[The following article is a reprint and was originally published prior to Jeane Dixon’s death in 1997 – Ed.)
 

JEANE DIXON

(1918 - )

(Investigator 111, 2006 November)

Born Jeane Pinckert in Wisconsin, Jeane Dixon was told by a gypsy at the age of nine that she had the gift of prophecy. Peering into a crystal ball she advised the then luckless Marie Dressler to go on with her stage career. Miss Dressler did so, and became one of the great names of the cinema.

Deeply religious, a vegetarian, a non smoker and drinker, Jeane follows the same abstemious pattern of many great seers. She was a highly successful business woman and the wife of wealthy realtor James Dixon. A combination of an interest in politics and the contacts she made through her real estate business, provides her with an informed and influential circle of friends and acquaintances. These people provide remarkable testimony in support of her psychic ability.

The most publicised of her prophecies were the predictions regarding the Kennedy brothers.

The assassination in Dallas, Texas, of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, came to her in a psychic vision as she knelt in church one day. She warned that Senator Edward Kennedy should stay away from private aeroplanes for two weeks, the morning after her prophecy he was gravely injured in a chartered plane crash, and in another vivid vision, predicted the death of Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Other remarkable prognostications attributed to Jeane Dixon are:  

Over the past few decades her predictions have been syndicated world wide in newspapers and magazines earning her the reputation of being the century's most remarkable seer.

Like Nostradamus, her prophecies for the immediate future are not very optimistic – a great war breaking out in the 1980s, but with a new era of peace and prosperity starting in 1999 with the rising up of a great new world leader in the East towards the end of the millennium, who will "draw all nations together."

Jeane Dixon owes much of her fame to the profuseness of her prognostications, and the very few highly publicised predictions which were alleged to have been made before the event, and which came to pass.

Unfortunately it is the few successes that are remembered and publicised, the overwhelming number of failures are conveniently forgotten.

When her record and background are critically examined a very different picture emerges to the one popularly painted. Due to the enormous amount of coverage given by the media to Ms Dixon, and her worldwide syndicated columns, she became a household name. Due to her prolific output (up to one hundred at a time can be seen in magazines), and the ambiguity of the wording, chance alone dictates some success. This, coupled with sources of information not normally available to the general public has enhanced her reputation.

The single predication which probably contributed more to Jeane Dixon’s international reputation as a seeress was about the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

In her book, My Life and Prophecies, she gives an account of a vision she had some time in 1952.

"I remember standing in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, when suddenly the White House appeared before me in dazzling brightness. Coming out of the haze, the numerals 1-9-6-0 formed above the roof. An ominous dark cloud appeared, covering the numbers, and dripped slowly onto the White House...then I looked down and saw a young man, tall and blue eyed, crowned with a stock of thick brown hair, quietly standing in front of the main door. I was still staring at him when a voice came out of nowhere, telling me softly that this young man, a Democrat to be seated as President in 1960, would be assassinated while in office."  
This was, according to Jeane Dixon, a revelation by God of a future event, but the first time it appears in print is four years later and not in the same context.

Jack Anderson the Washington correspondent of Parade magazine wrote on January 12, 1964, "Eight years ago, Ms Jeane Dixon peered intently into her crystal ball and focussed on the 1960s. Parade had invited her to predict the future, to foretell among other things, the outcome of the Presidential election. Our faded notes, dug from the files, show she replied: "He will be an unlucky President." The rest of her answer was published in our May 13, 1956 issue: As for the 1960 election, Ms Dixon thinks it will be won by a Democrat. But he will be assassinated or die in office."

The reference in the May 13, 1956 issue reads, "As for the 1960 elections Ms Dixon thinks it will be dominated by Labor and won by a Democrat. But he will be assassinated or die in office, though not necessarily in his first term." The paragraph was preceded by the words, "The Crystal shows".

The first reference to "God’s" revelation is recorded in Rene Noorbergen’s biography of Jeane Dixon, and preceded the Parade article by fifteen years, and although it occurred four years before the first interview with the Parade reporter, Ms Dixon did not find it necessary at any time to correct the reference to the crystal ball as being the source of the revelation.

An examination of the prediction’s wording reveals the high probability of such an event occurring.

There have been two major parties in the USA since 1824, the Democrats and the Republicans. Records show that over the period since that time the odds favour the Democrats at approximately 5:4. Ms Dixon "thought" that it would be won, she did not state irrevocably that it "would be won." No mention is made of a young man nor any description of him. Kennedy made it by the narrowest margin in American electoral history, 120,360 votes, or less than .2% of the 68,335,552 popular votes.

The vulnerability of a nation’s leaders, particularly those of the USA, is well known, but Ms Dixon hedges the time factor with "not necessarily in the first term" giving the prediction an eight year time span. Further latitude was given by saying that death could come by natural causes.

The probability of death in office whether by assassination or natural causes in the USA is quite high. The average age of American presidents on election is 55 years which gives them a life expectancy of 21 years. By the end of two four-year terms, this has dropped to a single digit.

The inconsistencies, anomalies and probability notwithstanding, it came to pass, and Ms Dixon's fame grew in the eyes of the credulous. Had it not, then it would have lain forgotten and unrevived like the following predictions.

After the death of J. F. Kennedy, Mrs Dixon went on record with the following statement: "I still stand by my prediction and see no marriage for Jackie Kennedy in the near future." This was scheduled for Ms Dixon’s newspaper column on October 20, 1986 – the day Jackie became Mrs Onassis!

Others include:

Prime Minister Nehru of India not to stay in power much longer – he died eight years later, (how long is "long?") and that he would be succeeded by Desra when in fact Lala Bahadur Shastri was appointed on June 2, 1964.

That Thomas Dewey would become assistant to President Eisenhower – he didn't.

That Fidel Castro would be replaced by Russia – he still reigns supreme.

That between 1960 and 1970, the Soviets would secure all the areas from the Middle East from the Nile to the Kyber Pass, Yugoslavia to Kenya including the Mediterranean, the Philippines and Indonesia, and that in 1975-80, Europe, India and Japan would all join the communist bloc.

In 1989-91, not only did the opposite happen when the winds of democracy swept through Europe and other parts of the world, Soviet dominance decreased rapidly, the USSR disintegrated completely, and communism died.

Other boo-boos included:

Ms Dixon's background gives the best clues to the form her predictions take and why she has had the occasional success. She is a devout catholic with a religious upbringing, virulently anti-communist, and moves in diplomatic and upper social circles where she is able to pick up scuttlebutt in advance of others.

Many of her former friends now attempt to discredit her, witnesses cited by her are unwilling to back up her claims, and she consistently refuses to be the subject of any controlled tests by parapsychologists.

Her former biographer Ruth Mongomery is disillusioned with Ms Dixon for personal reasons, and Marcia Seligsen, writing in the New York Times Book Review of October 19, 1969, describes Jeane Dixon as " ... the world’s wealthiest prophetess ... whose book A Gift of Prophesy is a silly, self-serving, back-pat, consisting of creepy anecdotes where-in Ms Dixon foretells doom for a lot of her friends ... basically it is a harmless rant of a lady who may or may not be psychic and may or may not be a fruit cake..."

Bibliography:

Albert, E. 1978. Seances and Sensitives for the Millions. Sher-bourne Press. Inc. Los Angeles. CA.

Dixon, J. 1973. My Life and Prophecies. Sphere Books Ltd. London.

Gordon, H. 1987. Extrasensory Deception. Prometheus Books. NY.

Laycock.D. (Ed.) 1985. Skeptical. Canberra Skeptics. PO. Box 555. NSW. 2608.

Nicholas, M. 1986. The World's Greatest Psychics & Mystics. Octopus Books.

Hines, T. 1988. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Prometheus. Books.

MacDougall, C.D. 1983. Superstition and the Press. Prometheus Books.

Ostrander, S. & Schroeder. L. 1973. PSI: Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain. Abacus. UK.

Planer F.E. 1988. Superstition. Prometheus Books. Buffalo, NY.

Randi, J. 1985. Flim Flam. Prometheus Books. Buffalo, NY.

Tyler, H. The Unsinkable Jeanne Dixon. The Humanist. 38(3):6-9.
 

(From: A Skeptic's Guide to the New Age by H. Edwards)


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