Young children express themselves honestly, which can be refreshing or unnerving, particularly if the child is talking about a past life experience.
The Field of Perceptual Studies
So many young children have talked about past lives to their parents and family members, that an entire field of study was developed around it. Ian Stevenson, MD, was the founder of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. Stevenson believed that reincarnation information is stored in our emotions and memories, while the cause of death may even show up as a birth mark, a phobia, or an illness in this lifetime.
Before his death in 2007, Dr. Stevenson studied more than 3,000 reported cases of reincarnation and wrote 14 books. His colleague, Professor Jim B. Tucker, continues the work today.
Memories of Reincarnation
From age two to age seven children can recall a past life, or even a time between lives, experts say. As the children get older, they forget, likely so they can experience this life fully without being tied to the past.
Here are some of their stories.
A Kindergartener Who Knew a Slavic Language
A little girl in kindergarten had a hard time with letters. She would confuse B’s, V’s, H’s and N’s, her mom said. Her mother asked her what the letters looked like and what sounds the letters made. That’s when she discovered her daughter knew another language. Her mom asked the child where she learned the language, and she said: “Vlad taught me before he disappeared.” When her mom asked her who Vlad was, she told her it was her brother. “And the next day, a man came and killed our family.”
A Three-Year-Old Remembers Drowning
A child’s mom was looking at a card that had a watercolor image of a boat on a lake. The little girl said to her mom, “I’ve been on a boat like that.” Her mom knew the child had never been on a boat, so her next words floored her: “I was in the boat, hit my head and fell in the water. I kept falling and falling, but then I went to God,” and raised her hands in the air. Today, the child has no memory of the past and enjoys boating.
A Marine Dies on Deployment
There’s the story of a boy who was named after his dad’s Marine buddy who was killed in action. The child’s mom was driving past a military base one day when the three-year-old said, “I’m buried over there in the ground. You know, from when I died fighting bad guys with Daddy. Before I was your kid.”
For the Love of Family
A four-year-old boy told his sister that he was in the jungle trying to help the animals and was given a choice: continue to save the animals or go live with his family. He chose his family, but told his mom he couldn’t stay long “just for a little while.” He died at age 26.
A Ballerina Comes Back to Life
A little girl received her first ballet bar, sat down, and began scraping the bottom of her ballet slippers. When she was asked what she was doing she said she was cutting her slippers like she did in the past so she wouldn’t slip and hurt her ankles.
The Twin Returns
A child came home from school one day with several drawings. When his mother asked him what they were, he said they were “from when you and I were twins.” He told his mom he knew her twin didn’t live, so he came back as her son so he could be with her again. The child’s mom never told him that her own mother had miscarried her twin years ago.
The Brother Who Was Given a Second Chance at Life
A lady named Trenny lost her brother when he died in a car wreck in 1993. Trenny’s brother Craig took the wheel while drunk and died in a crash at 3:20 a.m. Trenny’s son Noah was born four years later. One day, Noah used Craig’s nickname to get his mom’s attention. It shocked her so badly she had to stop the car. Another time, Noah asked for Craig’s favorite toy, “Froggy,” from his grandmother. His grandmother retrieved the toy from the top of the closet and asked him if it was this Froggy? He was all smiles and said yes.
“It makes me feel like I get a second chance,” Noah said. “I feel like my uncle did come back for my mom.”
The Businessman Who Fell to His Death
On September 11, 2001, a businessman was working in the World Trade Center when terrorists crashed planes into the buildings, causing the buildings to collapse. Fast forward to 2004: A “surprise” child, Cade, was born.
At age three Cade woke up screaming. He told his mom he was working in a tall building when he felt something hit, and he started falling.
Cade became fearful of tall buildings and obsessed over planes. Cade was able to recall so much detail that he began demanding that his mom use his real name – the name he had as a businessman at the world trade center. His mom began doing some research and found the name of the man who died. She didn’t want to retraumatize the man’s family members so she didn’t contact them, she said. “What do I say? Your son didn’t die, he’s just someone different now?”
A Soul Survivor
James Leininger was just two years old when he began to experience horrifying nightmares of being shot out of the sky. He screamed, “Plane on Fire! Little man can’t get out!”
As his parents worked with James to determine the cause of his nightmares, they discovered he recalled experiences as a fighter pilot James M. Huston Jr. Huston was a World War II fighter pilot who had been stationed at the U.S.S. Natoma Bay aircraft carrier.
To help their son, the Leininger’s began gathering information about World War II fighter pilots and ultimately wrote a book about their experience called, “Soul Survivor the Reincarnation of a Fighter Pilot.”
Same Family Reincarnations are Possible
Years ago, I took a class on past life regression where I was able to recall 16 distinct past lives. One of those lives involved my sister. A snapshot view of that experience showed me my sister and I were brothers in that lifetime, and we lived on an island in the South Pacific. As a family, we would migrate from island to island seeking new food sources.
Carol Bowman has a guidebook, “Children’s Past Lives,” which can be a helpful resource for parents when dealing with the subject.
The best approach parents can take is to be open to what the child is saying. Death in a past life may be traumatic for a child to recall. Children may be emotional regarding the experience, so parents should be respectful and allow them the time and space to talk about it. Write down the information, and if necessary, reach out to an expert such as Dr. Tucker to help.
Signs You Have Been Reincarnated
Do you think you’ve been reincarnated? Lonerwolf.com offers these 12 signs that you may have been reincarnated:
- Recurring dreams
- Out of place memories
- You have strong intuition
- Déjà vu
- You’re an Empath (absorb the emotions of others)
- Precognition (future site)
- Retrocognition (the ability to obtain info on past events)
- You feel older than your age (Old Soul)
- You have great affinity for certain cultures
- Unexplained fears or phobias
- You feel as though this earth is not your home
Whether you’ve experienced a past life and want to discover more, or you hope to find out how to improve your own psychic awareness, psychiclifeadvice.com offers many stories, tools and tips that can help. Use the search tool to discover more!