Jeane Dixon

Jeane Dixon, 1973

Jeane Dixon (January 5, 1904 – January 26, 1997) was one of the best-known American psychics of the twentieth century. She gained wide fame for apparently predicting the assassination of John F. Kennedy, after she had written that a Democrat would be elected US president in 1960 but would die in office, possibly by assassination.

Earlier, Dixon had made a series of successful predictions concerning Hollywood personalities and international figures. She is credited with predicting the Russian launch of the Sputnik satellite and the plane crash of UN Secretary General Dag Hammerskjöld. She also predicted that Robert Kennedy would fail in his presidential bid, specifically because of a tragedy that would occur in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where he was later assassinated. One of her most dramatic prophecies was a 1962 vision of a messianic child who would "unite all warring creeds and sects into one all-embracing faith."

She reached millions through her syndicated newspaper astrology column and a best-selling biography. She also wrote eight books and appeared in the 1977 TV documentary The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena.

A devout Roman Catholic, Dixon attributed her prophetic ability to God. She also had many critics, who pointed out that many of her most dramatic predictions never came to pass.

Early life

Dixon was born Lydia Emma Pinckert in Medford, Wisconsin and raised in Missouri and California. A Roman Catholic, she was married to James Dixon from 1939 until his death, but they had no known children.

When she was still a child, Dixon was given a crystal ball by a gypsy fortune-teller who recognized in her a fellow psychic. She reportedly began receiving prophetic visions by the time she was nine, and by the age of 14 was predicting the futures of famous Hollywood celebrities. Dixon later expressed a belief in reincarnation and felt that she may have been a Tibetan lama in an earlier life.

During her early years, she did not work as a professional psychic, but assisted her husband in his successful real estate business and wrote several psychic books including ones about the psychic abilities of animals.

Career as a psychic

Actress Carole Lombard ignored Dixon's warning not to travel and died in a fiery plane crash

January 1942 Dixon told the film actress Carole Lombard that it would be dangerous for her to travel by plane within the next six weeks. When Dixon had pushed Lombard to believe her prediction, the actress flipped a coin and decided not to cancel her trip. The first leg of her trip went as scheduled, but, anxious to get home to her husband Clark Gable, she changed plans and she took a plane home instead the train. The plane crashed in flames into the mountains near Las Vegas in a violent storm, killing her.

Dixon soon began to be recognized for the accuracy of several of her major predictions. In 1945 she told US President Franklin D. Roosevelt that he did not have long to live. He died a few months later. In the same year, she told Winston Churchill that he would lose the next election in England but would return to power later. He would indeed lose and was later reelected prime minister. She also predicted the 1947 partition of India and said that the Korean War would end in a stalemate. She forecast Joseph Stalin's death in 1953.

On May 14 1953, she said on NBC televsion, "A silver ball will emerge from Russia, to travel in space!" Four years later Russia launched the Sputnik. Dixon also warned UN Secretary General Dag Hammerskjöld not to fly in the plane in which he crashed and died in 1961.

The Kennedy prediction

Dixon won fame for predicting the death of President John F. Kennedy.

Dixon is best known, however, for predicting the election and 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."

Critics point out, however, that like many psychics who claim credit for predicting the future, Dixon actually hedged her bet in the case of Kennedy. Although the 1956 prediction of a Democratic winning the election and then being assassinated was widely reported, Dixon also is said to have later predicted (1960) that Kennedy would in fact lose the election.

Arguing in her favor, however, is the fact that friends reported she had been increasingly anxious about Kennedy's safety and that on the morning of Friday, November 22, 1963, the day that Kennedy was killed, she told them that, "This is the day it will happen."

A messianic vision

Jeane Dixon speaking at the Day of Hope banquet, sponsored by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Waldorf Astoria, NY, 1973.

Often considered Dixon's most dramatic vision is one that came at dawn on February 5, 1962, when she saw a brilliant orb with radiating beams which seemed to pull the earth magnetically toward it. A pharaoh and Queen Nefertiti stepped out of the orb, with a child held in Nefertiti's arm, clothed in rags. "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. Dixon understood the vision as relating to the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, in which a messianic figure would emerge and bring an end to war and peace to humankind. This child, she said, "will unite all warring creeds and sects into one all-embracing faith."

In the vision the child grew to manhood with a small cross above him which 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.

This particularly vision left a deep impression on Dixon, as it did not leave her easily like the others. She said of it: "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." She expressed her feeling after her experience as: "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."

Another Kennedy tragedy foretold

In 1965, 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."

Dixon gained additional fame 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.

An imperfect prophetess

President Richard Nixon used Jeane Dixon in deciding some actions from the White House

A number of Dixon's important predictions also did not come to pass. She predicted that the Soviets would beat the U.S. to the moon and that World War III would begin in 1958. In 1967 she predicted there would be a cure for cancer, but it did not happen. 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. She foresaw peace on earth by the year 2000, but did not foresee the rise of terrorism. She predicted that Richard Nixon would serve his country well and that Barry Goldwater would be vindicated.

On the other hand, Dixon proved prophetic with regard to Oprah Winfrey. The talk show star said on her show in 2007 that she met Jeane Dixon in 1977 before she was famous. Dixon told her that she would become very famous and have an audience of millions of people.

Considered the White House psychic for a time, Dixon predicted a terrorist attack on the White House, causing Richard Nixon to order special precautions. The attack did not materialize. She was also one of several astrologers who gave advice to the Nixons, and also to Nancy Reagan during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Death and Legacy

The Jeane Dixon Museum and Library in Strasburg, Virginia

Dixon died of cardiac arrest in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 1997, at the age of 93.

After her death, 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 Shenandoah Valley. 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.

Books

• Jeane Dixon: My Life and Prophecies, with Rene Noorbergen, 1969 (translated into numerous languages)
• 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.

References

ISBN 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
• Dixon, Jeane and Rene Noorbergen. My Life and Prophecies, New York, W. Morrow, 1969. OCLC 24711
• 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.

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