All change, some have argued, occurs through dramatic episode. The laws of change are the laws of drama. It's the way plants reach the flowering stage and caterpillars become butterflies, the way of metamorphosis, of redemption, and it was the heart of ancient temple practice which has come down to us as theater. From Sophocles to Shakespeare, from Goethe to Arthur Miller, the great playwrights demonstrated the laws which liberate the soul from darkness. Some understood and were transformed.

Insight into the nature of change illuminated psychoanalysts like Carl Jung who wrote of a universal process through which the base metal of the lesser self could be changed into the pure gold of a higher self through application of alchemical principles. Some, such as Arnold Toynbee, saw cycles of change unfolding through history like the processes of nature, including birth, life and death or transcendence for entire civilizations.

Knowledge of such things, though nearly forgotten by the modern alienated western mind, nevertheless, continues to haunt those with eyes to see and ears to hear. The perennial wisdom and sacred science in ancient teachings from Egyptian to Hopi, from Gnostic to Confucian guides the quest for illumination in our own time. And while some may listen only to their own inner voices and others will try to drown their intuitions in the noise of the times, few can escape the sense that, with the dawn of a new millennium, we stand at the portal of dramatic change, a spiritual initiation, the like of which has not been seen for aeons.

Whether the coming changes will be pleasant or otherwise remains to be seen. But it is already clear that the process, if it does not destroy us, will, at the very least, shake us to the core. The great changes coming can be felt in the gut, and, like sailors with an eye on the weather, we approach the unknown, albeit inevitable, future with both fascination and anxiety.

In such a climate, it is not surprising that prophets, both true and false, should flourish. Indeed, from astrological charting to computer modeling, the business of guessing the future is booming. A series of NBC TV specials earns spectacular audience ratings by presenting a hash of dire warnings taken from selected ancient prophets and modern visionaries. From the Internet to the supermarket checkout line, from the Discovery Channel to the local library, we are presented with a blizzard of predictions and mass-produced personal advice of dubious value.

In the thriving map-market on the frontier of the new millennium, the advantage is with the purveyors of prognostication. By the time advice can be tested, it'll be too late for a refund, so it makes sense to check the history of the charter before following the proposed route.

Unlike many of the opportunists eager to cash in on the public's appetite for such guidance, Gerald Celente and his Trends Research Institute are no Johnies-come-lately to the prognostication business. In fact, says CNBC There is no better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The network credits Celente and his company with a proven and unsurpassed trend-forecasting track record, citing him for predicting the October 1987 world stock market crash eleven months before it happened, warning of the war in the Balkans and foreseeing the fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Mexican economy and the 1990 U.S. recession. Celente's reputation for seeing and acting on future developments well before the herd is legendary.

In his new bestseller Trends 2000 (Warner Books, New York) he parlays the collective wisdom of 25 of his institute's resident experts, including himself, into a comprehensive picture of the next millennium, including individual spiritual reawakening, an energy revolution, rediscovery of ancient wisdom, nuclear and environmental disaster, a new era of social responsibility for corporations, and a global age that will usher in a new, widespread sense of the sacred; new family, government, and religious values to replace the outworn institutions of the industrial age.

John Anthony West, a close collaborator in Celente's work and frequent critic of the modern age, has often pointed out we didn't just go from dumb old cavemen, to smart old us with our striped toothpaste and hydrogen bombs but we learned from civilizations already in place. So it should not surprise one to learn that Trends 2000, seeks, for its analysis, to draw upon ancient wisdom. In fact, the book begins with an explanation of the precession of the equinoxes, the great cycle of astronomical change which is at the heart of much of today's breakthrough research by pioneers like West, Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval into our legacy from the ancients. Celente, however, does not impute any special access to future events to ancient prophets. He relies instead more upon a thorough reading of material gathered from every quarter of the world and from every discipline. The secret, he writes, lies in putting together the relevant evidence and coming up with the correct big picture.

Easier said than done, but few can argue with the results.

The Trends Research Institute was born and initially funded from Celente's discovery in the '70s that he could make money in the commodities market by following through on his personal assessment of events, in particular those in Iran. I started to think, he recalled in a recent interview with Atlantis Rising, I know the Shah is going to be overthrown...what are the implications? That question led to the certainty that oil and gold prices were soon going to go up, way up. I realized by watching current events, by making up my own mind rather than having the media tell me what to think, or analysts, spin doctors, I could see the current events that were forming future trends.

Today the Institute from its offices in Rhinebeck, New York publishes The Trends Journal, a quarterly newsletter and a hot item among professionals whose livelihood depends upon an accurate assessment of the future. The publication summarizes newly unfolding trends (i.e., The Spring 1997 issue predicts that entrepreneurs will soon take a big bite out of today's fast-food giants by offering fast-food health food. Also ahead: an Economic Globalization Backlash (is) Building; Youth Activists (will) Target Corporate Logos, Corporate Greed and Dangers (ahead in the) Cloning Trend.

Going into the new millennium, Celente, in his book, identifies several of the major trends which he thinks will shape events:

A change in spirit, a return to an ancient ideal We are going to embrace a very difficult philosophy in the new millennium. And it's going to be built on the belief that we're not accidental glitches on an uncaring planet, and that we have a divine purpose.

Nuclear calamity Whether it happens in Russia, because of their rotting facilities throughout the former Soviet Union; whether it happens because of nuclear terrorism; or because of the mountains of nuclear problems that we have right here in the United States and around the world. So, betting on a nuclear calamity, as we say, is like betting on the favorite in a one-horse race.

An environmental age People's immune systems are going to be broken down because of the destruction of the environment....

The combination of increased fallout, more pollution, less safe food supply, new wonder bugs beating out wonder drugs is going to cause a new Black Plague, or new plagues. But, when you put together fallout, more fallout, and plagues, then you also have a real zeal and quest for health, so immune system buildup is going to be a big buzz word for the new millennium...We're going to have a lot of sickly people. By the way, this is going to address the great problem of population growth.

Trend toward health We talk about longevity centers, people are going to go on sabbaticals to learn how to take care of themselves, emotionally, physically and spiritually. We're looking at vitamin counseling becoming a profession, something that barely exists today... The other areas of growth, the biggest area in the whole fast-food area is going to be fast-food health food restaurants. Chains of places where you go to get, and we're not talking tofu hutch, you won't necessarily get soup there, you might get a chicken cutlet sandwich that comes from an organically raised free-range chicken, or a burger that was from cattle that haven't been fed hormones.

An Energy Revolution The dream of Free Energy is about to become technological reality and the single, biggest investment opportunity of the 21st century, its ramifications will extend to practically every aspect of human and planetary life.

Boomtown real estate Select commercial, residential, and retirement real estate will be on the uptrend for at least twenty-five years, buying into choice exurban and Latin American markets in the '90s will prove a sound investment strategy.

Cyber dominance America will continue to reign as the world leader in hardware and software development, this will oblige the rest of the world to communicate in cyber-English.

Technotribalism A combination of corporate downsizing, economic fallback, the home-office trend, interactive communications (especially the perfecting of the video phone), and a big push to small towns will create new postindustrial communities, visionary new social structures with shared political/economic/spiritual ideals and values.

For Celente the coming changes, for the most part, are welcome: An old age is dying. this industrial age. And that old age can be the caterpillar. And it's lived its life. And now it's metamorphosing into a butterfly. This is an age that is going to be looked upon by future historians as the dark age of modern times, the industrial age. It was a time when economic needs were put before human needs, machinery before people, materialism before spirituality, and now, of course, high-tech development before spiritual growth. It was a very destructive age. The planet was plundered.

Celente is at pains to distinguish himself from the futurists who were so popular in the '60s and '70s. What the futurists do is look beyond the present and make predictions. They rarely look at the crosscurrent of trends that develop a future, and they almost invariably disregard the present. Real life goes on and doesn't evolve in a straight line or in a perfect manner. They say they make up for this by developing different scenarios. But no matter what scenario you develop, invariably it happens differently because that is what life is all about. He cites martial arts training which seldom produces an adequate defense in a real life because a mugger never quite behaves in the formal way envisioned by the training. For Celente the mugger is the future.

Though a true believer in the power of new spirituality and environmentalism and generally opposed to the abuses of industrial capitalism, Celente does not consider himself an exponent of '60s radicalism a la Oliver Stone. I do not see myself as a radical of that time at all, nor am I one now, he insists. The major element of the '60s that appeals to me, and that really always appealed to me, is the questioning of authority. That was a hard thing to do growing up in the '50s. It wasn't until the '60s that that became a reality. and now every authority has lost its authority in '90s.

But does the breakdown of authority mean a breakdown in society's cohesiveness? Celente doesn't think so. This false authority is built upon a standard of laws and reason that meet the needs of the authorities. In the future, he believes we will renew democracy as the people use the new technology working and educating themselves in their own homes. (Democracy) is going to be restored through the technological age in that we will be voting our choices, via computer. We're going to see less and less of a so-called representative form of government.

As for the danger that such a system could create a knee jerk reflexive kind of society responding, like a lynch mob, to the impulses of the moment without a proper regard for long-term needs, Celente isn't worried. Regardless of what kind of system you have, there are always pitfalls and failings that go along with human beings. And, there is no one system that's going to have all the fail-safe checks and balances that we really need. Really, the only real fail-safe system is a new morality and a spirituality.

The mood of the people upon entering a new century is very different than a hundred years ago, Celente feels. This is an era where people are very much afraid of the future, because we've lost trust in every institution. Our predicament, unlike that of our grandparents, is that we find ourselves in this time of great complexity unable to draw comfort from the simple religious outlook which served them so well. And that is where rediscovery of the gnosis (spiritual knowledge) of the ancients comes in. Only by reawakening that great, lost legacy can we find the spiritual resources to face the awesome challenges of the coming millennium.

The real change, says Celente, is going to happen when people change.