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On the other side, many of the changes Scallion predicted were based on increased volcanic activity, earthquakes, and a pole shift all to be set off by solar flares. Given the new information regarding the weakening of the earth’s magnetic field and the expected solar sunspot season, maybe Scallion did see the changes to come, he just missed the exact time frame. In the same light, global warming and its effects on rising sea levels may also bring about the geographical changes Scallion predicts.

Accuracy of Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce’s followers claim a 97 percent success rate with his predictions. Like Scallion, he provided dates or ranges of time so his predictions can be checked. In relation to the end times, his events may turn out to be right, but his timing is certainly off. He writes: “Portions of the Earth are going to be wiped away in the coming years. I feel very sure of that. The Earth changes will start in the final years before the new Millennium, and the sea will cover the western part of our nation.”

This and the other Cayce prophecies mentioned in Chapter 11 related to end times have not happened in the time frame they were predicted for. As with Scallion, he bases his earth changes on a shifting of the magnetic poles. And again, it is tempting to change the goalpost and move the predictions to 2012.

Evaluating the Bible Code

The measure of a system of prediction is how well its predictions turn out. The Bible Code’s big failing is that it’s easier to find codes after the fact than before the fact. After the fact, the correct hits are amazing. On the other hand, two predictions made ahead of time have turned out, after the fact, to be false. The codes predicted a nuclear war in 2000. They also predicted the earth would be hit by a comet in 2006, bringing on a pole shift and major earth changes. Neither occurred.

Codex Cues

Information on using the Bible Code technique on any book can be found at http://cs.anu. edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/data.

In addition to criticizing the results, the Bible Code has been criticized for its method. As you’ll recall from Chapter 12, the letters of passages of the Torah are placed at equal intervals inside graph boxes. A computer searches for sequences with a program called skip sequencing. It skips one, two, and then three letters, locking onto the specific spacing that provides meaningful words. It appears if you use this technique on any book you can get the same predictive results as in the Bible Code. Could that really be true? In response to this criticism, investigative reporter Michael Drosnin challenged his critics: “When my critics find a message about the assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I’ll believe them” (Newsweek, 1997).

Researchers at the Australian National University, led by Brendan McKay, took up the challenge. They applied Drosnin’s technique to Moby Dick and found the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Indira Gandhi, to name only a few. They also found the death of Princess Diana and of Michael Drosnin himself. According to the study, you can apply this technique to any book and get relevant results.

Bad Science: Don’t Believe Everything You Read

A major criticism from skeptics is the use of unproved science to support metaphysical concepts. As science develops greater understandings of energy and energy interactions, these concepts are often applied to metaphysics. This is fair enough when speculating, but often it is applied as proof.

For example, it’s one thing to speculate whether new advances in understanding DNA can explain the mechanisms of telepathy, or the ability to “read another person’s mind.” It’s another thing to use the advances in understanding DNA as proof that mind reading is real. We fall into this same trap with many 2012 predictions.

Return of the Photon Belt

The photon belt and other energy particle speculation is a good example of misapplying science in 2012. We reported in Chapter 7 that