Greek mythology tells the story of Cassandra, youngest daughter of Priam, the last ruler of Troy. Her brother, Paris, provoked ruinous war with the Greeks by snatching Helen away from her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta.

Endowed with the gift of prophecy by Apollo, Cassandra had rejected the god's amorous advances, causing him to angrily put a curse on her – that although her prophecies would all be true, no-one would ever believe her. As a result, Cassandra's prediction that Paris would cause Troy to fall was received with blank scepticism. And even though her dire warnings proved to be tragically correct, Cassandra was treated as quite mad for the rest of her life.

She did, however, help establish a long tradition of spiritually gifted females that has persisted into the 20th century. It includes Helena Petrovna Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society and the charismatic preacher Aimée Semple McPherson of the Four Square Gospel movement, who once began a prayer meeting by roaring into the hall on a motorcycle.

In 1960, 14-year-old Margaret Foos from Ellerson in Virginia, appeared on national television in the US to demonstrate her powers of 'true sight'. Carefully blindfolded, she read randomly selected passages of print, identified colours and objects and even played a game of checkers.

In 1963, Russian medical researchers reported on the case of Rosa Kuleshova, who in several experiments, during which her eyes were covered, read newsprint and sheet music with her fingertips and elbow. Neither case has ever been fully explained.

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