If you’ve been reading about the future in the grocery check out line, take some expert advice: We just don’t know.p The expert giving that advice is John Hogue, a prophecy scholar and a widely published authority on the best known of all prophets, Nostradamus. What he knows about foretelling the future he did not learn in a grocery store checkout line.p Nostradamus — the 16th-century French prophet whose bearded face graces the cover of the Weekly World News, The Enquirer and half a dozen other tabloids every year — is widely misunderstood by almost everyone according to Hogue, who has made a 30-year career of interpreting the writings and predictions of many of the world’s prophets. Though Nostradamus predicted the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich, the possibility of a third world war, and dozens of other pivotal historical events, he, like many other seers of the future, did not predict the future to tell humanity it is doomed. Rather, he, like many other prophets, wrote his predictions to scare the human race straight.p This month, Hogue — a Langley resident — releases his third major work on the life of Nostradamus. Titled “Nostradamus: A Life and Myth” the book marks the 500th anniversary of the prophet’s birth and includes Hogue’s take on what his predictions meant.p The future — specifically the future of humanity — is Hogue’s business. He has taken it seriously since he was a teenager, when he began reading the words of prophets and messiahs to find out whether any place on Earth would be a safe hideout with what he thought at the time was the coming arrival of Doomsday at the turn of the millennium. Thirty years later, his originally selfish wish has turned into 10 books on prophecy, through which he hopes to make seeing the future a tool of change rather than of hopeless resignation. He has been making a living as prophecy scholar and author since 1987.p The human race, Hogue said in a recent interview, is afflicted by several major flaws. Included in his list are overpopulation, religious dogma and an education system he believes stifles intelligence. Though he values his spiritual and intellectual life — he was a friend and follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and has taught himself history and to read Latin and Greek — he believes that for the sake of the future, humans need to find better ways to find fulfillment in these areas.p “We need to redefine civilization or we’re going to lose it,” he said.p Hogue’s work as an interpreter of prophecy runs counter to the prophetic tradition. Though he includes in his books the doomsday scenarios prophecized through he millennia, he believes the human race has a bright future in store. On his Web site, www.

hogueprophecy.com, he rejects one widely held prophetic prediction that Doomsday will come in 2012. Instead, he chooses Nostradamus’ vision, that human race will last until the sun explodes in 3797 A.D.p Hogue is aware that all of this sounds far fetched to most people. So to get his point across, he has become a storyteller. His books, like 1999’s “Messiahs: The Visions and Prophecies for the Second Coming” are reader friendly with the writing broken into small, thematic chunks to explain how history’s various messianic figures — a list that includes Jesus Christ, Buddha, Quetzalcoatl, and even Hitler — have influenced humanity’s view of the future. This is the only way, Hogue said, many readers will take an interest in a subject previously been fit only for giggles in those grocery store lines.p In addition to his books, he has taken his view of prophecy into the mainstream media, appearing on shows such as NBC’s “Ancient Prophecies Part I-IV” and A&E’s “Biography of Nostradamus.”p Hogue is much like the prophets he studies. He is a non-conformist and calls himself a “rogue scholar” and a skeptic, meaning he digs deep for answers. This definition can include some unconventional thinking, even in his field. Outside Nostradamus’ work, Hogue said he finds science fiction to be a great predictor of future trends. His favorite science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, has even read and critiqued some of Hogue’s work.p Physically, he looks the part of scholar and prophet. He wears his dark hair and beard long and looks at times like a throwback to Renaissance Europe. At the same time, he is best known in Langley as a cheerful jogger who walks and runs several miles each day.p After having grown up in Hollywood, Calif. as the child of parents who worked in the movie industry, Hogue moved away from his home state and to live in Seattle and other cities for most of his 48 years. Hogue moved to Whidbey Island in 2001. He said he felt “pulled” to the island and Langley on his first visit in 1986. Being on the island is better than hustle bustle of the city for his writing career.p “Here, people have more room in their beings to be open,” he said.p p See the prophet, be the prophetp p Specifically, when it comes Nostradamus, Hogue shares more than his bearded appearance with his favorite prophet. Like Nostradamus, Hogue is dyslexic. While this was, at first, a problem in pursuing his studies, Hogue said the condition makes him better able to translate and understand Nostradamus’ writings, which can be rather cryptic.p Only about 200 prophets have any importance in Hogue’s studies. Excluded from that group are some contemporary seers, especially those who try to produce predictions on demand for print and electronic media. This “Jean Dixon Syndrome” as he calls it brings a bad name to prophecy, causing it to be dismissed by many people.p Hogue’s career has made him a prophet in his own right and a social critic. He has placed himself between politics, organized religion and the mass will of a human population that has grown from about 500 million during the time of Nostradamus to 6.5 billion today. An astute historian in addition to his work with prophetic works, Hogue believes history and human nature are the keys to figuring out what we might do in the future.p “Prophecy runs because we are predicable,” he said.p Still, this predictability can lead modern-day prophets and futurists into trouble. For example, a number of prophets, including Nostradamus, have predicted what would seem to be the coming of a third world war. While the signposts of history and the current events might show this is likely, Hogue said just because it has been predicted doesn’t mean it is going to happen.p “If things are pre-ordained, why even talk about it,” he said. p Prophecy is not a science. Though the translations he does of the work of previous prophets can be accurate, his interpretations of those words are subjective. Sometimes he is able to make a link between the present and the prophecy, sometimes not.p One of Nostradamus’’ predictions struck a chord with Hogue in 1983, a chord that prompted him to start insisting the United States would be the target of some sort of attack. The translated prediction reads:p “In the path of the hollow mountains; It will be seized and plunged into a boiling cauldron.”p On Sept. 11, 2001, Hogue watched on television as those “hollow mountains” fell into a “boiling cauldron” of dust when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York.p “We were spot on on 9/11,” Hogue said. p Validating the prophecy behind tragic events like this, he said, can have the effect of “scaring people straight,” or compelling them to live differently to stave off future catastrophes. Unfortunately, he said, most people — specifically those in the United States — are not yet at that point.p In Hogue’s estimation, the present time is a “boiling point” for history in prophecy. For the first 40,000 years of its history, mankind “muddled along” with a population that was too dispersed to cause itself and the Earth any real harm. But with the advent of air travel, nuclear weapons and what he sees as explosive population pressures, a human race that acts collectively like a hormone-charged adolescent needs to change.p “The human race has never had to grow up until this century,” he said.p There are signs that humans are learning some lessons. While like other prophets Hogue predicted a catastrophic millennial changeover in 2000, he said was pleased to see pre-emptive work to fix computers around the world stave off a Y2K global meltdown. This same spirit of pre-emption can be applied to other problems, he said, including global warming, overpopulation and famine.p The toughest challenge facing the human race is one of programming. Hogue contends that human beings cannot get along because they are programmed — like robots — not to.p “All societies program their children to be divided against themselves and everyone else.”p Yet it is because of this robotic trait prophecy works. p Whether it will continue to work can only be known over time. Hogue will continue to track the accuracy and effects of prophecy for a few years more, saying five books on prophecy left in him. p After that, who knows what the future will hold. Perhaps just him.