast

that his center brings in people from all over,

including celebrities, politicians.

It's a really extraordinary mix of people

who, for whatever reason, at this moment,

are drawn to the idea of some kind of extraordinary healer.

The most controversial aspect

of John of God's practice

are his psychic surgeries.

Without anesthesia or medical training,

he appears to remove tumors and other ailments

with a mere knife edge pressed lightly to the skin,

an act believers consider miraculous,

and skeptics call a performance.

Sometimes the more theatrical a situation is,

the more psychologically powerful it is,

and if you have an individual like John,

with strong confidence telling you this will work,

and that he has developed this craft that nobody else has,

it's probably going to feel powerful.

Most controversially, John of God claimed

to be able to perform what he called psychic surgery.

Now there was an invisible form to this.

So basically the patient would close their eyes

and then he would claim to, as it were,

suck out the ailment and this could be cancer, HIV.

I mean, really severe medical conditions.

What would happen is people would come through.

He would tell them to close their eyes and pray,

and he would say that essentially

the entities were working on them

in the course of their having their eyes closed.

And people would sometimes report

that they would feel warm or tingling in certain areas.

After the treatments, they would often be given

passionflower capsules, and that was it.

So the thing that's interesting about passionflower,

Passiflora, is that it's a sleep remedy.

It's often something used to create drowsiness,

help you get to sleep,

kind of deal with anxiety on some levels.

So is this man using these capsules

in order to convince people

that they've just gone through surgery?

It seems like it.

He also carried out what he called "visible surgery."

And this involves using things like even kitchen knives

to basically, scrape a knife across an eye

or press it against the flesh.

But he was claiming to carry out a more invasive procedure.

And of course, this was hugely controversial

and condemned by the medical profession.

John of God promises that his psychic surgeries

can cure a wide range of illnesses.

These include chronic pain, depression,

anxiety, migraines, diabetes

and even serious conditions like cancer and HIV AIDS.

There may be healing going on,

but probably nothing as a result of the actual things

that he's doing but more the overall context,

which would start from the moment somebody has decided,

"I need help and this guy can help me."

You know, as soon as they believe that

and start making a trek,

then they're already on the path

towards potentially being psychologically influenced

by the context which can make them feel,

if it reduces stress, if it makes them feel hope,

these are powerful psychological forces

that can really help somebody overcome

a lot of the illnesses that are faced,

many of our illnesses are in fact stress induced.

Despite warnings

from many in the medical community,

John of God's practice makes him internationally famous.

He now has millions of followers,

but none as influential

as American talk show icon Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah goes to John of God and is really creating

this huge kind of spotlight for his movement

and his ministry and it becomes almost this watershed moment

where, you know, thousands more people

are becoming aware all at once

of what he's kind of talking about.

And it's a really interesting phenomena

of media allowing these types of movements

or, you know, practices

to grow at a rate that's kind of unprecedented.

In 2013, Oprah Winfrey conducts an interview

and records some of his healings

and this helps to cement him

even further in popular consciousness.

But at the same time, there are rumblings

that darker forces are at play,

that nefarious activities are occurring.

John of God is now an institution

within the New Age health community.

With millions of dedicated supporters worldwide

offering him money and gifts,

he begins to enjoy the lavish lifestyle of a celebrity.

What began as a healing practice

has turned into a massive business,

as hundreds of thousands flock to Brazil

to meet the seemingly saintly man with the healing touch.

But as the money and adoration grew,

so do the cries from those accusing John of God

of some of the most terrible crimes imaginable.

A number of women

among his following

start coming forward with stories and allegations

of forms of abuse that happened

under the guise of healing practices.

They report sexual abuse.

They report trafficking.

After months of investigation,

the police finally raid John of God's compound.

They formally arrest him

and they charge him with numerous offenses.

Eventually, he is convicted

and imprisoned for these crimes.

This revelation sent shockwaves through both

the global New Age community and the Brazilian public.

John of God's arrest marks the near collapse

of the global New Age movement

that elevated him to celebrity status.

His legacy is now one marked by scandal, betrayal

and the destruction of a reputation

built on deceit and abuse.

This was a man with a background

in child trafficking, fraud and assault.

And like many people who have sought to exploit

the weakness and the vulnerability of those around him

who have a real pressing need, for example,

being terminally ill or seriously ill,

he was basically defrauding these people.

He was abusing them.

This was a criminal activity

that was dressed up as something psychic,

something New Age, something predictive.

But it was nothing of the sort.

But the most shocking crimes

would soon be uncovered.

Activist Sabrina Bittencourt,

who really blows this case open and exposes

the sordid details of what John is actually practicing

in his so-called healing center

and it's horrifying.

There is sexual abuse, but it it appears to be linked

to an operation of producing babies

for a kind of market.

So he is forcibly using women

in his following

to have babies that are then kind of trafficked.

And he's profiting from all of this.

These revelations starkly contrast

with the public persona John of God cultivated over decades.

Initially celebrated as a humble servant of divine entities

who selflessly channeled healing energies,

he had earned the admiration of countless pilgrims,

including international celebrities.

He was seen as a beacon of hope and spiritual upliftment,

someone who inspired faith by his words,

presence and alleged healing touch.

Now he is seen as a monster who took advantage

of some of the most vulnerable members of society.

John of God was once seen

as a pillar in the New Age community.

But these allegations of trafficking

absolutely smash any credibility he might have.

In the end, these allegations

taint his legacy far more deeply

than any claims of ineffective healing

or theatrical showmanship ever could.

They imply a monstrous, hidden dimension

to a public figure once revered.

In 2019, John of God was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

And in 2023, he was sentenced to an additional 118 years.

Mystic powers have a long

and complex place in human history.

Some, such as Dorothy Allison,

use these powers to help people,

while others, such as John of God,

use their powers for nefarious ends.

But there are also those who use mystical powers

and prophecy to legitimize rule.

And one of the greatest examples of this

is the complicated story of Flavius Josephus.

Judea, 67 CE.

In the dim glow of a command tent,

Roman General Vespasian pores over battle plans.

A Jewish commander named Josephus,

recently captured, stands before him.

He tells General Vespasian that he has a prophecy

to share with him.

Josephus then tells the general that a star has appeared

in the east, signaling that a ruler

from humble origins will rise to greatness.

That man, according to Josephus, is Vespasian.

Silence hangs heavy as Vespasian contemplates

the weight of these words,

the flicker of ambition igniting in his eyes.

Josephus was a rebel leader

during the first Jewish revolt against the Emperor Nero

when Jerusalem rose up against Roman rule.

But Josephus was captured by the Romans

and he basically switched sides.

And in order to curry favor with Vespasian,

who was a very ambitious man,

he said that Vespasian would be the fulfillment

of the prophecy of a messiah,

which would be signaled by a special star in the sky,

and Vespasian would become emperor.

Well, obviously, Vespasian was very pleased

with this prophecy, and the two men

became the firmest of friends.

And it seems, Josephus's prophecy comes true.

In 69 CE, Vespasian is declared

ruler of the Roman Empire by his troops.

In that same year, Vespasian makes Josephus a Roman citizen.

Josephus is taking this prophecy

and tying it to a Roman general.

Now, was this pure politics,

or was he tapping into something else?

The story of Josephus and Vespasian

is one where prophecy, religion and politics clash

to create a strange haze which historians

are still trying to pierce through.

But who was Josephus, and what made his life and times

so rich for prophetic interpretation?

Josephus is born into an aristocratic priestly family,

and according to his own account,

he was recognized for his genius at a young age

and spent much time studying the Jewish traditions

and the Jewish prayers.

At that time, Judea was an occupied region.

The Romans controlled every aspect of life.

Yet within Judea itself, there are many different

Jewish sects that are all coexisting with one another,

including the Pharisees, the Sadducees,

the Essenes, and the Zealots.

Messianic expectation is running high.

This is a world that is on edge, a tinderbox.

At 16, Josephus embarks on a three year sojourn

in the wilderness with the hermit Bannus,

a member of one of the ascetic Jewish sects

flourishing in Judea at this time.

Returning to Jerusalem, he joins the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were a tradition that was deeply religious.

They were anxious to preserve their tradition

and were willing to do it

even within the context of Roman governance.

This was in contrast, for example, to the Zealots,

who were Jewish nationalists

and who believed that their role was to overthrow Rome.

Josephus, now part of the Pharisee faction,

looks to secure peace with Rome,

and to this effort he becomes a diplomat

looking to lobby the great empire for his people.

In 64 CE, Josephus travels to Rome as an emissary

to secure the release of some Jewish prisoners.

However, there he meets Poppaea Sabina,

the wife of Emperor Nero,

and he becomes enamored with everything Roman,

their culture, their military.

In many ways, he becomes a Romaphile.

Despite their best efforts,

the Pharisee faction and Josephus

are not able to stop the war against the Romans.

In 66 CE, Josephus returns to Judea,

and he finds a country on the edge of revolution.

Urged on by the Zealots,

the Jews of Judea overthrow the Romans,

and they install their own

revolutionary government in Jerusalem.

Like many of the priestly class, Josephus urged compromise,

but reluctantly he was drawn into the conflict too,

and he becomes a military commander in Galilee.

The Romans will not allow

this rebellion against their rule to stand.

The Roman Emperor Nero sends one of his top generals,

Vespasian, to put down the rebellion at any cost.

Vespasian arrives in Galilee in the spring of 67 CE

and swiftly crushes Jewish resistance in the north.

Josephus defends the fortress of Jotapata for 47 days,

but after the city falls,

he takes refuge with 40 loyalists in a nearby cave.

So Josephus is trapped along with 40 other loyalists.

He is dismayed when it begins to become a topic

of conversation that suicide is their only option.

Josephus, though, counsels that the best way to do this

would be for each man to kill his neighbor,

decided by drawing lots.

Now, whether it was by luck or by design,

Josephus manages to be one of the last two members

still alive, and he convinces his fellow loyalist

that maybe death isn't the option.

I mean, from the story of Josephus,

one thing we learn about him is he's a survivor,

and he really is focused on himself and success for himself,

to the point where he is willing to kind of give up

on everything that had defined him before that battle.

He sort of turns his back on his previous existence

in a way that allows him to survive.

After his surrender,

Josephus is brought in chains before Vespasian.

While this meeting with an enemy general

is a dangerous setting for anyone, Josephus has a plan.

Josephus is brought before the general,

and he makes the choice to drop his identity

as a Jewish military leader,

and he adopts the role of Jewish prophet,

and he suggests to Vespasian

that his coming was foretold by the star above,

which suggests that his ascendancy to emperor

has always been foretold.

What makes this prophecy so remarkable

is the context.

This prophecy has a long history in Jewish,

not Roman, tradition.

He draws upon several prophetic ideas,

such as Numbers 24:17, which prophesies of a Jewish Messiah.

Josephus was crafting the prophecy

in a way that would secure his own survival

in a very dangerous moment,

but he was doing it with a prophecy that was revered

within the Jewish tradition, which was important

to their salvific narrative.

And to repurpose it in a way that legitimized Roman conquest

seems remarkably dangerous

in terms of his own relations with Jewish people.

Throughout history, people have used prophecy

to bolster their own power, to venerate themselves,

or instill fear in their followers,

or suggest that they're on a mission to glory.

One of the interesting parts of the story of Josephus

is when he predicts that Vespasian

will become the next leader.

And when you do that, you can actually change the way,

in this case, Vespasian may act.

He may carry himself with more confidence,

more strength, more decisiveness.

He may begin to feel, himself, as a future leader,

and that, in fact, may be critical to convincing

other people that he has those qualities.

And so, in some way, this could be

an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Josephus, in bringing this prophecy to Vespasian,

was offering him a prophecy

that had enormous political portent,

not only for legitimizing his authority

over Judea and Israel,

but also for grounding any future claims to being emperor.

But most in Judea do not believe

in Josephus' reading of the prophecy of the star.

When Josephus connects a Roman general to Jewish prophecy

and ingratiates himself to the Romans,

in many ways he marks himself

as a traitor to his own people.

While Josephus' prophecy may seem like a ploy

for self survival, his claim gains credibility

after Emperor Nero's death in 68 CE.

This fortuitous event saves Josephus' life.

Vespasian is elected as emperor by his troops,

and this is seen as the fulfillment of Josephus's prophecy.

He is given his freedom, and increasingly,

from that point onward,

Josephus aligns himself with the Romans.

He takes on the name Flavius,

which is from the Vespasian's family,

and he travels with his patron to Alexandria.

Josephus is so entrenched

with the Romans at this time

he joins with the army of Titus, Vespasian's son

and eventual successor, at the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

It is here when another one of Josephus' prophecies unfolds.

In 70 CE, the now fully Romanized Josephus

is marching with Titus, the son of Vespasian,

and troops which are on their way to besiege Jerusalem.

He sees over Jerusalem a star which seems to him

almost like a sword hanging over the city.

In his later writings, he suggests that this prophesies

the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.

"As if thunderstruck

and bereft of eyes and mind,

disregarded the plain warnings of God.

So it was when a star, resembling a sword,

stood over the city, and a comet,

which continued for a year."

Josephus had a prophecy

that the Second Temple would be destroyed.

He was so worried about this prophecy coming true

that he rushed down to Jerusalem

with the aim of trying to broker a peace

before that came true.

He was in a precarious situation, however,

because neither side trusted him.

He was not trusted by his own people

because they believed he had betrayed them

a few years earlier.

And at the same time, the Roman leadership did not trust him

because he was a Jew and they regarded Jews as insurgents,

and for that reason they were unable to come to peace.

And in the end, the Romans did destroy the Second Temple.

The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE

marks a pivotal moment for the Jewish people.

It signifies the loss of their central place of worship

and profoundly alters the practice of Judaism.

Without the temple, sacrificial rituals cease,

leading to a shift towards Rabbinic Judaism,

which emphasizes study and prayer over sacrifices.

This event disperses many Jews from Judea,

intensifying the Jewish diaspora.

The destruction affects Jewish cultural,

religious, and social structures,

reshaping Jewish identity and practices

for centuries to come.

In the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple,

there's actually a divergence in the source material.

According to Jewish sources,

it's a rabbi, Yohanan ben Zakkai, who is smuggled

out of Judea and meets with Emperor Vespasian in Egypt.

There, he strikes a pivotal deal with the emperor.

He asks the emperor to allow him to establish

a Jewish center for study and learning in Yavneh.

This act will ultimately secure the future of Judaism.

The story of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai

is important for another reason.

It has many similarities to that of Josephus.

According to Jewish sources, it's Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai

that proclaims that Vespasian will be the future emperor.

There's no mention of Josephus,

and really, this calls into question this divergence

in the source material, whether Josephus' story

about the prophecy and meeting Vespasian,

whether any of that happened, or whether it's actually

Josephus who is retroactively putting himself

at the center of the story.

After Jerusalem falls

and the temple is destroyed,

Josephus settles in Rome.

There, under imperial patronage,

he dedicates the rest of his life to literary pursuits.

But the question remains, were Josephus' prophecies

legitimate or simply a case of self-serving propaganda?

Centuries later, Christian scholars in Europe

would become interested in the same story

of the prophecy involving Vespasian,

and in particular a passage which suggests

that he saw a star over the head of Vespasian.

It seems to have been interpreted this

as a sign of Christ coming.

But scholars suggest that this was probably apocryphal,

and that this passage might have been written in

long after the event, and certainly not by Josephus.

From visionaries

who wield their gifts for guidance

to those who exploit their powers for fame,

and those whose abilities remain shrouded in mystery,

the question of authenticity haunts every tale.

Yet they all reveal a profound truth.

The ultimate power is not prophecy itself,

but in the choices one makes with their professed gifts.