Of the many thousands of documented cases of children remembering past lives, there is one which, while not necessarily being unique, does stand out as a textbook example. This is even more so because the past life in question was identified after a good deal traveling and research by both the parents and the psychologist who investigated the case. This is the case of a boy named James.
James had terrible nightmares of crashing a plane into the ocean from the time he was two years old. His playtime also involved crashing toy airplanes into the floor or coffee table. When he could talk, he told his parents that he had been a pilot who flew planes from a boat called the Natoma, and he had a best friend named Jack Larsen. He also called himself the "third James."
With the help of the psychologist and his resources at the University of Virginia, they were able to discover that the U.S.S. Natoma Bay had been an Aircraft carrier in the Pacific during WWII. From there, they were able to establish that Jack Larsen had been a pilot, very much still alive and whom they were able to meet, on that carrier. From Mr. Larsen, they discovered that James Huston had been his best friend who had crashed into the ocean during a battle not far from Iwo Jima (I could be wrong on the location, but I think it was Iwo Jima). The boy was having nightmares about and reliving the last moments of James Huston's life.
While being a good textbook example of this phenomenon, it isn't the only documented case, as I said previously, nor is it the only case where the past life was positively identified. This particular group of researchers specialized in identifying, if possible, the past lives which children between the ages of two and five were reporting with the goal of working through it as a therapy to help the children move past the previous life and get on with this life in a healthy way. But what this case does also illustrate is a phenomenon another psychologist termed "past life traumatic stress disorder" (PLTSD)
Someone with PLTSD presents with emotional trauma, irrational fears, sometimes nightmares, and many of the symptoms of PTSD without any explanation in the context of their life experiences, and sometimes involving factual details inexplicable to this life as well. From childhood, a person might be terrified of drowning in water without any obvious event in their lives to explain it. A person might have horrifying nightmares of images that they could never have possibly seen either in images or their life experience. A man might become emotionally upset to tears at the thought of not being able to bear and carry children, even though it makes no sense for him to be upset by this. One researcher speculated that the psychology of transgenderism might be because that particular "soul" or "consciousness" was in fact the opposite gender in the previous life and was confused and unable to let go of it in this life. The brain is a fascinating instrument, and will try to conform itself to whatever the consciousness believes that it should be.
One psychology author wrote along the lines that memory is emotional in nature. That is, our strongest memories are tied to the strong emotions we were having at the time. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory. One good example in my own life should illustrate this well. On October 27th, 2017, I received a call from my wife that my oldest daughter had passed out on the field from the heat. I left work and rushed over to my daughter’s high school. What followed was six years of her continuing to recover from heat stroke related brain damage to her cerebellum as well as a lawsuit where the lawyers for the other side took almost five years to depose my family and I. When it was my turn to relate the events of that day, all I had to do was close my eyes as I walked the other side’s lawyer through my exact footsteps and what I saw as I found my daughter lying on a bed in the nurse’s office clearly out of it and unable to walk. I literally remembered that day as if it had been yesterday, even five years later because of the strong emotions associated with it. What emotions were at play? Fear and anger certainly. Love and concern for my daughter, absolutely. Shock? Yep. “No this can’t be happening, can it?” Just a hint of denial in my subconscious that I had to shove to the back of my mind in order to deal with the crisis clearly at hand.
A person might clearly remember the person and events surrounding a strong, passionate romance. They might remember clearly what it felt like to rescue someone as they went into crisis response. The warm feelings and affection of a mother’s or father’s love are strongly remembered. At the same time, emotionally traumatic events also imprint themselves strongly, such as watching a friend die. Being beaten or abused, or nearly dying are things which people only forget because the emotions surrounding them are so strong they overwhelm the mind’s ability to cope with them. All of these things appear to be the kinds of emotional memories which can be carried over from one life to the next. That is, it appears that, rather than factual or logical data, it is feelings and emotions and the memories, even images, associated with those that imprint themselves on a person’s soul or consciousness. And these emotional imprints are what can present themselves without any plausible or even possible context in the experience of one’s current life.
In order to work through emotional distress, one has to allow themselves to feel the emotions and let them run their natural course. Often times it is incredibly difficult to do this if you have no idea why you are feeling the way that you do. Without any experiential context in which to place the emotions a person is feeling, they are far more likely to suppress them, hide them, and tell themselves there’s no reason to be feeling that way. They may even believe themselves to be going insane. None of which actually helps the distress in any way, and only increases the likelihood that the emotional distress will transform into a debilitating mental disorder. Accepting the possibility of PLTSD and emotional trauma which may have transferred from a previous life, even if only as a psychological metaphor or placeholder, allows for the possibility of placing the trauma within some kind of experiential context which can then be ferreted out and worked through in some way. It allows the person experiencing those distressing emotions to have a reason for feeling them, and thus opens the door to letting them go.
Of course, all of this requires that one accepts the possibility of reincarnation, something which flies in the face of western ideology, either atheist materialism or traditional Christianity. It’s easier to believe that someone is “just crazy” than to change one’s ideological worldview to accommodate evidence which doesn’t fit within it. The problem though is that telling someone they’re “just crazy” rather than accepting the possibility that your worldview may be incomplete is itself harmful to the person, and is itself bad science. The most accurate view of the world is one which is able to incorporate and explain all available evidence and data, not just that which one agrees with.
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