"Reincarnated" Child Catches His Own Killer.

If the tales recounted in German therapist Trutz Hardo's tome, "Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation Today," are to be believed, then one particularly precocious 3-year-old has led police to the body of his murdered former self.

Along the Syrian-Israel border, a toddler recounted to his people that in a previous life he had been murdered. This didn't shock his family and community, though, as reincarnation is a part of daily life among the Druze, an offshoot religion of Shia Islam that incorporates other philosophies and religions as well.

It is common for the birthmarks of newborns in this community to be scrutinized as evidence of wounds from a previous life. In the boy's case, he told his people how he had been struck and killed by an axe to his head.

The villagers took him around in hopes that he could tell them where he once lived. The boy said he could also remember the first and last name of his killer.

In demonstration, the small child went up to a man who would otherwise be a stranger and asked if his name was... Puzzled, the man replied that was, indeed, his name. The boy continued, "I used to be your neighbor. We had a fight and you killed me with an axe."

The stranger seemed horror-struck.

The boy then announced that he knew where his body was buried. The village followed the boy to a simple cairn of stones, beneath which were the remains of a man with a severe wound to the front of his head. The boy then led them to where the axe was buried.

Under the onslaught of such startling revelations, the killer confessed.

Is this fourth-hand story to be believed? Is reincarnation real? Or did the boy, in fact, possess some type of post-cognitive gift that allowed him to glimpse past events that he would otherwise never have witnessed?