Today the rest of the nation will hash out who Iowa Republicans and Democrats selected as presidential nominees.

In the meantime, many Iowans will settle into a sort of boredom with the process, sure we know "everything" about the candidates.

Something we don't seem to find boring is the religious beliefs of politicians, especially past presidents. So many are sure they know what people like George Washington or Richard Nixon believed, but do we -- really?

A recent book on Abraham Lincoln shows we may indeed have a lot to learn about even the most beloved of U.S. presidents.

You're likely skeptical about the "newness" of Lincoln information. After all, he's the subject of more than 6,000 books. However, Susan B. Martinez's meticulously researched "The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln" explores uncharted territory -- the 16th president's relationship with "higher powers."

Lincoln's religious life has long been a topic of debate. Often, biographers and historians avoided mention of Lincoln's spirituality and glossed over "unconventional" aspects of his faith, Martinez explains.

Others simply attributed such evidence to the dalliances of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln -- something Lincoln tolerated but did not truly indulge. "In these dark hocus-pocuses Mrs. Lincoln found comfort, and Lincoln let them go on for a time, careless of whether the intellectuals of the capital thought him addle-pated or no," wrote biographer Lloyd Lewis in "Myths After Lincoln."

Many writers cryptically referred to Lincoln as a "free thinker" who didn't adhere to organized beliefs. However, "Psychic Life" presents evidence he was a Spiritualist.

The Spiritualist movement came to prominence in the United States after publication of Andrew Jackson Davis 1847 book, "The Principles of Nature; Her Divine Revelation; and a Voice to Mankind." The concept centers around the belief that spirits of dead people communicate with the living, and the living can communicate with them. It wasn't a new belief, per se, but it did captivate an unprecedented number of people during the 19th century.

In "Psychic Life," Martinez explores Lincoln's "mystical practices and occurrences." For example, she believes her research shows Lincoln had prophetic dreams and psychic powers. He also consulted with psychics and attended seances, she writes, and he believed he could enter altered states of consciousness.

Martinez is a scholar, journalist and activist with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University. She was raised by agnostic/intellectual parents and discovered Spiritualism in the early 1980s. Since then, she has conducted extensive research, writing books on psychic phenomena and specializing in modern Spiritualism in the Victorian era.

Don't dismiss Martinez's assertions too quickly; the nation's "Great Age of Spiritualism" turned the heads of many prominent public figures. We may never fully understand how such beliefs shaped our national consciousness if we don't take this era seriously. "Psychic Life" shows that to ignore or downplay the role of U.S. Spiritualism is to misunderstand an important aspect of our culture.

"Today's so called New Age is but a pale and effete imitation of those heady days of table-tipping, séances and spirit communion," writes Martinez. "Without some understanding of 19th century grassroots Spiritualism, Lincoln's psychic life can hardly be appreciated. That he was chosen by a higher power to lead the nation through its darkest hour is both the theme of this book and his own personal conviction, sustaining body and mind throughout the wicked storm of civil war."

Golden writes the Courier's weekly faith column. E-mail her at onfaith@karrisgolden.com.