One of the famous urban legends that people constantly challenged me on and insists that

it was real is the story of the little boy who believed that he was a reincarnated fighter

pilot.

They say he knew all kinds of details that a boy couldn't have known.

They say his parents were skeptical and tried to talk him out of it.

The fact is that people who believe that version of this popular story really don't know

the story very well at all.

The boy who thought he was reincarnated is coming up next on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

The boy who thought he was reincarnated.

In the early 2000s a sensational news story took the world by storm.

A young boy was proven by experts, so said the reports, to have lived a past life as

a World War II fighter pilot who was shot down.

James Lininger, born in April 1998, is the subject of books and TV shows and countless

articles citing him as proof of reincarnation, bolstered by an unassailable mountain of undeniable

proof.

Today we're going to look into this amazing story of a young boy who thought he was

reincarnated, and in the process also look at the people who helped him get there.

Such cases are not uncommon.

There are whole books about similar stories where James Lininger is only a single chapter.

We could talk about any one of them, but this case is a good one because it is probably

...