Post by auntym on Feb 17, 2013 12:13:26 GMT -6
channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-lincoln/articles/the-story-of-lincolns-ghost/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130217ch-lincoln&utm_campaign=Content
The Story of Lincoln's Ghost[/color]
By Patrick J. Kiger
Published Jan. 24, 2013
Spirit photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of President Lincoln, by William H. Mumler channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-lincoln/articles/the-story-of-lincolns-ghost/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130217ch-lincoln&utm_campaign=Content
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, but some have said that his spirit has lingered on—and not just figuratively, either. Over the years, there have been multiple purported sightings of his ghost—at the White House and Ford’s Theatre where he was assassinated, at Fort Monroe in Virginia, and at his tomb in Springfield, Ill., according to a 1999 Skeptical Inquirer article by Joe Nickell, a senior research fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a group that investigates and often debunks paranormal claims.
The epicenter for Lincoln sightings, not surprisingly, is the White House, where he lived during the last four tumultuous years of his life. The 16th President’s apparition reportedly has been seen at the White House by a long list of people, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to President Reagan’s daughter Maureen.
The notion of Lincoln’s wraith roaming the rooms of his former residence is in some ways ironic, since Lincoln himself wasn’t a strong believer in an afterlife, according to his biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin. In her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, she recounts how years before Lincoln assumed the Presidency, one of his Illinois neighbors asked him whether he believed in a future realm. “I’m afraid there isn’t,” he responded. “It isn’t a pleasant thing to think that when we die, that is the last of us.”
Indeed, while Lincoln’s wife Mary did dabble in spiritualism and even once held a séance in the White House, Lincoln himself wasn’t much interested in such matters, though he did attend at least one such gathering with her—presumably to humor an emotionally fragile First Lady traumatized by the death of her son Willie, according to Nickell. That said, Lincoln did claim to have strange seemingly prophetic dreams. According to his friend Ward Hill Lamon, a short time before his assassination, Lincoln dreamed that he had awakened to discover a wailing crowd in the East Room, once of whom told him that they were mourning the president’s murder. On the night before his death, he reportedly dreamed that he was in a mysterious boat or ship, “sailing toward a dark and indefinite shore” —a scene that is depicted in the 2012 Steven Spielberg film Lincoln.
Here are some of the most famous Lincoln sightings at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
CLICK TO SEE PHOTO & CONTINUE READING: channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-lincoln/articles/the-story-of-lincolns-ghost/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130217ch-lincoln&utm_campaign=Content
The Story of Lincoln's Ghost[/color]
By Patrick J. Kiger
Published Jan. 24, 2013
Spirit photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of President Lincoln, by William H. Mumler channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-lincoln/articles/the-story-of-lincolns-ghost/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130217ch-lincoln&utm_campaign=Content
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, but some have said that his spirit has lingered on—and not just figuratively, either. Over the years, there have been multiple purported sightings of his ghost—at the White House and Ford’s Theatre where he was assassinated, at Fort Monroe in Virginia, and at his tomb in Springfield, Ill., according to a 1999 Skeptical Inquirer article by Joe Nickell, a senior research fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a group that investigates and often debunks paranormal claims.
The epicenter for Lincoln sightings, not surprisingly, is the White House, where he lived during the last four tumultuous years of his life. The 16th President’s apparition reportedly has been seen at the White House by a long list of people, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to President Reagan’s daughter Maureen.
The notion of Lincoln’s wraith roaming the rooms of his former residence is in some ways ironic, since Lincoln himself wasn’t a strong believer in an afterlife, according to his biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin. In her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, she recounts how years before Lincoln assumed the Presidency, one of his Illinois neighbors asked him whether he believed in a future realm. “I’m afraid there isn’t,” he responded. “It isn’t a pleasant thing to think that when we die, that is the last of us.”
Indeed, while Lincoln’s wife Mary did dabble in spiritualism and even once held a séance in the White House, Lincoln himself wasn’t much interested in such matters, though he did attend at least one such gathering with her—presumably to humor an emotionally fragile First Lady traumatized by the death of her son Willie, according to Nickell. That said, Lincoln did claim to have strange seemingly prophetic dreams. According to his friend Ward Hill Lamon, a short time before his assassination, Lincoln dreamed that he had awakened to discover a wailing crowd in the East Room, once of whom told him that they were mourning the president’s murder. On the night before his death, he reportedly dreamed that he was in a mysterious boat or ship, “sailing toward a dark and indefinite shore” —a scene that is depicted in the 2012 Steven Spielberg film Lincoln.
Here are some of the most famous Lincoln sightings at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
CLICK TO SEE PHOTO & CONTINUE READING: channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/killing-lincoln/articles/the-story-of-lincolns-ghost/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130217ch-lincoln&utm_campaign=Content