PureInsight | October 8, 2006
[PureInsight.org] Do people really have previous lives and future lives? The Sun,
a UK newspaper, reported a story of a boy who remembers his previous
lives. This six-year-old boy is called Cameron Macaulay. He is not much
different from other boys of his age. What differentiates him from
others is that he likes to talk about his "old mum", his former family
and a white house standing on the bay. But none of them is related to
his current life. The place he is talking about is a place where he had
never been in this life and is on the Isle of Barra, 160 miles away
from where he is living now. These things make Cameron's mother feel
worried.
Cameron's memory of his previous life
Cameron's mother Norma, 42, said that Cameron began to tell tales of his childhood on the Isle of Barra.
Cameron spoke about his former parents, how his dad died, and about his
brothers and sisters in the previous life. He also said that his "old
mum" was the one in his previous life. Cameron believes that he has a
previous life and he worries that the family in his previous life
misses him. His nursery school teacher told Norma all the things
Cameron was saying about the Isle of Barra and how he misses his mummy
and his brothers and sisters there.
Norma said, "He complained that in our house there was only one toilet,
whereas in Barra, they had three. He used to cry for his mummy. He said
she'd be missing him and he wanted to let his family in Barra know he
was all right. Cameron felt very sad. He wouldn't stop talking about
Barra, where they went, what they did and how he watched the planes
landing on the beach from his bedroom window. "
Cameron even said his dad was called Shane Robertson, who had died
because "he didn't look both ways." (It probably means that his father
was hit by a car.)
Norma mentioned that they had never been to the Isle of Barra. At the
beginning, they just regarded Cameron's story as something from his
vivid imagination. Cameron continued to feel sad for leaving the home
in his previous life on the Isle of Barra, and his feeling of distress
lasted for several years.
One day, Cameron's nursery teacher told Norma that a film company was
looking for people who believed they had previous lives. She suggested
Norma talk with them about Cameron. But Norma's family felt frightened
since many people didn't believe in reincarnation. Norma is a single
mother and has another son, Martin, who is one year older than Cameron
and also has been affected by this thing. Meanwhile, Cameron kept
begging her to take him to the Isle of Barra. Norma eventually
decided to take Cameron to Barra, to see what they could find.
Visit the Isle of Barra
Norma contacted the film company. They joined Cameron's trip to Barra.
Psychologist Dr. Jim Tucker from Virginia University in the U.S. also
went with them. Dr. Tucker specializes in reincarnation, especially in
children's cases. When Cameron was told about the trip to Barra, he was
very happy and jumped all over the place. They went to Barra in
February of 2005.
Norma said that Cameron asked her if his face was shiny because he was very happy.
When they arrived at Barra and the plane landed on the beach,
everything was just as Cameron had described. He turned to Martin and
Norma and said, "Now do you believe me?"
When Cameron got off the plane, he waved his arms and said loud "I am
back." He talked about his mother in his previous life who lived at
Barra and told Norma that his mother at Barra used to have long brown
hair down to her waist before she cut it off.
Cameron also said that Norma and his Barra mother would like each other and he was eager to have his two mothers meet.
He also talked about a big book which he read and God and Jesus. Norma
said that her family is not religious, but it seemed that Cameron's
Barra family in his previous life was.
In Barra, they lived in a hotel and began to search for clues related
to Cameron's previous life. They contacted the Heritage Centre and
asked if they knew a Robertson family living in a white house on the
bay. The Heritage Centre said no, which made Cameron feel very
disappointed. They then drove around on the island but they didn't find
the white house.
Later, they realized if he could see the place's land on the beach,
they must have driven the wrong way. Meanwhile they received a call
from the hotel with confirmed information that there was indeed a
Robertson family living in the white house on the bay.
Norma said that they didn't tell Cameron about it and drove to the
direction where they were told the white house was and to see what
would happen. When they got there, Cameron recognized the white house
immediately and he was extremely happy. When they walked to the door,
Cameron became very quiet. Norma guessed that he must think that his
Barra mother was waiting for him in the house as he remembered. But it
turned out that there was no one in the house, he looked sad. The
former owner of the house already died. The person who kept the key let
them in.
Cameron was familiar with the house and he knew every bit of the house.
As he said, there were three bathrooms and the sea could be seen from
his bedroom window.
After Returning Home
Researchers also wanted to track down one member of the Robertson
family who owned the house. Norma said that they visited this member at
Stirling. But they couldn't find any information about Shane Robertson.
Cameron was eager to see the photos of his previous life family,
thinking that probably he could find his father or himself. He always
talked about a big black car and a black and white dog. The car and the
dog were both in the pictures. Since they came back home in Glasgow,
Cameron became much quieter.
Norma said that it was the best thing to go to Barra. This trip made
Cameron much happier and he doesn't talk about going to Barra any
more. Cameron now knows that his mother and brother don't think
he is making up stories, instead, they found the answers that they were
looking for. Apparently, memories about previous life will fade away
gradually along with the growth of the person's age. Cameron never
talks about death with Norma. But he told his best friend not to worry
about death, because you will still come back.
When Norma asked Cameron how he came to stay with her, Cameron said
that he fell down and went into Norma's abdomen. When asking him
about his previous name, he said he was named Cameron in his previous
life as well.
Cameron's story has been filmed into a documentary by TV Channel Five in the U.K. called "The Boy Who Lived Before."
Epilogue
There are some stories about recalling one's previous life in Chinese
historical records. For example in the fourth biography of Jinshu
(Book of Jin Dynasty), it records that the well-known militarist and
writer, Yang Hu, had been the son of his neighbor Mr. Li in a previous
life.
There are some scholars who are studying reincarnation in children. Dr.
Jim Tucker mentioned earlier is one. There are other scholars like
Carol Bowman who wrote a book called Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child and Ian Stevenson who is the author of the book Children Who Remember Previous Lives.
Many detailed cases they have collected all prove the existence of reincarnation.
Cameron's story also tells people that our lives are actually
continuous. Living and death are merely a form of existence. As Cameron
told his best friend, don't worry about the death because you will just
come back again.
Bad deeds committed by people will not vanish when evildoers die. People should remember this and never commit anything evil.
Reference:
"The Boy Who Lived Before"
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001290023-2006410683,,00.html
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/9/19/40076.html
