THE VANGA PHENOMENON

A lot has been said and written about "the Vanga phenomenon", whom
many researchers throughout the world have called "the greatest
oracle of our time", "a clairvoyant on a grand scale" and "a prophet".
This year Bulgarians for the first time had the chance of reading a
book about Vanga, written by her niece, who grew up by her side and
was able to watch her closely for years, attending Vanga's seances,
witnessing her strange states and regularly seeing her astounding
predictions come true.

Born in 1911 in Petrich, Bulgaria, Vanga is part of a generation which
was both witness and participant in both world wars. At the age of 12
a giant tornado swiped up dust, lumps of earth, twigs, leaves, and
Vanga, depositing her some 2 km further on. She lost her sight in that
accident. Well, it is certainly not by chance said that a blind person
often sees more than the one with proper sight. Vanga believes that
she has been called upon by Nature to help people live a more dignified
and better life through the revelations made with the help of her
"inner sight".

Although lacking in any kind of formal schooling, Vanga has a deep
insight and understanding of human nature and the stresses it is
subjected to. Her fame as a seer and clairvoyant has spread far and
wide into almost all the countries of Europe and, especially during the
summer, there is often a very large queue in front of her house. All
she asks from her visitors is that they bring with them a lump of
sugar which they have kept under their pillow during the preceding
night.

Krassimira Stoyanova, the author of the book "Vanga", from which the
following excerpt is taken, was born in 1949. Ms Stoyanova, who holds
a degree in literature, works as an editor in a magazine published by
the Union of Bulgarian Writers. 

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We, her nieces and nephews, the children of her sister, grew up with
Vanga, accepting her strange behavior and activity as quite natural,
although we were unable to comprehend things like why our aunt would
pale, why she would suddenly feel faint and why would a strange voice
unexpectedly issue from her, startling us with its force. A voice with
an utterly different timbre, with words and expressions which were
not part of Vanga's vocabulary. At such times the adults around her
held their breaths, saying later that she had spoken fateful things
which would happen to people many years hence.

Once, when I was around sixteen years old, Vanga started talking to
me. Only it wasn't her voice that was speaking, it wasn't even her,
but some "other" person who was talking through her. The words I
heard had absolutely nothing to do with our previous conversation, it
was as if somebody else who had suddenly come between us. The voice
said: "There, we see you..." and then I was told in detail all I had done
during the day until that moment. I was simply petrified with fear. At
that time we were all alone in the house.

A little later Vanga sighed and said: "Oh, the forces have left me" and
reverted to our former conversation. I asked her why she had so
suddenly described what I had been doing during the day, but she
insisted that she had described nothing. I told her what I had heard
and she said:

"Oh, these are the 'forces', the small 'forces' that are always around
me. But there are also big ones which command them. Whenever they
decide to speak through me I feel faint and sickly for a whole day
afterwards. Do you want to see them, by the way? They want to show
themselves to you."

I was so completely shaken that I screamed out that I didn't want
anything of the kind. Later, though, I calmed down, my curiosity took
the upper hand and I asked her what I would see.

"You'll see luminous dots in the air, just like glow-worms." Vanga said.

Later, over the years, I have tried to explain this phenomenon to
myself. At different times and depending on her good spirits, I have
asked my aunt Vanga various questions, most of which she has
answered. I have fortunately kept these notes. When I added them up
the result was an original kind of report which, however sketchy,
gives a general idea of Vanga's abilities:

Asked whether she sees concrete things - images, faces, some kind of
external appearance, a scene or a situation - she has answered "yes".

"When - in the past, present or future?"

Her answer has been:

"It makes no difference".

"Is the vision sketchy, merely some information about the individual,
or is it concrete and detailed?"

The answer:

"Both as information and concretely."

"Does an individual has his own 'code' designating his life-line?" No
answer.

"How does a person's future manifest itself in her seances: do only
important events stand out or does his whole future life pass before
her like a film?"

She sees his life like a movie.

"Does she read thoughts?"

Yes.

"At what distance?"

Distance is immaterial.

"Can she read the thoughts of foreigners and how is the information
presented?"

Yes. She generally hears a voice and there is no language barrier.

"Is she able to focus on information about a specific period of time or
in answer to a specific question?"

Yes.

"When listening to the radio can a specific information call forth a
'visual image' for her?"

No. She rarely listens to the radio.

"Does the power of her clairvoyancy depend on the seriousness of the
specific problem or on the personality of the individual to whom she
is speaking?"

Yes.

"Does it depend on the momentary physical or mental state of the
individual?"

No.

"If she should foretell some kind of calamity or even death to
somebody, can that person prevent it?"

No. Neither Vanga, nor the person in question can do so.

"What if it is a matter of a group of people, a settlement, city or
state?"

No.

"Does a man's path in life depend on 'the power of the individual' and
can it be changed?"

No it can't. Everybody follows a strictly defined path.

"How does she determine a visitor's main and vital problem?" An 'image'
appears and a 'voice' is heard.

"Does she have the feeling that her gift of clairvoyancy is
programmed by higher forces?" Yes.

"What kind of forces?"

No answer.

"How does she perceive them?"

Most often as a 'voice'.

"Has she seen them?"

Yes, as transparent figures, in the same way as one's own image is
seen when reflected in water.

"Are the luminous dots in the air a manifestation of them?" Yes.

"Can they materialize?"

No.

"At whose wish - their's or Vanga's - can contact be established with
them?"

The initiative is usually theirs, although Vanga, too, can call them.

"Can she get information about them by asking them various
questions?"

No. It is very difficult. Their replies are very vague.

"Is the connection one-sided, i. e. at their wish?"

Most often, yes.

"Does man consist of several symbiotically linked bodies, in the sense
of ethereal, physical, mental and so on?"

Yes.

"How does she see a deceased - as an image, as a concept or as
something else?"

She sees an 'image' and hears a 'voice'.

"When contacting a deceased person does he show any interest or does
he only answer her questions?"

He both answers and asks questions.

"Is individuality, soul, essence, or whatever preserved after death?"

Yes.

"How does she think of death?"

Only as a physical end.

"Is there anything resembling reincarnation?"

No answer.

"Which is stronger - kinship or spiritual links?"

The spiritual link is stronger.

"Do associations of a higher order of reason exist?"

Yes.

"If people are viewed as a community of minds at a specific stage of
their evolution, does another higher stage of reason exist in parallel
to ours?"

Yes.

"Where is the origin of this higher reason: in space, in older
civilizations on Earth, or in the future of the Earth?"

In space.

"Have developed civilizations existed on Earth before our own?"

Yes.

"How many?"

No answer.

"Can our present human civilization be regarded as a childhood of
reason?"

Yes.

"Does reason at the same stage of development as that of our own
civilization exist elsewhere in the universe?"

No answer.

"Will we establish contact with members of another civilization?"

Yes.

"Are there any flying saucers in the terrestrial atmosphere?"

Yes.

"Where do they come from?"

From the planet which they call Vamphim, or at least that's how she
makes it out, and which is third from the planet Earth. She has given
no other explanations.

"Has any two-way (telepathic or otherwise) contact been established
with them?"

No. The only contacts they establish are at their own discretion.

x x x

Vanga perceives scenes irrespectively of whether they are in the
present, past or future. Here are a few examples of her power.

After discussing various problems with a visitor, she suddenly told
him that there was somebody in his family who was called "Turk". The
man knew nothing about it, but after some time he came back specially
to tell her that during the war his uncle surprised his wife in the
home of a neighbor, and killed her on the spot out of jealousy. Since
then people called him "The Turk".

In 1914 a peasant from the village of Kromidovo, near the town of
Sandanski, was told that his son had been killed by the Germans near
the village of Novo Selo in Macedonia. Seven graves were discovered at
the indicated spot, but the corpses were disfigured to the extent of
making identification impossible. The man turned to Vanga for help,
and she told him that the grave he was looking for was on the bank of
a small river near a large bush. When he had found and unearthed it,
documents and a photo fell out of the pocket of the dead man's jacket.
The photo was fairly well preserved and identified the body as
belonging to the man's son.

When Bulgarian troops occupied the Aegean shores of Greece in 1942,
she told her husband:

"Be careful of the water!"

Later, all those who returned were either sick from malaria or
suffering from liver trouble.

D. G., a young man from a village near Petrich, got a dreadful eczema
on his face from infected razors in the local barbershop. His face
turned red and was covered with sores and scabs. No medicines or
ointments helped. He went to Vanga and she told him to get a cup of
fine, clean mud from the river and mix it with a cup of salt, to make
something like a poultice on his beard and sleep with it for a night.
On the next morning, when the crust of mud was removed, the skin
beneath it was clean, white and soothed.

Vanga told D. U., an old and seriously ill artist whose sickness the
doctors had been unable to diagnose, that he had a concrescence in
the region of the diaphragm and advised him to seek treatment in
West Germany where he would completely recover. She proved
absolutely right.

She told an officer who was leaving for the battle-front not to mount
a horse during an attack, but he forgot all about it. In his very first
battle the officer's horse was killed on the spot, while he himself was
lucky to get away with a severe injury.

When the very well-known Soviet actor Viacheslav Tihonov visited her
in 1979, Vanga told her sister:

"Let them wait outside for a while, for I must first get a sign where
to receive them."

The minute Tihonov crossed her threshold Vanga shouted:

"Why didn't you carry out the wish of your best friend Yuri Gagarin?
Before leaving on his last test flight he came to your place to say
good-bye and said: 'I have no time to go shopping, so please buy an
alarm clock from me, just as if I had bought it, and keep it on your
desk. Let that clock be a memento from me."

The actor was so stunned that he almost fainted. He was given some
smelling-salts to recover. He said that everything had occurred just
as Vanga had described it, but that in the confusion following
Gagarin's death, he had forgotten to buy the clock.

Said Vanga:

"You should all know that Yuri Gagarin did not die. He was taken! By
whom, why and where to, she didn't say.

She told Julian Semionov, the writer who was accompanying Viacheslav
Tihonov:

"You must continue the movie with more episodes (she was referring to
the very popular TV series 'Seventeen moments of spring'). Only, you
are still ignorant of the theme of the next episodes. You must go to
Spain and find somebody called Vladimir. He will tell you many things
and will guide you in the writing of interesting moments."

After describing the whole setting in his house and his family
situation, she told a visiting engineer what he had in his attic,
'discovering' the typewriter of his dead grandfather in a box. The
astonished engineer remembered that his grandfather had indeed
possessed a typewriter, but said that he didn't know where it was.
Vanga told him that his present calculations did not come out because
he had made a small mistake and she told him where to look for it.

Vanga claims that a visitor's entire life passes before her eyes as if
on film, with the more important events standing out.

Some years ago Vanga was visited by an artist in his forties, who
gave her a picture he had painted himself: Christ and his Disciples in
a Large Field. The painting still decorates her home. Vanga told him:

"You have worked very hard, but you have nothing, you are still poor.
Try to keep your spirits high, because you still have many difficulties
ahead of you. One day you will have that which you don't deserve
according to others. You will go very far, but only after suffering a
great defeat. You will travel completely alone."

About two years later Vanga was visited by furious parents who said
they felt robbed and humiliated because their 22-year old daughter
had been seduced and had, as it turned out, married the selfsame
artist, whom the parents detested.

Vanga, however, that unrelenting and just judge, cut them short:

"You are the girl's parents, aren't you? Listen to me! This man whom
your daughter has married is poor, but he is a good and honest
person. You cannot bring back your daughter, because she loves him.
And if you do, you will live to regret it."

The irreconcilable parents nevertheless managed to separate the
family. They forced their daughter to come back, despite the fact that
she already had two children by the artist. The desperate artist
roamed the world, broken, lonely, having lost everything dear - his
home, his wife, his children, his motherland. The happy parents,
satisfied that they had torn their daughter from the hateful
son-in-law, suffered the greatest tragedy of all: their daughter
crashed and died on the spot while taking a ride in the car of her
new boyfriend.

A grief-stricken woman travels the world, seeking to heal her aching
soul. She is from Montreal. Her husband was killed on the street by
gangsters who kidnapped her only child. The murderer was caught, but
the child had vanished without a trace. After a prolonged
investigation the police told her that the child's body had been
discovered at the bottom of a lake. The disconsolate mother simply
couldn't accept this tragic fact and turned up at Vanga's threshold in
July 1987.

"A great misfortune has indeed befallen you," Vanga said, "but tell
me - did you give birth to this child?"

"No," the woman replied, "we adopted it."

"Now listen to me," Vanga continued, "this child is alive, but it has
been taken out of the country and goes to school in a large city. It is
living with people who are doing everything they can to make it
forget you, to forget its home and native country. But you will
receive news of the child and before April of next year you will have
complete information about it, and after many further troubles and
difficulties you will one day be together again."

The woman departed in astonishment and after a time wrote: "Before
the trial the murderer asked to see the wife of the man he had killed,
but she was unable to face him and sent a close friend instead. The
defendant asked her to tell the mother that the child was alive, but
that he could not tell her where it was."

The woman, mad with joy, has said that she bows to Vanga's gift and
that she believes everything Vanga prophesied would come true to the
happy end.

x x x

There hardly is a worldly problem that has not crossed Vanga's
threshold. In this connection I very much liked the statement of one
of her ardent admirers, who said:

"Even if she doesn't tell you anything of a world-shattering nature,
it is enough simply to go to Vanga for advice, because she reads from
the book of life."

One day I asked her:

"Alright, what is man?"

Vanga smiled and answered:

"This question contains the answer in itself - man is a vain being
which is forever examining itself, forever observing itself, forever
seeking and never finding itself - but that's by way of a joke. Viewed
from up high, as a part of the huge universe, man is nothing. An
insignificant speck of dust, lost in infinity, but charged with the so-
called 'divine spark'. This is why he often exceeds himself; untiringly
searching, risking, studying and unravelling the secrets of the
universe, making amazing discoveries. He has already fixed a
determined gaze on the sky and does not fear its challenges.
Remember! In 200 years' time man will establish contact with brothers
in reason from other worlds. Hungarian apparata will be the first to
capture signals from space... And the truth about space must be
sought in the old sacred books!" (Author's note: this conversation was
recorded in May, 1979).

"And until then?"

"Until then mankind will experience many cataclysms and many
turbulent events; people's consciousness, too, will change. Difficult
times lie ahead, people will split into groups by faith. The oldest
teaching will return to the world. They ask me: 'Will this time come
soon?' No, not soon. Syria has not yet fallen!" (1980)

My mother Lyubka, Vanga's sister, says:

"I sometimes go to my sister early in the morning, before she has
started receiving visitors, and I often find her very tired. I ask her
why she has not slept, and she tells me: 'Oh, I cannot sleep, because I
have been in the hotbeds of tension on Earth all night long and I have
seen terrible things... I would like to sleep now, when people have
risen, but I cannot, because they are already waiting for me
outside...'"

"After the great flood in Skopje," Lyubka recalls, "Vanga and I went to
visit a longtime friend of ours in Stroumitsa - Pande Ashkapov. He
was very worried because his house in Skopje had been partially
destroyed by the water and asked my sister whether he should repair
it, or whether he should start saving money to build a new one. Vanga
told him: 'What's this new house you're talking about, man! Run away
from Skopje, because it will soon be terrible there. You stay right
here, in Stroumitsa!'"

About a week later Skopje was shaken by the great earthquake which
caused grievous destruction and took numerous victims. x x x At the
start of 1968 Vanga fell into trances on several occasions, shouting:

"Remember Prague! Remember Prague! Great powers circle above the
city crying: 'War! War!' Prague will turn into a fishpond in which fish
will be caught!..."

She was terrifying to listen to. There are many witnesses who heard
these words of hers, for she repeated them often.

We soon witnessed the events in Czechoslovakia, but what she meant
by Prague turning into a fishpond is something we still don't know.
She usually doesn't explain and rarely interprets what she has said,
especially where great and fateful things are at stake, by saying that
she herself does not understand them.

Vanga generally avoids talking about politics and she has her reasons
for it, since her words can be interpreted in a number of different
ways. Still, at times, although scantily, she does speak about such
things. In 1981, for example, she had a very interesting conversation
with the Lebanese journalist Abdel Amir Abdallah who shared his
impressions of the meeting in the Beirut-based political weekly
Al-kitah al-arabi. His story was published in Italian in the second
issue for 1982 of the Bulgaria d'Oggi magazine. The journalist was a
guest of the Sofia Press Agency. Below is a summary of his story:

In Vanga's home.

A room like many others. In the middle - an electric heater. Vanga was
sitting on a coach covered with a blue and orange striped carpet. I
summoned and concentrated all my mental powers so as not to fall
under the woman's influence. I took off my glasses and looked at the
faces of the other three women seated in one corner of the room. I
tried to remember everything.

Silence filled the room. It flowed from Vanga's face. Then she lifted
her head and said in a strong and sure voice which expressed an
indomitable will:

"Lebanese journalist, come and sit down here! The driver must leave!"

This was the first sign of Vanga's power. How could she possibly know
that the driver was in the room?

"Give me the lump, Lebanese journalist!"

I took the lump of sugar from my pocket and left it on the table in
order to see how she would pick it up. Without any effort she
stretched out her hand and took it. She began feeling it. Her hand
was steady.

She turned towards me, and I felt as if she was looking into the
innermost depths of my mind. She said:

"You usually wear glasses, which you mainly put on during important
meetings and in other circumstances. Why did you take them off now?"

This was the second blow that Vanga inflicted on my doubts.

"Listen," she said, "your father and your mother are alive in Lebanon.
At this very moment your mother is at home, but your father is not -
perhaps he is outside, in the field. You live in the city and have been
a journalist for twelve years. You write about the different spheres
of trade, but you can also write about politics. However, your
contribution in this field is small, you rarely write about politics. In
1982-1983 you will score great successes in your work. You will have
seven children and when you turn 42 you will witness a big war, but I
will not tell you who will start it."

After this there followed incoherent words, mingled with sounds of
command and admiration.

"You are a Muslim and you observe the Muslim holidays. You have a
great holy book - the Koran. You must read all of it, in particular
chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12."

Vanga continued:

"In 1984 Syria will fight a big war because things will become very
complicated. Have you ever been to Jerusalem? Now I see Baghdad. What
is Baghdad? You will go there."

She continued speaking without giving me a chance to ask any
questions.

"Lebanon will have problems from the north and south, from the east
and west. I see the Nile. What is the Nile? You will go there, too.
There are many roads in front of you."

"Listen, journalist, you must greatly respect your mother. You must
remember that she wants something from you."

"Lebanon is surrounded by flames. There are many red fruits and many
waters. But in your country there is no oil and there will never be
any oil."

Then Vanga asked me:

"Who talked with you about me?"

"My Editor-in-Chief Walid al-Hussein wanted to talk to you."

Vanga was silent for a while before she started running her fingers
over the lump of sugar again, and said:

"There are now many armored cars in Beirut. In May 1982 your sky will
turn black." Then she went on: "There are many committees in Lebanon,
but they are unable to do anything. The trenches will stay open and
the barricades will not be destroyed."

"Who was your prophet? The one who preaches and watches three
planets? I see his soul entering my room."

"Who is Elias Sarkis? Your president, a Christian, a bachelor, and of
Arab origin. He is a good politician. But there are many troops in
Lebanon now."

"Your relations with Syria should always be very good. In future
these relations will become even better."

Vanga was silent for a minute and then added:

"Do you hear, there is war in Beirut right now."

Then she said:

"This fire will be extinguished, but it will break out again."

Then she asked me:

"Do you approve of this war?"

I replied:

"No, I do not approve of it."

Vanga told me this on December 2, 1981 at 8. 45 a. m. Back in Lebanon,
I leafed through the archives and found materials which reported that
on the day in question an armed clash had occurred between two
organizations in Beirut's western part.

Vanga does not normally speak about politics. Everybody had told me
so. Then why did she talk politics to me? Perhaps because I was
worried about the political situation and the fate of my country. I
had thought about this before my meeting with Vanga and in the
evening before falling asleep so as to seal my secrets in the lump of
sugar which Vanga translated into words through the chemistry of
feeling.

Returning to Sofia, I thought for a long time about this woman whose
gifts are recognized by the Government. On reaching my hotel I
decided not to publish the things which concerned me personally, nor
those which concern all of us and, above all, my native country
Lebanon.

Why? Because if everything that Vanga prophesied comes true, it will
be terrible. I wanted to believe that these were just words.

Not an enviable fate for Lebanon, indeed, if one is to believe Vanga!

Regarding the political situation and the future of Nicaragua, in 1978
Vanga talked with a high ranking official of that state. The guest
expressed his hopes that the situation there would soon be at least
partially stabilized, but Vanga told him:

"No, a lot more blood will be shed there. Rivers of blood will flow. You
have no idea what still lies ahead of you!"

x x x

Vanga, 1987:

"You see, new laws are invented. A new kind of cloth is woven in which
to dress people. But a lot more time will pass before we have made a
strong fabric. We do not need artificial clothes, but clothes that will
warm us. A long time will pass, a tall man will appear, a stranger, and
he will be a good cutter and a good tailor..."

Vanga, January 1988:

"We are witnessing fateful events here on Earth. The world`s two
greatest leaders have shaken hands and have signed their names to
prove that they have made the first step towards the attainment of a
universal peace. But a long time is yet to pass. A lot of water will yet
flow... Then the Eighth one will come, and he will sign the final peace
of the planet."

While excluding for now the sentences whose meaning is not too clear
to us, we can only marvel at Vanga's gift of expressing herself as a
poet.

Just for a minute imagine what she would be able to tell us if she
were a highly educated and erudite person.

But perhaps this is as it should be...