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Born 1809 died 1865, he was the 16th president of the United States. Some people believe his political influence by his experience at Spiritualist seances. Lincoln showed personal interst in Spiritualism early in his political carrer -elected to the Illinois legislature in 1834- after the death of his son, Willie. He started attending seances in an effort to contact his son.
Most historians believe that Lincoln's interest in Spiritualism is from Mary Todd, Lincoln's wife. Yet there is evidence that his interest was independant and deeply rooted in his own sense of purpose and destiny. In 1842 Lincoln wrote to a friend which Lincoln observed 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".
Lincoln had two prmonitions of his own death. Shortly before his election in 1860 he saw a vision of himself in mirrors. He would see two seperate images of himself in the mirror, one was very pale and the other image would vanish as he gazed at it. Mary Todd Lincoln interpreted it as a sign that he would be re-elected to a second term but would not survive it.
Ten days before the assassination, Lincoln had a dramatic and prphetic dream of his own death. He wrote in his journal:
After I retired I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a deathlike, stillness about me. Then I heard subdubed 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 pitaful sobs, but the mouners were invisible. I wen from room to room; no living persons was in sights, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along.
Determined to find the cause of the 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 were a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others were 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 load 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.
The night before he was killed, Lincoln told a member of his cabinet that he had a dream about his assassination. The day of the assassination he told his body guard about it. Crook, the body guard, beseeched him not to go to Ford's theater that night, but Lincoln demurred saying he had promised his wife they would go. Perhaps he knew he would be shot that night for when they departed for Ford's, Lincoln said "goodbye" to Crook instead of "goodnight".
A funeral train bore Lincoln's body home to Illinois for burial. Since then, every April at the anniversary of the assassination, a phantom funeral train is reported traveling the tracks along the route taken by the official funeral train from Washinton through New York State and west to Illinois. The train never reaches its destination.
Lincoln's ghost is reportedly continues to haunt the White House. Gostly footsteps attributed to him were reported first in the second floor corridors by staff. The first known person to see his alleged ghost was Grace Coolidge (wife of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the US), who observed his silhouette standing at a window in the Oval Office, looking out at the Potomac. Since that time his ghost has been seen or sensed in this pose.
Lincoln's bedroom, called the Lincoln room, also is the site of hauntings. It is the quaters of visiting heads of state, many of whom reported strange phenomena, from footsteps to visual hallucinations. Some people have reported hearing a knock at the door and when they answer it they come face to face with Lincoln, dressed out in frock and top hat. At least one guest saw Lincoln sitting on the bed putting on his boots.
Eleanor Roosevelt often sensed Lincoln's presence, usually late at night. Sometimes Fala, Roosevelt's dog, would bark excitedly for no apparant reason. President Truman also believed he heard Lincoln walking. After Truman's presidency the ghost seembed to disappear from the White House.
During the Ronald Reagan administration the President's daughter Maureen reported seeing Lincoln's ghost in the Lincoln Room.
In additon to being heard at the White House, Lincoln's ghostly footsteps are reported near his gravesite in Springfield, Illinois. Popular legend has it that the grave is empty.