Stories weren’t like a child could have made up
At four years of age, Ryan began waking in the middle of the night, tortured by nightmares. His dreams were detailed, vivid visions in which he was always in the body of another man. His mother explained:
“His stories were so detailed, and they were so extensive, that it just wasn’t like a child could have made it up.”
Ryan’s dreams seemed more like memories.
Strangely detailed memories
His parents noted that Ryan would make unusual comments like, “I used to be big but now I’m little” and “I liked it better when I was big, and I could go wherever I wanted to.” He would see pictures of the Hollywood Hills on television and point at the TV and quip, “That was my home!” He recalled things that no normal 5-year-old would know – like drinking Tru Ade, a soft drink that was popular in California in the 1940’s but ceased production in the 1960’s. Finally, the breaking point came at the age of five when Ryan pointedly told his mother, “Mom, I have something I need to tell you – I used to be someone else.”
Ryan went on to explain to his parents that he was from Hollywood (he asked his parents if they could go back there to visit). He told stories of meeting famous movie stars, travelling overseas, dancing on Broadway, and “working for an agency where people would change their names.” He recalled living on a street with the word “rocks” in its name and gave the age of his death as 61-years-old. He even spoke of the time between his past life and when he chose to return with his current mother as his mom.
Mommy, I found me! Movie frame explains Ryan’s bizarre memories
Ryan’s family were devout Christians and did not believe in reincarnation. In fact, they were afraid their Baptist church would be angry if they found out what her son was claiming (when the church did find out, they were quite supportive of her and her family). Telling no one, Ryan’s mother secretly browsed through countless Hollywood books from the local library in a quest to figure out what was going on – until one day when “we found the picture – and it changed everything.”
The photo she found was a publicity shot from the 1932 movie “Night After Night” (starring Mae West in her film debut). When Ryan saw it, he pointed at the picture and said, “That’s George! We did a picture together.” He then pointed at another man in the shot and continued, “And mama, that guy is me. I found me!” Ryan mentioned a memorable scene in the movie that featured a closet full of guns. His mother sought out the movie on YouTube and to her surprise, there was indeed a scene with a closet full of guns.
Family reaches out to Dr. Jim Tucker
Finally finding a face to match her son’s “memories”, the family contacted Dr. Jim Tucker, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Tucker had decades of experience researching reincarnation events related to children. The family insisted that their identity remain secret and then together, they sought answers for their son’s strange memories.
Who was Marty Martyn?
A researcher was able to identify the man Ryan had pointed to. Luckily, despite not having a speaking role in the movie, the man was listed in the credits as Marty Martyn (it is believed that Martyn had a speaking part that was later cut from the movie and thus, that is why he was listed in the credits). Martyn had been a former movie extra who went on to become a powerful Hollywood agent. The unlikely reference to the obscure actor with such a minor part allowed the family to identify him in public records. They contacted Martyn’s heirs and gathered, in some cases *discovered*, details about Marty Martyn’s life. What they found stunned them.
“If you look at a picture of a guy with no lines in a movie, and then tell me about his life, I don’t think many of us would have come up with Marty Martyn’s life. Yet Ryan provided many details that really did fit with his life.”
Together they confirmed more than “55 details” that Ryan had provided them with about Martyn’s life.
Ryan’s memories match those of Marty Martyn
Ryan described his mother which matched descriptions of Martyn’s mother – down to the color of her hair. He claimed an association with Rita Hayworth which was proven to be near certain when Martyn’s daughter confirmed that Marty did indeed know her (Martyn likely had contacts with Marilyn Monroe too as his wife’s family knew her well). Martyn’s family confirmed that Marty was an avid beachgoer and loved to go there, sit, and watch the surfers. Ryan, you see, had recalled frequent sunburns and “taking girls to the beach”.
They found that Martyn was not just a movie extra. As Ryan had stated, he also had danced on Broadway in a production called “Gay Paree” in 1925. They found he had travelled overseas, to Paris, and that tired of being passed over for acting roles, he opened a Hollywood talent agency, Marty Martyn Agency, where stage names were often created for new clients. As for the street with the word “rocks” in it – they found that Martyn had lived at 825 North Roxbury Dr. in Beverly Hills.
One particularly confusing memory that Ryan often spoke of was “Senator Five”. The name sounded fake, and his parents were not sure where memory ended, and childhood imagination began. Dr. Tucker researched and thought he had found the answer. He presented Ryan with five pictures of four people from the 1940’s. Ryan pointed at one and said, “That’s Senator Five!” The person in the picture was Senator Ives, a US Senator for 12 years during the 1940’s and 1950’s who was known for introducing the first state law to prohibit discrimination in employment based on race, color, or national origin.
Ryan went on to confirm more than fifty particulars about his past life as Martyn. He confirmed how many children Martyn had (five stepchildren and one biological daughter), how many times he had been married (a highly unusual four broken marriages), the type and color of cars that Marty and his wife had driven, that he played and owned several pianos, had an African American maid, and that their home had an unusually large swimming pool in it. He confirmed the number of sisters he had which surprisingly, revealed new details about Martyn’s life. Martyn’s family had thought that Marty had just one sister while Ryan said he had two. The family did further research and discovered that indeed, Martyn had another sister that the family had never known about.
One fact, however, seemed radically off despite its significance. Ryan said that he had died at the age of 61 and he was quite certain of this. Tucker had asked his mother, “I don’t see why God would let you get to be 61 and then make you come back as a baby?” Martyn’s death certificate however, listed his age at 59 at the time of his death (which occurred on Christmas Day, December 25, 1964, from a cerebral hemorrhage due to complications from Leukemia).
Not leaving the obvious error in Ryan’s story untouched, Dr. Tucker and both families began to research Martyn’s history in more depth. They found from census records that Martyn had in fact, been born May 19, 1903, two years earlier than his death certificate had indicated. As it turns out, Martyn had died at 61 years of age – precisely as Ryan had put forth.
Now that Ryan is 10 years old, he says his memories of Marty Martyn’s life are fading, which Dr. Tucker said is typical as children grow older. Tucker says Ryan’s case is one of the most detailed reincarnation cases he has ever seen.