OK, little Whereu is becoming fractious so I’ll play for a few more minutes in case he has a melt down and throws another one of his tantrums.
I had another quick look at Skeptico’s nonsense about the James Leininger case, only because I have seen this before, and I am now even more unimpressed than I was the first time. The guy is a fraud!
His website is estimated to earn him ~$1,000 per yr. That’s down considerably from the ~$3,000 per yr the last time his site was assessed so he desperately needs traffic to increase his income and is therefore motivated to write whatever nonsense is necessary to try and generate clicks. He’s a hypocrite (as well as a fraud) to criticize the TV company for looking for ratings!
The Leininger parents are staunchly Christian, so it’s absolute nonsense to suggest that they would fabricate a reincarnation story. Reincarnation is very much against their religion!
Ask any staunch Christian, eg the ones on this forum, how they would react if it were suggested that their young child had been reincarnated, or if they detected any hint that their young child was being coached or manipulated in any way to contrive a reincarnation story. I think their reaction would be very predictable!
Skeptico’s criticism is based on the ABC’s omission of the visit to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Dallas when the child was 18 months old.
The ABC erred in not mentioning the Cavanaugh Flight Museum visit, but unless he was shown a very vivid horror war movie or something, that would not explain the nightmares and other distressing behaviour.
How many children suffer terrifying nightmares after visiting a museum and looking at photos? None, because if they did, there would be an outcry from parents and the offending displays would be quickly removed. America is a very litigious society.
Skeptico quotes these omissions from the TV report as objections:
"At 18 months old, his father, Bruce Leininger, took James to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas, where the toddler remained transfixed by World War II aircraft. A few months later, the nightmares began."
If the child had been reincarnated from a WWII fighter pilot who died traumatically as claimed, it's logical that he would be transfixed, and of course he would experience nightmares as the horrific memories came flooding back.
"With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories — and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started to become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said."
As would be expected with counseling! Isn’t that the whole idea of counseling?
"I’d like to suggest a slightly different version of this story that is entirely consistent with the facts, but doesn’t require us to believe the extraordinary claim of reincarnation."
So what follows is entirely his fabrication, ie. a work of pure fiction unsupported by any evidence, to try and fit the known facts. It proves nothing ... other than he's a pathetic fiction author.
Admittedly there appear to be a couple of inexplicable hits. First, the child said he flew off a boat. When asked the name of the boat he says "Natoma", and when asked the name of someone on the boat, he says "Jack Larson". While flipping through another book on WWII, James points at Iwo Jima and says that's where he got shot down. The father discovers there was a boat called the Natoma Bay, and finds there was only one Corsair pilot from this ship who was shot down at Iwo Jima, and his name was James M. Huston Jr. (So now they have an explanation of the "James 3" he keeps writing on his pictures, since "3rd" would come after "Jr.".) Also, John Larson turns out to be a real person who knew James M. Huston Jr.
“Admittedly there appear to be a couple of inexplicable hits.” … How inconvenient, so he just glosses over the astounding "couple of inexplicable hits": flying off a boat, the Natoma Bay, Jack Larson, Iwo Jima:
"But “Natoma” is not quite “Natoma Bay” ... Abbreviation of ships' names is common in the services, as are abbreviations in all walks of life.
"First, James is not an unusual name." ... Neither is John, Chuck, Fred, Brad etc. etc, so the probability of a correct guess would be tiny.
“Also, John Larson turns out to be a real person who knew James M. Huston Jr.” … That’s a very remarkable hit, but doesn’t even rate a mention.
Selecting Iwo Jima as where he got shot down … another very remarkable hit that doesn’t even rate a mention.
No mention that Huston's plane had been hit in the nose and lost its propeller – exactly where James had intentionally damaged all his toy planes.
No mention that one night James told his mother Andrea that his past-life father was an alcoholic, and when James Huston was 13, his drunken dad was put in hospital for six weeks, a claim that was subsequently confirmed by Huston's now 80yo sister Anne. How would a young child possibly imagine that?
No mention that James knew details that no 4yo, or even 40yo, would know about the operational details of a Second World War fighter.
He knew that Corsairs were notorious for getting flat tires and when handed a model of the FM-2 planes he would fly aboard the USS Natoma Bay he noted that a small antenna was missing from the side, which research by his father noted to be true.
No mention that when James attended his first USS Natoma Bay reunion and was stopped in the hallway of the hotel by Bob Greenwalt, a Natoma Bay veteran, when asked 'do you know who I am?' James replied, 'You are Bob Greenwalt.'
I could go on, but that’s enough for now.
As an attempted alternative explanation, Skeptico's effort is laughably pathetic and unconvincing.
His alternative hypothesis credits the boy with an unbelievable imagination for a very young child, a totally nonsensical suggestion.
He conveniently ignores most of the truly astounding facts that the boy does successfully recall, but makes a big issue of the child confusing a FM2 Wildcat with a Corsair.
If this idiot is your guru … good grief!
This case is absolutely astonishing to anyone with an unprejudiced and open mind, but of course no case like this will ever be 100% watertight and able to be proved beyond all doubt, and skeptics will jump on any excuse to simply reject the whole story out of hand.
All of the links I clicked on are now defunct so it’s impossible to check them.
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