La prova che esistono le VITE PASSATE - Salto Quantico - Daniele Penna - CONDIVIDI

Sam.

And now, one of the biggest questions of life. What happens when it's over? Heaven, hell, Nothing? Or might there be a fourth possibility? Reincarnation. Could we come back as someone else? Here's Chris Cuomo with two down to earth parents who thought they understood the mysteries of life. That is, until their toddler began to.

On March 3, 1945, a 21 year old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might well have been forgotten were it not for the remarkable some might say unbelievable story of a little boy named James.

Okay, this is me, tough. I need somebody to help me.

All right, I'm the volunteer. What do you want me to do?

Okay, just go climb this thing and you have to call me in case I fall.

Done. James Leiniger is all boy, six years old and full of spirit. This is a special plane. It goes in reverse. You don't see a lot of that. James knows a lot about planes, especially war planes.

What kind of airplane is that?

It's a car, sir.

His parents, Andrea and Bruce Leiniger, say from an early age James would play with nothing else.

He was obsessed with airplanes. If you look around the house, that's all you'll see. Airplanes, helicopters, aircraft carriers.

But then, when he was 2, the planes James loved suddenly began to give him frequent and frightening nightmares.

I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming and he'd always be laying on his back kicking his feet up at the ceiling. And I'd say, baby, what were you dreaming about? He'd say, airplane crash, on fire. Little man can't get out.

They sound like typical kiddie nightmares. But Andrea says they went on the same way for months. Maybe too much TV. But James was just 2, and his parents say only watching Barney and Teletubbies. Teletubbies. And Andrea and Bruce say they weren't watching World War II documentaries or conversing about military history. This is an F18?

No, that one.

So what explains the nightmares and James strange obsession with airplanes?

I talked to my mom about it a lot of times. My mom had said, maybe he's remembering a past life.

What did you say?

Politely, baloney.

Andrea and Bruce of Lafayette, Louisiana, are a highly educated, modern couple. To them, the possibility that their little son James was manifesting signs of a former life was, well, a little out there.

You know, having a past life is not the initial conclusion that you come to. You try and figure out any other way he could have. Did he see anything? Has there ever been anything on Television, anything that we've discussed.

But as time went by, Andrea didn't know what to believe. Here is James at age 3, going over a plane as if he's doing a pre flight check. He would continue to say and do things that were puzzling, like the time his mom bought him a toy airplane.

And I said, oh look, there's a bomb on the bottom of it. He said, that's not a bomb, Mama, that's a drop tank.

A drop tank.

I had never heard of a drop tank. I didn't know what a drop tank was.

Andrea's mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman. Bowman has written two books, both supporting the proposition that sometimes the dead can be reborn.

We are taught from a very early age in this culture, in the Judeo Christian culture, that reincarnation doesn't exist. Once you observe this in a child and the evidence is very compelling, you have to open up to another explanation for what is going on.

Bruce was deeply skeptical.

He said, there has to be a logical explanation.

I don't believe in past lives. I don't believe in this stuff.

But with the violent nightmares recurring three and four times a week, the Leiningers felt they had to do something. So with guidance from Bowman, they cautiously began to encourage James to share his memories. They say the result was startling.

The nightmares immediately started reducing in frequency. He went down from three or four times a week to maybe one a week, one every other week. And at that point was when he started to articulate more about these past life memories.

Seems normal enough, a little boy improving when his troubles are directly addressed. But Bowman says this is more that James was forthcoming because this is the age when former lives are most easily recalled.

They haven't had the cultural conditioning, the layering over of experience in this life so that the memories can percolate up more easily. These memories tend to fade between the ages of five to seven, his parents.

Say between the ages of two and four, James would reveal extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot. Mostly at bedtime when he was drowsy.

Bruce said, what happened to your plane? He said, it crashed on fire. And Bruce said, why did your airplane crash? And he said it got shot. And Bruce said, well, who shot your plane? And I'll never forget the look on his face. He went, the Japanese.

Still, despite these extraordinary stories, Bruce remained dubious, almost to prove they couldn't be true. He began to piece together the details James was sharing. And what he found, he says, shook him to the core. For in many Instances. The stories appeared to match the facts. James seemed to be recalling real events, real people in the life of a man who had been dead for almost 60 years.

Coming up, a toddler just three years old. So how does he know the pilots from a world.

It was like, holy mo. You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe.

When Prime TIME continues. With each passing month, little James Liongar seemed to be peeling back memories of a past life, vivid memories that scared and astonished his parents.

Bruce had always said, what kind of flowers plane did you fly? He said, a Corsair.

Yeah, he said a Corsair.

He said the word Corsair.

Not only did James remember flying a Corsair, he demonstrated knowledge of the plane's peculiarities. Like the time he was flipping through a book about planes when he was 4.

He got to the Corsair. He said, that's a Corsair. He goes, you know what? 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. Of course, this is a fact that could easily be found in books or on tv. But then James began to offer up the kinds of specific details his parents say are harder to explain away.

Another night, Bruce had come in and he said, do you remember where your plane took off? He said, it took off of a boat. Do you remember the name of your boat? Natoma. Do you remember what your name was? And he'd always say, james. His name is James. It never really occurred to us. We thought he just wasn't understanding the question. So I said, do you remember any friends or anyone else that you flew with? And he said, jack. Jack Larson.

Bruce began doing some research. Almost immediately, he discovered that the Natoma was an actual ship, a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific called the Natoma Bay. And Jack Larson, the Navy buddy little James recalled, well, it turns out there was a pilot named Jack Larson who served aboard the Natoma Bay. In fact, he's alive and well and living in Arkansas.

And it was like, holy mackerel. I mean, really, you could have poured my brains out of my ears. And I just. I just couldn't believe it.

And there were more clues. Around this time, James began signing crayon drawings and other artwork. James 3.

One day I asked him why he's calling himself James 3. Well, it's because I'm the third judge. And every once in a while you ask him that today, and he'll still say the same thing.

And one day, while Leafing through a new book about the battle of Iwo Jima, Bruce turned to an aerial photo of the Pacific island. James was seated nearby.

He pointed to it and he goes, daddy, that's where my airplane was shot down. And. And I said, what? That's my airplane got shot down there, Daddy. And I just went. I just went blank. I didn't. I couldn't say anything.

By then, Bruce had become a man possessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records, and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay. Finally, a breakthrough. He learned that there was just one pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima. That pilot, James M. Houston, Jr. Is this why Little James is calling himself James Three?

It just crystallized in my mind. This. This has to be who we're talking about. You know, my meter of skepticism was starting to go over toward belief.

When little James would describe being shot down, he told of how his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine.

We had an airplane, and I said, well, can you show me where it was? And he. He pointed right up to the front of the engine.

That's what makes this man's story so intriguing. His name is Ralph Clarber. Clarber was a rear gunner on a TBM Avenger that flew off the Natoma Bay. On March 3, 1945, he took part in a raid near Iwo Jima. As it happens, Clarber's plane was right next to the one flown by James M. Houston, Jr. It was to be Hughes last mission before leaving for home the following day. As Clarber recalls, the sky was thick with enemy flak. We experienced pretty heavy in aircraft fire, but this was the most intense that I experienced at any time. Suddenly, a flash into the nose of Houston's plane.

I saw the hit. I would say he was hit head on. Yeah, right on the middle of the.

Engine, just as little James had described it. But what do you believe now about your son James?

I believe that he had a past life. I believe that his. In his past life, he was James M. Houston, Jr. And he came back because he wasn't finished with something. And that's essentially what I believe.

Dear Bruce and Andrea.

And he's not the only one. This past October, the Leinigers received a letter from a woman named Ann Barron, the sister of pilot James Houston. Andrea and Bruce had contacted her about their little boy. Barron heard about what young James was.

Saying, and she believes all of this is still overwhelming. I can only imagine how it has affected you, but I believe with my love to You Ann the child was so convincing and coming up with all these things that there's no way in the world he could know unless there is a spiritual thing.

I think that the parents are self defense, deceived, that they're fascinated by the mysterious and they've built up a fairy tale.

Professor Paul Kurtz of the University of Buffalo Heads, an organization that investigates claims of the paranormal.

He's overhearing conversations of his parents, he's looking at cues. He may talk to his little friends or hear from neighbors and then this conviction that builds up that yes, he was this pilot and yes he will come to believe that himself.

Do you ever rack your brain and say gee I hope, I hope I didn't say anything or do anything that put this in James head. Do you ever question yourself still or no?

No, because we're talking to a two year old, you know, I mean what am I going to do? Sit him in a corner, said listen, now we're going to concoct this elaborate scheme and you're going to imagine that you went through those things.

I knew what he watched on television, I knew what stories I read to him. Protective first time southern mother. There was no other place he could have been getting this information.

Assuming the liners are acting in good faith, what we have here is a classic conflict of faith versus science. Hard facts against beliefs that often can't be easily explained. There's no doubt where Paul Kurt stands.

People have a right to believe. Surely in America, this freedom of conscience, on the other hand, do you want to believe in free something that is false?

So how do you rationalize a belief in anything bigger than ourselves if you have to fall back on science all the time?

Not simply science, on the facts, on common sense.

Once upon a time the Leinigers might have agreed. That was before the amazing stories told by their young son forced them to consider the possibilities and to examine their faith.

Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, it's about the eternal life of the human spirit.

Spirit.

And that's something God promises to us. There is something else out there after this. It's not over when you die, James.

Vivid recollections are starting to fade as he gets older. But among his prized possessions are two gifts sent to him by pilot James Houston's sister. A bust of George Washington and a model of a Corsair aircraft. They were among the personal effects of James Houston at home after the war. Do you feel differently about James? Has this changed your relationship with him?

No, we have always felt that he's a special little boy because he's our son. He appears to have experienced something that I don't think is unique. But the way it's been revealed is quite astounding. It doesn't change how we think. I don't look at him and say, that's not my son. That's someone else. That's my boy. Good one.

It might be a natural assumption that it's just Buddhists and Hindus who believe in reincarnation. But would it surprise you to know that one out of every four Americans, Christians and Jewish alike, believe that souls do return again in different bodies? We'll be right back.

Sam.