Dick Buchanan says memories of a past life inspire his fascination with the American Civil War.
Dick Buchanan, 65, owns The Grand Spectacle opticians business in Horseheads, New York. He is not only an optician but also a psychic, a hypnotist, and — just like rock star Phil Collins — a man obsessed with a battle that took place over a hundred years ago.
“I’ve always had an interest in the Civil War. Primarily because I served in the Civil War.”
Dick is convinced that he has had many past lives. But the one in which he was a Union cavalryman and was wounded at Gettysburg is of special interest to him.
That soldier is someone he has felt close to since he was a child who frequently dreamt of shooting at Rebels from behind a stone wall.
Dick found that stone wall on his first visit to Gettysburg (in this lifetime), when he was in his early 20s.
“The minute I went into the town I said, out loud, ‘God, the town hasn’t changed much in all these years.’ I just had this feeling. And as time went on I started to put the pieces together.”
The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, Gettysburg is often described as the war’s turning point.
Dick reurned to Gettysburg two years ago and found the actual place where he had been wounded in July 1863.
“I went out to the field where we had the clash with the Confederates … and then I found the staging area where my unit cut into Jeb Stuart’s cavalry.”
Like Phil Collins, Dick has become a prolific collector of items associated with his past life and death in battle. Dick started collecting Civil War items in the early 1970s. The first piece he acquired was a Union soldier’s belt plate, for which he paid a collector $11.
The collection has grown over the years to include photographs, guns, swords, cartridge boxes, uniforms, along with letters and documents.
Dick and his partner Dawn Krug do psychic readings out of their office in Horseheads, New York. The two describe themselves as soul mates who have got together for the first time in Dick’s last 41 lifetimes!
Says Dick…
I was psychic as a kid growing up in Philadelphia, PA (where all psychics are born). I grew up in a western middle class household where no one knew what I was talking about i.e. auras, reincarnation (aka past lifetimes). So I went to school and turned off my psychic ability at age 6 until I was 32 years of age at which time I could handle it, and it returned when I had a spiritual contact in 1978 at the age of 32.
Dick and Dawn have been working together psychically since 2006 and have done many readings together. For further information see their website:
See also:
stargazette.com (11 June 2011): Horseheads optician says past life as Union soldier inspired him to become a collector
Dick Buchanan and Dawn Krug on Myspace
i have also felt like a old soul of the civilwar i am young only age 15 and yett i can recall events from that time as well as in my dreams feel / experince these evants . i could feel myself getting shot . it felt like a hot almost burning sinsation going threw my hand. along side me was a guy name’d thomas peterson he was from georgia there was so many of them i was terrified when i woke up i had tears coming from my eyes and my hand wouldnt move then the night after in my dream i was in the field still not able to move , and my hand still shakes . always in these dreams i was in fredricksburg on the confederate side . and these men beside me would call my name “james” only that wasnt my name .but a name i was odly fermilure with .
That’s a very rich recall. I would suggest you might want to visit the actual site at some point. You can also ask inwardly for more information and clarification – if the memory is this close to the surface, it is likely for a reason (e.g., to help you feel and then let go of the emotions of that life/death).