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Thoughts on an Unlikely Past-Life Story
A reincarnation memoir has been optioned for a film. Is it believable?
My beach reading this summer was somewhat controversial. The Boy Who Knew Too Much: An Astounding True Story of a Young Boy’s Past Life Memories is Cathy Byrd’s memoir about her journey with her pre-school-aged son’s recollections of having been a baseball player in a past life. Not just any baseball player: Lou Gehrig. And the memoir has been optioned for Hollywood.
The story is heartwarming, if nothing else, and depending on your own attitudes about life after death, it’s awe-inspiring too. Any richly told story about past-life memories sparks our wonder at the possibility that we maintain our ties to our loved ones eternally, and that life indeed gives us “do-overs” when things run far afield of what we might have hoped. Not to mention, at the very least, that past-life stories basically just make it easier for us to trust that this world is a little bit (or a lot) magic.
However, Byrd’s story has drawn criticism — even, it seems, from people who believe in reincarnation.
Checking reviews online, I saw people insisting that Cathy Byrd must have led her son on. Reviewers also accused her of running with the persona of Gehrig simply as a fame-grab, tsk-tsked her “name-dropping” (in…
