Abraham Lincoln's last formal photograph, taken February 5, 1865 by Alexander Gardner.
Today is the 203rd anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
Readers of my blog have probably noticed that I tend to write about the psychic experiences of historically prominent men. This is not because I discount the psychic experiences of women, but because there is a trend in modern culture to ignore the psychic activity of men.
Some of this enforced ignorance might be because most men are uncomfortable with any subject that isn’t analytical and easily explainable. But I cannot help that suspect that this enforced ignorance is an artificial social construct from people who know that psychic abilities are real.
If we speak of U.S. Presidents, we can go all the way back to the father of our country, George Washington, and follow psychic experiences through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.
Lincoln was reputed to have consulted a psychic when he was twenty-two and told that he would be the President of the United States someday. Tragedy opened the door for Lincoln’s psychic experiences, starting with the death of his first love, Ann Rutledge, on August 25th, 1835. Abraham’s wife, Mary Todd, appears to have had an interest in spiritualism from an early age.
Edward Baker "Eddie" Lincoln
Mary’s interest in spiritualism only increased after the death of the Lincoln’s second son, Eddie, on February 1st, 1850. Eddie was only three years old. Both Abraham and Mary were devastated. The Lincoln’s third son, Willie, died on February 20th, 1862. The Laurie’s, well-known Georgetown Mediums, visited the White House frequently after Willie’s death. At least one documented seance took place in the White House on April 23rd, 1863, attended by the President, First Lady, and several other prominent members of the cabinet.
In October 1863, Mary said to her half-sister, Emilie Todd Helm:
“Willie lives. He comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet adorable smile he always has had. He does not always come alone. Little Eddie is sometimes with him and twice he has come with our brother Alex.”
President Lincoln, who held the Union together during the bloodiest war the United States has ever fought, the Civil War, had many psychic experiences. He noted that he felt ‘guided’ when he wrote The Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln told his good friend on approximately April 11th, 1865, about a dream he had:
“About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping.
“I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this?
“Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully.
‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers.
‘The President,’ was the answer; ‘he was killed by an assassin!’
“Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.”
Three days later, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, in Ford’s Theater. He died the next day, on April 15th.
