The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot

This book was given to me by my husband's youngest brother while visiting him in Lake George, NY. I read it off my Kindle while my husband drove us home to Florida. The reading of this story is meaningful...I'm seeking answers and found them in this book. It's well written, informative and enlightening.

The subject matter of this book is so rich, I was really looking forward to reading it. However, by page 5 I was already annoyed with the mother who had twice taken the opportunity to be vain in print. Technically, it was Ken Gross doing the writing, but Andrea Leininger was listed as one of the authors, so I hold her responsible. Reading about the how beautiful the mother was was truly irrelevant to the story, and unfortunately, this self-flattery would continue throughout the book. There was much thrown into the mix that was not relevant, however, if you are willing to skim through those parts, you will enjoy the boy's story, which truly makes a compelling case for his having been re-incarnated.

I have read widely on the subject of reincarnation and this is one of the most readable and believable books I have come across. I won't say it is great literature because it's not intended to be. It is what it is, the fascinating account of a small boy born with a Second-World-War fighter pilot's memories. If you are a doubter or a straight out non-believer then this book is for you because it will set you thinking and make you feel uncomfortable in your certainties.

The first 30% of this book is literally just talking about the overprotective parents. 20% actual talks about James and his reincarnation and 50% of it talks about WWII history. So long story, if you want to read a book about WWII history.. This is a good book. If you want a book about Reincarnation... keep looking. Yes , they have a very valid case of reincarnation, but the book does not focus on it.

This amazing narrative has helped me to open my mind to more possibilities: for one, that just maybe this little boy's soul is that of a deceased World War Two pilot. As the authors weave their tale of discovery, the reader is led along on an adventure. We follow James' mother, who out of concern for her toddler, wants to get at the root of her son's horrific night terrors. We are introduced to her supportive sisters and mother. We see a doubtful father in his quest for truth. I myself do not believe in actual reincarnation. I believe in one birth, one life for our souls on earth. So how do we explain such detailed flashbacks in some children and even adults? I lean toward "cellular memory" in which we see the experiences, and tend toward the preferences, of our surviving ancestors, at least those who lived until they had offspring of their own to pass on their genes. Studies done on mice suggest strongly that there is such a function in mammalian cells. I also believe that when we dwelled with our Heavenly Father, before our births, we had friends that meant so much to us that we observed the lives that they led once they were born on the earth and we cheered for them and cried with them. We may remember their experiences so vividly that we recall them and are led to believe that they are our very own. That does not explain the detail that young James brings to his conversations with his parents when he is old enough to tell them about the nightmares that he endures. A mere toddler, he was able to give detailed descriptions of certain planes, their parts and their capabilities. There is one peculiar item of information that he gives his parents that occurs just prior to his birth that convince the reader (and his parents) that James chose to live again. Perhaps he has unfinished business. I strongly recommend this book.

I found the subject interesting and the case compelling. However, I found Jame's father to be the personification of everything that is wrong with our corporate economy. So 5 stars on Jame's story and a -5 on his dad.

I ordered the book from the store after seeing a youtube video. After reading the book, I do believe in reincarnation. There is no way that a kid at the age of 2 and 3 could know that much pertinent info about Huston, his crew mates, planes, etc you name it. Definitely recommend you buy the book. It will open your eyes as it did mine.

I saw a few reviews here that complained about the writing style of this book, and they all make valid points. Still, the story is riveting and if you're interested in the subject you'll be really happy you read this! And if you want to read a book that's a different kind of reincarnation story, get Love from Both Sides: A True Story of Soul Survival and Sacred Sexuality -- it's really well written and it's sexy and fun.

This book arrived promptly and in excellent condition. It is an easy read,and the content is quite
disturbing. I wondered if I really needed to know some of that information; it fills in many gaps
in my understanding of what happened in the Pacific part of WW11. I would, and may, read it again.

I have enjoyed Carol Bowman's books in the past so this was a natural for me when I saw the Leiningers interviewed on GMA about their son's past life memories. The Leiningers do not present a very sympathetic picture in the beginning of the book - shallow corporate power couple, obsessed with perfection, frantic over their son's acceptance to the "right" kindergarten making their gradual forced conversion to belief in reincarnation more powerful. I especially loved the last chapters where Bruce is underemployed and begins really opening his heart to the elderly WWII pilots and surviving family members; it shows real growth from the absentee father who had been working 12-hour days to the man who cherishs every minute spent with the crew of the Natoma Bay. Therein lies the rub: 50% of the book is spent viewing the life of the Leiningers pre-conversion, as average American consumers - decorating house, attending cookouts, choosing wall paper and wall colors. Only the last two chapters document James meeting his Natoma crew mates, recognizing them instantly by voice, meeting his sister Anna and knowing intensely personal details of her girlhood, and meeting airplane pilots who recognize him as a trained professional. These astonishing meetings are given barely one sentence each while whole pages earlier in the book are devoted to Andrea's housecleaning regimes. The writers state that James was the star of the Natoma crew reunion, but no details are given. It feels like they ran out of room at the end of the book, but rather than edit the first chapters they shoehorned all the really interesting material into the last two chapters failing to detail conversations or meetings. Maybe they are saving that for a sequel? Another kvetch, I bought the Kindle version which does not contain photos, maps or illustrations - does the print version contain material other than text? I would have loved to have seen James 2 and James 3 as avatars (reincarnations) are said to closely resemble their immediate past lives.

This was a horribly written book. These authors, the parents of the young protagonist, are so incredibly self-involved that I nearly couldn't finish this book. Often it was doubtful whom the book was even about....the parents or the young boy with the miraculous story. I would have enjoyed it much more if it were to have simply related the facts concisely, which would have taken maybe twenty pages.

Very disappointed in this drawn out story. I was hoping for more of the child's story, instead it dragged on and on for most of the book about the parents. I kept thinking, "why didn't we hear about interaction between the child and the survivors?" We saw the pictures of the boy and the survivors, but no commentary about their interaction. Waste of money. Chip Coffey and the Paranormal on A&E Channel could have done more in an hour on TV.

This was an amazing story! I'm usually quite dubious when it comes to such topics. Especially when it comes to the religious ramifications of "reincarnation." But then, as a realist myself, the concepts of "Christ" and "Salvation" have their own place on that shelf I call "Faith."

It was an incredible act of faith when Bruce set out to disprove the reincarnation of James M. Huston, Jr. in order to validate his own beliefs. I doubt my faith is nearly as strong. I don't usually go about asking questions that I don't want to know the answers to - but Bruce did. Thankfully, his faith seems to have survived intact. As for me - my mind has opened a little wider and my vision of God is filled with more wonder.

I certainly cannot add anything more to the other reviewers nor the authors of the book, Soul Survivor, for every one have done an outstanding job in their fields of endevor however I am at a loss that aparently no one so far has seen what I see as a familiar spirit that is inhabiting James Leininger.

I'm with Bruce Leininger in that I, too, have a hard time believing in Reincarnation & find familiar spirits are those of fallen angels who live in or around people & know everything about them. Should those effected folks die the familiar spirit goes on about their business for they never die & can later take up residence elsewhere. Since they know everything the past person knew it is no problem for them to rehash the past down to the ninth degree, perfectly.

Fallen spirits are not here to do good even though in James situation so far it has accomplished good & of course I'm NOT his parent but knowing what I know about such things I'd look for a church Pastor/Priest that knew about familiar spirits until I found one that could cast the familiar spirit out of James Leininger before it comes back later & does him harm. They can lay dormant until such a time as they choose & then chaos.

What a tedious repetitive book. OK, I get it... the little man can't get out... The mother's "Panel" is tired of her whining and The husband is stressed with his job. How many times do I have to read these same points? I got it the first time. This made a great 2 minute piece on the Today Show but there is just not enough of a story to justify a novel. There is A LOT of needless, banal filler to stretch the book. I've completely lost interest. Little man can't get out... but I sure can. I'd rather watch paint dry.

Reading this book took way too much effort which is directly attributable to the poor writing of the author. About 80% of the book is wasted space that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter. It drags the real story down and after a while I got the feeling that the author was attempting to "fill space" at the request of the editor. I grew increasingly frustrated with having to read about the everyday errands the family was doing or what they were eating for dinner on such and such day. The actual story could have been told in 20-30 pages and it would have been fascinating.

My anticipation for this book was very high after reading the jacket summary and other reader reviews. I was anxious to learn how the subject's father, Bruce, was able to reconcile his Christian faith with what seems to be a past life experience...as this was to be a major focus of the book. What I found though was that Bruce's christianity is portrayed much more like a genetic predisposition that has to be "worked through". His religious belief seemed to be based on objective reasoning and a sense of duty, more than a personal relationship with his God. I'm not judging his faith, I'm only judging how the author portrayed his faith. The guy may spend his weekends going to door-to-door sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the author doesn't describe him as being of that nature. Because of this portrayal, I never really bought the idea that someone could incorporate reincarnation into Christian dogma.

My final word of advice would be save your $15 and wait until this book is at your public library.

That line was little James’ response to his Mom when she asked him why he picked those unusual names (from the mind [& memory] of a toddler) for his G.I. Joe action-figures!

But I was hooked on the story, long before I got to that line of dialogue on page 157!

As I am a long-time believer for the same reason James’ Mom mentions in the book that you either believe or you don’t, it’s a gut feeling & you somehow just know it to be true, as she said in so many words.

And if you don’t believe for whatever reason, or can’t come to terms with the mystery in this story for any number of frightful misgivings, or maybe want to, but somehow won’t, or really do, but still don’t > you’re missing the point, in my opinion!

James Leininger is still James Leininger, which is what I would want to share with James 3, if & when we should ever meet one day. And I would tell him how smart I think he is & fortunate he really is, to have met his guardian angel, of mystical sorts, or more specifically, in my opinion, a spirit guide, or whatever other label you prefer to attribute aka within your comfort zone, to the somewhat crazy & cathartic chapter in the very young life of James Leininger, as a tender two-year-old toddler, not yet potty-trained!

I wish I could tap into my own past lives with such accurate insight. How curative that must surely be, however obvious the prerequisite is, to be open-minded!

I originally read about James’ story in a small newspaper blurb about 2 years ago & immediately wanted to know more about his unusual story, but I was in the middle of a career change & another change of residence, so I quickly cut-out the news blurb & saved it for another day.

Recently, I found the book his Mom & Dad had written about their son’s incredible account of the end-of-life story of a Navy fighter pilot in WWII.

So, I immediately ordered the book & waited with baited breath (for 8 whole days), to read their astonishing account of a likewise similar adventure I also understood from afar, so to speak, but from a slightly different perspective, as in a familiarity to the bigger-picture, but not in a similar venue w/regard to so many factual details, within my own personal & spiritual story, a long time ago, which made me read their book surprisingly fast in just 2 days, instead of my usual 2 weeks, or sometimes 2 months. While, I am a slow reader, like I am a slow driver because I like to look at all the scenery & carefully digest all the details, so as not to miss a single clue.

Still, I can’t imagine what I would have done with a shrieking toddler in the middle of the night, in the throes of a horrible nightmare, screaming for someone to help him save his life. And there was a fire, too!

But Mom knew best about how to save him from the dark-side & technically chose not to wake him suddenly, instead she massaged his mental state of mind with reassurances that James was now in a safer place.

Yet, I can’t tell you anymore because I don’t want to give away the sublime methodology within the story, toward a subsequent & secure resolution for James & his family. At least, for the time being, anyway. As they say in the story; ‘It’s a natural phenomenon.’

Although, all of that factual information over the span of so many subjective years wherein their day-to-day livelihood was apparently a difficult time for them to reasonably discover an adequate answer for their son’s horrific nightmares. As they referred to the dilemma in the book, w/regard to the barrage of all the intellectual stuff, which; ‘...registered only within the limits of what he (Bruce, the Dad) had previously accepted as true.’

And as I always try to remind myself, to stand-back away from all the daily dust of details & look at the big-picture of what this problem might represent > an opportunity perhaps, rather than a challenge, to be feared or fought against, instead embraced & positively analyzed for some literate life lesson.

Well, it’s obvious I’m still excited about this book & the incredible story of James Leininger, who is just 19-years-old, as of this date.

But I hope he isn’t overwhelmed like an annoyed teenager might tend to be and/or mad at everyone who wants to know, ‘what he wants to be when he grows up’, as I used to get upset whenever anyone always asked me ‘how tall are you?’ & I felt burdened by some emotional need & unexplainable obligation to give them the incremental answer they needed to hear from me about my extraordinary height, even though I was standing right in front of them! And they were somehow oblivious to accept any imaginary number of their own design. Another reason, to read James’ book, to pick a reason & think about it!

So, I would say to James > don’t despair > you’ve been given the gift of insight & you should use it to your best advantage & perhaps, politely tell people to read your book & then wonder what they might do with their own lives, if they only knew some secrets from a past life.

‘Yea, what do you think I should do – there’s some free advice & a supplementary marketing tip, to help you sell more copies of your book, so you can go to college & be whatever you want to be!

‘The story, Bruce (as the fact-minded Dad) is convinced, is a gift to those who need some tangible proof that there is something beyond death, that life has meaning beyond the bare mathematics of a person’s lifetime.’

And the resolution of the challenge is concealed in the simple accolade that his tale needed to be told. And I mean, both stories about both James.

I highly recommend you read the (2009) book, Soul Survivor – The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot by Bruce & Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross, about their brilliant son, James.

And the book is also a beautiful testament & remarkable memorial to all the (21) guys who flew from the same aircraft carrier, as in James’ story, but who sadly lost their lives in their aeronautical fight & (last) flight for freedom, in WWII.

Book Review by Jack Dunsmoor, author of the book, HENRY

The subject matter is good and the story is quite good. Such a good read. It was amazing all the detail this young boy brought back with him. It could shift your thinking. It almost seems the family has found irrefutable evidence of past lives. This is an excellent account of a very unusual happening...a child with vivid memories of a former life & parents who helped him overcome his fears.

It is very well written and I could feel the emotions as my soul traveled along with this family. Having raised a son, who even now in middle age is absolutely terrified of water (as an infant I had to give him sponge baths because I couldn't even put him in a few inches of water in the kitchen sink) My heart ached for Andrea when James had the nightmares. But I could feel her motherly love as she consoled him each time. I also understood Bruce being skeptical about what was happening. But I was glad that he finally learned that being a Christian doesn't eliminate the unusual things in life... it makes them all the more awe inspiring! God bless every life that was touched in this incredible story!

I really like this story, unlike most accounts of children who remember past lives, not only is it very well-documented by the dead pilot's friends & family. 80% of the world believes in reincarnation, this story comes from a culture & family that didn't. The parents of James are educated and logical people. The father does due diligence to try to disprove the link to Reincarnation. The father is uncomfortable with this concept. At some point what the child experiences and more importantly knows can not be explained in any other way. I think of it in a Christian terminology: Pergotory. A place to atone for sin after death and before heaven.

YouTube has a short clip on this if you are not sure if this book is for you. The incident where the child, still in diapers, is looking at a toy plane & states "that's a dwop tank!" (because his mom had called it a bomb) sent chills through my spine.

As an aside, until about 400 AD many Chrstians believed in reincarnation. There was a political fight between the two factions. The Reincarnationists lost & this was the time the New Testament was being codified. As a result, all references to reincarnation wee scrubbed (most notably the Gospel of Thomas It is interesting to note that the Catholic church does not brand the belief in reincarnation) as heresy.

If you want to really know if this book is for you, go to your local library. If they don't have a copy there is always the option of the Inter-Library Loan procedure (books usually take about 3 weeks to arrive). I almost always preview books from the library before purchasing ... it has saved a lot of disappointment.

The subject matter is good and the story is quite good. Such a good read. It was amazing all the detail this young boy brought back with him. It could shift your thinking. It almost seems the family has found irrefutable evidence of past lives. This is an excellent account of a very unusual happening...a child with vivid memories of a former life & parents who helped him overcome his fears.

It is very well written and I could feel the emotions as my soul traveled along with this family. Having raised a son, who even now in middle age is absolutely terrified of water (as an infant I had to give him sponge baths because I couldn't even put him in a few inches of water in the kitchen sink) My heart ached for Andrea when James had the nightmares. But I could feel her motherly love as she consoled him each time. I also understood Bruce being skeptical about what was happening. But I was glad that he finally learned that being a Christian doesn't eliminate the unusual things in life... it makes them all the more awe inspiring! God bless every life that was touched in this incredible story!

I really like this story, unlike most accounts of children who remember past lives, not only is it very well-documented by the dead pilot's friends & family. 80% of the world believes in reincarnation, this story comes from a culture & family that didn't. The parents of James are educated and logical people. The father does due diligence to try to disprove the link to Reincarnation. The father is uncomfortable with this concept. At some point what the child experiences and more importantly knows can not be explained in any other way. I think of it in a Christian terminology: Pergotory. A place to atone for sin after death and before heaven.

YouTube has a short clip on this if you are not sure if this book is for you. The incident where the child, still in diapers, is looking at a toy plane & states "that's a dwop tank!" (because his mom had called it a bomb) sent chills through my spine.

As an aside, until about 400 AD many Chrstians believed in reincarnation. There was a political fight between the two factions. The Reincarnationists lost & this was the time the New Testament was being codified. As a result, all references to reincarnation wee scrubbed (most notably the Gospel of Thomas It is interesting to note that the Catholic church does not brand the belief in reincarnation) as heresy.

If you want to really know if this book is for you, go to your local library. If they don't have a copy there is always the option of the Inter-Library Loan procedure (books usually take about 3 weeks to arrive). I almost always preview books from the library before purchasing ... it has saved a lot of disappointment.

I hate to post a review so low on a book covering a topic that is so intriguing and important to the field of reincarnation, but this was so poorly written that I was forced to skim the book for the relevant parts. The author includes way too many details that are just not important to the overall story. We didn't need to go so in-depth about the Leningers' day-to-day life or Bruce's job. They're stressed out, we get it. I don't need to know what she bought at Sam's Club when she was stressed out sending James to daycare for the first time. The author's choice and words and phrasing was also very awkward and distracting during the entire story. (From Bruce's POV) "But now, in his own marital bed, his child was wide awake and calmly reenacting something so odd..." In his own marital bed? Very awkward way to phrase this scene. I read a lot of non-fiction books, but this was by far the hardest to read.

I'm pretty broad minded and don't have trouble with the idea of reincarnation...I even have some pretty vivid personal early experience and lifelong curiosity about it, but this book is very suspicious. Some self absorbed parents who made a point to advertise that in the first large part of the book to emphasize their "conversion", made me wonder right away if they weren't just setting us up with a pre-determined scenario to prove how valid reincarnation is by showing us what THEY went though to get to that point, so likewise, we should do the same? It felt tedious, contrived and forced, to have to slog through their uninteresting and pointless trivialities to set up the big conversion, and whether or not the stories they came up with were actually the boys or not, by then I didn't even care because I felt like I had been manipulated into their over zealous plot line. The story about the boy was well done, but by then I was already turned off by the efforts to convince, so didn't feel it rang true. Had any of us done some research in the back story for an intriguing concept, we could have also come up with "facts" that just happen to be true or manipulate the details. The story was more interesting BEFORE I read the book.

Soul Survivor is an incredible story that begins with a two-year-old's night terrors that repeat the same theme: a plane is on fire and the occupant can't escape. As the nightmares continue and the child becomes fascinated with planes in general, WWII aircraft specifically, it becomes obvious that there is something strange occurring. Young James is adamant about details of what he claims are memories, not only with regard to specific aircraft, but also other pilots and members of the family which he believes was formerly his. He describes the aircraft carrier from which “his” plane took off and the location at which “he” was killed. As it turns out, his statements were all verified, interestingly by research done by his father, who was trying desperately to disprove his son’s proclamations.

I found this book absolutely mesmerizing. It is written in an easy to read style that places the reader in the center of the family’s drama and asks more questions than it answers. How could a two year old identify the difference between a bomb and a drop tank? How could he know a Wildcat as opposed to a Corsair? What would allow him to know the names of soldiers who were killed in WWII, only months before the man he believed himself to have been was shot down? Where would he obtain the knowledge that allowed him to recognize the sister of the man he believed himself to have been, and to know details of the life she had with her brother? How could he know the name of former/past life friends?

If you believe in reincarnation, this book will enforce that belief. If you don’t believe in reincarnation, this book will give you hours of entertainment trying to find a different explanation.

Some things in life that are universally accepted cannot be proved by rigorous science. The existence of God is one of them. Some of these things can be rightfully referred to as a belief. There are other phenomena that in like fashion fall into this category, like say UFOs and reincarnation. These "beliefs" are not universally accepted no matter how much anecdotal evidence is presented. Quite often these phenomena are held up to question and even ridicule because they clash with other belief systems. This book presents a very strong case for reincarnation. The authors did much diligent research to confirm what they had a very hard time coming to terms with. That is, their very young son was the reincarnation of a World War II fighter pilot who was killed in the war. The father Bruce was indeed a die hard skeptic simply because it conflicted with his own parochial beliefs. The precipitating cause of the parents consternation was that their very young toddler son inexplicably knew way too much about World War II aircraft and the nuances of combat aviation at such a young age. The book goes into much detail how they conducted their research. The believers in reincarnation will cite this book as case closed. The skeptics of course can resort to any manner of counter arguments including calumny. This book is a very light read and those familiar with World War II history will indeed be quite taken aback at the very young person's depth of knowledge.

This does seem to be the best ever documentation of reincarnation. The story is generally well-told with just about every loose end of the story tied up. I was familiar with the story before reading the book because I had seen the History Channel account of the story several times. The only reason I didn't give five stars is because the writing by Ken Gross could be improved for my tastes. I'm not a fan of sentence fragments. Also, I like clear accounts. For example, when month or day and month are given, I like to see the year too, especially in a story where dates and the timeline of a story are important. Most authors don't seem to realize that a reader quite often will take a break from reading a book and then not restart for several days. When the reader resumes reading the book, without clear writing and references in the writing, the reader often has to review already read material know what the author is saying. Also, the lack of the fifth star is due to the fact that I don't think Gross ever finally answered the question as to whether James Huston was actually flying a Corsair on the day he was shot down. I might have missed this fact, but I kept waiting for the definitive statement or discovery to be made, but I don't remember the definitive statement or discovery being addressed by Gross. If I were the editor, I would have strongly suggested to Gross to write an epilog to the story in which he would list all the clues, hints and bits of information that the Leininger parents received from their son and how all the clues and information were shown to be true. This book-end summary would have nicely wrapped up the story in a compact account to tell the story.

I have read some of this book.

I especially liked all the background on the parents life as their psyches influence the environment in which this young boy was immersed. An example of the psychodynamics taking place in this household is seen in the following comment by another book reviewer.

"The parents do not present a very sympathetic picture in the beginning of the book - shallow corporate power couple, obsessed with perfection, frantic over their son's acceptance to the "right" kindergarten making their gradual forced conversion to belief in reincarnation more powerful. I especially loved the last chapters where Bruce is underemployed and begins really opening his heart to the elderly WWII pilots and surviving family members; it shows real growth from the absentee father who had been working 12-hour days to the man who cherishes every minute spent with the crew of the Natoma Bay."

Eighty-five percent of dreams can be interpreted as being compensatory to an existing one-sided consciousness. I have concluded it is the collective unconscious clamoring for attention for a conscious reception of its input into how to live a human life is the reason for this young boys nightmares. Why a 2 year old would be so challenged by content from the collective unconscious (think of it as Natures reservoir of psychic experiences on which other humans now alive can draw upon - a kind of "genetic" inheritance) is always troubling but is typically what happens in the nightmare stage of youth which can last for years. The content of the material encountered could be precognitive information about aspects of the child's coming life and fate and it could also be about the unconscious one-sided psychic environment of the parents which the child dreams about for them as if the child is the only receptive soul in the house. A child is still in the Eros ego state of consciousness as the Logos ego has not yet developed. I guess for this young boy it could mean that he too will develop to be too high in the air, to much into the Logos head like his parents and is in danger of psychologically crashing - using the WW II pilot death crash as a metaphor for his or his parents psychological one-sided condition. Psychologically to crash means to become depressed or develop a bipolar condition. See Jung's book "Children's Dreams", which is also in a Kindle version, for his research on early childhood dreams and what they point to.

Finally, what drew me to this book was the 24 March 2015 HARPER's article "Giving Up The Ghost", pp. 65-71 which discussed this case.

Could this book possibly have been written in a nuttier manner? Apparently, Mr. Gross could not decide if he was writing a book on reincarnation or writing another "Girls From Ames". (Or, in this case, Dallas.) The descriptions of such things as meals, wallpaper, and the mother in general, were absolutely wacko. (Thus, let this be another sign unto women who wish to write about their female relatives or friends--write the book yourself! Or, if you cannot do so, get a female writer or female editor to help you. )

The sad things about the nutty tone of "Soul Survivor" is it suggests that possibly everyone associated with this book is nutty . . . or that anyone who believes in reincarnation is nutty . . . when this is actually a very fascinating story about a little boy who may have been remembering a past life; a story that possibly would appeal to men, who normally do not read books about reincarnation. Hopefully, in the future, a "condensed" version of this book will be released; one that concentrates strictly on the child's dreams and "memories"; on the parents' research on the matter--leaving out all the comments about their daily lives and all the comments from their relatives; and on the stories of the men on the USS Natoma Bay and their survivors.

Afterthoughts: After writing my above review, I searched online for a video on this past life story. I found a two part "Primetime" one. I looked for one, because after reading this book, I did not know what to make of the Leiningers. What I discovered was they came across so much better on the video than they did in "Soul Survivor", especially Andrea Leininger. Now, I think Mr. Gross' narrative not only demonstrates an inability to write about women, but also possible hostility towards them. One can only hope the editors involved in this book do not come back again as book editors in their next lifetime.

I was never a real believer in reincarnation until I read this book. There was a lot about the family's beliefs and especially the father being a true skeptic regarding this issue. I have heard some people complain that it was too much about the parents and not the boy, but I think it was very important to know the background of the family in order to truly understand the story. How could a two year old remember such minutia about the upbringing of James Houston's past life? How could he know the name of WWII aircraft without some prior knowledge? I can go on and on, and while still a skeptic on reincarnation, this book went further to making a believer out of me than anything I have ever read. I have to say that I am a firm believer in the NDEs and even SDEs (Shared Death Experiences), but now I need to find much more about reincarnation.

this stuff is pretty weird - I am not 100% convinced that this is all true and that they didn't just try to make all this up in order to sell a book (i.e. the guy could very well have done a great deal of research and then instructed the boy, etc...) but there are a number of things in the book that are just too weird to just be a figment of someone's imagination - like the uncanny resemblance of the boy to the deceased, the fact that the boy knew where the plane went down, and other details that nobody else seemed to know. I'm sure that maybe the author could have uncovered some of this, but apparently the boy knew information that the family didn't even know. What seems to point to the reality of the book being true to me is that the family seemed irritated by the fact that all this stuff wasn't "normal" and doctors were quick to dismiss all this as "mental illness" and if the father really was this workaholic like he portrays then maybe he didn't have time to do all this research anyway. I don't know. I don't - but regarless it is an interesting story. It is a little choppy and for a true story you need more details, not less. Especially when the story isn't very believable to begin with.

There is much about the supernatural realm that is still undiscovered.

A fascinating true story - challenged by way too much UNrelated information. This is a true account of a boy living in Louisiana named James from age 2 to 4 plagued by nightmares that turn out to be memories of a past life (and death) as a WWII fighter pilot near Iwo Jima in March of 1945. This boy slowly shares with his parents the exact name of his air craft carrier, type of plane he 'died' in - names of military buddies - and many other facts later confirmed by his father's research. This audio-CD was Brutal to listen to - as James's mother gives seemingly endless details of a dirty house they bought, a soiled shower curtain, a dusty fan, an hour-long wait at Burger King, James learning to ride his bike, and the father and his career with off-shore oil drilling in the gulf - Ultra Boring - and NOT pertinent information!! Even with the research - details of Other shipmates family members - who's brother or sister married who -- ZZZZZzzz!!! This book and audio CD would be worthwhile - if someone would be enlisted to severely edit this story - it truly needs it!! A bit of irony - in 1959 the ship Natoma Bay was sold to the Japanese for scrap. Scott MacNeil

My spirtiual journey continues and this book, which was very easy to read, justed added another deep layer of 'knowing' on top of the recent books that I have just read back-to-back. I highly recommend reading 'soul destiny' by Michael Newton as he is one of the best authors in helping you to really understand a lot: for most of us who are back on earth, what Mr Newton has discovered is a much as we need to know!

The book was like a treaure hunt where the current soul reincarnate drops facts to his parents and his father, the biggest critic and also the most diligent investigator, confirmed the truth. Slowly, we 'see' how real reincarnation is and that this journey is a measure how well we learn the lessons we came down to learn. I loved the fact that parents would drop all these lovely revelations amongst their life, which many of us would recognize as normal crisises and yet right in front of them was their little boy, showing them something that they would not ordinarily would consdier in thier christian life?! Very human and touching to see how the father held onto anything to discount what his wife had already accepted. We think we know everything and yet we still remained blind to the prupose of our life on earth (sorry, but religion really does not help the situation at all: I used to be religious and decided it did not explain much other than boxed me in!). Not a scientific book with lot of professional assessments, but just real life stuff that leaves you gobbed smacked that is very real indeed. I am just thankful that this soul reincarnate was allowed to remember as much as he did from his past life (just a tad jealous, but in my case it might be a good thing!)

A fascinating account of an American child and his parents caught in a mystery. Ken Gross does an excellent job of pulling together the facts and incidents that unfolded in the lives of the Leininger family to create a compelling story. From the recurring plane crash nightmares to his casual tossing of facts regarding the USS Natoma Bay, young James reveals memories of another time, another life. He even recalls between lives.

While mother Andrea entertains the idea of a past-life recall, dad Bruce considers reincarnation unacceptable. As an evangelical Christian, reincarnation seems in complete contradiction to his belief system. A born researcher, Bruce tackles the Natoma mystery. Through attending Naval reunions, interviewing vets, reading piles of documents, Bruce makes the undeniable connection between James Huston, Jr. a World War II fighter pilot killed in 1945 and his son, James born in 1998.

The book also weaves a bittersweet remembrance of all those young men who fought and served their country in the South Pacific during those dire war years.

Beyond being merely interesting, the account in Soul Survivor may be helpful for anyone dealing with unexplained challenges. Past-life therapy will be a growing field in this century. It took a fair amount of courage for the Leiningers to go public with their story in a hostile culture. Hopefully their book will help others understand mysteries in their own lives.

As a Christian, I've never believed in reincarnation. I always held the traditional belief that the soul goes either to heaven or hell, end of story. Then I "accidently" stumbled upon this treasure chest of a book. Had the child's father not been a Christian and so skeptical of past lives, I may have thought twice about reading this book. The military appeal hooked me, but the father's initial doubt reeled me in.

I couldn't put Soul Survivor down and stayed up reading it til 2am, often becoming emotional and tearing up. The knowledge and experiences this child relayed were too solidly corroborated by the deceased pilot's sister and fellow service members to believe that this child was NOT the reincarnated soul of a WWII fighter pilot.

Not only was this a fascinating read, but the experience caused me to consider things from a new perspective and to branch into other areas of reading. I kept thinking about the story long after I closed the book. If you want subject matter that is different and will challenge your belief systems, don't pass up Soul Survivor!

When I first learned of this book, I debated if I should add it to my collection of research on the subject of reincarnation to my limited shelf-space. For me, there is no question about the issue of reincarnation after having studied all of the key materials on Edgar Cayce and the Billy Meier's Contact Notes, in additional to many others.

So I checked the store for reviews to aid in my decision. Most of the critiques centered around the style/editing/presentation of the contents. I decided to wait for a library copy. Here are my thoughts in addition to the reviews already posted.

I have to agree that the presentation and style could have been better. In light of the subject, and the potential audience of this book (skeptics and seekers looking for further confirmation), the presentation in the first ten chapters of the book does make me feel like I was reading a fictionalized novel. Understandably the editor/writer was trying to make it interesting but the catch is that doing so may deterred some of the more serious seekers, hence the critiques on the store. In one of the early chapters (forgot which), the transition was bad enough for me to wonder if it was intended for as screenplay. Fortunately it was just one chapter.

Anyone who's read "Twenty Cases suggestive of Reincarnation" by the late Dr. Stevenson, you would know what "dry academic documentary" is, and we wouldn't want that either as many would have had a hard time finishing the book unless you are doing this pretty much as a life-long research as Dr. Stevenson did, and are seeking to prove reincarnation beyond the shadow of ANY doubt. It becomes reasonable to question if it would even be feasible to prove since the purpose of planet Earth for humans is as a school to "start from scratch each lifetime" to prove one has grown spiritually in wisdom to reach perfection to become co-creators to creation -- hence the agreement not to remember your past lives as you reenter the physical sphere until you have become wise enough to handle that information to further your own development.

Now that my critique is out of the way, I must say that it was very intriguing to read the circumstances surrounding how James picked his parents as revealed on page 153 of the edition I read. This conversation seems to suggest that the soul not only picks the body on the other side as confirmed by several other sources ("Journey of Souls," "Many Lives, Many Masters") but it appears that the option to participate in the pre-conception phase is also there. That was a surprise to me since other sources only suggested that souls pick parents but never was it suggested that this occurred at the pre-conception phase where they are actively viewing the lives of their parents before conception.

Since I was one of the people who had already seen the original documentary aired on ABC Prime Time (from youtube) and use it as a reference with family members when discussing related topics, the rest of the book did not surprise me as much other than filling in the details. There is also a second follow-up documentary on youtube as well worth looking at.

In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has not seen the documentary on video. And, to those that have seen the documentary, this book is definitely worth checking out from the library. This book along with "Looking for Carroll Beckwith: The True Story of a Detective's Search for His Past Life" (a Sci-Fi investigation documentary is also available on youtube) are among my "must reads" if you are still looking for confirmation.

Also check out the BLOG section of the Soul Survivor website for more interesting reportings by others, including other Christians.

-----

References:

"Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation"
"20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" Dr. Ian Stevenson
"Journey of Souls" Dr. Michael Netwon
"Many Lives, Many Masters" & "Only Love is Real" Dr. Brian Weiss
"Looking for Carroll Beckwith" - Police Captain
"Billy Meier Contact Notes 104/158" (as it relates to the mechanisms of reincarnation) on youtube v1456
Donald B. - June 24, 2009 - Soul Survivor Blog (in Your Own Story section)
Krisanna Duran - November 8, 2009 - Soul Survivor Blog (in Your Own Story section)
Linda Hedt - November 10, 2009 - Soul Survivor Blog (in Your Own Story section)

I am almost finished with this book and am ambivalent. It is an interesting story but quite frankly the author goes off into so many unrelated tangents as to make the reading arduous. I have been skimming over so many of the earlier chapters.

And quite frankly if I were given the same assignment - to write a book of a subject who has some very concise facts - expand this to a 250 page book - I don't know if I could do any better.

To give an example of my thought - there will be a tantalizing fact about the subject - the couple's son - and then read that the wife had to go grocery shopping later that day; she couldn't decide whether she wanted potatoes or rutabagas - on and on. The latter half is better than the first for avoiding unrelated (and boring) tangents.

This above example is fictional so as not to be a spoiler, but so much of this book is full of "filler" - unrelated stuff to the subject - as to make the reading a bit of a chore.

But the subject is still interesting, if a bit difficult to wade though.

By page 10 I was done but before that I could tell I would not finish, or barely get into, this terribly written book. The author's tedious description of unlikeable parents made it apparent that the real story would get lost in page fillers. I tried skimming but even that proved that the book had too much of the parents and too little of the star of the story.

The information presented in this book is interesting and definitely seems to have paranormal origins. It is marketed as the story of the boy James, but is also a homage to the men who fought bravely on the aircraft carrier that "the other James" was stationed on, which takes up a good chunk of the book. As for reincarnation, whether this story is evidence or not is up to the reader to decide. James' story has some fascinating points, but he could just as easily gotten his information from the actual spirit of the man he was supposedly reincarnated from. There is a series of events during one of the television interviews that gets glossed over, in which a reporter asks James' father Bruce if he believes in reincarnation, the one question he claims he wanted to avoid. At that moment, it is said that batteries in microphones died, the screws holding a boom microphone fell out, and when they still tried to film Bruce answering the question, a television turned on in the other room by itself. This type of activity---batteries drained, things falling apart mysteriously, electronics behaving oddly---is indicative of Recurrent Spontaneous Psycho Kinesis (RSPK) linked to these hauntings, which is thought by many to be manifested by a latent psychic. If this activity actually was subconsciously produced by Bruce, and psychics often claim that they pass their talents onto their children, it would follow that it is not impossible that James Leininger (the boy) was influenced and given information or visions directly from the spirit of James Huston (the WW2 pilot). And is that explanation any less bizarre than the one presented in the book? I am not against the thought of reincarnation, it fascinates me, but as a continually researching skeptic, I tend to look for other possible explanations, even if they are still fantastic in nature.

I give this book three stars for having an interesting story, but it is poorly edited and organized. What could be conveyed in a paragraph can take chapters to convey and then gets rehashed too much, mainly characterization of the family. If you are interested in the subject, however, the book is worth reading if you can plow through it.

Oh for goodness sakes, this is supposed to be a book about the reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot not a recap of a previous marriage, an over protective mother and the lenient parental role model that she lived with. Not to mention "the panel" made up of Andrea's sisters that have to discuss every part of James's life so they can come to a mutual decision on how to move forward.

By page 50, the amateurish dummy-downed ramblings are enough to drive the reader crazy. Really, this should not be about the adults; this is supposed to be about a child. A two and a half year old child that is having night terrors --a child that knows what a drop tank is and that can identify a Japanese fighter by the red meatball on its side. This is a child that is not yet potty trained and cannot yet speak in full sentences, but knows things that are unexplainable.

To make the beginning of this book bearable, you will have to skim and scan the first 50 pages. Finally, when James admits that he is "little man" do the adults sit up and take notice. Maybe this will start to get interesting - took long enough.

As the Leininger's plod along in their research and realizations, James once again seems to be left in the dust. Bruce Leininger seems more interested in proving his theories, which are running headlong into his religious beliefs, then in helping James understand what is going on with his dreams and memories.

I will admit that when the book actually got back to James, the hairs on my arms would tingle. There is something very spooky and intriguing about this story. I just wish that I knew what the true ulterior motive was for the Leininger's. Did they want to tell their son's story, fulfill promises to the survivors of Natoma Bay, or to pay off their debts? There was too much talk about paying bills and unemployment for me to not wonder about their true motives.

Would I suggest the book - only if you skim since there is too much side story for this to be truly about the Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot.

I found this 7 disc set quite annoying.
1. First of all, I found the reader's voice to be grating. His cadence was odd.
2. The length of this book all wrong. This should have been a 100 page book. Large amounts of detail of the family's day to day routine bog it down, and even important details are repeated ad nauseum. I swear I almost snapped those discs in half after hearing the reader imitate James' childish voice saying, "Plane on fire! Little man can't get out!" over and over 15+ times. We got it, ok? There was far too much detail at the end of the book about other pilots on James Huston's ship. I found myself skipping ahead to get past the fluff.
3. The story was interesting, and I plan to do more research about it. A problem here is that the book bounced back and forth in time, so it was hard to see the full spectrum of events in their proper order, thereby making it harder to judge if James learned the information somewhere else or not.
4. Could James have the pertinent information from other sources? Perhaps some. But there is a lot of detail to this story which seems credible.

Before all you angry people check out my reviews for ammo to attack me with, I will tell you yes, I am an atheist and a skeptic. But like almost all atheists I know, I am open to the unusual, but I must have evidence. That's why I'll check this story out further. Despite the drawbacks in presentation, the story was interesting.

The great Reincarnation researcher, Ian Stevenson, said that while he wasn't a fullblown believer in reincarnation, he admitted that through the evidence he had found, there was simply no other explanation for what was going on.

Having Somebody Else's Yesterday, Voyage Into History, Children's Past Lives, Looking For Carrol Beckwith, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, Many Lives Many Masters, and now Soul Survivors, the evidence is slowly mounting up, and skeptics don't have a leg to stand on.

If you want to read what this book is about, buy the book. I beg you. Not for me, as I don't even know how to spell Bruce's last name without looking at it, but for yourself. What I am here to talk about is evidence.

Ian Stevenson looked into the fact that kids sometimes remember past lives. Skeptics claim that when these kids really do recall past lives, it's really the influence of their parents. Alright, fair is fair. But when skeptics say that hypnotic regression is just an illusion in the mind, and that piecing one's past life together is just coincidence (Somebody Else's Yesterday), we really have to start wondering something. (Keep in mind, all of the books above have had their authors so skeptical that they didn't believe it themselves until the very end) We really have to ask ourselves if skeptics are right. Are humans really so feeble minded that we just create all these hokey stuff? Why is it that in every example of reincarnation, the factors are always the same? Things from a past life can be found in this life is what I mean. Coincidental birthmarks?

In the skeptical book on reincarnation called "Old Souls" by Tom Shroder, he gave us a case where this child was extremely sick and had a tumor on his head, a tumor all over his leg, and constantly had to have a tube literally jabbed through his chest and into his lungs by doctors. Now, the kid died, and when her next child was born, it had birthmarks resembling the previous kids marks so much that it even had a perfect hole in the chest with puss oozing out of it. Shroder, the skeptic, dismisses this as wishful thinking. In Ian Stevenson's cases he came across a case where just before a grandparent died their son put their thumb in water and then ran it down the back of the grandparent's head. He said, "If you reincarnate, this is how I will know it's you". Two kids later, a child is born with a birthmark down the back of the head mimicking where the water went.

Wake up, people. This is not coincidence or wishful thinking. Something is going on. Now, the scientific community can't just come out and say "Yes, reincarnation is real" because it has to take the atheist approach in saying that God and all of this metaphysical stuff is looney, otherwise they lose their credibility. If they say that something happens that is not science but beyond science, we no longer turn to them for answers in how the universe works. So, take up sides. Just remember one thing. Tom Shroder was a skeptic...but his book's name is "Old Souls"...what does that tell you about his final conclusion?

John McAdam, Author of:
Enoch and the Extraterrestrials
Areoth
The Vampire Pill

When Bruce and Andrea Leininger's young son, James, showed an interest in airplanes, they didn't think too much about it. Then, when James turned two years old, he began having vivid nightmares about being in a plane crash and being trapped in the cockpit. His verbal skills weren't great yet, but he'd say that the "airplane crash on fire little man can't get out" and when they asked who the little man was, James would reply that it was him. The Leiningers were concerned about the nightmares, but initially attributed them to a move they had recently made or his age or even television.

As James got older and his language skills improved, he began telling his parents things that didn't make sense to them. He said he flew a Corsair off of the Natoma and the Japanese shot him down. He also mentioned some other people who were on the ship. Andrea had read a book about reincarnation in children and began to suspect that James' soul had been on the Earth previously. She got in contact with Carol Bowman, the author of Children's Past Lives and got some tips from her on how to cope with the situation.

Since Bruce is a deeply religious man, he couldn't accept Andrea's theory and began some intensive research trying to disprove it. Instead of disproving Andrea's theory, it seems like all the evidence he uncovered only further proved it. Bruce also became very involved with and attached to the brave men who served on the USS Natoma Bay.

I read Soul Survivor by Bruce and Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross in anticipation of their interview on Blog Talk Radio. The book is written in a conversational tone, so it's an easy read - you feel like you're listening to an old friend. There were some details included that I felt weren't necessary for the story, but they didn't detract too much. Besides the story of James, there are some interesting stories about the brave men who served on the USS Natoma Bay during World War II. No matter how you feel about reincarnation, this book will make you think. I think the Leiningers were meticulous in their research and they're sincere in their beliefs, but after reading Soul Survivor and mulling over the facts for a few days, I still don't know what to think. This is a great book for anyone interested in reincarnation.

I just happened to see the very tail-end of an interview with the Leininger's on a morning show a few weeks ago and I thought "wow, that sounds like a great story".

Yes and no. The story of James Leininger and his past life memories are truly fascinating. The fact that this two year old kid could know so many things about WWII aircraft and personnel were really spooky, interesting and fun. With the facts presented in the story, I definitely believe the kid was living a past life.

I also appreciated the stories of the other Vets who lost their lives in this book and hearing about their families. Those smaller bits of stories really add to the main one.

However, I'm not sure why it's necessary to mention that the Mom 'had been a dancer' at least 6 times in the book. It has NOTHING to do with the story and comes off as the mom (who's a co-writer, of course) blowing her own horn. In fact, I couldn't help but notice that every time the mom was mentioned, it was almost always in an over-complimentary fashion, and every time the dad was mentioned... well, not so much. I was truly sick of hearing about the mom by the time I got near the end of the book.

Seriously, another reviewer mentioned how the book seemed to be more about the parents than the actual reincarnation story itself. Granted, the cover flap does mention that as well. Having said that, the writers really should have edited Andrea a bit out of the book more or at least not had nearly every passage be about how great she was or how she was a dancer in her youth. It has nothing to do with anything and REALLY gets on your nerves.

Other than that, it's a good read.

And just so you don't forget, She was a dancer!

This book tells a tale of a child - really, a BABY - who began to suffer with nightmares and babble about airplanes and fire and crashes. More babbles concerned details about the plane, and from the mouth of this baby came knowledge that pointed to a World War II fighter plane being shot down, a subject about which he could have known nothing. As James Leininger grew, the details also grew to the point where his parents, Bruce and Andrea Leininger, became obsessed with following the clues and figuring out what their child was talking about.

This is truly a compelling case of a child remembering a past life as pilot James Huston who died in a plane crash over Chichi-Jima Japan in 1945. The Leiningers were able to trace James' memories to James Huston because little James provided names. When he mentioned "Natoma Bay" research showed this was the name of an actual aircraft carrier that was involved in the Battle of Iwo Jima, and that led them to the names of the men who served onboard. Little James also mentioned "Jack Larsen," who turned out to be a real person who was still alive. Bruce and Andrea finally located a sister of James Huston, and Bruce got involved with an organization of veterans who had served on the Natoma Bay. They amassed an incredible amount of information about James Huston's life, which, to their astonishment, perfectly matched their son's memories.

While the story of this child is fascinating, the reading experience is marred by poor writing. It seems as if there was a consensus of the authors that the public might not buy into a reincarnation story, so they felt they needed to add a huge amount of boring details, tediously told, about Bruce and Andrea and their daily lives, presumably to show us they are ordinary Americans who are not nuts. A particular point was made of Bruce's non-belief in reincarnation and his struggle to disprove it.

Actually, to write a book about James, it was not necessary to dwell on reincarnation as such. What we needed was for the authors to simply tell us about James, his nightmares and the details he provided over time, and then to tell us of the efforts made to verify the details and the results of those efforts. It seems to me only a sidebar that Bruce was skeptical about reincarnation, and any reader will know that reincarnation is not a majority belief or generally a Christian belief. The book does not have to prove or disprove reincarnation; it only has to tell us James' story. We can all draw our own conclusions.

I realize that when people find something way out of the ordinary happening to them, they have a tendency to apologize too much or to overexplain or to simply refuse to talk about it. No one wants to be considered crazy. But I am glad the Leiningers researched James' memories and decided to tell us about it in this book. I just wish they had written a straghtforward first-person account, with more emphasis on James and less on themselves and their skepticism.

One of the fascinating items revealed by James was his statement that, before his birth, he selected his parents. He said he "found" them at a Hawaiian hotel that they had actually stayed at before he was born. Other sources from "the other side" do tell us that many of us choose our parents, but I have never heard of a child with past-life memories stating this.

The fact that James was only 20 months old when he began talking about his life as James Huston makes this a compellingly credible case of real past-life memory. The only way it doesn't make sense as a child remembering the life of someone else is if the Leiningers made it up. I'm sure that was one thing they worried about in deciding to write a book and was the reason they chose to so frequently remind us about how skeptical they were and how ordinary they are. But the fact that there were other witnesses to James' remembering, plus the total obsession of Bruce and Andrea in pursuing every scrap of detail about the Natoma Bay, its men and its actions, points toward the truth of this unusual tale.

I feel that the writer could have done better with this subject matter. It is an unbelievable story to begin with, so he should have told this story with as many facts as possible, while keeping all editorial and emotion out of it. It would have made a better case to those who are curious about reincarnation, but who don't believe. Who cares that Andrea got a membership at a gym, or what Bruce studied in college, or that Andrea's sister was exhausted from the adoption, or that Bruce was distressed over the rig accident, or that Andrea went shopping while James was in the care of the church. None of these things are important to James' story at all. I found myself skipping over entire paragraphs. Just give me the meat of the story. The rest is just unnecessary decoration. Had the story been related with more sequential fact and less hysterics, this could have been an outstanding book. I'm giving it 2-stars only because I am fascinated by the actual meat of the story, definitely not because of the writing.

I became interested in this book because my father served on the Natoma Bay during WWII. I learned more about my father's service to our country and facts I never knew about the Natoma Bay from reading this book than I ever did from him. He rarely spoke of his war experiences.

A point they made in the book I believe my father would have disagreed with, "The pilots and the mechanical engineers of the planes were never close." According to dad, those pilots knew their lives depended 100% on their ground crew. In short, never piss off the man who holds your life in his control. While for emotional reasons I can see why they may have not tried to become the best of friends, I do know they formed a team bond: plane, pilot and mechanic. The pilot relied on his plane for his life and the plane relied on the mechanic for his care taking.

This point (relationship between pilot, plane and ground crew) was carried on by my father and discussed openly in the years after the war. My father (Dale G. Wheeler) went on being an electrical engineer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio. Working on test and experimental jet air craft like the F104 Star Fighter in the late 40's, 50's and early 60's. Again where pilot relied 100% on his plane's ability to perform and thus again the plane relied solely on it's care takers, the mechanics.

Considering myself to be an open minded person, I email the author of this book. Told them about my father having served on the Natoma Bay and the work he did during his service. While I am not expecting a response, it certainly is evidence of how all things are connected. It also demonstrates to me as to why it is important to be open minded. Just because we may not understand is never a reason not to accept the facts for what they are.

Frosty

There is nothing compelling about the narrative of this story, as other reviewers have already noted. But it provides an easy-to-digest example of the not-entirely-uncommon phenomenon of children who appear to remember a past life.

Ian Stevenson spent 40 years studying this phenomenon, and if you like dry and clinical, pick up his Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation: Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. His successor, Jim Tucker has authored the much more readable Life Before Life: Children's Memories of Previous Lives.

James Leininger, the subject of Soul Survivor, fits right in with the Stevenson/Tucker paradigm: this is a case of spontaneous (apparent) memories on behalf of a very small child. This is why it's a little curious (and disappointing) that Dr. Tucker doesn't seem to have been involved in this case. Rather, the couple receive the help of Carol Bowman (author of Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child). Bowman is much more open to hypnotic regression as a source of past life memories, a practice that Dr. Stevenson was highly suspicious of.

When James Leininger began to express that he had memories of having been shot down by the Japanese during WWII, his father, Bruce's attitude was: This is B.S., and I'm going to prove it.

The story is about the research that the Leiningers conducted in an attempt to identify the individual who James seemed to remember being. Along the way we learn less important details, such as what Bruce Leininger ate for dinner on his 50th birthday. There is also a fair amount of detail about the history of the military vessel, the Natoma Bay. In conducting his research, Bruce had initially told the Natoma Bay veterans that he was intending to write a history book, and I wonder if some of this story has been told to make good on that promise. So, if you like war stories, even if you aren't a fan of reincarnation, you might enjoy this read.

I just finished the most amazing book: Soul Survivor. It's the reincarnation of a World War 2 Fighter Pilot.
- It's about a little boy named James who was the fighter pilot reincarnated. ABSOLUTELY.
- You MUST read this. I read this book and it brought tears to my eyes. This little boy at 2 years old was revealing things related to world war 2, a particular ship, and names of the pilots' friends (whom the authors found and interviewed). Not only is this Absolute proof of reincarnation, but it was validated with people who are still alive. They even brought the little boy to meet the dead pilot's elderly sister and the little boy confirmed various little things that only the woman's brother could have known.
If people around the world in many cultures can comprehend reincarnation - there's obviously been proof before. The authors/parents noted that their Christian beliefs kept causing them to doubt reincarnation, but the proof was overwhelming.
Sadly, many Christians don't realize that entire portions of the Bible that admitted reincarnation were removed from the book. It's sad that some religions make people so closed-minded. I applaud the parents in not dismissing their son's words as something he made up (which, if you read the book, you'll know that a 2,3, or 4 year old cannot possibly know about the workings of WWII planes and ships, OR the exact names of the men in a particular squadron in 1943-1945 when they're buried in history.
Read this book. It will open your mind and give you a great awareness of life and the afterlife.

I had seen the 20/20 or Dateline show about this family and immediately bought the Kindle version of the book. It is very well written and I could feel the emotions as my soul traveled along with this family. Having raised two sons, my heart ached for Andrea when James had the nightmares. But I could feel her motherly love as she consoled him each time. I also understood Bruce being skeptical about what was happening. But I was glad that he finally learned that being a Christian doesn't eliminate the unusual things in life... it makes them all the more awe inspiring! Very well done! God bless every life that was touched in this incredible story!

I have just finished a Master's Thesis on Mediumship and Evidence of Survival. It included a chapter on reincarnation. I was forced, by my research, to look at all sides of the question and to become quite critical and quite skeptical. I looked at many cases studied by Dr. Ian Stevenson in India. I also looked at a case that came up under hypnosis in America and had my doubts. I then looked at Jenny Cockell's case ACROSS TIME AND DEATH, and came away disturbed by some elements in her story that really discredited her. I then came across this book and applied the same criticisms to this story that I had applied elsewhere. I read one reviewer's remark that the child said very little in the TV interview, whereas his parent did most of the talking. So, needless to say I was on my guard! I came away from this book convinced that here we have an authentic "early bird" case; that is, a case where the young child, around age two, remembers and verbalizes past life details. I found that here, the father was EXTREMELY skeptical, and fought the idea of reincarnation to the bitter end. The book is extremely well written and builds the case step by step to what I felt was a rather emotional ending. This story deserves to be read, by believers and unbelievers alike, to increase our awareness, that no matter what our religious faith, there is more to life and its continuance than we know.

For some it is natural to be skeptical of the supernatural. Unless you have experienced a phenomenon such as a ghostly encounter or an unexplainable premonition which unfolds before your eyes, like those described in The Power of Premonitions: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives, it will be difficult for you to believe these types of stories. It is easy to say people are just writing about it for the money or the fame. But for others, like me, who have experienced the unexplainable this story is totally believable.

Long ago, in the early 1950's, My grandfather built a small cottage on Gull Lake, a beautiful spring-fed lake between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Michigan. My siblings and I were lucky enough to be able to go there for a week every summer with grandma and grandpa. One warm summer night, after attending a worship service at the Bible Conference, my 16-year old cousin and I climbed the steps to the attic, which had been converted into a bedroom. The steps were the kind you pull down from the ceiling, very creaky and difficult to climb. Grandpa had put two beds up there for the grandkids. I was 11 at the time. In the middle of the night, I awoke to see a dark haired man standing beside my bed, staring down at me. My green eyes and his blue eyes were interlocked for what seemed like an eternity. I thought he was a burglar, although his eyes did not reflect any anger, fear or hatred. He did not say anything to me. I decided not to scream because I thought he would kill me if I did, and closed my eyes tight, forcing myself to count to 50 before I opened them again. I heard no sounds, not a one. When I opened my eyes he was gone. Then I screamed . . . so loud I woke up everyone in our cottage. My grandfather checked all the doors and windows to make sure they were locked (they were), and told me (like every good parent or grandparent would) to go back to sleep . . . that it must have been just a bad dream. To this day I know it was not a dream, and that my nocturnal visitor could not have been a real person (due to the fact that the stairsteps did not emit a single creaking noise while I held my eyes closed). Ten years later, after grandpa had died, my mom and grandma went to the cottage for a summer vacation. One morning grandma told my mom . . . "Last night I saw a dark-haired man standing by the refrigerator. He looked so real I thought I was awake, but it must have been a dream." She did not remember the night I saw him.

Some who read this will say I'm a nut . . . just as some do not believe the story of these parents and their remarkeable son. No one can prove they are telling the truth, and yes it is possible they made up the whole story for money or fame. However, as someone who has experienced the unbelievable, I believe it is possible this is a "true story." The story is a great read. Open your mind, believe that anything is possible, and read this intriguing story . . . a story which brought closure to the family of a World War II pilot who, prior to the birth of James Leininger, knew nothing about how their James had died.

I found James' experience fascinating and would have liked to have learned more about what he knew about James Huston. Instead the book was filled with boring details about the wife's sisters and the husband's job. Like most ghostwritten or "as told to" books I have read, the author tends to be overly dramatic. In this case, the story was compelling enough that that wasn't necessary and detracted from the story. I wanted to know what type of conversations James had with the people at the reunion, but I really didn't care to know about every single step in the father's research. The parents seemed to be the focus of the book, rather than James and it was James' story that interested me. I really didn't care that the mother was once a ballet dancer, but obviously Ken Gross found that fact very impressive, as he mentioned it several times.

I found the story to be very interesting and captivating. As a Christian and devout Roman Catholic I was very interested in how the father would finally conform his faith with what he was finally forced to accept as "fact" - that his son was having a "past life experience". Unfortunately, this was pretty much glossed over.

Yet the story is very compelling when it is dealing with the young boy's experiences. However, there are also sections that are nothing more than padding, with too much unrelated details. I would have like more about the boy and less about the parents.

Overall, it was a very good book because of the nature of the subject; not so good on the writing and filler.

Soul Survivor is a very interesting account of a very young child having dreams and knowing facts about historical happenings when he was entirely too young to have gained the knowledge through television, books or the Internet. Begging the question, is James Leininger really James Huston reincarnated or has James Huston's soul communicated with little James through his dreams?

Many parents have wondered where their toddlers come up with mature observations and such; Soul Survivor provides one answer because the Leiningers had both the curiosity and the courage to investigate the ramblings of their child. There are so many events in Soul Survivor that support the theory that souls are eternal and reincarnation is possible.

If read with an open mind, this reincarnation story is fascinating. I recommend this book to anyone who is teetering back and forth about their belief in reincarnation.

The Divine Plan: A Novel of Obsession

I've never read a book on reincarnation where the person (James) has so much knowledge about a past life.

Why one star? The book was so darn annoying. The first third of the book has NOTHING to do with the story!! Why do we need to know that the mom, Andrea, went TPing when she was 13 (along with a description of what TPing is)

Finally we get to the subject of the almost 2 year old and his nightmares. When the possibility of reincarnation comes up, I would think the parents would have been to the library or bookstore the next day getting books on the subject. Yet it seems that some time passes before Andrea's mom gives them the book by Carol Bowman. [ASIN:055357485X Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child]]. They consult with her and she apparently confirms that this is a possibility and makes some reference that 2 would be the age this might begin. Now I really would have liked to have read more about what they learned from her. WHY age 2? What other information did she share? But there is really nothing. In fact CArol calls the family at a later time to see how James is doing and Andrea doesn't even remember who she is. Now I would have been pouring over her writing and her book and have her name memorized!

James does a lot of things to point toward the reincarnation theory. He has GI Joe dolls and names them all after other WWII pilots that died. I might add here that I always read these kinds of books on the lookout for an "ooops". Like, did the parents just make this all up to make some money? I only found one thing that didn't feel accurate. James names his dolls: Billie, Leon & Walter. I don't think the reincarnated James Huston would refer to his friends by their first names. Guys always seem to refer to their friends (especially servicemen) by last names or nicknames. He more like would have named his dolls: Johnson, Smith and 'Red' .

Moving on, Bruce and Andrea do an amazing job researching the boat that James was part of; the Natoma Bay. They trace down all the surviving pilots and attend reunions and finally go to Japan where James Huston was shot down. This is admirable and actually very interesting. They find James Huston's sister and have little James and Anne meet. Some good writing could have described this meeting in much more detail than we get, so this is disappointing.

Overall, the lack of research on the topic of the book, Reincarnation, is very disappointing. After all it's possible the child might have these memories but maybe he was just tapping into someone elses' memories. There is no discussion about this. Although we get to hear about Andrea's wallpaper project. --sigh---

After lots of chit chat, we get to the last 2 chapters and they cram all the good information in here. Are they making this all up? I'm inclined not to think so. It's attracting a lot of unnecessary attention if they don't need to. If it is all true, (and it's a LOT of memories that little boy experiences) it deserves to be explained better than this book does.

Having said all that, you must read it. It's a quick read. See if you can sort it all out and add a comment here if you find the names of the GI Joe dolls suspicious?

If you don't believe in life after death or in reincarnation and you are threatened by the thought of these things, please give this book a chance. It expanded my knowledge of the subject and opened my mind. The writing is slow at times and a little too focused on what I would describe as semi-dyfunctional parents, but stay with it. The revelations unfold in time and the book takes off. As much as I enjoyed little James discovering himself, and his parents finally coming around to discover their son's secret past, I couldn't help thinking, are they waking up because they love their son, or do they see a marketing opportunity?

What a fascinating journey reading Soul Survivors was. Bruce Leininger's scepticism about reincarnation and his need for proof adds to the story. I am recommending this book to anyone who is beginning to explore the possibility that reincarnation exists.

I love to read well documented accounts of cases that are supportive of reincarnation. Though I don't necessarily believe reincarnation is the explanation for these cases, they are nonetheless provocative and force us to question our deepest beliefs...plus they are usually wonderfully entertaining. So I was quite excited to read about little James Leininger. What a disappointment. Several other reviews have bemoaned the poor writing style and pages and pages of irrelevant detail about the parents lives so I shouldn't go into that, although truly not enough can be said about how awful it is to follow the inane minutiae of their daily travails. Especially since neither one of them is an appealing personality. I got so irritated reading about Bruce's stubborn refusal to even accept the POSSIBILITY of reincarnation I found myself wishing HE would fly off the face of the earth. And Andrea, well the descriptions of her badgering him to get a job without (seemingly) considering that maybe she should do something to support the family and excruciating details of what she makes for lunch and dinner were also more than I could stomach. Anyway, this is all a shame because once you sift through all the flotsam and jetsam, there is a very fascinating story about a child seemingly experiencing the memories of a WWII pilot to the point where he recognizes peers from that era and is able to confirm memories. How do I know this? Not from finishing the book... I had such an aversion to the parents and the author's dismal writing style that I put in down in disgust. I know the ending from reading the reviews on this site. Thank you to all the heroic readers who gave your time so that I should know the ending!!!

I finished this book in one day-didn't eat, didn't answer phone, didn't answer the doorbell. Just leave me alone. I have read so many books on reincarnation, but this one answered my prayers. My brother will be 87 in October, and I couldn't convince him of reincarnation. He was also in the air corps, and like the cat who had 9 lives, it was just recently that he told us many of his harrowing stories. One day he wasn't feeling good so he was grounded. That was the day his whole crew was killed. All these years he was living with survivor guilt. Lately my sister in law said he has terrible nightmares. Too stubborn to go to a therapist.
Many years ago a crystal ball reader told my mother someday your son will fly, but don't worry because he will be alright. He was the Favorite child, very close to my mother. One time in the middle of the night she started to scream, The next day we found out it was D-Day. He took part in d-day.
Carol Bowman does very fine work, and I have seen her many times. She worked with the best of them
Ian Stevenson. I first became aware of her when she was on Oprah's. Since that time I have been to several of her talks, and usually she draws quite a crowd. Carol doesn't live too far from me, and I have even seen her walking on the avenue.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that reincarnation exists. So be good. Jeanie

This is a wonderful story and could have been condensed into a much shorter form, such as an article in Vanity Fair or the Times. The parents include WAY too much information about their private lives which does not relate to the story at hand and becomes tiresome and annoying. The little boy is amazing and I completely agree that he was remembering a former life and I applaud the mother for her belief in her son. As the daughter of a veteran I was touched by this story from a soul still trying to find his way after a terrible tragedy, finding his solace in the body of a precious little boy. Unlike the father, I find this a wonderfully God-affirming story and have no doubt that this is a lesson for us all.

This story would have made a great 20 page Readers Digest feature. Two thirds of the book is filler, rendudency, a drive for the writer to include every single fact uncovered in his research, no matter how trivial or unimportant to the overall story. Did not particularly like the parents. Too into themselves. Fought through the whole thing until near exhaustion. When I finished it, I realized that, hidden among all the minusha was an interesting story. They just made me work too damn hard to uncover it. It was a book I not only could put down, but did several times. Squeezed it in between several other quality books. I am neither a believer or disbeliever in what the book proposes. I am a great disbeliever in books that shouldn't be published in their current form finding their way into the market. This one was about five re-writes away from being ready to go to market. My sugggestion? Don't waste yur time or money. If you must, pick it up off the remainder table at B & N for five bucks.

I'm glad I borrowed this book from the library rather than wasting money on it. It is too long. The story can be told in 20 or so pages, but this book has too much irrelevant info about other stuff. Seems like they were trying to make it longer, I dont know why.

Had to skip through a lot of it to get basically the same info covered on the tv program.

The parents of James are educated and logical people. The father does due diligence to try to disprove the link to Reincarnation. Like most of the Western World, the father is uncomfortable with this concept. At some point what the child experiences and more importantly knows can not be explained in any other way. I think of it in a Christian terminology: Pergotory. A place to atone for sin after death and before heaven. The book is well written.

I highly recommend this book because of the amazing story that it contains. However, it is a shame that literally 1/2 of the book is more concerned with the daily struggles of the two parents rather than focusing on their son's remarkable experience. Also, it sums up way too quickly with precious little devoted to the boy's reunion with the now aged servicemen he had served with in his previous life.

Buy the book but be prepared to skim large chunks. And hope that someone who can actually write comes out with the book that this boy's story truly deserves.

The story of James, both of them, presented in this book was captivating. With the research and undeniable passion for finding the truth that was displayed by the parents, the book was a good read. However, because of the tedious and unendingly boring pages about the alcoholic drinks being drunk, the ridiculous stories of wallpaper choices, the listing of menus and family personalities, I ended up skimming the story for "just the fact, ma'm." The writers should have taken a big step back and simply tried for a a more concise book rather than relating minutuae. Why didn't they offer more information about the family visit to the remote island where the plane crashed. It would have been much more interesting than all the pages filled with angst about the father's job woes and responsibilities.

While the story of the Leiningers is totally fascinating, I was continually disturbed by the frequent inaccuracies in almost every chapter. It was as if this book was a rough draft of the published book. When I read that Andrea referred to the 1940 census as a source, I really began to wonder if these parent researchers who had both done genealogy, could possibly have fact checked their material before publication. The 1940 census becomes available in 2012. James jumped from two to three and back that I never was sure of how old he was at any given point.

As a nurse I've been exposed to "stories" from loved ones, my mother (about my grandmothers "abilities") and have learned to keep an open mind.
There are only two explanations for this story.
#1 This is a VERY complex hoax that involves untold numbers of people and their cooperation. Not to mention the coaching of a boy starting at age 21/2 and his ability to recite what was coached to him on demand. (all those reading this with children know full well the imposability of that)
OR
#2 Again, in my life, I have come across something that I cannot explain
yet find so intriging that I can't stop thinking about it!
Read the book in 10 hrs straight. The author uses alot of filler but the facts speak for themselves. Great vacation book!

I saw an internet video clip about James Leininger a while back and was dying to read the book and find out more. Sadly, the video clip had about as much information as this book. It's sad because this is truly an amazing story, worthy of being told, but the author chose to include pages upon pages of details that added nothing to the story. I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated as I read and skipped pages trying to get to the meat of the story. It came in the last 20 or so pages. I think the parents may have done a better job telling the story themselves, instead of having Ken Gross write their story. And I would have liked more information about what James remembered and more details from him about what it was like when he reunited with friends and family from his former life.
Save yourself some money and find the video on the internet.

As a lifelong Christian, I find this story hard, but not impossible, to believe. The details this child provided are hard to ignore. Maybe, he might have picked up some historical details from watching TV (although, I don't know of any 2-year olds watching The History Channel), but how did he know about a portait from James Huston's childhood (a portrait that had been in attic, half-way across the country, for 60 years?).

The implications to Judeo-Christian tradition are staggering, but far from fatal. We simply don't know enough about the truth of our existence to confidently proclaim that it just couldn't happen. James Leininger experienced something terrifying and mysterious. Some skeptics like to use words like "nutjob" and idiot". I think the real nutjobs and idiots are those who are arrogant enough to close their minds. These kinds of stories frighten them because they can't understand and they're too proud to admit it.

The Bible says "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (I Corinthians 1:27). How appropriate it would be for God to choose a 2-year old boy and two lives separated by 60 years, to remind us that He's still out there and He still knows more than we do.

I agree the story does start off slowly and can grow a bit tedious at times, but I give it five stars for the informative and inspirational story it finally does reveal, not just about James, but about all the lives involved in the web of the U.S.S Natoma Bay and beyond.
Much to ponder over in a very compelling case for the everlasting life of the soul.

I read this book in one afternoon...tears came to my eyes as the parents explain how the doll names correlated to the three airmen who preceded James Huston in death...and the boy stating as a matter of fact, "I was greeted in heaven by Billie, Leon, and Walter." Wow! If that is not proof, what is? Also, all the details little James knew about his "sister", Annie, and his previous family...plus calling himself "James 3" because the airman was James Huston, Jr. Much more in the story, very compelling!

First I would like to mention that "Soul Survivor" did not make me rethink my thoughts on reincarnation; I am still a non-believer. With that said, I did enjoy the story itself regarding the life of the WWII fighter pilot and his comrades. The personal life of the parents of the boy who may or may not have the soul of this pilot in him, was not entertaining and I found it a deterrent.

Saw the story on Youtube was very interested in the story, so I got the book. This is written in layman format so it's an overly easy book to read through. I read it in 2 days, would of done one but I was busy...I highly recommend if you are aware of this story and if your into this topic your love it even more. Enjoy

this book sounded fantastic... it is a short story that would have been best suited for the Readers Digest... the book skips around and seems to ramble. It is quite a horn tooting for the mother and not much about the actual story.
wish i would have borrowed from the library instead of making the purchase.
just a SO SO book, I couldnt even finshed it after getting more than halfway through.

If you don't believe in reincarnation now... you will by the time you get through with this book! It's absolutely riveting!! The writer did an excellent job of trying all the facts together in story form, but I was so focused on the child and his past life details that I found myself skipping over much of the story looking for those facts. Now I will go back again, take my time and enjoy the family's story.
I WISH THEY WOULD MAKE A VIDEO DOCUMENTARY of this child's past life occurrences complete with interviews of the people involved. But so many of the people who can verify the facts of over sixty years are very old now... so if anyone is going to do that they had better HURRY!

My favorite quote in the book comes from little James when his parents ask him how he came up with the names for his GI Joe action figures. James names them for 3 WWII fighter pilots, Billie, Leon, and Walter, because these are the people who met him when he got to heaven. How wonderful! I am encouraged more than ever. There are some hair raising moments in the story of this family who try to prove or disprove that their toddler has lived a previous life. They do a fantastic job of connecting the dots and putting the puzzle pieces together. I sobbed many times while reading this book. It was a moving story.

I just finished reading this book after seeing the program about it on GMA. It was excellent! I couldn't put it down and completed it in a day and a morning. I found all aspects of the book compelling and real. There are facts and things that happened that could not possibly be made up. Many times I found I had goose bumps. The interjection of every day occurences, like the little boy flooding the bathroom or breaking his dad's car seat so the dad had to drive to Houston in a prone position cracked me up. The stories of the men of the Natoma Bay broke my heart and made me cry. It is just amazing. I have a renewed sense of faith. As a christian sometimes we just have to think outside the box. Perhaps that's what is meant by "everlasting life"?

I just finished one of my favorite books "soul survivor".
I too had a young son who is now 43 that had I thought, NUTTY nighmares,that could not be explained, They are still very vivid in my mind. Well this book answered some of my questions. We always believed that he was in WWII. But he told me the other day when I was discussing the book with him "Mom I know you thought I was a soldier who was getting shot at, well I was just a civilian" My reply was just a simple I know,Of course at that time we wanted to think he was a hero in the war.

I highly recommend this book to every one that has been in the military,and those that honor them.

This is right up their with my other favorite "Angela Ashes"

I had heard about the boy as he was in the news. I checked out the story about him online and found his mom and dad wrote a book about the struggle they and their son had; the boy having the 'nightmares', and mom and dad trying to help the boy any way they could. I feel we all were reincarnated, some of us are older souls than others. It also has the World War II angle, so I had to read it.

I couldn't put it down but had to go to work, so it took me a couple days to read it, but well worth the time.

The book itself is an interesting subject but I don't think it would be possible to have written it any worse. Wonder mom is so proud of her parenting skills she does everything but put her achievements in bold print. I'm up to chapter 9 and it begins with the parents whispering about the nightmares, as they've agreed never to talk about them in front of James. The chapter ends with the sisters and mom having an hysterical phone conversation about the nightmares all while Andrea "was changing his(James) diaper and trying to feed him breakfast".

The dad comes across as never being around and then yelling at James when he talks about his plane crashing before he leaves on a business trip. Oh, but then doesn't get mad (is actually impressed) when the kid floods the bathroom when he fell asleep. Wonder mom was shopping during this.

Well written. I'm from Lafayette and it was interesting reading and learning about this powerful story of past lives and diligence and determination. I love the deep and profound love of two parents who balance love and protection of their child and the understanding that pursuing something deep in their child's emotions in order to enable him to deal with something they themselves had trouble understanding. Wonderful book. I'm grateful that James was able to find peace at last.

Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, this story is extremely meaningful. Bruce Leininger's research uncovered the stories of the 21 men who died while serving our country off of the escort carrier USS Natoma Bay during WWII. The military records had been classified for over 60 years until Mr. Leininger uncovered them in order to disprove the information revealed in his son's nightmares. The accounts of these mens deaths had never been published.The surviving family members were unaware of how their loved ones had died until the records were sent to them by Mr. Leininger. If this story is compelling for no other reason, the painstaking research and discovery of military records that brought peace and closure to the surviving families who still grieved for their loved ones generations later is a monumental accomplishment.

Mr. Leininger stated that researching the details of how fighter pilot, James M. Huston, Jr., died and reconciling them with his son's night terrors was "a clash of faith vs. fact". His journey led him from trying to disprove the information to slowly substantiating it as a true historical account. The evidence is overwhelming. Whether you are a believer or a non-believer, this story is about a renewal and acceptance of faith. It made Mr. Leininger re-examine his own belief system and, ultimately made him believe even stronger in what God promises to all of us....that of our soul's eternal life.

This book about a little boy's reincarnation could have been summed up in 30 pages, but it was filled with useless content. Many times I felt like I was reading WWII history and typical family life rather than a book on child reincarnation. Information on young James was only mentioned on occasion and the information kept repeating itself. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to reading this book. Now I want to give it away.

It was good that this was written about and that these parents took what their son said seriously as so many others tell their kids, "don't be silly" when they come up with these way out comments.

My son (27) knew the names of cars without being taught when he was about two and still in a baby car seat. He now rallies in cars really well and does it instinctively. I do wonder who he might have been in a past life.

One of the best books that I've recently read. Liked it so much that My wife and friends are now reading it. Would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great true story. You will probably say the same thing that I did. Why didn't I hear about this before now?

Does reincarnation exist? We don't really know what cosmic purpose this book serves. There could be something to it. I do think everything happens for a reason, and I'm open to a metaphysical corollary to our lives. Belief and faith are states of mind and heart irrespective of provable facts. You can compile a portfolio of facts, but the pictures they paint have always been abstract and impressionist. If any person in the whole history of reincarnation research could provide an unambiguous and detailed account of their predecessor, a priori, then perhaps we could consider reincarnation as probable, rather than only possible.

"But," you say, "Soul Survivor presents a lot of facts that really add up." Well, I doubt it. In general books that make a case for supernatural phenomena tend to only present the plusses to an equation, and try to distract the reader away from considering the minuses.

Soul Survivor is one such book. Ostensibly a case for reincarnation, in reality it is a tale of existential angst and First World problems, wrapped in a reincarnation subplot. It is 10% objectivity, and 90% confirmation bias. It is, by the way, a fairly well researched documentary of a specific group of Pacific Theater fighter pilots.

As time wasters go it is a tedious read, though written in a slightly above average prose style. I liken it to an intelligently written dramatization of drying cement. At the end of the story, in spite of the superlatives and effort, nothing extraordinary has happened. The facts don't really add up to reincarnation, unless you ignore facts and omissions that are inconvenient to a reincarnation hypothesis.

The material the authors have to work with isn't really all that exciting. James Leininger turns out to be a pretty average boy, with average imagination (he imagines himself as a World War II fighter pilot), average proclivities (he likes airplanes and mischief), average art skills (he scribbles airplanes in dogfights, very much like other boys his age).

The excitement is supposed to start when his mother Andrea repeats to the reader ad nauseam a nightmare her two year old has on multiple occasions, "Airplane on fire...Little man can't get out!" It isn't long before Andrea's reading plan deviates from the norm, and she explores fun paranormal literature in search of explanations, to the objection of her devoutly Christian husband Bruce. One is New Agey, the other fundamentalist Christian. Between them both is enough superstition to power a weekend of Scooby Doo shenanigans.

The Leiningers are a well-to-do middle class American family. Bruce Leininger, the father, is on his second marriage. He has four adult children from a previous marriage. The Leiningers lavish attention on two year old James, the only child of Bruce and Andrea. Mom Andrea can barely bring herself to leave infant James at daycare--err, play date. When she picks James up three hours later, he's crying. Andrea seems to prefer the little mommy's boy to an independent, socializing child.

Andrea Leininger is a drama queen. Her son is having nightmares. He must be special! He speaks during his nightmares. How special! He scribbles pictures of airplanes and aerial dogfights. How special! Consider this line: "If Bruce and Andrea hadn't been so busy skidding around their own high dramas". And what were the Leininger's "high dramas"? "A killing workload, and yet another domestic realignment." High drama, indeed!

From the beginning, everything poor little James does or says is interpreted through the lens of extraordinary. Maybe the Leiningers didn't intend to exploit James directly. It is possible the tedium of Andrea Leininger's life set the stage for her trying to find some grand cosmic meaning vicariously through her son.
Anyone who believes Soul Survivor is a reliable documentary of reincarnation is not paying attention to the multiple clues that it is not.

THE FACTS DON'T REALLY ADD UP:

CANON -This is the best evidence that little James is picking up from other sources, namely, his parents. Near the end of the book, during a visit to the USS Nimitz Museum, James tells some old veterans that the Natoma Bay has a 5-inch canon mounted on the "fan tail" or the rear part of the deck. The narrator goes on to say this is what Bruce told Andrea, but the boy "couldn't have heard us." The problem is, the Natoma Bay did not have a 5-inch canon mounted to the fan tail. How do I know? Lucky for us, the book comes with a bird's eye photo plate of the USS Natoma Bay (note the ship isn't "Natoma" but "Natoma Bay"), and clearly there is no 5-inch canon mounted on the stern. In fact, there is no canon on the bow, either. In the picture, airplanes are packed along the bow and the stern. It doesn't make much sense to put an obstruction like a big canon at the end of a runway. It does look like James is repeating information, which is sometimes bad, that he hears elsewhere.

RED SUN - One night when Auntie J.G. visits, James has a nightmare. Auntie J.G. asks James how he knows his plane was shot down by the Japanese. James replies, "Red sun." The author immediately proceeds to explain that American fighter pilot slang "meatballs," which referred to the red sun on the Japanese flag. We have to wonder why the author tells us this, as if it popped up in his research, but James does not use the expression. Is it because James hasn't yet been introduced to the slang term "meatball"? Andrea is transfixed on James's seemingly prescient knowledge of a "drop tank", yet she seems to have missed the nuanced factual errors and omissions in her son's story. The narrator is insistent that James knows so much he couldn't possibly know. But when James doesn't know something, no big deal is made of his ignorance. Whatever happens, the reincarnation hypothesis is unfalsifiable. All events, whether they add up or don't add up are interpreted to mean James is reliving a past life.

NATOMA - Much is made, especially by Bruce, of James's insistence that his ship is named "Natoma". Bruce can hardly believe it when he finds a record of an aircraft carrier named "Natoma Bay". But those are different names. Even by his own admission, Bruce says there are Natomas everywhere. There are commercial boats named Natoma. There is a Natoma, Kansas. There is a Natoma Diner in Ohio. Why wouldn't a 30-something fighter pilot know the name of his ship? Well, some might say perhaps because James was only two, and "Natoma" is an easier word to say than "Natoma Bay". That would be a denial of everything else in the book that props James up as preternaturally more advanced than he really is. "He knows what a drop tank is." But he doesn't know the full name of his ship. The truth is James's hit-to-miss ratio isn't significant, except to his parents, who I think aren't so much looking for meaning to James's nightmares, but meaning to their own hum-drum lives. We learn the veterans' pet name is "Natty Maru". James doesn't know this, for some reason.

LAST NAME - "What's the little man's last name?" "I can't remember." The criticism here isn't James's memory, it's that he's trying to remember somebody else, not himself. James always speaks in the third person, describing somebody else, not himself.

20/20 - As the book led up to the 20/20 show's preparation with Shari Belafonte, I thought that so far no real case had been made for reincarnation. At this point we don't even have Huston's last name. I wondered what qualification the Leiningers even had to appear on a show about reincarnation, so it must have been Carol Bowman's (see introduction by Bowman) doing. Even Shari Belafonte thought there was little evidence to justify James's appearance on a show about reincarnation, and so did Bruce Leininger.

JAMES 3 - Andrea gloms onto James Huston, Jr. as the man who her son must be the reincarnation of. It must be some guy named James! And that explains why young James signs his name "James 3", because he is the third James, after James, Jr. But, wait a minute. James Huston wasn't James Leininger's father. And James Leininger was supposed to be the reincarnation of James Huston, so why doesn't James Leininger sign his name "James, Jr., also?

There is something else about the name. When Andrea Leininger finds Huston's sister alive, she said they used to call him "Jimmy". The skeptic in me can't help but notice that young James divulges no personal information about James Huston. Nothing about his family life, where he's from, his nickname, his mother, his interests, or the fact that he was fond of singing "Red Sails in the Sunset", or his friends. Everything the Leiningers know about James Huston before meeting with surviving relatives they discover through internet searches. It all seems too shallow to be considered a bona fide reincarnation experience. I'm reminded of George Carlin's funny joke about religion, "Isn't it strange how the people that wrote the Bible only knew about things that happened within 50 miles of where they lived?"

SHALINI SHARMA FROM ABC - Andrea tells Sharma, "We've verified great chunks of James's story!" No you haven't. You've only verified great chunks of your own story. The core of James's story is "Little man can't get out," and not much more than that. He makes additions later, like "The man's name is James", "Natoma", and later, after learning more about World War II fighting planes, he learns about Corsairs and aircraft carriers, but even in his additions he gets the details wrong. But the author is oblivious to James's factual discrepancies.

MISSING FROM JAMES'S NARRATIVE - Everything that has anything to do with details not obtainable from the internet or airplane museums. James never says "Natoma Bay", "Chichi-jima", "meatballs", "Jimmy", doesn't ever say "Huston". It's only after the introduction to Huston's sister "Annie" that James seems to disclose familiarity with Huston's siblings and parents. Before that, there's no indication that he knows Huston's mother, father, sisters, friends, home town, favorite song, or favorite food. Sentimental and personal details just aren't there, until after the opportunity arises where he may have picked them up from 85-year old Anne Barron.

The Epilogue was pathetic and made me a little angry. James's contrived memories (of which his parents played no small part) lead to his breaking down in tears at the memorial service in Japan for a person he never knew. The spectacle seemed like a made for Hollywood stunt that cheapened the solemn reality of James Huston's violent death in war. All the focus is on poor little James, who is expected by all to play the part of the person for whom the memorial service is being held. Afterward, James "lets go" (possible euphemism for "loses interest in the theatrics").

The book is 256 pages. I'll give the benefit of the doubt that the parents Bruce and Andrea aren't intentionally trying to pull a fast one over a gullible public, but the author does indicate the book was begun during one of Bruce's jobless periods (their living expenses are quite extraordinary, $7,000 a month, which includes the upkeep of Bruce's prior child support obligations). My point is in such a relatively short book, we really aren't privy to an objective analysis of the events. The story tellers can't be separated from their role in creating the narrative. I can't trust it. Children are rarely raised in isolation of knowledge acquisition sources. The Leiningers treat James's ability to learn about Corsairs and aircraft carriers as miraculous, when that is exactly the kinds of things little boys learn, with or without their parents' permission.

Many stories of reincarnation can be dismissed because the information is
vague and untraceable. The case covered in the book "Soul Survivor" has very specific details that could be documented. The book includes many poignant moments that brought tears to my eyes.
This book is excellent for both believers and skeptics alike.

I loved this book. I have great admiration for James' parents - for believing in their son enough to get to the root of his nightmares and for being brave enough to challenge their own belief system in support of their son. Beautifully written - it felt like I was there experiencing it along side them.

I saw the authors on good morning america and online. I watched closely, and listened, and it became apparent that the little boy no longer remembered his past life, which is very common. In truth, the parents directly stated this in one of their interviews. I have experienced the stories of some who have been reborn, and though I still have my doubts (how could one not -- I still have my doubts about aspects of what is called science as well), I am convinced at least there is more to the story than what my judeo-christian upbringing taught me.
I know that one reviewer saw the boys interaction with his parents as evidence that perhaps it was "all a dream" or "made up". But one can not honestly make that conclusion, or any conclusion for that matter. We are left with what we feel (whatever that means or comes from). For me, it makes much more sense that are souls are much larger than just what we have in these little bodies of ours, and that a soul can choose to live many lives in it's attempt to fulfull itself (not necessarily succeeding, and possibly, if it falls into too much evil, even splintering itself into too many pieces to be reborn again). Perhaps hell is nothing more than the shattering of the soul beyond "redemption" born over many lifetimes. I have to believe there is hope for most of us to overcome the splintering we create in our lives. Almost all of us do hurt ourselves and others too some degree. Maybe we do so until we learn to do otherwise. Makes much more sense for me for a loving god to provide opportunity for growth, no matter how long it takes.

This story truly is amazing. I picked it up at 12 noon and finished it 8 hours later. I could not put it down. The story and James and his former life are presenting in such a way that it sucks you in.

James has selected amazing parents in this life, that took the time and energy to research his claims, and find startling evidence that you will just have to read for yourself!

These stories are so important to acknowledge because the egotist way of believing, in our western society, is simplistic at best... from these amazing stories, we learn so much from our pasts and fear not about our futures - thanks you for a beautiful read. Love from Both Sides: A True Story of Soul Survival and Sacred Sexuality Please read this book as well - This is a love story that also transcends and makes life and love and loss a fluid spiritual experience. *****

Interesting events which would have made a very good, short magazine article. But, unfortunately, it was expanded to 256 pages probably to meet the publisher's page requirements. Besides being expanded the writing was terrible in both style and content. Boring, useless, and voluminous domestic information separated the few reincarnation events. After about 60 pages I was forced to skim the rest of the book in search of content related to the book title. If Ken Gross orchestrated this book, I have a piece of advice: Stick to writing about hot rods and horn players.

Fortunately, I got the book from the local library so I didn't have to pay for it. This is one of the rare books that I could not finish because of the terrible writing style. The old Hardy Boy books were masterpieces compared to this.

I will, however, probably follow-up on the subject and get Tucker's book.

As a strong believer of reincarnation, I was so disappointed by this book.

Seems the book was dragged out for chapters of meaningless information.. what the family is having for dinner, the mom's family "the panel" and talking with them about her son, the dad being stressed out about his job, etc. Not much about the little boy and his memories.

The father went on a search to find survivors of the unit of the man he and his wife believed was the soul of their son. I found it disturbing that they lied to these veterans about the reason for the "book" to extract information.
When their son met with some of the survivors there is not much about his interaction with them. To me, it seems the book was about the parents and not the child.

I feel badly for James Houston's memory and his family. It seems to me that the parents exploited this poor man's memory to make money and bring themselves attention.

Page after page of meaningless information and not enough about the subject at hand.
Did not make a convincing case. Could have done more research and provided the reader with more information.
It's frustrating to read a book and pretty much be expected to believe what the writers are saying with not much real back up for their claims for the reader to come to their own conclusions.

Hard to get through this book. Put it down and went back to it several times when I had nothing else to read only because I paid asking price at a book store for it. Wouldn't even consider re-selling it because I feel it is a rip-off.

There are good books out there on reincarnation. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.

Interesting, real-life story of a modern day reincarnation. It starts slow, and is a bit repetitious. The authors should give their readers more credit for being able to follow the story. Cutting to the chase, ....they should have just cut to the chase. It really should be a full third smaller. I think that the publisher felt that it needed to be "padded", and it is. But, it is a worthy read for those interested in the subject. I have recommended it to others. Bart Williams.

I am one of those to whom past lives make sense so I found it easy to be open to the information in this book. It was interesting and very well documented which may create a problem for the doubting Thomas.
Enjoy!

Although I have always been fascinated by the idea of reincarnation, I found myself being slightly skeptical going into this book. However, once I started, I could not bring myself to put it down. The story is incredible, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in, or even skeptical of reincarnation.

I had not planned on reading this book but was intending to skim a few sections. When I found out Bruce Leininger had a bit of an Evangelical background I was intrigued to see how he would interpret the data that confronted him in the form of his son's revelations. I read the whole story and then corresponded with Bruce for a bit. I'll set forth a few of the items I wrote to him in our brief interchange.

1. Bruce spent a great deal of energy and time researching the factual accuracy of his son's knowledge of the past. What this shows is the reality of "retrocognition" but not necessarily proof of reincarnation. John Snyder in his book Reincarnation vs. Resurrection articulates this in the following manner:

"In virtually all reincarnationist literature, there is one rarely questioned assumption: that cognition implies presence. It is assumed that if someone has unexplained, detailed knowledge of persons, places, or things in the past, it must follow that he or she was actually there in some form: in other words, if I remember a past life, then it has to be my life that I remember."

Retrocognition is conceptually distinct from reincarnation with its attendant metaphysical assumptions.

2. I wondered why Bruce did not seek to explain the phenomena of his son's experiences by utilizing resources within the Christian worldview. The move to interpret the data as evidence of reincarnation seemed, to me, overly quick granted Bruce's Christian-theistic background beliefs. In my correspondence I brought out three particular items from within the Christian worldview that are relevant.

First, the New Testament describes the reality of the demonic and, in particular, its relation to children (Mark 9.14-29). Even reincarnation researchers such as Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker recognize the category of "possession" as one explanatory mechanism to explain the evidence of retrocognition.

Second, the New Testament speaks about certain cases of demonic involvement that do not have the usual element of full-blown psychological distortion (Luke 13.10-17).

These two points are then combined with insights of philosophers J. P. Moreland and Gary Habermas (Immortality: The Other Side of Death) regarding lower levels of "possession" (i.e., "obsession") and the fact that children may be more impressionable to the deceit of evil spirits because they are unable or unaccustomed to differentiating between their own thoughts of identity and the "voice" of another spirit. This explanation may also help explain why there is a diminishment of the children being deceived as the child grows older. As the child undergoes normal psychological development he or she is able to more accurately form and understand his or her own self-identity thus being in a position where the deceptive "voice" becomes lessened or, at least, not as easily accepted as his or her own inner voice. This is, admittedly, speculation but it is speculation driven by a foundation from within the revelation constraints of Jesus-centered scripture.

Third, there is the New Testament teaching regarding the nature and goal of these unclean spirits. They are lying spirits whose main goal is to lead people astray from the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ (John 8.44; 2 Corinthians 11.3-4, 13-15).

Putting all this together provides an alternative explanation based on resources from within the Christian worldview. Those who have read Soul Survivor as "proof" of reincarnation are in error on this point. The evidence amassed by Bruce Leininger has to be interpreted and all such interpretations are founded upon prior worldview assumptions. A Christian interpretation centered upon the revelation of the historical Jesus revealed in the canonical gospels leads one away from reincarnation and toward other explanations. This leads to the conclusion that the arguments for and against reincarnation must be analyzed at the worldview level and not merely at the level of empirical data. One's worldview influences and shapes how one interprets the empirical evidence.

Those of us committed to the historic Christian position will not find Soul Survivor to be demonstrating reincarnation, but, rather, evidence of an ancient deception that seeks to move away from the resurrection-centered worldview of the Jesus of the New Testament.

I found Soul Survivor to be fascinating, well-researched and nicely written. I recommend it to readers whose interests include subjects outside the realm of our understanding and even outside general acceptance.

Good story. I heard this couple talk about their son's experiences on a morning TV show. It sounded facinating so I purchased the book to read more. Book starts off a little slow but then picks up with some interesting events. I have already lent it to a friend to read and wouldn't have done that if I didn't like it so much.

I did buy this book after seeing the interview with the family on TV because I thought it was an interesting subject. On the positive side it is a very easy read, and for the most part interesting. The reason I gave it 3 instead of 5 stars was more for the writing style. I at times felt like I was reading a story written by Nicholas Sparks, rather than a non-fiction story, just too fluffy for my taste. The famous line "Just the facts, ma'am" from the old Dragnet TV series kept popping into my head. I consider myself very open minded, but I did come away from the book still thinking "well I guess I believe them."

This is an amazing true story of a boy who, it seems, has the soul of a WWII pilot who died during the war. As the facts surface, the book draws the reader into believing in reincarnation. At first, even the parents were skeptical, but as the boy revealed more and more information that he could not have possibly gleaned in his short life, they became believers. As did I. Read this book; it will give you hope.

As an author (Your Soul's Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born), I found in my research that reincarnation is an entirely valid phenomenon. In fact, I found that our past lives - in particular, the lessons we didn't completely master - determine which challenges we plan for ourselves in the current lifetime. I'm grateful to the Leiningers for having the courage to tell their son's remarkable story. They are bringing light and wisdom into our world.

Reincarnation is a very interesting subject. After reading Soul Survivor, I am now finding myself searching for more information on the subject. If you don't believe in reincarnation, read this book and I guarantee, it will make you think about the possibilities.

WOW! This was a book that was hard to put down. I read it in two days! It is a very touching story and very intriguing. I am a Christian and did not believe in reincarnation in the sense that some do. After reading the book and seeing the facts I am so happy that Bruce was able to keep his Christian faith in tact. I believe that God can do anything and it seems logical that he reincarnated James Huston, Jr. or at least imparted all of the knowledge in young James Leininger for some sort of purpose. I am sure that part of that purpose (or maybe all of it) was to bring healing to James Huston's family and friends. I am sure that Andrea and Bruce were chosen to be his parents because they had the tenacity and ability to do the research necessary to prove all of this out. I think that the whole thing was handled with much love and respect for the veterans - both living and deceased. What a beautiful gift to the families of the men that deserve so much honor and respect and get so little!!!! My hats off to you for a great book and wonderful story!!!! I hope that this experience has been a blessing to your family overall and I thank you for sharing something so personal with us all.

i really like this amazing book!!!! the story is incredible!!! i saw a movie with nicole kidman when a young boy said that he was her husband!!!! i read also an interesting book about life after dead!!! the book is called"love from both sides" from stephanie riseley!!! amazing, touching ,charming ,sometimes sad,but really funny!!! good experience!!!!!!!!!!!

Can a child see/feel/know things we adults can't? James appears to have knowledge far beyond his years and experiences - and Mom & Dad know they must prove or disprove what their precious child is experiencing. Since these episodes can be fully validated by written history and eye-witnesses, it just sends chills up your spine. Soul Survivor is not about religion, but it will either cause you to question your faith or re-enforce your faith.

This was a great read. I enjoyed the whole book, easy to follow and a very nice tribute to the men who gave their lives in the second world war. I also enjoyed the family story, it was very personalized.

The story described in this book is compelling. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the book. It appears to be one of those cases of a fifteen page story massively inflated with fluff to a 250 page document for the sake simply of generating a "book". Get rid of all the annoying, time wasting chit chat about family life and get to the point already.

This is book is extremely well written and a very good story to boot. The story comes off as legitimate and very sincerely told. I was really moved by this book. I highly recommend; I could hardly put it down!

I have in the past been an the store Top 1000 Reviewer, until I became disenchanted with the inability to delete hostile comments, and so I began to write less and less reviews. However, I want to throw in my two cent's worth on this book. To begin with, my last life ended when my RAF Pathfinder Mosquito was shot down over Germany, in 1945.

I am only saying this to give some perspective to my total support of this young man's recollections, and my suggestion that as many people as possible read this remarkable true story.

The only difference between James and every other human is that he can remember his last life - and at a level that is literally worthy of a Buddhist master.

For most of my adult life, people have mistakenly called me John, which, after searching UK Ministry of Defence records and Bomber Command operations books, turns out to have been my name in WW II. For my 5th birthday, someone bought me an Airfix model... of a Mosquito... and that seemed to rekindle things that we are supposed to forget.

James's parents are to be heartily congratulated for being open to the truth of his past life experiences, rather than encouraging him to suppress them. His level of recall, even down to recognizing former comrades is just astonishing.

After the level of disbelief and ridicule I faced from a certain individual at the Bomber Command Association in the UK back in the eighties, I decided never to discuss the matter with anyone, unless I was already sure that they understood the reality of reincarnation - which was part of mainstream Christian thinking until the 6th Century AD, under Emperor Justinian.

My novel, One Star Awake, is an allegory about soul retrieval, and contains clear, unequivocal references to reincarnation, and group reincarnation. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and more than four billion other people believe in reincarnation. The Mayans recognized past, present and future lives in their astrology. I guess they must have all been crazy too, right?

If you die in combat, you are a hero. If you have the audacity to talk about it in your next life, you are a nut job. As this young Vet's story proves, it's real. Deal with it.

To James, I will say what I say to all the Vets I meet... Welcome home.

How can an editor unless he is completely incompetent permit such a poorly written book be published? The story is probably true but the book is so incredibly badly written that it is beyond my capacity to read it. I had to skim it. What grave injustice to a great story. A shame that something so valuable has been reduced to this. It is such bad, inferior writing that gives a serious topic of study, an air of silliness.

I looked forward to this book with great anticipation and frankly was disappointed. The book goes on and on about minuscule daily family activity while avoiding any in depth exploration of the actual situation. Too much magical thinking for me or desire to publish a best seller. Most of the factual information could have been presented in a pamphlet.

It seems like the author and his editor started out with a tight outline and then filled in the page space with unnecessary daily activities over and over. There was too much reputation in the book. I think the exploitation, visits,notes,interviews,and actual book was a horrible invasion of the privacy of the WWII Veterans and their families for profit.

I think the interesting book will be how did James turn out after his parents and the reincarnation author screwed around with his head.

Never have I liked two people less than these two self absorbed, egocentric, self righteous parents. You get the feeling that these people would exploit anything and anybody to make a buck so no matter how much the reader would like to believe the story of incarnation, the parents have absolutely no credibility. However if this is meant as a study in early 20th Century right wing corporate white people then it is brilliant, demonstrating their shallowness, backwardness, thoughtlessness and cluelessness about the world around them. If you must read this poorly written trash (writing professors across the globe are gagging, really, this is "dark and stormy night stuff") get it at the library, skip 90% of the backstory and hope this child has not been beaten by his religious school teachers for his utterings.

This book is AWESOME. It is well written. The story it tells is amazing and heartening. It is sincere. The parts that touched me the most were where the little boy met his "sister" and where he "remembered" his parents' vacation in Hawaii. But I don't want to ruin the experience of reading this book for the rest of you. It's truly a wonderful book.

I gave this book a three-star review so as to say I as of yet have a neutral opinion about it because I haven't read it. I will, but don't have the time right now, but wanted to comment. The reason I came to this page in the first place was because I saw a headline on this kid on my newsite on my internet provider homepage, then clicked on it and went to the Fox News story about it, then did a web search on the book.
Why--you ask?
Normally, I would have been very skeptical about this. I'm 58 y.o.and male. This story piqued my interest, because it reminded me of something that happened to me I don't dwell on, never really investigated or got obsessed about, but never forgot. About ten years ago I had one very vivid dream about being on a tropical island and being bayoneted by a WWII Japanese Soldier. I remember the palm trees is why I knew it was tropical, and know enough about uniforms to know it was a Japanese WWII one. Also, once, I went to the U.S.S. Intrepid museum in NYC and when I went down below in the hangar deck area I had a very warm and familiar feeling there, like I knew it well, and felt at home there. I don't remember which experience came first. They were fairly close to each other in my life, within years but not decades, but probably not months. That's it.

Does this mean anything? I don't know.

"Psychic" Sylvia Browne was recently exposed as a fraud when Ohio kidnapping victim Amanda Berry was found alive. Some 10 years ago, Browne had told Amanda's mother that she was dead. I guess Browne didn't see that one coming! Pseudo-science nuts probably aren't capable of understanding what I am about to say, because if they could then they would have long since given up their irrational clinginess to such fantasies as chupacabra, Loch Ness Monster, ghosts, aliens, bigfoot, purple unicorns, and reincarnation. A quick perusal of the hostile comments left on 1-star reviews is a clue to the mindset of these gullible marshmallow heads, who insist that there is no solution except that the critical thinkers among us suspend our disbelief in the irrational, and come down to their level.

Of the flaws in reincarnation belief, of which there are many, the fundamental flaw is that believers leap frog over the simplest, most explanatory hypotheses, namely, that (then) 6-year-old James Leininger was the victim of suggestion and an unhealthy dose of confabulation by his relatives, and jump straight to the most outlandish, most complex conclusion, that reincarnation must be the answer. Of course children don't make up memories that have no basis in reality or experience (wink wink).

Let's go back to 1983, when the McMartin family of the McMartin Preschool in California came under extremely serious accusations of sodomizing preschool children. All members of the McMartin family were ultimately acquitted when it became apparent that the children were acquiescing to their parents' expectations, and that the children themselves were not the source of their "memories" of sexual abuse. Such is the case of James Leininger.

The neurology of memory shares an interesting duality with experience, because the memory of an experience is reflected in the modification of neural pathways in the brain. I wouldn't say exactly that neural pathways make the memory, but engineering of the brain may someday prove otherwise. False memories, for instance, can be stimulated on the operating table under surgery. At the same time, it is possible for the brain to form images of objects and events that never actually took place. If this were not so, then reading a fiction novel would not be entertaining.

A Tom Clancy novel uses many events and persons from real life and history, yet we would not confuse a Tom Clancy novel with actual history. Such is the case with the narrative in Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot. The author, Leininger's father wrote the book under the mistaken belief that if he used a judicious quanta of fact and history, then that must somehow legitimize what is otherwise a tragic story of exploitation and psychological abuse. But, what could be the motive for writing a book about your child being reincarnated? Surely not book deals and TV interviews...

This was a tragic case of child exploitation. Not only tragic for the boy's sake, but also the relatives of Mr. Huston who were indecently imposed upon to partake of this narcissistic folly.

So many reviewers have observed that the book seemed too focused on the parents' story, and not young James's story. There is a good reason for this, one so obvious to the skeptic but completely lost on the believer: This story, lock, stock, and barrel IS the parents' story. Perhaps not consciously or deliberately contrived, but from the beginning the "reincarnation" narrative was spoon fed and nurtured. Lo and behold, what do you know? ABC and the History Channel liked it, and now a book! Some day when James becomes a man, I would hope he emerges from his indoctrination to give his independent account, without his mother and father coaching from the sidelines.

There is abundant evidence that James's narrative just doesn't line up with certain facts. Facts that are left out of the book because they are so inconvenient to the narrative. Facts like the discovery that young James had visited an airplane museum when very young, and shortly after the visit his nightmares began. At the museum there was a Corsair exhibit.

The airplane Mr. Huston was shot down in was not a Corsair, but an FM-2 Tomcat, which is a completely different looking plane.

Reading these reviews, and the negative vote pounding one can expect if you offer a skeptical viewpoint, but an equally positive vote campaign one can expect if you provide a "believer's" perspective, this all sounds overly religious to me. It is obvious that the majority of readers want some supernatural explanation, and are positively phobic about rational, psychological explanations for young James Leininger believing he is the reincarnation of a World War II pilot. Unfortunately, there is no proof here, and the evidence is very loose, subject to a liberal degree of misinterpretation.

It seems very likely that what happened was young James's responses and expectations were reinforced--and I'm not saying deliberately reinforced, but reinforced in subliminal ways to conform to the "reincarnation" narrative.

Fails to convince, sorry. This is a fake story concocted by the parents. Some day I believe James will have to admit this to himself, and hopefully the rest of us.

Finished Soul Survivor last night, and didn't enjoy it much. None of the characters are likeable in the least, Andrea being the most despicable and narcissistic of the bunch. Bruce, the husband (almost forgot his name already), was the kind of half-assed, completely uninformed "Christian" normally produced by White American Protestantism, dull and unimaginative in the extreme. Once enough apparent "facts" were compiled to suit him, he gave up his so-called "Christian beliefs" faster than a French surrender monkey. He must have his answers, cold and solid, and cannot stand the idea of an unsolved mystery -- anything but that for this pragmatic dunce.

Most of the book was about Andrea, Bruce, their families or something else irrelevant to its ostensible main point, James the wonder child, which tests the reader's patience throughout. Just getting through this book without dumping it is an accomplishment.

The case for baby James as the reincarnation of James Huston, Jr., a World War II fighter pilot who died at Chichi Jima, is interesting if you can wade through the massive flotsam and fill material that crowds this book, which could have been written in 50 pages. But the case, though compelling on its face for the unwary and gullible, simply isn't convincing

If you look closely at the Catholic Church's stand on the idea of reincarnation, you will see that the Church's position is not based on fear or superstition but on sound logic, as well as Divine revelation. When considered in all its ramifications, reincarnation simply makes no sense and presents too many logical contraditions and obstacles to be taken seriously. Please see the two articles linked below, which explain and clarify how the Church's rejection of reincarnation is based on thousands of years of written and oral tradition, as well as biblical revelation.

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Come Again?

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The Catholic Case against reincarnation

Mike Campbell
Knoxville, Tenn.

People love to say, "Look I have a photo, which is worth a thousand words, so it must be true!" The photo claiming to be a picture of James in 1928 is a fake. It is a badly done fake. A thousand words a picture may be, but a thousand words can still lie. If you look closely you will notice a few strange things about the photo. First the light sources are not consistent. Second all three people are looking in different directions. This is not normal practice for professional photographers, they have all the people look at one point. Third the boy has no neck. Fourth the resolution of detail on the face of the boy is much better than that of his hair and the woman's face.

Photoshop is very powerful program, photo's cannot be trusted. This is a very bad attempt a forging a photo. I do not care about what the rest of the book contains. If they are trying to lie to me with a photo I cannot trust the rest of what they say. This has "balloon boy" written all over it.

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Maybe my mind will change by the time I finish the book, but so far, 1/2 of the way through, as much as I wanted to believe this, I just can't. First of all, did anybody notice that Bruce took James into the Flight Museum for the first time BEFORE the family moved from Texas? THe way this book describes the Leiningers, it seems to me that they were the kind of parents who used every opportunity to teach little James everything they possibly can. So, by the time the kid is a couple of months past 2 he has already been to this flight museum twice. I would venture to guess that both of those trips were VERY educational. Being the parent of 2 children, I know how impressionable kids are at this age, as well as how easily taught they are. I feel like maybe he was coached here. I wish I didn't feel that way, but I do. THis book doesn't paint a very likeable picture of the Leiningers as parents. Yuck. Who tries to potty train their 2 year old by causing him extreme embarrassment for not using the potty? There's a sure fire way to mess with a young child's self esteem.

First, the F4U Corsair did not fly from the Natoma Bay. End of story. The central plot element was badly bungled (if you died in a Corsair, that would be an important past life memory--this is very sloppily researched, mistakes abound). Second, loss records from the ship are very well known and easily obtainable. Third, as a child I too was obsessed with World War II aviation and so were many of my friends. Indeed, we built models and drew highly detailed comics of said era. In this age of highly detailed computer flight simulators, any child could make up these stories. The "fantastic" coincidences and information he "couldn't have known" have been stock in trade for magicians for eons. See John Edwards "Crossing Over" if one has any doubts about how to extract information from the unwary. This is beyond pathetic. It disparages the true memory of a great American hero. Now even children have entered the Stolen Valor spectacle of modern America. We are a country that pretends to do things--we build fantasy, not ships any more.

I'm constantly amazed that if ALL the answers aren't known, supernatural is the conclusion many people draw.
Humankind has been doing it for thousands of years--lightning and thunder was ascribed to gods throwing
stuff at the mortals. Superstition abounds with plenty of answers, but no proof except faith. "I've never seen
anything like that flying before--it must come from another planet!". PLEASE!

I saw the authors on Good Morning America (the parents of James) and I immediately found it curious that they did 95% of the talking. Basically James said one or two things, and he kept looking to them like, "Am I doing good mommy?"

It really seems to me that this is probably all made up. Maybe he had a dream and they just took off and ran with it, maybe he didn't even have the dreams at all and this is 100% made up by them to try and get some fame and money (after all they got their book published - $$$ - and are on television advertising it like infomercial experts.)

The main reason I'm writing this is, as of now, there are only 5 reviews, and they're all 5 stars. We live in a culture that constantly wants to BELIEVE. We want to believe there's more than what we see, that our lives have a greater purpose and meaning in the great context of the universe. I understand this, and actually have a great interest in reincarnation and, personally, it's the belief system that works the best for me. It's the best way to explain the horrors of the world...

God can't come down and save us, we have free will and it's PEOPLE who do awful things to each other, and also miracles for each other. It's the good and bad in us, but isn't it a nice idea that if a kid does die or someone doesn't live out their years, that maybe it's not all tragedy because at least that soul will be living again? It's an idea that certainly is nice to believe in, it gives a more realistic hope than the over-simplified idea of a cloud you play a harp on for eternity.

HOWEVER, with that said, seeing these authors (parents) just didn't sit right with me. I got the feeling that they were pushing their kid through this, especially since he only said a few words and they did all the leg work. Yes, he's just a kid, but that could be argued the other way, they believe in him enough to drag him on TV so couldn't we get some of it from the horses mouth?

It's also just way too easy to stretch something when you want it to fit a certain belief system, or to just plain make stuff up (sure the evidence in the book matches up and Bruce starts a "critical eye," but maybe that's simply because it's fiction. I can say that I had visions of 9/11 back in the 90's and then it all came true. Doesn't mean that did happen, or there's anyone YOU know that can back that up. But I'm sure I could write a book that would be pretty convincing about how I know the future. I could even get witnesses and "testimonial" to put in my book to then earn me money.)

So, in short, I hope that the interview was just an awkward one because the kid isn't accustomed to TV (though he did seem pretty well practiced in what he was saying) and that his parents believe this story and also that they really didn't want to run with it but found that was their calling. I hope they aren't just taking advantage of their kid to get some fame and money.

I hope that the people in this book who talk with young James are real people who really talked to him the way it is described in the book, and that these encounters and "facts" aren't embellished or made up from thin air.

However, I think it's important for people to remember that it's too easy for people to lie and fabricate and there have been some pretty convincing and elaborate lies in human history, way more elaborate than one book of "what happened" and the "proof" for that. Also, I find it interesting that this book seems to be aimed at people who are already religious and have a belief in "-ologies" and such. Makes it feel more like a product with a target audience than a true expose of something the authors feel is truth.

So it may be worth a read, but never ever just automatically accept what you read as true. People can come up with elaborate lies, or simply take an element of truth and stretch it. Just because someone says something happened, and someone else even says it happened, doesn't mean it did, especially if you're just reading it on paper. Anything can be put on paper. Sometimes the best way to try and judge someone's validity is to watch their body language, the way they SAY what they say. Also, legit sources help a lot (look at how the United States court system works, with proof, that often is backed up by educated experts. But also remember in a trial, witness testimony is never to be fully trusted, just considered with the rest of the evidence. Think of anything like this, a story or book trying to PROVE a point, as a trial.)

And with that said, I have a feeling this book is more of a cash-in than an honest experience, and that the ideas behind this book are some I choose personally to want to believe in, but that this book itself is more taking advantage of people like me who have faith in such ideas to make a quick buck.

Even when reading stories of doubters who came to believe, ALWAYS doubt as well. Sometimes these stories of "converted doubters" are cleverly designed to make you think doubting yourself would be ABSURD because this person was there and escaped from such simple-minded thoughts!

But just because you doubt doesn't mean you shouldn't open yourself up to new ideas and trains of thought. It just means you shouldn't automatically swallow whatever you hear as gospel, especially if it's something you already have a disposition to believe. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you can be open to concepts you don't necessarily 100% prescribe too.

There's a lot in this world that is mysterious and unusual, and there's also a lot of people willing to take advantage of the mystery in our world.

Read with an open mind, but also with CAUTION. Thanks.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I did read the book, but I was not sure what I thought of it when I set it down. After seeing the authors on TV, it helped me figure out what I wanted to say, both in what bothered me about the book and what I thought was interesting. If I had not seen the interview on TV, I probably wouldn't have written anything, at least not yet.

Thank you.

The use of parlor games and supposed ESP is no big deal but manipulating a child with it is abusive. ABC News and Cuomo are marginally credible at best. Yet even two Google searches on the internet reveals the parents consulted with a "past life regression" expert when the child had nightmares. This is a sad joke. Do not waste your money