Meet the kid who believes he's the reincarnated spirit of Lou Gehrig
Ever want to know what it was like to watch legendary New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig play in person? How did the ball sound off his bat? What was the fan reaction every time he came to the plate?
Up until now, you needed to find someone who saw Gehrig in person, and hope they could accurately describe those things.
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But that may change soon. If Christian Haupt and his mother, Cathy, are right, baseball fans will get a chance to experience what it was like to see Gehrig in action. That’s because they believe the reincarnated spirit of Gehrig lives on in Christian.
It’s not a joke, either. Cathy Haupt believes so strongly that her son was Gehrig in a past life that she’s written a book about his experience. That book is “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” — it’s out Tuesday and it chronicles how Christian and Cathy came to that realization. The movie rights for “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” have already been picked up by 20th Century Fox, according to Deadline, with the team that did “Miracles from Heaven” at the helm.
The book is mostly based on stories and statements Christian made to his mother when he was 2. It all started when Christian told his mother he “used to be a tall baseball player.” He would also recall stories of traveling to hotels by train. Christian hadn’t been exposed to baseball at that point in his life, and wouldn’t know anything about traveling by train, so that piqued Cathy’s interest.
Her belief that her son was actually Gehrig reincarnated grew stronger after some simple Internet searching. Upon seeing a picture of Gehrig next to Babe Ruth, Christian reportedly told his mom that the two don’t talk to each other. Cathy looked into that, and discovered the two teammates had a falling out at some point.
Cathy has also talked to a psychiatrist and a past-life regression therapist. Both have fueled her belief that her son is actually the living spirit of Gehrig. Under hypnosis, Cathy reportedly recalled her past life as Gehrig’s mother. The therapist researched one of the stories Cathy told while under hypnosis, and found there was some evidence it actually happened.
And so … yeah … that’s how one mother came to believe her son was the living embodiment of baseball legend Lou Gehrig. We aren’t entirely sure where to go from here.
The whole thing is unusual to say the least. We’re dealing with things that can’t be proven with facts here, like reincarnation and hypnosis. On top of that, you have to believe everyone involved is telling the truth. While the stories Christian reportedly told wound up being accurate, those things can be easily researched. Anyone can go online and find out Gehrig and Ruth had a falling out. Did Christian really say those things unprompted, or is the whole thing an elaborate hoax designed to sell some books?
We’ll let you be the judge here.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
