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Are artists prophetic? Do we sometimes feel the "prophetic pulse" in movies, TV shows, novels, videos, and other outlets?

Perhaps, at times. Did you ever notice how many sci-fi creations foretold the latter advances in space travel?

Meanwhile, famously, there was a novella by Morgan Robertson about a massive, "unsinkable" ship -- called "Titan" -- that hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic (and sinks)! The novella was called Futility -- and it appeared fourteen years before the Titanic sunk.

In 1979 The China Syndrome, a movie called about a nuclear accident, was released two days before the nuclear disaster at Three-Mile Island.

There was the Steven Seagal movie called On Deadly Ground about an oil rig that exploded because of a faulty blow off preventer that the oil company knew was bad before they installed it which resulted in the release of oil into the ocean. Then the CEO of the oil company (Michael Caine) makes a commercial where he talks about how committed he his to the environment and the clean up of the spill. (Seagal lives in Louisiana).

The winds of the Spirit, it seems, blow where they will and perhaps the prophetic pulse is more widespread -- call it intuition -- than we commonly think. Many are the movies and novels that have foreseen tsunamis, comets, asteroids, volcanoes, and other mayhem in a way that seems to parallel Marian prophecies.

Last week (5/2/12) the front pages of many major newspapers carried an article about the incredible auction of a painting called "The Scream," a strange piece of "art," in the tradition of modernism, which sold for $120 million. The 1895 pastel was bought by an anonymous buyer at Sotheby's in New York. (Bidding lasted 12 minutes.) While it never did much for us, it is nonetheless intriguing to learn that the artist, Norwegian impressionist Edvard Munch, penned a poem on the frame that says: "I was walking along a path with two friends -- the sun was setting -- suddenly the sky turned blood red -- I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence -- there was blood and tongues of fire above the fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety -- and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

The concept of fire falling is familiar to those familiar with the prophecies of Fatima (where an angel was ready to torch the world) and Akita, Japan (where a message allegedly from Mary said that "fire will fall" due to our transgressions).

Was the "scream" about what humans are doing to God's Creation? And if so, was it in line with the "1990 prophecy" -- which indicated that God was displeased with the course of modern man in harming His Creation and also foresaw "not fire from the sky but fear of fire from the sky, and strange loud rumblings"?

Perhaps it is just "art." Munch was not known as very religious -- and in fact seemed negatively affected by a father he described as "obsessively" pious. He was no saint (one of his portraits is a nude that some think may have been intended as the Blessed Mother). More than anything, the famous painting -- second in renown only to the Mona Lisa -- seems to reflect his own feelings and perhaps demons.

Noted a news report: "Munch had a prescient vision of the horrors to come during the wars, persecutions and famines of the twentieth century."

The point is that life sometimes imitates art and thus we can say that there are times when an openness to the dimension of the imaginative the mind opens to a timeless realm that may include correct concepts of the future, for the imagination can be the highest perceiving device.

"After reading your mailbag letters today, I felt an overwhelming impulse to share with you an experience of twenty-five years ago, which I only shared with one person at that time," wrote viewer Marian Leso, for example. "I am Catholic, have been married for almost forty years, and am recently retired from the school system, where I worked with children with profound and severe disabilities.

"About twenty five years ago, on a beautiful summer day -- with a beautiful blue sky -- I was driving alone (along some empty, rural roads) to the local grocery store. My mind was suddenly filled with what seemed like a vivid dream; it seemed to be all that I saw, but I was still driving. In this 'dream,' I saw myself arriving at the store parking lot; and (in this dream) when I got out of the car, people were all excitedly talking to each other and pointing to the sky. They were asking, 'What does this mean!' The sky was filled with two huge red globes. I told them, 'It means it is the beginning of the spiritual times.' I said that there would be no sense for them to go into the store, because there will no longer be any electrical power -- and they won't be able to check out. This 'dream' ended when I got to the parking lot. I was enveloped in a feeling of floating peace and a kind of joy from this experience. When I walked into the store, people were all talking excitedly to other. The electrical power had suddenly gone off -- and the cashiers were saying that they would not be able to check anyone out. They were amazed this would happen on a beautiful day. I was totally not surprised, and felt it was a corroborating end to this 'dream.' At this time there was a beautiful change to my Miraculous Medal, which I showed to only two other people and my young children. It remained for about a year and a half, and was unaffected by polishing. On the medal, the Blessed Virgin's dress turned a beautiful blue, and her robe turned red. The space on either side of her head was filled with two dark red globes. The hearts on the back both turned red. What this all means, I don't know."

Nor could we.

But there are times, we do know, when life also imitates dreams.

"In 1990 God told me there would be a big flood and a big earthquake," adds viewer Dee Orgeron. " In a month's time I had like four to six dreams of this big event. I asked God how to deliver this message and He told me I was never for the public; I was to do this on a one one basis and small prayer groups. Over the years I have seen different things that would cause this big flood I saw but I am not sure yet what it is. On May 19th The Lord lead me to a lady's house in Covington, Louisiana which at the time had three statues of Our Lady that wept. The Lord told me to go there to tell her about this big flood I saw. I told her to ask for a weeping that what I was telling her was true; she called me the next day and a statue that had not wept before wept; it was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. All four statues of Our Lady wept on May 25th and have not wept since. Our Lord has told me that when the statues weep the flood is near."