Like most predictive non-fiction, this 1956 volume has both hits and misses throughout. But I was amazed by one page, which predicts flatscreen TVs, a Roomba, and household surveillance cameras, bing-bang-boom!
Add cheese fortune telling (or "tyromancy" as it's called) to the other techniques of using food to predict the future that we've previously posted about (asparagus divination and apple-peel divination).
The word Tyromancy stems from the Greek words turos (tryro) meaning cheese and manteia (mancy) meaning divination. The history of the practice goes back to around the middle ages, and just like any other form of divination, the art of Tyromancy assists in divining messages. This particular method does so through the coagulation, fermentation or patterns of cheese.
In the middle ages, cheese would be inspected and based on the shape, the number of holes, patterns of mould and other cheesy characteristics one could predict certain things, including rain, love, money, justice, health and death.
One medieval method offered various potential outcomes, with each piece of cheese denoting one path. Depending on which piece was eaten first by a mouse, or a worm, you could see which path was more likely, which links nicely to Myomancy (mice divination).
Another traditional approach was used by young country girls to divine the names of their future husbands. You could write the names of your potential sweethearts on individual pieces of cheese, and the first to grow mould would show the most likely suitor or ideal match.
Oct 1950: Jacqueline Sisson sued her hairdresser for $20,000, alleging that scalp burns she suffered while getting a permanent wave caused her to lose the psychic powers she relied upon for her stage act. Specifically, she had lost the ability to know what musical tunes audience members were thinking of.
As is typical of stories like this, the media never ran a follow-up to report the outcome of her lawsuit.
In November 1964, 5-year-old Kenneth Mason went missing. The police searched the river where he was last seen, but failed to find him.
Then 15-year-old Linda Anderson came forward and offered to use her psychic powers to help the police find Kenneth. Her father put her in a hypnotic trance, to activate her powers, and she declared, "The boy is not in the river, but is in a house." So the police began searching houses in the area.
Charlotte Observer - Nov 14, 1964
Linda Anderson, ESP Girl
In addition to being able to locate missing children, Linda also claimed to have the power of "dermal optical perception." She could read through her skin (as opposed to through her eyes). The media dubbed her "ESP Girl."
Lewiston Daily Sun - Nov 14, 1964
A skeptical physics professor, James A. Coleman, doubted that she could see through her skin and challenged her to prove it.
Bangor Daily News - Feb 11, 1965
She lost the challenge.
Nashua Telegraph - Feb 15, 1965
And then Kenneth Mason was found. Sadly he was dead and in the river after all. So much for the powers of ESP Girl.
In 1943, actress Gloria Dickson had a sizable part in THE CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE.
The scene to focus on starts below at 44:23. Gloria is married to a man who's very careless with matches, even starting fires in bed. She remarks that she's been "almost cremated."
Two years later, Dickson would die in a domestic fire in her bedroom, apparently started by a stray match.
Psychic Ernesto Montgomery claimed to have predicted many events (the assassination of JFK, the death of Princess Diana, various airplane crashes, etc.), but for some reason the authorities that he insisted he had contacted beforehand could later never remember having heard from him.
Predictions are standard fare for psychics. But what really set Montgomery apart was the highly unique source of his psychic powers:
"I was born with two appendages below both ears," he explained. "They are like little bones, maybe 1/16th of an inch or so but when I am about to pick up psychic vibrations about the future, they shoot out to a length of 2 or 3 inches.
"Think of your TV antenna," he said.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any photo of his "appendages".
According to old tradition, if you peel an apple and throw the peel over your left shoulder, it'll form the initial on the ground of your future one true love. But this only works on Halloween.
The Tennessean - Oct 13, 1949
The love divination spell may be aided by reciting either one of the following poems:
By this paring let me discover
The initial letter of my true lover.
Or:
Paring, paring, long and green,
Tell my Fate for Halloween.
Jemima Packington divines the future by interpreting asparagus. She calls this the art of Asparamancer. She throws the asparagus in the air, and where they land tells her the future. Using this method, she claims to have correctly foreseen Brexit, Prince Philip's death, Theresa May's resignation, and the Queen's death.
The latest thing that the asparagus have told her: "King Charles will take a step back, due to his age, and make William Prince Regent."
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.