Have you ever given any thought to reincarnation. I know it seems kind of hard to grasp the idea that who you are could actually be transplanted into another body with a whole different life and a different set of circumstances. Right, But think about this. What about the mom of a three year old who told her that in another life
he was a woman who died in a fire. Plus, there are big names like Henry Ford, General George Patten, Beatle George Harrison, and author Charles Dickens who were all believers in reincarnation, and some even told stories of their past lives. I'm Mattie Steele. Life after Life. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Does the idea of reincarnation fascinate you, creep you out? Or maybe a
little bit of both. Let me tell you something. When I was a really small little girl, maybe four years old, my brother, who was around six, used to tell stories that always started with, well, well when I was an old man in my other life dot dot dot, and then he'd talk about something he saw or did. My mom said he actually started telling those stories when he was just able to talk at two years old. It wasn't something she encouraged or discouraged. She'd just let him
share and eventually it stopped. But there have been so many stories from other folks that I wanted to explore this idea a little bit. Some are incredibly famous personalities and others just regular folks, often little kids, because researchers say they're more likely to still be able to access those kinds of memories. Now this one's going to give you goosebumps. A young mom, Erica Ruhlman, said her little boy, five year old Luke, was constantly calling dolls and other
toys Pam. He would also talk about once having been a girl with black hair and wearing earrings like his mom wore. So finally Erica asked Luke who PAM was. He said, I was, well, I used to be, but I die and I went up to heaven. I saw God and then eventually God pushed me back down, and when I woke up, I was a baby, and you named me Luke. She pressed him for more details, and Luke told her that when he was PAM, he lived in Chicago. He took the train a lot, and he
died in a fire in a big building. Then he made a hand motion as though someone was jumping out of a window. When Erica googled the facts, she found a news story about a fire in the Paxton Hotel in Chicago in March of nineteen ninety three. Nineteen people were killed in the fire there, including a woman named Pam Robinson, who died when she jumped out of a window. Erica said, Luke couldn't have known about the fire in Chicago. He'd never even been to Chicago, and they had certainly
never talked about it. And another little kid with memories of another life was James Lininger. He was born in Louisiana in nineteen ninety eight, and during his whole childhood, James had recurring nightmares of dying in a plane crash. By the age of two, he was actually drawing detailed pictures of World War II fighter planes. Then he kept
repeating the name junior, James, What would you do? Most parents figured they'd look into it, and they were shocked when they came up with the name James Houston Junior. He was a pilot in World War Two who died in combat in nineteen forty five. James knew everything about him and had even recreated the insignia on the plane's wing before they ever came up with the pilot's name. Now, some people say that in past lives they were iconic
individuals we've all heard of. But here's the thing. There are also a ton of well known folks you wouldn't expect to be believers who have stories to tell. Take founding father Ben Franklin. He famously believed that after death, the human soul returns in a new body. At the age of twenty two, he said his life's work would never be lost because he'd be back in a new and more elegant addition to revise and correct it, and at eighty eight he wrote, I look upon death to
be as necessary to the Constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning, finding myself to exist in the world. I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist. And Henry Ford, admittedly quite the narcissist, explained his accomplishment saying genius is experience. Some seem to think it's a gift or a talent you're just born with, but it's actually the fruit of long experience in many lives.
In a nineteen twenty eight interview, Ford said, I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was twenty six years old. Neither religion nor work gave me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if you cannot utilize the experience you collect in one life in the next. When I discovered reincarnation, it was as if I had found a universal plan that gave me a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. Some are older souls than others,
and so they know more. The discovery of reincarnation put my mind at ease, and I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life can give us. And this guy, General George Patten, maybe the toughest and most feared general in World War Two, spoke extensively about his multitude of past lives, almost all military centric. He claimed to have been a prehistoric mammoth hunter, a Greek foot soldier, a medieval warrior, and a marshal
for Napoleon, just to name a few. He believed that after this life he would be reborn to lead armies again. He wrote poetry and at least one focused on his past lives. Through a Glass Darkly reads in part so as through a glass and darkly the age long strife, I see where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me. And finally, there's the late Beatle George
Harrison's take on reincarnation. Through his belief in the Hari Krishna movement and transcendental meditation, he maintained that we could stop the cycle of reincarnation through spiritual growth. His song Art of Dying explores that idea. But George did see the value of rebirth when he said, friends are all souls we've known in other lives were drawn to each other.
That's pretty beautiful. All these stories, whether spiritual truth or some kind of neurological trick, remind us of our deep desire to understand who we are and what essential part of who we are will last beyond this lifetime. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and as always, feel free to dm me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.