Prediction is a type of prophecy in which information concerning future event is obtained through psychic gifts, divine inspiration, the reading of signs, or the altering of consciousness. Usually prophecy is thought as being on a grand scale, concerning large groups of people, while prediction mostly concerns individuals. Most psychic readings are based on questions that obtain information about probable events in the individual’s future.
Usually prediction are based on precognition, or future knowledge, which can be retrieved from intuition, dreams, visions in scrying, or through reading signs in astrology, Tarot, palmistry or numerology. In shamanic or oracle cultures, mind-altering drugs may be taken to induce prophecy, which is believed to be divinely or supernaturally inspired.
Predictions may be colored by perceptions and prejudices of the individual. These are often hard to detect because time is not linear, but is in the ever-present now. A.G.H.
Sources:
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience, New York: HarperCollins, 1991, pp. 464-465
Riland, George, The New Steinerbooks Dictionary of Paranormal, New York, Warner Books, Inc., 1980, p. 228