Has your child lived before?

In this fascinating, controversial, and groundbreaking book, Carol Bowman reveals overwhelming evidence of past life memories in children. Not only are such experiences real, they are far more common than most people realize.

Bowman's extraordinary investigation was sparked when her young son, Chase, described his own past-life death on a Civil War battlefield--an account so accurate it was authenticated by an expert historian. Even more astonishing, Chase's chronic eczema and phobia of loud noises completely disappeared after he had the memory.

Inspired by Chase's dramatic healing, Bowman compiled dozens of cases and wrote this comprehensive study to explain how very young children remember their past lives, spontaneously and naturally. In Children's Past Lives, she tells how to distinguish between a true past life memory and a fantasy, offers practical advice to parents on how to respond to a past life memory, and shows how to foster the spiritual and healing benefits of these experiences.

Perhaps the most moving, convincing, and best-documented evidence yet for life after death, Children's Past Lives will stand alongside the classics of Betty J. Eadie, Raymond Moody, and Brian Weiss in its power to comfort, uplift, and transform our thinking about life after death.

Everywhere I went, I tactfully steered the discussion to the subject of children's past life memories. I was getting skilled at slipping it into almost any conversation. Just by bringing up the subject everywhere and often, I found the cases were there right in my own back yard.

I first met Tiiu at tea at a friend's house. She looked like a good fairy with her white-blond hair, sparkling, swimming pool-blue eyes, and puckish grin. I liked her immediately. She was fun to listen to and enlivened the conversation with her sharp views and quick retorts. When I had the opportunity to mention children's past life memories, she didn't hesitate a second.

"Oh," she said, "Liia had a past life recollection just last year. I'm sure that's what it was."

Tiiu told what happened:

When Liia was two years old, we were riding in the car together; Liia was in her car seat in the back looking out the window. We went over a bridge with aluminum guardrails that spanned a steep ravine, when suddenly she said in a clear, excited voice, "Mommy, this is just like where I died!" She was not upset, just very matter-of-fact.

I said, "Liia, what are you talking about?"

"I was in my car, and it fell off the bridge into the water, and I died."

I was shocked by what she said and pulled off the road so I wouldn't have an accident. I then asked her, "Where was Mama?"

"You weren't with me that time."

I was amazed at what Liia was telling me. I wanted to find out more, so I ventured, "Well, who was driving the car then?"

"I was big. I could reach the pedals," Liia answered.

I wondered, how did Liia know that you drove the car with pedals? She always sat in the back in her car seat and couldn't see what my feet were doing.

I continued, trying not to lead her, "Then what happened?"

"I didn't have my seat belt on, and I fell out of the car and into the water." Then she put her hand up on the back of her head and continued, "Mommy, I was lying on the rocks. I could feel the rocks on my head." She moved her head back and forth to show me how her head was positioned on the rocks. And she added, "And I saw the shiny bridge." She then pointed up and tilted her head back and said, "I saw the shiny bridge and the bubbles going up." Her eyes gazed upward.

This floored me. How could she know about the bubbles? At this point in her life, she had never been underwater because she didn't swim. She doesn't put her face in the water in the tub. She had never watched television at all--I know because I'm her mother, and I didn't let her watch until she was older. Yet she said, "I could see the bubbles going up, and the sun on the bridge through the water."

For the next year and a half, she talked about this often, always with the same detail, never with any variation. She was always very cheerful and matter-of-fact; remembering dying didn't seem to bother her at all. And the amazing thing about all this is that Liia has always been a fanatic about wearing seat belts. Even before she could talk, she would always make sure that her seat belt was fastened before she rode in the car. And as soon as she knew enough words to make demands, she insisted that everyone else in the car wore a seat belt too, every time we drove anywhere.

Like so many of the Harrison cases, Liia's memory was benevolent. It didn't cause any problems. On the contrary, it helped Liia's parents better understand her by providing a logical explanation for her curious obsession with auto safety.

A couple of months after my ad in Mothering came out, in January 1993, I received a call from Colleen Hocken, a soft-spoken mother of three from the Midwest. Over the phone Colleen nervously related the story of her three-year-old son, Blake, who, she felt, was remembering a traumatic past life death.

Colleen told me that six months previously she had seen psychiatrist Brian Weiss, the author of Many Lives, Many Masters, discussing past life therapy on Oprah. Colleen had never thought about reincarnation before, but she was fascinated by what Dr. Weiss had said about using past life therapy with his patients. He mentioned that children sometimes tell adults about their own past life experiences, but that most parents think their children are making up a fantasy story. As she listened to Dr. Weiss, Colleen mulled it over and thought, "Gee, my kids never say anything unusual."

The very next day Blake, who had just turned three, was standing at the front door, watching his older brother, Trevor, wait for the school bus. Colleen, who was in the other room, heard Blake yell out the front door, "Get out of the street, the bus is coming!"

Colleen rushed to the front door to make sure Trevor was all right. She found Blake standing at the door with his hand to his left ear saying, "My ear hurts."

"Why does your ear hurt?" Colleen asked.

"A truck hit me," Blake answered.

Colleen, assuming that a child in play school had hit him with a toy truck, asked, "Who hit you with a toy truck?"

"A man did."

"A man hit you with a toy truck?"

"No," he insisted, "a big truck."

"A big truck like the ones driving down the street?"

"Yah," affirmed Blake.

Colleen, who was trying to make sense of what Blake was telling her, asked, "Where were you when you were hit?"

"In the street."

At this point Colleen immediately thought back to what Dr. Weiss had said on Oprah the previous day. Later she explained her state of mind: "I didn't want to dismiss what Blake was saying; I was real curious at this point as to what he was trying to tell me. But I didn't want to put words into his mouth either, so I asked, "And then what happened?"'

Colleen listened carefully as Blake continued his story. He explained to his astonished mother how the truck had really hit him. She questioned him, "Where did you get hurt?"

"All over. I went under the wheels." Blake made sweeping motions with his arms over his left side, demonstrating how the wheels of the truck had run over him. Colleen could see the pain on his face as he showed her how badly he was hurt.

"Then what happened?" ventured Colleen.

"Man put me in the truck and took me to a school." Colleen commented that any large building was a "school" to three-year-old Blake. She interpreted this to mean that he had been taken to a hospital.

"Where were Mom and Dad when this happened?"

"Gone bye-bye at the store."

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Excerpted from Children's Past Lives by Carol Bowman. Excerpted by permission of Bantam, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Tags: Child Psychology, Past Life Influences

About the Author

Carol Bowman lives with her husband and two children near Philadelphia. Since beginning her research into children's past lives, she has become recognized as a pioneer and leading expert in this new field. She lectures and writes to share the news of children's past life memories with professional therapists as well as parents. Bowman continues to promote research into the phenomenon of children's past life memories and wants to hear from anyone who has a story to share. More