Let’s be honest; kids often say whatever is on their minds. Sometimes, it’s hilarious; other times, it’s, please let the ground open up and swallow me embarrassing. But occasionally, they can say something that can send a shiver down your spine; what do you do when a child describes their own death to you?
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the belief that after your body dies, your soul begins a new life in a human or animal body. What you are reincarnated as depends on how well you lived your life previously if you were deemed kind and moral. There are arguments that reincarnation is a real occurrence, as well as arguments against it, which I will talk more about later. These are some of the stories I’ve researched about children and their ‘past lives’, which you may find interesting.
The Boy in the Trenches
Edward Austrian was terrified of dark, grey, damp days and had suffered throat problems since birth; at four years old, he started telling his mother, Patricia, that his throat had been shot and his ‘shot was hurting’. Patricia took him to a doctor, who found no apparent cause for the pain but kept an eye on him. Not long after, Edwards developed a large, noticeable cyst in his throat, and the doctors were at a loss as to how to treat it but decided to remove his tonsils as a precaution. After the operation, Edward started talking to his mother about the ‘experiences’ he had in World War I and how he suffered in the trenches. He told her ‘My name was James. I was 18 years old in France. We were walking along the mud. It was damp. It was cold. My rifle is heavy. I remember looking out and seeing trees, and then there was desolation. I heard a shot come from behind. It went through someone else, hit me square in the back of the neck, and I felt my throat fill with blood.’
The Boy Who Solved His Own Murder
One of the most famous stories of reincarnation is the case study of a child who lived in the Golan Heights (a region near the border of Syria and Israel). A 3-year-old boy was part of the Druze (an Abrahamic religion), a group that believed heavily in reincarnation. Trutz Hardo, a therapist who researched the case, wrote: ‘As soon as a child is born, its body is searched for birthmarks since they are convinced that these stem from death wounds, which were received in a past life. If such marks are found on a child, they try to discover something from his or her past life as soon as the child is able to speak in order to get the first clues to the circumstances of his or her former death’. The 3-year-old boy told his elders of his past life and that he had been murdered in his previous existence; he was instantly believed, thanks to the long birthmark that ran across his head. The child explained that he had been killed after being hit in the head with an axe and even went as far as to name his murderer. He asked his elders to follow him, and he led them to another village where he confronted a man: ‘I used to be your neighbour. We had a fight, and you killed me with an axe!’ The child then turned to his elders and said, ‘I even know where he buried my body.’ The colour drained from the stranger’s face as the child led them to a pile of stones; underneath was a body with a split skull. The child moved to another spot and told them to dig; under the earth was the axe that had been used in the murder. The stranger didn’t argue and admitted to committing the murder years before. The full story was published in 2000 in Hardo’s book ‘Children Who Have Lived Before Reincarnation Today’.
The World War II Pilot
On 1st May 2000, 2-year-old James Leininger was being comforted by his parents after suffering a nightmare. Young James had been screaming, ‘Plane on fire! Airplane crash!’ while thrashing about as if in agony. These night terrors became a regular occurrence and developed; soon, the words ‘Jack Larsen, ’ ‘Natoma’, and ‘Corsair’ were also being shouted out, and he started to talk of a little man. His parents, understandably, were very worried and didn’t know quite what to do, and his father, Bruce, started researching as much as he could. One day, James was walking past a toy shop with his mother, Andrea, and she pointed at some toy planes, saying, ‘Look, there’s a bomb on the bottom.’ James replied, ‘That’s not a bomb, Mummy. That’s a drop tank’. After this exchange, Andrea and Bruce started to question James a little more.
Bruce: Who is the little man?
James: Me.
Bruce: What happened to your plane?
James: It got shot.
Bruce: Who shot your plane?
James: The Japanese!
Bruce: Do you remember what kind of plane the little man flew?
James: A Corsair (a World War II fighter plane).
Bruce: Do you remember where your airplane took off from?
James: A boat, The Natoma! (A World War II aircraft carrier).
James was only two years old then; how did he know all this? At Christmas, Bruce ordered a book, The Battle of Iwo Jima and James pointed to the cover, saying, ‘Daddy, that’s where my plane was shot down.’ It wasn’t long until James started talking about Jack Larsen; he had been a pilot and James’ best friend in a previous life. Bruce managed to track down Jack Larsen and spoke to him. Jack told him that during World War II, his best friend had been a man called James Huston Jnr, and he had died after his plane had been shot down. Precisely the way young James had described. Other eerie details emerged; he had called his action figures Billie, Leon, and Walter. When questioned why, he replied, ‘Because that’s who met me when I got to heaven.’ Billie Peeler, Leon Conner, and Walter Devlin were on the list of the Natoma dead.
The Hollywood Agent
A study was conducted at the University of Virginia into past lives. This included the story of a 4-year-old boy from Oklahoma called Ryan, who had been born in 2004. During the night, he started screaming and crying, begging his mother, Cyndi, to take him to where he ‘lived before,’ describing a big fancy house with a pool and a drive full of expensive cars. Ryan even went as far as to say, ‘I can’t live in these conditions. My last home was much better!’ Cyndi described him as ‘like a little old man who couldn’t remember all the details of his life.’ Ryan began talking about his other family, including adopted sons, a biological daughter and two sisters. He came out with statements such as ‘Do you know who I am? If you mess with me, you won’t ever work in this town again’. Ryan talked about his ‘previous life,’ his money, travels and living on a street with the name ‘rock’ in it. He had an obsession with sunglasses and would remark that he used to be sunburned often. He mentioned that he was a Republican and that he hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and without any lessons, Ryan could tap dance well and use chopsticks. One day, his mother went to the local library and picked up some books about Hollywood, thinking maybe the glitz and glamour might entertain the young boy. When looking through one book, Ryan became increasingly excited. Suddenly, he shouted, ‘Mama, that guy’s me! The old me!’ He was pointing at one of the actors in a photo from a 1932 film called ‘Night After Night’. The photo was of Marty Martyn, who had died on 25th December 1964. Marty had started as a film extra before becoming a Hollywood talent agent. He had been a talented tap dancer who frequently suffered sunburns, had a favourite restaurant in Chinatown, openly hated Franklin Roosevelt, and lived at 825 Roxbury Drive.
The Girl Who Found Her Husband
Shanti Devi was born on 11th December 1926 in Delhi, India. At around age 4, she started telling her parents that she wanted to go home to Mathura, a village 145km away, where she claimed her husband lived. Shanti described her husband in great detail, including that he was fair, wore glasses, had a wart on his left cheek and owned a shop that was in front of the Dwarkadhish Temple in Mathura. While in school, she told people she had died ten days after giving birth. Her teachers were concerned and started questioning her; she started using words that were localised to Mathura and stated that her husband’s name was Kedar Nath. Shanti’s head teacher decided to try to locate this man, and he did so successfully. Kedar told him that he had lost his wife, Lugdi Devi, nine years earlier, days after she had given birth to their son. Kedar travelled to see Shanti and pretended to be someone else, but she immediately recognised him. After conversations between them, Kedar became convinced that Shanti was the reincarnation of Lugdi. Mahatma Gandhi was made aware of the situation and organised for Shanti to travel to Mathura. Upon her arrival, she immediately recognised Kedar and Lugdi’s family members. Gandhi had a commission set up to investigate the claims, and they concluded that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.
The Priestess of Isis
Dorothy Eady was born in London in 1904, and at the age of 3, she fell down a flight of stairs and hit her head. She was pronounced dead but managed to be revived. When Dorothy woke up, she spoke in a different accent and kept telling her parents she wanted to go home. Not long after the accident, her parents took her to an ancient Egypt exhibition at The British Museum. Upon seeing a picture of the Abydos Temple of Seti (the father of Ramses the Great), she shouted, ‘There is my home!’ Dorothy turned to her parents and asked, ‘Where are the trees? Where are the gardens?’ After this experience, Dorothy became obsessed with Ancient Egypt and started speaking of how she was a woman, a priestess of Isis named Bentreshyt, during these times. She had had an affair with Seti I, a pharaoh of the New Kingdom Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She became pregnant by the Pharoah and was facing trial; for a priestess to lose her virginity was punishable by death. Bentreshyt committed suicide rather than bring shame to the Pharaoh she loved. Dorothy moved to Egypt in her 20s, had a child named Sety and changed her name to Omm Sety. She eventually took a job helping with the excavations at Abydos and helped locate the missing gardens she had spoken of years ago. To test her claims, the chief inspector from Egypt’s Antiquities Department took Dorothy to Seti’s temple in the pitch black. He asked her to describe various murals and artefacts, as well as asking where they were placed. Dorothy answered every single one correctly despite the items never appearing on display.
And those are just a few of the many stories of reincarnation. So, is it a real phenomenon? Psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has spent over 40 years conducting over 2,500 case studies of children who speak of past lives. Each child’s statement is documented, facts verified, and birthmarks matched to wounds. Of course, this could all be considered anecdotal as there is no actual proof. There is also the chance that these children had overheard conversations; they may have read books or seen something on television that inspired their ‘memories.’ Their parents may have coached them into repeating these stories, possibly for fame and attention. I like to think there could be a little proof of reincarnation; I don’t believe everything needs a scientific explanation, and a little mystery isn’t a bad thing. As always, let me know what you think in the comments; thanks for reading; take care of yourselves, and I will see you soon.
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