Many Lives Across Time and Space? Enthralling Tales of Reincarnation

The idea of reincarnation and life after death has been with humanity, arguably, since its collective understanding of its own existence. And today, in our contemporary era, not only is the idea of past and future lives a matter of legitimate debate, even in mainstream circles, but advancements in modern sciences such as quantum physics may take us closer to understanding such thought-provoking and potentially reality-altering phenomena than ever before. Indeed, if reincarnation were one day proven to be “real” – however we might define it – then it would essentially mean that each one of us, as well as everyone who has ever lived, is immortal, with many lives to be lived again and again, perhaps until the end of time itself.

However, rather than whether reincarnation is real, we might ask just what it is, and what it represents. Is it proof of a human soul, for example? And is reincarnation the inevitable destiny of all human beings or just some, and if that is the case, who, or what, decides who lives again and who doesn’t? Such questions are still being grappled with today and have been for thousands of years. We know that many legends of the ancient world speak of the gods being “reborn” into the rulers of the day, for example. Many philosophers of ancient Greece pondered if the human soul would go on to live again and if it had lived before. Even as (relatively) recently as the dark days of the Inquisition, to voice such beliefs of reincarnation would have likely resulted in you being burned at the stake as a heretic.  

In the modern age, while many still resist even the possibility of such things as reincarnation, much more serious research has been carried out, with several intriguing details highlighted, not least that of the many people who claim to be able to recall a past life; a large proportion of them are children. It is worth noting the musings of the great Carl Sagan, for example, who stated (admittedly, decades ago) that, “young children sometimes report details of a previous life, which upon checking, turn out to be accurate, and which they could not have known about in any other way than reincarnation!”

Sagan isn’t alone in his deductions. Another person who has carried out extensive research into reincarnation is Jim Tucker, who authored the paper Children’s Reports of Past-Life Memories and stated that, “The subjects usually stop making their past-life statements by the age of six or seven, and most (then) seem to lose the purported memories. This is the age when children start school and begin having more experience in their current life, as well as when they tend to lose their early childhood memories!”

Tucker also highlighted several other truly thought-provoking details. Often, although not exclusively, there was a period of less than two years between the birth of a child who would eventually recall their past life and the death of the individual whose life they could recall. Moreover, again, not exclusively but often, the two individuals were in the same country or geographical area, or had some other form of connection. Perhaps more ominously, around 70 percent of the past life memories were of an individual who had died by “unnatural means” – in short, they met an untimely end, such as a tragic accident, or even were murdered. Even more thought-provoking, he noted many examples of a person who could recall a past life that ended in such an unnatural way often had birthmarks on their bodies that corresponded to such an end – so, if a person was shot in the head in a past life, there is a good chance they will have a birthmark in the same location as the fatal wound. He further noted that if a person met such a tragic end, their reincarnated self usually had a fear or phobia in sympathy with it (once more, a person who had been shot in their past life might have a fear of guns or even loud gunshot-type noises).

Perhaps some of the most mind-bending speculations are to consider that past lives might not necessarily be limited to existences here on Earth in the past or future, but on another world altogether as a different form of life entirely – essentially, an alien. Before we examine some of the more outlandish claims of reincarnation, we will turn our attention to some of the claims that have aided in pushing this phenomenon much more into the mainstream, many of which were investigated by the previously mentioned Jim Tucker.  

Arguably, one of the best-known and perhaps most credible cases of reincarnation is that of James Leininger, who claimed he could remember his life as a fighter pilot in the Second World War. According to his family, from as young as three years old, James not only had an intense interest in Second World War aviation, he had intricate knowledge of how each aircraft worked, certainly beyond his age, not least as he had not been exposed to what the Second World War – fought over half a century earlier - actually was. Not only could he draw detailed pictures of a US fighter plane’s drop tank, but he could also break the plane down in a way that only an experienced pilot could. Alongside these amazing abilities, however, James also suffered from intense night terrors. When his family asked him to draw a picture of his nightmares, he drew a plane, in flames, seemingly hurtling towards the ground.

Eventually, his family asked him about his dreams and his drawings, and what they meant. Needless to say, his response was not what they were expecting. He stated with absolute certainty that he was the pilot of the plane. Even more unsettling, he asserted that “the Japanese” had shot down his plane, and he had been in an accident as a result. He then stated, just as matter-of-factly, that “his boat” was the HMAS Natoma. When his parents researched what James had said, they discovered that the US Navy boat existed and it had served against the Japanese in the Second World War. During subsequent investigations of James’ claims, a photograph was shown to him of the crew members of the HMAS Natoma. He went on to correctly identify each of the crew members by name, as well as identifying himself as US Navy Pilot James Houston. Once more, research confirmed that James Houston did serve on the HMAS Natoma and that he had lost his life following an engagement with the enemy. Just to add to James’ credibility, when his description of his (Houston’s) demise and the circumstances surrounding it was compared to the surviving crew members of the unit, they matched perfectly.

Another thought-provoking, if disturbing, case of apparent reincarnation is that of five-year-old Luke Ruehlman. When listening to him play, Luke’s mother, Erica, often heard him refer to someone as “Pam.” Eventually, Erica asked Luke who Pam was, to which he replied that he “was Pam but I died,” adding that he “went up to Heaven” but was “pushed back down!” He then stated, “When I woke up, I was a baby, and you named me Luke!” This response, as we might imagine, startled Erica, not least as Luke had made several matter-of-fact statements that he “used to be a girl,” and that he “wore the same earrings as mom,” but he had black hair.

Despite her shock, Erica pressed Luke further, asking where Pam used to live and how she died. Luke offered that he (Pam) lived in Chicago and that he “took the train a lot!” Ultimately, Pam had died in a fire when she was forced to jump out of a window. As unnerving as Erica found these statements from her son, she immediately began researching what he had told her. To her shock, she discovered that in March 1993, at the Paxton Hotel in Chicago, a fire had ripped through the building and left 19 people dead. One of those who perished in the blaze was a lady named Pam Robinson, who had died after the smoke and flames had forced her to jump from one of the hotel windows.

Another fascinating claim of recollections of a past life surfaced in Scotland in 2009 when two-year-old Cameron Macauley suddenly began talking about “another life” where he lived in a “white house” on the island of Barra. Moreover, he offered even more details, stating that he had owned a black and white dog and was the son of Shane Robertson. He was, though, he claimed, killed when he was knocked down by a motorist. What caused the most anguish for his parents, however, not least because of the distress they could see it caused Cameron, was when he stated, which he did often, that he “missed his other mother!”

Eventually, the family decided to visit the island with Cameron, and he promptly led them to a white house on the beachfront. As if that wasn’t proof enough, the family discovered that a family called the Robertsons did indeed live there. Furthermore, not only did Cameron know his way around the house as if he had lived there his entire life, but the black and white dog he had spoken of was also present. In fact, almost every detail Cameron offered matched; all, that is, apart from the name of his alleged father, Shane, which was incorrect. The case is another one investigated by the previously mentioned Jim Tucker, and he noted, regarding the incorrect detail, that this simply could have been due to Cameron getting older and so recalling less and less, as he had noted with many children who could recall past lives.

There is little doubt that one of the strangest cases of reincarnation came to light over half a century ago, in England in the 1950s. The story begins on May 5th, 1957, when John and Florence Pollok, along with their two daughters, 11-year-old Joanna and six-year-old Jacqueline, were driving through Hexham, where they lived, when they were involved in a horrific car accident in which both of the children were killed. John and Florence, as we might imagine, were shattered by the double loss. Around a year later, however, on October 4th, 1958, Florence gave birth to twin girls, whom the couple named Gillian and Jennifer.

Several weeks after their birth, John and Florence made a remarkable discovery, one that filled them with dread and comfort at the same time. Jennifer had clear birthmarks on her forehead and waist – in the same place as Jacqueline, one of their daughters, who had died in a car accident the previous year, had the same birthmarks. The couple put the discovery out of their minds and, in an attempt to move on with their lives, moved to the north of England for a fresh start. However, as the years went by, the two twin girls began asking for toys that not only did they not own, but that had belonged to their deceased sisters. The high strangeness continued when the family decided to move back to Hexham several years later. To their amazement, despite never having been there before, the two twins knew the area as if they had lived there all their lives. If there was any doubt that their twin girls were the reincarnated souls of their two daughters who had died in the car accident in May 1957, that was wiped away when observing the two girls' reaction whenever a car approached their vehicle, which was one of absolute fear and terror.   

Although many of the cases we have explored have featured people recalling past lives from relatively recently, there are cases of people recalling past lives from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years ago. Perhaps one of the most well-known and intriguing of these is the case of Dorothy Eady, who claimed she was once the unknown lover of one of the most powerful Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. And while such claims might be easy to dismiss as fantastical nonsense, when Eady began revealing information about archaeological sites that had not been released to the public, in some cases, had yet to be discovered, people began to take her claims much more seriously.

Eady was born in London in 1904 and had a perfectly normal childhood until the age of three, when a serious head injury caused her to be declared officially dead for several moments. She did, though, undergo an apparent miraculous recovery and appeared, at first, to be unaffected by the injury. However, as the months and years went on, her parents began to notice a distinct change in her behavior, not least her constant and sudden demands to “return home – to Egypt!”

Not only did the young girl begin to speak about life in ancient Egypt in amazing detail, but she claimed she had once lived there. Moreover, she insisted that she was a priestess named Bentreshyt and had lived in the Temple of Pharaoh Seti I. As the years went on, more and more details would emerge regarding Eady’s alleged life in ancient Egypt.

As well as the strange claims from their daughter, Eady’s parents began to notice an increasingly volatile side of her nature. She would have random moments of rage, erupting in screams and shouts. What made these rages worse was that she would speak in a language that neither of her parents was familiar with. As her teenage years unfolded, Dorothy became increasingly detached from her life in London and instead spoke and dreamed of her “real life” in Egypt. By the time she was an adult at the age of 28, now married to Eman Abdel Meguid, she finally returned to Egypt. And when she did, further memories of her past life now came flooding back to her. Moreover, she now had the guidance of a spirit named Hor-Ra. And Hor-Ra not only offered guidance to her, but further information about her past life in ancient Egypt.

She learned that her father had been a soldier in the Egyptian army who, following the death of her mother, who had been a fruit seller, had turned her over to the care of the priestesses in the Temple of Pharaoh Seti I. She referred to the Pharaoh as a “living god” whom she eventually met and fell deeply in love with, with the pair even conceiving a child together. However, this child, the high priest insisted, would “represent a great offense against the goddess Isis,” and would cause “many problems for the Pharaoh!” Ultimately, unable to be with the Pharaoh, and with her unborn child all but forbidden, Bentreshyt took her own life, although she often suggested cryptically that she had been ”encouraged” to take such measures.

Alongside these seemingly outlandish claims, though, Eady was able to provide archaeologists at ancient Egyptian sites with information not known to the public, and people began to take her claims more seriously. However, it was when she relocated to Abydos that some of her most thought-provoking revelations came to light. She began to speak of secret chambers and long-buried gardens that had yet to be discovered.

It was, though, some of her seemingly impromptu acts in front of people that received the most attention. Many people reported seeing her press on certain stones in the walls of the temple, looking to many as if she were pressing on them in a very specific order. Whenever she was asked what she was doing during these moments, she offered that she was seeking “hidden doors” and “portals” to other places. Of course, what she meant by this is something up for debate, but to many, it was tentative proof that such otherworldly gateways existed in ancient Egypt and that there was likely a lot more to the ancient Egyptian gods than just mortal men.

While Eady’s claims perhaps garnered the most attention, not least due to the remarkably accurate claims regarding archaeological sites, there are many other claims from people in the modern world who believe they can recall a life long ago.

One such example is James Arthur Flowerdew, also from the United Kingdom. Ever since he was young, Flowerdew has experienced intense dreams of being in a great city surrounded completely by desert. He also repeatedly saw a large temple carved into a rock face in the city. To his amazement, while watching a documentary on the BBC on the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, the pictures on his screen matched the images he had had for years in his dreams.

Realizing his dreams meant something quite profound, Flowerdew immediately went to the newspapers with his claims, and a short time later, the producers of the BBC documentary contacted him, asking if he wished to make a program about his claims, during which he could find out more about his strange dreams and how they connected to the ancient city of Petra. Flowerdew readily agreed, and he and the film crew set out for Petra. Immediately on arriving at the ancient city, Flowerdew claimed he had an intense feeling of “being home!”

It was clear that Flowerdew was fully aware of the layout and intricate details of the ancient city in a way that only a local person would have been aware. Moreover, much like Dorothy Eady, he put forward locations of sites yet to be discovered – claims that proved to be completely accurate, while the sites themselves were significant discoveries in their own right. He further claimed that he believed he had not just lived here decades ago, but hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Perhaps the most startling claim was when he saw a guard station and immediately proclaimed that this was where his previous life had come to an end. He elaborated that someone had stabbed him with a spear in this location, and he had died. Needless to say, many who witnessed these events, as well as those who saw them on the documentary by the BBC, were more than convinced by Flowerdew’s authenticity.  

In the book Died 1513, Born 1929: The Autobiography of A.J. Stewart, Ada Kay wrote of her belief that she had lived before, specifically as the Stewart king, King James IV of Scotland, who was killed at the age of 40 at the Battle of Flodden in Northumberland in 1513. She claimed that since childhood, she had strange and intense memories of standing in a muddy field before being killed by soldiers armed with swords. Moreover, especially as a young child, she often questioned why she wasn’t a prince, why she didn’t live in a castle, and even why her name (her surname) wasn’t Stewart. However, it was only when she visited Flodden Field in the 1960s that her full recollection of her past life came flooding back.

It is also worth our time briefly exploring the claims of Peter Hume, a bingo caller from Birmingham, England, who claimed hypnotic regression had made clear the hazy memories he had recalled all of his life of a life he had lived hundreds of years previously. Ultimately, Hume pieced together that he had once lived as John Raphael and was a guard in Oliver Cromwell’s army in the 1640s. Although much of his recall was murky, he suggested that an important location during this previous life was a small church in the village of Culmstock in southern England. He offered that, at one point, the church had a tower that had a “yew tree growing in it!” This was proved to be accurate, although it was something that was not publicly known. Moreover, the church tower was destroyed in 1676. Even more amazing, the records of the church for the mid-seventeenth century (when Hume claimed he had lived his former life) did indeed show that a John Raphael was registered at the church, and had even been married in it.  

Unlike many of the other cases of reincarnation we have examined here, Jeffrey Keene’s recollection of a past life came to him all of a sudden, as opposed to a long process of strange memories and dreams. While he was on vacation with his family on one of the battlefields of the American Civil War in Sunken Road, Maryland, in the early 1990s, he had a sudden feeling overtake his body that caused him to believe he was about to have a heart attack. Ultimately, the pain in his chest passed, as did the intense dizziness he felt. However, he couldn’t escape the feeling that he had been in this exact location before – a long time ago.

By chance, before they returned home, the Keenes had been invited to a party, and in attendance was a psychic. Jeffrey took the opportunity to speak with her about his surreal encounter on the battlefield. It was during this conversation that she asked if he had considered that he might have had a past life that was somehow connected to the location. Although he hadn’t, as the memories of the field came back to him, he had an overwhelming urge to shout out the words, “Not yet!” He had no explanation for this.

Perplexed but fascinated, Keene continued to research the location, as well as the battle itself. He soon came across a person named General Gordon, who had been at the Battle of Antietam at Sunken Road during the war. What really got Keene’s attention, though, was that Gordon’s most famous moment was when he shouted out the order, “Not yet!” to keep his troops from attacking and consequently falling victim to an ambush. When Keene noted wounds suffered by Gordon during the Civil War, they matched strange markings on his own body. Perhaps strangest of all, on his 30th birthday, Keene was hospitalized with a sudden, intense aching in his jaw. Records show that on his 30th birthday, Gordon was shot in the jaw. Make of all that what you will.   

Another well-known claim of reincarnation, and one that came to the person making such claims completely out of the blue, unfolded in the 1950s when a Colorado housewife, Virginia Tighe, claimed she had lived a previous life as an Irishwoman in the nineteenth century. These memories came to light one evening in 1952 when Virginia was at a dinner party and another guest in attendance, a hypnotist named Morey Bernstein, claimed he could cure her of her persistent sneezes. After putting the young woman in a trance and instructing her to “keep going back, back through space and time,” she suddenly began speaking in a thick Irish accent (she had, incidentally, never been to Ireland in her life).

She then went on to tell Bernstein that she was the daughter of a Cork barrister and had been born in 1798, although she had “married another” in 1818 and was known as Bridey Murphy, a housewife in nineteenth-century Ireland who had died in 1864. She went on to describe – quite accurately – various locations around Cork, and also showed she was knowledgeable in Irish folklore. It wasn’t long before knowledge of her claims reached the media, and The Denver Post subsequently published a three-part series of articles on her. Following this, as well as attention very much being on Tighe, many journalists, historians, and researchers into the afterlife descended on Cork to check if the details she had offered were true.

Whether her claims were true or not, the international reaction to them was most definitely real. According to an article on the case in Medium by Laura Smith, “Scientists issued a report. Preachers warned their flocks of fads in faith. (And) a teenager shot himself, saying that he wanted to investigate reincarnation personally!” In short, her claims became an international talking point stretching out from society and culture, and into the realms of religion and science. Her claims resulted in the book by Bernstein, The Search for Bridey Murphy, which was later made into a film of the same name and topped The New York Times Best Sellers list.

Interestingly, perhaps more so than others who have claimed to have recalled past lives, Tighe and, in turn, Bernstein, faced a barrage of skepticism and even suspicions regarding the claims. It was soon revealed, for example, that Tighe grew up in Chicago and lived opposite a woman named Bridie Corkell, whose maiden name was Murphy. Not only do we have the name “Bridie Murphy,” but Corkell isn’t a million miles from Cork. Moreover, a close aunt of Tighe’s was of Scottish-Irish descent, which some people pointed to as a source of Irish folklore. However, for all of the suspicion and accusations, no one could prove that Tighe was being untruthful, in the same way no one could fully prove her authenticity.

For her part, Tighe claimed to be as surprised as anyone else by the revelations and pointed out that she had never actually claimed to have been a reincarnated Irish housewife from the nineteenth century, other than when under hypnosis. Further adding to her credibility, when Bernstein told her of his plans to turn her account into a book, she insisted that she use a pseudonym for her – which he did, Ruth Simmons – as she didn’t wish to seek further attention. She once stated that, “If I had known what was going to happen, I would never have lain down on that couch!”

Although it wasn’t as far back as some of the far-reaching claims of reincarnation, the case of four-year-old Edward Austrian is very much worth our time here. His family noticed that every time the weather was grey and damp, young Edward would become visibly anxious, even complaining of a severely sore throat. And this behavior had happened since he could first communicate with his parents. Eventually, they asked him what was causing his throat to hurt. He replied that his “shot was hurting!” Needless to say, his parents didn’t understand what he was trying to say. It would, however, become clearer over the coming months.

As Edward learned to speak and communicate better, he began to speak of his “other life” when he was a serving soldier “in the trenches” of the First World War. Just one of his memories, as documented and detailed by his mother, stated:

“We were walking along through the mud. It was damp. It was raining (and) it was cold. My rifle is heavy….I heard a shot come from behind…and I felt my throat fill with blood!”

This is a remarkably detailed and accurate description of the type of warfare on the battlefields of World War One, and one surely beyond the ability of a four-year-old boy to dream up. Incidentally, a cyst was eventually discovered in the young boy’s throat. Whether or not there was a connection between this and the apparent life-ending wound Edward claimed he suffered in his previous life remains open for debate.

While there are many examples and accounts of people who believe they can remember their past life here on Earth, there are others who insist they can recall previous lives on other planets. Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing of such accounts is that of Pauline Delcour-Min from Manchester, England. While we won’t delve into the specifics of it here, Paulinne stumbled onto her past life experience after discovering she had been a victim of alien abduction.

Following the revelations of her alien abduction encounters through hypnotic regression, Pauline sought further information, specifically any past lives she believed she had, of which, incidentally, she believed she had many. She was, though, not fully prepared for the revelations that she was about to uncover.

Pauline requested that a former student of hers, Francesca, conduct and oversee the sessions, which she did in Pauline’s Manchester home. Francesca promptly guided Pauline back through time, and before long, she found herself in a former life, only this existence was unlike anything she was prepared for. Pauline began to describe seeing her surroundings through the eyes of her former self, a former self that incidentally had existed millions of years ago. She described “looking down at my feet,” which were “grey with four toes that are a little webbed!” She continued that she had “slender legs, body, and arms,” with hands that had “three fingers and a little thumb,” which were also “long and slightly webbed!” It was at this point that a sudden realization hit Pauline, and she exclaimed, “I am a Grey!” She elaborated that she was a “mature, adult male” and that her (his) name was “Arkid!” This, though, was only the start.

The session itself continued for several hours, and as the time passed, more and more revelations came forth. Moreover, as well as details of her past life as a grey alien, she began to detail potential reasons behind alien abductions in the modern world. She continued that she was “inside a craft” standing in a brightly-lit room, from which, out of some kind of window, she could see the “overpowering blackness” of outer space. Moreover, she could hear the sound of constant humming that seemed to come from the machines and other electronic devices that surrounded her. She turned her attention to the room, noticing that there were many other grey alien entities.

She stated that these grey creatures controlled the craft she was currently traveling in with their minds and mental powers. She elaborated that the craft, or more specifically, the many machines and devices, were also “aware” and responded to these mental commands. She then offered thoughts coming directly from this other self’s mind, giving us a remarkable insight, if we accept the claims as accurate for a moment, into the mentality of these grey alien entities. She stated:

“Random negative thoughts can be very destructive so we do not have individual thinking anymore, it would be too dangerous. Our collective thinking is so powerful that it washes away individual deviations. The important thing is survival!”

She continued that “too much individual thinking had led to greed” and, ultimately, a complete breakdown of their society, which, in turn, had tragic consequences for their civilization. She stated that this grey alien race had experienced “terrible troubles” with their physical bodies, which “didn’t work properly!”. This was especially so with their digestive systems, which prevented them from properly nourishing themselves, meaning they survived on a “soup-like drink!” This deterioration in their collective health led to them being unable to reproduce as humans did, with such conceptions resulting in abnormalities in their young. As such, “this way of reproducing was abandoned!”

She continued that this destruction of their bodies was a result of exposure to radiation following the wrecking of their home planet by their own collective self-destructive ways, and while some did manage to flee this dying planet, they had already been exposed to this radiation. As they roamed space, despite having “very long lives,” they faced the real possibility of “disappearing from the face of the galaxy!”

She elaborated further that while most of those who had fled their ruined world roamed the vast reaches of space, some members of the higher end of the “hierarchy” resided on “artificial worlds” that they themselves had created. There were, she continued, various bases on moons throughout space, but these were, essentially, “staging posts and refueling stops” rather than permanent residencies, as they travelled through space in an attempt to “find a new home!” There were, though, further, more explosive revelations to come.

She recalled that, as part of the crew of her particular ship, she worked in maintenance and took her orders from “taller greys!” These taller greys, she offered, took their orders from the “machine intelligence, the central computer on our craft that is linked to the other craft!” This detail is one worth examining for a moment. Many UFO researchers have come to similar conclusions about grey aliens operating with some kind of hive mentality, and many researchers – inside and outside the UFO community – have suggested that alien life, if it does exist, could very well be driven by robot or artificial intelligence.

She claimed that after scanning the universe for an undetermined time, they picked up on a solar system whose third planet from its star appeared to offer them the conditions their civilization required. Ultimately, this planet was Earth, “long before man evolved!” Paulinne stated, however, that while Earth offered these space travelers a place to regroup and obtain supplies, it was not “tremendously suitable”, mainly due to there being “too much light” that would cause further damage to their bodies.

They landed on Earth, and Paulinne offered further details from her apparent past life as a grey alien entity. She stated that not long after touching down on the planet’s surface, a depression spread throughout the entire crew, mainly due to the apparent realization that they would likely not find a planet ideally suited to their needs. And while the mission was a successful one, in terms of regrouping and obtaining valuable supplies (mainly minerals that they extracted from the ground and from rocks that they used to make their soup), the mood was generally unhappy. After taking what they needed, they left Earth, and the revelations continued.

After briefly examining the Moon, the crew ventured further out, eventually landing on Mars. Moreover, not only was there an abundance of water on what we refer to today as the Red Planet, but there was a humanoid civilization there. She detailed how this civilization offered them shelter in the vast tunnel systems beneath the Martian surface, which they declined, stating it was not suitable for their purposes. Once more, after topping up supplies, the crew left Mars and ventured out into the outer reaches of the solar system. And it is during these recollections of this extraordinary past life that the most remarkable revelations came.  

As they were leaving the solar system, they found themselves in a meteor shower, which ultimately destroyed their craft. All of the crew died, including Arkid (Paulline). It was her descriptions of the aftermath of their deaths, however, that are of most interest to us here. She claimed that from their “astral bodies,” they found themselves looking down on the wreckage of their spacecraft below. Moreover, their appearance was “between a grey (alien) and a tadpole,” which was a “silvery grey” color. This surreal moment, though, was about to get even more so.

As they floated in outer space, several strange entities appeared – entities that Paulline referred to as “angels” who urged them to go with them “to another dimension!” They did so, and Paulline recalled that this other dimension was “very bright but not the kind of light that hurts!” She then stated that each of them was “melting into the sun – passing through it - through the dimensions that link us to our creator, the ultimate source of all being!”

At this point, the regression session came to an end. Paulinne’s claims and apparent recollections of a previous life as an extraterrestrial entity, though, give us much to think about.

Paulinne Decour-Min is far from the only person to have claimed to have recalled a previous life not on Earth. Researcher and author Alexis Brooks detailed the accounts of a woman she referred to as “Kimberley,” who had undergone hypnotic regression purely out of interest in past lives. What she discovered was quite mind-blowing. She suddenly recalled a life lived tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years in the past. Moreover, she, like the entities around her, was not human. Interestingly, the only detail she could recall of these entities was that their abdomens appeared to glow a bright, golden, white color, and that they communicated telepathically. It was then that she turned her attention skyward. She could see two planets that were about to crash into each other. A moment later, upon their impact, she could feel waves of pure power washing over her. When asked, she couldn’t be sure if she was watching this celestial event from onboard a spacecraft or from a nearby moon or planet.

More recently, in April 2020, a woman named only as “Lisa” claimed she could also recall a previous life as an extraterrestrial entity. After being regressed by Mel Martin, Lisa recalled living as a small alien entity with pink skin and strange “computer-like” eyes. Moreover, she claimed that she was part of a research crew on a spaceship somewhere in space. Her specific role was to research different foodstuffs and how they could be developed into drinkable liquids. She claimed she was standing in a large room with a long corridor stretching into the distance and leading to other rooms on the ship. Furthermore, there were multiple other aliens just like her all around her, each engaged in one job or duty or another. Even more interesting, similarly to Paulinne Decour-Min’s claims of “no individual thoughts” among the crew members, Lisa stated that all those on the ship were equal and had one collective sole purpose. That sole purpose, incidentally, was a mission to repair damage to their home planet so that it would be livable once more.

Although the claims should perhaps be treated with a good pinch of salt, a story around a young boy from Volgograd in Russia is of interest to us here. According to most sources, Boriska Kipri-Yanovich was not only considered a child genius from a very young age, but he could recall a past life on Mars. He claimed that his past Martian civilization was a space-faring one, and that they explored numerous parts of the galaxy using vehicles that used plasma-type energy. Boriska even claimed that he was a pilot of one of these advanced space vehicles, stating that not only did they travel into the far reaches of space, but that they could travel in time also.

He continued that members of this Martian civilization aged to an Earth-equivalent of around 35 years before the aging process stopped, and they lived extraordinarily long lives at this biological age.  This civilization, however, had come to a crashing end following a nuclear war between rival factions on the planet, which had led to nuclear weapons annihilating all life on the planet and leaving it barren, cold, and dead. He also went on to state that his civilization regularly observed human life on Earth, and did so in triangular-shaped craft. Perhaps most remarkable of all, though, were that his civilization had some kind of connection to the civilization of ancient Egypt, going on to say that there is a “mechanism” somewhere behind the ear of the Great Sphinx of Giza that when put in motion, would not only unlock the secrets of the Sphinx, but also of Earth itself.  

It is perhaps interesting to note a detail highlighted by researcher and author Brad Steiger, who has explored around 6000 claims and cases of past lives. He stated that from those, a fifth – 20 percent – could recall a previous existence as a non-human entity on another planet or somewhere other than Earth. And while this might not be an overwhelming percentage of people, it is still significant enough for us to contemplate that not only could reincarnation be a very real state or process, but that it might not be limited to existences on this planet.

With this idea of “otherworldly reincarnation” in mind, it is perhaps worth considering the idea that alien abductions have a bizarre connection to reincarnation. Nick Redfern relayed the thoughts and conclusions of Whitley Strieber in his book Immortality of the Gods: Legends, Mysteries, and the Connection to Eternal Life, who offered that these alien visitors were a “catalyst to personal evolution, alchemists of the soul. In a word, they are transformers!” He continued that these alien entities “had the ability to extract the immortal, human soul from the physical body” and that they “did so on numerous occasions!” Moreover, these entities “recycled souls” and then sent them back to our realm of existence – essentially, they oversee the reincarnation of human souls. If there is any truth to such claims, we might ask, just where do these alien entities – grey alien entities behind the alien abduction phenomenon – sit in the pecking order of the universe? Who are they overseeing this “recycling of souls” for and why?  

Bob Lazar made similar statements to George Knapp, stating that he had seen official government documents that described human beings’ relationship with these alien entities as one that saw us being “containers of souls!” Is Lazar describing the same details as those offered by Strieber?

Ultimately, reincarnation, what it might be and what it might mean, remains the topic of intense debate, one that an increasing number of mainstream scientists and researchers are joining. Whereas these instances were once dismissed almost universally outside of those who delved into them, today, with the exploration of quantum physics and theories thereof, many are much more open to the idea of reincarnation than they perhaps once were.

Given that quantum physics is forcing us to reevaluate what we understand our collective reality to be, as well as the experiments with white noise that appear to suggest some form of existence beyond death, we might imagine that reincarnation, and, ultimately, just what the human soul is, will eventually be explained by science. Does, for example, the human soul simply become a form of energy that exists on a frequency level undetectable to human beings? Is this what we would understand as ghosts or spirits? And might these energies, admittedly in ways we don’t yet understand, sometimes, somehow, become infused with a newborn infant, perhaps even a fetus before birth, and then, ultimately, live again?

Might future generations look back at how our generation views reincarnation, how we look back in despair at how society treated mental illness in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before better, scientific understanding prevailed? We would, for example, have to reassess just what consciousness actually was, and where it exists. If we return to quantum physics for a moment, one of the increasing trains of thought by many scientists is that the universe and everything in it, “at its most basic level,” only exists when it is being observed. Indeed, certain photons are only considered to exist when they are observed, meaning they require some form of interaction to become real. This would force us to ask the question: Does consciousness react to its environment, or does it create it?

Indeed, understanding reincarnation would not only help us understand what happens to a person after death, but would shine a light on the very nature of our collective reality, where we have been before, and where we might go after our lives on this Earthly realm are over. It is but one piece of a complicated puzzle that permeates human existence and makes up the fabric of our everyday lives.