Dr. Joseph Warren is most well known for the circumstances of his death and is considered the hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was also a Harvard-educated surgeon, Scottish Freemason, and close friend of Paul Revere. In 1767, he began writing radical political articles in the Boston Gazette under the pseudonym “A True Patriot,” which angered the British and stirred the American Revolution.
Although he was commissioned as a Major General at The Battle of Bunker Hill, Dr. Warren enlisted as a Private to join the ranks where fighting was most intense. He was quoted as saying, “These fellows say we won't fight! By Heaven, I hope I shall die up to my knees in blood!" He died fighting in the final assault of the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th, 1775, a few days after his 34th birthday.
He was such a prominent figure that after British troops shot Warren, his body was desecrated several times before he was eventually laid to rest. When his friend, Paul Revere, dug him from a mass grave, he had been stripped of his clothing, stabbed by bayonets, and decapitated. Still, Revere and Warren’s brothers dug through the hellish sludge on Bunker Hill to recover his precious remains. His death encouraged the revolutionary cause, and he was seen as a martyr.
I did not know any of this history until after I began seeing his apparition and communicating with him on October 23rd, 2021.
It’s taken me time to gather the nerve and stamina to put this experience into words. As an evidential medium, there is a part of me that dislikes offering these accounts without concrete “proof,” but it seems there is a stronger part of me that wants to honor the spirit world and give Dr. Warren this article and the attention he seems to desire. As I write this, I feel sure I am not writing about him for the last time. Further validating this feeling, the church bells next to my office have just started to play the Scottish Hym “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” which was popular during Warren’s lifetime. I have never heard it played before from the church, and I feel this synchronicity like a warm hand on my shoulder urging me ahead.
How it began
The Copps Hill Burying Ground in Boston’s North End is one of the oldest historic cemeteries in the city. It has over 10,000 known burials and some notables, such as fire-and-brimstone preachers Cotton and Increase Mather of the Salem Witch Trials and Robert Newman, the man who hung lanterns for Paul Revere's midnight ride.
The burying ground overlooks the waterfront and the Charlestown Navy Yard. Since deciding to write this article, I’ve learned that the British used the site as a lookout point during the battle of Bunker Hill. When you walk through Copps Hill Cemetary, you can see bullet holes in the gravestones British soldiers reportedly used for target practice as they awaited battle.
I now know that the protagonist of my story, Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed in this Battle, first appeared to me in the place where his enemies rallied to defeat him.
The only way to see this historic cemetery at night is to sign up for a ghost tour. It’s been almost three years since I surprised my wife Rachel with tour tickets around Halloween, and this adventure began. Before this ghost tour, the only knowledge I had of the cemetery was that there were a number of attempted assaults on female joggers, and I avoided the place. The burying ground is beautiful, but it does have a tense energy surrounding it, and I attribute that to the controversial figures buried there, those who may seek them out, as well as the modern-day crimes that have taken place there.
Copps Hill first sighting October 23, 2021
We toured the beautiful and historic cemetery in the dark with lanterns and a ghoulishly dressed tour guide. After a few minutes, I was bored and tuned out what was being said as I wandered in the dark behind our group. A shadowy face at the back of the cemetery caught my eye. I saw a man with long, loose hair watching me from against the iron fence. My first thought was that he had a battle-worn look to him. When I looked closer, I realized I was seeing an apparition. This holographic-like figure with blurry white edges appeared again, and I realized I was only seeing his face, and I could not see a body.
The face I saw was so clear that I tried to take a photograph to show Rachel. I was certain that the concentration of spirit energy was so strong that the camera on my iPhone could capture it.
But, he did not appear in any of my photos in a meaningful way, and every time I walked closer, he seemed to move further away from me.
As a psychic medium, I’ve experienced this before, and my feeling is that sometimes this objective clairvoyance can indicate that I am the source of the image, meaning it’s being projected through my sight onto my surroundings. When you look at the sky and see a flash of a face or look at a blank wall and see an image appear, this is objective clairvoyance. This means you’re seeing outside your mind's eye. However, this doesn’t always mean that another person or another medium will see what you see. The image is not, in fact, attached to a wall or the sky but a projection from your mind. This is a normal part of my life. I almost never point out the spirit people I see as I’m sitting in a crowd. Making statements like this brings a lot of unwanted attention, and often, I would be asked to explain myself. I also don't have the capacity to point out everything I notice and make a concerted effort to focus on this world when I am not working with my mediumship.
The fact that I experienced this sighting objectively and the knowledge that it could not be photographed and must be coming from me confused me. This meant that the spirit person was connecting to my energy but choosing to appear at a distance, making the sighting feel personal. I sensed that the man was watching me and wanted me to notice him from afar. I gave him the equivalent of an energetic nod and sent the thought, “I see you, but that’s enough for now.”
I felt uncomfortable by the attention this spirit person was paying me. But I was also curious.
Granary Burying Ground October 23, 2021
The next stop on the tour was the resting place of some prominent historical figures, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nestled between cozy restaurants and shopping centers in some of the city's highest-priced real estate, the cemetery allows visitors to view the final resting place of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Tree Paine, to name a few.
I did not enjoy this part of the ghost tour and was overwhelmed by a sadness that was not my own. I saw many visions of young children, and my stomach was queasy. Since researching this article, I have learned that this feeling began when I was walking by The Infant’s Tomb, where hundreds of children have been interred near the central obelisk that marks the grave of Benjamin Franklin’s parents.
My impression is that the sick feelings and images of children came from the psychic imprint of parental grief that must surround the grave and continue to build as people view it. I don’t believe that the children themselves were attempting to communicate with me, although they could; the physical symptoms I experienced remind me of those I feel from the living.
When I communicate with spirit children, they feel light, free, and joyful. It’s important to make the distinction because misinformation spreads about the spirit world. I would never want to contribute to the pain of those who love a child in spirit and perpetuate the myth that they are anything other than free of all earthly struggles.
During the visit to Granary Burying Ground we were told a story by our guide of Paul Revere and how he had dug through a mass grave to recover the body of his friend Dr Joseph Warren. Revere sifted through the mud and carnage for hours himself and would not stop until he recovered the remains of his friend that were identified by the artificial tooth Revere had made for him and installed in his jaw.
While we were hearing this gory tale of devotion, I found myself imagining the love between Paul Revere and his friend, the Doctor. The sadness and stomach upset began to pass, and I felt the presence of the man I had seen in Copps Hill but I did not see him. I sensed this man had a warm sense of humor and a boldness to him. I thought this spirit person likes to connect to the living. He wants to be remembered and seen. Just as I finished this thought, our tour guide told us that Dr. Joseph Warren had appeared in photographs after his death. He is said to haunt the cemetery. I felt a chuckle rising in my chest and questioned whether it was my own.
Forrest Hills Cemetery October 24th, 2021
It’s not unusual for Rachel and I to walk in Forrest Hills Cemetery on a Sunday morning. A beautiful garden cemetery near where my mother grew up, it’s one of my favorites to visit especially in the fall when the leaves turn. The events on this Fall day, however are most unusual because it’s the first time I experienced seeing a spirit person so vividly and without any discernible reason.
I saw what I believe was the spirit of Dr. Joseph Warren in full, vibrant color and heard him speak of the battle he died in. At the time, I did not know of his impossible-seeming connection to Forrest Hills, so I enjoyed my connection with him without any expectation of validation. What made this encounter extra special was the fact that my wife Rachel was there to listen to my account and, through later research, was able to make sense of what happened.
Next week, I’ll share about this encounter at Forrest Hills, the results of our findings, as well as the personal connections to this Revolutionary War hero that I continue to discover.
With Love,
Sheryl