Young Student Remembers Past Life?

Several years ago, while teaching third grade, the school asked me to have students write stories.  One of my third-grade boys (age 8) wrote a story unlike any I have ever seen in all of my years of teaching.  Instead of writing about the usual kinds of stories which children do, he wrote about his experience as an adult man during war.

His story was about trying to save his family while he was being called off to war.  He was rushing to hide them in the basement and get them necessities, while trucks of soldiers were coming by to pick him up and take him with them off to war.  It was in Europe, and there were trucks.  It’s been several years, and I no longer recall all the details, but the essence of the story has stayed with me ever since.  Out of all the stories my students wrote over the years, it is the only one I can clearly remember today.

As someone who believes in reincarnation, I’ve always wondered if, in fact, this child’s story was a past-life memory.  It was shocking to read.  It sounded like one of the World Wars.  His concerns sounded just as if an adult man of 35 was speaking about his feelings.  There are a number cases now researched and published of young children who remember past lives, and even past lives in wars.

I mentioned the story to his mother, and she responded, “I know.  He’s just like an old man, in a little boy’s body.”

–Lynne Diligent

“Animals Can’t Think, Because They Don’t Have a Brain,” My Student Said.

Here in North Africa, we were discussing organs in animals, and I reminded my student that he’d forgotten to mention the brain.  My 13-year-old student said, “Animals don’t have a brain.”  When I asked why he thought that, he said, “Animals can’t think because they don’t have a brain.”

Even though I told him that most animals do have a brain, the conversation continued to trouble me.  I wondered, “How could an intelligent 13-year-old, who is a good student and reasonably good in science have this idea?”  I decided to speak to a teaching colleague from the local culture.

My colleague suggested that I remind my student of the annual Sheep Sacrifice Festival, where a sheep is  butchered in nearly every home (except the very poor).  He suggested I ask my student if he had remembered eating the sheep’s head, and that inside the head are the brains.

My colleague and my husband (both from the local culture) explained that since there is emphasis here on humans being able to think and reason, and animals just acting on their instincts, so that it’s generally said, “Animals don’t have a mind.”  My student, himself, apparently interpreted that to mean, “Animals don’t have a brain.”

When I spoke about this to my student, he said, “Oh, YES!  I HAVE seen that!”  I explained that every animal needs a brain even to walk around, even to eat, even to see.  He said, “Thank you for explaining this!”

–Lynne Diligent