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Boy Believes He Lived Before

Midnight.Sapphires

Midnight.Sapphires

Senior Registered
News from the local paper (Clydebank Post) here in Clydebank Scotland. Very interesting story.

(source: clydebankpost.co.uk)

WHEN Clydebank youngster Cameron Lamb first started talking properly it was no surprise that his words were about his family.

Telling tales about your loved ones is normal, but when mum Norma realised it wasn't their Drumry home the six-year-old talked so passionately about, she began to worry.

For Cameron, who is the subject of a spooky documentary to be aired this Monday on Five, was recalling a life from the past.

He is convinced he once lived on the pretty Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides — 160 miles away from home — with a mum, dad, three brothers and three sisters.

The boy, who has just one older brother Martin, could recall in vivid detail a white house next to a beach where planes would land on the water and describe every detail of his Barra 'mum'.

Norma told the Post: "It all began when Cameron first started speaking and he talked a lot about Barra and saying things about living there.

"I used to think it was a lot of rubbish, but it kept on and on and when he got to nursery age he started becoming a bit more interested about it.

"He would say things like 'my Barra mum is missing me' and that we had to take him to her. He even said his dad was called Shane Robertson who died because 'he didn't look both ways'."

It was only after someone spotted an advert searching for people to recall their reincarnation stories that Norma decided to find out once and for all if there was an element of truth to Cameron's tales.

The production company for the programme — The Boy Who Lived Before — put the family in touch with a child psychologist, Jim Tucker, who specialises in the subject.

And in March this year, Norma and Cameron headed off to Barra to trace down the youngster's former family.

Norma said: "The plane landed on the beach just like Cameron said. He turned to me and said 'I told you it was real'.

"He said his family name was Robertson but we contacted the heritage centre and they couldn't find any trace of that family. But then we got a phone call at the hotel to say there was a family that used to live in Barra.

"As we walked through the door all the colour drained from Cameron's face. I think he thought it would be exactly the same as he remembered it.

"I had kept putting his stories down to a vivid imagination but when he got upset I could see he was telling the truth.

"There were lots of nooks and crannies and Cameron knew every bit of the house.

"I don't know how he knows but I know he has definitely been there. I believe him now."

The family have also been put in touch with a Robertson family member who showed Cameron and his mum old photographs.

Norma believes the whole experience has helped the family.

She said: "It's put Cameron's mind at ease. He is much calmer and can talk to you about it without getting upset."

The Boy Who Lived Before is on Five on Monday September 18 at 9pm.
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I have the article...really cute kid. I'm going to tape the program when it airs...looks like a very good case of reincarnation. :thumbsup:
 
Wonderful story, and I hope the TV special is as good as the newspaper account. The more exposure reincarnation accounts receive, the better. I think the more common such stories become, the less people will continue to deny the possibilities. Thanks for posting an interesting story Jere.

John
 
Is this being aired in the USA? If so, what channel? I would love to see the program.
 
Hi all!

As far as I can tell, the program is only showing in the UK. I'm very anxious to see it.

I didn't even know there had been an advert asking for people to tell their stories otherwise I would have written or called immediately. Oh well.

If this program does not show in the US, there's a chance someone might post a video (or parts of it) on Youtube.com. Youtube is an excellent site to find videos from around the world. I'll keep an eye out after the program airs on TV.
 
Jere,
Thanks so much for posting this story. It's a good one.

I think it's significant that young Cameron felt calmer and more at peace after he visited his past life home. Something resolved for him--probably knowing that his past life family was no longer there. I wonder what was said to him. Perhaps that will come out in the TV program.

If anyone in the UK can lead us to a video of that show, that would be great to see.
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

I thought I would register to post the following. I know that there are American members on here who won't as yet (or maybe never) have the chance to see the programme THE BOY WHO LIVED BEFORE, so I am posting a review I have typed after seeing the programme last night. I see I can't submit it all in one post, so I shall try to spread it over two posts.

PART ONE:

I saw this documentary on Channel 5 here in the UK on Monday night (September 18th, 2006) and it was spellbinding. I knew it was going to be good by the trailer and I videoed it. The television companies fill their schedules with a lot of junk programmes these days, but this was definitely not one of them. Little five years old Cameron Macauley, from Glasgow, had, since he’d been able to talk, consistently spoken about his other family on the remote island of Barra, which is in the outer Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland and two hundred miles away from Glasgow. He talked about his other mum, his “Barra mum” and his family, including his sister Gilly and their pet black and white dog. Cameron said that his father’s name had been Shane Robertson, who had been knocked down and killed by a car because, as Cameron put it, “he forgot to look left and right” before crossing the road. The Robertson’s lived in a one storey white house near the shore. There had been a little gate on the property that led down to rock pools and the beach, where airplanes used to land. As for Cameron, he had fallen down (probably a cliff) and when he had reached the bottom, he landed where he is now, with his new mum. Or, as Cameron put it to his new mum: “I just fell through to you.”

Cameron persisted in his strong desire to go back to his Barra home. His mother, Norma Macauley couldn’t understand where Cameron’s preoccupation with Barra had come from. None of the family had ever been there nor had anything to do with the place. Cameron began to miss his “Barra mum” so badly that at times, he was in genuine distress. He cried that he had to go to Barra because his family would be missing him. Eventually, she decided to do something about it. Cameron’s mum then went to see Dr Chris French, a psychologist and the editor of Skeptic magazine and seemingly the kind of person who still wouldn’t believe in buses even if one knocked him down in broad daylight. Naturally, he poured cold water on any idea of Cameron being the reincarnation of another boy who had lived on Barra. A bit of a waste of time her going to see him, really. She should have known what his attitude would be.

She then went see Karen Majors, an educational psychologist who could only say that Cameron wasn’t fantasising and that he really believed he had lived with the Robertson’s in the white house on Barra and so for him, it was the truth. But Cameron’s mum eventually got to meet a Dr Jim Tucker, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia in the USA, who has made a long and detailed study of reincarnation and at last, she had somebody to talk to who understood the situation. Together, they arranged for Dr Tucker to fly over to Scotland and interview Cameron, who kept unwaveringly to the same story and the same details. That he had been another boy with a different mummy and a different family named Robertson who lived in a one storey white house on the shores of Barra. Dr Tucker arranged for them all to travel by plane across the land and sea from Glasgow International Airport to the island of Barra, a remote location that could only be reached via a long sea voyage or a one hour plane journey. When they arrived, the plane landed on the beach. “I told you it was true!…I told you it was true!” exclaimed an excited Cameron as he ran along the beach. But there was no sign of any rock pools or a one storey white house.

The next day, without Cameron, Dr Tucker and Cameron’s mum went to see a historian at the Barra Heritage Centre and he helped them to find some amazing information. Yes, there had been a family named Robertson who lived in a one storey white house on the shore near the beach, but on another part of the island. What was more, planes used to land on the beach there instead of at the present landing site, but that the planes hadn’t landed there since at least the 1960’s. Without telling Cameron where they were going, they put the chatty and lively little boy in the car and drove to the location. When Cameron got out of the car and saw the house, his whole manner changed completely. He went completely silent and was obviously very disturbed and upset and looked like he was about to collapse. “Is this your house?” he was asked, quietly. He slowly nodded a “yes”. They took him inside and he had the look on his face of someone who had been away for a long, long time and had finally come home. The look on his face has to be seen to be believed. This entire sequence is almost too upsetting to watch. They went out the back and there was the little gate that opened onto the rock pools Cameron had described and the beach beyond where the planes used to land forty years ago. It was incredibly uncanny.


David.
 
The Boy Who Lived Befire review Part Two

PART TWO:

The Robertson’s, they found, were actually a family from the mainland who had rented the house during the period when Cameron had said that he lived there. There was no sign of them now, but, with the help of a genealogist back in Scotland, Cameron’s mum managed to trace a living relative, Gillian Robertson, the “Gilly” whom Cameron had described as his sister when he was with his “Barra mum” and they took Cameron to see her. She looked to be in her fifties by now. Yes, she confirmed, they did live there during the summer in those days and they did have a black and white dog and they did watch the light aircraft landing on the beach. But her father’s first name hadn’t been Shane and he hadn’t died in a road accident and she hadn’t had a brother who had died in an accident. So what was this all about?

Dr Tucker was of the opinion that Cameron may have been mixing up memories of one previous life with those of another previous life. The programme was too short to go into any more research, but how did this five year old boy know all the detail he did about Barra and this Robertson family and the house they lived in? What needs to be done now is to approach this from a different angle. Does Gillian remember a young boy who used to be a friend of the family in those days who used to visit them at the white one storey house? Had the boy been killed in an accident on the island? If he had been, there must have been an inquest and details must exist somewhere of just who the boy was. All this could be found out if they dug deep enough and went into enough research. I feel sure that Dr Tucker is doing that right now.

Had there, by chance, been another family named Robertson living in that house much earlier on whose father and then young son had been killed in accidents? Most people have no conscious memory of being someone else in a previous existence. Perhaps for most of us, if or when we are born again, memories of a previous life are deliberately erased by some force that we do not yet understand. Maybe that’s just as well, because we have enough to cope with in our present life without dragging traumas and unhappy memories with us from a previous life into the one we’re living now. But, whoever or whatever arranges all this, call it God or nature or whatever you like, the system is obviously not infallible and every so often, it goes wrong and someone is reborn into this world bringing with them memories of who they were before; who their family was and where they lived. This would also account for a child prodigy, who can somehow play the piano like a professional at the age of four years and without being taught. Where could this ability come from if not from knowledge acquired in a previous existence that has somehow come with the child into this one? There is no other explanation that makes any sense.

But there is one further question that needs answering. Let us assume that Cameron, when he had been this other boy forty years ago, had died in an accident by falling down a cliff or a shaft or something similar. Then where had he been in all the long years between then and around 2000 when he was reborn as Cameron? Cameron certainly doesn’t speak of being anywhere else for a long time. He describes the incident as falling down a hole and then finding himself with his new mum. For him, the forty years long process was instantaneous. A very strange case indeed.

David.
 
Hi David,

Welcome to the forum :)

Thank you so much for filling us in on the program. I would have loved to have seen it for myself, and I was extremely curious about it -- so thank you for sharing.

Dr Tucker was of the opinion that Cameron may have been mixing up memories of one previous life with those of another previous life.
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I think that happens more often than we realize, especially when strong emotions are involved -- as with Cameron. His reaction to the house...and his "knowing" certainly does point to the probablility of his having been there before.

I hope they keep searching and updating this case -- it sounds like a good one.

Ailish
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

Thank you, Ailish, I think this progamme is so important, that it deserves to be seen by everyone with an interest in the subject. By the end of the programme, Cameron had accepted that he would not be able to see his "Barra mum" anymore and it seems that actually going back to the island and the house has had a very healing effect on him. He no longer cries and pines for his other mum and his other family. So some good seems to have come out of the trip to Barra.
 
Welcome to the forum David. I appreciate your report, since we had heard that the program was going to be aired. I think the inconsistencies you mentioned show us just how much is unknown about reincarnation. Rather than making Cameron's less valid, it should make researchers more determined to study more cases. Again, thanks for posting your report.

John
 
Questions I'm wondering:

Is it possible that Gilly was an infant and therefore, never realized she had a brother? Sometimes, it's "too painful" to talk about, so parents will erase all evidence of a lost child.

Is it also possible that the father's name was similar to Shane? (like Shawn or Zane?) Or maybe his grandfather was like a father to him, so he referred to him as his father. Maybe Cameron's former name was Shane? Was Gilly's father still alive? If not, how DID he die? Was there another family member with that name? Was there evidence of anyone else dying in that manner? What happened to the mother?

Also, falling down a hole could refer to him falling in a well.

Cameron obviously had many facts straight - - more research needs to be done on this case.
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

Yes, Moondansyr, the programme left many questions unanswered and had obviously been edited to fit into the one hour time slot. Of course, allowing for three commercial breaks, the running time was probably only around 45 minutes.

Actually, if I remember correctly, the father's first name was "Shamus", not "Shane", so Cameron got that nearly right.

Far more research does have to be done on this, as you say. There are so many loose ends. But the fact is that Cameron got a lot of details exactly right and his reaction when he saw that house was certainly enough to convince me that he had been there before and that it had meant a great deal to him.

Regarding Gilly (or Gillian), I do recall the historian being asked by Dr Tucker where did he think that Cameron's memories placed these events in a time frame and the historian said: "Well, after the war", meaning 1945 or just after during the post war years. So Cameron could have been remembering something that happened up to sixty years ago, when, as you say, Gilly could have been a very young girl. I do think that Gilly ought to be questioned again about this.
 
David,
Thank you so much for posting that detailed report on the TV program.

It would have been very tidy if Cameron had gotten the details exactly right about his father's death. However, there is probably more to the story that will be revealed as Jim Tucker delves into it, which I'm sure he will, since it looks like a great case.

I am more interested in Cameron's reaction to seeing the house for the first time and his feeling of peace after being there--even if he didn't get every detail right. Something settled for him after he was there again. There is that same kind of settling or peace that comes when children have past life memories and come to terms with them--either through their own understanding, or with the help of an understanding adult. There is definitely a shift in their being. Sounds like this happened with Cameron.

I hope that people who see the program open to the mystery of this child's apparent memories, and don't dismiss it because he didn't get a few facts right. It certainly begs many questions that can't be answered by traditional views of life, death, and consciousness.

If there is any follow-up in the media, please let us know.

Again, thanks for the valuable information.
 
DavidW said:
Actually, if I remember correctly, the father's first name was "Shamus", not "Shane", so Cameron got that nearly right.
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I'd say that Shane and Shamus are *very* close! For a child, even closer than close, as their perception of words vary from an adult's perception.

DavidW said:
Regarding Gilly (or Gillian), I do recall the historian being asked by Dr Tucker where did he think that Cameron's memories placed these events in a time frame and the historian said: "Well, after the war", meaning 1945 or just after during the post war years. So Cameron could have been remembering something that happened up to sixty years ago, when, as you say, Gilly could have been a very young girl. I do think that Gilly ought to be questioned again about this.
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I would have liked to've seen her reaction. I can't help but wonder if her personal beliefs caused her to dismiss things too quickly.

Is there anyone here that has television network connections? I'd love to get this documentary aired here in the States.
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

It was my pleasure, Carol. It's a long time indeed since I was so moved by a television documentary film and I will certainly look out for a follow up and let you know about it if one should ever be made.

I myself have no memory of having lived before, but that only proves that I can't remember a previous life, not that I never had one. I think when we first saw Cameron in the programme, he thought that his life on Barra had being happening in recent times and that was why he was pining to get back to his family. But later, after he had seen the house where he had probably been born and grew up there, he came to realize, even though he is just five, going on six, that this had all happened many years ago and his other family had long been gone. Many adults would have a lot of difficulty coming to terms with the emotional shock of that. But Cameron seems to have reluctantly accepted it. However, the poor lad must have been very confused by it all.
 
Thank you David for the follow up. I understand a lot better now what happened to Cameron.

My own son had similar trouble accepting that he had a new life, with new parents. He thought we kidnapped him and while he loves us very much, he wanted to see his other parents/family. It helped quite a bit to explain reincarnation to him and he also became less anxious right after explaining it to him.

I think the healing is the most important thing, like Carol said. More important than a few facts that may be slightly off. The child feels better. Even if everyone involved came to a conclusion that Cameron was not reincarnated, it would still be worth the investigation for him to feel better. I think that there can be a little post traumatic stress disorder with some of these kids and its nice to hear about one that doesn't have to feel that anymore.

I still tear up when I think of my son crying when he told me that his other mother died in a car accident and he didn't get to say goodbye. Whew! I'm so glad we are past that.

Vicky
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

I'm pleased to read that your son has come to terms with it, Vicky. It must have been as confusing for him as it was for Cameron. Dr Tucker says on the programme that he finds that young children who have these memories of a past life generally retain them until they're about six or seven years of age and then the memories begin to fade away as the child becomes more pre-occupied with other things, like school and suchlike.

However, I believe that even though the conscious memories may fade, the emotional baggage and trauma from the previous life that the child has had to carry into this one may affect their feelings and thoughts and general health in this life. It's a very complicated subject and I must say I am not very enamoured of whoever designed it. For it can cause people, both adults and children, but especially children, a lot of emotional stress and upset. In fact, one is tempted to ask what on earth is all this about and what on earth is it all for?
 
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to the forum, and from the uk.
I just had to reply to david's post as everything he said i have been saying to friends today. I will never forget the look on that little boys face when he saw the house, he was just lost in another time, no one could act that look. I also wanted them to explore it further and felt they would come up with a lot more if they had. I was left feeling a little frustrated by this, but realise they only have a certain amount of time.
Anyway, love the site, some very interesting posts.
 
Hi David....

Just a real quick note...

Thank you very much for taking the time to give everyone an update on what happened in the program. I did watch it and I had a couple of things I wanted to discuss but at the moment, I'm ill so I haven't been able to post anything.

Welcome to the forum and once again...thanks very much! :thumbsup:
 
(((((((((jere))))))))))

I'm sending you good thoughts -- hope you feel better soon, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.


Ailish :)
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

Thanks, Moondansyr, for posting that link to The Sun newspaper article. I have saved the text and photos to my hard drive for my own personal use. I notice the article contained a revelation that seems to have been edited out of the programme because of time constraints. It says that Cameron said that the white house had three toilets, while his Glasgow home only had one. Later, on visiting the white house, they found Cameron was exactly right. The chances of him just guessing that detail must be very low indeed. He was obviously very familiar with the place, although his familiarity cannot have been formed in his present lifetime.

And thank you, Jere. I hope you are feeling better soon.
 
Hi David, flyby or jere,

I was wondering if it is very common to have three toilets in a home in Scotland? I live in America and most homes here have one or two toilets.

Vicky
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

I don't know if it's common in Scotland or the Outer Hebrides, Vicky, but the house was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by countryside and facing the sea and was probably built privately a hundred years ago or more and maybe that's how the owner or builder wanted it. I once lived in a house here in England that had two toilets...one in the bathroom upstairs and a separate one downstairs, but to have three in one house is unusual.
 
Thanks for the report David, and welcome to the forum! :)

Flyby, you're very welcome, too! It's always nice to see fellow Europeans here. :D

Jere, I hope you'll feel better soon! :thumbsup:

Karoliina
 
I saw the programme too and thought it was a fantastic and very well-balanced documentary following Cameron and his memories. I hope that it has shown many people that past life memories are very real and, dealt with properly can have a very cathartic and therapeutic effect.

I was moved to tears myself at Cameron's reaction to his 'Barra house'. As David said, his manner altered dramatically and his expression was one of such heavy emotion and sadness way beyond his years. There was a point when he was just staring into the fireplace (one of the main features of the house that hadn't changed) and there was such deep emotion etched into his face and his thoughts were obviously far far away.

I also thought his mum was amazing. She hadn't previously known much, if anything about past lives and yet she had listened to Cameron without ridicule. She had respected and treated his memories with the compassion and sense they deserved and as a result she has a very happy little boy who has successfully laid his memories to rest.

My brother works in TV and I've been trying to get him to suggest series like this for years because it is so powerful. I'm so glad the programme was aired and I'm even more pleased that little Cameron is a more relaxed and happy chap than before.
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

I agree entirely, Klarry. I have never seen any programme as well made nor as emotionally involving as this. It was a one-off. Maybe it should be put forward for some kind of award...a kind of television equivalent of an Oscar.

I was hoping to see who the people were that made it, but, as usual at the end, Channel 5 squashed the credits up into a narrow vertical strip at the right hand side of the screen, making them totally illegible and so they could prattle on about the dubious wonders of the following programme, which can't have been very special, as I've now totally forgotten what it was called. However, I'll never, ever forget "The Boy Who Lived Before" and I would like to thank Channel 5 for showing it, even if they did make a mess of the end credits.
 
The Boy Who Lived Before

Today, I sent the following email to Dr Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia and if he replies, I will let you all know what he has to say:

Thursday, September 21st, 2006.

Dear Dr Tucker,

I am sending this email to both your listed email addresses in the hope that one will get through. Last Monday night on Channel 5 here in the UK, I watched the superbly made programme about Cameron Macauley, The Boy Who Lived Before. It was spellbinding and very, very moving. Cameron’s reaction when he finally got to see his “Barra home” was almost too upsetting to watch (you were there and you saw it at first hand) and there is no doubt in my mind and in the minds of many who saw the programme that this is a most genuine case and that Cameron could only have known the details he knew about the Island of Barra; the house and his former family if he had actually been there and lived there previously and he obviously had…although not in his present lifetime. In fact, the details of what he related to you and his mother about all this before the trip turned out to be so accurate that it was amazing that Gillian (whom he said was his sister in his previous life) said that neither her brother nor her father had been killed in accidents. I think she may be being economical with the truth here. Perhaps her reaction was influenced by her own beliefs. Please, please, keep up your research into this case. There is definitely something there. In closing, I add three of my own observations that you have probably already considered:

(1): Cameron said he fell down a hole and fell through to his present mother. An incident that sounds as though it was an accidental death. Perhaps he had fallen down a well. If so, there must have been an inquest into his death and records of it must exist somewhere, either on Barra or on the mainland. This would also apply to his father who had got knocked down by a car. We are looking here at events that would have happened between the mid 1940’s and say, the end of the 1970’s.

(2): Cameron’s “Barra mum” was obviously still alive when the boy died in the previous life, which is why he thought she was still on Barra with the rest of his “other” family. For Cameron, his life on Barra seemed to be of recent times. But who was she? What was her name and what happened to her? According to the programme, Gillian either wasn’t asked about this, or she was asked and her answer was edited out of the final print.

And (3): Cameron may have been remembering events that had happened up to sixty years ago. But for him, the time between falling down the hole and landing with his “new mum” was instantaneous. The perplexing question therefore is, where had Cameron been in the intervening years between say, perhaps as long ago as the mid 1940’s and when he was reborn in around 2000? I hope you will keep people updated with your research into this truly remarkable case, which is the most convincing case I’ve yet seen regarding evidence of reincarnation. Cameron must have been very confused by all this, as anyone would be, even an adult.

Yours Sincerely,

David.
 
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