Anyone watch that Nostradamus show on HBO in the early 80’s?

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TheRateBeerian@reddit

My friend and I read a book about Nostradamus predictions and they’ve kinda come true but I can’t find the book anymore. Things in the book (which we would have read in 1984) that later came true, and both of us agree that we remember: Fall of Soviet Union, mild friendliness between US and Russia, antagonism with china, war in Middle East led by a “man with a frazzled beard” (we both remember that phrase and agree it’s Bin Laden) and a world wide pandemic that was interpreted by the author of the book (who was interpreting Nostradamus) as biological warfare from China (i.e, a china virus). But I can’t find any books about Nostradamus anymore that mention a “man with a frazzled beard” or anything about him predicting covid.

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hypnosifl@reddit

The books I remember reading at the time were [The Prophecies of Nostradamus](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145599148-the-prophecies-of-nostradamus) (1975, with some later editions with different covers [here](https://thebookshop.ie/cheetham-erika-editor-the-prophecies-of-nostradamus-pb-1980/) and [here](https://www.amazon.com/Prophecies-Nostradamus-Erika-Cheetham/dp/B000WLQNT4) and [here](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1428911381/the-prophecies-of-nostradamus-vintage)) and [The Further Prophecies of Nostradamus](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/617369) (1985) (different cover [here](https://obzbooks.co.za/bib-obz/5019246-the-further-prophecies-of-nostradamus-1985-and-beyond.html)), do any of those look familiar? I also had one from 1984 called "Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Through Time", cover [here](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1536928350/nostradamus-the-man-who-saw-through-time).

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TheRateBeerian@reddit

Might have been the 1975 book, further investigation needed!

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kittykatvictor2020@reddit

My mom owned that book. I remember reading it after I saw the show. It totally freaked me out..

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rimshot101@reddit

The dude was a physician who wrote bullshit horoscopes for gullible nobles as a side hustle.

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my-coffee-needs-me@reddit

He was one of the most effective plague doctors of his day.

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rimshot101@reddit

That's kind of a low bar.

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my-coffee-needs-me@reddit

By modern standards, absolutely. By the standards in Nostradamus's day, he was a medical rock star.

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rimshot101@reddit

Yeah, but nobody remembers him for his doctorin'.

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whoozywhatzitnow@reddit

I don’t remember it in the early 80’s but, I do remember one talking about WW3 with a guy in a turban as well as floods that were supposed to sink Florida, make California an island and split the country from the Mississippi River expanding. I was heavily pregnant with my firstborn and just moved into a new apartment, so that would have been the beginning of 1993.

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redhotbos@reddit

Orson Welles’ voice echos in my head still, 40 years later.

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Next_Fail3674@reddit

Should not have been shown to children. That HBO show plus the time-life books about Nostradamus caused me anxiety for years. Hister? Way too close to Hitler.

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theMirthbuster@reddit

I can definitely remember watching it as a child and having high anxiety about nuclear war afterward.

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kitty-yaya@reddit

Me too. Lifelong fear (practically a phobia) began with that stuff.

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RunningPirate@reddit (OP)

Jesus, I remember those ads for the time-life books “the death card indicated change”. Oh, really?

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RichLather@reddit

Here I go bending coat hangers into ankhs again.

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spoink74@reddit

It shaped an entire childhood of anxiety. To this day I feel like I’m on the 25th year of bonus time.

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WishieWashie12@reddit

Add those to the southern baptist love of rapture, hellfire and brimstone, you get a good picture of my childhood fears. To this day, I still watch or read post apocalyptic Sci fi, and have played games like fallout since 90s. If that game has taught me anything, it's that war never changes.

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RedditSkippy@reddit

Oh wow, I forgot all about that! The problem is that, apparently, Nostradamus’s predictions were so vague that they could be interpreted lots of different ways. No, we weren’t allowed to watch. Now I want to look and see if it’s on YouTube.

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cambeiu@reddit

No. Even back then I thought it was bullshit.

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JoeSicko@reddit

Did anyone ever test the theory that if you write down a bunch of predictions a lot may be close to reality, eventually? Like the monkeys on typewriters thing.

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veryscarybunny@reddit

Holy shit! I haven’t thought about that for a minute, but YES!! I remember that now like yesterday. It fucked me up for years. I can still see the imagery. Wow - thanks for resurrecting a massive childhood trauma lol 😅

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Digflipz@reddit

It fucked me up. I was in 4th grade and wanted to learn more about religion cause of this. Went to church a few times and said, "They are all batty and crazy, and if it ends, i gotta have fun"

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B4USLIPN2@reddit

If you ever want to debunk Nostradamus, just read some of his paragraphs. You will quickly see the INCREDIBLE amount of interpretation, manipulation, and down right non sense that goes into the effort to transform the text into the desired outcome.

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casade7gatos@reddit

If the Cold War wasn’t WwIii and the “Global” war on Terror wasn’t WwIii (or IV) I’m beginning to wonder what our criteria are, exactly. Broader theaters? Will I know it if I see it? Draft? Nukes? As for Nostradamus, anybody else remember any very specific college-related stuff circulating in fall of ‘87, I think it was?

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MyriVerse2@reddit

Russia has been aligned with the Middle East for decades. Nostra-dumbass was a fraud.

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da_london_09@reddit

Rewatched it recently… Jesus that was bad.

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CalendarSpecific1088@reddit

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Man\_Who\_Saw\_Tomorrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Saw_Tomorrow) Oh yeah, that one left an impression all right.

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State-Cultural@reddit

Omygawd yes! This is the one!

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hypnosifl@reddit

Someone uploaded it to the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/The_Man_Who_Saw_Tomorrow_1981_VHSRip (and if you want to see the part about Nostradamus predicting WWIII [here's a link to the time stamp](https://archive.org/details/The_Man_Who_Saw_Tomorrow_1981_VHSRip?start=4241))

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OtakuTacos@reddit

As a kid I was all,”Augh! We gonna die!!!” Now, “What in the old school Miss Cleo?”

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Indifferent_Sisyphus@reddit

Quatraine 3:1 - And there will be bees who cross the river under the moon of Ezequiel along the ocean banks but alas, a man in blue from transyvecwlia near the European/Chinese border will find the quintuplet knife with a nine pointed star.” Nostradamus Follower: You see, this foretells Hitler taking the fort at Moramny, France during the battle of Scioher. Total bullshit.

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FlizzyFluff@reddit

Yes DEF kids Grandma (sperm donirs side) was Obsessed bought book and everything. It all seems so close and accurate creepy

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TheTwinSet02@reddit

I don’t know if I saw that one but do remember watching one at around 12 circa 1982 where WW3 is started in the Middle East, there would be a world leader who was evil but tricked millions into following him ….

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90Carat@reddit

I watched it. I never put any credence into that shit. Vague ramblings about what might happen? Yeah, they can be made to sound like anything. Same for Horoscopes.

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Odd-Animal-1552@reddit

I do remember that. It pops into my head every now and then. But then I also recall his quatrains were purposely written to be as cryptic as possible so he could take credit for “predictions” that happened and wow the masses. He lived in interesting times. To this day, his quatrains are still studied by those looking for answers about the future. They put their own spin on it based on their knowledge/world views. I have enough anxiety so I had to let go of Nostradamus LOL. PS - in the long ago HBO special, wasn’t blue turban guy from India? Or maybe Pakistan? I remember studying the conflict between those two countries for a long time after the show. I also remember being alarmed when Pakistan obtained nukes in the 90s, thinking about blue turban guy.

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thehoagieboy@reddit

Definitely saw the show. Even if you wanted to, I don't think we can't use the blue turban thing because I read that has already attributed that to Saddam. If you remember the show, they stressed the "shooting down of incoming missles" which they associated with nuke weapons, but it clearly lined up with Patriort missle batteries shooting down missles during Dessert Storm.

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worrymon@reddit

And I read the book. But I was reading a lot of fantasy and mythology at the time, so it fit right in. Skepticism quickly won.

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mike___mc@reddit

Ya know, Quasimodo predicted all this.

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MikkiB675@reddit

Listen to yourself you sound demented.

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RunningPirate@reddit (OP)

It was a program. A movie.

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Open-Illustra88er@reddit

Buckle up. We could be in for a ride.

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A_Gray_Old_Man@reddit

I thought for sure I was going to watch Orson die right there. I swear he was fighting just to sit upright.

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RunningPirate@reddit (OP)

[Well, he was having difficulty, here.](https://youtu.be/Nvxwf1jxdaM?si=VXs1ILDNoX5oshap)

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A_Gray_Old_Man@reddit

That's some funny stuff right there. Haha

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RunningPirate@reddit (OP)

Ahhh! The French!

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BeautifulEssay8@reddit

That same doc said the world would end in 1996.

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spoink74@reddit

It was 1999. I remember doing the math as a wee little tike figuring out how old I will be when the hellfire comes. Did any other generation ponder mortality at such a deep level and such a young age?

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TeacherPatti@reddit

For some reason, I thought it said 1988. I remember being in fifth grade (circa 1982) and was like, "Eh, I'll be old by then."

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BeautifulEssay8@reddit

You may be right, I saw it a long time ago...

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TeacherPatti@reddit

Oh sorry, yes, I should have specified that I know I misread :) No idea where 1988 came from but I was like "I'll be 16, that's plenty long." I can't imagine WW3 lasting thirty years?! It'll be like 30 seconds and we are all dead.

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EJK54@reddit

Yes. With my mom. Found it fascinating and super freaky.

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Peachy33@reddit

We used to get high and watch this shit in college and freak ourselves out lol. This was the 90s so it might have been unsolved mysteries

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