The Past Life Memories of an Ex Pilot – James Leininger — Part I

Could a Little Boy Be Proof of Reincarnation?

ABC News

June 30, 2005

Nearly six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger.

Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated. James’ parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are “probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives.” But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life.
From an early age, James would play with nothing else but planes, his parents say. But when he was 2, they said the planes their son loved began to give him regular nightmares. “I’d wake him up and he’d be screaming,” Andrea told ABCNEWS’ Chris Cuomo. She said when she asked her son what he was dreaming about, he would say, “Airplane crash on fire, little man can’t get out.”

Above: James Huston Jr., whose tragic death during World War II is remembered in detail by young James Leininger, pauses for a picture sometime in 1944, the year before he was shot down. Source

Reality Check
Andrea says her mom was the first to suggest James was remembering a past life. At first, Andrea says she was doubtful. James was only watching kids’ shows, his parents say, and they weren’t watching World War II documentaries or conversing about military history. But as time went by, Andrea began to wonder what to believe. In one video of James at age 3, he goes over a plane as if he’s doing a preflight check.
Another time, Andrea said, she bought him a toy plane, and pointed out what appeared to be a bomb on its underside. She says James corrected her, and told her it was a drop tank. “I’d never heard of a drop tank,” she said. “I didn’t know what a drop tank was.”
Then James’ violent nightmares got worse, occurring three and four times a week. Andrea’s mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman, who believes that the dead sometimes can be reborn.
With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories — and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said.
Bowman said James was at the age when former lives are most easily recalled. “They haven’t had the cultural conditioning, the layering over the experience in this life so the memories can percolate up more easily,” she said.

F4U Corsair

Trail of Mysteries
Over time, James’ parents say he revealed extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot — mostly at bedtime, when he was drowsy. They say James told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. Andrea says James told his father he flew a Corsair, and then told her, “They used to get flat tires all the time.” In fact, historians and pilots agree that the plane’s tires took a lot of punishment on landing. But that’s a fact that could easily be found in books or on television.
Andrea says James also told his father the name of the boat he took off from — Natoma — and the name of someone he flew with — “Jack Larson.” After some research, Bruce discovered both the Natoma and Jack Larson were real. The Natoma Bay was a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific. And Larson is living in Arkansas. “It was like, holy mackerel,” Bruce said. “You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn’t believe it.

USS Natoma Bay

James 2 = James M. Huston Jr.?
Bruce became obsessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay.

He said James told him he had been shot down at Iwo Jima. James had also begun signing his crayon drawings “James 3.” Bruce soon learned that the only pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima was James M. Huston Jr.

Bruce says James also told him his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine. Ralph Clarbour, a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the Natoma Bay, says his plane was right next to one flown by James M. Huston Jr. during a raid near Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. Clarbour said he saw Huston’s plane struck by anti-aircraft fire. “I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine,” he said.
Treasured Mementos
Bruce says he now believes his son had a past life in which he was James M. Huston Jr. “He came back because he wasn’t finished with something.” The Leiningers wrote a letter to Huston’s sister, Anne Barron, about their little boy. And now she believes it as well. “The child was so convincing in coming up with all the things that there is no way on the world he could know,” she said.
But Professor Paul Kurtz of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who heads an organization that investigates claims of the paranormal, says he thinks the parents are “self-deceived.” “They’re fascinated by the mysterious and they built up a fairy tale,” he said.
James’ vivid, alleged recollections are starting to fade as he gets older — but among his prized possessions remain two haunting presents sent to him by Barron: a bust of George Washington and a model of a Corsair aircraft. They were among the personal effects of James Huston sent home after the war.
“He appears to have experienced something that I don’t think is unique, but the way it’s been revealed is quite astounding,” Bruce said. Asked if the idea that James may have been someone else changes his or his wife’s feeling about their son, Bruce said: “It doesn’t change how we think. I don’t look at him and say, ‘That’s not my boy.’ That’s my boy.”

Source
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Technology/Story?id=894217&page=1

Some nice people have put the TV program on youtube :
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWwzFwUOxA
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5965wcH2Kx0

Other articles
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_189477.html
http://www.ntcsites.com/acadianhouse/nss-folder/publicfolder/AP/cover_feature_24_3.htm

Cave in the Snow

I love this book.

It’s biography of Tenzin Palmo (was Diane Perry), a British born who was the first fully ordained western Tibetan Buddhist nun.

From 1976 – 1988 she meditated alone for 12 years in a remote Himalayan cave (during which the last 3 years was even a stricter retreat). 13,200 feet up above sea level in Himalaya, facing cold and buried in the snow.
The story told her life since childhood and her first encounter with Buddhism.
And a little bit about the famous Togden and Togdenmas.

The best things for me are some insights here and there in the book I picked from her experience and insights

Excellent book. For those who don’t like thick book, this is not too thick and very easy to read.
So, read on !!

Cave in the Snow – author : Vicki Mackenzie

Can Science Uphold the Belief in Rebirth ?

Can Science Uphold the Belief in Rebirth ?

 

by Jupinderjit Singh

[This article first appeared in the Indian Tribune on 22 September 2002, it documents a strong case of spontaneous and verifiable past-life recall by a child. This is not only important in its own right, but also because it independently adds to the evidence for this phenomenon that at present comes primarily from the research by Ian Stevenson and his team at the University of Virginia, which is covered in depth in chapter 3 of The Book of the Soul.]

 

Taranjit Singh with his parents in his present life

 

Is rebirth possible? Are there any scientific bases for believing in rebirth? Since time immemorial, man has been struggling to find a solution to this mystery but conclusive evidence has thus far eluded him.

Now, in probably the first-ever case of its kind, a Patiala-based forensic science expert has sought to scientifically prove the phenomenon. Putting forward for debate his research in a case involving the rebirth of a child who lived in Chakkchela village of Jalandhar district in his past life and now lives in Alluna Miana village of Ludhiana district, Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan claims to prove on the basis of the comparison between the handwriting of the child in his previous and present births, the theory that rebirth is possible. His findings have been hailed at the recent National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.

A couple of months ago, a six-year-old boy Taranjit Singh of Alluna Miana village near Payal in Ludhiana claimed to remember his previous life. In fact, according to his economically weak parents, the boy had been claiming this since he was two years old and used to attempt to run away from home. The boy said he was born in Chakkchela village in Jalandhar district in his past birth and his real name was Satnam Singh and his father’s name was Jeet Singh. He said he was a student of Class IX in a school in Nihalwal village at the time of his death. On September 10, 1992, he was returning home on a bicycle from his school along with his friend Sukhwinder Singh when a scooter-rider named Joga Singh of Mirajwala village, Shahkot tehsil, hit him. He received serious injuries on his head and died the following day.

His present father Ranjit Singh said as the boy became more insistent, he and his wife took him to Chakkchela village in Sangrur district. They could not find anyone resembling the people their son had described as his parents. When someone told them that there was a village called Chakkchela in Jalandhar district as well, they decided to go there.

The boy’s father Ranjit Singh and his friend Rajinder Singh went to the government school in Nihalwal village in Jalandhar district where they met an old teacher who told that it was true that a boy named Satnam Singh had died in an accident and he was the son of Jeet Singh of Chakkchela village. Then the family reached the house of Jeet Singh and narrated the whole story.

Ranjit Singh also said that his son claimed that the books he was carrying when the accident occurred had been soaked in his blood. He also had Rs 30 in his purse. On hearing this, the woman Taranjit claimed was his mother in his previous birth, started weeping and confirmed his claim. She said she had preserved the blood-stained books and Rs 30 as the last memory of her child.

After few days Taranjit Singh’s brother in his previous life Kewal Singh, sister Lakhbir Kaur, friend Buta Singh, father Jeet Singh and mother Mohinder Kaur came to Alluna Miana village to meet Taranjit. Lakhbir Kaur showed the photographs of her marriage to Taranjit Singh and asked him to recognise himself in his previous birth. Taranjit Singh immediately recognised the same as also the photo of his parents in his previous birth.

This story was carried in some newspapers. Vikram Chauhan told this writer that as a man of science, he refused to believe such a story but driven by curiosity, he decided to investigate. He visited the villages concerned a number of times. The boy and the parents of both the births repeated the same story. He spoke to a shopkeeper who told him that the boy had taken a notebook on credit of Rs 3 from him a few days before his death. When the shopkeeper went to the boy’s village, the boy immediately recognised him but said he owed him Rs 2 only. The shopkeeper admitted the fact and said he had only wanted to test the authenticity of the child’s claim.

Thereafter to confirm the incident scientifically, Chauhan took samples of the writings of Taranjit Singh both in Gurmukhi and English and also of Satnam Singh from the notebooks kept by the family of Satnam Singh, in order to find out whether or not the handwritings of Satnam Singh and Taranjit Singh were similar. A basic theory of forensic science that the handwritings of two different individuals cannot be the same was the basis of his investigation. If Taranjit Singh and Satnam Singh were the same person, then their handwritings also had to be the same.

The author explained that a person’s handwriting has specific characteristics, which are determined by one’s personality and hence no two persons write in the same manner.

It is an applied science combining the study of optics, physiology and psychology. A person’s psychological makeup determines, to a large extent, his handwriting. Thus, the mind plays an important role in shaping a person’s handwriting and the hand only translates into action the dictates of the mind, which cannot be the same in two different writers.

The author revealed he was amazed to find that the handwriting of Taranjit Singh corresponded almost exactly with that of Satnam Singh. The only difference lay in the muscular coordination of the two writers as Taranjit Singh was not accustomed to writing. This was quite unusual and suggested that something in the two boys was same.

The author argued that if it is presumed that the soul is transferred from one person to another then it can be inferred that the mind will remain the same. Thus, if Satnam Singh’s soul was believed to have been transferred into Taranjit Singh’s body, then it stood to reason that the handwriting of Taranjt Singh would correspond with that of Satnam Singh.

The scientist proved this in a conference. According to the minutes of the conference, a number of forensic experts examined the handwriting samples and found that these were similar.

“I have some scientific basis to claim rebirth is possible”, says Chauhan, “but I wish to research further on the subject and am closely monitoring the development of the child.” According to Chauhan, another factor bolstered his conclusions. “In his present birth, Taranjit has never gone to school as he belongs to a poor family, but yet when I told him to write the English and Punjabi alphabet, he wrote them correctly.”

Taranjit is living with the parents of his present birth as they refuse to give him to his former parents, even though they are poorer than them. The parents of his previous birth have also not pressed their claim saying they understand the feelings of their counterparts.

The Boy Who Lived Before

The Boy Who Lived Before

Another examples of proof of rebirth. It was aired on UK Channel Five on 18 September 2006 9pm.

It’s a bit funny to see all mixed reactions from people all over the net… some think it’s bullshit. But I guess, you don’t know what you don’t know, right…? Some people think it’s bullshit because it’s on The Sun, well, The Sun is not the most intellectual paper in the world but it is a serious mainstream paper, but hey… it’s not relevant, and totally missed the point! because they are not the one who made this story! They’re only reporting about a documentary on UK Channel Five.
Apparently there are lots of similar cases springing up that The University of Virginia has a department to investigate these reincarnation claims. The department is led by Dr Jim Tucker, a child psychiatrist.

The Boy Who Lived Before
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001290023-2006410683,,00.html

Another life … Cameron Macaulay told stories of his other family

LITTLE Cameron Macaulay was a typical six-year-old, always talking about his mum and family.He liked to draw pictures of his home too — a long single-storey, white house standing in a bay.But it sent shivers down his mum’s spine — because Cameron said it was somewhere they had never been, 160 miles away from where they lived.

And he said the mother he was talking about was his “old mum.”

Convinced he had lived a previous life Cameron worried his former family would be missing him.

The Glasgow lad said they were on the Isle Of Barra.

Mum Norma, 42, said: “Ever since Cameron could speak he’s come up with tales of a childhood on Barra.

“He spoke about his former parents, how his dad died, and his brothers and sisters.

“Eventually we just had to take him there to see what we could find.

“It was an astonishing experience.”

Cameron’s journey to find his previous life is now the subject of a spooky TV documentary.

Norma said: “His dad and I are no longer together but neither of our families have ever been to the island.

“At first we just put his stories down to a vivid imagination.” Then life took a more sinister turn as Cameron started to become distressed at being away from his Barra family.

Norma said: “It was awful and went on for years.

“When he started nursery his teacher asked to see me and told me all the things Cameron was saying about Barra. He missed his mummy and his brothers and sisters there.

“He missed playing in rockpools on the beach beside his house.

“And he complained that in our house there was only one toilet, whereas in Barra, they had three.

“He used to cry for his mummy. He said she’d be missing him and he wanted to let his family in Barra know he was all right.

“It was very distressing. He was inconsolable.”

Memorable view … Isle of Barra which Cameron said was his former home

“He wouldn’t stop talking about Barra, where they went, what they did and how he watched the planes landing on the beach from his bedroom window.

“He even said his dad was called Shane Robertson, who had died because ‘he didn’t look both ways.’

“I assume he means knocked over by a car but he never says that.

“One day his nursery teacher told me a film company were looking for people who believed they had lived before.

“She suggested I contact them about Cameron. My family were horrified. There was a lot of opposition to it. I’m a single parent so it was me and Cameron’s brother Martin, who is only a year older than him, who were being badly affected by this.

“Cameron wouldn’t stop begging me to take him to Barra. It was constant.

“I contacted the film company and they followed Cameron’s journey to Barra.

“We had child psychologist Dr Jim Tucker, from Virginia, with us.

“He specialises in reincarnation and has researched other children like Cameron.

“When Cameron was told we were going to Barra he was jumping all over the place with excitement.” The family flew from Glasgow last February and landed on Cockleshell Bay an hour later.

Norma said: “He asked me if his face was shiny, because he was so happy.

Cameron and Norma … he says ‘if you die you come back again’

“When we got to the island and DID land on a beach, just as Cameron had described, he turned to Martin and me and said, ‘Now do you believe me?’

He got off the plane, threw his arms in the air and yelled ‘I’m back.’

“He talked about his Barra mum, telling me she had brown hair down to her waist before she’d had it cut.

“He said I’d like her and she’d like me. He was anxious for us to meet.

“He also talked about a ‘big book’ he used to read, and God and Jesus.

“We’re not a religious family but his Barra family were.”

The Macaulays booked into a hotel and began their search for clues to Cameron’s past. Norma said: “We contacted the Heritage Centre and asked if they’d heard of a Robertson family who lived in a white house overlooking a bay.

“They hadn’t. Cameron was very disappointed. We drove around the island but he didn’t see the house.

“Then we realised that if he saw planes land on the beach from his bedroom window, we were driving the wrong way.”Next the family received a call from their hotel to confirm that a family called Robertson once had a white house on the bay.

Norma explains: “We didn’t tell Cameron anything. We just drove towards where we were told the house was and waited to see what would happen.

“He recognised it immediately and was overjoyed.

“But as we walked to the door all the colour drained from Cameron’s face and he became very quiet.

“I think he thought it would be exactly the same as he remembered it, that his Barra mum would be waiting for him inside. He looked sad. There was no one there. The previous owner had died but a keyholder let us in.

“There were lots of nooks and crannies and Cameron knew every bit of the house — including the THREE toilets and the beach view from his bedroom window. In the garden, he took us to the ‘secret entrance’ he’d been talking about for years.”

Researchers also managed to track down one of the Robertson family who had owned the house.

Norma said: “We visited them at their new address in Stirling, but couldn’t find anything about a Shane Robertson.

“Cameron was eager to see old family photographs in case he found his dad or himself in any.

“He’d always talked about a big black car and a black and white dog.

“The car and the dog were in the photos.”

Since the family returned to their home in Clydebank, Glasgow, Cameron has been much calmer.

Norma said: “Going to Barra was the best thing we could have done.

“It’s put Cameron’s mind at ease. He no longer talks about Barra with such longing.

“Now he knows we no longer think he was making things up.

“We didn’t get all the answers we were looking for — and, apparently, past life memories fade as the person gets older.

“Cameron has never spoken about dying to me. But he told his pal not to worry about dying, because you just come back again.

“When I asked him how he ended up with me, he tells me he ‘fell through and went into my tummy.’

“And when I ask him what his name was before, he says, ‘It’s Cameron. It’s still me.’

“I don’t think we’ll ever get all the answers.”

The Boy Who Lived Before is on Five on Monday, September 18, at 9pm

Some nice people have put this up on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5cGSUBU8-w. It’s 46 minute. If it’s too big for your download, you can search for the smaller size in 5 parts; Reincarnation Part 1 – 5 : The Boy Who Lived Before.