Jeane Dixon - Career As A Psychic

Career As A Psychic

Dixon reportedly predicted the 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 "e assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term." She later admitted, “During the 1960 election, I saw Richard Nixon as the winner”, and at the time made unequivocal predictions that JFK would fail to win the election. In the 1956 pronouncement, she merely stated that a President would "be assassinated or die in office", not necessarily that one would be assassinated. By emphasizing a few coincidentally correct predictions and ignoring those that were wrong, she acquired both fame and notoriety. The ability to persuade the public in this matter is known as the 'Jeane Dixon effect'.

Dixon was the author of seven books, including her autobiography, a horoscope book for dogs and an astrological cookbook. She gained public awareness 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. Despite being married to a divorced man, and although she claimed an ability to foretell the future by gazing into crystal balls, she professed to be a devout Roman Catholic, and she attributed her prophetic ability to God. Another million seller, My Life and Prophecies, was credited "as told to Rene Noorbergen", but Dixon was sued by Adele Fletcher, who claimed that her rejected manuscript was rewritten and published as that book. Fletcher was awarded five percent of the royalties by a jury.

President Richard Nixon followed her predictions through his secretary, Rose Mary Woods, and met with her in the Oval Office at least once, in 1971. In 1972, Dixon's prediction of terrorist attacks in America in the wake of the Munich massacre spurred Nixon to set up a cabinet committee on counterterrorism. She was also one of several astrologers who gave advice to Nancy Reagan during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.