Prophecy

In premodern society, prophets appeared both informally as gifted individuals with a sudden prophetic insight or as functionaries identical with what Western scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth century called witchdoctors, priests or shaman. For an example of the prophet/seer/judge functionary, see the biblical book of I Samuel which traces the history of the last judge to rule the Hebrew tribe. Samuel was, as a child, dedicated to God and placed in the care of Eli, the corrupt judge/seer of Israel. His career includes a number of clairvoyant and prophetic (precognitive) utterances, but the most illustrative of his daily functions is pictured in I Sam. 9 in which Samuel helps locate the lost donkeys of the future king Saul.

In many instances prophetic utterances were made in what appeared to be a normal state (see the references to prophecy in the biblical book of Acts) but often occurred in an altered or ecstatic state of consciousness (see the opening verse of the book of Ezekiel, or the sixth chapter of Isaiah). In general the Hebrew prophets went through a period in which "the word of the Lord" spoke to them and then they in turn went among the populace and spoke what they had been told. We know that the pythonesses attached to the oracles of ancient Greece uttered prophetic words under the influences of natural gases or drugs, and when the magical practitioners in tribal cultures attempt to peer into the future they often attain a condition of ecstasy by taking some drug, the action of which is well known to them. But this was not always the case; the shaman often summoned a spirit to his aid to discover what portents and truths lie in the future.

Most often divination is not prophecy in the true sense of the term, as artificial aids are employed. Those aids can stimulate the psychic attunement, but most of the time appear merely as a pretended prediction of future events by the chance appearance of certain objects that the augur supposedly understands. We often find prophecy disassociated from the ecstatic condition, as among the priests of the Maya Indians of Central America, known as Chilan Balam, who, at stated intervals in the year, made certain statements regarding the period which lay immediately before them.

Prophecy may be regarded as a direct utterance of the deity, taking a human being as mouthpiece, or the statement of one who seeks inspiration from the fountain of wisdom. In the biblical writings, Yahweh desired to communicate with human beings and chose certain persons as mouthpieces. Again individuals (often the same as those chosen by God) applied to the deity for inspiration in critical moments. Prophecy then may be the utterances of the deity(ies) through the instrument of an entranced shaman or seer, or the inspired utterance of a seer who later repeats what has been learned while in an altered state (hearing the word of the Lord).

In ancient Assyria the prophetic class were called nabu, meaning "to call" or "announce"—a name probably adopted from that of the god Na-bi-u, the speaker or proclaimer of destiny, the tablets of which he inscribed.

Among the ancient Hebrews the prophet was called nabhia, a borrowed title probably adopted from the Canaanites. They differed little in function from similar functionaries in the surroundings cultures, but differed greatly in the particular deity to which they were attached. Prophets were important functionaries in the ancient Near East. Four hundred prophets of Baal reportedly sat at Queen Jezebel's table (I Kings 18:19). The fact that they were prophets of this deity would almost go to prove that they were also priests. We find that the most celebrated prophets of Israel belonged to the northern portion of that country, which was more subject to the influence of the Canaanites.

Association of prophets appeared in Israel quite early (see I Sam. 10:5) and records of such appear periodically through Israel's history. In the era after the death of Ahab and Jezebel they appear to have had some formal organization (see II Kings 2) with chapters in various towns (II Kings 2-5). They served to consolidate Elijah's victories over the prophets of the hated deity Baal. They seem to have died out by the time of the exile.

The general idea in Hebrew Palestine was that Yahweh, or God, was in the closest possible touch with the prophets, and that he would do nothing without revealing it to them. While often ignored or persecuted during their lifetime, their preserved written words were later given greatest veneration and still later canonized.

In ancient Greece, the prophetic class were generally found attached to the oracles and in Rome were represented by the augurs. In Egypt, the priests of Ra at Memphis acted as prophets as, perhaps, did those of Hekt. Among the ancient Celts and Teutons prophecy was frequent, the prophetic agent usually placing him or herself in the ecstatic condition. The Druids were famous practitioners of the prophetic art, and some hint of their utterances may be still extant in the so-called "Prophecies of Merlin."

In America, as has been stated, prophetic utterance took practically the same forms as in Europe and Asia. Captain Jonathan Carver, an early traveler in North America, cited a peculiar instance where the seers of a certain tribe stated that a famine would be ended by assistance being sent from another tribe at a certain hour on the following day. At the very moment mentioned by them, a canoe rounded a headland, bringing news of relief.

A story was told in the Atlantic Monthly many years ago by a traveler among the Plains tribes, who stated that an Indian medicine-man had prophesied the coming of himself and his companions to his tribe two days before their arrival among them.

In recent years, channeling and contactees contributed more to American prophecy than any other sources. Hundreds of channeling books have been published in the past few decades, but the majority contain unspecified prophetic content. More often than not, the predictions are about millennial earth changes and a new era of spiritual transformation and peace. Prophetic channeling by Edgar Cayce, Kryon and Elizabeth Clare Prophet are considered the most prominent. More traditional psychic seers such as Jeanne Dixon, Ruth Montgomery, Gordon Scallion, Dannion Brinkley and Lori Toye are in the forefront due to the lack of more particulars from channeled sources. Today, mass market prophecy paperbacks are just a number of hodge-podge collections of bits and pieces from Cayce, Nostradamus, Native American lore, etc. Much analysis on prophecy is rare, but works by John White and Tom Kay are considered noteworthy in their field.