Community Address

CHILDRENS PAST LIFE

MEMORIES AND HEALING
by Carol Bowman

ABSTRACT
Young children all over the world have spontaneous memories of previous lives, regardless of the religious beliefs of the parents. Its a natural
phenomenon. Children usually begin speaking of when they were big before or when they died around the age of three, and may
speak of their memories for a period of a few years. Many of the memories children recall are of traumatic deaths, which may continue
to affect a child in their present life as phobias and other emotional problems. By combining what Ive learned from collecting my own
cases of childrens past life memories for more than twenty years, and from the large body of research of spontaneous past life memories
from Dr. Ian Stevenson, with the healing model of past life therapy with adults, I derive a method of healing traumatic past life memories
as they emerge spontaneously in early childhood. By studying the cases of children who speak with conviction of their other lives, we
also observe that many aspects of the childs present personality have carried forward intact from the past life: behaviors, emotions,
phobias, talents, knowledge, the quality of relationships, and even physical symptoms. The fact that these personality traits carry forward
suggests a new way of looking at personality formation and a theory of personality that spans lifetimes. The childrens cases also add an
important piece to the metaphysical discussion of the survival of consciousness after death, because it is clear from the cases that some form
of personal consciousness continues from one life to another.

Keywords: childrens past lives, reincarnation, past life memories, healing past lives, Carol Bowman, Dr. Ian Stevenson, James Leininger,
soul survivor, return from heaven

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 39

oung children have spontaneous memories of

their previous lives. It is a natural phenomenon
observed in children all over the world, regardless of
their parents beliefs. Some young children start
talking about their other families, spouses, children,
what they did before, and how they died soon after they
begin talking. These matter-of-fact statements made
by such young children can be quite shocking to an
adult who knows the child. Even if a child doesnt
speak directly about a previous life, the memories can
manifest as behaviors, phobias, unlearned abilities,
talents, wisdom almost any aspect of a childs
personality. The explicit memories and statements
generally fade by the age of seven.
There are many advantages to be gained from studying
these memories. As you read each of the cases here, I
invite you to keep three ideas in mind and reflect on
their implications. First, these memories offer us the
purest evidence for the continuation of a personal
consciousness after death. This is empirical evidence
that can be validated and examined. Second, we can
see that many types of personality traits carry over
intact from one lifetime to another. This offers an
expanded explanation for the origins of personality that
stretches beyond the limits of heredity and
environmental conditioning. And, when you see it, its
logical and makes sense.
Third and this is where my work diverges from others
in this small field when children talk about traumatic
past life memories, especially their deaths, it is a
precious opportunity for healing past life wounds to
the soul. It is the time early in life when patterns or
issues brought forward from past lives can be healed,
resolved, and corrected so they are not carried into
adulthood or into future lives.

DISCOVERING PAST LIVES

Until I experienced this phenomenon in my own
children in 1988, I had no idea that children could
remember their previous lives. I was a believer in
reincarnation. My belief came from a direct experience
of heightened awareness that I experienced as a college
student in Boston in the late 1960s. I realized that we

dont die, that some part of our consciousness continues

after death. I wasnt sure how this affected me in my
present, personal, day-to-day existence, though. It
wasnt until I became very ill that this question took on
real and immediate significance.
I developed chronic lung problems pneumonia,
pleurisy, asthma in my mid-thirties. During the
height of my illness, I had a lucid waking vision: I saw
myself as an adult male in his mid-thirties, lying in bed,
coughing up blood. I knew it was I who was dying
of consumption. In my vision I even saw a procession
of mourners and a horse-drawn carriage from a vantage
point above the treetops, and I knew I was witnessing
my own funeral from above and out of that body. The
vision was so real, and its message so meaningful, it
scared me. I wondered if I were destined to again die
young from the same lung ailments, leaving a husband
and young children behind.
As fate would have it, soon after this vision I met past
life therapist Norman Inge. My two-hour session with
Norman changed my life. In the regression session I
saw in more detail, with strong emotions, the
nineteenth-century life in which I died of
consumption, and a World War II life in which I was
a young mother who died in a Nazi gas chamber. In
both lives I died from trauma to the lungs. After reliving these traumatic deaths, and understanding the
context of these lives and deaths, I started getting
better. My illness went into remission. Also, I saw the
seeds of my early personality and scenes from my
childhood in a new light: childhood dreams, waking
visions, phobias, an early interest in the piano, unusual
childhood games, and certainly my lung problems all
related directly to the lives I recalled in the regression
session. I saw that I carried residues of the past life
experiences throughout my life, which I had only
glimpses of in childhood. Through the regression, I
was able to finally let go of the grief, sadness, anger, and
shock that I had been carrying in my body and soul
from those two deaths.
A year after my regression session, my five-year-old son,
Chase, (Figure 1) developed a phobia of loud booming

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 40

Three weeks later, we went to a municipal indoor

swimming pool for the first time. When we entered the
building we heard loud booming sounds as people
jumped on the diving board and the sound reverberated
off the walls. Again, Chase became hysterical and
pulled me out of the building. At this point I realized
it was the booming sounds that deeply frightened him.
I asked him about it, but he really couldnt answer me
through his sobs. I couldnt think of anything in Chases
short life, or even my pregnancy with him, that could
cause such a pronounced fear of these sounds. Also, I
was a little concerned because he was due to start
kindergarten in a few weeks. I could imagine them
calling me from school and saying, Could you please
take your son home. Hes hysterical and we cant calm
him down. I had no idea what to do.

Figure 1. Chase at the age when his memories emerged

sounds. He was a lively, fearless child, and the phobia

seemed to come out of nowhere. We became aware of
it at a Fourth of July fireworks display in Asheville,
North Carolina, where we lived at the time. On that
particular evening, as we sat atop the sloping hills of
the municipal golf course, we saw people sprawled on
blankets on the hills below. Since we had taken Chase
to other fireworks displays before, we were surprised
when he became hysterical as the loud booming sounds
began to reverberate around the hills of Asheville. He
was so distraught that I had to take him home and leave
my husband and daughter behind. It took me about an
hour to calm him down by holding him and rocking
him on our back porch.
I was puzzled by Chases unusual behavior. I reasoned that
he must have been overly stimulated from the days
activities with our friends and their children, or he had
overdosed on sugar. Things like this happen with children,
so I filed it away in my mind as a curious anomaly.

A couple of weeks later, Norman Inge, the

hypnotherapist who had regressed me a year before,
was visiting us in Asheville to work with a number of
my friends, including my medical doctor, who were all
intrigued by my rapid and total recovery from my
illness. They wanted to try past life regression.
One afternoon during Normans visit, Chase, my
nine-year-old daughter, Sarah, and I were sitting
around the kitchen table having tea and cookies with
Norman. It occurred to me that since Norman was a
hypnotherapist, perhaps he could give Chase a posthypnotic suggestion so the loud booming sounds
wouldnt trigger such fear in him. I had absolutely no
idea what we were getting into when Chase agreed to
let Norman help him with his fear.
Norman simply said to Chase, Sit on your Mom's lap,
close your eyes and tell me what you see when you hear
the loud sounds that scare you.
Immediately Chase said, I am a man. I'm a soldier. I
have a dirty uniform on. I'm holding a gun with a long
sword at the end. I'm crouching behind a rock. I'm
scared, confused. There's smoke everywhere. I don't
even know who I'm shooting at.
I think I went into a mild state of shock at that

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 41

moment; we were in new territory. My little boy, who

never played war games, and didnt even own a toy
gun, was talking about a soldier. It didnt compute.
My mind was quickly scanning everything Chase may
have been exposed to on TV, in the movies, or from his
playmates to explain what was happening. I was a
stay-at-home mother and knew much of what Chase
had been exposed to. The only television our kids
were allowed to watch was Sesame Street and Mr.
Rogers. I was trying to figure out where he could have
gotten this which Sesame Street episode was this?
Which Disney movie?
Norman, who had many years of experience doing past
life regression therapy with adults, immediately sensed
Chase was accessing some past life material. Norman
knew what to do. He encouraged the flow of Chases
memory by asking open-ended questions, saying to
him, Well, then what happens?
Chase said, Im behind a rock, I'm scared and
confused. All of a sudden I'm hit in the wrist. Chase
clutched his right wrist.

on earth. We take turns playing different parts, like

actors in a play. We learn what it means to be human
by playing these different parts. Sometimes we are
soldiers and kill others in a battle, and sometimes we
are killed. We are simply playing our parts to learn. I
wondered if Chase could understand these concepts. I
was reassured as I felt his body relaxing as he sat on my
lap. The distressed look on his face melted away.
Normans words seemed to be helping.
Norman said, Then what happens?
Chase continued, They bandage my wrist and they
made me go back into battle. I'm walking back to
battle. There are chickens on the road. I see a cannon
on a wagon. The cannon is tied down with ropes. The
wagon has big wheels and is pulled by a horse. As
Chase is describing what he is seeing, Im trying to
figure out what war this may have been, when they
used horses and wagons.
He continued, They make me go behind the cannon.
And with that he opened his eyes, hopped off my lap,
grabbed a cookie, and ran off to play with his Legos.

Then what happens?

I black out.
happens?

Norman continued, Then what

They took me to a hospital, but it's not like a regular

hospital. There are big poles in the ground with some
material covering them. They put me on a bed, but
it's not like a regular bed. It's a hard wooden bench.
They bandage my wrist, and they tell me I have to go
back to battle. I don't want to go. I don't want to be
there shooting at other people. I don't want to kill
anyone. I miss my wife and family.
At this point, the hair on my arms stood on end. Its
quite startling hearing your five-year-old talk about his
wife and family.
Norman quickly picked up on Chases confusion and
anguish. He intervened and in very simple language
Norman said to Chase, We live many different lives

I was stunned. Norman reassured me that Chase was

probably remembering a past life a battle memory
that had been triggered by the loud booming sounds of
the fireworks. He said, Lets just see what happens, if
Chases fear goes away.
My daughter, Sarah, who was sitting with us and
closely following Chases story piped in: Mom, that
place where Chase said he was shot in his wrist thats
where his eczema is! I think I was so shocked by what
I was hearing that I hadnt made the connection. But
Sarah had. Since Chase was a baby, hed had chronic
and severe eczema on the inside of his right wrist, the
same spot where he said he was shot in battle. He
would scratch the eczema so relentlessly at night that it
would bleed. I learned to bandage his wrist at night so
I wouldn't have to wash the blood from his sheets every
morning. I thought this was very interesting, indeed.
Chase remembered how they had bandaged his wrist
before he went back to battle an interesting overlay of

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 42

events. Chase appeared to have a somatic memory of

that battlefield injury, as well as a visual and emotional
memory.
The upshot of this fifteen-minute or so episode in my
kitchen was that within a few days his chronic eczema
disappeared. I was surprised, because I had taken him
to several doctors for the eczema, and we had tried
homeopathy, food elimination diets, and antibiotic
creams. Nothing had worked. The eczema had not
responded to any medical treatment. But after the
recollection, the eczema completely disappeared.
A few weeks later, Chase asked for his first drum set for
his sixth birthday. From that point on, he made large
booming sounds all of the time. Now, at age twentyseven, he is a professional drummer, among other
things. Looking back, it is ironic that the source of
his greatest fear as a child is now the source of his
greatest delight.
I was still reeling from Chases extraordinary
experience, when Sarah asked Norman if he could help
her with her fear of fire. We first became aware of
Sarahs phobia a year before when she spent the night
at a friends house and they watched a movie with a
large explosion and fire scene in it. Sarah became
hysterical. Her friends mother brought her home late
at night explaining that Sarah wouldnt calm down.
We were very puzzled by her strong reaction. Sarah
was an active, confident girl and this was out of
character for her. When we asked her about it, she
said that she had always been terrified of fire, and
actually hid a little bag under her bed with her favorite
dolls and some clothes, which she would grab in case
our house caught on fire. That was also a surprise!
Norman used the same technique with Sarah. As she
sat at the kitchen table, he instructed her to close her
eyes and tell us what she saw when she felt the fear of
fire. Immediately, nine-year-old Sarah described herself
as an older girl, around twelve years old, who was in a
simple wooden house along a dirt road. She said she
didnt go to school because they didnt believe that girls
needed education. She said she had a brother who

was disabled in some way, who couldnt help around

the farm.
Norman encouraged Sarah to move ahead to the time
when the fear of fire started.
Sarahs perspective immediately shifted. She spoke with
great fear in her voice in the first-person, present tense.
She told us that she woke up suddenly and smelled
smoke. She knew the house was on fire and panicked.
She ran out of the room looking for her parents and
couldnt find them. Suddenly the bottom of her
nightgown caught fire as flames came up through the
floor. She was trapped. Sarah was completely engaged
in the memory. She cried with deep anguish and asked,
Why dont they save me? Why dont they get me out?
She said she knew she was about to die.
Suddenly, she was calm. I could see her body relax.
She reported that she felt herself floating above the
treetops, feeling lighter, relieved that the life was over.
She could see her house below and saw that her parents
were crying and waving frantically at the house. In that
moment, she began to cry again. She now understood
that her parents had really loved her, and had tried to
save her but couldnt. She said that she carried the false
belief that they hadnt loved her into this life. With
that realization, Sarah became peaceful.
A few days later, Sarah unpacked the bag with her dolls
and clothes that she kept under her bed. Her
irrational fear of fire went away.
That day changed my life, too. I became obsessed with
understanding what happened to my children, and
wondered if other children had these memories too. If
so, had other children experienced healings by talking
about them?
Within weeks after my childrens amazing experiences,
we became very busy and involved in a move from
Asheville to suburban Philadelphia. Even though I was
completely intrigued by their memories, I was too busy
to think much about it as we adjusted to our new lives
in our new home.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 43

Six months after we moved, Chase and I were eating

breakfast alone. As he was spooning his cereal he said,
Mom, remember when I was a soldier?
He had my full attention. I said, Yes.
He said, I talked funny.
I said, What do you mean you talked funny? Did you
speak English?
He said, Yes. You know how some black people talk?
Well, I was black. That was it. He had an abstracted,
faraway look on his face while he was remembering
this, then he went back to eating his cereal.
I thought about this afterwards, and realized that Chase
hadnt known any African-Americans in Asheville and
had only recently been exposed to the cultural diversity
of Philadelphia. I also thought it was oddly amusing
that in this life Chase is a red-haired, very whiteskinned person. He was the kid at the swimming pool
who had to wear a t-shirt and be smeared with sun
screen from head to toe.
He didn't say a word about his memory again for a while,
until the first Iraq war started in 1991. He was then seven
and in second grade. I picked him up from school one
day and he seemed very upset. I asked him what was
wrong. He said, They're putting yellow ribbons all over
the school because of the war. Mom, they have no idea
what war is really like. Theyll never make me fight again!
He told me that more of his memory of being a soldier
was coming up again. I asked him if he wanted to talk
about it when we got home. He agreed. By that time,
I had begun my training in hypnotherapy and past life
therapy. I felt I was ready for whatever might come up
with Chase.
When we got home, I said, Just close your eyes, Chase,
and tell me what you see, what you're feeling. This
was more than two years after his first spontaneous
recollection. I grabbed a pad so I could record what
he was recalling verbatim. He went back to exactly the
same scene had had described when he was five, as a

soldier crouching behind a rock with his rifle. He

remembered the injury to his wrist, the field hospital,
his gun, and the cannon being pulled by a horse on a
dusty road. He even remembered the chickens walking
on the road. I was curious and asked him, What do
you remember before the war? He described himself
as being a free (his word) black man who made pots
in a town called something like Collosso. (We were
never able to determine where that was.) He
remembered his wife, who wore petticoats (a word I
didnt think he knew), and who always wore a kerchief
around her head. He remembered his children. When
I asked him when this was, he said, Eighteen-sixtysomething.
He went through the story, and when he got to the
point where he said, They order me back into battle
behind the cannon, this time he continued with his
recollection: Suddenly I'm floating above the
battlefield. I feel good that Im done. I see the battle
and smoke below. As I look down on the battlefield
everything is still and smoky nothing is moving
down there. I feel happy that Im done. I get to go
to a happier life. I float over my house. I see my wife
and kids. I say good-bye to my family. They dont see
me because Im in spirit [his word], but they know
Im dead.
I asked Chase what he learned from his lifetime as a
soldier. His answer amazed me: Everyone has to be
in a war. It balances everything out. Not necessarily
die in a war, but experience it. It teaches you about
feelings. It gives you a sense of how other people feel.
Its a bad place. I skipped World War II. I was up. I
was waiting for my turn to go back to a more peaceful
time. I had a short life in between.
After that, Chase seemed at peace with his Civil War
memory.
He seemed to have closure after
remembering his death and saying good-bye to his
family. And the strong emotions around that event
didnt surface again. About six months after his last
recollection he came to me and said that his memories
of the battle were beginning to fade, and that he
wanted to draw what he recalled so he could remember

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 44

Figure 2. Chases drawing of an aerial view of the battlefield where he died

it. To this day, he still has a visual memory of that

battlefield. (Figures 2-6)
In 1994, when Oprah did a show on childrens past
lives, her staff hired a Civil War historian to see if they
could establish Chases identity in that life. Since
Chase didnt remember his name, they couldnt. But
Figure 3. Chases drawings of his wounded wrist and the hospital
where he was taken when wounded in battle

one historian contacted me and told me that based on

Chases aerial diagram of the battlefield, he thought the
battle had been near Richmond, possibly. He said that
there were black regiments fighting in that area, too.

PAST LIFE PATTERNS

I began my research on childrens past life memories
after Chase and Sarahs experiences. This was in 1988,
pre-Internet days. I began by asking parents in our
Asheville community, at my kids schools. I got a few
stories from mothers I knew. They said their childrens
remarks were so unusual, that they had never forgotten
them. They suspected they might be past life
Figure 4. Archival photo of a Civil War field hospital

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 45

Figure 6. Archival photo of a Civil War artillery transport

Figure 5. Chases drawing of a cannon being

pulled on a horse-drawn wagon

memories, but had never heard of this phenomenon

before. I needed more cases. I placed reader ads asking
for cases in the A.R.E. magazine (The Edgar Cayce
Institute) and in Mothering magazine. I wrote an
article for the A.R.E. magazine and one for The
Journal of Regression Therapy.
I started getting letters from parents all over the
country who believed their young children were
currently talking about previous lives, or had done so
in the past. I followed up on the phone with the
parents who contacted me. Most of them had never
believed in reincarnation before, but were left
wondering if reincarnation was the explanation for
what they were witnessing after their children talked
about when I was big before, or when I died.
They were relieved to talk to me and find out that
their childrens experiences were not a sign of mental
illness, that other parents were experiencing this with
their children, too. They felt reassured that they were
not alone. And they were most grateful for any
guidance in how to respond to these memories and
help their children.

As I collected more and more of these stories, I found

some common patterns to these memories, which I
distilled into The Four Signs in my first book,
Childrens Past Lives.
They are:
1. Matter-of-fact tone
2. Consistency of story over time
3. Knowledge beyond experience
4. Corresponding behavior and traits
When children talk about these memories these are
mostly two-, three-, and four-year-olds, some still in
diapers they have a very matter-of-fact tone of voice.
They are unusually serious and may even sound more
grown up. They are insistent that what they are
relating actually happened to them. When a puzzled
adult questions them and asks, Did this happen on
TV? They will say, No, to me. The most noticeable
statements are about those things that such a young
child couldnt possibly know from their own limited
experience. Or, most telling, a child will make direct
statements about when I died.
Some children may make only one statement about a
previous life. Or, they will talk about it repeatedly over
days, months, or even a few years. I found it
fascinating that the details of Chases story remained
consistent over a period of about two and a half years.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 46

The core of the story never changed. I have found this

with many other cases as well. As children develop
more vocabulary, they elaborate on the story, reflecting
their increased vocabulary and language skills, but the
core of the story remains the same.
Children also have personality traits, behaviors, skills,
phobias relating to their past life story. In Chases case,
he had a phobia relating to his battlefield experience,
and he was never interested in playing war games or
with toy guns. Sarah had a phobia of house fires and
took the precaution of preparing a bag with essentials
in case she had to escape quickly.
Sometimes children will actually have a physical
correspondence, or a body memory, that corresponds
to the past life story, as with Chases eczema on the site
of his battle wound. You will see more examples in the
following cases.
In the more striking cases of childrens memories, there
are usually more than one sign present. For example,
along with the statements, the child will exhibit
behaviors or have emotions relating to the memory
they speak of. And, it can work in reverse: a child may
have a phobia of water, will not go near it, or will have
breathing difficulties, but will not make any statements
about a previous life. In these cases, some gentle
probing may elicit a past life story.

PAST LIFE HEALING

Because I had my own physical and emotional healing
as the result of a past life regression before my childrens
memories emerged, I recognized the healing potential
of past life memories for children. But I wondered,
why were none of the professionals in the field of past
life therapy writing about this? I read all of the best
books on regression therapy with adults. In many
published case studies, psychiatrists and psychologists
demonstrated how current emotional and physical
problems could be resolved by accessing past life
memories and processing them with the patient. Some
of these memories emerged spontaneously, some
through hypnosis during the course of therapy.

Here is how past life healing works. As my teacher and

friend Roger Woolger writes, We come into each life
with unfinished business of the soul. Most often, the
unfinished business relates to past life trauma, when
the impressions of feelings, thoughts, and even physical
injury get locked into place in our souls, our energy
bodies, and are carried forward into our current lives.
The beauty is that once the past life story becomes
conscious, and the circumstances of that life
understood, the energy frozen in the trauma is released,
changing us and healing us in the present.
The most debilitating issues in the present stem from
past life trauma and tragedy. But there is also great
benefit in remembering more benign and ordinary past
lives in which we honed talents or gained wisdom and
compassion. Bringing positive memories to the surface
can re-energize these talents and wisdom.
The same principles worked with my own children.
After accessing and processing their past life traumas,
their phobias went away. And, in Chases case, his
eczema, which related to his battlefield injury, healed.

DR. IAN STEVENSON

While I was pondering how childrens past life
memories could heal, I discovered the work of Dr. Ian
Stevenson. I felt I had struck gold.
Dr. Stevenson was the former Chairman of the
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia
Medical School. In the early 1960s he gave up his
prestigious position to investigate cases of children's
spontaneous past life memories and other paranormal
phenomena. For more than 40 years Dr. Stevenson
traveled around the world rigorously documenting
between 2,500 and 3,000 cases of young children who
had spontaneous recall of other lives. I emphasize
rigorously because he was a brilliant man who was
preparing these cases to present to his scientific peers.
He knew his work would be carefully scrutinized, so
he was careful to cover all bases with his methodologies
and explore all possible alternative explanations for
what he was finding.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 47

Most of the cases Dr. Stevenson investigated were from

Asia, in cultures that believed in reincarnation. Because
there was a cultural belief that this could happen, these
cases were more likely to be noticed, discussed, or
reported. They are also his strongest cases, because
Asian children remember more specific detail: their
former names, where they had lived, and they
recognized people they had formerly known. Because
their memories were so detailed and specific, the child's
former identity could be verified in more than seven
hundred cases.
From this sample of cases, Dr. Stevenson found
recurring patterns. The most obvious was the young
age at which children talked about past lives.
Generally, these memories are most vivid between the
ages of two and five. Cross-culturally, regardless of the
parents beliefs, these memories tend to fade around
the age of seven. (I have found this to be true in
American children, too.)
Since Dr. Stevenson could verify the childs former
identity in some cases, the surviving relatives confirmed
that the present child had behaviors corresponding to
the person whose life they remembered. It wasnt just
statements about that life it was also behaviors, some
of which were specific and quirky. Some children
would implore their parents to go back to their other
home because they missed their families. In some
cases, Dr. Stevenson or the families would accompany
the child. The child would lead them to a particular
house. The child would then comment on changes to
the house that occurred after their death, correctly
identify former relatives, even using their pet names or
nicknames not known outside the family. They would
ask for their former belongings a pair of blue jeans
purchased before their death, or a prized Rolex watch.
(If this sounds familiar, each new incarnation of the
Dalai Lama is determined by testing several young
candidates past life memories. They see if the young
child can correctly identify people and possessions
known to the former Dalai Lama.)
One striking pattern in Dr. Stevensons research is that
75% of the children talked about their past life deaths.

Of those, 51% remembered dying traumatically, and

35% had phobias relating to the way they died. This
not only confirmed what I found with my own
children, it also conformed with what past life
therapists were finding: a traumatic death leaves deep
emotional, mental, and physical impressions on the
reincarnating soul, deep enough to manifest in a future
life.
Most astounding, though, was that Dr. Stevenson
found a physical correspondence between lifetimes. In
1997, he published a weighty, two-volume, 2,200page tome called Reincarnation and Biology. In this
work, Dr. Stevenson documents 225 cases of
birthmarks and birth defects on children that
corresponded to fatal wounds, injuries, or illnesses of
the person the children remembered being in their
former life. These children gave enough specific detail
about their former lives (proper names, locations,
descriptions of their deaths) that their former identities
could be verified. When Dr. Stevenson checked police
or autopsy reports of the deceased, he found a direct
correspondence between the site of fatal wounds and
injuries to present physical symptoms or birthmarks.
Some of these birthmarks were multiple, corresponding
to gunshot or stab wounds from the previous life. In
19 of these cases, when a child remembered dying of a
gunshot wound, the present child would have two
birthmarks (round, pigmented areas) corresponding to
the entry and exit wounds of the bullets.
Through this monumental work, Dr. Stevenson has
provided physical evidence for the validity of these
memories. Dr. Stevenson summarized his findings in
a very readable, shorter volume: Where Reincarnation
and Biology Intersect, which was also published in
1997. I encourage anyone with a serious interest in
reincarnation to read this extraordinary work.
Someone at the 2010 ISSSEEM Conference suggested
to me that there could be a super-psi explanation for
these memories. Perhaps children are tapping into an
existing energy field coded with this information, the
personal imprint of the life of a deceased person. This
might be an explanation if a child made only statements

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 48

about the life of a deceased person, providing factual

information. But when a child makes verifiable
statements about the life of a particular deceased person,
and has corresponding behaviors and has a birthmark
relating to the way they died in the past, I believe
reincarnation is the best explanation. There must be
some mechanism an encoded energy field, an auric
body, or an etheric body that maintains the
impressions from one life to another. The mechanism
is mysterious. But we dont have to prove the
mechanism in order to recognize the fact that there is a
constellation of characteristics relating to the deceased
which suggests that an intact consciousness carries
forward from one life to another. What should we call
it? I call it reincarnation, an old and useful term.
With all of the stunning evidence Dr. Stevenson found,
he never publicly stated that all of these cases were proof
of reincarnation. Instead, he would say they were
evidence for or suggestive of reincarnation.
Through a series of synchronicities, I met Dr.
Stevenson in Charlottesville in 1998 after my first
book was published. His research associate, Dr. Jim
Tucker, (who has since taken over Dr. Stevenson's
research after his death), married an old friend of
mine, Chris, from Asheville. It was Chris who told
Jim about my book, and gave a copy to Dr. Stevenson.
When they invited me to visit them in Charlottesville,
I was absolutely thrilled. There I was, without any
scientific qualifications, finally meeting the man whose
work I most admired. I had been reading and studying
his cases for years.
In my first meeting with Dr. Stevenson, in the first few
minutes, I asked him a question that had puzzled me,
and I had been burning to ask: Dr. Stevenson, in all of
your research, you never mention anything about
healing. He looked at me sternly and directly and
said, There is no evidence for it. You can never prove
that there is a direct cause and effect.
I said, Well, actually there is evidence for it. I
proceeded to tell him about some of my cases that
were not in my book. I proposed that spontaneous

past life memories can be opportunities for healing

past life trauma, if the memories are acknowledged
and processed. Past life trauma manifests in very
much the same way as post traumatic stress disorder
from a present-life trauma. So, in a real sense, young
children may suffer from post traumatic stress
disorder but from a previous life. If thats the case,
why not treat it so?
In the following few years, I had the opportunity to
accompany Dr. Stevenson and Jim Tucker on field
investigations of some of my best cases that I shared
with them. In my conversations with Dr. Stevenson,
he would never acknowledge a correlation between
healing and past life awareness. He dismissed the
validity of past life regression with adults, although I
assured him I was walking proof of it.
I found it puzzling that he was immersed in evidence
that children could have spontaneous memories, but
concluded that adults couldnt access these memories
through hypnosis, meditation, or a focused state of
awareness. I saw that some children seemed to go into
a light trance state an altered state of awareness
when they remembered. Why couldnt adults?
I have seen many cases in my twenty-two years as a past
life therapist with adults in which the past life memories
that first emerged spontaneously in childhood, that were
not resolved in childhood, continued to affect the person
throughout their adult life. These unresolved issues
from previous lives created patterns that persisted from
childhood into adulthood.
I came to realize that Dr. Stevenson didnt need to cloud
his research by introducing the question as to whether or
not these memories could heal. He applied his expertise
and brilliant mind to the sole objective of gathering
empirical evidence of childrens past life memories that
could verified through his investigative techniques. He
established a correspondence between personality traits
and even physical imprints that carried over from one
life to another. He has left us a mighty legacy. I have the
utmost respect for him, and what he did. Without his
work, I wouldnt have a foundation for my work.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 49

BLAKES TRAUMATIC DEATH

As I delved more deeply into the cases, I merged my
observations of how past lives of adults and children can
heal with Dr. Stevensons findings of the patterns in
childrens spontaneous memories, especially the
preponderance of memories of traumatic death. I realized
that it might be possible to heal childrens spontaneous
memories of traumatic past life deaths. But in the first
few years of my research, I had no way to test my ideas.
Then in 1992 I got a call from a mother in Chicago,
Colleen Hocken, whose son was having what she believed
were past life memories that were deeply troubling him.
Colleen, a mother of three, saw my classified ad in
Mothering Magazine and hoped that I could give her the
help she needed. She told me her story.
When her middle son, Blake, had just turned three,
(Figure 7) he told her he had been hit by a truck, after
seeing a garbage truck passing their house. Colleen
assumed he was confused and meant a child had hit
him with a toy truck in pre-school. When she
questioned him, he said, No, a real truck. The truck
hurt me. Then he started holding his left ear.
It just so happened that the previous day Colleen had
seen Dr. Brian Weiss on Oprah, and Brian made one
statement saying that sometimes children remember
previous lives. This was just the day before. Recalling
this remark, Colleen opened her mind, listened
carefully, and asked Blake questions. She asked him
what had happened.

Figure 7. Blake Hocken around the age his memory emerged

Colleen said that she noticed Blakes behavior changed

radically after he talked about being hit by the truck, but
she didnt attribute this change to what he had told her.
He had become depressed, lost interest in playing, and
complained about aches and pains on the left side of his
body. When Colleen tried to comfort Blake, he would
push her away and say, I love you. I hate you. She took
Blake to the doctor, but there was nothing physiologically
wrong with him. Colleen tried to give Blake extra
attention, thinking he felt neglected as the middle child.
She felt guilty and considered taking him to therapy.

He told her he went under the wheels of the truck,

indicating with a wave of his hand down the left side of
his body, thats where he had been struck. She asked,
Then what happened? He said, They took me to
this big building. When she asked again, What
happened? He said, I died.

It wasnt until some months later, when the family took

a trip to London, that Colleen started piecing things
together. While in London, they were stopped at a
busy intersection. Blake was in a stroller. Suddenly,
he jumped up out of the stroller and walked into the
path of an oncoming truck. Fortunately, the driver was
able to stop in time, and Blakes father grabbed him by
his collar and pulled him off the street.

Colleen asked, Where were mommy and daddy when

this happened? He said, Gone bye-bye at the store.
Colleen didnt know what to make of this, and hoped
that Blake would forget it. But a week or so later when
a garbage truck passed by he told her the story again.

At that moment something clicked in Colleen. She

wondered if Blakes statements about being hit by a
truck had anything to do with this event. She
wondered if this was some type of repetition from a
previous life. And, if so, what could she do about it?

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 50

When she returned from London she saw my ad in

Mothering and immediately called me.

Blake was relaxed, right before bedtime. I said to him,

Blake, you were hit by a truck, right? He said, Yes.

Here was the opportunity I had been waiting for. I was

going to put everything I had been learning to the test.
I told Colleen what I had learned from my experiences
with my own children, and the other mothers I had
talked to. I explained that children carry beliefs and
feelings with them from their previous lives into the
present.
Children experience a continuum of
consciousness from death through rebirth. To a very
young child, a past life memory feels and appears to be
the same as something that happened days or weeks ago.
They cant distinguish past from present. Part of their
consciousness is still stuck in the past life trauma; they
dont know they have made a transition into another body.

She continued, That was a different life. You were in a

different body and you had a different mommy. As she
said this, Colleen reported that for the first time in months
Blakes face lit up. He said, I had a different body? A
different mommy? He seemed genuinely surprised.

I asked her to tell me more about what Blake was

feeling. She said, I try to comfort him, but he pushes
me away. I thought back to my daughter Sarahs past
life memory. At the time of her death in a burning
house, she had falsely believed that her parents hadnt
loved her because they hadnt saved her from the fire.
She carried that anguish into this life. I explained
Sarahs experience to Colleen and suggested that Blake
might be confusing Colleen with the mother who had
left him to go to the store when he was hit by the truck.
He needed to know it wasnt Colleen who had left him.

She assured him, Yes, and now you're safe. Then she
named all the people in his present life: his brothers,
his relatives. She said his comprehension was
immediate. She felt something lift from Blake. The
next day Blake was back to his old smiley self as he had
been before he started remembering the accident. All
the aches and pains that he had been complaining
about on the left side of his body went away.
Colleen said, We got our Blake back.

I told Colleen to wait until she was alone with Blake

and he was relaxed, before bedtime, or at bath time. I
told her to acknowledge Blakes memory. Join his reality
and let him know that she knew he was hit by the truck.
Then let him know that he is now safe in a new body.
Blake needed to know that he had made the transition
into a new life and that he was now protected by her. I
imagined this may have sounded strange to Colleen.
But I assured her that by knowing this, she should use
her motherly instincts to find the right words to reassure
him. I prayed this would work, because I didnt know
what else Colleen could do. I couldnt imagine her
taking this to a traditional therapist.

Blakes case showed me that my model worked. When

a childs past life memory emerges spontaneously,
adults can help the child in the following ways:
1. ACKNOWLEDGE what the child is saying.
Even if youre not sure if this is a memory or fantasy,
dont dismiss any statements, or shut down the
conversation. Listen calmly. Ask open-ended
questions. This keeps the memory flowing.
2. DISCERN what the child may be trying to
express. Is this a benign memory, or a troubling one?
Listen carefully to see how this memory might be
affecting the childs current life.
3. If a traumatic memory comes up, allow the child
to EXPRESS the emotions with it, even if its
disturbing or intense. Be a calm and safe presence so
they can release feelings, if they need to. Most often,
though, children are very matter-of-fact in talking
about the past.
4. CLARIFY the difference between past and
present. As in Blakes case, an adults reassurance
that the life is over and that the child is now safe can
work wonders in helping a child let go of the past.

A week later, Colleen called and said, You won't believe

what happened. I did what you said. I waited until

When parents ask if its safe to engage in such a

conversation when a memory is emerging, I explain

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 51

that its more damaging not to acknowledge the

memory, which can confuse the child and denies the
child a chance to process it and let it go.
I gathered many other cases, and in 1994 I started
writing the book I couldnt find when I was trying to
understand what happened with my own kids.
Childrens Past Lives was published in 1997. It is now
translated into about 16 foreign languages. And,
because of the Internet, Ive been getting hundreds of
cases from all over the world. Each case is unique, but
I see the same patterns over and over. The general
model I wrote about still holds up.
I wasnt planning on writing another book. But shortly
after Childrens Past Lives was published, I got a
poignant case from a Chicago mother that convinced
me that there was another dimension to this
phenomenon that needed to be explored, and another
amazing story that needed to be told.

REINCARNATION IN THE SAME FAMILY

Kathy Luke was a teenage, single mother when her first
son, James, was born in March of 1978. Kathy was
estranged from Jamess father. When James was 16 months
old, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, and rapidly
became very ill. By April of 1980, he had 17 tumors in his
left leg, a large tumor behind his left eye which caused
opaqueness and blindness in that eye and distortion on the
left side of his face, and a tumor behind his right ear. When
he was in the hospital, doctors inserted an IV on the right
side of his neck which left a linear surgical scar.
After treating him in the hospital, the doctors told
Kathy to take him home. There was nothing more they
could do for him. Kathy was devastated. She lovingly
cared for her son. One day when two-year-old James
saw her crying he said to her, Momma, don't cry for
me. And then he died. Kathy honored her dying sons
wish and kept her grief bottled up inside.
After James died, Kathy married Don (not Jamess
father) and had a daughter, Katie. That marriage ended
after four years. She then married Billy. Finally, she was
in a good, stable relationship. They had a son, Josh.

Then Kathy became pregnant again in 1992. Twelve

years after James died, Kathy gave birth to a son, Chad,
by C-section. As she was waking up from the
anesthesia, the doctors walked into her room telling her
that they had some troubling news. After having lost
a child, Kathy assumed the worst. They informed her
that her son appeared to be blind in his left eye; there
was no color in it. When they brought the baby in for
Kathy to see, she immediately noticed what looked like
a linear, surgical scar on the right side of his neck, in the
same spot where James had an IV inserted while
undergoing treatment. The pediatrician assured her
that it was just a birthmark. But Kathy thought it
looked like a scar. She also noticed what appeared to
be a tumor behind his right ear, on the same spot where
doctors had performed a biopsy on James. The doctor
assured her that it was just a functional cyst that should
go away in a few weeks. Rhetorically, she said to the
doctors, How can this be? realizing that the blind left
eye, the birthmark on the right side of his neck, and
the cyst behind his right ear looked like the same
abnormalities that had been apparent on Jamess body
right before he died.
When Kathy held Chad for the first time, she felt an
ocean of relief wash over her. She said, It was as if a
great weight lifted from my soul. She felt a strong
bond with Chad, as if they had been connected before.
She could sense it and feel it. She hadnt felt that way
when her two other children had been born after Jamess
death. But she said when she held Chad for the first
time she had a feeling that went straight to her heart.
I knew he was James. It gave me so much comfort to
know that he had come back to me. These realizations
were coming from a woman who was raised in a strict,
religious, Baptist home in Americas Bible Belt, who had
never read any books about reincarnation. In fact, the
very concept of reincarnation was heretical to her faith.
She cautiously shared what she was seeing with her
husband Billy; he didnt know what to think. When
she shared this with her ex-husband, he told her she had
lost her mind. Kathy decided to keep this to herself.
She couldnt discuss it with her family because of their
strong religious beliefs. They would think she was mad.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 52

But when Chad was four years old, he shocked Kathy

by telling her he wanted to go back to his other
house. He described the apartment she had lived in
with James. Chad also asked for specific toys that had
belonged to James, which they didnt have in their
house. When Kathy asked Chad why he wanted to go
back to his other house, he said, Because I left you
there. This was the first indication that Chad knew
about Jamess life.
During the next couple of years, Chad occasionally
talked about the life of James. Kathy didnt question
him. She waited for him to bring it up. She didnt
want to influence him in any way. Besides, she had no
idea what to say to him. Once, when she brought out
a photo of James, one she had never shared with her
family, Chad got a shocked look on his face and said to
her, Ive been wishing for this picture. I want it
because its me.
Another time, Chad went up to his ten-year-old
brother and said, When I was two years old I got so
sick I couldnt keep 7Up down. Then I died and came
back. When I die again, Ill be back again. This sent
his brother running from the room! Kathy said no one
else knew about the 7Up. Chads statement was as
direct as it could be.
At about this time, Kathy found my book in a
bookstore and had a friend who owned a computer
contact me. When I first read her story, I was deeply
moved and excited. Here was a mother who was
convinced her dead son was back. Her feelings were
bolstered by evidence multiple physical symptoms
relating to her first childs death. I was eager to talk to
Kathy.
We talked on the phone frequently for the next year
and a half. Kathy reported each new statement Chad
made about Jamess life. I also asked her if she would
be willing to meet with Dr. Stevenson. I knew he
would relish the opportunity to investigate such an
intriguing multiple birthmarks case in the U.S. He and
Jim Tucker met with Kathy and her family and
documented the case.

Kathy and I discussed why James may have come back

to be with her again. Did he feel unfinished with his
life when he told Kathy he wanted to go back to her
former apartment because he left her there? We agreed
that souls sometimes return to be with the same family
because of strong bonds of love. Sometimes the soul
feels that theyre needed, they can help the family, or
they need to make amends. There could be many
reasons why the soul returns to be with the same people
especially if they die young. We also discussed the
possibility that the blindness in Chads eye, which had
no physiological basis, might be healed if Kathy talked
to Chad and explained to him that she knew he was
back, and that he was now in a new body. It had
worked in other cases. It was certainly worth a try, and
couldnt do any harm.
It took months for Kathy to muster the courage to talk
to Chad directly about his memories. She reported,
One evening I sat Chad down on my lap and said, I
dont know everything, but I know you were here
before and you were a very sick little boy. Then you
had to go away so you could come back in a healthy
body. Chad just sat and listened to me as I spoke.
Then his eyebrows lifted, his face lit up, and he
chirped, I know. Then he ran off to play. Thats all
there was to it.
Two days later, an excited Chad ran to Kathy and told
her that he could see out of his left eye. She tested him
by having him hold his hand over his right eye and
holding up her fingers. He correctly told her how
many fingers she was holding up. She tested him again
later that day. To her amazement, he could now see
something with his left eye. This was the first time he
had any vision in that eye. Kathy took Chad to the
ophthalmologist to have his eye tested. The doctor
noted a slight improvement.
To Kathy, any
improvement was cause for celebration.
The change in Chads vision gave Kathy
encouragement that her words had penetrated Chads
soul. She told me, I pray that both of our souls
continue healing. My ultimate desire is for Chads soul
to be at peace. In order for that to happen, there has

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 53

to be closure on the past for both of us. If he felt guilty

about leaving me or needed to know how sad I was
when he died, he now knows Im okay and hes loved.
It seems that healing the soul is like reading a book
slowly: You finish one chapter at a time.
Kathy noticed that she began feeling lighter. She told
me that she no longer carried that heavy load of guilt
about Jamess death. She was finally at peace. These
new feelings surprised her. She said that over the years
she had prayed to have James back as a healthy child,
to be given another chance to do it over. But now that
she knew that this was real, and that Jamess soul was
back, she felt her prayers had been answered, but not in
a way that she could have thought possible. This was
a true miracle.

RETURN FROM HEAVEN

After my experience with Kathy, I knew it was time to
write another book. I wondered how many other
families would be comforted to know that
reincarnation in the same family was possible. As soon
as I made the decision to write the book, the cases
began pouring in.
Return from Heaven was published in 2001. The book
is full of cases of families who recognize a young child
born into the family as a former relative who died
before the child was born. The child is identified
through direct statements he makes about the
deceaseds life, quirky behaviors (that cant be attributed
to heredity), and through birthmarks and physical
abnormalities that correspond to bodily trauma at the
time of death of their loved one (again, something that
cannot be attributed to heredity). For many members
of the family, it was a shock to realize this. This often
ran counter to their religious beliefs. Some family
members refused to believe it, even after a child made
startling statements about the deceaseds life that no
one had ever mentioned to the child.
In the last decade, since the publication of Return
From Heaven, I have collected more amazing cases of
reincarnation in the same family. Some are posted on
my website, www.reincarnationforum.com. When I

give lectures on the topic, invariably someone in the

audience gasps as they realize they may have a case in
their own family. It is confirming for them to hear that
they arent imagining things, that this is really possible.
It is most surprising (even to me) that reincarnation
can occur in less than nine months. The cases Ive
gotten have shown me that reincarnation can occur
quite soon (even the same day!) after death. This
observation challenges widely held assumptions that
there is a long or set interval between lives. It also
suggests that there is flexibility as to when the soul,
spirit, or consciousness joins the body.

ANOTHER JAMES
In 2000 I joined Drs. Stevenson and Tucker for a
follow-up visit to see Chad and his family in Chicago.
During our time in Chicago we discussed the mystery
as to why, based on the cases that were available, Asian
children remembered more specific details of their
previous lives than American children. We all agreed
on the importance of finding detailed American cases
that could be verified. We believed they existed, and
because of the rapid growth of the Internet, obtaining
them might become easier.
In 2002, I got a call from Shalini Sharma, a producer
at ABC News. Shalini, whose parents are from India
and who grew up in a Hindu household in the U.S.,
wanted to introduce Americans to reincarnation. She
was familiar with childrens cases, and thought that a
verifiable one would offer compelling evidence of
reincarnation to an American audience. She asked if I
had any cases of a child who remembered specific
details of dying in war. I scanned hundreds of cases
from my emails, and I found one from a year earlier
that looked promising.
The email from Andrea Leininger, a mother from
Louisiana, began like so many other emails I received:
I hope you don't think I'm a kook, but . . . Andrea
told me that her mother had just sent her Childrens Past
Lives because they believed her two-year-old son, James,
was having memories of a previous life. (Figure 8) One
of Jamess first words was airplane. Soon after that,

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 54

anytime he would see a plane he would say, airplane

crash. The only toys he wanted were airplanes, and he
seemed to have an uncanny knowledge about flying and
World War II airplanes.
When James was two and a half, he started waking up
screaming and thrashing from nightmares about his
plane crashing. He was having horrific nightmares
about three times a week. This had been going on for
months. When they asked him what kind of plane, he
always said, A Corsair. They didnt know what a
Corsair was, but when they looked it up they found it
was a plane used in World War II.
I replied to Andreas email and told her to read my
book, and suggested she engage James in conversation
about his plane crashing. I gave her my standard advice
about assuring him that he was now safe and that that
life was over. Since hers was like many other emails I
received, I didnt follow up. I assumed she would write
back if she had any success with James or had any
further questions.
When I eventually followed up with Andrea in 2002,
after Shalini contacted me, I learned that indeed a lot
had happened! Andrea reported that after she talked to
James about his nightmares, they diminished in
frequency from three times a week to one every two
weeks. But that wasnt the end of it. James talked more
and more about his life as a pilot. Bruce, Jamess father,
was skeptical. His strong religious faith wouldnt allow
him to believe that reincarnation was the explanation
for Jamess knowledge about World War II, or for his
nightmares. Andrea, on the other hand, felt that the
most logical explanation was that he was remembering
something painful that had happened to him in a
previous life. So, for the most part, it was Andrea who
talked to James about his memory.
She asked him if he remembered where his plane took
off. He said it took off of a boat. She asked if he
remembered the name of the boat. He told her it was
Natoma. Bruce, who was determined not to accept
a reincarnation as the explanation, started doing
research online. He found that there had been an

Figure 8. James Leininger, age 3

aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II, the

Natoma Bay. When they asked James if he
remembered his name, he would always say it was
James. When they asked if he remembered the names
of any of his friends, he said Jack Larsen. Bruce found
that there had been a Jack Larsen on the Natoma Bay.
This went on for a couple of years, and the case
progressed. James was remembering more and more
details about his life as a pilot. One day, Bruce had just
gotten a book about battles in World War II and
opened to an aerial shot of Iwo Jima. James, who was
sitting next to him, matter-of-factly said, Daddy, that's
where my plane went down. This was the moment
when Bruce became a believer. Something in him just
clicked. He got it on a visceral level.
James made many drawings of planes being shot down
by boats. In these chaotic, frenetic drawings there was
fire and enemy flak in the sky. He would sign his
drawings James 3. When his parents asked why he
signed his drawings in that way, he said, Because Im
the third James. (Figure 9)

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 55

Figure 9. This drawing of a plane being shot down is typical of the

many drawings James made when he was young. Note his James 3
signature, which he included in most of his drawings at that time.

Figure 10. James M. Huston, Jr., standing in front of a Corsair.

This photo was sent to the Leiningers by James Hustons
sister, Anne Barron.

Bruce was so intent on figuring out this mystery that he

went to a reunion of Natoma Bay veterans in the guise
of doing research for a book about the Natoma Bay. In
talking to one of the veterans, he found out that there
was one pilot who was shot down in the way James
described it near Iwo Jima. His name was James
Huston, Jr. (James said he was the third James!), whose
plane took a hit in the front and went down in the
ocean. James Huston died in 1945 at the age of 21.
James Huston also flew a Corsair. (Figure 10)
The pieces of the puzzle were rapidly falling into place.
The Leiningers found that James Huston had a sister,
Anne Barron, who was still alive and living in
California. They contacted her and were able to
corroborate specific details young James recalled of
James Hustons family life details only Anne Barron
knew. Anne sent the Leiningers photos of her brother.
There is a striking resemblance between the two boys.
(Figures 11 and 12)
Figure 11. James Huston and James Leininger

ABC Prime Time aired the Leiningers story in 2003 and

did a fabulous job of telling the story. In 2006, a Japanese
film crew saw the story and offered to fly the Leiningers to
Japan and have a memorial service where James Hustons
plane was shot down. The family and a film crew took a
boat to the site of the crash. When they arrived at the place

where James Hustons plane went down, eight-year-old

James burst into tears. He recovered enough to throw a
bouquet of flowers in the water. He said, Goodbye, James
M. Huston. Ill never forget you. Andrea told me that by
that point everyone on the boat was crying.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 56

Figure 12. James Leininger and James Huston around the same age.
Note the similarities in facial structure.

After the trip to Japan, James' memories started to fade,

and his drawings changed. Instead of boats firing at
airplanes, he drew happy scenes of dolphins jumping and
an intact airplane flying over the boat, without hostile
gunfire. (Figure 13) James seemed to finally have closure
on his former life after visiting the site of his former death
and honoring the person he was in the past. He was
finally able to let go. In the last drawing Andrea sent me,
James drew an intact airplane flying over a field of flowers.
(Figure 14) He signed these drawings James, no longer
James 3. I think the drawings say it all.
The complete story of James Leininger, in much more
detail that I can present here, was published in 2009
in their book, Soul Survivor. Its the best American
reincarnation case Ive seen. Its not only a rare,
verifiable American case its also the story of Jamess
soul healing from his traumatic death of a young pilot
whose life was cut short by war.

IMPLICATIONS
I hope that as you read the cases of Chase, Sarah, Chad
Luke, Blake Hocken, and James Leininger, you saw
examples of the three ideas I mentioned at the
beginning of the article:
1. Evidence for the continuation of a personal
consciousness after death
2. Evidence of personality traits carried over from
one lifetime to another
3. Opportunities for healing the soul

Figure 13. A drawing of the happy boat James

made after visiting Japan.

Figure 14. An intact airplane flying over a field of flowers

The implications from cases such as these are profound.

They point to a theory of personality that doesnt begin
and end within the bounds of one life, but spans many
lifetimes.
Traditional theory relies on some
combination of hereditary and environmental
influences nature and nurture to explain why we
are the way we are. But the body of cases of childrens
spontaneous past life memories suggests there is a third
influence. Along with nature and nurture, we need to
consider patterns and traits from previous lives that
inform our present personalities.

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 57

This new theory is not mere speculation. The

continuity of personality traits from lifetime to lifetime
is observable from these cases. Behaviors, phobias,
knowledge, talents, attitudes, and even the quality of
relationships can persist from one lifetime to another.

reincarnation on the Internet. Hundreds of cases are archived on

the Forum, and comments and new cases are posted almost daily.
One case, in particular, is most exciting. Go to the childrens past
lives section and read the post entitled 9/11 Baby, Baby RN. It
appears that a young California boy is the reincarnation of a 9/11
firefighter who remembers specific details of his death in one of the
Twin Towers. It is quite a moving story. We welcome your input.

Taking it a step further, by applying what we have

learned from fifty years of past life therapy with adults,
we have a model for healing traumatic memories that
emerge spontaneously in young children. From adult
therapy we know that some of our emotional and
physical problems have origins in traumatic past life
deaths, and they can be resolved by accessing the
original past life trauma. We can apply the same
principles to help children heal when memories of past
life trauma and death emerge spontaneously, so these
issues dont follow the child into adulthood. As you
saw in the case of my children and with Blake, the
healing can be relatively simple and quick.

I recommend reading any publication by Dr. Ian Stevenson. I have

included two of his books that I feel are the best summaries of his
work.

Think about it: A continuum of personality that spans

lifetimes. If true, it offers a logical, commonsense
framework for understanding why we have certain
personality traits and how we can heal ourselves at the
deepest levels of our being.

Bowman, Carol. Childrens Past Lives. New York: Bantam Books,

1997.
Bowman, Carol. Return From Heaven. New York: HarperCollins,
2001.
Leininger, Bruce and Andrea. Soul Survivor. New York: Grand
Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), 2009.
Stevenson, Ian, M.D. Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.
Stevenson, Ian, M.D. Children Who Remember Previous Lives.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2001.
Woolger, Roger. Other Lives, Other Selves. New York: Doubleday,
1987.
Woolger, Roger. Healing Your Past Lives. Boulder, CO: Sounds
True, Inc., 2004.

This paper is based on Carol Bowman's address presented
at the Twentieth Annual ISSSEEM Conference, Evidence-Based
Spirituality for the 21st Century (June 25 - 31, 2010).
BIO: Carol Bowman, MS, is an internationally known author,
lecturer, past life regression therapist, and pioneer in
reincarnation studies. Her two books, Childrens Past Lives
(Bantam, 1997) and Return from Heaven (HarperCollins, 2001)
are now classics in the reincarnation field, and have been
published and read around the world in 16 foreign editions.
She has appeared frequently on TV and on the radio including
Oprah, ABC Primetime, Good Morning America, Unsolved
Mysteries, The Art Bell Show, and in several documentaries on
A&E and Discovery. Carol has a past life therapy practice in
Media, PA. For more information: www.carolbowman.com
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
I encourage you to read about the phenomenon of childrens past
lives in more depth. Please check the bibliography below. The
latest cases and discussions are on the Reincarnation Forum,
www.reincarnationforum.com, which I started thirteen years ago
and continue to sponsor. It is the most complete forum about

Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume 21 Number 1 Page 58