I just finished reading the book, "Soul Survivor", and found it to be the only book that actually left a tear in my eye. I thought the writer, Ken Gross, did an excellent job writing it, and I can understand why so much information was included that had to do more with the Leininger family than just the case of James Huston Jr. In the face of antagonistic comments by doubters who haven't really examined the case, Ken Gross, himself a skeptic, wanted to portray Bruce and Andrea Leininger as just what they are -- a somewhat typical American family with typical fears, concerns and tragedies.
I have found the
"Soul Survivor" blog by Ken Gross to be quite interesting and revealing as well. I have also read some of the comments from a Skeptico blog, which had a good time taking tiny sections of the book out of context and stupidly ridiculing the reincarnation premise without apparently reading the whole book. If they had read the book, they would have realized that the reference to James 3 had nothing to do with his age, which only happened to be three at the time.
How any thoughtful and rational person could make such ignorant claims in good faith is beyond me. I've spent many years of my education as a member of a debating team, and I know how some debaters will research little tidbits out of context that seem to support their argument. Invariably, I have found myself believing some of their sophistry until I thoroughly researched those same sources, some of which actually disproved their assertions. After the debate, however, it is too late to go back and tell them how wrong they were.
So many of the comments by doubters are smug and contemptuous, and their arguments are handled in much the same short-sighted way as junior debaters. It so often seems that they are more emotionally in need of debunking reincarnation as if the foundations of their entire lives depended upon doing so. After reading "Soul Survivor" I could relate to Bruce Leininger's personal crusade to debunk that his son, James, was once someone else's child. I felt so much sympathy for Bruce, because I have been in the same kind of quandary about such issues. Like so many of us, the very foundation of our reality is at stake whenever people mention such things as Reincarnation.
The book is real, and the family is real. Their experiences are as real as our own lives, and those experiences were so well represented by Ken Gross, who was himself a skeptic. Do read the book with a Forward by Carol Bowman. Read Carol's books, and those by Ian Stevenson, Tucker, and many others that are suggested on this Forum. Be critical, but open minded. Then, read what the skeptics have to say. Draw your own conclusions.
:cool SOUL SURVIVOR
