Chapter 8: Blake

This is the case that Oprah mentioned recently while talking on air with Dr. Brian Weiss. Liia was one of the children on the Oprah show March 1, 1994 that featured me, Chase and Sarah, and children's past lives. (The remainder of the chapter is about Blake.)

Everywhere I went, I tactfully steered the discussion to the subject of children's past life memories. I was getting skilled at slipping it into almost any conversation. Just by bringing up the subject everywhere and often, I found the cases were there...right in my own backyard.

I first met Tiiu at tea at a friend's house. I liked her immediately. She was fun to listen to, and enlivened the conversation with her sharp views and quick retorts. When I had the opportunity to mention children's past life memories, Tiiu didn't hesitate a second.

"Oh," she said, "Liia had a past life recollection just last year. I'm sure that's what it was."

Tiiu tells what happened:

When Liia was two years old, we were riding in the car together; Liia was in her car seat in the back looking out the window. We went over a bridge with aluminum guard rails that spanned a steep ravine, when suddenly she said in a clear, excited voice, "Mommy, this is just like where I died!" She was not upset, just very matter-of-fact.

I said, "Liia, what are you talking about?"

"I was in my car and it fell off the bridge in the water and I died."

I was shocked by what she said and pulled off the road so I wouldn’t have an accident. I then asked her, "Where was Mama?"

"You weren’t with me that time."

I was amazed at what Liia was telling me. I wanted to find out more, so I ventured, "Well, who was driving the car, then?"

"I was big. I could reach the pedals." Liia answered.

I wondered, how did Liia know that you drove the car with pedals? She always sat in the back in her car seat and couldn’t see what my feet were doing.

I continued, trying not to lead her, "Then what happened?"

"I didn’t have my seat belt on and I fell out of the car and into the water." Then, she put her hand up on the back of her head and continued, "Mommy, I was laying on the rocks. I could feel the rocks on my head." She moved her head back and forth to show me how her head was positioned on the rocks. And she added, "And I saw the shiny bridge." She then pointed up and tilted her head back and said, "I saw the shiny bridge and the bubbles going up." Her eyes gazed upward.

This floored me. How could she know about the bubbles? At this point in her life, she had never been underwater, because she didn’t swim. She doesn’t put her face in the water in the tub. She had never watched television at all—I know because I'm her mother and I didn't let her watch until she was older. Yet, she said, 'I could see the bubbles going up and the sun on the bridge through the water.'

For the next year and a half she talked about this often, always with the same detail, never with any variation. She was always very cheerful and matter-of-fact; remembering dying didn't seem to bother her at all. And, the amazing thing about all this is that Liia has always been a fanatic about wearing seatbelts. Even before she could talk she would always make sure that her seat belt was fastened before she rode in the car. And as soon as she knew enough words to make demands, she insisted that everyone else in the car wore a seat belt too every time we drove anywhere.