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Child Past Life - My Son (Age5)

T

Tulip

New Member
My middle son relayed some information to me that I think is past life memories. He was so matter-of-fact that my non-believing husband was taken aback. My son is 5.5 years old and in Kindergarten.

Basically he said that a kid he went to school with died. I asked him who and he said "R. J. Mack". I asked if RJ was in his class and he said he was not. He said RJ was 16 or 18 years old. I asked how RJ died and he said he got his head stuck in a shirt sleeve and "broke his head bone".

I told him we didn't know anyone named RJ and his teachers didn't call me to tell me anyone was hurt or died in his class. He then corrected me and said it wasn't his school, but in California (we live in PA) at a school that has a one and five above the door.

I again told him that we have never been to California and don't know anyone named RJ Mack. He was adamant that he knows RJ and RJ is dead and buried in California.
 
Have you tried searching the internet for an obit or news story about an RJ Mack in California? This story could be anytime in the last 150 years. You can ask your son open ended questions and see if he can give some more details. He has to be in the right state of mind or he will have no idea what you are talking about. Good times are when he is sleepy or riding in a car. Have you read any books about reincarnation? You can look through the book section here. Carol Bowman has written one called "Children's Past Lives". Her own children remembered past lives.
 
argonne1918 said:
Have you tried searching the internet for an obit or news story about an RJ Mack in California? This story could be anytime in the last 150 years. You can ask your son open ended questions and see if he can give some more details. He has to be in the right state of mind or he will have no idea what you are talking about. Good times are when he is sleepy or riding in a car. Have you read any books about reincarnation? You can look through the book section here. Carol Bowman has written one called "Children's Past Lives". Her own children remembered past lives.
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I asked him again last night and he remembered the kids name and told me the same story again. He can't seem to tell the difference between what happened in this life or a past life. He keeps telling me that he knew RJ in this life, in California, despite not ever going to California.


I have read some books on past lives and reincarnation. I am currently in the middle of one.


I did a quick google search and only turned up one RJ Mack in California but he was a grown man and there was only a mention of him in a newspaper as the person collecting donations. I also found a school in California with the number 15 in the address. Are there particular resources that are favorable for a random search like this?


I wish he would tell me about his past life and not this RJ Mack. I will continue to work with him.


I have been asking my daughter, who is two, if she remembers anything before me. She told me last night that she was in heaven and was yellow.
 
I did a tad more extensive search on the name "R. J. Mack" and turned up this:


Robert J. Mack


DOB: 12/31/1960


DOD: 7/2/1977


Age: 16 years old


Sacramento, California


SS# 546-37-7827


I also did a quick search for High Schools with the number 15 in the address in Sacramento.


Sacramento Charter High School is located at 2315 34th Street and has been around since 1856.


It has been at it's current location since 1924.


I can't seem to find any news articles about him or any obituaries.


I sent an e-mail to a contact I found online who organized the Sacramento High School 1977 class reunion hoping maybe the name rang a bell.


I also sent am e-mail to the Sacramento Cemetery Association to see if they had any record of a grave site or other information.


I seem to have hit a dead end. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
This could be significant. He was 16 or 17 when he died. That would fit what your son has said. This happened before the internet age so the records and news articles are on microfilm, but maybe not digitized yet. There are websites that have digitized old newspapers from microfilm. You have to subscribe like with ancestry.com You can search by key words unlike with microfilm. Your son said he knew him so I'm guessing your son was also born in 1960 or 61 and grew up in Sacramento. The newspaper in Sacramento is The Sacramento Bee. Their website is www.sacbee.com
 
Robert Mack would have been old enough to have a drivers license. Maybe he was killed in a traffic accident. The fact he had a social security number means he already had a job, maybe part time or summer. Kids were not required to have a SSN then unless they had a job. Mack Road is a major street in south Sacramento. I wonder if he was related to the namesake? Ask your son what HIS name was then. They may have gone to school together and lived in the same neighborhood. Another place to research is old telephone directories and the R.L Polk City directories. City directories are great because you can search by name, address, or phone number. I think these are also available in digital format now. You now have the date Mr. Mack died. See if there is an obit or newspaper article if was an accident. Congratulations. This is detective work. Here is another place to look.


http://www.findagrave.com/
 
The high school was privatized in 2003. Mr. Mack (and your son?) would have gone to the Sacramento High School which was a public school in 77. It's in an older part of town. The old year books are also on one or more websites now. You have a name and date. See if you can find his picture. If you do, show it to your son and see what his reaction is. Show him pictures of what the school used to look like.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Charter_High_School


Some of these pay websites like ancestry, newspaperarchives.com, etc. might be available for free at the library.
 
argonne1918 said:
The high school was privatized in 2003. Mr. Mack (and your son?) would have gone to the Sacramento High School which was a public school in 77. It's in an older part of town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Charter_High_School
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Right... but the charter school occupies the school site formerly occupied by Sacramento High School, the second oldest high school west of the Mississippi. So, if my son recalled the school had the #15 above the door and he was recalling RJ's death in the 1970s then he would be recalling the location where the charter school now is.
 
argonne1918 said:
Robert Mack would have been old enough to have a drivers license. Maybe he was killed in a traffic accident. The fact he had a social security number means he already had a job, maybe part time or summer. Kids were not required to have a SSN then unless they had a job. Mack Road is a major street in south Sacramento. I wonder if he was related to the namesake? Ask your son what HIS name was then. They may have gone to school together and lived in the same neighborhood. Another place to research is old telephone directories and the R.L Polk City directories. City directories are great because you can search by name, address, or phone number. I think these are also available in digital format now. You now have the date Mr. Mack died. See if there is an obit or newspaper article if was an accident. Congratulations. This is detective work. Here is another place to look.
http://www.findagrave.com/
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I checked the grave site. Nothing.


I sent an email to the Cemetary Association in Sacramento hoping maybe they can point me in the right direction.


My son said that RJ died when he got his head caught in his shirt sleeve and broke his head bone. (This was his exact description/explanation of the events).


I found one reference online to the last residence being in zipcode 95828 (Florin, Sacramento California) but I haven't been able to confirm this either.
 
One of my cousins lives in Sacramento. She grew up there and is now close to 60 years old. I'll ask her if she is interested in doing some research. I live 150 miles from Sacramento. The main library here has a collection of high school yearbooks from the area that have been donated. The libraries also have the local newspapers on microfilm. I assume the same would be true in Sacramento. 1984 is when they started digitizing print media. But everything before that is only on microfilm and has to be scanned before they can convert. It is going to take years.
 
argonne1918 said:
One of my cousins lives in Sacramento. She grew up there and is now close to 60 years old. I'll ask her if she is interested in doing some research. I live 150 miles from Sacramento. The main library here has a collection of high school yearbooks from the area that have been donated. The libraries also have the local newspapers on microfilm. I assume the same would be true in Sacramento. 1984 is when they started digitizing print media. But everything before that is only on microfilm and has to be scanned before they can convert. It is going to take years.
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WOW! That would be awesome!


A couple places to look, in my mind:


I assume, if he was a student at Sacramento HS prior to his death and he was 16 in 1977 when he died, then he SHOULD be in the freshman/sophomore class in the 1977 yearbook. He may also be listed on a memorial page in the yearbook of his graduating class. I know we had a page our senior year dedicated to the classmates who died before graduation.


I would love to see a death certificate to see if a cause of death is listed. Also, any news articles/obituaries from summer of 1977 that would be relevant. I assume, since he was only 16, that his name wouldn't be listed, and he would be identified in any news report as "a minor".
 
Tulip said:
My son said that RJ died when he got his head caught in his shirt sleeve and broke his head bone. (This was his exact description/explanation of the events).
I found one reference online to the last residence being in zipcode 95828 (Florin, Sacramento California) but I haven't been able to confirm this either.
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It may have been a farm accident or industrial accident. Sacramento is in a major farming region. Also industrial sites including canneries, etc. Florin is a farming area and suburb. Before WWII it was mostly Japanese farmers. Florin is in the southeast part of the area. BTW, the zipcode may be where he died, not where he lived.
 
Tulip said:
I would love to see a death certificate to see if a cause of death is listed. Also, any news articles/obituaries from summer of 1977 that would be relevant. I assume, since he was only 16, that his name wouldn't be listed, and he would be identified in any news report as "a minor".
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Not necessarily true. This was before people became obsessed with privacy and child abductions. Before 1970 everyone's address was printed in the telephone directory along with the phone number. And in the 50s and 60s newspaper articles often printed the person's address. That changed when burglars started reading obituaries to find out who would not be home during funerals. My uncle in Stockton had his home burglarized during the funeral for his wife about 8 years ago. I was surprised they still had their address listed in the phone book.
 
argonne1918 said:
It may have been a farm accident or industrial accident. Sacramento is in a major farming region. Also industrial sites including canneries, etc. Florin is a farming area and suburb. Before WWII it was mostly Japanese farmers. Florin is in the southeast part of the area. BTW, the zipcode may be where he died, not where he lived.
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Based on my online search, only one website showed a place of last residence at the zipcode 95828, which is Florin. I have no idea if that's even accurate since I couldn't find that information anywhere else online.


With regard to the HS, I assume it's Sacramento HS because it's the only HS in Sacramento with a 15 in the address.


I ended up focusing on Sacramento because the only record I could find for an RJ Mack that was under 20 years old was a death record showing 1977 and Sacramento.


So...here we are. Super sleuth. Hahah!
 
argonne1918 said:
Not necessarily true. This was before people became obsessed with privacy and child abductions. Before 1970 everyone's address was printed in the telephone directory along with the phone number. And in the 50s and 60s newspaper articles often printed the person's address. That changed when burglars started reading obituaries to find out who would not be home during funerals. My uncle in Stockton had his home burglarized during the funeral for his wife about 8 years ago. I was surprised they still had their address listed in the phone book.
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I would be thankful and grateful for any help or information provided. I find all of this so fascinating and I am super excited to explore this more with my son over the next couple years.


My daughter is also starting with the past life stuff. She will be three. (I posted a thread for her too) but she has been telling me lately that she was yellow in heaven and picked me to be her Mommy.
 
Tulip said:
... I have been asking my daughter, who is two, if she remembers anything before me. She told me last night that she was in heaven and was yellow.
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This is interesting! Michael Newton wrote in his book "Destiny of souls - New case studies" about his discovery of energy colours displayed by souls in the spirit world. The colours relate to a soul's state of advancement. He found that typically pure white denotes a younger soul, but with advancement soul energy becomes more dense and moves in yellow and orange and finally blue ranges. So your little daughter could be an advanced soul.
 
Nangijala said:
This is interesting! Michael Newton wrote in his book "Destiny of souls - New case studies" about his discovery of energy colours displayed by souls in the spirit world. The colours relate to a soul's state of advancement. He found that typically pure white denotes a younger soul, but with advancement soul energy becomes more dense and moves in yellow and orange and finally blue ranges. So your little daughter could be an advanced soul.
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Ive read both his books. It could very well be. She was crawing and climbing at 8 months old and for not quite three years old she is pretty smart amd sometimes amazes me. It could also be that she is messing with me because she also told me her name was Twilight Sparkle (a my little pony). Haha! Im inclined to believe that, at this point, she may be having snippits come back so I need to be sure I decipher the true from the play.
 
Tulip said:
Based on my online search, only one website showed a place of last residence at the zipcode 95828, which is Florin. I have no idea if that's even accurate since I couldn't find that information anywhere else online.
With regard to the HS, I assume it's Sacramento HS because it's the only HS in Sacramento with a 15 in the address.


I ended up focusing on Sacramento because the only record I could find for an RJ Mack that was under 20 years old was a death record showing 1977 and Sacramento.


So...here we are. Super sleuth. Hahah!
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I connected with a woman who graduated from Sacramento HS and she will be checking her yearbook. She also asked if I was sure about the High School because kids from Florin may have attended one of two other area HS. I looked both up and one of them (JFK HS) was established in 1967 and is located at 6715 Gloria Dr, Sacramento, CA 95831.


Now I have two high schools to look at.


So, another couple leads. I will keep this thread updated!
 
Another possibility is the 15 could be the room number. I sent an email to my cousin giving her all of the details you mentioned. I'll let you know if I hear anything. A search on "Find a Grave" turned up nothing. He may have been cremated.
 
Very cool :D Definitely try to figure out what your son's name was then. If you had two names and they both match, you've hit jackpot!
 
If the building is still standing and similar to what it used to be, show it to your son along with other schools. See if it jumps out to him.


Did you hear back from the woman who was going to check the yearbooks? Those sites where people can reunite with classmates sometimes have scans of old yearbooks. I heard this from an American friend who was able to see the yearbooks of older family members like her parents that way.


I wouldn't jump to conclusions about this being the RJ your son was talking about. A lot of it adds up but the name your son mentioned could be a nickname or the initials could mean something else. argonne is right, some records aren't available in digital form or they're in paid sites so that could be the case with your son's friend and his records.


Try to hear more about your son's memories. See if any of them offer any clues about the time period.


I'd be careful about posting records with personal information, especially if you're not sure yet that you're on the right track. This forum comes up on Google searches and this person's family can find this and be upset.
 
The death in this really stands out to me...I wonder what happened?He was a teenager and he got his head stuck in a shirt sleeve?I do believe your son is remembering a real event(that is way to strange to imagine).
 
AndreaFrances said:
The death in this really stands out to me...I wonder what happened?He was a teenager and he got his head stuck in a shirt sleeve?I do believe your son is remembering a real event(that is way to strange to imagine).
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I think he is five and doesnt understand or recall exactly what happened. Perhaps it was a head injury and he recalls a shirt being significant. I dont know.


I wasnt able to get any information from the woman in California. She couldnt find her yearbooks. I considered ordering the death certificate but I dont want to be creepy.
 
Tulip said:
I think he is five and doesnt understand or recall exactly what happened. Perhaps it was a head injury and he recalls a shirt being significant. I dont know.
I wasnt able to get any information from the woman in California. She couldnt find her yearbooks. I considered ordering the death certificate but I dont want to be creepy.
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Genealogists order death/ birth certificates all the time, I don't think it's creepy. Anyway, the folks at the records department don't need to ask you why you want it-- you have your reasons! :D
 
larali said:
Genealogists order death/ birth certificates all the time, I don't think it's creepy. Anyway, the folks at the records department don't need to ask you why you want it-- you have your reasons! :D
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If you are not a close relative, etc. you will not get a "certified" copy. If anyone is curious, just say you are doing some genealogy research.
 
Did you consider looking into possible suicides of people with that name? I only ask because the image of getting one's head "stuck in a shirt sleeve and breaking head"sounds to me like a child trying to describe seeing someone hang themselves by a shirt or towel or other fabric. I don't know why that is the image I get, that is just what it sounds like to me, a possibility at least. Suicides sometimes get press coverage due to law enforcement being called to rule out homicide, so therefore the death might be mentioned somewhere in a news article, not just in the obituaries. That might allow you to find some information. Just a thought.
 
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