All language subtitles for Truthseekers.S01E12.Nostradamus.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[flames billowing, crackling]

[majestic music playing]

[narrator] A team of
truthseekers is on a mission.

Scientists.

Historians.

Archaeologists.

All on the trail
of history's enigmas.

[dramatic music playing]

Searching for the truth

behind the greatest mysteries
known to humanity.

Nostradamus. The most famous
soothsayer in history.

He's said to have accurately
foretold events

from the death of his king

to the Russian invasion
of Ukraine,

and with his predictions
reaching deep

into the next millennium,

many believe he has foreseen

the end of the world.

But how many of his prophecies
have come true?

How did he see into the future?

And why are
the cryptic predictions

of a 16th-century doctor

still so influential today?

In London,
our team assemble.

Our four truthseekers combine
decades of experience

in different fields.

But they all have one goal:

to apply their knowledge
and reveal the truth.

There are mysteries,
and then there are mysteries.

I have always loved uncovering
the secrets of the past.

We need to go back and unpick
the untruths from the truths.

Age-old problems that
we've been asking ourselves

for over 100 years, really,
can now be solved.

[narrator] They'll follow
the clues left behind.

Unravel the secrets
of the past.

Separate fact from fiction.

And together,
they'll uncover the truth...

behind the greatest
mysteries ever.

[dramatic music playing]

[ancient cryptex clicking]

[tense music playing]

[Tony] Nostradamus never
claimed his prophecies

were an exact science

and he always left room
for significant interpretation,

but for looking 200 years
into the future,

it's still compelling.

We're endlessly fascinated
by our own demise

and Nostradamus tapped into
that essential human need

in his writing.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Nostradamus,

the most famous
soothsayer in history.

He's said to have accurately
foretold events

from the death of his king

to the Russian invasion
of Ukraine,

and with his predictions
reaching deep

into the next millennium,
many believe

he has foreseen
the end of the world.

In his life,
he was courted by royalty,

revered by the masses,

and pursued by the Inquisition.

Today, more than 450 years
after his death,

"The Prophecies,"
his masterwork,

containing a thousand visions
of the future,

is still a bestseller.

But how many of his prophecies
have come true?

How did he see into the future?

And why are
the cryptic predictions

of a 16th-century
physician and astrologer

still so influential today?

[Tony] The captivating thing
about Nostradamus is that

enough of his predictions
have made you think,

"Yes, something strange is
definitely going on here."

Over the centuries,

he's predicted
Louis Pasteur, Hitler,

the Great Fire of London.

There's an accuracy

that's really difficult

to ignore.

[lively music playing]

[narrator] Michel de Nostradamus

had spent years
traveling Europe

treating plague victims,

first as an apothecary

and then as a qualified doctor.

It was on one of his
medical missions

that he made
his first prophecy.

[Tony] Sometime between
1538 and 1544,

he's on his travels

and he meets a group
of Franciscan monks

and he tells them
that one of them will be Pope.

It took 40 years,
but in 1585,

one of them did indeed become
Pope Sixtus the V.

There's no written account
of this incident

from Nostradamus himself,

and the elevation to the papacy

didn't happen until
after his death.

But it's a good start, especially

in a God-fearing world.

[narrator] His papal prediction
was just the beginning.

More than 900 further
predictions would follow,

committed to history
in the form of quatrains.

And these quatrains tell us
as much about the man himself

as they do the future.

[Tony] A quatrain is
a four-line rhyming verse.

It indicates that Nostradamus
was a man of letters,

educated in
the poetic traditions

of ancient Greece and Rome--

and he's writing in the middle
of the Renaissance,

when those cultures have come
back into fashion--

so we know that he's cultured

and he understands his audience.

He started by writing almanacs,

which were very popular
at the time.

They'd feature
astronomical information

like dates of full moons
and tidal charts

and bits of folklore.

But his almanacs stood out
in that he also included

his predictions
for the year ahead.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] The almanacs
were a hit

and Nostradamus became famous
across France.

The public believed
in his visions

and were gripped
by what they might mean.

They wanted more.

The more he got into
writing these almanacs,

the more he focused
on his prophecies

and the more his name became
associated with it.

In 1554, he published
his first book, "Centuries."

It had 100 predictions covering
the next 2,000 years,

and it was a bestseller.

Nostradamus the doctor
was no more.

Now he was Nostradamus
the soothsayer.

[narrator] However,
this was an age where

proclaiming yourself
a prophet

could see you tortured
at the hands

of the brutal Inquisition.

The well-educated and
well-connected Nostradamus

was keen to demonstrate that
his work was based in science.

Predicting the future back then
was a very dangerous business.

[ominous music playing]

Accusations of heresy and
witchcraft could easily follow

and either of those
could mean death,

so he did
two very clever things.

Firstly, he tied his predictions
to his scientific knowledge

and the Bible.

He used astronomy to calculate

the positions of heavenly bodies

at the time of known disasters
in the Bible.

He then calculated forwards,

saying that disasters
would follow

when the stars re-aligned again.

It's called judicial astronomy
and it's very clever

because it's a bit like saying,
"God did it,"

which is neither heretical
nor witchcraft.

The second thing he did was to
write with deliberate ambiguity,

creating room
for interpretation,

but even accounting for that,

some of his predictions are
startlingly accurate.

[narrator] One prediction
in particular

was alarming in its accuracy

and would gain him
a rich benefactor

and cement his place in history
during his own lifetime.

[grand music playing]

[Tony] The Medicis were
Florentine power brokers

of the 16th century

who had basically invented
modern banking.

Very little happened
across the continent

without their involvement.

Catherine de Medici not only had
all this power and wealth

but was also Queen of France.

She was a big fan
of Nostradamus's almanacs

and became his patron

and had him do horoscopes
for all her family.

Catherine became obsessed

with this one particular
quatrain from "Centuries."

[narrator] "The young lion
will overcome the older one

on the field of combat
in a single battle;

he will pierce his eyes
through a golden cage,

two wounds made one,

then he dies a cruel death."

[Tony] And he explained to her

that it was about her husband,
King Henry,

and warned that he should avoid
combat of any kind,

but kings just aren't great
at taking orders.

[tense music playing]

So in 1559, a few years later,

he has a ceremonial joust--

mock combat in a single battle--

with the Comte de Montgomery,
a younger nobleman

with a lion on his shield.

Montgomery's lance pierces
Henry's gilded visor

and splinters with one piece
going through the King's eye

and another through his temple,

two wounds made one.

The king hung on in agony
for ten days before he died.

That's certainly a cruel death.

Regardless of how skeptical
you are,

that is haunting
in its accuracy,

and it cemented
Nostradamus's reputation

as a soothsayer for all time.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] For the rest
of his life,

Nostradamus would forsake

the medical profession,

instead focusing on astrology

and writing his quatrains.

They were collected into groups
of 100, known as centuries,

and then published
as a collection he called,

"The Prophecies
of Michel de Nostradamus."

It was a smash.

Every few decades,

another big prediction
seems to come true

and it tops
the bestseller list again.

The shocking thing is
how specific it is.

He's known for his obscure
and vague quatrains

that are open to interpretation,

but when he gets specific,
the impact is undeniable.

Take this one
about Louis Pasteur.

[narrator] "The lost thing
is discovered,

hidden for many centuries.

Pasteur will be celebrated

almost as a God-like figure.

This is when the moon
completes her great cycle,

but by other rumors,
he shall be dishonored."

[Tony] In China, they'd been
heating wine to preserve it

and prevent it from spoiling
since the 1100s.

Louis Pasteur combined
this "lost art"

with his recent discoveries.

Pasteurization of milk made
Louis Pasteur world-famous,

saving millions of lives,
which is pretty god-like.

His first successful test
was just a few days after

a full moon--
completing its great cycle.

But in 1995, The New York Times
reported that Pasteur had used

the work of others
in his anthrax vaccine

without crediting them,

and his legacy was
undermined by rumors.

I mean, that's astonishing, really.

He did the same thing
with Charles de Gaulle.

[narrator] "Hercules,
King of Rome and of Annemark,

three times one surnamed
de Gaulle will lead

Italy and the one of St. Mark
to tremble,

first monarch,
renowned above all."

[Tony] Charles de Gaulle led
the French people three times--

he was leader of the Free French
forces during World War II,

then Prime Minister
after the war, and lastly,

the first president
of the Fifth French Republic

of which he was the architect--

the first monarch,
revered above all.

He's one of France's greatest
heroes of all time.

De Gaulle also led French troops
against Italy

in the second battle
of the Alps,

and in Libya,
the home of Saint Mark,

he defeated German forces,
making them tremble.

[sound of marching feet]

His prophecy of Hitler,
or "Hister" as he names him,

is even more spooky.

[narrator] "Beasts
ferocious with hunger

will cross the rivers,

the greater part
of the battlefield

will be against Hister.

Into a cage of iron

will the great one be drawn,

when the child of Germany
observes nothing."

[Tony] In fairness,

Hister was the old Latin name
of the Danube,

so interpretation as ever with
Nostradamus is very important.

But do you know
where Hitler was born?

A town on the River Inn,
which is a tributary of...

the Danube.

Personally, I see this as
the story of the end of Hitler--

the Allies are
the ferocious beasts,

they greatly outnumber
Hitler's forces,

he retreats into his iron cage,
his bunker,

and refuses to accept
defeat is coming--

he observes nothing.

Lots of people think that's
about the rise of Hitler,

but it's difficult to argue
that Nostradamus isn't

foretelling something here.

[narrator] His quatrains
have an obscure style

and are open to different interpretations.

This is the source
of much of the skepticism

and has led some to accuse him
and his defenders of fraud.

[Tony] Of course, not all of his
predictions give the names

of people or places,

and some of them
are more than vague,

but you can see enough
in the quatrains to think

that this has to be
more than coincidence.

Take this one about Napoleon.

[narrator] "PAU, NAY, LORON
will be more of fire

than of the blood,
to swim in praise,

the great one to flee
to the confluence.

He will refuse entry
to the Piuses,

the depraved ones
and the Durance

will keep them imprisoned."

Pau, Nay, and Oloron,
three capitalized words,

are three towns
in Southern France,

but Nostradamus used
little tricks,

odd bits of other languages
like Latin,

or in this case, anagrams.

It was the time
of the Inquisition,

he couldn't be too accurate.

You rearrange those
capitalized letters

and you get Napaulon Roy--
Napoleon the King.

More of fire than blood--

he wasn't born noble,

he took power
on the battlefield.

The Piuses?

He jailed popes,

Pius the VI and Pius the VII.

Is it exact? Well,
it's incredibly compelling,

and he seems
to have got more right

than you would expect
through chance.

And he predicted
history-making

world events in detail too,

like the Great Fire of London.

[narrator] "The blood
of the just will be

demanded of London,

burnt by fire in the year '66,

the ancient Lady will fall
from her high place

and many of the same sect
will be killed."

[Tony] The Great Fire of London
was in 1666

and it destroyed half the city.

Even if you think the rest of it
can be misinterpreted,

that's perfectly clear.

The ancient lady will fall
from her high place?

Well, the statue of the Virgin
Mary at St. Paul's Cathedral

was destroyed in the fire.

It also wiped out almost
every rat in the city,

and that's a whole sect
of animals killed.

He did a similar thing
with the French Revolution.

[narrator] "From
the enslaved populace,

songs, chants, and demands,

while princes and lords
are held captive in prisons.

These will, in the future
by headless idiots,

be received as divine prayers."

Nostradamus wrote this
at a time where the authority

of the monarchy was absolute,

they were chosen by God,

so he had to keep
certain prophecies vague

for his own safety.

But in 1789,

the French peasantry
took to the streets

with their slogans and songs.

It soon became
a full-blown revolution

and princes and lords were
locked up and beheaded.

However, the revolution
soon turned on itself,

and Madame Guillotine took many
of all classes, idiots and all.

[narrator] Verses like these
have captivated people

around the world for centuries.

Whether it's just clever writing
or he genuinely foresaw things,

there's definitely
a mystery to be solved.

[narrator] How did a highly
educated and successful man

become a seer to royalty?

What inspired his visions?

And what made the doctor
turn soothsayer?

Nostradamus,
the 16th-century soothsayer

who predicted
the rise of Napoleon,

The Great Fire of London,

and the French Revolution.

The accuracy of his predictions

continues to shock
and intrigue readers.

And millions look to his work

to try to see
what the future holds.

But how can he have
predicted events

centuries into the future

and what were his motives?

[Fern] Michel de Nostradame
was born in 1503

in Saint-Remy-de-Provence
in Southern France,

and while his family
were comfortable,

there was nothing outstanding
about them,

nothing to suggest that
one of their nine children

would go on to have a name that
echoes down the centuries.

[narrator] Dr. Fern Riddell
has been looking

at Nostradamus the man.

Who was he? And why was
he drawn to prophecy?

[Fern] The start of
the 16th century in France

and Europe in general
is a very confusing time.

You're in the middle of the most
significant cultural change

in centuries--the Renaissance.

Wars abound, and diseases like
the Black Death--the plague--

still stalk through Europe.

Science is being embraced,

although those who practice it

have to tread a very fine line

to avoid clashing
with a powerful

and territorial church.

[narrator] The Roman Catholic
Church was all-powerful

at the time,

the moral and political
authority of Europe,

the lawmakers
and the enforcers.

So powerful that like
many families of the time,

Nostradamus's
Jewish grandparents

had to conceal their beliefs.

Nostradamus's grandfather,
Guy Gassonet,

converted to Catholicism
in 1455,

long before Nostradamus
was born.

However, this is a time
when anti-Jewish sentiment

runs riot across Europe.

There's no proof, but some
believe that, like many others,

his family continued
to practice Judaism

in the privacy
of their own home.

This would have been
incredibly dangerous,

and that desperate
need for secrecy

could have had a serious impact
on the young Nostradamus.

[narrator] Responsibility
for Nostradamus' education

was assigned
to his grandfathers,

both very well-educated men
and court physicians.

From his family, he learned
mathematics, astrology,

Greek, Latin, and Hebrew,

and about medicine
and herbal remedies.

He could also have learned
about his Jewish heritage,

and of the mysticism involved
with the Kabbalah in particular.

His grandfather
was a known Kabbalist.

This is a practice
that emerged from Provence

where Nostradamus was born
and his family lived.

[narrator] There are elements
of Kabbalah that claim

to allow followers
to communicate with the divine

by entering
the spiritual realm.

If the young and curious
Nostradamus was introduced

to this secretive
quasi-occultist knowledge,

then a fascination
with visions of the future

would represent
a natural next step.

It was a fascination
for many at the time.

But it wasn't just Kabbalah.

There had been a mystical
awakening across Europe.

As the Catholic Church continued
to codify and regulate

people's relationship with God,

different branches
of mysticism

often sprung up in Spain,

Italy, and France as a response.

[narrator] New religious
thinking questioned

what the best route
to a connection with God was.

Could scripture be
only a guide?

Could people connect with God
without a priest?

Their thinking slowly eroded

the absolute authority
of the church

as the conduit
for God's will on earth.

[Fern] It's not like
these groups

were on every street corner,

but the information was there

if you knew where to find it,

and it's easy to believe
that an intelligent young man

seeing this alongside his
knowledge of Jewish mysticism

began to experiment
with ways of talking to God

through a new
and personal medium.

But all that
was still to come.

There are no records

of a young Michel de Nostradame

prophesizing anything.

If he had an interest
in that world,

we don't have a record of it.

[narrator] Instead,
Nostradamus entered

the University of Avignon
at just 14 to study medicine.

But only a year later,

an outbreak of plague

closed the university.

Deprived of his studies,

Nostradamus set out

on an alternative path,

where he began to display

signs of the man
he would become.

[Fern] So, he spends
the next four years

as a traveling apothecary,

traveling around
the French countryside

discovering herbal remedies
and local cures.

It's possible that
during these travels

he experimented
with hallucinogens.

There are lots of naturally
occurring mushrooms

and several plants from
the nightshade family

that have such effects and
had been used

for centuries
to treat ailments,

and as an apothecary, it would
have been his stock-in-trade.

[narrator] These naturalist
methods were not

strictly approved
by the church

and practitioners were often
accused of witchcraft

or being in league with Satan,

especially if they looked
for answers in the occult.

Nevertheless, Nostradamus
continued to learn.

[Fern] He would definitely have
had access to substances

that induce trances
and hallucinations--

there's even a possibility
that Nostradamus

snorted nutmeg
for that effect.

If on these travels, a teenage
Michel decided to experiment

with his own ability
to induce visions,

then that would have been
another step on his journey

to the Nostradamus
we know of today.

[narrator] After four years
in the French countryside,

a more self-assured and
emboldened Nostradamus emerged.

Now, alongside the background

of his mystical
and astrological teachings,

he added his newfound knowledge
of the natural world

and returned to his studies
with strong opinions.

He was no longer a boy

but a man to be reckoned with.

At 19, he's accepted into
the University of Montpellier

to complete his
doctorate in medicine

and has some run-ins
with the Catholic priests.

This is very telling.

It shows how deep-seated
Nostradamus's belief

in the power of astrology
had become.

[narrator] In 1525,

Michel de Nostradame
completed his doctorate

and was awarded his license
to practice medicine.

It was then that he Latinized
his name to Nostradamus,

as was common
for academics of the day.

What Nostradamus did next
was actually pretty amazing.

He traveled through
France and Italy

using his formal education
and experience as an apothecary

to treat plague victims--

and he had an incredible
success rate.

[narrator] The common methods
for treating plague

in the 1520s

ranged from toxic
mercury potions

to bloodletting
and dressing patients

in garlic-soaked robes.

Nostradamus encouraged
quite radical prescriptions.

He made people wash themselves
and their clothes,

he got them to spend time
in fresh air,

he even made the authorities
remove corpses from the streets.

This may all sound obvious now,

but back then it was
close to revolutionary

and came from his first-hand
experience of what worked

and what didn't.

[narrator] In an
early indication

of what was to come
in his prophecies,

Nostradamus had skillfully
blended science and medicine,

the natural and traditional.

The ability to combine
knowledge with faith

would be the key
to his later success.

[dramatic music playing]

He even invented a pill

for people who suffered
from the plague.

It was made from rose hip,
which we now know

is very high
in vitamin C,

and by all accounts,
it worked wonders.

His survival rates were
pretty extraordinary,

at a time when doctors' cures
were just as likely to kill you

as the disease itself,

and turned Nostradamus
into a celebrity,

an authority,
someone to be trusted.

[narrator] As Nostradamus
became revered

for his medical prowess,

the wealthier citizens
of Provence began

to provide for him financially

and exciting new
opportunities arose.

By the 1530s,
Nostradamus's reputation

has got him an invitation
to work with

an incredible scholar,
Julius-Caesar Scaliger,

one of the greatest minds
of the Renaissance,

and he's only 28.

At this point in time,

there's still no record
of him ever having made

a single prediction.

[narrator] But everything
was soon to change

for Nostradamus.

His life would never
be the same again.

[bell tolls]

[Fern] In 1534, Nostradamus
suffers a crushing loss.

Both his children
and his wife die,

we think most likely
from the plague,

and this destroys
his reputation.

How can you be a miracle doctor

if you cannot save
your own family?

Very quickly, everything
falls apart for him.

There's little record of what
he did for the next four years,

wandering in the wilderness.

Then suddenly,
he pops up

in 1538, accused of heresy.

[narrator] Having lost
everything that mattered to him

in such a short space of time,

the 35-year-old Nostradamus
must have felt

the world was against him,

and now, finally,
the church was too.

He had spent his entire life

flirting with heretical
beliefs and behavior.

It could come as no surprise
when a charge was finally made.

Whatever or whoever
was behind it,

it was clear
that all the goodwill

that Nostradamus had had
just a few years before

had now vanished,

and if found guilty of heresy

by the brutal Inquisition
in Toulouse,

the outcome would be
prison or death.

Nostradamus
quite sensibly fled.

[narrator] Exact records
are hard to find,

but we know he was abroad
for at least six years.

In that time, he roamed Europe.

It's thought he could have
visited the mystic citadels

of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Did this lead to his
spiritual awakening?

We do know that at this time,
he had the encounter

with the monk
who would become pope,

the first prophetic vision
attributed to him.

You've got to look at
where he was in his life.

He's in his mid-30s,
he's lost everything:

his wife, children,

the respect of the public,

his financial support,

his mentor, and his home.

Enough to challenge anyone's
connection to the world

as they had previously known it.

Was it really
a psychic awakening?

Was it a rage at the world?

Or was it just
entrepreneurial opportunism?

We don't know,
but what we do know

is that
when he returned to France,

things started moving in a new
direction pretty quickly.

[narrator] Nostradamus
was headed one way:

towards mysticism, the occult,
and the life of a seer.

But how did his visions
come to him,

and why did he decide
to share them?

When his wife and children
died, he lost everything:

his money, his status,
the trust of the people.

Accused of heresy,
he fled France for years

and returned a changed man.

The man who would make
the most famous and infamous

predictions of all time.

But how did he make them,
and what do they mean?

When he returns to France,

it's like
he's a different person.

Looking at his life as a whole,

you clearly see
that from the age of 15,

he traveled all the time.

He was always on the move,
never settling down.

But in his early 40s,

he decides to settle
in Salon-de-Provence

for the rest of his life.

The man that left France
didn't return.

This is a different Nostradamus.

Sometime between 1544 and 1547,

he marries a wealthy widow,
Anne Ponsarde,

and they go on to have
six children.

He's financially secure again,

he's back helping
plague victims.

But behind the scenes,
he's moving more and more

towards mysticism
and the occult,

and he's begun
his practice of scrying.

[narrator] Scrying
is the mystical act

of staring into something
such as fire, water,

or mirrored surfaces,
inducing a trance

that will bring on visions.

[Karen] Scrying has been around
for thousands of years,

and it's known across
almost all civilizations--

just like the prophecies
scrying is used to produce.

As long as there's been
a concept of the future,

there have been people
trying to predict it.

[narrator] And nobody
is more famous

for predicting the future
than Nostradamus.

It was now that all
his learning came together,

stretching back to his
childhood and Kabbalah.

[tense music playing]

[Karen] We believe
he studied Kabbalah,

and we think he studied other
branches of mysticism too.

What we know for sure is that
he's got an incredible knowledge

of the power of herbs.

And if he brought
all that knowledge together

and truly focused,

then it's likely he would know
how to summon visions--

whether through meditation
or hallucination--

and that those visions would
become his prophecies.

[narrator] The Kabbalah
places an emphasis

on finding your
spiritual center

so your mind can enter
a different metaphysical realm

and communicate
with the divine.

This would form the basis
for his prophecies.

Nostradamus would stare into a
bowl of water filled with herbs

for hours until he fell
into a trance-like state

and experienced visions.

[Karen] Modern psychology
suggests that these visions

are Nostradamus accessing
his own subconscious.

You have to remember this is
a man who's lost everything--

his family, even--

and here he is having visions

of a future filled with death,

destruction, rage, and fury.

Not really surprising, is it?

But that doesn't mean
they didn't also hold

some universal truths.

[narrator] Nostradamus'
prophecies are

famously doom-laden,

but could it be a simple matter
of the reader's interpretation?

[Karen] You look at almost
any set of prophecies

from almost any culture
from any period in history

and they all tend to focus
on the end of days.

In the Bible,
many of the prophecies

speak of flood or famine.

We've got hundreds of different
dates for the end of the world

and millions of people
believing in them.

[narrator] Although
he had already published

a book of herbal remedies
and a medical text,

Nostradamus's popular writing
began when he published

his first almanac at the
beginning of January 1550.

It was filled
with factual information

about the year to come--

and his predictions.

And fittingly for the man,

it came at just the right
time in history,

when the written word was more
popular and accessible

than ever before.

If Nostradamus had been born

just 50 years earlier,

there's every chance
we'd never have heard of him.

The prophecies
and their accuracy aside,

just thinking about
his notoriety,

he owes it all
to the printing press,

which has become more
affordable and widespread

by the time he's writing.

[narrator] Just as he had
with his revolutionary

plague treatments
more than a decade earlier,

Nostradamus demonstrated
a rare ability

to use his broad scope of
knowledge and life experience

to seize an opportunity.

Whether the almanacs
owe their success

to the printing press,
or the printing press

was an opportunity
Nostradamus seized

to regain fame and status,
we'll never know.

Either way, there is little
doubt it was instrumental.

[Karen] Without it, his work
couldn't have reached

such a wide audience.

Nostradamus's prophecies were
printed hundreds of times

and read by thousands--

different interpretations,
different countries,

so many potential outcomes...
which is really helpful

if you're being as vague
as he was about the future.

[narrator] Nostradamus' almanacs
were published every year

until his death in 1568,

sometimes two or three a year.

As the years went on,
they became

more and more focused
on prophecy.

The public couldn't get enough.

This was an age when the unknown
really was unknown.

The general population
still believed in angels,

in a literal devil on earth,
possession, witchcraft.

The idea that this man
could predict the future

really wouldn't have seemed
that far-fetched.

I mean, look at how many people
still check their horoscopes

every day, even now.

His academic peers
were dismissive--

but it didn't impact his sales
one bit.

Conspiracy and prophecy sells.

It's always sold.

He who tells
the best story wins.

And Nostradamus had
an incredible story.

[narrator] The success
of his almanacs

and the popularity
of his prophecies

led to his first book,
"Centuries," in 1555,

and the distinct writing style
he has become famous for.

[Karen] The religious
fervor of the period

played straight into
Nostradamus's hands.

The fact that all books
had to pass through

the Catholic Church's censors

gave him the perfect cover.

Any hint of magic or witchcraft,

not only would his works
remain unpublished,

but he risked being
charged with heresy.

You could even infer from the
fact they were published at all

that his prophecies were given

some kind of tacit
church approval--

not a bad endorsement
in those days.

[narrator] Not only were the
church the ultimate censors

of all literary works,

but they also acted as judge
and jury on all heresy.

The zealotry of the 16th-century
Inquisition was legendary.

While Nostradamus was
on good terms with the Church,

the logic behind making
his predictions cryptic

is clear.

[Karen] Even if he believed
his visions had told him

exactly what was going
to happen,

I can't see him just printing
that in stark detail.

He wouldn't want to risk
being accused of using magic,

and this is where
his knowledge of the Bible

and of judicial astrology
would have been useful.

Being cynical, you could say
it was good cover

if you're just making things up

and want to make it easier
for people to believe you.

[narrator] And many
did believe him,

including the French queen,
Catherine de Medici,

who made Nostradamus a central
part of the royal court,

not only as physician
to her family,

but her own personal soothsayer.

[Karen] If you think
of Nostradamus as a brand,

this is the biggest celebrity
endorsement you could ask for.

She's powerful, popular,
and respected throughout Europe.

By his association with her,

and his inexplicably
accurate prediction

of Henry the II's death,

his fame, his brand,
spread right across Europe--

and he capitalized on that
with a bestselling book.

[narrator] "Centuries" is
filled with predictions

that covered
the next 2, 000 years,

but the principals behind
Nostradamus's prophecies

were the repetitive
nature of history.

[Karen] Major cities burn,
empires collapse,

once-great leaders fall
from grace or are murdered.

You study these long enough
and patterns emerge,

you write enough of them down,
and you're going

to get some right.

There's a good reason

almost none of
his predictions are dated.

He studied the Bible;

he studied
the Roman histories of Plutarch,

he identified
what kept happening

and he said it would
happen again.

Can we really be surprised
that it did?

[narrator] Using past
behavior as a model

for what the future holds

can be a very useful tool,

and one that is still utilized
by respected scientists today.

There's a cultural
evolution professor

at the University of Connecticut
called Peter Turchin,

and in 2010, he predicted

that 2020 would be a year
of serious civil unrest

across America--

and so it was.

The Black Lives Matter protests

and police violence.

The Trump impeachment
and disputed election.

But Turchin didn't
disguise it in verse,

and he didn't use star charts.

He used a quantitative analysis
method called cliodynamics

to look at historical cycles.

It wasn't a prophecy
but a scientific prediction--

and he was right.

[narrator] Is it possible that
rather than being a seer,

Nostradamus was centuries
ahead of his time,

combining an innate
understanding of human nature

with historical cycles?

It would be easy to argue
that Nostradamus was

just a data scientist
with a profound understanding

of the repetitive
nature of history

and societal patterns
of behavior,

but that doesn't explain
how he directly named

Pasteur and de Gaulle,
or London in '66.

[narrator] Printing presses
of the day were set by hand

and mistakes were often made.

A misplaced apostrophe
or a letter out of place

would change the meaning
of a sentence.

We have no way of knowing

if the prophecies we read
are the ones he wrote,

but this doesn't dilute
the impression they make

on those who read them.

[Karen] To pull off
any illusion,

you need a willing audience.

Human nature seems
to lend itself

to belief in higher powers,
higher planes--

whether that's gods or seers.

We want to believe there's
some guiding principle,

someone or something
at the helm.

I'm no soothsayer,

but people's behavior
is predictable,

and Nostradamus seemed to have
an innate understanding

of what people wanted to hear.

[narrator] From an audience of
thousands in the 16th century,

the numbers that believe in
Nostradamus and his prophecies

have grown
to the millions today,

thanks to countless printings
of his work--and the internet.

[Karen] The internet is
the perfect breeding ground

for Nostradamus believers.

The last time "The Prophecies"
went to number one

in the sales charts
was just after 9/11,

when his prediction
of the attack

spread like wildfire
on the internet.

[narrator] "Two brothers
torn apart by chaos

while the fortress endures.

The third big war will begin
when the big city is burning."

[Karen] Which is an eerie
prediction, right?

The two brothers are
the Twin Towers,

New York, the big city.

It sparked massive wars.

It's all there.

The only problem was,

he didn't write it.

[narrator] That quatrain
was written

by Canadian student
Neil Marshall

in 1997.

He wanted to prove
that by writing

in the style of Nostradamus,

you could generate
plausible prophecies

and make it appear you had
predicted the future.

His point was proven
in devastating fashion

just four years later.

[Karen] The evidence that
it wasn't Nostradamus

was there for anyone who cared
to look, but they didn't,

they didn't want to know
it wasn't true.

People still share
that prophecy today.

It was debunked 20 years ago.

People want it to be true,

and you can't convince them otherwise.

[narrator] Could it be
that all of Nostradamus's

accurate prophecies
were just chance

based on scientific notions
of repetition?

Are they beneficiaries
of generous translations

and misprints?

Are we the victims

of an entrepreneurial con

committed four centuries ago?

How certain can we ever be

that Nostradamus actually
witnessed the future?

The quatrains of Nostradamus,

forecasting nightmare scenes
of death and destruction,

have captivated people around
the world for over 450 years.

Some are frighteningly accurate,

others, frustratingly vague,

but the mysteries
of their truth

have endured since his death

almost 500 years ago.

Can our team finally
establish the truth

and answer the question:

Nostradamus.
Visionary or fraud?

Oh, it's 100 percent nonsense.

[narrator] Dr. Mark Altaweel
is a data scientist

and archaeologist.

[Mark] It doesn't mean
he set out to fool people,

but every single example
of him predicting the future

you can easily debunk.

Let's take Henry the II,

the prediction
that the young lion

would overcome the older one.

Well, almost every
nobleman in Europe

considered themselves a lion,

it was one of the most common
animals on a coat of arms.

It says on the field of battle
in a single combat.

Jousting is neither
of those things.

This was so vague, it could've
been applied to 1000 noblemen.

When it happened to the king,

he probably couldn't
believe his luck.

This critique of his work

is nothing new.

Even at the time
of publication,

some of Nostradamus's
contemporary critics

condemned his predictions
as willingly obscure,

arguing that
they could be twisted

to fit multiple narratives.

He didn't predict Hitler;
he talked about Hister,

which is the Latin name
for the Danube.

De Gaulle means "the Gaul."

He could have been
talking about

anyone of Celtic origin.

He could have just been
talking about

Julius Caesar,
who ruled the Gauls.

You can go through all of them
doing this

without ever
stretching yourself.

[narrator] Mark uses
machine learning

and analytical systems

to discover hidden patterns
in human behavior and events.

[Mark] There's a theorem called
law of large numbers.

It states that with
a large enough sample group,

any highly improbable result
is more likely to be seen.

In other words, if you predict
something that is possible,

then no matter
how unlikely it is,

given the fullness of time
and sheer numbers

of events,
it could eventually happen.

[narrator] Skeptics argue
that all of Nostradamus's

942 published quatrains
are so vague

that they could be applied
to almost anything

for 2,000 years after he died.

With that span of history,

the law of large numbers
comes into play.

[Mark] In the 450 years
since they were published,

there are maybe a dozen
that you can make

a strong argument for. So,
with all the world to aim at

and everything that's happened
in that time,

he's getting one right
every 30 to 40 years?

I'd say that according
to the law of large numbers,

he's fallen way below average.

[narrator] Nostradamus's
ability to obscure

and present information
based on probability

is a tool still commonly used
by "seers" today.

[Mark] Fortune tellers,
mediums, psychics.

These guys rely on the audience
to fill in the gaps,

they're searching for the
probability and plausibility.

Some use science or math,
others, not so much.

But all are hoping
to get something right,

and by getting
even a couple right,

you might believe
in their power.

It's the application
of probability that led

to Nostradamus's success.

He just applied it
to the entire world

and the entire future--

it's hard to be wrong
when you do that

since almost anyone can get
something right sometimes.

[narrator] Could it be
that Nostradamus just had

an understanding of probability
and human behavior?

That his predictions
were nothing more

than telling the public
what they wanted to hear?

[Mark] He was clearly
an intelligent man,

and he would have noticed that
people like to see themselves

as part of something greater.

He would've also noticed that

we like to take generalizations

and pick out the pieces
that apply to us.

We don't notice the ordinary,

but we do notice
the extraordinary,

and these prophecies
were extraordinary.

In 942 predictions
made 450 years ago,

there are a dozen
that we've made to fit

significant events since.

That means there are 932
predictions that are wrong--

that's a terrible hit rate.

But we focus on
the things he got right,

as they are extraordinary.

[narrator] According to some
students of Nostradamus's work,

the generation of the quatrains
may have even been random.

[Mark] There's an author
called Peter Lemesurier,

and it's fair to say
he's a believer.

He's written ten books about
him. He's not a skeptic.

But he does employ
critical thinking.

He believes that
the quatrains were written

through bibliomancy.

[narrator] Bibliomancy
is the practice

of predicting the future
by interpreting

a randomly selected
passage from a book,

most commonly the Bible.

In Nostradamus's case,
he would use

astrological calculations
to predict

a recurrence of these events.

[Mark] So if that's true and
we can immediately rule out

him seeing into the future,

then why are we still
talking about him?

In my opinion, it's luck.
Pure chance.

He got enough right early enough
and captured an audience

and that's how legends grow,

the truth always comes
second to the story.

[narrator] Lemesurier
has also poured scorn

on some of the writing
and translations

in the quatrains.

Many skeptics believe

that it is a combination
of these factors

that have led
to the enduring legend.

[Mark] There's
a phrase I like about

drawing a bullseye
around the arrow.

If you shoot first
and then draw the target,

you can never miss,
and that's how it feels

with some of
those true believers.

When you've got
vaguely worded predictions

and the whole of history
to pick through,

you can make the prediction
fit the event.

Take for example the quatrain
that people say predicted

the assassination of JFK.

[narrator] "The ancient task
will be completed,

from on high, evil will fall
on the great man,

a dead innocent will be
accused of the deed.

The guilty one will remain
in the mist."

[Mark] A generous
reading of that says

that a bullet comes from on high

to kill a great man

and that Lee Harvey Oswald
was innocent

while the conspirators
got away with it.

Nostradamus has done it again.

[tense music playing]

Equally, though, there is
literally nothing in this

that specifically refers to any
event in that assassination.

What's an ancient task?

Through history, people have
pinned crimes on dead people

and guilty people
have got away with it.

What's so specific?

This happens all the
time in history.

It's the same with the verse
they claim predicted

Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[narrator] "Near the gates
and within two cities,

there will be scourges the like
of which was never seen,

famine within plague,

people put out by steel,

crying to the great immortal
God for relief."

[Mark] So yes, a scourge
the likes of which

has never been seen,
yep, definitely that.

Crying to the great immortal
God for relief?

Yes, some survivors
would have been, certainly.

But no mention of fire, clouds,
powerful winds, blinding lights,

buildings being wiped
from the face of the earth--

that sort of thing
that we all think

when we see the devastation
caused by the atomic bombs.

They've drawn the bullseye
around the arrow.

What you've actually got there,
factually accurate,

is two cities.

Everything else
is generalizations.

Famine within a plague?

That was a man who knew plague.

He's not going to use that
as a metaphor.

When he said famine or plague,
he meant famine or plague.

Sometimes, the ones you see
are so badly translated

that it seems intentional.

[narrator] A different
translation of the prophecy

of the Great Fire of London,

thought to be more accurate
to the original,

is certainly less specific.

"The blood of the just will
commit a fault at London,

burnt through lightning
of twenty threes the six:

The ancient lady will fall
from her high place,

several of the same sect
will be killed."

That's not compelling, is it?
He doesn't even mention '66.

It's still vague over a period
of 2,000 years, but he doesn't.

He specifically mentions
lightning, but not bakers,

and we know the Great Fire
began in a bakery.

Ancient lady could mean
almost anything,

and all built objects
were usually feminized.

It could be in any city--
church, bridge, or indeed,

an actual ancient lady.

Like so many of his verses,
it's mostly nonsense

and people have seized on
the presence of London,

burnt, and a variation on '66.

Nothing else fits,

he's asking the audience
to fill in the gaps.

[narrator] So was Nostradamus
just the beneficiary

of generous interpretations

and the repetitive nature
of human history?

There is a mystery
that remains, however.

If predicting the future is
a simple matter of probability,

how has Nostradamus remained
the most famous seer

of all time?

[Mark] There are many
factors at play

as to why Nostradamus's
legend has endured.

It's an accepted fact that he's
got these massive things right,

so to be mentioned
in the same breath as him,

you'd have to prophesize
something equally big,

and it would have to be
widely known.

There was a lot less noise
back then.

In 1555, there were maybe 50
to 100 million printed copies

of books in existence,

and a lot of those were Bibles.

Today, there are
130 million different books,

hundreds of billions of copies,

and we've got TV,
radio, the internet.

If you're not already famous,

then your chances
of being heard

in all that noise
are minuscule.

[narrator] But even
amongst all that noise,

there are still
modern-day soothsayers.

[Mark] Every astrologer, palm
reader, and fortune teller.

Every futurologist, share
dealer, insurance provider,

and betting pundit believes
they can see the future.

Just because they're not
staring into a fire

and writing mysterious poems
doesn't mean they've done

anything different
to Nostradamus.

They're all looking
at the past

and re-interpreting it

for the future.

They're all doing it for
the same reason: money.

Nostradamus didn't have to
write, publish, and sell a book,

he could have just written them
down or told people.

Anyone with a reasonable
interest in humanity

might want to warn of calamity
without charging people.

[narrator] Which brings us
to the final question

asked by any visionary:

When is the world going to end?

[Mark] According to Nostradamus,

the world's going to end
in 3797.

So, he's lucky that
the Maya were wrong about 2012

and Stoffler was wrong
about 1524 and 1528,

and the Jehovah's Witnesses
were wrong about 1941.

I don't blame anyone for being
intrigued and captivated

by the story of Nostradamus.

[narrator] Our team has finished
their investigation.

The mysteries of Nostradamus
have endured for over 450 years

and will surely still be
studied for centuries to come.

But don't go selling
all your possessions in 3796,

only to find out
you've got nothing in 3797.

[narrator] We've seen some
prophecies that appear

so accurate as if to be
the words of a seer.

[Fern] He isn't telling us
about the future,

we're searching for the present
in his words.

[narrator] But we've also seen
that a life of tragedy

may have shaped a worldview
that imagined a future

reflecting his own pain
and suffering.

[Karen] Nostradamus is
a reminder of how little

we've changed as humans.

Despite all the advancement,
all our knowledge,

we're still as captivated
by him today

as they were in France
500 years ago.

[narrator] Were his visions
the result of a true connection

with a different astral
and spiritual plane,

a cynical, money-making
exercise,

or simply a re-telling
of a past we all need to hear?

He did predict the future, no
doubt, but so can any of us.

All you have to do
is have time on your side.

[dramatic music playing]

[soft, tense music playing]