In tandem with the kick-off of our Predictions 2005 shows, we revisit a few of the forecasts made by the late Hollywood psychic known as Criswell. Proffering his predictions on TV in the 1950's and 60's on such shows as Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin, and in his syndicated newspaper column, Criswell was also cast as himself in several Ed Wood films, most notably, the so-bad-it's-good classic Plan 9 From Outer Space.
In his first book, 1968's Journal of the Future, Criswell predicted the end of the world was to fall on August 18, 1999. "A black rainbow will draw the oxygen from the earth," and only the colonists on Earth's 200 space stations will survive, he wrote. While he claimed to have an 87% accuracy rating, one can see with the years of hindsight, it was something much less than that, though many of his outrageous statements still have the power to entertain. Here are a few of his forecasts from his 1969 book, Your Next 10 Years, in which he looked at the coming decade of the 70's and beyond:
- I predict the completion of a new death ray which will kill unborn children by rendering every man and woman sterile.
- I predict that there will be American political havoc in 1976, when there will be four well established political parties rather than just the two we now have!
- I predict that the sunken continent of Atlantis will arise from the briny depths of the Atlantic Ocean on May 6, 1987.
- I regret to predict an outbreak of swamp fever in our own federal capitol, Washington D.C. which could easily take the toll of 250,000 lives in a very short lived epidemic! The fatal date...the spring of 1977! Beware!
- I predict that America will have a national curfew for 10 p.m. each night starting January 1, 1974, after the Boston burning and the sacking of Bridgeport, Conn.!
- I predict we will have a purse size oxygen tank for a faint feeling or a headache...a TV set in a signet ring and a self-hypnotizer bracelet which will result in sound restful sleep with a built-in alarm clock!