North Star Writers Group

The New Year is one more reminder for the Baby Boomers that their expiration dates are looming ever closer. They might take some comfort, therefore, in the story of James Leininger, an eight-year-old from Lafayette, Louisiana.

When he was two-and-a-half years old, James began showing signs of an unusual knowledge about flying planes, especially since neither of his parents was involved in aviation. Then he began having violent nightmares about being shot down as a pilot by a plane with a big red sun on it. “Airplane crash on fire. Little man can’t get out,” the sleeping James would call out.

His parents, Andrea and Bruce Leininger, were worried but didn’t know what to do for their toddler. As the months passed, James volunteered more details about the event, which prompted his mother and grandmother to suspect he was reliving part of a past life, based on their conversations with Carol Bowman, a past-life therapist based near Philadelphia and author of Children’s Past Lives.

His skeptical father set out to prove them wrong. But the more research he did, and the more specific details young James revealed, the more it led Bruce Leininger to one inescapable conclusion: His son also lived a life as Lt. James McCready Huston, a World War II fighter pilot based on the escort carrier USS Natoma Bay who was shot down and killed near Iwo Jima more than 50 years before James Leininger was born.

Young James received three G.I. Joe dolls over the years. The brown-haired one he named Billy. The blond-haired was dubbed Leon. And the red-haired doll he called Walter. Through his research, Bruce Leininger already knew that Billy Peeler (brown hair), Leon Connor (blond hair), and Walter Devlin (red hair) were also pilots on the Natoma Bay who were shot down and killed some months before James M. Huston and that the four were very close.

One night, Bruce Leininger asked his son why he gave those dolls their particular names. “They greeted me when I went to heaven,” James replied. That was the clincher for James’ father. His skepticism melted away.

“This tested my faith - I’m a Christian,” Bruce Leininger adds. “How does this stuff happen?”

Looking for reasons, the father concluded that James M. Huston came back so he would not be forgotten. Writing a book about his son’s story and the profound effects it has had on his family, Bruce Leininger also discovered through interviews that similar events have happened in many other families.

Indeed. Belief in past lives is not confined to a tiny fringe in this country. The Harris Poll, in a survey released in 2005, found that 21 percent of U.S. residents aged 18 and older believe in reincarnation.

“It’s a lot more commonplace than we may think,” Bruce Leininger says. “It reinforces our faith that spirits go somewhere when they leave our families.”

From an energy-matter viewpoint, that statement is far more accurate than most of us may realize. Something has to survive the physical body because, as Einstein’s iconic equation demonstrates, matter and energy are equivalents, and we learn in grade-school science that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

Our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs - our very spirit essence and self-awareness, all of which is energy - survive the physical body. Our souls, in other words. Spirit and self-awareness cannot and do not die with the physical body.

So now what? How do we want to spend merely all of eternity? Dying in wars like James M. Huston? Living in fear? Hating ourselves and each other? Consumed by petty jealousies? Running roughshod over each other for power and wealth that ultimately matter so little?

The essence of James’Leininger’s story is our story as well. We are immortal souls on a sojourn of discovery, and every physical lifetime is a precious opportunity for love and growth.

“I look at this from the fruit it bears,” Bruce Leininger says. “James’ story makes people think about their own spiritual journey.”

Amen to that.

(For more details on the story of James Leininger, try these URLs: http://www.ntcsites.com/acadianhouse/nss-folder/publicfolder/AP/cover_feature_24_3.htm

and

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_463166.html)

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