The UneXplained: Past Lives

Abstract Children have been found to report memories rooted in a past life and significant research has been conducted on this subject. However, since this has often been seen as a form of reincarnation, various groups of individuals have dismissed it on the basis of it not being a part of their religious beliefs. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on the retelling of cases primarily within the United States, evaluating case studies to elucidate any patterns or psychological causes that arise within these children. Additionally, there is also a critical discussion on the presence of synchronicity and numinosity and how these concepts can represent the experiences that families and children face. The argument will be made that, although reincarnation cases can be manipulated in regions where it is of high belief, children from places where reincarnation is not highly recognized also have compelling cases, solid with facts and devoid of fraud.    Keywords: children, past life...

Extra Credit The film that I watch was Surviving Death by Leslie Kean, particularly the first season's last episode. This episode encompassed the two significant cases that I chose to focus on—Ryan Hammons’ case, which has the most amount of verified information, and James Leininger. The episode explores through the parents and the primary psychiatrist who dealt with his case. It showcased old videos of the moments where Ryan picks out the images from the recognition tests. It also showed Martyn’s daughter, who also told her perspective on Ryan's facts. This portion of the episode solidified my understanding of Ryan’s and gave a perspective on how this affected him later as an older adult.  James Leininger was also showcased, and it showed the differences between the two cases and their ability for recognition. James, even as an adult, can go back to the final times of his past personality. This episode compasses the two major cases that my paper also looks into. Reading articl...

Citation:  Tucker JB. The Case of James Leininger: An American Case of the Reincarnation Type. Explore (New York, NY). 2016;12(3):200-207. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2016.02.003 Summary: This article discusses the one of the prominent cases that I use within my paper. Within this case, it is mentioned that James’ father was the primary worker who discovered the previous personality of his son. Tucker, however, says that the documentation with this case does not take away from the “striking similarity between James's statements and the details of the life and death of one particular pilot” (Tucker 200). The narrative begins when James, who was around two years old, begins to recall being a veteran in the War. This was displayed through a fascination with courier planes and details about these planes unknown to any toddler. However, this fascination did not just curate sporadic knowledge; it came with its terrors. These nightmares, irregular and more violent than a typical child, a contin...

Argument and Counterargument: The argument presented within my paper supports the idea that children with past lives are tangible and not only quantifiable in an area where a belief in reincarnation is present. Through this discovery, I used research questions discussing the possible patterns seen within a multitude of cases, discovering if children are just highly imaginative in their thinking that could cause this behavior, and recognizing cases not subjected in areas where reincarnation is of a firm belief. I believe these questions remove the assumption that a possible third variable that takes away the evidence within these cases is regarded as anything less than evidence pointing towards possible reincarnation.  Within a source by Tucker, he presents an opposing idea (from another author) based on the socio-psychological hypothesis. It is a theory that can be loosely defined as the idea at which a child who has a family has a belief in reincarnation can then allow for the fal...

Case of Ryan Hammons: I am using this one case out of the two I discuss as the primary source to illustrate children with past lives. This one is regarded as having the most verified information, which is why it's the main case to discuss.   Ryan Hammons’ case deals with a child who details his “spy” and great Hollywood life to his mother at a relatively young age. Ryan’s mother decides to take him to a library to see if any books about old Hollywood would start a spark within Ryan. As they flipped through a book, they found an image that Ryan said was the person who made up the memories of his past life experiences. His parents, firm non-believers in the reincarnation phenomenon, did not know what to do with their son. Tucker, a child psychiatrist who was known to play a vital role in the research within this field, is when the discovery into Ryan’s past life becomes more apparent. With minimal information about this mystery man, a Hollywood historian is left to dig into arch...

It was difficult to come up with or find a theoretical frame that I could incorporate into the many different cases and aspects of my paper. I ended up looking back into the text our class read towards the beginning of the semester. There I rediscovered Carl Jung’s book and also remembered how he wrote about synchronicity. While no researcher in the field made no direct link, I decided to look deeper into the meaning and found that synchronicity does play a role in many of the cases that I looked into.  For my paper, I used this quote about Jung, who deciphers this meaning as, “in cases of [...] precognition, and similar inexplicable phenomena, one can very frequently observe an archetypal situation. This may be connected with the collective nature of the archetype, for the collective unconscious” (Jung 450).  Within my paper, I am using this meaning synonymous with having a domino effect. My paper begins to describe this frame as one that is the moment where there is a widely...

Citation:  Pasricha, Satwant K. “Do Attitudes of Families Concerned Influence Features of Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives?” Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 53, no. 1, Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd, 2011, pp. 21–24, doi:10.4103/0019-5545.75554. Summary: Pasricha used data collected from a child’s mother, outsiders, and the previous personalities’ families. Data was collected by a series of interviews in which attitudes and acceptance from these corresponding groups were organized. Out of the 292 mothers interviewed, 21% of them encouraged children to speak, and Pasricha saw that 28% of mothers to suppress or ridicule thoughts. The 51% of mothers remained neutral. For previous families, the majority of them (79%) believed in these cases. 14% were neutral in acceptance, and 7% rejected the claims overall. In terms of outsiders who added the attention, most people had moderate (43.25%) to little to none (41.67%) interaction with the two families involved in t...