23 December 2023 , 07:17
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The late Bulgarian mystic Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, otherwise known as Baba Vanga, has had many predictions attributed to her.
Some of those incldue Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 to the election of an African American as the 44th President of the United States.
Loyal disciples of the clairvoyant have taken it upon themselves to convey her prophecies, as there is no written record of them. However, some of her supposed divinations about 2023 seem to have come eerily true – though others, less so.
Baba, also known as the ' Nostradamus of the Balkans', is believed to have had such strong visions that 85 per cent are believed to be correct. The clairvoyant is said to have gained her powers after she lost her sight during a deadly storm when she was a child. It was reported that she was swept off her homeland in Bulgaria which caused her to get too much sand in her eyes.
The famous mystic reportedly predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the rise of Donald Trump (Newsflash)What Baba Vanga got wrong
Designer babies
Baba is said to have predicted the emergence of so-called "designer babies" grown in laboratories, with parents being able to select (and reject) their physical traits.
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In December 2022, biotechnologist Hashem Al-Ghaili released an 8-minute-long video that presented a laboratory purportedly able to "incubate up to 30,000 lab-grown babies per year". The project, dubbed Ectolife, does not yet exist – but those troubled by genetic engineering (or indeed eugenics) have reason to be concerned by the facility's as-of-yet hypothetical "Elite Package" offering, which allows prospective parents to "edit any trait of [their] baby through a wide range of over 300 genes".
Baba's prediction, then, is worryingly plausible – but not quite correct.
A devastating nuclear disaster
Baba is also said to have predicted a major nuclear power plant explosion in 2023 that would see toxic clouds settle over Asia.
Thankfully, 2023 hasn't seen any such event – but with a month still to go, there's time yet for a disaster akin to Chernobyl in 1986 (coincidentally, Baba's followers credit her with foreseeing that, too).
And with the climate crisis only deepening, "toxic clouds" - albeit not of the nuclear variety - are already enveloping some parts of Asia. For example, a dense smog described by scientists as resembling a "nuclear winter" overhangs Chongqing in China.
What Baba Vanga got right
A calamitous solar storm
Baba is said to have believed that a solar storm would rock the Earth. Solar storms occur when disturbances on the sun emit solar flares and large clouds of highly magnetised plasma, interfering with the Earth's own magnetic field.
And today (1 December), US forecasters warned that a massive solar storm was due to hit Earth, causing radio, internet, and GPS fluctuations.