Tag: psychics

Witches and miracle healers still rule roost in superstitious Balkans

It might sound weird, but even in 2010 the brooding Balkan countries can’t shake their addiction to psychics, clairvoyants, soothsayers and assorted ‘white witches’, all of which are still doing a roaring trade, from Bulgaria to Translyvania.

Every second Bulgarian who took part in a survey for the Sofia television channel BTV said they believed in supernatural powers, and especially feared a curse being put on them. Professor Ljubomir Halachev confirmed in the programme that “trust in psychic powers and second sight is widespread in Bulgaria”.

The apparently unchallengeable claim by Bulgarian clairvoyants and psychics to paranormal powers rests on the world-renowned reputation of their late peer, the seer Baba Vanga — who is claimed to have predicted, before her death in 1996, a number of world events, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the death of Princess Diana, the break-up of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US — “two American brothers would fall under attacks by birds of steel” — and the sinking of the Russian nuclear cruise-missile submarine Kursk.

Religion news roundup: Virgin Mary, Witchcraft, Paganism, Macho Worship Songs, and more

Religion News Today’s RNB Religion News Roundup includes: a guy helping Christians reconcile God with science; Londoners caught in the financial crisis turn to psychics (forgetting they, too, did not predict the economic turmoil); a Druid trying to save Stonehenge from government interference; atheists trying to expel God from the Irish constitution; a digitally recreated Vatican, and an appearance by the Virgin Mary.

Plus: some religion news links you missed if you’re not subscribed to our Twitter stream.

Religion News Roundup: Aum Shinrikyo, Scientology, Pareidolia, FLDS, and more

RNB Religion News Roundup The RNB Religion News Roundup for Friday, Apr. 24, 2009 includes items about Scientology, Aum Shinrikyo, Korean cult leader Jeong Myeong-Seok, the continuing popularity of Aum Shrinrikyo’s jailed cult leader, and China’s on-going ban on Falun Gong.

Also: • A US state must pay benefits to the wife of a Jehovah’s Witness who died after refusing a blood transfusion  • A killer turned pastor upsets his victim’s son  • Nigerian preacher speaks out against witch hunts  • Vampire story gets demoted…

Plus: what do you see? Pareidolia?