5 Unbelievable Reincarnation Stories That Are True

Updated August 13, 2021
Silhouette of man standing out from the crowd

Have you been somewhere that felt oddly familiar, even though it was your first visit? For people who have past life memories, events like these trigger an astounding experience. True reincarnation stories may inspire you to seek your own past life. These stories start with children vividly recalling their past lives and the journeys of investigators to find proof.

Woman Lived 150 Years Ago

One of the most famous documented cases of reincarnation comes from the leader in the field, the late Dr. Ian Stevenson. The case centered around a 32-year-old woman, Uttara Huddar, who began describing her previous life in a nearby village when she was a child. Her parents didn't pay too much attention to her snake phobia and fascination with the Bengali culture, which was quite different from their Marathi culture.

However, when her past life personality, Sharada, emerged speaking Bengali, a completely different language, they became concerned. As Sharada, she named 25 people she had known during that lifetime, her relationship with each one, and how she interacted with them. Sharada lived 150 years earlier and lived nearly 600 miles from Uttara's home. Sharada claimed she'd been bitten by a king cobra on her right toe but had no recollection of her death.

When Dr. Stevenson and his team of researchers learned of the case, he was pleased to discover it hadn't been contaminated by self-research, as he'd found so often when investigating reincarnation stories. He wrote a book about Uttara and the 24 incidences of her past life that his team was able to verify.

Six-Year-Old Navy Pilot Reincarnation

In 2004, ABC News aired a profound reincarnation story about a six-year-old boy named James Leininger who, at age two, began to have what many believe were spontaneous past life recalls. It all began innocently enough when he was only 18-months-old and the family visited a war museum.

Gradually, the child's fascination with airplanes increased and developed into recurring traumatic nightmares of a burning plane crash. He would wake up screaming, "Airplane crash! Plane on fire! Little man can't get out!" He drew detailed pictures of the fight that claimed his past life. He signed the drawings as James 3, stating he was the third James.

As he began to develop speech, James started telling his parents about his former life as a fighter pilot in the World War II Pacific Campaign. James not only named the kind of plane he flew but also the name of the carrier, Natoma. He named a pilot, Jack Larsen, who had witnessed his death. All of these statements were verified as true facts. His parents later identified James M. Huston, Jr., as the name of the only pilot from the USS Natoma Bay who died in the battle James described. Since the pilot was a Jr., it was surmised James Leininger considered himself to be James III.

His parents managed to track down Jack Larsen and confirmed he'd seen James Houston's plane hit and crash. They also contacted James's sister from his former life. The sister confirmed the statements James made about their family and their father's alcoholism. She was convinced that James was her brother reincarnated. Eventually, his parents published a book about James's story.

Spitfire Pilot

Reincarnated 13-Time Golfer Winner

A three-year-old boy, touted as a golfing prodigy, claims he is 13-time winner Bobby Jones. The little boy called Hunter (not his real name) received a kid's set of plastic golf clubs when he was two years old and was immediately hooked. While watching a video clip from the 1930s that aired on the Golf Channel, Hunter pointed to Bobby Jones and announced that was him when he was big. After that, he insisted his parents call him Bobby since it was his real name.

In an attempt to verify what Hunter was saying, his father showed Hunter six photos of 1930s golfers. Hunter pointed to the photo of Bobby Jones and said, "That's me!" Curious, Hunter's father showed the boy several houses that included one of Bobby Jones's childhood home. Hunter looked at all the pictures and when he got to Bobby's childhood home. He said it was home.

Hunter's golfing talent grew quickly, and he was accepted into the 5-year-old class. Hunter is living up to his reincarnated claims, having won 41 out of 51 junior tournaments. Twenty-one of those were in a row. Strangely, people who don't know about the little boy's claim comment to his father that the child swings like Bobby Jones. The little boy proclaimed to his parents that the Augusta course is his favorite. It so happens that Bobby Jones founded the Augusta National Golf Club and helped to design it. Jones had tremendous influence on the game and was co-founder of the Masters Tournament. No one is saying he's destined to be the next Bobby Jones. Instead, they are predicting he'll be the next Tiger Woods!

Naval Officer of Pearl Harbor Attack

One reincarnation story left an impression on Dr. Frederick Lenz, who wrote in his book, Lifetimes, True Accounts of Reincarnation, about the verified claim by a boy named Charlie, who at age four, recalled his death at Pearl Harbor.

Mary was shocked when her four-year-old son, Charlie, said, "I died once, and it hurts." It all began when Mary took her daughter and son to a cliff diving performance and on the way back to their car, Charlie blurted out, "I died once!" Mary thought he said dived and asked him when he had dived. Young Charlie quickly corrected her. "No. I died once, and it hurts!"

Mary asked how he died, and he replied that his leg was badly hurt. Over time, Charlie's story was pieced together through these conversations. In his past life, he was born an only child named James Kellow from San Francisco. When he was in his 20s, Kellow was a naval officer and served onboard a warship. The ship was bombed and exploded. James and three other men made it into a lifeboat and when they got to shore, James dragged the only surviving crew member onto the beach. James fell onto the beach and died.

Mary decided to take Charlie to visit the decommissioned USS Alabama, having misheard the name of the ship. She didn't find James Kellow on the ship's roster and the guide told her that the Alabama was never hit, but the USS Arizona was. While there, Charlie scooted about the ship as though he were a seasoned sailor. Later, his mother began researching the USS Arizona, lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eventually, she was able to check the Arizona roster and found an officer, James Kellow from San Francisco.

Dr. Lienz verified these and other aspects of Charlie's story, including the recovery of Officer Kellow's body and those of the men in the lifeboat after the Arizona was struck with a Japanese torpedo bomb. The bomb hit the ship's magazine and exploded on December 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship is still lying at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial just out onto the water, just above the ship's hull.

Battleship firing guns

Reincarnation of a Priestess and Mistress of Seti I

The reincarnation story of Dorothy Eady is a fascinating story that began when she died at the age of three. She fell down a staircase and was pronounced dead by the family doctor. Imagine the doctor's shock when he received a call to come back to the house not an hour after he'd left the grieving parents, who were now telling him that their little girl was alive.

This was the beginning of Dorothy's lifetime belief that she was a reincarnated Egyptian priestess who lived 3,300 years ago. The revived Dorothy no longer spoke with a British accent, but an Egyptian one. She began having vivid dreams of a temple with a lush garden. She constantly begged her parents to take her home. Instead, they took her to the British Museum and when Dorothy saw the Egyptian statues, she ran over to them, kissed their feet, and hugged them, declaring to her parents that these were her people.

When Dorothy found a picture of the Egyptian Temple of Seti I, she told her parents it was her home. Her obsession with Egypt led her to move there with her Egyptian husband and to name her son Seti. She soon recovered her memory of being Bentreshyt (harp of joy). She was a priestess and the mistress of the Pharoah Seti I. She broke her vow of celibacy when she became his lover, but to make matters worse, when she became pregnant, she committed suicide to spare the Pharoah public humiliation.

Eventually, Dorothy's past life obsession destroyed her marriage that ended in divorce. However, she remained in Abydos, working with the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. Her knowledge of ancient Egypt astounded archeologists. Few people had the privilege of seeing inside the Temple of Seti I, but the Department wanted to test Dorothy's claims. Archeologists led her into the dark temple and asked her to describe it. She passed with flying colors, describing everything inside the temple even though she couldn't see anything. Outside, she pointed out where the garden had been and, upon excavation, tree stumps were unearthed. Dorothy enjoyed a full life working with archeologists at the ancient Temple of Seti I site. She was given the nickname, 'Omm Sety' ('Mother of Sety') in honor of her son. Her contribution to understanding ancient Egypt was highly valued.

Unbelievable Reincarnation Stories That Are True

Many researchers have dedicated their lives to the study of reincarnation using various scientific protocols. This has resulted in well-documented cases that seem to point to the existence of reincarnation.

Trending on LoveToKnow
5 Unbelievable Reincarnation Stories That Are True