Posted on 07/16/2007 3:43:04 PM PDT by DancesWithCats
Ever since he was two years old and first started talking, Cameron Macauley has told of his life on the island of Barra. Cameron lives with his mum, Norma, in Glasgow. They have never been to Barra.
He tells of a white house, overlooking the sea and the beach, where he would play with his brothers and sisters. He tells of the airplanes that used to land on the beach. He talks about his dog, a black and white dog.
Barra lies off the western coast of Scotland, 220 miles from Glasgow. It can only be reached by a lengthy sea journey or an hour long flight. It is a, distant, outpost of the British Isles and is home to just over a thousand people.
Cameron is now five, and his story has never wavered. He talks incessantly about his Barra family, his Barra mum and Barra dad. His Barra dad he explains was called Shane Robertson and he died when he was knocked down by a car.
He has become so preoccupied with Barra and is missing his Barra mum so badly that he is now suffering from genuine distress.
Norma considers herself to be open-minded, and would like to find out if there is any rational explanation for Cameron's memories and beliefs that he was previously a member of another family on Barra. Her first port of call is Dr. Chris French, a psychologist who edits The Skeptic magazine which debunks paranormal phenomena. Not surprisingly, he discounts any talk of reincarnation mooting that a child's over-active imagination can be fed by the multitude of television programmes available and the easy access to the Web. Norma is not convinced, she does not believe that Cameron has ever watched programmes that could have provided this information.
(Excerpt) Read more at mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk ...
... liar ... sorry about the misspell!
How interesting. I have to wonder, who are the witnesses to his telling this story at age 2? I’ve been throught the Twos seven times; their communication skills are underwhelming.
Now a five-year-old could easily make this whole thing up, especially if he saw something in a movie, TV show, or book that captured his imagination. My five-year-old plans to move to Jupiter and make everyone there speak Greek.
My suggestions are either that his mother has told him stories which he has come to believe are true (very easily done with young children), or that he has made up a story, perhaps based on fiction, that he believes is true.
It’s interesting that he had a dad in his “past life” story, while he doesn’t seem to have one in reality.
Yes, that would be my thought, too. That mom began very early to teach him this 'story' and she knew bits and pieces herself were true ... but it seems awful far-fetched. Over a 3 year period? Still ... people will do some odd things to keep themselves amused. Anything is possible.
Maybe he has had a babysitter, grandmother, aunt, or something, who has told him stories that he has assimilated as true. Young children have virtually NO ability to sort truth from fiction.
A child’s longing for a father is very intense, and could result into his latching on to this narrative as a fixation. I don’t know what has really happened here, but there are a variety of possibilities for this boy to have acquired his belief in the story without anyone’s intending to upset him.
I tend to believe some of these stories. Perhaps some of the details get scrambled, like a dream.
I don’t know but when I was young I experienced some really weird deja-vu episodes when visiting places that I had never been to before. Kinda creepy.
Again, the kicker is "the parents said ...".
When my oldest daughter was a toddler, she watched CNN and the History Channel. She remembered enough information from different shows that she recognized Audie Murphy's picture when we visited a museum exhibit about him, and she was able (at around three, early talker!) to discuss why he was famous.
Maybe this is one of those by proxy syndromes where the parent is sick and seeking attention by setting the kid up. With everything else in life I can’t imagine throwing this much energy and time into a stupid scam that takes years to pull off.
"At the University of Virginia, a department has been set up to investigate these stories."
A Department !!! You must think the folks at UVa are either stupid or naive.
ML/NJ
That's a possibility. Without more information, we have no way of knowing how this particular story, names and place and detail, was transmitted to the boy.
With everything else in life I can’t imagine throwing this much energy and time into a stupid scam that takes years to pull off.
Single moms on welfare have a lot of spare time. We don't know for sure that this is the situation here, but it seems to be an absolute majority of "families" in the UK these days.
I would still be inclined to believe that it's an innocent misunderstanding of some information that he's acquired, simply because it's so mean to deliberately upset a child in this way.
They probably mean a grant-funded study group of some sort, under the psychology department.
But maybe when he was in preschool they watched some historical shows? Or discussed some stories out of books? Or when he was being watched by others? Odd ... but I'm certain that there is a logical explanation for it. I just don't believe in anyone having lived a 'former life'. Had a boyfriend once who on the second (and last) date told me that he believed himself to be reincarnated from an ancient Roman captain ... hit the Date Auto Eject!!! LOL I immediately said 'you're talking to a total nonbeliever'. We parted friends but that was the last of the heart to heart discussions!
For example, Tighe talks about kissing the Blarney stone and knew that the act requires the assistance of someone who holds you as you lean backwards and face up to kiss the stone. This is common knowledge and photos of this are available in hundreds of sources, yet this fact has been cited as strong evidence that Tighe really kissed the stone in a previous incarnation
Yes! See? Blarney-Babble.
Maybe “Blarney Rubble”, Fred Flintsone’s friend. ;)
You notice they're always reincarnated from someone notable, never a stable slave or washerwoman.
Or one of the 50% of children (historically) who died before age 10.
I had a girlfriend in college who was a big believer in this stuff. She now teaches yoga out in Berkeley, CA. She ended up marrying a man she claimed to have been married to in past lives.
They got divorced in this one.
I thought it was telling in this story that when the historical records were checked, the kid's story didn't hold up.
Why don't you find out and report back. My experience with the folks in Charlottesville is that they don't bother with anything frivolous.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.