‘Aunt Vanga’ Gushterova; Blind Bulgarian Psychic

“Aunt Vanga” Gushterova, 84, a blind peasant whose supposed clairvoyant powers gave her saint-like status across Bulgaria. Born in neighboring Macedonia, Vanga lost her sight at age 12 in a windstorm. From the time she was a teenager, she was a legend for what many believed was her ability to see into the future and the past, to make correct diagnoses or predictions, and locate missing people. She claimed to derive her powers from an ancient city buried under her village of Rupite in southwestern Bulgaria. She was famous across the Balkans, and every day thousands of sick and desperate people lined up outside her house seeking advice. On Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria, of cancer.