Posted on 04/24/2004 11:35:11 AM PDT by 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."
Why only two? All you have to do is invoke epistemic defect of any kind, or alternatively, quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur = "they have no hard evidence" (= OK by me), and poof, your challenge to faith goes away.
Don't you feel better now?
I don't know that any of it is relevant to this New Age post-equine organic matter, but it does establish that the ship was at Iwo Jima.
I do and tend to accept the account at face value. It's not his fault he has been terrorized by some entity. Look at what he has been through. It isn't something most parents would want for their kids and is something that could require psychological help which can lead one into even further trauma rather than healing.
The kid maybe tuning into some kind of universal mind.
Yeah, just like Edgar Cayce. I see the boy as a victim of something or somebody very likely not of this world. He remembered his first name, he knew the name of his carrier, the type of plane he flew, his best friends name, exactly what day he died and where, that he was James the III (in previous life his father was James and he was James), he knew where his plane was hit (right in the nose). That is a lot for a toddler.
Knowledge of the unknown now known. A nice way to lure people into desiring it for themselves. What is a better power trip than to be privy to knowledge that is denied most of us? What could we do with such knowledge if only we possessed it? If we are meant to know hidden things, the Christian God can supply it according to his will and not some possible fallen creature's or that of some poor, lost soul which it sounds like may be the case here.
The airman died a sudden death and may have been spiritually unprepared, we don't know if he had a Christian burial, etc., etc.
Ahaa. More proof that reincarnation is real! A normal child would not cry if you took away a toy, but a reincarnated one will.
Oh, I get it. Like a ducking stool, or a trial by water, only with avgas instead. Good!
1. Religions that believe in reincarnation pre-date Christianity.
2. The Old Testament is used to foretell many things, just like the writings of Nostradamus. I don't put much credence in either.
3. As for preserved language, no language exists today in substantially the same form it existed a few thousand years ago. Teaching oneself to speak Aramaic or Latin just doesn't cut it as evidence of anything except one's linguistic skills, certainly not the basis for believing or disbelieving something written in the language.
Show us how. Post up. What would you post instead?
Didn't know he was into that. Lots of psychologist types are heavily into it.
Here's a link to Dr. Ian Stevenson's work of 40 years with cases such as this:
I agree with the guy who said the parents had built a fairy tale. The kid probably saw a plane crash on TV which caused nightmares. Then they took him to a therapist who believed in past lives. The next thing you know the kid believes he has a past last.
Sorry, but I missed the part of the narrative where one parent turns to the other and says, "Let's do a big book contract -- for mucho bucks!"
Got a memo? An eyewitness? Film at ten?
Must be ;^D
Thank you for repeating my point.
The lives of those who espouse and cling to this philosophy are not anything I would want to emulate. Look at Shirley McClaine, Alice Bailey, Helen Blavatsky, all kind of weirdos.
Odd, but I once heard a minister offer his congregants the same assurance, to the effect that Christianity was self-proving: if you think you have problems in this world now, he thundered, just wait until you consecrate your life to Christ! Just wait until you are born again in the spirit and give your life to God, and then let's see what happens! His point being that becoming a true Christian, as opposed to the kind that doesn't offend Satan as a true enemy, makes one a special case for the Devil and invites a heaping-up of diabolical trials, temptations, and worldly torment.
Looking on the plight of the committed Christian laboring, Job-like, under all those darts and afflictions, we should all prefer, following your argument, to be Madame Blavatsky.
Speaking of the Devil, anybody on this thread ever see Broadcast News? Dennis Miller has a great speech in it, in a working-lunch scene with Holly Hunter, in which he describes what the Devil would be like if we ever met him. And of course, he describes the William Hurt character, who was modeled on Peter Jennings.
Good one!
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