John Lennon: 2 Different Psychics Made Accurate Predictions About His Death
In 1980, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon to death outside his apartment building in New York. Lennon’s murder shocked and horrified his fans, and mourners poured out to The Dakota to pay their respects. In his lifetime, Lennon received at least two warnings about his death from psychics. Their predictions ended up being accurate.
John Lennon received a letter warning him about his death
When Cynthia Lennon, the former Beatle’s first wife, heard her ex-husband died, her first thought was of their son, Julian. Her second was of an ominous letter Lennon received in 1966.
“My second thought was that for the past fourteen years John had lived with the fear that he would be shot,” she wrote in her book John. “In 1966, he’d received a letter from a psychic, warning that he would be shot while he was in the States.”
The Beatles were preparing to leave for a tour of the United States at the time, and Lennon had recently made comments about the band being more popular than Jesus. They both feared the warning could have something to do with the backlash to his remarks.
Lennon returned home safely, but 14 years later, the psychic’s prediction was proved correct.
“When he got home in one piece, we were both relieved,” Cynthia wrote. “But the psychic’s warning remained in his mind and from then on it seemed that he was looking over his shoulder, waiting for the gunman to appear. He often used to say, ‘I’ll be shot one day.’ Now, unbelievably, tragically, he had been.”
John Lennon later received another warning from a palm reader
When Lennon was married to Yoko Ono, they visited a palm reader in Greece. Later, in a discussion with their friend, Lennon and Ono spoke about the inevitability of avoiding death.
“Nothing can be prevented if it’s destined to happen,” Ono said, per the book We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me by Elliot Mintz (via People). “We once had a session with one of the best palm readers in Greece and she said that John would be killed on an island. Should we avoid all islands? If it is going to happen, it is going to happen.”
Four years after this conversation, Chapman shot Lennon in Manhattan. The New York City borough is an island, though possibly not the sort either Lennon or Ono were imagining.
A friend said he seemed to know he would die
Lennon spoke to Mintz about not fearing death. According to Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas, the musician seemed to have a preternatural sense that he was reaching the end of his life.
“He spoke about death every once in a while,” Douglas told People, adding, “He would say things like, ‘I might be gone soon.’ He would say, ‘When I die, it’s going to be bigger than Elvis.’ And I’d say, ‘Stop talking like that.’”
Lennon was cataloging his life in a way that made Douglas wonder if he knew he would die soon.
“He insisted on journals being kept for every moment, everything being documented, me placing microphones all over the studio so that everything could be recorded,” he said. “It felt like he had a feeling something was coming, and he was very intuitive about things. Extremely. Almost supernaturally about things.”
