Symbol Watcher

Jung's ideas about the purpose of an afterlife resonate with the thinking of 4th-century philosopher Zhaungzi: life is limited but the amount of things to know is unlimited. This drawing illustrates Zhuangzi's experience of dreaming he was a butterfly. When he woke up, he wondered if he was a butterfly who dreamt he was Zhuangzi or Zhuangzi who dreamt he was a butterfly. Source: Wikipedia.

Andrea and Bruce Leininger are the parents of James Leininger, a little boy who they believe was a WWII pilot in a previous life. The Leiningers have chronicled their family’s experience with the paranormal in two Good Morning America interviews (most recently on Monday) and in the book Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot.    

According to the Leiningers, just a couple weeks after son James turned two, he began having nightmares about a plane crash. His visions were filled with such specific details about the incident — including the type of aircraft and damage sustained – that the Leiningers began researching the details to see if James’ dream visions could have been someone else’s reality. The Leiningers are convinced their son’s nightmares were the experiences of James M. Huston, Jr., a 21-year-old fighter pilot who was killed when his plane was shot down by the Japanese as he flew over Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. 

I’m not at all skeptical about the validity of the Leiningers experience, or the conclusion of reincarnation they drew from it. I’m sure many of us who have taken care of very young children have had experiences where those children mention the names of dead people they couldn’t know anything about, or tell us the name or sex of children yet to be born or even conceived.  

One day when I was playing with my nieces, two-year-old Meghan suddenly turned to an open bedroom door, pointed, and yelled “Grandma.” I asked her if she saw grandma and she said yes, even though there wasn’t anyone standing there. When I asked which grandma she saw, she couldn’t tell me. One of them, my mother, has been dead for 30 years. Still, I could tell Meghan really “saw” one of her grandmas in that doorway.

I believe very young children possess a unique ability to peer over to the other side. After all, it was not long ago that they themselves were “not of this world.” Their consciousness hasn’t been narrowed yet by ego concerns and the demands of this earthly life.  Departed souls know small children are a doorway through which they can reconnect with this plane of existence and, in James Huston’s case, take care of unfinished business.

I’ve always thought there might be some sort of life after death, including reincarnation. Between my own experiences and others I’ve heard about, I can’t rule out the possibility of an afterlife just because it hasn’t been scientifically proven.

Two things struck me about the Leininger’s story. First, when James started talking to a therapist who believed in reincarnation, the nightmares became much less frequent. Second, James’ father had an intuitive sense that, “[Huston] came back because he wasn’t finished with something.”

I think we’d be wise to at least entertain the idea that, because Huston died suddenly and violently, his soul could not rest until he came to grips with the trauma of his death. Huston needed some ”talk therapy,” if you will. And through James, he was able to get it.

In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections,  Jung provides a  thought-provoking hypothesis as to why the dead communicate with the living. ”People have the idea that the dead know far more than we, for Christian doctrine teaches that in the hereafter we shall ’see face to face.’ Apparently, however, the souls of the dead ‘know’ only what they knew at the moment of death, and nothing beyond that. Hence their endeavor to penetrate into life in order to share in the knowledge of men.  .  .  .  It seems to me as if they were dependent on the living for receiving answers to their questions, that is, on those who have survived them and exist in a world of change . . .”

Jung says the dead are in a space without time and a time without space — eternity — where nothing changes. But we humans exist on a plane ruled by the passing of time and the evolution that comes with it. As such, we develop; we gain knowledge we didn’t have before — knowledge the dead lack since they are at a still point.  

Given this hypothesis, it’s possible that Huston wasn’t reincarnated in James, but called out to James for help because he could not come to grips with his sudden, traumatic end unless he gained greater understanding about that end.

However, Jung didn’t rule out the possibility of reincarnation. “I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had to be born again because I had not fulfilled the task that was given to me. When I die, my deeds will follow along with me — that is how I imagine it.”

Jung’s hypothesis on life after death, including reincarnation and karma, centered around a need for departed souls to fill in the gaps of the spiritual education they received on earth. It seems to me that Huston’s demands on the Leininger family to help him find answers support this. 

– Writeye

Posted on June 10th, 2009 under Books, Jungian Psychology • Tags: life after death jung, reincarnation jung, WW II fighter pilot reincarnated. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback