The mystic Baba Vanga is said to have correctly predicted the rise of ISIS, Brexit and the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York, US. Born Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova in 1911, Baba Vanga was blind since early childhood and has spent most of her life in the Bulgarian Kozhuh mountains. During her lifetime, she is said to have developed powers of clairvoyance and people would seek her out to contact dead relatives and loved ones.
Although she made many predictions during her life, Baba Vanga rose to international prominence after her death in 1996 when the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank just four years later.
Before her death, Baba Vanga predicted Kursk would be flooded but at the time many believed she spoke of the city Kursk in western Russia.
In A Short History of (Nearly) Everything Paranormal, author Terje Simonsen described Vanga as a “medium of great repute, who during her lifetime received tens of thousands of visitors from many countries.”
The book reads: “Baba Vanga also practices healing, based on a combination of medical clairvoyance and herbs.
READ MORE: Nostradamus predictions: Did the mystic predict the Moon landing?
“Over the years, she became established as a Bulgarian national icon, and even though she did not profess any religion, a kind of spiritualist church was built in her honour after she died.”
According to authors Jonathan Bousfield and Dan Richardson, legend has it Vanga was visited by an angel at the age of six.
The angel gave her the choice of sight or clairvoyance and she is said to have chosen the latter.
Conspiracy theorists today believe Baba Vanga predicted Barack Obama’s presidency in 2008, UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and even the end of the world.
Her reputation has earned her the nickname of the Balkan Nostradamus.
She said: “At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity will get rid of cancer.
“The day will come when cancer will get tied with iron chains.”
In another prediction that is yet to pass, the Bulgarian mystic is said to have warned of an assassination attempt on the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Baba Vanga also spoke of a “strong dragon” that will grip humanity in the future, although it is unclear what she meant by that.
But there is no real evidence any of these prophecies are real or will come to pass, despite claims Baba Vanga’s predictions had an 85 percent accuracy rate.
A 2012 investigation found many of the mystic’s prophecies were actually created by Russian social media trolls and not Vanga herself.
There is also no credible written record of Vanga’s supposed prophecies, unlike Nostradamus’s 1555 book Les Propheties.
And according to the website Skeptics.com, it is almost certain the prophecies people share online are nothing more than pure fiction.
The website reads: “Vanga was illiterate or semi-literate, and she apparently did not write any books herself, with staff members financed by the Bulgarian government capturing what she allegedly said.
“Those of Vanga’s predictions quoted seem to all be apocalyptic visions of the future of the world – particularly Europe – and even Mars, where a war will break out in 3005 and change the trajectory of the planet.
“On a more positive note, she predicted that in 2028 mankind will fly to Venus to search for new sources of energy – she must not have seen the toxic and corrosive atmosphere of the planet – and that by 2130 civilisations will live underwater with the help of aliens.”
