page_title: Baba Vanga
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Baba Vanga / Work
caption_attribution_description: Български: Защитена местност Рупите, България English: Rupite protected area, Bulgaria
context_page_description: Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, commonly known as Baba Vanga, was a blind Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant, and herbalist, who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh mountains in Bulgaria. Zheni Kostadinova claimed in 1997 that millions of people believed she possessed paranormal abilities.
context_section_description: Vanga was semi-literate in Bulgarian; she could read some Braille in Serbian, as she learned in Zemun. She did not write any books herself. What she said or allegedly said had been captured by staff members. Later, numerous esoteric books on Vanga's life and predictions were written.
  Sources such as The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal claim that she foretold the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, the date of Stalin's death, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, the September 11 attacks, Topalov's victory in the world chess tournament, the tensions with North Korea. On the other hand, Bulgarian sources say that the people who were close to her claim that she never prophesied about Kursk, World War III, or other subjects circulating the Internet, and that many of the myths about Vanga are simply not true. Some evidence has also been presented that Baba Vanga did not make many of the predictions now attributed to her, but rather people frequently attribute new fake "prophecies" to her since her death, and the lack of a written record of her prophecies, makes any prediction attributed to her difficult to disprove.
  In 1966, following her increases in her popularity and overwhelming numbers to people wanting to see her, the Bulgarian government put Vanga on the state payroll.  She was given two secretaries and a panel to interview potential patients.  In addition, the Institutes of Suggestology and Parapsychology in Sofia and Petrich studied Vanga's phenomenal psychic abilities.
  In early August 1976, Yugoslav actress and singer Silvana Armenulić was on tour in Bulgaria and decided to meet with Baba Vanga. Vanga only sat and stared out a window with her back to Silvana, never speaking to her. After a long time, Vanga finally spoke: "Nothing. You do not have to pay. I do not want to speak with you. Not now. Go and come back in three months." As Silvana turned around and walked towards the door, Vanga said: "Wait. In fact, you will not be able to come. Go, go. If you can come back in three months, do so." Silvana took this as confirmation that she would die and left Vanga's home in tears. Armenulić died two months later, 10 October 1976, in a car crash with her sister Mirjana.
  Vanga incorrectly predicted that the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final would be played between "two teams beginning with B". One finalist was Brazil, but Bulgaria was eliminated by Italy in the semifinals. According to The National, Vanga predicted that World War III would start in November 2010 and last until October 2014.
  Baba Vanga also predicted the existence of extraterrestrial djinns. Vanga purportedly predicted another "realm of being", claiming that entire cultures would begin to spread through a "false world". She claimed that in 2003, any person would be able to think in synchronicity with others, allowing for a form of secondary existence.
  Followers of Vanga believe that she predicted the precise date of her own death, dreaming that she would die on 11 August, and be buried on 13 August. Shortly before that she had said that a ten-year-old blind girl living in France was to inherit her gift, and that people would soon hear about her.
  Another prediction attributed to her is that the 44th President of the United States would be the country's last Commander-in-chief. It has also been claimed that Vanga correctly predicted the 44th President would be African-American. Vanga's supporters also claimed that she predicted the 45th president will be with a "messianic personality", who will be faced with a crisis that eventually "brings the country down".
caption: St Petka of Bulgaria, Baba Vanga's church and grave.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "<KENOX S630  / Samsung S630>", "Image Make": "Samsung Techwin", "Image Model": "<KENOX S630  / Samsung S630>", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "708271", "Image DateTime": "2008:11:02 11:28:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "COPYRIGHT, 2007", "Image ExifOffset": "294", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "31046", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4193", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/180", "EXIF FNumber": "91/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:02 11:28:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:02 11:28:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "125265/61952", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "15/2", "EXIF ApertureValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "369/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "103/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2112", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "RelatedSound", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "30910", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "1", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "61", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "65296", "EXIF Sharpness": "64976"}