Boy who claims to be a reincarnated Hollywood actor recounts stories of his 'past life'

When Ryan Hammond, a boy from Oklahoma, was 4 or 5 years old, he began having intense nightmares. Each night, he would wake up screaming for his mom, Cyndi Hammond. Ryan would repeatedly tell her, “I used to be somebody else.” Initially, like most parents, Cyndi thought it was just his vivid imagination. However, as Ryan's insistence on visiting his "home" continued, his parents grew concerned. They sought help from Dr. Jim Tucker, a well-known psychiatrist, who verified many of Ryan’s reincarnation claims. NBC News reported that Ryan's detailed memories suggested he had been a Hollywood actor in a past life.

At the age of 10, in 2015, Ryan claimed that he could remember nearly every detail of his past life. He said his home was in Hollywood, and even recounted stories of meeting with iconic actress Rita Hayworth, dancing on Broadway, traveling to Paris with his wife, and working at an agency.

At first, his parents didn't believe him, until one day when Cyndi brought him a 1932 book called “Mae West film Night After Night” on the “Golden Age of Hollywood.” Ryan pointed to the black-and-white picture of a man in the book and recognized him as himself. Later, an old Hollywood archivist identified the man in the book as “Marty Martyn.” Ryan believes that he is the reincarnation of Marty, who died in 1964.

Ryan’s parents were baffled as they reflected that most of the claims that their son made were eerily in sync with Marty’s life. For example, Ryan often asked his mom for “True Aid,” a brand of orange soda discontinued fifty years before he was born. When a documentary crew tracked down Marty's daughter, she confirmed that her father had a craving for orange soda, just like Ryan, per TODAY. The boy even said that he was once punched by actress Marilyn Monroe's bodyguards in his past life, per The Sun. Even more so, he vividly remembered the details of his final moments, saying that his heart "exploded" before he headed towards "the light." In reality, Marty died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Puzzled by Ryan’s recollections, his parents turned to Dr. Jim Tucker, who had analyzed more than 2,500 reports related to children who remember their past lives. Upon examining Ryan’s case, he concluded that 55 of the things that Ryan had recalled were true. But even after these 55 claims, one claim bothered Tucker. Ryan had said that he died when he was 61, but Marty’s death certificate stated that he was 59 when he died. However, when Tucker delved deep into some research, he unveiled that the information on the death certificate was incorrect. ”Ryan was right all along,” he said, perplexed.

Tucker thoroughly studied the life of Marty, who was a movie extra turned Hollywood agent. He found out that whatever information Ryan shared about his past life, none of them were available online. So, it was indeed bizarre of Ryan to remember such intimate details of the actor’s life. Tucker was so intrigued by the boy’s story that he included it in one of his books, “Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives.” "The world just doesn't work as we think or assume it does. The cases I have examined don't come under a normal explanation of how we perceive the world,” shared Tucker.