Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America, that was assassinated – his ghost one of the most well-known restless spirits in America today. Abraham was said to have an interest in spiritualism, and a psychic gift of his own, were he supposedly predicted his own death. He was also involved in occult practices.
History: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Born in 1809, Lincoln was the second child of Nancy and Thomas Lincoln. Lincoln was very withdrawn as a child and while growing up, said to be prone to melancholy and moodiness. He spent most of his time in the woods by himself. Lincoln’s mother passed away in 1818, she contracted milk sickness. His father, Thomas, later re-married to Sarah Bush Johnston, who had four children. The big new family caused Lincoln to withdraw himself even more.
Lincoln had a brush with death when he was kicked in the head by a horse in 1819, first thought to be dead, he was only unconscious for the night. After recovering, he was noted to be different, as if he was inside a world of his own. It’s been said that in many cases head trauma may lead to the opening of psychic abilities, and been speculated that this may have been the case with Lincoln.
Sometime later in 1839, Abraham met Mary Todd, nine years younger than him, a socialite well-known to be high-strung and nervous. She had many suitors, amongst them was Abraham’s rival, Stephen Douglas. Abraham married Mary on November 4, 1842. Nine months later their first son, Robert, was born. Two more children followed, another two sons. In 1850, Willie and in 1853, Thomas, better known as “Tad”.
Abraham occupied himself with his law career and spent a lot of time away from home.
He was elected the 16th president of the United States of America in 1860.
A tragedy struck the Lincoln’s in January 1862, when Abraham’s son Willie had gotten sick, and unfortunately, never recovered. The cause of death is still unknown, although typhoid, malaria and consumption have all been proposed. Many feared that the passing of Abraham’s son will drive him to suicide from his grieving, but he managed to push through and kept his command over the war effort.
On April 14 1865, Abraham and his wife, Mary, and several others attended a play at Ford’s theatre in Washington. That evening, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham. He also plotted to kill Abraham’s secretary of state, William Steward, but failed. Booth is said to have entered the presidential box and shot Abraham point blank range behind the left ear. Booth shouted: “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” (Thus shall it be tyrants) and escaped. Severely wounded, the president passed away several hours later, on April 15. His body was kept in state at the White House and then was taken by train back to Springfield for burial. On April 26, Booth was shot to death by an army sergeant. Eight other coconspirators were arrested and tried.
Abraham Lincoln’s influence of Spiritualism:
Historians each have different opinions on how much Abraham was interested in spiritualism, and how much he have taken part in meetings and séances. Many are convinced his interest was influenced by his wife Mary. It has been documented that Mary has a lot of involvement with mediums and even invited her favorites to the White House. Some among them are J.B Conklin, Nettie Colburn Maynard, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Cranston Laurie, and Cora Richmond.
In a letter to one of Abraham’s friends, Joshua F. Speed in 1842, Lincoln observed that he had “always had a strong tendency to mysticism” and had often felt controlled “by some other power than my own will,” which he felt came “from above.” After the death of Abraham and Mary’s son, Willie, Mary had been attending seances in an effort to contact Willie’s spirit and persuaded Lincoln to attend at least one.
Abraham’s Paranormal Experiences:
Abraham had many visions, premonitions and paranormal experiences. He dreamed of his own death. Abraham became extremely withdrawn during the Civil War, spending a lot of his time on praying and meditating. Even though many of his generals complained about his “meddling”, he may have had intuitive or psychic insights and visions that pushed him to take certain courses of action.
It’s been said that Lincoln would regularly visit his son, Willie’s grave, and would regularly speak to him. After that, Abraham had a dramatic and prophetic dream of his assassination, were he wrote in his journal:
I retired late. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered down-stairs. 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. 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 his 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.
Abraham Lincoln’s Haunting Activity: (From Wikipedia)
The White House's most famous alleged apparition is that of Abraham Lincoln. Eleanor Roosevelt never admitted to having seen Lincoln's ghost, but did say that she felt his presence repeatedly throughout the White House. Mrs. Roosevelt also said that the family dog, Fala, would sometimes bark for no reason at what she felt was Lincoln's ghost. President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty and Liz Carpenter, press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, both said they felt Lincoln's presence many times. The former president's footsteps are also said to be heard in the hall outside the Lincoln Bedroom. As reputable an eyewitness as Lillian Rogers Parks admitted in her autobiography My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House that she had heard them. Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry S. Truman, said she heard a specter rapping at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom when she stayed there, and believed it was Lincoln. President Truman himself was once wakened by raps at the door while spending a night in the Lincoln Bedroom. Others have actually seen an apparition of the former president. The first person reported to have actually seen Lincoln's spirit was First Lady Grace Coolidge, who said she saw the ghost of Lincoln standing at a window in the Yellow Oval Room staring out at the Potomac. Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, and Maureen Reagan and her husband have all claimed to have seen a spectral Lincoln in the White House. A number of staff members of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration claimed to have seen Lincoln's spirit, and on one occasion Roosevelt's personal valet ran screaming from the White House claiming he had seen Lincoln's ghost. Perhaps the most famous incident was in 1942 when Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands heard footsteps outside her White House bedroom and answered a knock on the door, only to see Lincoln in frock coat and top hat standing in front of her (she promptly fainted). One of the most recent sightings came in the early 1980s, when Tony Savoy, White House operations foreman, came into the White House and saw Lincoln sitting in a chair at the top of some stairs. Several unnamed eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen the shade of Abraham Lincoln actually lying down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom (which was used as a meeting room at the time of his administration), and while others have seen Lincoln sit on the edge of the bed and put his boots on. The most famous eyewitness to the latter was Mary Eben, Eleanor Roosevelt's secretary, who saw Lincoln pulling on his boots (after which she ran screaming from the room). Abraham Lincoln is not the only Lincoln ghost witnesses claim to have seen in the White House. Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's 11-year-old son, died in the White House of typhoid on February 20, 1862. Willie Lincoln's ghost was first seen in the White House by staff members of the Grant administration in the 1870s, but has appeared as recently as the 1960s (President Lyndon B. Johnson's college-age daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, saw the ghost and claims to have talked to him).
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