A Child's Reflection: Hollywood Memories from Another Life

Ryan, a young boy from Oklahoma, began experiencing nightmares that his parents couldn't alleviate when he was just four. "He kept talking about his heart exploding and about Hollywood, which is very far from Oklahoma," recounts his mother, Cindy. After a challenging year, Ryan sat down next to his mother and declared, "I have something to tell you. I used to be someone else." However, Ryan's parents are Baptists who don't believe in reincarnation. Consequently, Cindy refused to listen to Ryan and didn't share her son's words with her husband.

Ryan continued to speak about Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, claiming he had been married five times, traveled across Europe, and that his agents constantly changed their last names. His mother's curiosity was piqued, and she decided to investigate. She started researching Hollywood's studio era and shared some library books with Ryan. One day, as Ryan flipped through one of these books, he pointed to a publicity shot for the 1932 film 'Night After Night.' A seemingly insignificant character in the background caught his attention. "That's me," he asserted. His mother looked into it and discovered the character was played by a man named Marty Martin, who later became a Hollywood agent.

Ryan and his mother

At this point, Ryan's parents decided he needed psychological intervention. The family reached out to Dr. Jim Tucker, a renowned child psychologist in the U.S. specializing in children who claim to recall past lives. "There's something unique about Ryan," Dr. Tucker observes. Beyond vividly recounting his past life, Ryan's narratives accurately matched Marty Martin's life details, a man unknown to the public, including Ryan's family. Even Dr. Tucker was unaware of Martin until a film archivist assisted in connecting them with one of Martin's daughters. Together, they uncovered no fewer than 55 precise facts from Ryan's alleged former life, including the number of Martin's children, the street he lived on, the number of siblings he had, and the five marriages Ryan often mentioned.

What astounded Dr. Tucker the most was a conversation he had with Ryan during one of their sessions. Ryan expressed confusion about why Hashem wanted him to die at 61 and be reborn as a baby. Initially, this seemed contradictory: Marty Martin's official death certificate claimed he was 59. However, when Dr. Tucker reviewed old census records, he discovered Ryan was right, not the death report: Martin indeed died at 61.

As Ryan grows older, he is gradually forgetting his past life as Marty Martin. Nonetheless, Dr. Tucker ensures the tale won't be forgotten. He discusses Ryan's case extensively in his latest book 'Return to Life,' which covers children in his practice who recall past lives.