Baba Vanga Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova

Vanga was born in Strumica, then in the Ottoman Empire, later consecutively in Kingdom of Bulgaria, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, again in Bulgaria, SFR Yugoslavia and today in the Republic of Macedonia. During the second Bulgarian annexation of the region (1941–1944) she moved to Petrich, (then and now in Bulgaria). She was a premature baby who suffered from health complications. In accordance with local tradition, the baby was not given a name until it was deemed likely to survive. When the baby first cried out, a midwife went into the street and asked a stranger for a name. The stranger proposed Andromaha (Andromache), but this was rejected as "too Greek", so the second stranger's proposal, Vangelia (Vangelis, Greek: Βαγγελία, short for Ευαγγελία, "herald of the good news", from the components ευ- meaning "good" and άγγελος which means "messenger"), was accepted–also a Greek name, but popular in the region.

In her childhood, Vangelia was an ordinary girl. Her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died when Vanga was quite young, which meant the girl depended on the neighbors for a long time. Vanga was intelligent, with blue eyes and blond hair. Her inclinations started to show up when she herself thought out games and loved playing "healing"–she prescribed some herbs to her friends, who pretended to be ill. Her father, being a widower, eventually married a good woman, thus providing a stepmother to his daughter.

A turning point in her life was a storm which lifted Vanga up and threw her in the field (this claim has not been verified with meteorological records or other accounts from that time). She was found after a long search–very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust, so she couldn't open them because of the pain. No healing gave results. There was money only for a partial operation so her eyesight was failing.

In 1925 Vanga was brought to a school for the blind in the city of Zemun (Serbia), where she spent three years, and was taught to read Braille, play the piano, as well as do knitting, cooking, and cleaning.

After the death of her stepmother she had to go back home to take care of her younger siblings. Her family was very poor, and she had to work all day.

In 1939 Vanga caught pleurisy, although she had been quite healthy in the previous years. The doctor's opinion was that she would soon die but she recovered quickly.

During World War II Vanga attracted more believers–a number of people visited her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives were alive, or seeking for the place where they died. On 8 April 1942 the Bulgarian king Boris III visited her.

On 10 May 1942 Vanga married Dimitar Gushterov, a man from a village near Petrich, who had come asking for the killers of his brother, but had to promise her not to seek revenge. Shortly before marriage, Dimitar and Vanga moved to Petrich, where she soon became well-known. Dimitar was later conscripted in Bulgarian Army and had to spend some time in then Bulgaria annexed Northern Greece. He got another illness in 1947, fell into alcoholism, and eventually died on 1 April 1962

Vanga died on 11 August 1996. Her funeral attracted large crowds, including many dignitaries.

Fulfilling Vanga's last will and testament, her Petrich house has turned into a museum, which opened its doors on 5 May 2008

Vanga was illiterate or semi-literate. She did not write any books herself. Her speech was difficult to distinguish and she spoke a heavy dialect - recent TV recordings used subtitles for the Bulgarian audience. What she said or allegedly said had been captured by staff members. Later numerous esoteric books on Vanga's life and predictions were written.

Vanga claimed that her extraordinary abilities had something to do with the presence of invisible creatures, but she couldn't clearly explain their origin. She said that those creatures gave her information about people, which she could not transmit to them, because distance and time didn't matter. According to Vanga, the life of everyone standing in front of her, was like a film to her, from birth till death. But changing "what was written on the generation" was beyond her power.

She is said to have foretold the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, Boris Yeltsin's electoral victory, the date of Stalin's death, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, the September 11 attacks and Topalov's victory in the world chess tournament.

Vanga attempted prophesies of newborn or unborn children. She said that she was "seeing" and "talking" to people, who had died hundreds of years ago. Vanga talked about the future, although she did not like to. In her words, in 200 years man will make contact with brothers in mind from other worlds. She said that many aliens have been living on the earth for years. They came from the planet, which in their language is called Vamfim, and is the third planet from the Earth.

Followers of Vanga believe that she knew the precise date of her own death, and shortly before that she had said that a 10-year-old blind girl living in France was to inherit her gift, and that people would soon hear about her.

According to the Russian website Pravda.ru, Vanga has predicted that a World War III will start in 2010.

Vanga was widely known to be close to the government of Todor Zhivkov and, on several occasions, she appeared on public TV with him and other high officials of the Communist Party. It has been alleged that Vanga used data gathered by the secret services to win the trust of her visitors. To date, this is yet to be investigated.

Skeptics accuse her of speaking too ambiguously–suggesting that any cryptic thought can apply to a future historical event, sooner or later.

Vanga is known to have been rude to people whom she considered bad and sinful. The guilty person's deeds were usually exposed by her in detail before she sent him or her away.

Believers think that sometimes Vanga intentionally hid information, especially bad news, from the people concerned. This is attributed to her philanthropy, and is confirmed by her relatives to have caused her discomfort after the visitor left. Vanga said that she is not allowed to reveal certain facts to anybody.

Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova, also known as Baba Vanga, also know as Vangelia Gushterova - her married name, is one of the lesser-known prophets in Western Culture. Prematurely born October 3, 1911 and dying August 11, 1996, she grew to be one of the great prophets of the European countries. She was born in Bulgaria - Ottoman Empire, Yugoslavia, Macedonia or whatever it was and is if you want to get technical - and she spent most of her life living in a small village in the Kozhuh Mountains.

As the story goes, at the age of 12, the young Vangelia was lifted by the wind in a storm and thrown to the ground. She was found with sand and dirt in her eyes and she eventually became blind. Her gift of foresight soon began to show afterwards. Her name, Vangelia, actually translates from Greek to mean "Herald of the Good Message". She would eventually be referred to as Baba Vanga. Baba means grandmother or old woman, but in this case I think it could be similar to Baba Yaga - an Eastern witch-like woman who is sometimes portrayed as a wise giver of advice for those that seek it from her.

Indeed that's what she was. People would line up to get advice on loved ones, illnesses, etc. She had a good knowledge of herbal remedies and prescribed these often. She was also able to communicate with spirits and could "see" a person's life and intentions as though it were a movie to her.

Baba Vanga is credited with foretelling many future events that have already happened. During the earlier years, it is said that her older brother, Vasil, had joined the army and was ready to go to war. Baba Vanga cried and begged him not to go as he would die at the age of 23. Despite the warning, her brother left and eventually surrendered to the Germans who tortured and later executed him. She is believed to have predicted the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, the death of Princess Diana, Boris Yeltsin's electoral victory and the date of Stalin's death but I can't find the original prophecies to verify these.

Over the years, she was visited by many political leaders, including Adolph Hitler. Always the one to turn away bad people after exposing their hidden secrets, Hitler was seen leaving Baba Vanga's house in a bad mood. Had she booted him with harsh words or just told him a future he didn't want to hear I haven't found.

In 1989 she predicted the World Trade Center disaster in the following statement:

"Brethren" is believed to refer to the "Twin" Towers or the "Brothers". "Steel Birds" are obviously the jets. The part about the bush is believed to refer to President Bush.

In 1980, she even predicted:

Kursk was the name of a large city in Russia, also the site of the largest tank battle of WWII. Nobody could understand how the city would be covered by water but the meaning was clear on August 12, 2000, when the Russian submarine, Kursk, named after the city, suffered an explosion and left the survivors for dead at the bottom of the ocean. I remember this news story well. The Russian government did nothing to try and rescue the survivors while the British and Norwegian rescue attempts failed. Baba Vanga was even able to predict the month and a 50% chance of the year this would happen.

She is also known in the U.F.O. community for claims that she speaks with an Alien race named the Vamfim. As she regularly conversed with spirits, who knows if it's real or hoaxed (on the aliens' account if we take Vanga for her word). They claim to be from the 3rd planet or realm from Earth - depending where you look. They're here to help and there are many references to the Vamfim around the net now. I do believe it was Baba Vanga who started the belief in the Vamfim but I'll save more on that for possibly a future article when I have more information.

Some people that have studied Baba Vanga's predictions say that she was roughly 80% accurate. However, as can be expected, there are the skeptics that believe many of her predictions were written after the fact. Since Vanga was only semi-literate, her prophecies were written down by those around her. As she is well-known in Europe, she is relatively unknown in the West and I have no mention of her in any of my books and the only information I can find is online which deals mostly with her life and the summed up list of correct predictions. The only books I can find of her have yet to be translated to English so it doesn't look like I can research more than I have for the last few hours online.

2008: Baba Vanga speaks of conflicts in "Indonesia" leading to the upcoming WWIII, but I've seen some people say that Indonesia had been mistranslated and it's meant to read "India". This will also involve the attempted assassinations of 4 heads of state. Since I'm writing this in January 2009 I've seen numerous names thrown out as possible candidates for the assassination bit - including Barack Obama due to the white supremacists' foiled plans. Think what you want about this one.

2010: World War 3 begins in November 2010. Starting as a regular war, it will progress to a nuclear and chemical war. Vanga says the war will be finished by October 2014.

2011: As a result of the war, radioactive showers will destroy almost all life in the Northern Hemisphere. The remaining Europeans will face an even further threat from the Muslims who will use chemical weapons to finish them off.

2014: As another result of the chemicals and nuclear weapons during the war, most of the world population will have skin cancer and other skin diseases.

2016: Europe is nearly uninhabited.

2018: China will become the new superpower. The exploiters will become the exploited.

2023: The Earth's orbit will change.

2025: Europe is still very underpopulated.

2028: A new energy source will be found. Hunger is overcome. A manned space flight will leave for Venus.

2033: The world water levels will rise as the polar ice caps melt.

2043: Economy is good. The Muslims will run Europe.

2046: All bodily organs can be reproduced, becoming the easiest and most popular method of treatment.

2066: The U.S. uses a new climate-changing weapon on Muslim controlled Rome.

2076: Communism takes over.

2084: Nature is reborn.(??)

2088: A new disease makes you grow old in seconds.

2097: The Fast-Aging Disease is cured.

2100: Man-made sun is lighting up the dark side of the planet.

2111: People become robots. Probably like androids.

2123: Wars between small countries. The big countries stay out of it.

2125: Signals from Space will be received in Hungary. (People will be reminded of Baba Vanga - probably due to her alien subjects)

2130: With the help of the aliens, civilizations will live underwater.

2164: Animals turn half-human.

2167: A new religion.

2170: Major drought.

2183: A colony on Mars will become a nuclear power and ask for independance from Earth. (Like the U.S. asked from England.)

2187: 2 large volcanic eruptions will be successfully stopped.

2195: The sea colonies will have energy and food.

2196: Asians and Europeans will be completely mixed.

2201: Temperatures drop as the sun's thermonuclear processes slow down.

2221: In the search for extra-terrestrial life, humans will come in contact with something terrible.

2256: A spaceship will bring a new disease to Earth.

2262: Planets will slowly change orbits. Mars will be threatened by a comet.

2271: Physics laws will be changed.

2273: White, black and yellow races will form 1 new race.

2279: Power will be obtained from nothing. (Possibly a vacuum or a black hole.)

2288: Possible time travel and alien contact.

2291: The sun grows cooler. Attempts will be made to make it hot again.

2296: Strong explosions in the sun. The forces of gravity will change. Old space stations and satellites will fall.

2299: In France, a resistance movement will rise against Islam.

2302: Important laws and secrets of the universe are revealed.

2304: Secrets of the Moon are also revealed.

2341: Something terrible will approach Earth from Space.

2354: An accident on the artificial sun will result in drought.

2371: World hunger.

2378: A new and fast-growing race.

2480: 2 artificial (man-made) suns will collide and leave the Earth in the dark.

3005: A war on Mars will change the trajectory of the planet.

3010: A comet will hit the moon. The Earth will be surrounded by a ring of rock and ash.

3797: By this time, everything on Earth will die. However, human civilization will be advanced enough to move to a new star system.

And just when I thought this long look into a possible future by Baba Vanga was finished, I found a whole bunch of reposts of even more dates on many blogs and forums. Not sure where they originated from either. These next ones are copied since all the sites are the same - these aren't in my words, that is.

3803: A new planet is populated by little. Fewer contacts between people. Climate new planet affects the organisms of people - they mutate.

3805: The war between humans for resources. More than half of people dying out.

3815: The war is over.

3854: The development of civilization virtually stops. People live flocks as beasts.

3871: New prophet tells people about moral values, religion.

3874: New prophet receives support from all segments of the population. Organized a new church.

3878: along with the Church to re-train new people forgotten sciences.

4302: New cities are growing in the world. New Church encourages the development of new technology and science.

4302: The development of science. Scientists discovered in the overall impact of all diseases in organism behavior.

4304: Found a way to win any disease.

4308: Due to mutation people at last beginning to use their brains more than 34%. Completely lost the notion of evil and hatred.

4509: Getting to Know God. The man has finally been reached such a level of development that can communicate with God.

4599: People achieve immortality.

4674: The development of civilization has reached its peak. The number of people living on different planets is about 340 billion. Assimilation begins with aliens.

5076: A boundary universe. With it, no one knows.

5078: The decision to leave the boundaries of the universe. While about 40 percent of the population is against it.

5079: End of the World.

Of course, only time will tell on how accurate Baba Vanga really was and we won't be around in this lifetime to see the long-into-the-future prophecies. If the first few predictions come true over the next few years, then we'll be in for a seriously rough ride.

I'll finish this with Baba Vanga's own words: