Did U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton communicate with the dead spirit of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt just this week?
If you believe her husband, Bill Clinton, the answer would be yes.
On Wednesday, Mr. Clinton appeared in New York City at a dedication ceremony for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park.
In his remarks, the former president said his wife “was known to commune” with Eleanor Roosevelt, who died in November 1962, and that Roosevelt gave Hillary a message for him this week.
“A special thanks to the members of the Roosevelt family who are here,” Mr. Clinton said. “And the one who is not, Eleanor, who made sure that the four freedoms were included in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.”
“I know that because, as all of you famously learned when I served as president, my wife, now the secretary of state, was known to commune with Eleanor on a regular basis,” he continued. “And so she called me last night on her way home from Peru to remind me to say that. That Eleanor had talked to her and reminded her that I should say that.”
Video of Clinton’s speech can be seen at the CNS News website.
This is not the first time a connection between Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt has been made.
Author Bob Woodward claimed in his 1996 book “The Choice” that Hillary engaged in imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt as well as Mahatma Gandhi as a therapeutic exercise.
And while she was campaigning for president in 2007, then-Sen. Clinton said she found inspiration in the words of Roosevelt.
“She said, ‘You know, if you’re going to be involved in politics you have to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros,'” she told an audience of female political activists, according to the New York Daily News.
“So occasionally, I’ll be sitting somewhere and I’ll be listening to someone perhaps not saying the kindest things about me. And I’ll look down at my hand and I’ll sort of pinch my skin to make sure it still has the requisite thickness I know Eleanor Roosevelt expects me to have,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton is not the only one who has been claimed to communicate with the deceased.
WND reported Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, claimed she heard from the spirits of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul at the White House.
Here’s what Pelosi said about her supernatural experience at the White House a few years ago, when it was occupied by George W. Bush: “He’s (Bush) saying something to the effect of we’re so glad to welcome you here, congratulations and I know you’ll probably have some different things to say about what is going on – which is correct. But, as he was saying this, he was fading and this other thing was happening to me.
“My chair was getting crowded in. I swear this happened, never happened before, it never happened since. My chair was getting crowded in and I couldn’t figure out what it was, it was like this. And then I realized Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, you name it, they were all in that chair, they were. More than I named and I could hear them say: ‘At last we have a seat at the table.’ And then they were gone.”
And in 2009, WND reported on a study indicating Democrats are far more in touch with the dead than Republicans, and they also visit fortunetellers more often.
The number of Americans who say they have interacted with a ghost has doubled in the last 13 years, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed in its “Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths” report.
Approximately 18 percent of respondents said they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost, compared with only 9 percent in 1990 and 1996. Likewise, 29 percent of respondents felt that they had been in touch with someone who has already died, compared with 17 percent in 1990 and 18 percent in 1996.
The results also show that Democrats are far more likely to believe in supernatural phenomena than Republicans.
“Conservatives and Republicans report fewer experiences than liberals or Democrats communicating with the dead, seeing ghosts and consulting fortunetellers or psychics,” Pew reported.
According to the study:
- 36 percent of Democrats report being in touch with someone who is dead, compared with only 21 percent of Republicans.
- 21 percent of Democrats say they have seen a ghost, compared with only 11 percent of Republicans.
- 22 percent of Democrats say they have consulted a fortuneteller, compared with 9 percent of Republicans.
- 30 percent of Democrats say they believe in reincarnation, compared with 17 percent of Republicans.
- 31 percent of Democrats say they believe in astrology, compared with 14 percent of Republicans.
- 31 percent of Democrats view yoga as a spiritual practice, compared with 15 percent of Republicans.
- 30 percent of Democrats say they believe in spiritual energy, compared with 17 percent of Republicans.