Literature Review #5

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 continual phrase began to take over James. His parents quote this saying as, “Airplane crash! Plane on fire! Little man cannot get out” (Tucker 201). These nightmares began the conversations of figuring out what James was dreaming about. Amid the continual terrors, an increasing amount of James’ past life’s information began to present itself. Within this period, the information gathered, which ultimately started the search for connections, was James’ mentioning that the Japanese had shot his plane and the name of the boat his plane flew off was Natoma.  Most importantly, the little man within his dreams was him, and another person he knew/saw went by the name Jack Larsen. Then, unexpectedly, another crucial piece of evidence presented itself. Looking through a book named The Battle for Iwo Jima 1945, James instantaneously recognized Iwo Jima to be the place where his plane had been shot. It is also at this time when James (about three years old now) began to sign his drawings as “James 3”, Tucker writes that, “When his parents asked him about this, he said the 3 referred, not to his age, but to his being “the third James,” and he continued to sign his pictures that way even after he turned 4” (Tucker 201). Bruce, James’ father, ultimately solved the case once he attended a reunion for veterans in Natoma Bay. It was here that Bruce found out that within Natoma Bay, the Jack Larsen James’ spoke of had survived the war, but more importantly, he learned that there was only one pilot who was confirmed as lost, his name was James M. Hudson Jr.  

Author:

Jim Tucker is a child psychiatrist who has been known to play a vital role within the children with past lives phenomenon. His predecessor, Ian Stevenson, is seen as someone who started grouping these cases and is regarded highly within this phenomenon. Tucker has written two books, one of which was a New York Times bestseller, about children with PLEs and has written numerous texts that span from individualized cases to looking at children with PLEs from a more holistic standpoint. 

As a Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia and additionally a  Director of the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies, and a person who has taken over the work done by a highly regarded researcher, it confidently proves that Tucker is a knowledgeable individual when it comes to children with past lives.

Terms:

Reincarnation (CORT): the act of having a case that presents itself as having a connection with a life before the current persons’.  

Fantasy: Tucker explores how James’ story could follow a child's fantasy path, one that fed into a young child’s imagination. This is refuted with the evidence of his very vivid nightmares that a child has when dealing with events from traumatic scenarios, and James’ situation only pointed to having associations from the distant past.

Quotes:

“Airplane crash! Plane on fire! Little man cannot get out” (Tucker 201)

“When his parents asked him about this, he said the 3 referred, not to his age, but to his being “the third James,” and he continued to sign his pictures that way even after he turned 4” (Tucker 201)

“Fraud must always be considered and often cannot be ruled out definitively. In this case, motivation for a hoax appears unlikely. Though James's parents did eventually write a book about their experiences that was published when James was 11 years old, it seems unlikely that this led to a wholesale fraud from the beginning” (Tucker 203)

“Awareness of cases such as James's, ones with documentation of a close agreement between events from a life in the past and memories a current child expresses, may lead the parents to be less likely to discount their children's reports and more able to help them through the experience.” (Tucker 206)

Value:

This particular case adds a lot of value to my paper. This is one of the two cases that I will be discussing as a part of the cases which make up the most verified or audience drawing cases. While this also presents as a well structured and documented case, it also adds value as to the part where Tucker explores fantasy and how that can be regarded as a significant feature that could potentially play a role in James’ PLEs. While it is refuted, it brings up/ puts an answer to my research question of “if children are just highly imaginative.” Also, something that I found after reading this piece a second time is the subject of fraud. This idea, I believe, adds up in my counterargument, where fraud is something highlighted within the socio-psychological hypothesis. It builds my opposing argument.