Psychic's false prediction cause death of 29,000

[flurpy]

Ok, this is rather old news.

In 1856 in South Africa, a 14-year old clairvoyant Xhosa girl made a prediction that if her people refrained from sowing and slaughtered all their cattle, the whites would be driven into the sea 10 months later on 18 February 1857. On the same day, their crops and cattle would have been restored in a miraculous way.

300 000 – 400 000 heads of Cattle was destroyed and no crops were planted as advised by this prophet.

18 February 1857 came and went without the promised miracles, and famine wiped out around 29,000 Xhosas.

The clairvoyant was sent to Robin Island (Where Nelson Mandela, a decendant of the surviving Xhosas, would spend 27 years of the next century)

The following sites I found confirming this piece of history:
http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/grey-g.htm

http://www.africanfrontiers.co.za/subregions.php?reg=Eastern%20Cape%20Province&sub=23


Flurpy
South Africa

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

And what does the whistle say!?

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

Originally posted by !Xx+-Rational-+xX!
And what does the whistle say!?

...It says: woooooooooooooooo woooooooooooooooo!

[Sanamas]

Googling for "Xhosa National Suicide" brought up lots of hits, including this gem from four years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/509169.stm

And last month, a Xhosa royal council spokesman said a letter bearing his king's seal had been sent to the Prince of Wales asking for compensation for the "national suicide" of the Xhosa which occurred when they systematically slaughtered their cattle.

[Kopji]

Yeah, it is discouraging we forget so soon.

In January 1889, a Paiute Indian, Wavoka, or Jack Wilson, had a revelation during a total eclipse of the sun. It was the genesis of a religious movement that would become known as the Ghost Dance. It was this dance that the Indians believed would reunite them with friends and relatives in the ghost world. As the movement spread from tribe to tribe, it soon took on proportions beyond its original intent and desperate Indians began dancing and singing the songs that would cause the world to open up and swallow all other people while the Indians and their friends would remain on this land, which would return to its beautiful and natural state. The unity and fervor that the Ghost Dance Movement inspired, however, spurred only fear and hysteria among white settlers which ultimately contributed to the events ending in the massacre at Wounded Knee.
The Ghost Dance (http://msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeandAgain/archive/wknee/ghost.asp)

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

You know what this frickin proves that skeptics are here to save the world and stop stupid people from destroying everything!

[No Answers]

Originally posted by !Xx+-Rational-+xX!
You know what this frickin proves that skeptics are here to save the world and stop stupid people from destroying everything!

You are ridiculous, sir. Or ma'am.

Skeptics are here to stand about saying,
"Unlikely. Show me evidence. I doubt it. Not convincing. Double-blind codswallop quantum fruitstand. Your fantastic claims do not move me."

That's pretty much all we do, with a lot of arrogant poseury and such. Pooched-out lips=science.

[Marc]

Originally posted by Kopji
Yeah, it is discouraging we forget so soon.

I had the very same though. Shermer had written a bit on the Ghost Dance, and it's parallells in other groups. At the time he was realizing how it matched the Nation of Islam's belief in an alien mothership that would wipe out the opressive white government.

Opressors will be overthrown, the good restored to power, land returned to as it should be, that kind of stuff. Sounds a bit like the Second Comming too