Mommy, Why Am I Not A Boy This Time?

#1 How Would You Respond If Your Child Said “Mommy, Why Am I Not A Boy Like I Used To Be?”

People who claim to have lived prior lives have always seemed fake to me. Too often they claim to have been someone famous, like a popular celebrity, an Egyptian Pharaoh, Helen Keller or Julius Caesar. Certainly, if reincarnation is real, it is not limited to the rich and famous.

That is why when little five-year-old Nicola Wheaters story came to light, it sent shivers down my spine. Could reincarnation possibly be real? Her mother became increasingly certain that her little daughter was a reborn boy from a century ago.

#2 She Began Recalling A Past Life

Nicola displayed the extremely rare ability for being able to recall her previous life. It started when she was only two, and insisted that her toy dog's name was Muff. And then just some of the funny things that kids say, like "Mommy, why am I not a boy like I used to be? My other mummy used to be called Mrs. Benson, and, I was her little boy and I played with Muff." Nicola said, "My friend was Phillip and we walked in the woods with our dogs."

#3 Doctors Said She Was Just Imaginative

These were all unfamiliar names to the child, and Mrs. Wheater didn't know what to think, so she started keeping a journal of Nicola's unusual references. She took Nicola to see psychiatrists, therapists, and even a hypnotist. They all told her that Nicola just had an overactive imagination and that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

#4 Her Story Gets More Detailed

At age four, Nicola began telling her story in more details, never letting it rest. Her preschool teacher became worried about her and reported to social agencies that the school was afraid that something was happening at the Wheater home that was frightening the young child. They reported times when she would be napping and wake up sweating and screaming out unusual things about a train and a dog.

#5 Possibly A Reincarnation

Mrs. Wheater could not ignore it any longer. She began searching for information on the names that Nicola was constantly talking about after her daughter began insisting that her name was now John Henry. Her investigation into the names of the Bensons and the dog led her to believe that her daughter had lived another life. Over time, the clues began to indicate that Nicola was the reincarnated, five-year-old son, of Mr. & Mrs. Benson, of Haworth in Yorkshire England, and his dog Muff.

#6 Nicola Remembers Her Past Death

Mr. Benson was a railway worker in Haworth and warned had his son continuously not to play on the tracks or near them. But one day he had followed some friends onto the tracks and was hit and killed by a train just outside of town. Nicola remembered her previous death so vividly, she had a screaming, convulsing panic attack when she saw a similar scene acted out on TV.

#7 Her 'Other' Home

Shortly after Nicola's fifth birthday, Mrs. Wheater drove them out to what Nicola called her other home as she told her story's. Nicola guided them straight to one of four terraced houses that matched her previous descriptions, but there was no Benson family there and none of the residents knew of that name in the area. But Nicola continued to describe and guide her mother to paths and fields nearby that she had played in before with her dog Muff.

#8 The Church Registry

As convinced as ever, they went to the church registry archives to see if the Benson family had been members of the only church in town. It was here that they discovered records that indicated that on July 25th, 1920, John Henry Benson was born to Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Benson, who was a rail worker and lived in the exact area where Nicola had led her mother.

#9 The Truth About Nicola

It was through reading the church records that Mrs. Wheater learned the truth about her daughter Nicola. Her nightmares were caused by her memories from her past life. The ledger entries for the Benson family indicated that little John Henry had died when hit by a train at age five, almost one hundred years ago.