Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: A Renaissance prophet

who foresaw World War II.

A Siberian mystic

who warned about the fall of the Russian Empire.

And a divine encounter

between three small children...

and the Virgin Mary.

Throughout recorded history, numerous people

have claimed to receive glimpses of the future

that allowed them to predict--

and sometimes influence--

events that had not yet come to pass.

Is it really possible to foresee what tomorrow may hold?

And if so, can we use this information

about what lies ahead for the benefit of mankind?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Astrologer and physician Michel de Nostradamus

publishes a volume of four-line poems called quatrains.

Readers at the time are confused

by the author's use of multiple languages, word puzzles,

and what was even then considered antiquated syntax.

But perhaps even more baffling

is the volume's title Les Prophéties--

The Prophecies.

JOHN HOGUE: Nostradamus had become

initially famous as a almanac writer.

You've got to understand

that this is during the time of the Printing Revolution

and he was one of its first best-selling authors.

And then he embarked on a history of the future,

which would look at everything

up to the year 3797 AD,

nearly 1,800 years from now, and beyond.

SHATNER: The Prophecies was initially met with

outright skepticism and derision.

Many believed Nostradamus to be either a fraud or mentally ill,

possibly both,

likely due to the fact that one of his verses

scandalously foretold of a particularly gory death

for Henry II, the king of France.

HOGUE: Nostradamus made a prediction about Henry II

dying in a jousting accident.

Quatrain 35 read that,

"A young lion would face the old in traditional combat.

"He shall be pierced through a gilded cage.

Two wounds made one."

The joust happened exactly as he foretold it.

Both men had lions on their shields.

Large shards went through the gilded visor of the king,

one penetrated his forehead into his brain,

the other in between his eye and socket, destroying his eye.

And he died of infection of the brain

ten days later, an agonizing death.

SHATNER: After the king's death, Nostradamus's reputation

as a seer of the future grew rapidly.

Which was, at the time, not necessarily a good thing.

It is well known that Nostradamus

concealed the nature of his prophecies,

which at that time was very politically incorrect

and could have gotten him in a lot of trouble.

He would come into great conflict

with the Church if he put himself on a pedestal

and be like Noah or Moses or people like this.

SHATNER: Despite the controversy, The Prophecies

eventually became one of the most widely read books

in the world.

It both astounded and terrified readers

with its predictions about dreadful events to come.

Is it possible Nostradamus received his prophetic visions

because he was in touch with a higher power?

It's an interesting theory

and could help explain how Nostradamus

was able to see and know things

that would not happen for centuries.

Things he was trying to warn us about.

With World War II wreaking havoc

throughout Europe and the Pacific,

it wasn't only the latest news

from the front lines making headlines,

but also Nostradamus and his prophecy

centering on the rise of a man named Hister.

HOGUE: What triggered his international fame

was a reference five times in his prophecies

about a man named Hister

with a Gothic "S," which has a "T" cross to it,

another "push push nudge nudge" perhaps in his work.

Hister is the ancient name of the river Danube.

Adolf Hitler grew up on the river Danube.

Nostradamus had a pattern of using a place as a person.

The river is a code

and the things that are said

in the other parts of the prophecies

indicate that it's a man.

The man who is called the "captain of greater Germany."

SHATNER: Is it possible

Nostradamus predicted the rise

of one of the most evil men in history?

According to many who have studied these quatrains,

the answer is yes. And as evidence,

they point to other things he foresaw.

Things that a person who lived and died in the 16th century

could never know would one day exist.

It's happened many times for me

when I want to just slap the book shut

and say, "Oh, come on."

And then names suddenly come out.

"A man named de Gaulle will lead France three times,"

and it's factually true.

Charles de Gaulle led the free French,

led the provisional government,

and then finally in his final years

was president of France three times.

And that's one of hundreds of things I can cite.

How does he do this?

MITCH HOROWITZ: Nostradamus is one of the most enduring names,

perhaps the most enduring name,

in post-Biblical prophecy.

His quatrains have been applied to hundreds

upon hundreds of events throughout history.

And people continue to feel

that they can learn what's around the next corner

by studying his quatrains.

HAMILTON-PARKER: Nostradamus fascinates us because it's perhaps

part of our fear instinct, isn't it?

When we're in difficult times, we turn to the seers,

we turn to the prophets to try to find out,

can they give some insight into these chaotic times we live in,

particularly in today's time?

SHATNER: If it's true that Nostradamus

was able to predict so many things

with such incredible accuracy,

why aren't we scouring his works in order to prevent

the next natural catastrophe or world war?

Perhaps because, as scholars of Nostradamus

have to admit, of the thousands of prophecies

he made over the course of his life,

only a small fraction have actually come true.

And even his seemingly accurate predictions

have been questioned.

HAMILTON-PARKER: We kind of have a double problem with Nostradamus

in some ways because some of the predictions are a bit vague

and people can project all sorts of things

into these vague predictions and then relate them

to something that's happening now.

But also sometimes they take

two completely unrelated sentences,

put them together, and it seems to relate

to something we have today.

MICHIO KAKU: The brain is a pattern-seeking,

learning machine.

It constantly sees patterns

even when they're not there.

Uh, in fact, there's a name for it-- apophenia.

We can't help it

because sometimes we were right.

Then we make leaps of logic. "What does he mean?"

"What did he really mean by that?"

And then we try to make sense of it

because that's what the brain does.

SHATNER: Are Nostradamus's predictions

merely the ramblings of a madman,

which people deliberately interpret

in order to fit history after the fact?

As with anything,

it all depends on who you ask.

HOGUE: What makes Nostradamus so relevant today

is that he's found a way

through his obscurity

to make everybody a "sleuth-sayer,"

a detective.

He understood that it would keep him topical

for four and a half centuries.

He even said that "when I'm dead,

"I will be far more famous

than I ever was while I'm alive."

SHATNER: Thousands of people gather to celebrate

the coronation of Czar Nicholas Romanov II

and his wife, the Empress Alexandra.

For more than 300 years,

the Romanov dynasty ruled the vast Russian Empire.

But Nicholas's reign would be a troubled one

during very troubling times.

Nicholas II, the last Romanov on the throne, was probably

the last person who ever should have been on the throne.

He was weak, indecisive, uh, passive.

And at the time, Russia was modernizing.

And so Nicholas was facing all sorts of challenges

from a society that wanted a greater voice

in politics and the economy.

But in fact Nicholas was dictatorial,

authoritarian, in many ways very brutal.

And he insisted on plunging the country

into what would become the First World War...

...and was never able to sort of guide

the political institutions into the modern era.

And-and he failed in just an epic, epic fashion.

SHATNER: Less than ten years into his reign,

Czar Nicholas was confronted

with worker strikes and military mutinies.

Russians across the country were upset

that while the aristocracy lived a life of luxury,

average people struggled to make ends meet.

With civil unrest building momentum throughout the empire,

the Romanov family lived a secluded life

in the capital city of St. Petersburg.

In 1904, Alexandra gave birth to their fifth child,

a boy whom they named Alexei.

But the joy of having an heir apparent

to the Romanov dynasty was quickly overshadowed.

Alexandra gives birth to a son.

Glory, glory, glory.

Except the son has a hereditary medical condition.

Hemophilia.

He lacks a component in his blood

that allows it to clot.

So, to understand Alexandra, you have to

understand this is one of the reasons

she will become drawn to mysticism.

SHATNER: In order to ensure Alexei's well-being,

Nicholas and Alexandra sought the help

of a mysterious Siberian mystic

named Grigori Rasputin.

SPENCE: Grigori Rasputin was born around 1869.

And he was a Strannik,

a kind of traveling preacher.

Not a priest, not a monk,

but what he really was, was a shaman.

Because what he's claiming is that,

"The spirits have spoken to me

and they have given me powers."

So, what are the powers he claimed to have?

Well, the two most important-- prophecy and healing.

SMITH: In the early 20th century,

Russians as a whole

were obsessed by the notion

of mystics and peasant holy men.

And that's the way Rasputin was finally able

to gain access to the palace

and to meet Nicholas and Alexandra for the first time,

because they were, they were also fascinated

by people like this.

SHATNER: Beginning in 1906,

Rasputin acted as an important faith healer for young Alexei

and a trusted prophet for Czar Nicholas.

From the very beginning that Rasputin

makes contact with the Romanovs and is embraced

by them as a friend-- it's the actual word they use--

people become jealous, they become envious.

You have courtiers and mighty aristocrats

who don't get to go to court, they would say,

"Here this 'dirty peasant' gets to go in.

Why don't I get to go in?"

Which was the sign of an aristocratic family.

By late 1916,

there's already been several attempts

on the life of Rasputin,

and he begins to come to this realization

that he's a marked man.

He is not going to live much longer.

SPENCE: Rasputin tells the empress,

"If I'm killed by the nobles,

"that will mean the end of you and your dynasty,

and none in your family will live more than two years."

Now, that's a pretty scary prophecy

because, you know, he had mystical powers

from the forces beyond.

SHATNER: Shortly after making his dark prediction,

Rasputin was invited

to the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg,

where several Russian noblemen

poisoned, shot,

and ultimately drowned the Siberian mystic

in the freezing waters of the Moika River.

PAUL STONEHILL: It took a lot of effort to kill Rasputin,

but it was a treacherous murder, and they did kill him.

It was at a very bad time

because there was nobody else to give advice to Nicholas II.

But it was not as bad as what came after.

SHATNER: After 300 years of Romanov rule,

Czar Nicholas II is overthrown

by the Communist Bolsheviks.

In the aftermath of the revolution,

Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their five children

are exiled to the remote town of Yekaterinburg.

At that time, the decision is made to execute the family.

They are awakened at night

and forced to go down to the cellar.

The person in charge,

he says, "By the decree of the people,

"to prevent your liberation,

you are to be executed,"

and shoots the czar.

-(gunshots) -The czar is killed immediately

and so was his wife,

and of course the royal family.

Rasputin prophecy of doom was absolutely correct.

He was killed by aristocrats,

and after that, less than two years, Czar was gone

and his family was gone.

SHATNER: Did Rasputin somehow channel mystical powers

that allowed him to foresee the execution

of the Romanov family?

Perhaps.

But what's even more extraordinary

is that there is another Russian who was also said

to have predicted the fall of the Romanovs

more than 300 years earlier.

After a period of lawlessness and civil war,

Mikhail Romanov becomes czar of Russia.

Mikhail is the first czar of the Romanov dynasty,

but he also faces an immediate threat to his power.

Because one of his rivals who was killed in the war

left behind a four-year-old son

named Ivan Dmitriyevich.

And some Russians think that young Ivan

is the rightful heir to throne.

SMITH: The new czar Mikhail Romanov

is not going to let this Ivan,

who's only four years old,

survive and be some sort of pretender to the throne

around which various factions might mobilize.

So he sends forces to seize Ivan

and has this little boy taken out

and hanged publicly.

SHATNER: News of the cruel execution shocked the country,

and no one was more affected than Ivan's mother,

Marina Mniszech,

an influential noblewoman

who had been imprisoned by the new czar.

When she learned of her child's gruesome fate,

Marina reportedly uttered a vengeful prophecy

about the collapse of the Romanov dynasty.

There's a story that when Marina heard about

the gruesome hanging of her four-year-old child,

that she said that,

"As your reign began

with the hanging of little Ivan," her son,

"so shall your reign end

with the death of a male son to inherit the throne."

And in fact, 300 years later,

the Romanov dynasty would then end

with the death of Alexei,

the hemophiliac son of Nicholas and Alexandra,

after the revolution.

STONEHILL: Marina was obviously devastated,

and with the prophecy that she authored,

this bloody prophecy against the Romanovs,

it seemed that she had this insight

into the future of Russia.

And so you have two people that were

around the Romanovs, one way or another.

And their destinies

was to have precognition

which played out in a very bad way.

SHATNER: In the hills located just outside

this small farming village,

three young children are walking through a sheep pasture

when, suddenly, a bright light appears in the sky.

They are shocked to see what looks like

a heavenly angel floating above them.

The children believe that this otherworldly figure

is the Blessed Virgin Mary,

the mother of Jesus Christ.

These three shepherd children,

Francisco, Jacinta and Lúcia,

they are out in the field,

and Our Lady, the Blessed Mother,

appears to them.

When Our Lady began speaking to these children in Fatima,

she told them that she would come back

on the 13th of each month.

And those children,

they immediately told this story

of this apparition to their parents.

CARGILL: When these children go and tell this story

to the people of the town,

they don't believe them. Three little kids,

you know, shepherds up there in the mountains,

they're not gonna believe them.

People said, "You're lying."

SHATNER: Despite the skepticism, the children insisted

that they were being visited by the Virgin Mary

on the 13th of every month.

In fact, they reported that the apparition

had specifically told them

she would return to perform a miracle

on October 13th.

For months, the residents of Fatima

wondered whether this extraordinary prophecy

would come true.

And so, on October 13, 1917,

thousands of people gathered with the children

to see if the Virgin Mary would appear.

And the crowd witnessed

an incredible celestial event

that came to be known

as the Miracle of the Sun.

SYMONDS: There was a crowd of anywhere between 70,000

to 100,000 people on that day,

and it had been pouring rain.

Everybody was drenched.

And everybody looked up.

The clouds had parted, they could see the Sun,

and the Sun was going all around the sky.

And then it was coming crashing into the Earth.

(astonished gasps)

People were crying, they were screaming,

some were openly confessing their sins.

But then, gradually, the Sun went back

to its place in the sky.

And when everybody looked around,

their clothes and the ground were completely dry.

So, after all of this had happened,

that changed the opinions of many people

because you can't explain those things.

If they had doubted, now they believed.

SHATNER: After conducting a thorough investigation,

the Catholic Church declared that the Miracle of the Sun

was an event that was "worthy of credence."

Also taken seriously were visions and prophecies

the Blessed Mother shared with one of the children.

CARGILL: At one point, one of these children, Lucia,

was given three secrets.

The first was that she got to see

what hell looked like.

To see how horrible it is.

And the second was that there would be

an end to the war-- this is World War I--

but that another war would come.

This would be World War II.

SYMONDS: Our Lady said, "When you see a night

"illuminated by a great light in the sky,

"know that it is when

"God is about to punish

the world for its crimes."

Well, that great light happened in January of 1938.

It was reported as an aurora borealis.

Even The New York Times had a story on it back then.

And shortly thereafter, Hitler annexed Austria,

and some believe that to be

the real beginning of World War II.

SHATNER: For the faithful, the second secret

was further proof that the children had received

prophecies from the Virgin Mary.

However, for decades, the third and final secret

was kept in a sealed envelope in the Vatican.

But then, on the 64th anniversary

of the first vision of Fatima, an event took place

which ultimately led to the third secret being revealed.

CARGILL: This secret

remained sealed until May 13, 1981,

when Pope John Paul was in Vatican Square,

and an assassination attempt was made on his life.

He was shot and very close to death,

but he survived.

SHATNER: After recovering from his gunshot wounds,

Pope John Paul II decided to open the envelope

containing the third secret.

Because he believed that the attempt on his life

taking place on the anniversary of the Fatima vision

was not a coincidence.

LOONEY: The third secret of Fatima talks about this vision

of a man in white who is walking about a city.

And then he arrives at a cross, and then

at this cross he is shot with bullets and dies there.

A lot of those who have looked at this third secret of Fatima

really see that this man in white

has to be the Holy Father.

SYMONDS: If the bullet went a fraction one way or the other,

it would have killed the pope.

And because it happened on May 13th,

which is the anniversary of the first apparition

of Our Lady of Fatima,

he believed that it was the Virgin Mary

that had saved his life.

Pope John Paul II saw this as verification

of these three children,

the Miracle of the Sun,

all of it being true.

So Pope John Paul II then beatified two of the children,

and they became saints.

And the third one, who recently died,

is now in the process of canonization

and becoming a saint.

Now, does this prove the children's story?

We don't know.

But a lot of people,

from a long time ago and to today,

believe this story.

SYMONDS: The town of Fatima has become

a huge place of pilgrimage,

and we're still, to this day, trying to make sense of it.

And as we put those pieces together, we realize

the importance of Fatima is only being

more proven over time.

More than a century after the visions at Fatima,

many Christians remain firmly convinced

that the Virgin Mary gave those three small children

information about the future.

But there are other premonitions that reportedly come

not from heavenly sources but rather from people

who have passed away.

Like in the case of one woman who believes she received

a lifesaving warning from Princess Diana.

SHATNER: Interior designer Clare Henry is driving to her home

in the county of Hampshire, nearly 100 miles from London.

It's a trip that she's made

more times than she can remember.

HENRY: So I'm sitting in the car.

I was driving back from London to Hampshire.

Uh, it was about the eighth of February,

uh, 1998.

It was six months after Princess Diana had died.

I met Diana when I was a member of the Harbour Club.

And I would meet her many times

when I was working out in the gym.

And I wasn't a close friend. I wish I had been.

But we used to have a giggle together.

And we had a lovely time,

and she was a very dear soul.

Full of light, full of love.

There was something about her.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

SHATNER: As Clare pulls onto the M27 motorway,

she notices that the highway is shrouded in fog.

HENRY: I came across a fog wall.

It had been raining in the morning,

and when it rains, you know, you often get

damp weather in England and you get foggy evenings.

Especially in the West Country.

SHATNER: Instead of pulling into the fast lane,

as she's done countless times before,

Clare slows down and proceeds with caution.

And then Clare suddenly has a strange

and disturbing vision.

She sees a woman's face.

But not just that of any woman.

She sees the face of Princess Diana.

And suddenly I see this vision.

And I was very surprised, very shocked

to see the face of Princess Diana.

Just here, literally here in front of my face.

And because I see her face,

and I put two and two together.

Diana killed in a car crash in the tunnel.

In a Mercedes.

I suddenly realized that Diana's trying to tell me something,

and something is about to happen in front of me.

And I need to pay attention and I need to change

what I normally do.

So I had a very, very, very short time to think about

what I was going to do next.

I shot across, left, towards the hard shoulder,

and I kept on going, and all of a sudden

I hear this awful sound.

(tires screeching)

(crash)

And the sound was metal on metal...

...and breaking glass.

I realized there's an accident.

I just remember passing this barrage of cars.

And I couldn't believe how glass didn't hit me.

It was a pretty big pileup.

And then I stopped 'cause I realized

there's nobody next to me, there's nobody behind me.

And nobody got out of that accident.

I was the only one

who got out of that accident.

And if I had done what I normally do that day

and gone straight into the fast lane,

I don't think I'd be sitting here today, to be honest.

SHATNER: This strange ability to anticipate danger

before it happens may seem like a far-fetched notion.

But if not for seeing the face of Princess Diana,

Clare Henry believes that she would have met

a rather sudden and tragic end on the highway that day.

Was the vision that she claims to have seen

simply a coincidental figment of Clare's imagination?

Or was it something more?

Clare had a glimpse of the future

in that one instant, which is exactly the time

she had a vision of Princess Diana warning her,

"This is not your time to die."

Be careful. Get off the road now.

Clare and Princess Diana may have been just friends

at the gym, but perhaps there was a deeper,

stronger connection on a spiritual level.

On a much higher level.

A bigger story, so to speak.

MICHAEL DENNIN: I think many of us have had that experience of,

you know, your hair tingling

or ducking just before something's coming.

And if our brain is good at interpreting it

without us knowing, we can get a premonition

and get out of harm's way.

But at the end of the day, science doesn't really have

a good explanation of this yet because we haven't studied it

in the ways I think that needs to be done.

(monitor beeping steadily)

CORY: Sometimes premonition

comes from what we call our spirit family.

They are communicating with us from the other side,

giving us messages

that something is about to go wrong.

Because premonition is coming from our higher consciousness,

it is not part of our normal awakened state.

It is coming from another dimension

beyond this human reality.

SHATNER: Can people really receive information

about the future from the other side?

Perhaps further clues about mystical premonitions

can be found by examining the story

of a neuroscientist who claims that

she can see the future in her dreams.

SHATNER: Cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge

settles into bed after a long day.

It's a night's sleep that begins like any other,

until she experiences

a strange and disturbing dream.

MOSSBRIDGE: This dream was horrible.

I was taken to someplace in the Middle East.

I didn't know where.

I met this man.

He shows up sometimes in my dreams.

He's like a guide.

There was this outdoor building. It was mosque-like

in that it was built out of stone,

and there were breezeways.

It was the middle of the day. People were praying.

SHATNER: In the confusing fog of her dream,

Julia pieces together an unsettling picture.

It seems that her guide is desperately trying

to warn her of something that is going to happen.

Something dire.

MOSSBRIDGE: And he's showing me this event.

There was rubble because there was a terrorist explosion

when people were praying.

And he showed me this writing.

It was Arabic.

There were the letters for "I" and "S."

And I knew that stood for Islamic State.

SHATNER: But before she can awaken herself from her nightmare,

she realizes he still has one more message to deliver.

MOSSBRIDGE: He called the place we were in "Kyuck Kyuck."

He kept saying "Kyuck Kyuck,"

and I didn't know what that meant.

Since I was a kid, I have had precognitive dreams.

Usually they're describing an event

that happens the next day, the next week, the next month.

So when I woke up, I wrote it in my dream journal

because that's my habit.

I've never had a precognitive dream

of something horrible like that

on a major world scale.

It shook me.

Later in the day, I got the news report

of a bombing in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

I figured, ugh, that was the "Kyuck Kyuck."

I had it almost right but not quite.

This happened during noontime prayers.

Responsibility was claimed by ISIS, Islamic State.

I felt heartbroken because I saw it happen.

SHATNER: Dreams have long been known

to reflect the dreamer's subconscious mind.

Desires, anxieties, long-forgotten memories

all bubbling to the surface.

But precognitive dreams?

Is it really possible that dreams,

like the ones we have every night,

can actually predict the future?

KAKU: When we take a person who's dreaming

and put him in a brain scan machine,

we begin to realize something very interesting.

Blood flow to the front of the brain

is turned off for the most part.

Second, blood flow goes to the emotional part of the brain,

and you start to have nightmares.

You start to have fears.

You imagine the future or have a premonition.

Dreams are important because it allows us

to articulate the fears and premonitions that we have

in the unconscious mind.

And then we're able to evaluate it with the conscious mind.

SHATNER: As unbelievable as it may have seemed

to her scientific mind,

Julia firmly believed she had seen the future

before it happened.

Having been in this position before

and regretting not doing anything about it,

Julia wasn't going to let the same thing happen again.

In fall of 2017, I had another one of these

world stage-type dreams that felt precognitive,

and that did not feel good.

There was a cruise ship.

And there were those cartoon, sort of, creatures

on the cruise ship.

I thought, "Oh, no, Disney."

And then, after that, there was a bridge structure.

It was this arching-- it was actually quite beautiful--

this arching bridge structure,

and the concern in the dream was,

that's where the explosion would happen.

And that scared me.

I'd never seen a bridge like that.

So I googled the shape of the bridge,

and the first thing that shows up

is the Coronado Bridge in San Diego.

I remembered that I'd promised myself

that I was going to

go to authorities, even if I felt stupid.

MULLEN: I was detailed to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force

in San Diego, California.

Julia contacted somebody within NCIS,

and my boss got word of it

and said, "Hey, just look into this."

I knew very little, if anything, about precog. I was curious.

I knew from the very second that I started talking to her

that there was no ulterior motive.

When she gave me the information,

she was very specific on the location and the time.

She had actionable information

and wanted somebody to run with this,

to prevent something that she saw in a dream.

Most cops don't like using information

that they can't explain.

And precog is something that is unexplainable.

But if this is something that would actually work,

why not give it a try?

The Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego

is one of the big things that we try to protect,

along with all of the Navy assets.

There are always threats.

We were able to move patrol boats

to provide coverage around the bridge.

(siren wailing)

And nothing happened.

Did nothing happen because there were patrol boats,

and somebody who was looking to do

something nefarious against the bridge

basically said, "I don't want to be caught"?

Or was the attack not even going to happen?

The simple fact that nothing happened

was, in my mind, a win.

MOSSBRIDGE: If you're going to go into this world

and use this talent to create data

that can be used to prevent something,

sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

But as long as the bad thing doesn't happen,

good.

SHATNER: The International Data Corporation publishes a report,

which estimates that by the year 2022,

over $270 billion

will be spent annually on a new form of prophecy.

It's called predictive analytics.

Only this time the prophets will be made of ones and zeros...

...instead of flesh and blood.

Predictive analytics

is a fancy way of saying,

look at the data

and figure out why things happen.

Very important. Banks, corporations,

computer companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars

sifting through tons of data,

trying to find instances of causality.

If I raise the price of a product,

does my profit margin go down?

Will I go bankrupt?

In other words, corporations constantly try

to predict the future. That's the name of the game.

You predict it wrong, you zag when you should zig,

you go bankrupt.

ANNE M. CLEARY: I think predictive analytics

operate very similarly to how our brains work.

Our minds come equipped

to make predictions about the future

based on our past experiences,

and they operate very similarly.

In fact, machine learning algorithms,

the type that carry out predictive analytics,

are often called neural network models

because they're designed to mimic

how neurons work in our brains.

SHATNER: The idea of advanced computers

pulling information from the cloud

in order to predict the future may sound like science fiction.

But in truth, this idea

has been around for thousands of years.

HOROWITZ: Every culture in history

has had some concept of a universal mind.

The Greeks used to call it nous, or a "great over mind."

In Vedic tradition it's sometimes called akasha,

or a kind of universal ether.

People like Nostradamus and any seer will tune into

what we call the akashic record.

This is like the memory of all things.

It's a universal mind.

We enter it by going into a state of meditation

and connecting with the past, the present, and the future.

One of the great secrets of the mystical tradition

is that all human souls are one,

so we are part of a collective whole.

In later psychology, it has been understood

to be called a collective unconscious.

In ancient times, it was referred to

as a collective soul,

which is the collective mind of all humanity,

past, present, future.

MOSSBRIDGE: I think the people who work in this way,

what they're doing is they're tapping into

some source of information.

I don't think the question is

"Why are we able to get information about the future?"

I think the question is more like

"Why don't we get more information about the future?"

Is there really a universal, all-knowing

source of information that we can tap into

for insights about the future?

It's an intriguing prospect, and if true, hey,

it would validate the many prophecies and premonitions

that have been recorded throughout history.

Perhaps technology will one day

allow us to prove that these mysterious visions

were authentic glimpses of the future,

but until then

they will remain unexplained.

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