Author warning: Contains unsettling discussions of reincarnation, night terrors, and tiny children saying deeply concerning things.
My dad finds this type of thing creepy. So if you’re my dad—or easily creeped out by this kind of thing—this is your warning. Proceed with caution.
I’ve always been interested in the topic of reincarnation. I believe souls come back as someone else.
That being said, I was completely unprepared when my son Nick started showing signs of being reincarnated.
As a child, Nick was never a great sleeper. At 18 months old, he would go to sleep around 9pm, wake up at midnight, go back to sleep at 3, and then be up for the day at 6am. And he would be up for the day… meaning no naps.
It was an exhausting schedule for me, but not for Nick.
To add to the stress, he started having night terrors.
For those who don’t know, night terrors are not just a dream or nightmare. During a nightmare, the brain is in REM sleep and awake enough to feel and remember fear.
During a night terror, the brain is still asleep while the body is acting terrified. The sleeper often has their eyes open. They may also act confused, scream or cry, speak incoherently, and look unreachable.
It is a very upsetting thing to witness, especially when it is happening to your child. When we reported this frightening new behavior to Nick’s doctor, he told us not to wake him up. During a night terror, we were supposed to try to soothe and calm Nick without waking him.
Nick would scream and thrash. And this wasn’t a normal I’m scared scream—this was a blood-run-cold, soul-shattering, someone-is-hurting-me scream. It is a scream I can still hear when I think about it.
There is something deeply unsettling about hearing your child scream like that. And it’s even worse waking up to it at 3:00am.
Nick was non-verbal until he was 4 1/2. At the time he started having night terrors, Nick only spoke about six to eight words. When the night terrors first occurred, Nick would yell, “Plane!”
He had night terrors until he was about 5 or 6, and they occurred 4–6 times a week. (You can probably imagine how tired I was.)
As his vocabulary increased, Nick became able to describe what he remembered from these nightly disturbances.
He told us that he was a pilot in a military plane. His plane was shot down and caught fire. He could not eject, so he was still inside the plane when it hit the ocean.
On impact, he hit the back of his head. He remained conscious and tried to free himself from the burning, sinking plane. He was unable to escape, and he drowned.
He told us this story many, many times. He would add details, especially if we asked questions, but the main points of the story never changed. He was shot down, crashed into the ocean, and drowned.
He would talk about how scary it was to be trapped in the water and unable to get out.
If we asked what his name was, he would say he didn’t know.
It was unnerving to hear this little 4 or 5-year-old talk about planes crashing into the ocean and the details of someone drowning. And every time he told us about his past life, he did it in a calm, matter-of-fact way.
Being a pilot was just a fact to Nick, no different than saying the grass is green.
From time to time, I would do some light research into reincarnation. And the information I found was a bit unsettling.
I learned that many children who reportedly have reincarnation memories tend to have a birthmark that corresponds to a fatal injury from their alleged past life.
Nick talked about hitting the back of his head. He would touch the exact spot where he struck his head—and the exact spot of his birthmark.
At that age, Nick had no idea he had a birthmark on his head. It wasn’t something we hid from him—his hair covered it, so we rarely thought about it.
When he was about 10, he wanted to shave his head. He did, and the birthmark became slightly visible. It was then that he learned about it—years after his memories of being a pilot had faded.
From the day he was born, Nick was terrified of the water. When we tried to bathe him in the little baby bath, he would scream. It became very stressful, so we stopped using the baby bath.
Instead, we would use the shower. One of us would hold him while the other soaped him up and rinsed him.
Once he could stand, it became a lot easier. A crying, thrashing, soapy child is extremely slippery. It was stressful, but we made it work. Nick didn’t love being in the shower, but he did tolerate it.
As Nick got older, the night terrors and memories of being a pilot faded. By the age of 6, he had no memories of his life as a pilot, and he had developed a love of the water.
It is interesting that his fear of the water faded along with his memories of piloting a damaged plane.
A bit strange, right?
I realize that none of this is proof that Nick was reincarnated. And I know many people will probably try to explain it away.
But what stands out in my memory is the sight of a small child, with a vocabulary of only six to eight words, trying to describe a plane crash.
In his words:
“Plane. Fall. Water.”
Ever heard a child say something so strange it stayed with you for years? This post explores night terrors, reincarnation, and one unsettling childhood memory. ⭐
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