Jeane Dixon
Jeane Dixon (January 5, 1904 – January 26, 1997) was one of the best-known American astrologers and psychics of the twentieth century, due to her syndicated newspaper astrology column, some well-publicized predictions and a best-selling biography. Her greatest prediction was that an American president would die in office, either by assasination or natural death around 1960. But she believed that Richard Nixon would win the White House that year, not John F. Kennedy.
She wrote eight books and appeared in the 1977 TV documentary The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena.
Early life
Born Lydia Emma Pinckert in Medford, Wisconsin, but raised in Missouri and California, Dixon was very reluctant to release personal details. She was married to James Dixon from 1939 until his death, but they apparently had no children. She worked with him in his successful real estate business and wrote several psychic books including ones about the psychic abilities of animals.
Career as a purported psychic
Some reports say that as early as nine years old she began having visions of the future. In January 1942 she told the film actress Carole Lombard that it would be dangerous for her to travel by plane within the next six weeks. When Jeane Dixon had pushed Carole to believe her prediction, Carole flipped a coin and the answer was to go ahead and not cancel her trip.
On the first leg of her trip nothing happened. But instead of taking the train the rest of the way home as she had planned (she was anxious to get home to her husband Clark Gable) she took a plane home instead. It crashed into the mountains near Las Vegas in a violent storm.
She is best known for allegedly predicting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the May 13, 1956, issue of Parade Magazine she wrote that the 1960 presidential election would be "dominated by labor and won by a Democrat" who would then go on to "[B]e assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term." Friends report she had been increasingly anxious about John Kennedy's safety and that on the morning of Friday, November 22, she told them that 'This is the day it will happen.' History shows that, that afternoon, Kennedy was riding in an open car through Dallas, Texas, when he was gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald. [1]
She later admitted though, that “During the 1960 election, I saw Richard Nixon (a Republican) as the winner.”[2]
In 1965, Jeanne Dixon addressed a group at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. In response to a question about Robert Kennedy becoming the next President. She answered, "No, he will never become President of the United States because of a tragedy right here in this hotel." [3]
Her most dramatic vision came at dawn when she saw a brilliant orb with radiating beams which seemed to pull the earth magnetically toward it. She saw a child in a vision with Queen Nefertiti on February 5, 1962. This child "will unite all warring creeds and sects into one all-embracing faith." A Pharaoh and Queen Nefertiti stepped out of the orb, with a child held in Nefertiti's arm, clothed in rags. Yet, "The eyes of this child were all-knowing, they were full of wisdom and knowledge." Nefertiti then offered the child to the world and returned to the distant past where she was stabbed in the back, signifying the end of her reign.[4]
She reported that the patriarch Joseph (son of Jacob), who could interpret dreams, guided the events as if a 'puppeteer pulling strings.' The child grew to manhood with a small cross above him. It gradually expanded all over the earth while every race, religion, and skin color knelt together and lifted up their arms in worship and adoration to him. His presence made them all one. She believed that wisdom had been planted in the hearts of everyone on the earth.
But what did Jeane think this vision-which did not leave her easily like the others-mean? "Before the close of the century he will bring together all mankind in one all-embracing faith. This will be the foundation of a new Christianity, with every sect and creed united through this man who will walk among the people to spread the wisdom of the Almighty Power." Her feeling after her experience? "My cup runneth over. I loved all mankind. I felt that I would never again need food or sleep, because I had experienced perfect peace." [5]
In 1967 she predicted there would be a cure for cancer, but it didn't happen. She didn't foresee the rise of terrorism, but she foresaw peace on earth by the year 2000. She predicted that Richard Nixon would serve his country well and that Barry Goldwater would be vindicated. She predicted that the Soviets would beat the U.S. to the moon and that World War III would begin in 1958. She foresaw a holocaust for the 1980s and that Rome would then rise again and become the world's foremost center of culture, learning, and religion. Not all of her predictions came true, obviously.
Dixon gained public awareness through the biographical volume, A Gift of Prophecy: the Phenomenal Jeane Dixon, written by syndicated columnist Ruth Montgomery. Published in 1965, the book sold more than 3 million copies. A devout Roman Catholic, she attributed her prophetic ability to God.
Considered the White House psychic for awhile, President Richard Nixon referred to Dixon as "the soothsayer" and ordered preparations for a terrorist attack she had predicted. She was also one of several astrologers who gave advice to the Nixons and to Nancy Reagan during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Oprah Winfrey said on her show in 2007 that she met Jeane Dixon in 1977 before she was famous. After Oprah gave a talk to 782 people, Jeane told her that she would become very famous and have an audience of millions of people.
The Jeane Dixon effect
Dixon was so well-known that John Allen Paulos, a mathematician at Temple University, coined what he called the "Jeane Dixon effect," in which people (especially the media) loudly tout a few correct predictions and overlook false predictions. Many of Dixon's forecasts proved false, such as her prediction that World War III would begin in 1958 over the offshore Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu, that labor leader Walter Reuther would run for president in 1964 and that the Soviets would land the first man on the moon.
Death and Legacy
It had commonly been reported that Dixon was born January 3, 1918; however, per the Social Security Death Index her actual birthdate was January 5, 1904.[6] She died of cardiac arrest in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 1997, at the age of 93.
After her death in 1997, her family gave her estate to a close friend and business associate, Leo M. Bernstein. Her personal possessions, furnishings, and personal and professional papers, were put on exhibit at the Jeane Dixon Museum and Library in Strasburg, Virginia in the Shenadoah Valley. [7] The Wayside Foundation of American History and Arts developed the museum and library, which chronicles her life as a psychic, devout Catholic, humanitarian, real estate executive, presidential adviser, animal lover, and devoted wife.
Her biography is still read, but because of the limited success of her predictions she has been shelved with other psychics into the corner of "dubious" seers.
Books
- Jeane Dixon: My Life and Prophecies, with Rene Noorbergen, 1969
- Reincarnation and prayers to live by, 1969
- The call to glory; Jeane Dixon speaks of Jesus, 1971
- Jeane Dixon's Astrological cookbook, 1976
- Yesterday, Today and Forever, 1976
- Horoscopes for dogs, 1979
- A gift of prayer : words of comfort and inspiration from the beloved prophet and seer, 1995
- Do cats have ESP?, 1998
Notes
All links retrieved February 12, 2009.
- ↑ Montgomery, 1965.
- ↑ Did psychic Jeane Dixon predict JFK's assassination? The Straight Dope
- ↑ Montgomery, 1965.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Social Security Death Index Interactive Search
- ↑ Located at 130 North Massanutten Street Strasburg, VA 22657
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Betz, Paul R. and Mark C Carnes, (eds.). American National Biography, American Council of Learned Societies.. Supplement 1, pp. 163-164. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 9780195150636
- Brian, Denis. Jeane Dixon : the witnesses, Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1976. ISBN 9780385112437
- Hines, Terence. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003. ISBN 9780879754198
- Jensen, Leland and Arthur Danks. Jeane Dixon was right, 1979. OCLC 83626155
- Milbourne, Christopher. ESP, Seers & Psychics, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970. ISBN 9780690268157
- Montgomery, Ruth Shick. A gift of prophecy: the phenomenal Jeane Dixon, New York, Morrow, 1965. OCLC 350453
- Savage, Minot J. Psychics: Facts and Theories, Gardners Books 2007. ISBN 9780548081969
- Stein, Gordon, (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996. ISBN 9781573920216
- Tyler, J. "The Unsinkable Jeane Dixon." in Humanist, 38(3):6-9, 1977.
External links
All links retrieved February 12, 2009.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dixon, Jeane |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lydia Emma Pinckert |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American astrologer, psychic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 5, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Medford, Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 26, 1997 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Washington, D.C. |
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