Could a Little Boy Be Proof of Reincarnation?

ABC News ^ | April 20, 04 | ABC News

[churchillbuff]

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."

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.

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.

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."

[RonHolzwarth]

Hmmm,,, you sure lost me there.

you said: "Both positions you offer are false."

I brought out so many possibilities in my comments, and never once stated a firm belief of my own, except that the Tanakh, that is, the Torah, Nevi'im, and Kethuvim (that's the Old Testament to you) is the guidebook for us to follow.

[firewalk]

.

[fatima]

I did not say that."Listen to yourself, you can believe that the child can be possessed by an of worldly entity, a demon, but you cannot grasp the concept that the child, or to be more specific, child's soul, actually lived a previous life.


"

[Paul C. Jesup]

Now you are just mocking me.

[fatima]

Paul,No I am not.I respect your thoughts,just asking.

[CyberAnt]

I realize you come from a different background. And .. even though you do, I have really enjoyed your open expression of what you believe.

In my Biblical instruction, I realized that the letters Paul wrote to the churches were instructions for the churches which Paul and the disciples had helped to found. In those instructions, I take Paul's words as being specific instructions from Jesus directly to Paul (to give to the church). I think I do this because the "church", which is really a person who has received Jesus as their Savior, and not a building - the "church" belongs to Jesus, not Paul. Paul is merely the messenger of Jesus' message. Perhaps that's why I quoted the statement as being from Jesus.

You're right about the Latin .. I guess I assumed Mark would have written it in Latin, because he wrote his Gospel to the people in Rome .. and they were not all Jews. None of my reference material says anything about it so I would appreciate it if you can clarify that item.

[CyberAnt]

Hebrews 9:27 says you only die ONCE!

[CyberAnt]

"Aramaic"

I stand corrected! Sorry for the confusion.

[RightWingAtheist]

Kurtz speaks only for himself. My rationalism is in a tradition begun by the likes of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume, and has been carried on by the likes of George Santayana, H.L. Mencken and Sydney Hook. One of the things that burned me up about Kurtz's book The New Humanism (at least I think that was the title) was his rhetorical maneuvers against capitalism. After going on and on about all the flaws in theistic thought, he then describes free-market economics (as well as Ayn Rand's objectivism) as a "religion"! Although he also criticizes Marxism, he doesn't call it a religion, even though it's based completely on faith and refusal to acknowledge facts or reality. If Kurtz actually bothered to study economics, he'd see that capitalism truly is based on the objective study of social reality. To borrow from the motto of a few of my favorite FReepers, it assumes that the world is the way it is, and not how we wish it to be. Kurtz and those of a like mind have precisely the opposite philosophy-they want the world to be what they want it to be, instead of the way it is.

[RightWingAtheist]

ABC News: Your source for paranormal fringe science and the latest Kerry propaganda material.

There's a difference?

No.

[nmh]

"Not to bust your rant, but the gifts were sent AFTER he had devuldged all the information."

No problem. If you wish to believe this nonsense, go right ahead. The whole thing is ridiculous and I didn't see in the article that the gifts were sent AFTER he devulged this.

[nmh]

"Why? If reincarnation is the transmigration of the soul or ego, a particle of individual consciousness, from one body to another, then the recollections would fade as the ego of the new body becomes more established."

That's not what I have read on this topic. Furthermore what I have read on this topic only suggests other forces are at work but not reincarnation. IT is an interesting topic and why I read up on it.

[Cvengr]

I refer to the either-or positions,.. "either Elijah reincarnated or Jesus Christ was a liar",...I find both positions to be false.

Where in Scripture do you find Elijah's soul and spirit to have been separated from his body?

[Howlin]

Well, that's what you get for using only once source for information.

[nmh]

"Not to bust your rant, but the gifts were sent AFTER he had devuldged all the information."

Really?

Here's what the article 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."

Now just how would these folks KNOW to send that to this toddler if parents hadn't enhanced his imagination through research and picked someone out? Honestly. I can believe how easily people are snookered. All this kid had was an active imagination. But hey, if you want to believe this, go right ahead!

[Cvengr]

"Buddhism which is far older than Christianity"

Sortof hard to outdate eternity past and all of human history even before Adam. Even the Israelites worked through the Lord, the same person as the Son of God, when dealing with the Shekinah Glory in the Tabernacle.

[nmh]

Ever hear of the Bible? The Jewish historian or archaeological evidence that supports what is written in the Bible as well as what historians of that time wrote.

There is a huge difference between that and a little boy with an overly active imagination being fed by parents.

[Howlin]

Hello?????

The Leiningers wrote a letter to Huston's sister, Anne Barron, about their little boy.

Now, how could they have written to her BEFORE they found out who "James" was.

They found HER at the end of their investigation.

Honestly, I can't believe how POSITIVE you are that there is no afterlife.

[dixie sass]

I can't get it to play on windows

[dixie sass]

Ummmmm, okay. Interesting.