- "...the silence that guards the tomb does not reveal
God's secret in the obscurity of the coffin, and the rustling of the branches
whose roots suck the body's elements do not tell the mysteries of the grave,
by the agonized sighs of my heart announce to the living the drama which
love, beauty, and death have performed."
-
- --Kahlil Gibran
-
- We all know we are going to die someday. We know it as
an objective fact, but we don't really believe it. If we did, we would
not waste so much of our lives harboring petty resentments, chasing meaningless
goals, and squandering precious time that could be spent treasuring the
company of loved ones. Perhaps if we could actually SEE our deaths in advance
like movie-trailers with widescreen and surround sound, we could prepare
ourselves better for its inevitable arrival.
-
- Do you want to know the exact time and manner of your
death? On the TV show "The X-Files," this question was once asked
of Fox Mulder by a clairvoyant who unerringly foresaw the deaths of everyone
he came in contact with. Mulder, the insatiably curious inquirer, immediately
answered, "Yes." The clairvoyant cautioned, "No you don't."
- But later in the episode, Mulder did receive the answer
he was looking for in the following exchange:
-
- Clairvoyant: "You know, there are worse ways to
go, but I can't think of a more undignified one than auto-erotic asphyxiation."
-
- Mulder: "Why are you telling me that?"
-
- Of course, the X-Files is fiction, but death prophecy
is not. History is replete with an astonishing number of accounts of individuals
who accurately predicted the manner and time of their own deaths, sometimes
down to the exact MINUTE.
-
- I becamely intensely interested in this topic after discovering
a story about the death of Pistol Pete Maravich. The NBA star died of a
heart attack in 1988. Incredibly, in 1974, Maravich said, "I don't
want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at age 40."
Maravich played pro ball for exactly 10 years and died of a heart attack
at age 40. (Full story: http://www.rense.com/general58/death.htm)
-
- Pathologically incurious debunkers would have us believe
that Maravich's chilling prophecy was just dumb coincidence. However, when
one explores the issue a bit more deeply, one finds that fulfilled death
premonitions are downright COMMON.
-
- I recently subscribed to an online database of newspaper
archives. This is a veritable treasure trove of old and sometimes overlooked
and/or forgotten news stories. I undertook the task of locating all the
news articles with words such as "foresaw own death"..."prophesied
own death"...and "predicted own death." The results were
extraordinary. I found literally THOUSANDS of instances when individuals
-- often in 100% physical health -- predicted the exact time and manner
of their deaths. That's right, THOUSANDS. (Interestingly, I found that
the words "prophesied" and "premonition" all but stopped
appearing in mainstream news items around 1970. Go figure.)
-
- Many of these stories simply never made it beyond a local
newspaper. My personal project on this All Hallow's Eve is to bring just
a few of them to the public eye. Obviously, I can't document more than
a fraction of them in an essay, so I've chosen an appropriate number to
present for you now.
-
- 13 DEATH PROPHECIES THAT CAME TRUE (All accounts are
taken verbatim fron their original sources.)
-
-
- PREMONITION #1
-
- The Lincoln Star, Wednesday, August 20, 1930
-
- Fall Kills Raymond Child
-
- Irwin Walton Nelson, 4, Victim of Broken Neck, Had Prophesied
"Would Die Before Night."
-
- A broken neck, sustained when he fell from a manure spreader
as he was assisting his father on their farm a quarter of a mile east of
Raymond Tuesday afternoon, claimed the life of Irwin Walton Nelson, 4,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin L. Nelson, fulfilling the child's prophecy uttered
at the noon meal that he was "Going to die before night."
-
- For two days the child had prophesied his own death,
although he was in perfect health. His parents thought it a childish fancy.
At noon Tuesday the boy calmly remarked, "I am going to die before
night." The boy and father returned to their work in the field, the
boy to drive the machine. As the boy turned the team about, he reached
for a level, missed his hold, and fell to the ground.
-
- "I am going to die, daddy," said Irwin, as
the father carried him to the house. The only mark on the boy was where
a rear wheel of the spreader had run over one leg. Mr. And Mrs. Nelson
immediately started with their son for Lincoln, but Irwin died minutes
before reaching St. Elizabeth hospital. X-ray pictures revealed a broken
neck. A brother and sister survive besides the parents.
-
- PREMONITION # 2
-
- The Semi-Weekly Democrat, Olean N.Y. May, 1895
-
- A Young Girl Predicted Her Own Death Three Years Ahead
-
- On Thursday, Miss Annie E. Bennett, daughter of Rev.
A. J. Bennett of Hinton W. Va., died of consumption, aged 24 years. She
was a member of the Primitive Baptist church, of which her father is pastor,
and was a most devout young lady. Three years ago, just as it was becoming
apparent that the dread disease had fastened itself upon her, she made
the statement to several of her fellow students at the Baptist academy
that she would die on May 23, 1895.
-
- The statement was recorded by several of the girls as
a joke, and that it might not be effaced one of them scratched it on the
woodwork of the room in which it was made at the school. An examination
shows the date to be still quite plain and distinct. Miss Bennett had stated
to her friends that she had been warned and given to know the date of her
death by a vision when she was walking alone in the wood near the school
in broad daylight.
-
- A few hours before death Miss Bennett became apparently
lifeless, the breath leaving her body. After a short time she regained
consciousness and stated that she had been to heaven and had conversed
with her brother, Arthur Bennett, and her sister, Mrs. Lid Lamb, both of
whom have been dead for several years. This conversation was detailed,
and a description of heaven was given those about the bedside. She died
smiling, and the last words were that she hoped those about her might be
allowed to join her soon.. Cleveland Plain Dealer.
-
-
- PREMONITION #3
-
- Reno Evening Gazette, Thursday, March 3, 1936
-
- WOMAN PREDICTS HER OWN DEATH
-
- Hanka Minitch. an aged woman of Doboy, Bosnia, predicted
her own death almost to the hour. Apparently in the best of health, she
told her son that she was sure that she was going to die that day and asked
him to be with her to the last. After luncheon, as they sat chatting over
their coffee, she fell back dead from heart failure.
-
-
- PREMONITION #4
-
- Reno Evening Gazette, August 23, 1951
-
- Woman Predicts Hour of Death
-
- REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug, 23. UPlFor a month, ever since
Mrs. Edythe Hanson returned from Sequoia hospital, she repeatedly predicted:
"I shall die at 11:45 on Aug. 21.''
-
- Although only 32 years old, Mrs. Hanson had a severe
kidney ailment. Her husband, Marvin T. Hanson, and her sons, Donald, 9,
and James, 7, consoled her each time she prophesied her own death.
-
- Friends and neighbors also learned of the prophecy. So
on Tuesday, Aug 21, they visited her at her home shortly before 11:45 a.m.
-
- They chatted with her briefly and then left, convinced
as they been right along that Mrs. Hanson was no prophet.
-
- The hours passed, and evening came. At 9 o,clock, she
dozed into troubled sleep. Her husband, alarmed, called a doctor.
-
- And the doctor pronounced Mrs. Hanson dead -- at 11:45
p.m., still on Aug. 21.
-
- "She was a woman of great faith," her husband
commented later. "And people with such faith have premonitions not
given to others."
-
-
- PREMONITION #5
-
- Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown, PA, January 4,
1967
-
- Campbell Had Premonition of Death
-
- Racer Killed When Boat Flips at 310 MP
-
- CONISTON. England (UPI) -
- British racer Don Campbell, who set world records both
on land and water, was killed today in a 310 mile-per-hour crash of his
jet-propelled speedboat.
-
- Campbell, who told of a death premonition only hours
before, was killed while running the hydroplane Bluebird on the final stretch
of a speed run at Lake Coniston where several of his
- records were previously set. The jet-powered craft suddenly
flipped through the air, exploded and sank.
-
- An official timer clocked the boat at 310 miles per hour
moments before the accident. That was 34 m.p.h. faster than Campbell's
last record-setting speed.
-
- The pipe-smoking daredevil was strapped into the cockpit
of the craft. His shoes, helmet and oxygen mask later floated to the surface.
-
- "There is no hope," said one of the men who
dove to recover the body.
-
- A mechanic for the 45-year old racer said Campbell had
a premonition of his death when in playing card games recently he turned
up the ace of spades and later the queen of spades.
-
- "Mary Queen of Scots turned up the same combination
of cards," Campbell told chief mechanic Leo Villa. "And from
it she knew she was going to be beheaded.
-
- "I know that one of my family is going to get the
chop. I pray to God it is not me."
-
- Villa said Campbell told him he turned up the queen of
spades today while waiting for the water of the lake to calm. The driver
said the ace of spades was turned in a recent card game at Las Vegas.
-
-
- PREMONITION #6
-
- THE NEWS Frederick, Maryland Friday, November 18, 1966
-
- "Hexed" Baltimore Woman Predicted Her Own Death
-
- BALTIMORE, Md. (AP) A Baltimore woman who believed her
life was doomed by a hex, told her doctors at City Hospital here she would
die within three days.
-
- Two days later, she was dead.
-
- The woman told her doctors that she was born in the Okefenokee
swamp area of Florida, one of three children delivered by a midwife on
Friday the 13th.
-
- According to the woman's story, the midwife told the
babies, mothers that the three were hexed and the first would die before
her 16th birthday, the second before her 21st birthday, and the third before
her 23rd birthday.
-
- Doctors said the patient told them the first girl was
killed in an automobile accident the day before her 16th birthday.
-
- The second girl, the woman told her doctors, was afraid
of the prophecy. On her 21st birthday, she went out with a friend to celebrate
the end of the hex and was killed by a stray bullet as she entered a tavern.
-
- Doctors said the patient, who was the third girl, "firmly
believed she was doomed." They said she was convinced she would die
before her 23rd birthday.
-
- She died the day before the birthday, after an episode
of "severe apprehension and profuse sweating," doctors reported.
-
- Doctors said an autopsy showed several serious physiological
disorders, but they agreed that her terror may have hastened her death.
-
- The immediate cause of death was cited as primary pulmonary
hypertension, which is described by one doctor as a "fairly rare vascular
disorder in the lungs." The doctor said that not much is understood
about the disease.
-
- Dr. John C. Harvey, a professor of medicine at Johns
Hopkins Medical School here, presented the case to some 200 medical students
at a clinical pathology conference Wednesday.
-
-
- PREMONITION #7
- The Washington Post
- Thursday, August 25, 1910
- DIES AS SHE PREDICTED, Palmist, Falls Into Aims of Her
Partner During a Dance.
- Special to The Washington Post
-
- New York, Aug. 24.Maine. Sarah L. Chira, the palmist
who said she foretold the death of President McKinley, Edward H, Harriman,
and King Edward VII, died suddenly at Bergen Beach shortly after midnight
Tuesday, at just about the time she had predicted her own death, according
to Patrick Henry Chira, her husband. Mrs. Chira was attending a dance of
the Bergen Beach Athletic Club, at the Alhambra, Bergen Beach,""and
had just started'' the grand march with Harry Dieves, "proprietor
of the Automaton Theater at the beach, when she dropped 'in Dives' arms.
Her partner thought she had fainted and asked some one near him to he-p
carry tier Into the air. A hurry call was sent to the Kings County Hospital,
three miles 'away. When Dr. Yarr arrived he saw *there was no need of his
services.
- The body was removed to the Flatbush police station.
Mme. Chlra was 49 years old, and was born in Hamilton, Canada. Her husband
and an adopted daughter, Jennie Chira, survive her.
-
- PREMONITION #8
-
- The Bee, Danville, VA, Thursday, March 26, 1925
-
- Woman Predicted Her Own Death At Hands of Nephew
-
- (By Universal Service)
- VIENNA, March 26 A strange case in which a famous woman
psycho-analyst predicted her own death at the hands of a nephew, coming
true to the last detail, is exciting all Austria.
-
- The facts have been revealed at the trial of Rudolph
Hug, aged nineteen, who has just been sentenced to twelve years imprisonment
for strangling during her sleep Dr. Hug-Helmuth, his aunt, the distinsguished
teacher and disciple of Professor Freud.
-
- Legal, medical, and scientific circles throughout Austria
have shown the greatest interest in the case, especially as it was known
that Dr. Helmuth prophesied her murder by her nephew after psycho-analyzing
him.
-
- Shortly before her death, Dr. Helmuth wrote to a friend:
-
- "My whole life now is an expectation of a blow I
am terribly uneasy. I see myself with him standing before me and then squeezing
me around the throat."
-
- Dr. Helmuth lived in terror for some weeks, and one night
the boy Rudolph entered her room and strangled her.
-
- His motive for the crime, as stated at the trial, was
that he resented his aunt's experiments on him and the ruthless exposure
of his childhood in a book she had written on the value of psychoanalysis.
Rudolph was placed in the care of his aunt when his parents died, and despite
his careful upbringing on Freudian lines, grew to be a ne,er do well and
wastrel.
-
-
- PREMONITION #9
-
- The Washington Post -- Tuesday, May 2, 1911
-
- NURSE FORTEOLD OWN DEATH
-
- Miss Jeal Felt End Was Near When Child Crawled Under
Sister's Coffin
-
- New Haven, Conn., May 1It was following a premonition
which she had made known to other nurses that she would not live six months
that Miss Grace P. Jeal contracted scarlet fever when attending a private
case and died at Grace Hospital Saturday under pitiful circumstances.
-
- A few months ago Miss Jeal's elder sister died in Hartford
at the home of an aunt. Miss Jeal was much affected during the funeral
service, when a child in the hearse crawled under the coffin.
-
- It seemed to her to be an omen of another death in the
family, and she felt that her own end must be impending. She so informed
the other nurses while nursing a child. Her death has greatly affected
the other nurses, with whom she was associated at Grace Hospital.
-
-
- PREMONITION #10
-
- The Post, Frederick, Maryland -- Friday, May 6, 1966
-
- DA NANG, Viet Nam (NEA) Shortly before his unit was
to launch a battlefield assault, Pfc. Hiram Strickland of Burlington N.C.,
wrote a bizarre letter to his parents.
-
- In it he prophesied his own death.
-
- And, unfortunately, he was correct. Not long after, Strickland
was killed in action.
-
- Within a week of the tragedy, his mother and father received
the correspondence. "I,m writing this letter as my last one,"
it read. "You,ve probably already received word that I,m dead."
- Weird? Of course. But coincidence? Perhaps not.
-
- Many men here hesitate to discount such occurrences lightly.
Call them premonitions or psychic phenomena, they are real enough in this
war as to be not uncommon in many frontline units.
-
- (snip)
-
- PREMONITION #11
-
- The Washington Post Friday, August 2, 1907.
-
- FORESAW HER OWN DEATH.
-
- Woman Found Dead After Saying Her Life's Work Was Done
-
- Egg Harbor City, NJ, Aug 1 Mrs. A Nichols, wife of a
farmer near Germania had a premonition several weeks ago of approaching
death and told her husband that she would not live until August Tuesday
after working in the field until late. She said, My days and life's work
are done, but before I die I will take my last bath.
-
- Her husband paid no attention to her remarks but when
he returned to the house he found her dead in bed. Physicians said she
died from natural causes. The woman was sixty years old and had always
been in good health.
-
-
- PREMONITION #12
-
- The Lincoln State Journal, Friday, July 8, 1927
-
- SISTERS AND NIECE BURIED SAME DAY
-
- Curious Train of Events in Deaths of Three
-
- OMAHA (UPI) - Funeral services were held here today for
Mrs. Anna Carnaby, who died Tuesday, and in Chicago for Mrs. Carnaby's
sister and niece who died as a result of her death. Mrs. Carnaby's death
followed a premonition she had a few months ago when she foretold her own
death to her son, John Carnaby. Tuesday Carnaby dispatched a message of
his mother's death to his aunt, Mrs. John Buckley in Chicago. A few moments
after he had sent the wire, he received the following cryptic message from
his cousin, Edward Buckley.
-
- "Mother dead. Winnie killed by auto going for priest."
-
- As he guessed, Mrs. Buckley, suffering from heart trouble,
was fatally stricken when she read the message of her sister's demise.
Her daughter, Winifred, twenty-four, was run down and killed by an automobile
as she was going for a priest to minister the last rites of the church
to her mother.
-
- PREMONITION #13
-
- New Oxford Item Friday, January 5, 1906
-
- His Christmas Gift
-
- H. D. Deatrick, formerly of this place, who conducted
marble works at Yord for many years, had a premonition of his own death,
and prophesied the same shortly before it came to pass. Early in the week
before Christmas one of his sons asked him what he wanted for a Christmas
present. The father answered in all gravity, "My boy, my Christmas
gift will be a wooden coat." He died on Thursday and was buried on
Sunday afternoon, the day before Christmas.
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