Around New Year, New Year's predictions multiply. What importance should we attach to them, what are the laws that govern them, and does foresight work at all? In what follows, I will distinguish five levels of predictors and predictions too: 

1. The ability to see the future is a skill (siddhi) acquired through the practice of mystic yoga. "In the state of samyama, by fixing consciousness on the three components of the mind, the yogi gains knowledge of the past and the future." (Patanjali, 3.16.) To do this, the person doing the divination needs to know how to attain the state of samyama, as well as to know about the three components of the mind on which the focus is made (note: I teach these concepts at the UCCM yoga school). Generally, one who possesses such skills very rarely divines worldly events for people, as these have no significant importance to him/her. Jesus possessed such abilities in Christianity, and we know that he only predicted certain events in order to strengthen people's faith in God. 
2. Prediction, as prophecy, comes from a higher dimension, from higher spiritual beings. The prophet is usually a deeply believing, sufficiently purified person, free from all worldly desires and intentions. Often children or simple uneducated people are chosen for this purpose, as we know from the Old Testament scriptures. The Fatima prophecy of about a hundred years ago is a good example. In the apparition, Virgin Mary manifested herself to three children in Fatima and prophesied the imminent end of World War I and the circumstances of the beginning of World War II. The third prophecy was not made public by the Catholic Church for a long time. The prophecy was that a high-ranking clergyman, dressed in white, would fall to the ground from a gunshot. This prophecy was interpreted by the Vatican as a prediction of the (otherwise unsuccessful) assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. I would make an important comment here, I believe that the third Fatima prophecy has not yet come true. 
3. The person making the prediction, either spontaneously or through external aids, enters an altered state of consciousness, whereby he/she gains insight into an information field where simultaneity exists. The external aid may be the effect of mind-altering substances (drugs) or a place or device that emits a special energy. Such places can be sacred sites that are intermittently or continuously active (e.g. as the Delphic Oracle was), such a device could be the Ark of the Covenant. An example of this is Nostradamus, who, to my knowledge, used drugs as an external aid. The drug is not ingested, but put into an incense burner, and the intoxicating substances released produce an altered state of consciousness. Simultaneity means that the past, present and future are happening simultaneously in the vision. The person then perceives the consequences of the past karmas carried over into the future in a highly symbolic form. If he/she focuses on a person, he/she may also have visions about a person, but also about a people, a country, humanity. Because there is simultaneity in the vision, the seer cannot distinguish whether what he/she sees is past or future, and if future, how distant. Nostradamus therefore did not need to confuse his poems, which he wrote under the influence of visions, because they already appeared that way. The same technique was used by shamans and taltos (a person of supernatural powers in the Hungarian folk religion), and is still used in ancient cultures. The essential component of the vision is therefore the strong symbolism, which can pose problems of interpretation if it is not specific enough; on the other hand, there is the uncertainty factor that the future is always presented only as a probability. This is because the future is the result of the karmic sprouts of the past, and karma as a repercussion can always be changed. If people's awareness and attitudes change, the outcome of the event will change. The closer the event in the vision, the greater the likelihood of it happening, because there is little time to change. 
4. The predictor is in contact with the beings of the astral-mental world. The astral-mental world is not a homogeneous information field, but is divided into layers and levels. Its lower planes are also called psychedelic fields. It is essentially filled with beings who are stuck at this level and cannot move on to higher dimensions. These beings are able to make predictions to beings in the material world because they also perceive the future arising from the karmic germs as a kind of probability. A good example of the use of this method is Baba Vanga (the blind Bulgarian fortune teller), who of course came into contact with this source unconsciously and had little idea where the information came from. The problem with information from the astral-mental realm is that this plane is inhabited by non-purified beings, i.e. the prophecy does not contain the divine intention, but the intention of the beings who assist in prediction. Predictions can come true depending on the level of consciousness of the people concerned in the prediction. Since consciousness in general is not typical of people of the present age, Baba Vanga has a hit rate that is already remarkable. 
5. Prediction without altered state of consciousness, with an aid (e.g. card) or by attunement. The predictor attunes to the astral-mental field of the person or group. The card, the aid, is only a tool or a factor for reinforcement of the prediction. Because the symbols on the cards are highly symbolic, it is easy to see in them the words of the psychic. Prediction is based on it that each person unconsciously places the contents of his/her subconscious mind into the astral-mental field. What he/she does not know about himself/herself, therefore, a competent person who is able to tune into this plane will perceive and can give him/her information about the contents of the subconscious. In the subconscious there are the karma germs, on the basis of which people unconsciously create their future. Prediction will be more appropriate as the predictor is clear, i.e. does not mix the contents of his/her own subconscious, and the more unconscious the person resort to the prediction, as he/she will not be able to override the potential probabilities of the future.

Margaret Rhasoda-Varga
UCCM head-master
(Without illusions, excerpt)