The Boy Who Lived Before - Full Documentary

Cameron remembers a past life on the remote Scottish island of Barra, over 200 miles away from his home in Glasgow. I lived in the white house with my mum and dad and my three brothers and sisters. And he just talks about, I was in Barra and I fell through to you. And I'm saying, what do you mean? And he'll say, no, it was just like a hole and I fell through. Children from all over the world report memories of previous lives. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon. Together with psychiatrist Dr Jim Tucker, Cameron and his mum are going on a search for evidence of his past life. Are there rational explanations for the remarkable coincidences which fallen? Or are there stranger forces at work? Norma Macaulay is a single mum who lives in Glasgow with her two young sons. I've got two boys, lovely boys, even if I say so myself. I've got Martin, who's six, and I've got Cameron, who's five. Since Cameron first started to talk, he has described life as a child on Barra, a remote island in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. I lived in the white house with my mum and dad and my three brothers and sisters. From the age of two, Cameron has been telling his family the same story. As he's grown older, the story hasn't changed, it's just become more detailed. Norma could not understand how Cameron knew about Barra, let alone have such clear memories of life on the island. At first, I just thought, oh, he's making things up. And then I was thinking, how does he know the name Barra? Why is it Barra where none of us have been or have any connection with? Barra lies off the western coast of Scotland, 220 miles from Glasgow. It can only be reached by a lengthy sea journey or an hour-long flight. It's a tiny, distant outpost of the British Isles and is home to just over 1,000 people. He used to say, I'm a Barra boy, I'm a Barra boy. The planes must land on the beach. He said there's like a small beach. He says small planes land on the beach. At Barra, there's loads of places to run around, but here there's not a lot because the houses are near each other. I did one time say, one of these days we will go up and see Barra. And then it's like, well, I'll show you. I'll show you where my house is and I'll show you around. He says, my real Barra dad didn't look left and right. Cameron even claims to know his Barra dad's name. Shane Robertson. Shane Robertson? Yes. So who was Shane Robertson again? A Barra dad. Was that fast? That's the one that got knocked down. Friends and family have also been drawn into Cameron's story. Next door neighbour, Diane Miller, has known Cameron since he was born and her son, Aaron, has grown up with him. When they were about two, that's when Cameron started to speak about his Barra family. My house in Barra and family in Barra because Cameron was adamant he had this other family. And he would tell you over and over again. So, you know, he wasn't just making it up there and then. Cameron's uncle, Ian Watson, initially dismissed his nephew's stories as fantasy. But as time passed, they became harder to explain away. It's just the fact that he's just consistent in, you know, the things that he's saying and the story that he keeps coming up with. And over the three years, he's never wavered. If you look at his face when he's telling you these things, he believes the truth. My Barra mum had long hair and she got cut short. He'll say, I was with my Barra mum before you had me, before I came to this family. And he just keeps saying to me, you'll really like her. You'll really like her. She's really nice. One time I said to him, joking, do you love me or your Barra mum? And he says, I love you both the same. I thought he would have said me, but he never. Cameron's growing emotional attachment to his Barra mum concerned Norma. He began to miss her so badly that he started to suffer genuine distress. One day when he was at the nursery, he got quite upset. He was saying rather than me picking him up that day, he wanted his Barra mum to come and get him. When the big tears were running down his face and he just kept saying, I have to go to Barra. My family are missing me. How do you deal with that? What do you do? What do you say to him? Ever since he could speak, Cameron has described a previous life, growing up on the remote island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Cameron is desperate to visit Barra, but Norma, his mum, wants to find out if there is a rational explanation for his unusual memories. I think I'm a very open person, but this was still thrown me. I mean, I believe Cameron does know Barra. How he knows it, I don't know. I don't think anybody really has every answer. But as I say, for somebody who is quite open and it's thrown me. I'd just like to know, has he seen it on the television? Is there a house like he talks up there? I'd just like to know what's behind it all. Norma's first stop in her search for answers is Dr Chris French, the psychologist. He edits the Skeptic magazine, which debunks paranormal phenomena. The hope is that he may have a rational explanation. You can get situations where I would bet my bottom dollar that what we're dealing with are false memories. I mean, kids have fantastic imaginations, as I'm sure you're aware. Obviously, these days, we've got lots of TV programmes, lots of TV channels. We've got the internet. Is there any possibility, do you think, that he might have seen something on TV at some point? I'm not saying it's not possible, but I've never seen Barra on the television. I'm trying to think of times that Cameron would be watching programmes without me or just that sort of programme, but not to my knowledge. I mean, it is possible there was someone who told Cameron stories about life on the island of Barra and then moved away. I know everybody can round about, and as I say, especially the fact that Mark and Cameron are so close in age, so why doesn't Martin know all this? Okay, I mean, it may be that... Do you know, I'm just saying that... No, no, I take your point entirely. I take yours, but I'm just saying from... I'd be more than practically 100% saying, but there's nobody been talking about Barra. I've asked my family. None of us know even anybody that comes from Barra, been to Barra. But it may not be coming from your family. You're either dealing with a situation where he has picked up the information through normal sources or maybe, just maybe, you know, there's something kind of much more interesting and challenging going on here. Norma leaves Chris with more questions than answers. Could it be that Cameron's elaborate story is no more than a fantasy? Norma's next step is a visit to Karen Majors, an educational psychologist whose speciality is children and their fantasy lives. Pleased to meet you. And you. Cameron's mum. It's really interesting. Basically, how Cameron describes his world really seems to be quite different from how children with imaginary friends and imaginary worlds describe their experiences. He's saying it's real. And even very young children with imaginary friends will say they only pretend, you know, or they'll call them my invisible friends. Children who have imaginary creations feel in control of those imaginary creations. So, you know, they can determine what's going to happen in that world. And it really feels like Cameron isn't able to direct what's going there at all. There is a consistent pattern. And Cameron's experiences don't really fit into that pattern. So I think it's about exploring other possible interpretations about how to understand Cameron's experience. Karen's conclusion reinforces Norma's belief that Cameron's descriptions of life on Barra are unusual. They set him apart from other children who construct imaginary worlds because he believes that they are real. But he is not alone. In the past 40 years, there have been reports of over 2,500 children who claim to have memories of another life. At the University of Virginia, a department has been set up to investigate these stories. Psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker is the director of research. So this is a worldwide phenomenon. It takes place in places and families with a belief in reincarnation and places and families without a belief in reincarnation. And in a number of the cases, the child's statements have been verified to be accurate. Many of these cases show a pattern of consistent and detailed information. The children will usually start talking about these memories at a very early age, usually two or three. Some of them talk about the matter of factly, but other children use great emotion in describing these things and will often long for the previous family. Jim records the child's memories and investigates whether there might be a connection to an actual person who has lived before. Many of the cases seem to defy simple, rational explanation. One of Dr. Tucker's most celebrated cases was a boy he investigated from the Midwest of America. This is a very interesting case of a boy who had memories of being his grandfather. And he said that God gives you a card to come back and I guess this is a drawing of the card that he did. Gus Taylor is the child who drew that card. Since he was a toddler, he has believed that in a past life, he was his own grandfather. Gus is now 10 years old. When he was about one and a half, I was changing his diaper on his changing table and he all of a sudden just looked at me and said, you know, when I was your age, I used to change your diaper. And I went, whoa, this is weird. Gus was named for his grandfather. And his full name is August. His grandfather had died the year before he was born. So he really didn't, he never got to know his grandfather. But he would insist that he was Grandpa Augie. If we were referring to Grandpa Augie, he would just say, you mean me? You know, he was just very adamant, like we should know that he is Grandpa Augie. Where's me? Where's me again? See if you can find me somewhere else. Gus was four when Ron was given an old family album. To his parents' astonishment, Gus was able to point out his grandfather in an old school photograph. He also correctly identified this as the first car that his grandfather ever owned. He showed me a picture and then I said, that was my first car. And then my dad was like, hmm, that's weird because the car was Grandpa Augie's first car. So it was all good. Kathy and Ron were intrigued by their son's ability to identify his grandfather in photos. But one day, Gus told them something that turned their intrigue to shock. Gus and I were chatting and he started saying something about Grandpa Augie, which wasn't unusual. And I said to him, when you were Grandpa Augie, did you have any sisters or brothers? He said, well, I had a sister, but she died. And so that sort of caught my attention because we haven't had any deaths in the family. And he said, well, she died. And I just sort of looked at him and he said, yeah, she turned into a fish. She died, some bad guys. I just was flabbergasted. I really was just so, I was speechless because I just couldn't understand how he would know anything about that. Apparently what happened was his aunt was murdered and her body was dumped into the San Francisco Bay. There was no way he could know anything about her circumstances and how she died because it was never discussed. And it was barely discussed with me within my family. To hear my son, who didn't know my father, didn't know his aunt who was murdered, speak about this. Because that's when I just went, there's something going on here that I just don't understand. For many in the West, reincarnation is an alien idea. Chris French believes that it's simply a comforting illusion, which helps some people avoid the difficult realities of death. On the one hand, you've got science that says, once you die, that's it, that's the end, nothing else. On the other hand, you've got a belief system that says, you will survive, you will be reunited with your loved ones. In a sense, you do go on forever. How much more appealing can you get? I mean, we all want that, we'd all want to believe that. For Kathy Taylor, her son Gus's belief that he was his own grandfather reborn went totally against her own religious upbringing. I grew up a Southern Baptist. My father's a Southern Baptist minister, and Southern Baptists certainly don't, you know, teach anything about reincarnation. So that was not, you know, that was furthest from my mind when Gus started saying these things. This one day, he sort of popped up and looked at me and said, you know, mom, when we die, we get to come back. And he looked at me again and he said, I used to be big and now I'm a kid again. And he was just very excited about this. He said that God gave him a ticket. And, you know, he also referred to a porthole and that he came through a porthole and that he used to be big and all of a sudden he's through this porthole and then he's a kid again. Curiously, the description of the rebirth given by Gus in America has strong parallels with Cameron's account in Scotland. He talks about falling through from Barra to here. I asked him, how did you get here? And he just talks about, I was in Barra and I fell through to you. And I'm saying, what do you mean? And he'll say, no, it was just like a hole and I fell through and that's all he says. Aaron and Cameron had been playing and Aaron had mentioned how it's okay if you die because Cameron said you come back again as somebody else. So it didn't matter if you died. It has become clear to Noma that there are no easy answers to the questions thrown up by Cameron's memories. Cameron has asked persistently to be taken to Barra. Noma has finally decided to make that journey. We are going to go to Barra. I mean, it wasn't a decision that was made lightly. I've gave it an awful lot of thought, stood up to an awful lot of folk that were against me doing it and I just hope I proved them that I was right to do what I've done. Perhaps the trip will provide an explanation for Cameron's memories or put them to rest. You want to run now? I think I'm hoping that when Cameron goes, it gives them proof or I mean, maybe go here and they'll say that's not Barra, so then that's fine, that's not Barra, end of story, that's the end of it. But I think it's reached a point it's went too far. It's gone too far just to leave it now. At the University of Virginia, Dr. Jim Tucker has been speaking to Noma and following Cameron's case with interest. Well, Cameron's case certainly sounds like a very promising one. He's given the name of a place which fortunately turns out to be a rather small place and he's also given the name of a person. So with all the details that he's given, if we're able to verify a match, that would be quite intriguing. For Jim, to follow a case as it unfolds is a unique opportunity. He is flying from Virginia to Glasgow to join Noma and pursue the story in person. I mean, as it stands now, it's a very interesting story. If we're able to verify the statements, then it becomes more than that because then it becomes evidence that he actually does have memories that have carried over from a previous life. This is Cameron. Hi, Cameron. Cameron, can you say hello? Hello. I'm Dr. Tucker, how are you? What can you tell me about the house that you're left in? And it was white. How many stories were there? Was it just one level or is it more than one? One level. Yeah. Did you see your dad get knocked out by the car? Yeah. Do you remember his name? Yeah, what was his name? Shane Robertson. Do you remember what he looked like? He had spiky hair and he always wore shirts. Spiky hair, is that what you mean? And he always wore shirts. Noma finally has someone to talk to who really understands her experience. He was getting to a point, he was convincing. I'm sure folk thought I've adopted him or that he wasn't really mine because he spoke so convincingly about this other family. And has it slowed down or is it still going as strong as that? It calmed down for a wee while but then it's back. Is he excited about the trip? Yeah. After three years of listening to Cameron's descriptions of life on a remote island, Noma and Martin are taking him on a journey of another lifetime. How's he going to react? What if he gets upset? What if we go and these things are there, how he's described? Cameron is finally going to visit the place that he calls home. Noma and her sons Martin and Cameron are leaving Glasgow to fly to Barra, an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland where Cameron believes that he lived in a previous life. They are being accompanied by psychiatrist Dr Jim Tucker, an expert in children's past life memories. Cameron believes that his family name was Robertson and that he lived in a big white house, a house full of children. He says he had a black and white dog. There was a view from the house to the sea and that they could see Plainsland, not on a runway but on the beach. Could any of these apparent memories correspond to reality? You know, there's a concern that if he really is having memories of a previous life, that taking him back to that place might be traumatic. But what usually is the case is actually the reverse, that seeing the old place kind of puts the memories in perspective so that the child is then able to let go of them more. The Plains was the land on the beach. Hello. Do you recognise it? Yes. Are you okay? Yeah, good boy. Feel happy to be here? Yeah. It looks nice here. It's nice here. They go into the airport to collect their bags. Well, we're certainly off to a good start. I mean, he feels that he recognises the place. He said to his brother, I told you it was true, and he's very excited about being here. Mummy, I must have always condemned it as bad, and I must have cleared the beach. Actually, you'll be able to show me once we get there. Very exciting. We can verify his statements. It'll be a great case. Looks like a place that doesn't change too rapidly, so hopefully he'll be able to recognise some things. Feel happy to be back. Feel happy to be back, do you? You look happy to be back. Leaving the airport, they board the bus to drive to the hotel, and they get their first look at the island. Well, they might see it, as it's all on the way. I know, we're trying to see if we can see it. You know what, I know the person who lives there, but... You know the person who lived there? No, I can't remember. It's hard to get to that bit. Is it hard to get out? Because then you'd have to try and swim back. Cameron, don't jump about the bed. Can you believe you're here at Barra? Yes, I know exactly where this is. I recognise the beach. You recognise the beach? It looks like a beautiful place, doesn't it? Yes, yes, yes. So what do you want to do tomorrow? We're going to go to the beach. Go down to the beach? Yes, and I'll show you what I did. Show me what you used to do. Oh, my socks, I forgot to bring my socks. Next morning, the investigation begins in earnest. Norma and Jim set off to visit the local heritage centre to look for any record of the Robertson family, and the man that Cameron calls his Barra dad. My Barra dad was called Shane Robertson, and he got knocked down. Hello. Hi, I'm Norma, pleased to meet you. Callum McNeill is the island's local historian. Callum McNeill, pleased to meet you. Nice to meet you. Certainly the names don't immediately come to my mind. Certainly the name Robertson does feature, but certainly not the name Shane. And the name Robertson itself only features occasionally in the history of the islands. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that a family called Robertson lived in a house by the shore. Could Cameron be wrong about the name, but right about the house? I could see the beach when I look out the window, and sometimes my brothers and sisters could go all by themselves, and I looked out my window, see the planes land on the beach. And my Barra had a black phone, and how he dialed us, he doesn't go look at that. He has provided some clues about the location and the period in which he says he lived on the island. Since he's talked about the planes landing and talked about phones, what sort of era would that put him in? More than likely after the war. And since he's talked about the plane landing and seeing that, we're probably thinking of a family toward the north end. Yes, I would say so. If the toing and froing of aircraft from the beach is featuring highly, that would indicate the north end of the island. It's not much to go on, but they set out on a trail back to the north end of the island. I thought he was fine, but I don't know about him. I was starting to feel anxious and saying, well, I hope he does recognise something for his sake and probably for my own, because I'm desperately looking for answers as well. Well, I think it's disappointing if a child goes to a place and doesn't recognise things. Often what happens is that by the time the child gets taken to the previous place, they're beginning to lose the memories anyway. Children seem to lose these memories by the age of six or seven. And this is the age where children are starting school and getting more fully wrapped up in this life. They have driven past many of the houses on the island. Most of them white, some near the sea. But Cameron recognises none of them. Sometimes I say I wish I could get in his head just for five minutes to see what it feels like to him. Because obviously to him it's real. My dad and mum had long hair and she got quite short. Later that day, they go for a walk on the beach. The adults may be disappointed, but Cameron is happy just being on the island. He's delirious about being here and at one point he actually said to me, I'm just so happy. He keeps saying to Martin, Apart from the planes that land on the beach, there has been no other link between Cameron's memory and the island. I actually spoke to him this morning and said to him, if he doesn't remember things, it's okay to say he doesn't remember because I'm worried that he feels pressured into saying things. There is no white house above rock pools with a view of the beach where the planes land. No black and white dog. No family Robertson. They returned to the hotel. The trail has gone cold. But next morning, they receive a phone call from Callum McNeill at the Heritage Centre. He wants to speak to them urgently. He has some new information. Phone call today informed me that there were people living with the name Robertson on the north end of the island in a house by the shore. That's a white house by the shore. Couldn't get much closer to the shore. Callum's records were only for properties owned by islanders, but the Robertsons were from the mainland. And when were they there? 60s, 70s, I believe. So we know exactly which house it was. We'd be able to go see it. Directions to the house take them down a different road to the ones they had been searching before. Jim and Norma don't tell Cameron where they're going. They don't want to influence his reaction or disappoint him. They follow a small coastal track. The house comes into view as they turn the final corner. The usually chatty Cameron has become strangely subdued. Just below the house, there are rock pools and there is a gate to the beach. They said that was the secret way. They called it the secret way into the house. He's just saying he's excited, but he's sad as well. I think he's surprised and he's not sure how he's feeling. I'm not sure how I'm feeling either, to be honest. Can we come in? We've got a fire like that, haven't we? Mummy, look. What? I know, wow. You OK? Although much of the furniture and decor is recent, some of the features of the house, like the open fire, have remained unchanged for decades. I could see the beach when I looked out the window and sometimes my brothers and sisters could go all by themselves and I looked out my window and I saw them playing. The girls were in this room? Yes. And the boys were in the other room? Yes. I think it was the same stuff. Did you just have the fire lit? Are you glad you came here to see it? Did you think your barren mum was going to still be here? Eh? No. Do you miss her? You've got me, haven't you? You about ready to go back home now? Yeah, get on the plane and fly home. Well, it's been quite an interesting trip. I mean, we came here with a name and a description of a house, which was not very much to go on. And we found that, in fact, there was a family here and that, in fact, they had a house in the right location and the right appearance of what we were looking for. At this point, the investigation remains inconclusive, but we've got some very solid leads to go on and we should be able to find out the details of this Robertson family to see if, in fact, they do match with what Cameron has been saying. Back in Glasgow, Norma has arranged a meeting with Ruth Borham, a genealogist who has investigated the Robertson family history for her. She has found that the Robertsons came from Glasgow and that they owned the house on Barra for more than 20 years. She has traced a Gillie Robertson, who still lives in Scotland. But you don't know when and you don't know the surname. And I've been able to find a phone number and an address for Gillian and her husband. Gillie Robertson would have been a child holidaying in the house on Barra at the same time as Cameron believes that he lived there. I can pass that on to you and... Just so, would we be allowed to contact her? Her address and phone number is in the BT phone book, so it's public knowledge, so that would certainly be a possibility. And she fits with the right sort of age. She has two brothers and a daughter. Wow. Norma now has a name and telephone number for a living member of the Robertson family. The search for answers is nearing its conclusion. This is the house that five-year-old Cameron believes was his home in a past life. He believes that he lived here with his family, the Robertsons. The house, which exactly fits Cameron's description, was once actually owned by a Robertson family who spent their summers here in the 60s and 70s. Cameron's mum, Norma, has traced Gillie, one of the Robertsons, and arranged to visit her. But now, back in Glasgow, Cameron's reaction to the news comes as a shock. Last night was just an outburst. One minute, we're laughing and joking. Everything was fine, and then it was just... There was tears, and then saying he was frightened, and then the next thing, him and Martin were fighting. It got a wee bit out of hand. It was like somebody had flicked a switch. He went from happy to, and it was, I'm scared, I don't want to go, I don't want to go, Mum. But this morning, he came in quite wide awake and started asking me about Gillie Robertson. And at one point, I thought it was quite strange. He actually says, could Gillie be my sister if she was a wee girl at the house? And it's kind of, I think we've all been thrown a bit. Now he's asking, can he go? He wants to go and meet her. Hi there. Pleased to meet you, I'm Norma. And I'm Gillie. Very nice to meet you. This is Cameron. And Martin, come on. This is Cameron's big brother, Martin. He's finding somebody that's possibly his sister. It's you thinking, oh, maybe I'll need to go back to that family. Because in Cameron's mind, the Robertsons were his barra family. And I think that's what's frightened him. I mean, it's quite frightening. This is the house here. And down below the house, a lovely beach. But could you recognise it quite well when you went to see it? Although he was saying it had changed. Yes, you see, I think it has changed. I think the person who's bought it now has modernised it. I played in the beach and took my dog and played fetch with my dog at the beach. Could I ask you, when you went to Barra, did you have a dog? Was there a dog there? Well, certainly Callum and Peggy, who lived in the house, they had a dog, a sheepdog. The black and white dog is just as Cameron remembers. But what about the name of his Barra father, Shane Robertson? Well, certainly there aren't any Shames in our family. The word, one of my uncles was called James. Now, Seamus, James, you know, that's quite a common connection. One of my cousins is also called James, but certainly not Shane. Was the car accident on Barra? This is what we don't know. He doesn't seem to be able to tell you. I don't know of anyone in our family who died in the car accident. That's how I was curious as well, if maybe even there had been a child in the family had passed away. No, certainly there were no deaths and children in that close family. So while many parts of Cameron's memory fit with extraordinary precision, others do not. The family name matches, so do the physical details of the house, the island and the dog. But the name and death of the father figure do not. At first I thought, I'm going to be disappointed if it doesn't make sense. And then there's a part of me, I think it would have been too freaky if everything was 100%. A lot of the things tie in and match up, seem to match up perfectly, but there's other things just don't fit in at all. But I look at it as, if I'm describing my past or trying to tell you things, there's things I would probably remember and tell you spot on. And there's other things, if my sister was telling the same story, it would be different. I just think there's been more things tied in than didn't. If these in fact were past life memories, then we have to look at the question of why some of them were correct and some weren't. Was this just a remarkable coincidence or could it be something more? He could have had memories from more than one life and they could have gotten mixed in together. There's just a lot that we don't know about it. And I don't think I realised myself how much it might affect me going into the house. I mean, for us, I actually felt as if I could be physically sick. I don't know, and then there was the worry, what if all these memories come flooding back to Cameron and upset him? And then also I was thinking, what if he has had another mum? He certainly responded to the house in a way that made it seem that this was a special place for him. He may have had some memories and emotions that somehow existed on this island beforehand in another life and then somehow carried over to him. I personally think there's more to it than meets the eye, but there are some people and everybody's allowed to make their own judgment. But I definitely think it's one of those things, there's something there. I can't tell you what exactly it is, but I think it's something we'll probably never know. In the end, there are no tidy answers. But one thing is clear, the persistent memories that Cameron once had of another life on a far-off island trouble him no longer. I think since Cameron's been to Barrett and the fact that we've seen it for ourselves, it's as if it's put it to rest in his mind that he doesn't have to go on and on and prove it anymore. And he just seems so calm about it. Before, everything was hyper and jumping about and where it's like, yes, I was at Barrett, I seen my house. It's just so calm now, it's quite unbelievably strange. And the new series of Extraordinary People continues next week with Derek, who can't see and is the IQ of a four-year-old. But when he sits at a piano, he becomes a musical genius. That's next Monday at nine. Next tonight, Guys and Dolls.