Faith Features

Bruce and Andrea Leininger's son, James, was 2 years old when he started having terrible nightmares about being in a World War 2 fighter plane that was on fire.

During his nightmares James frequently cried out the names 'Natoma', and 'Jack Larsen.' "James began having this recurring nightmare about trying to escape from a burning fighter plane," said his mum Andrea.

"He was able to give us details that the plane had been shot down by the Japanese, that his plane had taken off from a boat called Natoma. That gave us enough information to start doing research."

Jack Larson

After much digging his parents found the dreams referred to a mission by World War Two by American Pilot Jack Larsen.

They discovered Jack's co-pilot,  James Huston, had died in battle and became convinced that there son was the reincarnation of James, and his dreams were flash backs from his previous life.

"He was able to start verifiying these key events. I was able to find the Larsen family and his one remaining sister based on the information James gave us."

Soul Survivor

They've now written a book about their experience called "Soul Survivor: the Reincarnation of of a WW2 fighter pilot."

It tells how Bruce struggled to reconcile his Christian beliefs with the idea of reincarnation.

"Having this information coming from a child aged between 2 and 4 years old was stupifying," said Bruce.

"In spite of all the facts and things we were able to verify about what James told us - it's deepened my faith. It was an indictation and confirmation of my faith."

"This is a spirit that came back, I don’t know how or why, but it confirms what I was taught by the church when I was growing up. Our spirits live forever and this is a story about a spirit coming back to visit us."