Ghosts Among Us - James Van Praagh [33]
Following that revelation, I remember a Sunday night several years back. I had trouble falling asleep and tossed and turned in bed trying to get comfortable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure at the end of my bed. I recognized the outline as Abraham Lincoln. He stood very tall and looked right through me. I noticed that other ghosts flanked him on either side, but I could not make out their identities.
I asked, Are you Lincoln?
He returned a thought. That is the personality you know me by.
The picture of the Civil War soldier popped into mind, and I just knew that I had been with Lincoln in another life.
Lincoln sent another thought. I come with many others. We are the new order, and we have a message for you.
I wanted to make sure that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, so I asked once again, Are you really Abraham Lincoln?
His thoughts were piercingly clear to me. We are of a new order and are here to assist you in your mission.
This statement took me by surprise. What mission?
We are working with you to open the hearts and minds of everyone you touch and to bring a new awareness to many.
I still could not believe it was Lincoln talking to me. Being a stickler for details, I sent out another thought: I need proof that it is really you.
You shall have proof. You need only to remember what we came here to tell you.
Tomorrow is Monday, I said. If I hear any reference made to Abraham Lincoln, I will know this conversation is for real.
You will have your proof, but remember our words, Lincoln said as his figure disappeared from my sight.
I fell into a deep sleep, and the next thing I could hear was the ringing of my fax machine. I went downstairs to my office and watched the pages come through. They were from my book editor, Linda Tomchin. We had been working on the last part of my book Heaven and Earth. She was sending me her version of the last chapter, which consisted of questions and answers. This was the first time I had seen it. As I read over one of the questions, I was dumbstruck. “Are premonitions generally bad?” The answer she wrote was: “Premonitions usually forewarn of impending crisis or disaster…. Abraham Lincoln had a premonition after he was elected that…” I dropped the paper and sat down. Oh, my God,” I exclaimed. Was this the proof I had asked for?
That same afternoon I was on the phone with my friend Peter Redgrove, and we were discussing our weekends.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I went to Palm Springs. Something odd happened. Out of the blue, a friend of mine bought me a painting.”
“Of what?” I asked.
“It was a picture entitled Abraham Lincoln Freeing the Slaves.”
Lincoln again! It had to be another bit of proof. That evening, as I sat at my dining room table writing out some bills, I reached for my checkbook and accidentally brushed my wallet off the table. As I bent down to pick it up, Lincoln’s eyes stared back at me. A five-dollar bill had fallen out of the wallet. Okay, I get it, I thought, and I thanked the powers that be for my proof.
Over the next few weeks, not a day went by without a reference to Lincoln. They were small, but I knew that the little things are often signs from the other side. I found a penny on the stage during one of my demonstrations. As I browsed through a bookstore, suddenly a biography of Lincoln fell off a shelf. Traveling to a dinner date with a friend in Santa Monica, I got off the wrong exit, looked up at the sign, and read: LINCOLN BOULEVARD!
The energy of Lincoln’s message has stayed with me. Every day I thank him for being my guide. In fact, I carry a picture of him in my wallet as a reminder of my special mission and the power of his spiritual