The lecture has seemed to me very interesting, so much so that I think it is worth having its transcription and, for those who need it, its translation (if this is the case, go to the Spanish version of the site). They are very long documents, slightly over thirty pages, so in this blog entry I shall limit myself to sum up briefly each case Carol Bowman presents to us and make some comment of my own. Like I did in this entry, I have divided the document in several parts to ease the reading.
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Introduction.
- Evidence for continuation of personal consciousness after death.
- Origins of personality and traits.
- Opportunities for healing the soul.
As I myself have claimed in multiple occasions, receiving skeptical looks, Carol highlights the great credibility of these stories and the fact they offer a very compelling evidence for survival of consciousness after death, even stating that they take it a step further than the so-called near-death experiences. Indeed, I never stop noticing in people who have had NDEs, that they stay at the threshold of what there is after death, and many of them link the experience to interpretations, quite often religious, that go beyond reality, which usually is much simpler than it seems. Children who remember past lives are not only proof of the survival of consciousness after death, but are also proof we return again and again to incarnate. Carol quotes her mentor Ian Stevenson, who claimed that there are three streams that feed into personality: nature, nurture and reincarnation. Personally I couldn’t agree more.
Chase.
As a result of this regression he lost his fear of loud noises. His memories didn’t fade with time. In one occasion, when they were putting yellow ribbons in his school because it was right after Irak invasion, Desert Storm, she went to pick him up and noticed he was very upset. When she asked him what was up, he said, “Mom, they don't understand what war really is, they're putting up all these yellow ribbons”. Then Carol decided to do a second regression. Here it was when he continued the story, and in my opinion the most impressive part is the comment he made in regards to the time between lives: “When you're in spirit you can go back and see what happened to your family, and I want to go back and then say goodbye to them”. Then he added, “Everyone has to experience a war, it teaches you how other people feel, it's a bad thing but everybody has to experience it”.
The eczema ended up going away, but it very interesting it reappeared when an event in his current life made him think of war, as he had to sign up for the draft to get money for college, when he was 18. When he made the connection with his past life, the eczema receded.
The drawings that Chase made are also quite impressive. Here I reproduce one of them with the picture that verifies his memories:
Elizabeth.
Chanai.
Blake.
Months later they were walking around London when Blake walked in the path of an oncoming truck and it was about to run over him, luckily his father caught him and saved him. Colleen wondered if he was repeating something from his past life. She also noticed Blake had turned more reserved and depressed since his memory, when he had always been very happy and he was very extroverted. Blake used to complain of aches all over the left side of his body, and Colleen tried to alleviate him giving him massages, but he would reject her, saying, “I love you but I hate you”. Things only changed when Colleen said she was a different mother now, that he had a new body, and she was going to keep him safe. Blake's aches disappeared and he was again the same happy boy as usual. It is very difficult for children to differentiate the past from the present, so it is important to explain to them that happened before and now things are different. The best moment to talk to them about their past life is when they are relaxed, for example when they are riding a car, in the bath or right before going to bed.
Chad.
At four, Chad started saying weird things like “Remember where we used to live?”, he described the apartment where he had lived with her as James, he started asking for toys that had belonged to James, he told his brother, “I got sick and died but now I'm back”. He also remembered he had been operated, and he knew that he had been asleep during the surgery. Cathy showed him a picture of James he had kept hidden, and Chad said, “I want it”. When she asked him why, he replied: “Because it’s me”.
Ian Stevenson visited the Luke family. When Carol Bowman asked him why a soul would return to the same family, he replied, “Isn’t love enough?” My personal opinion is things are often much simpler than we think, even in reincarnation.
Noah.
Later on, when Noah was three and a half, they went to their former house, and Noah could recognize the place where Craig played basketball, despite the fact it had been remodeled and the hoop was not there anymore. Noah also asked for toys that had belonged to Craig, and he was born with a small chip in his tooth, right where Craig had broken it doing some sport. In addition to this, the resemblance between Noah and Craig as babies is amazing in this case. If anyone think it could eb due to genetics... well, I have three brothers and none of them was so alike to the other when they were babies.
James Leininger.
James was always obsessed with airplanes, and he had knowledge that went beyond his age. For example, once he took a plastic plane and said: “This is a drop tank”. His parents started asking him questions and little by little they found out he had been a pilot in World War II, he flew a Corsair, planes that took off from aircraft carriers. James even said the name of the aircraft carrier: the Natoma. James even knew these planes had a defect and they used to get flat tires when they landed. One day the father had a book about World War II open with an aerial view of Iwo Jima, and James said, “Daddy, that's where my plane went down”.
James’ drawings are really amazing:
The resemblance between the two is also amazing:
Kyle.
In 2007 a mother from California posted the story of his son Kyle in the forum. The same way as James Leininger was obsessed with World War II airplanes, Kyle was obsessed with firefighting. At two and three, he would get up early and pretend to chop down the walls with his toy axe, saying there was fire behind. His bedroom was like a fire station, his first bath suit was like a firefighter outfit. One day, his mother was reading him a Curious George book in which the Twin Towers appeared, and he said, “Bad men knocked down the buildings, planes broke them, I couldn't get to the people, they were calling for me”, and he got very upset.
A forum member by that time was a professional fireman and could corroborate many details Kyle was giving, Carol and Kyle’s mother talked a lot privately and they could find out Kyle’s past identity, but decided not to communicate it to the family. When he was seven they went to New York and Kyle recognized many areas of the city.