What is prophesying?

Answer 1

BASIC DEFINITION: A gloomy prediction is made, usually with scant or deceivingly cryptic detail. [Sociologist Robert K Merton would call this the false definition.] People take steps to avoid the prediction or to make it impossible. Unwittingly, the actions of the people to avoid the doom are precisely the actions that bring about the prediction's fulfillment. In other words, by taking steps against the false definition that has been declared as 'true', people express on a very deep level an acceptance of it, and then take steps that bring about the truth of it.

A very brief example from The Matrix films: Neo is brought to see the Oracle for the first time. After a couple of minutes the Oracle says to him "Don't worry about the vase..." turning around, Neo says "What vase?" While turning, Neo unwittingly pushes a vase off its base and it crashes to the floor. "That vase..." the Oracle says. "...I'm sorry"... "I said don't worry about it. What's really going to fry your noodle later is: would you have broken the vase if I hadn't said anything?"

FOR THOSE WANTING MORE: One of the darkest and best self-fulfilling prophesies is in the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus, from whom Freud developed his concept of Oedipus Complex.

THE PROPHESY: Laius, King of Thebes, goes to the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi to learn why he and Queen Jocasta are childless. The Oracle tells the king that any son born to them will kill his father and marry his mother. [The false definition]

THE DRASTIC STEPS: When a son, poor Oedipus, is born to them, the king pierces the baby's feet and binds them together, and Jocasta has a servant bring the child into the wilderness to die. But...

UNWITTING ACTIONS: ...the kind servant gives the baby to a shepherd instead. The child comes to the attention of the king and queen of Corinth, who adopt him. When grown, Oedipus is told by the one person who knew of his stay with the shepherds that he is adopted and not the natural son of the king and queen of Corinth. When he confronts them they deny it, and he goes to... the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the same oracle consulted by Oedipus' father, to learn the truth. The Oracle doesn't reveal Oedipus' true parentage, but tells him that he will kill his father and marry his mother. That pesky Oracle.

Wanting to avoid this horrendous fate, Oedipus travels and comes to a crossroads at a town called Davlia. He has a fight with another traveler over who has the right-of-way, like two hot-headed drivers at a 4-way stop.

THE FULFILLMENT: In self-defense, Oedipus kills the other traveler who, you will not be surprised to learn, is King Laius, his natural father. Oedipus continues, completely unaware of what he has done, and comes to the Sphinx. When Oedipus answers the riddle of the Sphinx (the famous 4-legs, 2-legs, 3-legs riddle) he frees the city of... yes, Thebes, from the oppressive powers of the Sphinx. In gratitude, the people of Thebes name Oedipus King, and he is given to his recently widowed mother, Queen Jocasta, as her husband. No one is the wiser.Years go by, and... believe it or not the story goes downhill from here. If you are not familiar with it, you should swear on your father's grave to read it before you get married.

NOTES: Why call it self-fulfilling? Ask yourself: If the prophecy had never been made, would Oedipus have ended up killing his father and marrying his mother? If the participants had taken different steps, would that have certainly prevented the prophesy from being fulfilled? The characters thought their actions would protect them from what turned out to be inevitable. Among many lessons in this myth we learn at least that things are not always what they appear to be.

I think that of all the lies that can possibly be told, the lies of Oracles are the most sublime. They are so utterly beautiful in form that it seems appropriate to admire and even revere them. They are vulgar deceit transformed before our eyes and in the light of day into simple naked truth. And they are transformed by people consumed with pride and self-concern in the belief that they are in control. Once exposed, these lies offer to teach us how to avoid their future stings of death. But what steps do we then take to avoid them?