So, in order to predict a future event, what minimum requirements must be met? We must indicate 1) the location of the event in space, 2) the location of the event in time, and 3) the circumstances of the event. A prediction must include these three elements to some degree - the more specific the description of these elements, the better the prediction.

Much of what I have just said may sound rather obvious on the surface, but unfortunately, we must make these points clear before proceeding to determine whether certain people have the power to predict the future.

As far as Noel Tyl's predictions from his book, "Predictions for the New Millennium," are concerned, many are vague with respect to specific dates, locations, and/or events and, therefore, do not qualify as valid predictions. In addition, many of his predictions have a 50/50 chance of being correct such as his prediction that Boutros Boutros-Gali would not be elected to a second term as Secretary General of the United Nations (true) and his prediction that Jacques Chirac would not serve a second term as president of France (false). However, the remaining predictions, which include clear dates, locations and detailed descriptions of the events, are specific enough to judge scientifically for accuracy:

1. "President Assad (of Syria) should complete Peace Treaty with Israel in July 1996."

2. Saddam Hussein is overthrown sometime in 1996 or before July 1997. His successor will be "ousted in the late summer of 1997."

3. "It is difficult to see the pope surviving successive health crises in January, June, and November, 1997."

4. Between October 1997 and June 1998, the President of the United States could be assassinated. If not, he will be killed in 2004.

5. United States will lift its trade and diplomatic embargo with Cuba between the Spring of 1997 and January 1, 1998.

6. Prince Charles will gain permission to remarry late in 1998.

7. "Beginning in January-February 1998, Iraq will begin its era of freedom and new alliances with the world including the United States at the latest between February and August 2000."

8. "In February-May 1999, Japan will apologize to the United States for its aggression in war in this century."

9. "...in spring 1999 or August 2000, the new pope, John Paul IIs successor, may be taken out of office by premature death."

10. "New (Japanese) government (Congress and Prime Minister) will be installed by February 1999."

11. Oslo Agreement prevails. Completion date for Palestinian permanent status talks is May 4, 1999.

12. China will announce plans "to begin phasing out communist rulebetween April 1999 and January 2000."

13. "Between June 1999 and September 2000, the United Nations as we know it will be no more."
14. The Deutsche mark becomes the standard currency of the European Union by January-February 2000.

15. "Iran will begin to use nuclear energy (become an atomic power) between January 2000 and 2001."

16. "There will bea complete overhaul of (the Swedish) government coerced in the middle of 2000."

17. Australia will gain independence from England in November-December 2001.

18. "Social Revolution (in Japan) will take place in several stages: beginning in October-November 2002 becoming militaristic in April 2003."

19. North Korea and South Korea will reunite "between April 2003 and September 2004."

20. "In September 2003-April 2004the papacy as it has been for two millennia, now with the world smaller and closer, will be no more."

Not surprisingly, all of the predictions above are incorrect. Syria never signed a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1976, Saddam Hussein was not overthrown prior to July 1997, the pope is still alive as of this writing, and the United Nations still exists. In fact, not a single specific prediction from this book that he claimed would happen before 2003 has happened as of this writing. Noel Tyl should be run out of town as a fraud. Instead, he is selling more books than ever and conducting lectures around the country. (Not surprisingly, "Predictions for a New Millennium" is not available for purchase from his official website! )

But this is only half of the story. An even greater problem arises when we consider that his predictions were not only completely wrong in what he claimed would happen, but he completely missed the big events that actually happened. He did not predict the deaths of Princess Diana or Mother Teresa; he did not predict the Monica Lewinski scandal; he did not predict the hanging chad election fiasco of November 2000; and he did not predict the Iraq War of 2003. But more significantly, he failed to predict the most important event of the past 100 years - the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

It is important to understand that in the world of psychic predictions, it is the statistical accuracy of such predictions that serves as the scientific basis for supporting or refuting the claims. As demonstrated above, we can demonstrate conclusively that Noel Tyl does not have the ability to predict future events. Case closed. However, Noel Tyl is not the only psychic/astrologer/prophet to make erroneous predictions about the future. As the following list illustrates, Mr. Tyl is in good company:

1. "In 2000 Prince Charles will fly in the space shuttle, where he will announce his engagement to Camilla Parker-Bowles." - Gloria Goldberg, Astrologer, January 2000

2. "The Spirit tells me - Fidel Castro will die - in the 90's." - Benny Hinn, Televangelist, December 31st, 1989

3. "Christ will return in 1936." - Herbert W. Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, 1934

4. "In the year 1999, and seven months, from the sky will come the great King of Terror. He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols. - Nostradamus

5. "In the final years before the new Millennium, the sea will cover the western part of our nation." - Edgar Cayce, 1934

6. "The decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it." - Hal Lindsey, Christian Author, 1980

7. An earthquake will "destroy Los Angeles and San Francisco" in May 2000. - Wanda Tarwinska, Psychic, January 2000

8. "Some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, Christ will come and bring all His saints with Him" - William Miller, Seventh Day Adventist Founder, 1840

9. "In 2000 Democrats will win the election with Bill Bradley, with close competition from the Reform Party." - Sylvia Browne, American Astrologer, January 2000

10. "I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King." - Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:28, 33 AD

11. "A summertime oil crisis (in 2000) will produce gas station lines longer than 1973." - Pier Rizutto, Italian Psychic

12. Two jumbo jets "will slam into each other in the air over the Atlanta airport. Germano de Oliveria, Mexican Astrologer, March 2000

13. "Three terrorists from the Middle East will be arrested at JFK Airport in April (of 2000)," police will discover a nuclear bomb in their baggage and President Clinton will go on TV "warning Americans that other bombs may have slipped into the country undetected." - Isabel Almazen, Russian Astrologer

Cleary, the art of precognition is not an exact science. Or I should say that precognition is not an exact pseudoscience. In any event, whether these individuals base their talents on the stars, gifts from God, or direct revelation from God himself, we must conclude that either the stars are out of alignment, or even more preposterous, perhaps God tells lies. Or perhaps we should use Occams razor and state that, in all probability, these men and women are frauds.

However, even more puzzling is the fact that all of these prognosticators, just like Noel Tyl, missed one very important event that should not have escaped notice - September 11, 2001.

The bogus horoscope at the top of this page illustrates an important question: Did anybody, past or present, predict the events of 9/11/01? Judging from the incredible magnitude of the event - from the number of lives lost to the impact on world history - it seems clear that psychics, astrologers, Nostradamus, and perhaps even the Bible should have easily predicted this event. But did they?

Did the Bible Know?

A recent poll found that 20% of Americans believe the Bible predicted 9/11. (It is also true that many Americans, including 38% of non-mainline Protestants, believed that the Bible predicted the Y2K disaster that never occurred.) Most biblical experts in the know point to the following verse from Isaiah, Chapter 30:

"On the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, the light of the moon will be like that of the sun . . . from afar in burning wrath . . . [he] will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing, and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them."

On a superficial level, this certainly sounds convincing. There was indeed a great slaughter on 9/11 and we did see two towers fall. However, does this qualify as a bona fide prediction of the future? The answer is no.

Why? How can I have the audacity to doubt the Bible? It is quite simple, really. You see, if these verses actually predicted 9/11, then we would have known about this tragedy before it happened. But we didn't. Not a single person on the planet was able to predict that the Twin Towers would be hit by airplanes and would then fall to the ground based on these passages. In order for a statement to be considered a valid prediction, it must predict an event before the fact, not after the fact.

As explained earlier, in order to have a valid prediction, three elements must be present, the exact date of the event(s), the exact location of the event(s), and a detailed description of the event(s). The quote from Isaiah mentioned above misses the mark on all three: there is no date mentioned, there is no location mentioned and only a vague description of the event, therefore, this is not a prediction. There are no other passages from the Bible that perform any better in this department.
Experts, such as Michael Shermer, call this a "post-diction," not a prediction. When major historical events occur, biblical scholars scour the Bible to find clues that the writers knew of these events thousands of years ago. Vague and nebulous statements are then explained to predict such events. But because these explanations are posited after the fact, they are not in any way to be confused with predictions. The fact is this: The Bible did not predict the events of September 11, 2001.

This brings us to Nostradamus the enigmatic and prolific writer from 15th century Venice who produced volumes of alleged predictions in the form of poetry known as centuries and quatrains. For example, Nostradamus indicates the existence of three future anti-christs the first two of whom are usually considered to be Napoleon and Hitler. Experts on Nostradamus refer to the following excerpts as evidence of his knowledge of Napoleon:

"An Emperor shall be born near Italy.
Who shall cost the Empire dear,
They shall say, with what people he keeps company
He shall be found less a Prince than a butcher."

"From a simple soldier he will rise to the empire,
From the short robe he will attain the long.
Great swarms of bees shall arise."

"A great troop shall come through Russia.
The destroyer shall ruin a city."

The "experts" state that Napoleon cost the empire dearly in both manpower and political strength, was considered to be a butcher even by his supporters, adopted a beehive as his imperial crest, and his forces got bogged down in Russias icy winter. Unfortunately, as far as the really important information is concerned, there is none. For example, no dates are mentioned, and while there are specific locations indicated, descriptions of the events are too vague to be of any predictive value. Napoleon also falls short with regard to the predictions that have been attributed to Hitler the predictions are much too vague to be of any use.

But is it possible that he predicted 9/11? Shortly after the attacks while I was employed at a small office in Aurora, Colorado, a woman called me over to her computer with a startling announcement. She said, "Check out this email I just received! Nostradamus predicted 9/11!" She had this huge smile on her face because she was well aware of my skeptical nature and she was sure that she had the evidence to prove me wrong. I walked over to her computer and read an email with the following statement:

"In the year of the new century and nine months, from the sky will come a great King of Terror. The sky will burn at 45 degrees. Fire approaches the great new city. In the city of York there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning."

I have to admit that I was stunned. I tried not to express this, but I could not believe my eyes. For the first time ever a prediction seemed to include all of the key elements the exact time (new century and nine months,) location (45 degrees is the latitude of New York City,) and circumstances (city of York, fire, Two brothers torn apart, and the big city is burning) surrounding a future event. It was all here in this little email. As I stared at her computer, I knew that this prediction was impossible, but I could not come up with a reason why. She asked me, "What do you think? Pretty good huh?" But then, like a bolt of lightening, the explanation hit me. I said to her, "This is a hoax. Nostradamus never wrote this."

I was 100% sure of this although, at the time, I had no proof. No one had ever made a prediction with this level of accuracy before so, clearly, such a prediction was impossible. That evening, I spent hours on the Internet trying to locate the quatrains in question, but to no avail. But soon it became obvious that some of these statements came from the writings of Nostradamus, but out of sequence and out of context. Other parts of this prediction were just plain fabricated. In any event, my suspicious were proven correct: it was, in fact, a hoax.

But as is usually the case, Nostradamus experts began to come out of the woodwork and point to other quatrains as evidence that he knew of the disaster to come:

"Earth-shaking fire from the center of the Earth will cause the towers around the New City to shake: Two great rocks for a long time will make war, and then Arethusa will color a new river red." - Century 1, Quatrain 87

"Suddenly arrived, the terror will be great, the principal players in the affair are hidden away: And the lady in the hot coals will no longer be in sight, thus little by little will the great ones will be angered." - Century 5, Quatrain 65

"At five and forty degrees, the sky will burn, fire approaches the great new city, immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up, when they want to have verification from the Normans." - Century 6, Quatrain 97

Once again, this sounds very convincing. Phrases such as "towers around the New City," "the sky will burn," and "the lady in the hot coals (Statue of Liberty?) will no longer be in sight" all sound like predictions of some sort. But, of course, just as was the case with the alleged predictions of the Bible, these ramblings of Nostradamus are also best placed firmly in the post-diction category. Once again, nobody who read these quatrains prior to 9/11 could have known about the disaster that was to occur. These quatrains did not predict this event because the date, location and exact sequence events were not mentioned. Vague statements such as these can be applied to almost any great newsworthy event in any large city, especially if a fire of some sort is involved.

Is it true that professional psychics and astrologers did not know about 9/11 ahead of time? Is it true that the very people who make their living by predicting the future did not know that this monumental event was going to occur? And what about average people? Did anyone else know?

In June of 2001 - three months before 9/11 - during a taping of the BBCs Kilroy Show, a psychic by the name of Valerie Clark made the following prediction in front of a live television audience:

"I had this dream a while ago and I thought it was a bombing at the World Trade Center. In my dream I was at the World Trade Center wandering the streets I was in some sort of barricade when the building blew up. At the same time this plane went down behind it. In my dream I was not sure if the plane had gone into the building."

Some individuals have regarded this to be an uncanny prediction of the WTC attack. Also another astrologer by the name of Louis Turi made the following published prediction in June of 2000:

"Full Moon - September 2, 2001 in the sign of Pisces: Because of Uranus/Neptune and Saturn impact these days, expect some surprising developments to take place in the near future. Pisces rules the Middle East, religions, drugs, alcohol, deception, the difficult abortion dilemma, the Pope, the church, oil, etc. This energy can affect sophisticated electronic equipment and produce bad aeronautics accidents. Just be ready to provide as much help as needed and do not lose faith in the future. More devastating forces producing destructive weather and flooding in the very near future. Expect a general feeling of hopelessness plaguing the media and the church authorities. Deceiving news will take place and will affect many of us; some desperate souls will fall for Neptunes suicidal tendency and some will end up in jail or a mental institution. This trend will be very difficult for some but do not lose faith in yourself and trust the Universe; Get all the help you can to fight Neptunes depressive tendencies, keep busy and let go of the past, life must go on. Expect shocking news with volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes etc. Expect anything surprising, even incredible to take place soon and see the real power of both Uranus, the planet of sudden release of energy in action and Saturn forcing the government to take drastic actions. "

Also, psychic Da Juana Byrd made the following prediction in December of 2000:

"A new bomber like the uni-bomber will hit the US within a month and a half to a year and a half. The bombings may surprise us all as to whom is chosen."

Finally, on September 19, 2001, eight days after the attack, the Houston Chronicle published the following report:

"The day before terrorists attacked New York and Washington, a fifth-grader in a Dallas suburb told his teacher World War III would begin the next day, school officials have told the FBI. The boy approached his teacher on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and casually told her: "Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States, and the United States will lose."

What are we to make of these alleged stories? Do these qualify as actual psychic predictions of future events or is something else going on?

Once again, it is important to look at these predictions carefully to determine if the events of 9/11 had been foretold. Did these predictions state the time, location and circumstances of 9/11? In the case of Valerie Clarks prediction, the location was precise, but the date of the crisis is not mentioned and the exact nature of the circumstances is only partially correct. In fact, a close reading of this prediction indicates that the psychic believed that the building was most likely bombed in a manner similar to the original WTC bombing of 1995, and in fact, this actual event could have spurred this dream. The mention of a plane is interesting, but so many other important details are missing that it is clear that this was not a prediction. For instance, the vision says only one building exploded, not two. Also, it mentions nothing about the collapses. Finally, for all of us who watched the terrible tragedy on television, the planes clearly approached the buildings, hit the buildings, and then exploded. In other words, it would be impossible for anybody to see one of these planes approach the building and then conclude that it somehow fell behind it while the building exploded. Since the details are not sufficient to have allowed anybody to know that a tragic event was about to occur on September 11, 2001, this is best categorized as a coincidence, not a paranormal event. (As I will explain in the future, coincidences are statistically more common than most people think.)

With regard to the prediction made by Louis Turi, the phrase, "expect anything surprising, even incredible to take place soon and see the real power of both Uranus, the planet of sudden release of energy in action and Saturn forcing the government to take drastic actions," really says nothing although many people have tried to read into it a legitimate prophesy of 9/11. But obviously, there is no date mentioned, no specific location, and not even a vague description of the circumstances. Very weak.

Regarding the prediction by Da Juana Byrd, she succeeds at specifying a time-frame of sixteen-or-so months but she has all of the other details wrong. The terrorists did not resemble in any way the Uni-bomber, a city is not mentioned, and the circumstances of the attack are not detailed. Again, 9/11 does not act as the fulfillment of this prophesy. Interestingly, she explains this inaccuracy like this:

"While doing my predictions in December (2000), I did not say that the twin towers would come down but that was what I saw at the time. Instead I chose these words, 'A new bomber like the uni-bomber will hit the US within a month and a half to a year and a half. The bombings may surprise us all as to whom is chosen.' I kept hearing that the uni-bomber sent his packages and I guess the terrorist did the same in the form of a plane that was used as a bomb."

She would have us believe that she actually knew ahead of time that the Twin Towers would fall to the ground but she failed to mention it. How convenient! But, fortunately for her, her loyal fans accept this explanation although they have chastised her for hiding the truth. Perhaps she should instead be chastised for not knowing the truth.

Regarding the prediction made by the fifth-grade boy, the timing is perfect having been made the day before the terrorist attacks and the magnitude of the destruction could warrant being described as the start of WWIII. However, because nobody of any importance has called this event the beginning of WWIII and because the details are not sufficiently correct to judge this as an accurate prediction, we must, again, consider this to be nothing more than an impressive coincidence. But it is also true that this story has not been corroborated.

The psychics mentioned above engage in the time-tested practice of making "shot-gun" predictions as is evident with the Louis Turi prediction. Just as famous cold-readers such as John Edward of "Crossing Over" fame use this method to score 1 hit for every dozen-or-so misses, Turi throws out so many guesses that it is inevitable that something could occur that would resemble parts of earlier predictions. But the key feature of all of these predictions is that they failed to accurately predict the events of September 11, 2001. Had they actually predicted these events, the outcome would have been completely different.

The more important question is this: Why didn't the professional psychics, astrologers and prophets of the world predict 9/11? Why were the professional astrologers able to produce horoscopes on September 10, 2001 regarding the careers and love-lives of people in the New York City area, yet these same horoscopes mentioned nothing about the incredible loss of life that would occur the next morning? Surprisingly, Noel Tyl admits that the experts failed to predict September 11, 2001:

"That same question is still with us: how do we explain; better, how do we anticipate collective suffering? How do we get a grip on the occurrence of accidents, for one person or for many -just look at what faces astrology in the midst of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Is this occurrence part of what we should see ahead of time?fine astrological minds are bringing all techniques into the discussion, into the quest, to capture definitively, after the fact, the terrorist attack(s) on the world Trade Center. We are pained that there are no easily delineated answers; after all, as our critics will say, 'Shouldn't astrology have been able to see THAT coming?'"

Psychic Lisa Dale Carter responded to this question as follows: (Originally posted on September 12, 2001):

"Today was one of the most shocking and horrific days of my life. Though my friends and family at home in NYC are all okay, I grieve for the loss and suffering of so many people in NYC, DC, and around the country. Astrologers are supposed to predict horrendous events like this one. We are supposed to be constantly looking for portents of danger and disaster. The truth is, we never know in what form and exactly when powerful positioning of the planets will bring disaster. Our best guess has got a wide time frame, especially when dealing with outer planetary aspects and configurations."

Stephen Wagner of www.paranormal.about.com puts it this way:

"Why did all of the other well-known psychics - those we know from their frequent television appearances and websites - fail to foresee the events of that awful day? Does their failure mean they do not truly have psychic powers? Not at all. Whether they are really psychic or not may be open to argument, but failure to predict doesn't necessarily mean they are fakes. A psychic cannot be expected to be able to predict any given future event, no matter how significant it might be. The nature of such gifts, which we do not fully understand, itself seems to be unpredictable."

Of course, we do understand the nature of such gifts: they are fraudulent. The very people who are paid to know the future should have known the future. While the fact they did not is not in and of itself proof that such abilities do not exist, it is powerful evidence to that conclusion. In fact, if thousands of the worlds astrologers, psychics, and prophets did indeed possess the power to know the future, warning bells would have been ringing around the world that something big was going to happen. An event of this magnitude could not have escaped the notice of true psychics. It is impossible to believe in the ability of people to know the future based on the knowledge that, in this very important time in history, they failed to do so.

Have psychics, astrologers and prophets ever foretold any major event? In other words, did any person or persons have sufficient knowledge of any future event to know when and where a future event would occur? Incredibly, the answer is no. But, as I explained before, the burden of proof is not on me to prove that this is the case. The burden of proof is always on the individuals making the claim. We know that they did not predict 9/11 and I have also demonstrated that they flubbed up dozens of other predictions. But what evidence do they present to support the notion they actually have predicted future events?

Believers of the Bible claim that the Old Testament predicted many important events of the New Testament including the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact, however, there is evidence to suggest that the writers of the New Testament actually fudged many of the details in order to make the story of Jesus life appear to match the prophesies. For example, the Gospel of Mark does not mention the virgin birth - while the Gospel of Matthew written much later - seems to have inserted this element to match prophesies. In addition, the exact location of His birth, Bethlehem, according to Matthew, matches Old Testament prophesy while Mark and John say that Jesus was born in Nazareth. These disagreements seem to indicate a willingness on the part of Biblical writers to bend the truth to match prophecies from the Old Testament. But also, the writers of the Bible were not too concerned with the modern concepts of "fact checking" and "verification of sources." In other words, when the facts are carefully analyzed, no evidence exists to suggest that the Old Testament (or New Testament for that matter) foretold any future event.

Again, regarding the most famous seer of all time, Nostradamous, does any evidence exist to suggest that he accurately foretold any future event ahead of time? Well, for every major event, someone somewhere will claim that Nostradamus predicted it. For example, shortly after the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on return to Earth on February 1, 2003, Puerto Rican philosopher and author Jaime Marcano Montanez discovered what he claims is a prediction of the disaster from page 81 of Centuries:

"New rain, sudden and impetuous shall suddenly thwart the two armies; Stone, sky, fires make the sea stony, The death of seven, earth and land sudden."

According to Dr. Montanez, the phrase "New rain, sudden and impetuous" refers to the falling debris that rained down on the southern part of the United States. Further, the phrase "shall suddenly thwart the two armies" refers to the military forces of both the United States and Iraq which were poised for war at the time of this tragedy. Finally, the phrase "The death of seven, earth and land sudden" refers to the death of the seven space travelers and the sudden fall to earth.
Again, as convincing as this may sound, nobody could have predicted that the Space Shuttle would disintegrate upon re-entry to the Earth in 2003 based on this excerpt and, therefore, it is not a prediction, but is a post-diction. Also, the two armies of the U.S. and Iraq were not thwarted because of the Columbia disaster and, finally, the sea was not made stony.

What about other major events in human history? While I could go on for many pages outlining the post-dictions associated with Nostradamus including the death of President Lincoln, the Clinton/Gore 2000 Presidential race, and the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash, can actual predictions be found? Nope - not a single one. His writings were too vague and imprecise to pinpoint any future event. 

Various psychics and astrologers have claimed to have predicted future events. Silvia Browne claims to have predicted 9/11 yet she cannot provide any evidence to back up this claim, Jeane Dixon claimed to predict the assassination of John F. Kennedy but produced contradictory evidence, and psychic Tamara Rand claimed to have predicted the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan by John Hinkley Jr. until it was later discovered to be a hoax. In truth, no scientific evidence exists to demonstrate that any person alive or dead has or had the power of precognition.

What would the world be like if these phenomena actually existed? In a world where precognition existed:

1. Psychics would be banned from casinos. Instead, in our world, no psychic or astrologer has ever been banned from any casino.

2. Psychics would be banned from trading on the worlds financial markets. Instead, in our world, no psychic or astrologer has ever been banned from trading on any U.S. stock exchange.

3. Psychics would be the wealthiest people on earth because they would win a part in any state lottery they entered. Instead, in our world, psychics and astrologers struggle to make meager livings on the streets of cities such as New Orleans and San Francisco or in run-down shacks with signs reading, Palm Reading While You Wait - $29.95.

4. Psychics would hold top positions in Fortune 500 companies providing key financial forecasting and future economic analysis. Instead, psychics are taken seriously only by shady branches of the U.S. Government and readers of the National Enquirer.

In short, the world would be a completely different place.

But finally, lets take one more look at the book, "Predictions for a new Millennium" by Noel Tyl. What would the world be like if his predictions were actually correct? Well, here in 2003, we would be quite impressed that he correctly predicted peace between Syria and Israel in 1996, predicted the fall of Saddam Hussein by 1997, predicted the death of Pope John Paul II in 1997, and the death of his successor by August of 2000. We would be so impressed, as a matter of fact, that a copy of his book would likely be found in just about every household because he would be labeled as a prophet. But more importantly, because he predicts the assassination of President George W. Bush in 2004, every person in the U.S. and possibly the world would be waiting with anticipation to see that dreadful year approach. Can President Bush fight fate and survive through the November elections and then make it to 2005 or must he have no choice but to fall victim to evil plans of an assassin or group of assassins? Because Noel Tyl would have proven himself by correctly predicting the other events in his book, the death of the president would be assured and we would all be waiting to see events unfold.

But instead, in our world, the name Noel Tyl is largely unknown outside of astrology circles, and because he has failed to prove his ability to truly know the future, this situation is not likely to change.

And thats my prediction!