By the way essentially all psychics will work from a photo, fax or e-mailed image of a pet. Could this be the usual reduction to absurdity? Perish the thought!

CRISWELL! My favorite prophet of all time is the Amazing Criswell. He's almost forgotten today, perhaps because his predictions have a deliberately self-mocking, parodic basis. Yet his prediction of Kennedy's assassination, for example, is far more accurate than the alleged prediction made by Jeane Dixon. Criswell tended to predict the end of the world to occur every year between the mid 1950s and the year of his own death in 1982.  His favorite end-of-world date was August 18, 1999.  I have only found two published books by Criswell, both being thin trade paperbacks. The first was Criswell Predicts Your Future from Now to the Year 2000 (Grossett and Dunlap, 1969), and it was closely followed by Criswell Predicts Your Next Ten Years (Grossett and Dunlap, 1971). Both books are surprisingly tedious to read, but contain plenty of completely crazy predictions in the unmistakable Criswell style. In the spirit of Criswell, just ask Madame Poot!

An incredible miracle occurred in the Spring of 2000 in Bradenton, Florida. On the wall of a church appeared a mysterious image. Above we see a frame capture from local TV news footage, and an enhanced black-and-white photo of the image. No one considered it important that the image appeared only after the bricks in this location were touched up with a spray cleaner. But whose image is it? Careful analysis by local forensic experts resulted in the following incredible and yet undeniable conclusion: the image is of a 60ish bearded male with white hair, wearing glasses, a suit and tie; and, further computer enhancements allowed a positive identification: the man is none other than University of Texas Physics Professor Rory Coker. Religious leaders are sharply divided as to what this portends for the future.... as are leaders of the US House and Senate!

Gosh, did you know there is a fancy machine which can determine when someone is lying? It's called a "polygraph," better known as a "lie detector." Lately it's been computerized; surely that makes it better, right? What does it detect? Well, certainly not lies! Click on the cartoon for more information.

The Shaver Hoax was an attempt by science fiction magazine editor Ray Palmer and a writer named Richard S. Shaver to create their own religious cult. In about 1944, Shaver sent Palmer a long novel with occult themes. Palmer asked permission to rewrite the story and present it as non-fiction. Shaver items appeared regularly in AMAZING STORIES magazine throughout the late 1940s. The teachings of the cult were a sort of update or parody of Theosophy, with a hollow earth inhabited by two rival civilizations of robots! The bad robots, Deros, were responsible for all social evils, while the good robots, Teros, were on our side! [Shaver also described the Deros at various times as degenerate dwarflike creatures, and the Teros as idealized humanoids; it's not completely clear he knew the meaning of the word “robot.”] The cult never really took off because both Palmer and Shaver treated it half the time as a joke or a parody on New Age cults. [Note the image in the ad--- a shot of Shaver puffing on a cig has been pasted onto artwork of a mystical cowled figure. This is typical of the mixed signals Shaver and Palmer always sent.]

Authentic footage of the yeti!