I wrote about my conversation with a real prophet in April 13th of 2010. Today, as I read this piece again to post it here, I feel his presence in my life and the effect he had on my thinking is clear.
Thank you, Frank.
I always understood that one can predict the future with some degree of accuracy. Contrary to popular opinion, this can be accomplished without supernatural or paranormal intervention. And the individual performing the exploit requires no degree of psychic acumen.
I know that some short-term predictions are possible through simple yet careful observation of behaviour, statistical probabilities, and environmental factors and stressors.
More impenetrably for the majority of us, some Quantum theorists maintain that it is alway the past, present, and future. Unlimited concurrent timelines waiting for specific events to coalesce into the sense of now we experience here.
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For less complex examples, we can look at how environmental engineers use statics to predict climate variations by combining past data with the latest climate change analysis and research. Actuaries apply mathematical models to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries with a high degree of accuracy.
It’s predicted that by 2020 AI modules will accurately prognosticate and influence consequences of human behaviour.
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These sciences are instrumental in the business/marketing arenas. And are essential to maintaining balance in local and global markets; they also reflect the high-level numeracy for which the human mind has potential.
And it is a similar potential that I witnessed during my interactions with a dying man.
The Prophet
His story is short and difficult to believe at the same time. Frank Macri, or Frank Anteros, as his online profiles labelled him, giving his rhetoric so much more meaning, died from a seemingly undetermined cause.
But so much of what Frank said was difficult to grasp, harder still to believe. “It is always July,” he told me once, “This is YOUR July amongst millions happening now and later, slightly beyond your perception”.
Years later, my cynical dismissal of such a claim still leads to a type of anxiety only lessened by the consumption of years of knowledge. Ironically, it’s that consumption that shows me the extent of my own ignorance. I know only that unlike my prophet, I will die knowing nothing.
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Anteros, his well-chosen pseudonym, is the Greek name for the mythological god of requited love, or love returned. He was also the punisher of those who scorn love and the avenger of love betrayed.
According to the Greek myth, his parents Ares and Aphrodite, gave him to his brother Eros as a companion. Anteros’ lesson is that love should be returned for it to prosper and grow.
Although he often described himself as a simple man, frank was not simple. He was intelligent, very persuasive, and persistent. He also had an extraordinary ability to understand human behaviour, which, as he explained, he acquired during his early years living in an abusive household. His story is even less simple than his personality, and it begins with the death of his mother. And it ended with his at the early age of 33.
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At 5 years old, his mother’s death left him in the care of a delinquent, alcoholic father who neglected him and his two siblings, Laura and Stephan. Both younger by one and 2 years respectively.
Two years after his mother’s passing, Frank became a ward of the state, assigned to foster care, and unfortunately separated from his brother and sister.
His father, incarcerated for several crimes at the time, including several B&A charges and armed robbery, was not present in Frank’s life since his 7th birthday. That year, he received a pendant of the Mythological god mentioned before.
Foster and government child services facilitated education and health care for Frank. As a dedicated student, he excelled in elementary and secondary schools, leading to a highly successful higher-learning career.
A master’s degree in computer sciences, postgrad studies in theoretical physics (Quantum Solipsism), and a minor in religious studies gave him the technical knowledge and credentials to acquire well-paid, high-level employment in a very specialised government department. This department, which dealt with national security matters, both domestically and in foreign theatres, was our common link.
His life experience, his losses, and his incredibly turbulent past provided him with a deep understanding of the things people do and why we do them.
As he once said, “what university taught me is less than 10% of what life has shown me”. And loosely quoting the humanistic approach of Dr Carl Rogers, he continued, “What I Know about people, I have definitely learned from people”.
He attributed his accurate and, at times, uncanny empathy to his experiences and what he observed from those around him. Other reasons he offered for his ostensibly supernatural abilities to see the future may appear too mystical to share here. I don’t want to imply that he believed himself a prophet – he didn’t – he had little time for magical thinking.
His technical and scientific education and life experience made him the perfect amalgamation of scientific, secular knowledge and emotional intelligence. By his own admission, it was his suffering that gave him and fine-tuned his understanding of people.
The Understanding
Frank came into my life only a few years before his demise. In this time, he shared ideas with me that were close to my own and expanded on my past work. He also explained many of the essential principles I ignored. He reminded me of the importance of suffering and pain, and how we must use them to make us stronger.
This ideal would seem to many who read this as a negative way to live, but it is precisely the opposite.
He re-opened my eyes to the truth of love and how important it is to remain faithful to its cause as it brings power and understanding. He reassured me that compassion was a valuable commodity, but as I understood, it is a tool that needs to be used intelligently and responsibly.
He told me that I was right to never give up, that a true hero should never back away from a challenge. He told me that a lost cause is not lost; but it’s most importantly a cause.
The End
Frank’s death was long and painful, full of anxiety; it was 5 years-long and one of the clearest examples of a broken heart.
As many of us will do, only once in our lives, Frank fell in love. Because of this “choice”, he couldn’t move on from what happened to him. He was 25 when he met the object of his affection and decided to give everything to the promise she held. To love her unconditionally. He was 27 when he lost her.
He lost her due to an unfortunate misunderstanding that led her to leave without a simple goodbye, leaving no more than a few things behind. And in his wisdom, he refused to employ the unlimited surveillance tools at his disposal to find her.
How someone with the power to predict and influence behaviour decided not to influence the person he needed the most is a heroic idea that escapes me. Like the concept of MY July amongst millions, I also hope to understand this some day.
Her departure was swift and violent – setting the pace for the culmination of Frank’s story….
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I want to write more about Frank and the lessons he afforded me. I might take up that challenge seriously in the near future.
For now, and for what it’s worth from my materialistic vantage point, I sometimes think that Frank still moves in a different timeline slightly beyond my perception.
May he be happy in many, if not all of those possibilities.
— Peyton Dracco
Peyton Dracco | Entrepreneur Author 