Prescience is the ability to predict the future through vision. Throughout history a number of cultures have believed that oracles have possessed this ability. It is one of a number of alleged psychic phenomena studied by Parapsychology. According to the Western scientific viewpoint prescience is impossible; but this has not prevented a huge number of people in the modern world from believing in astrology and visiting fortune tellers.

Prescience is an important concept in the fictional Dune universe, as created by Frank Herbert. Herbert treats prescience not simply as seeing the future, but rather as the ability to see all possibilities the future may hold. With each moment the stream of possibilities changes, or rather, some change and some cannot be changed. The prescient person is aware of everything but finds that he himself is locked into the possibilities; that his course of action is impossible to resist. His prescient characters see the “Golden Path” that if followed will lead to mankind’s eternal continuance, while any other course will ultimately lead to man’s destruction. Herbert’s Dune saga explores the consequences of a society ruled by individuals who possess genuine prescience. Herbert concludes that the ability would be a curse, rather than a blessing.

In Greek mythology, Cassandra, the legendary daughter of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba, was prescient, but was cursed by Apollo to have no one believe her predictions.

External link

• A mask, The Curse of Prescience