[Ingrid]

Dear Wanda,

I hope this is not too personal or something Elvis wanted to keep private, if so, please just tell me to keep quiet .

It´s about Elvis seeing angels at Graceland and his mom´s spirit living there.

I assume most people around him wouldn´t have taken him seriously if he was talking to them about things like that. Priscilla wrote in her book that one night in the mid 60s Elvis saw angels in the garden at Graceland and everyone thought he was being delusional... did he ever talk to you about things like that, since he could trust you?

He was a highly perceptive person and I´m convinced that some people have the ability to "see" more than others, not only with their eyes but with all their senses. I´ve seen it happen, though not to myself.

That leads to my next question. Several people have said they believed that Gladys´s spirit lived at Graceland. Jeanne LeMay (Linda Thompson´s best friend) describes one incident in her book. Elvis called her into his room to talk while Linda was in her bathroom. He talked to Jeanne about how he missed his mom when she had just passed away and he was sent to Germany. When he said "Momma" the lights went out at Graceland and came back on a few seconds later. He talked on and said "Momma" again, and the same thing happened. Linda came running from her bathroom to inquire what was going on...

So, did he also believe his mom´s spirit was there at Graceland? Or did he believe she was elsewhere, but still watching over him?

Thank you very much, Wanda, and have a great weekend!

Ingrid

[Wanda June Hill]

Hi, No, not to personal at all. Very little is, these days- Yes, he believed that there were angels and that he saw them-I believe he did because he was dead serious about it and NOT delusional at all. Though even he thought he was "seeing things" when he had a temperature and saw a "golden haired lady that was very brightly lit up and she was (he thought) praying over him. Another time he said an Indian looking lady was doing some sort of hand movements above him, "healing movements" he said and that he felt much better when he woke up. He had a severe congestion in his lungs and a high fever. He also said as a child he saw bright, glowing men who talked to him, telling him things and when he told his mother she got on to him and told him never to speak of such things "or they'd put me away and I'd never see her again". He said "she meant the men in white coats 'd come get me!" He told her some other things and she scolded him, washed his mouth with soap and he said, "Once you got that stuff in your teeth-you wouldn't forget!" He also believed that his mother came to Graceland, that he felt her touch him and sometimes he dreamed of her. He said when he was under sedation for something, that he left his body and she was there and was going to take him where his brother was, but then he had to come back, it wasn't time yet, but he didn't want to go back and she said when it was time she would come back for him. He also said he "felt a rushing of the air and when he turned to see it was his collie dog who had died-she was there and so happy to see him, she jumped into his arms. He wanted to stay but he had to come back and he woke up - I thnk this might have been when he had the cap off his tooth inhaled into his lung and they had to take it out while he was sedated. I don't know for sure anymore exactly when these things occured to put them in a time line. But he absolutely did believe in angels and did see them. He said he saw "fairies" too, dancing on the water in his fountain when he was meditating. He ws called "crazy" you know-his nick name-well it wasn't all just because he was prone to do things on the spur of the moment or suddenly go from one mood to another-or want to do something off the wall on the spur of the moment. It was because he was very spiritual and very, very tuned to things of that nature. I believed him when he said he "heard voices" and that the glowing men talked to him and that he sometimes knew what other people thought and felt. He said that he had to "be careful what he said and did around people, because if they knew what he was really like, what he thought and felt from them, they would be afraid of him- he said, "They already think I'm jumpin' from tree to tree-no sense in provin' it. So I keep it to myself, unless I forget." I think that several of his background people and his musicians have experienced those moments of forgetfullness on his part a time or two-and they tend to think he could "read" their minds...knew what they thought before they thought it. I believe that he could do that-experienced enough of deja vu from him that I would not doubt for a minute that he was "different" and mostly in a very devine way.
However, people who were not like him, who didn't know these things, or had not experienced them for themselves, or grown up with one who had etc:...would find all this to be very suspicious and think he might be "delusional".... makes sense to me. I mean, especially since the majority of them feel he was taking too many sleeping pills and etc: and so was not rational.... I know he did sometimes take things to sleep and needed to knock himself out to even get any sleep-if you can call that kind of sleep-actually sleeping- but I still feel that much of his problems were related to the fact he was different...and he didn't have any one around him who understood that fact and tried to help him reason with the differences - except when he met Larry G. and a few others-but those came later in life and he had already been bruised and abused by those who did not understand. And lived with them as well.
Today, people are more open to such things, more readily to help and understand thosewho are different in that way, but he was born too soon-he ever said so. wjh
_________________
Wanda June Hill
author of "We Remember, Elvis" & "Elvis - Face to Face"

[Blue Moon]

[Ingrid]

Thank you very much, Wanda, for again giving us your insight.

I never thought he was crazy or delusional and this issue was one of those things that really made me look for more answers than you get from the average Elvis biography. A lot of people who wrote about him either stayed away from this issue or blamed it on the pills, that´s too easy, if you ask me!

I think that´s why he got so angry when someone questioned his medication. There´s a letter from a girl you published on this site, Wanda, who did and he got angry at her, I remember... Not only were they questioning the necessity for his health, but also for his mind. And he was smarter than anyone else and knew exactly what he was doing. In the new Jerry Schilling interview I posted recently, Jerry clearly stated again that Elvis wasn´t a "druggie", but sometimes he used pills as "band-aids" for his soul.

My grandmother once told me that when her own grandmother passed away she came to her in her dreams and she always felt her grandmother touch her cheek while she was sleeping. At first she didn´t know what it was and was scared, but one night reached for what was touching her and she felt her grandmother´s hand in hers, just as if she was alive.

Elvis really was ahead of his time in many ways...

I think the incident when he inhaled the cap was very early in his carreer, probably Jailhouse Rock, but I´m not sure either, Blue Moon. I remember reading somewhere that he used caps he could take out to eat etc. at first, before he got permanent ones.

Wanda, do you still have snow chaos in California? Send it over to us, where it belongs, it´s too warm for the season over here in Germany!

Take care!

Ingrid

[Sarena]

[Ingrid]

Yes, Sarena, I live in the beautiful Allgaeu, and we´re supposed to have a ton of snow at this time of the year, but we don´t!

Ingrid

[Amanda Viola]

I was not around him when Elvis was alive, to know first hand about all those anecdotes I consider true, but I firmly believe he is around me now when needed.

So many times I smile when a White butterfly comes flying close to me when I need comfort (I can't remember a day -except those of heavy rain or wind- since Nov. 2006, when white butterflies were not at my sight several times a day, even when it was not season for it). So many times I "heard" him speaking to me inside or at my ear. Sometimes, he "called" my attention somehow: making his DVDs fall down from its place with nobody near by, nor by any air current present... More things than I can tell... always having a meaning at the moment's context...

Last time, today: I've taken my mother for a car ride to the mountains. As always, Elvis was at the car's player, this time in a recopilation with many themes. Suddenly, the player stopped sounding and we had no way to start it again. I parked the car at the side of the road, intending without success to make it play. Frustated, we took again the road up to the mountain. My mother saying Elvis was her medicine and she needed it, and perversely (she is very naughty) has started saying that the meaning of it all was that I prefered to go alone, because then, nothing happens, everything is OK. I started protesting, because precisely today I was tired and unsure of having the energy for a 3 hours driving. But I felt it was good for her... (A little victimism here by my side... )

I said aloud, looking up to the sky: "Elvis, look what this woman does to me...! Come on and help me!" meanwhile my mother was laughing at me. But RIGHT THEN the player started playing again! Which was the song? It was "Hurt", very appropiated, as I was thinking I would never use humor against any body the way my mother used it against me! I could feel Elvis' complicity and laughs this time.

I told my mother I was to post all what happenned, here.
_________________
Amanda Viola

"LOVE is what it's all about".

[Ingrid]

LOL, Amanda !!!

Well, I have to agree with your mom, Elvis´music is my medicine, too. I have different types of music for different moods of mine, but Elvis ALWAYS does magical things to me unlike no other! To the point that my husband starts to get annoyed .

Good for you that your player (was) started again!!!

Ingrid

[Sarena]

I enjoyed your story very much, Amanda!! ...and no doubt that Elvis himself was involved in the situation!
_________________
Christine-Sarena

"ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE IF YOU ONLY BELIEVE"

[Amanda Viola]

My mother had her medicine allright... and me too.
_________________
Amanda Viola

"LOVE is what it's all about".

[Lighthouseseeker]

I love your mom Amanda,she's been such a cutie teasing you like that ..and I'm glad our boy decided to sing again ..hug you both..
_________________

This is my quest
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause

[MaryInTheMorning]

[Rainbow Light]

[Lindsaygirl]

Thank you wanda Elvis was so proud of his mother and elvis was gladys little pride and joy. I so wish they had more togther, but shame god called gladys home so soon, but l can just bet elvis and his mother are catching up in heaven with eachtogther and gladys is keeping a eye on lisa and watching what a beauful girl she turned into and not to mention a spilting image to elvis.
_________________

[Golden Sky]

Thank you, everyone, for this lovely conversation, which I just read for the first time!

Amanda, just wanted to say that I also feel that Elvis is with me when I need him. I suppose many (or all?) of us feel that way. In fact, it had been a long time since I dreamed of Elvis. Then a few weeks ago I was overemotional from pregnancy and very sad...that night I dreamed Elvis was hugging me very tight and crying with me. That was the only thing that happened and nothing was said but of course it was so powerful.

Wanda, you startled me when you told how Elvis said there was a rushing of air before he saw he beloved dog in his vision. When my mother died, I was 14 and heading from my neighbor's house when I felt that rush of air. At that moment, in my house, she had died. I have always felt the rush of air was very important but have never heard anyone else speak of it in terms of death.

Also I think it's amazing how the lights reacted when Elvis said his mother's name. I've always wondered if it's true that spirits can affect the lights. Soon after my father died I was alone in the house once and talking to him out loud. The lights started blinking. Stunned I asked out loud: "Dad is that you?" And suddenly ALL the electricity in the house shut down, even the air conditioner. It was a sunny day, no storms, no reason for this at all. I wasn't scared because it felt natural and just like my Dad was there. Then everything came back on. Since then I've felt pretty strongly that the lights might be sensitive to the influence of departed souls.

Sorry if these personal anecdotes range too far off the original topic

_________________
We'll understand it better by and by.