About past lives ... Uniontown WW II flyer's memories in Louisiana boy

By Judy Kroeger
DAILY COURIER
Thursday, April 15, 2004

James Leininger, 6, of Lafayette, La., loves airplanes.

"He has always been extraordinarily interested in airplanes," said James' mother, Andrea
Leininger, by telephone from their Louisiana home.

Lots of kids love airplanes, but James' story is unique. He has memories of being a World War
II fighter pilot from Uniontown -- Lt. James McCready Huston, shot down near Iwo Jima in 1945.

At 18 months old, his father, Bruce Leininger, took James to the Kavanaugh Flight Museum in
Dallas, Texas, where the toddler remained transfixed by World War II aircraft. 

A few months later, the nightmares began.

"They were terrible, terrible," Andrea said. "He would scream, 'airplane crash, on fire, little
 man can't get out!' He'd be kicking, with his hands pointing up at the ceiling."

When James was 2 1/2 years old, he and Andrea were shopping and he wanted a toy airplane.
"I said to him, 'Look, it has a bomb on the bottom' and he told me, 'That's not a bomb, it's a
drop tank.' I had no idea what a drop tank was."

Neither of the Leiningers have ever served in the military, nor are they involved with aviation.
Until James began showing an interest in planes, they had nothing aviation-related in their
home.

Andrea's mother sent her a book by Pennsylvania author Carol Bowman, called "Children's Past
Lives." The Leiningers started using Bowman's techniques of affirming James' nightmares and
assuring him that the experiences happened to a different person, not the person he was now.
"It helped. The nightmares stopped almost immediately," Andrea said.

However, the memories did not stop, but they do not come up all the time.

"I was reading him a story and he got a faraway look," she recalled. "I asked what happened to
your plane? 'Got shot,' he said. Where? 'Engine.' Where did it crash? 'Water.' When I asked him
who shot the plane, he gave me a look like a teenager, rolling his eyes, 'the Japanese,' like
who else could it have been?

"What little kid knows about the Japanese," she asked. "He said he knew it was a Japanese
plane because of the red sun. My husband and I were shell-shocked."

James provided other information. He said his earlier name was James, he flew a Corsair and
took off on a boat called the Natoma, and he remembered a fellow flyer named Jack Larson.

Foods can set James' memories off, too.

"I hadn't made meatloaf in 10 years, so James had never had it," Andrea said. "When he sat
down, he said, 'Meatloaf! I haven't had that since I was on the Natoma.' When we were getting
ice cream one day, he told me that they could have ice cream every day on the Natoma."

Bruce began researching his son's memories and discovered a small escort carrier called the
Natoma Bay, which was present at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Twenty-one of its crew perished. Bruce
also discovered that only one of the Natoma's crew was named James, James Huston.

James Huston's plane was hit in the engine by Japanese fire on March 3, 1945, went down in
flames and sank immediately. Flyer Jack Larson witnessed the crash.

James Huston was born Oct. 22, 1923, in South Bend, Ind., and lived in Uniontown during the
1930s. His father was James McCready Huston Sr., of Brownsville, and Daryl Green Huston, who
was born in New Geneva and grew up in Uniontown. James was the only son.

According to Lt. Huston's cousin, Bob Huston of Flatwoods, the elder Huston started several
newspapers and published 13 books. He was living in Brownsville when two Navy officers
informed Huston of his son's death.

"I didn't know James," Bob Huston said. His parents were divorced, "but I knew his father. He
stayed with us in Brownsville. James was on his 50th mission and would have come home if he'd
lived another five minutes."

The Leiningers have been in touch with Bob Huston.

"I knew what happened to James (Huston)," he said. "I was excited to hear from them (the
Leiningers). The boy's mother was flabbergasted when all this happened."

Andrea believes that her son is the reincarnation of Lt. James Huston. "There are so many little
things. I believe in reincarnation now."

Her husband, Bruce, remains skeptical. "He started researching to disprove what James was
telling us, and ended up proving it all," he said. "I think he believes that James Huston's spirit
has manifested itself in our son somehow."

The Leiningers have been in touch with Natoma Bay veterans, too.

"We didn't tell the veterans for a long time," Andrea said, "but everyone has a story about
having had a spirit visit them. James' sister, Anne Barron, was in California talking to him the
day he was killed. Anne believes James' story, because he has provided so much information
that only her brother could have known.

"Families of the 21 men who were killed are talking to each other," continued Andrea. "It's
brought them together."

The Leiningers plan to attend this year's Natoma Bay reunion and bring their son, James.

Andrea doesn't know why this has happened.

"If he did come back, why? Maybe it was so my husband could write the book about the Natoma
Bay," she said. "It helped turn the tide of the war in the Pacific and was one of the most highly
decorated carriers, but it hasn't received much recognition."

She said her husband has been working on a chronology of what's happened to James and is
researching the book. "He has flight plans from the missions and has spent a year and a half
on research. In the introduction, he's writing about how he found out about the ship."

That discovery, through a toddler's fascination with airplanes and nightmares, has led to a
segment on national television.

ABC contacted Carol Bowman about her work on children's past lives and James Leininger's
experience was the most verifiable, Andrea said. "And we agreed to share his story." 

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_189477.html 

Re: About past lives ... 
« Reply #1 on: Apr 21st, 2004, 09:30am »

Second Lives
Could a Little Boy Be Proof of Reincarnation?
ABCNEWS.com

April 15— 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." 

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/US/reincarnation_040415-1.html 

BennieDeth       Junior Member          Gender:           Posts: 66

Re: About past lives ... 
« Reply #2 on: May 29th, 2004, 03:34am »

i never thought of reincarnation as something that happens in the same century, although it
makes sense that the space between incarnations would be shrinking. anyway, that could be
why this child appears to retain more of his former self - that self was alive and well little more
than 50 years ago. 

 Gender:           Posts: 4523

Re: About past lives ...           « Reply #3 on: May 30th, 2004, 04:56am »
                                                                                           


       Speaking of rising from the 'dead' welcome back BennieDeth we've missed you. 

Quote:
it makes sense that the space between incarnations would be shrinking 


I think you are quite correct - I think the truth is that the world population as it stands really
represents the rising of a finite number of souls where the endpoint is the Final Coming so to
speak. I do think we are in the endgame now whether you look at it religiously, philosophically
or pragmatically depending upon your beliefs. The only question is how many endgames have
we had before?

As for reincarnation I do believe that the spaces are shrinking and therefore one remembers
something of a past life even if it is unexplained image in one's memory. For myself I have an
image that I can't shake nor explain - that of a faded B/W photograph of a German tank
parked beside a citrus grove circa 1944. I have never seen a photo like the image I hold and
curiously enough it is not an image of fighting but one of the personnel resting. I have the
feeling that I died in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944-45 if only because I suffer an almost
overwhelming sense of grief whenever I read about the subject of the campaign. If this is in fact
the case then the space between incarnations is only 12-13 years - quite short don't you think.