Five-year-old Luke Ruhlman claimed his past life as Pamela Robinson, a fire victim, with details matching the case decades later/Photo: Fox8
In 2015, a five-year-old boy from Ohio began describing what he said were memories from a past life as a woman who died in a fire, a claim his mother initially dismissed, before finding details that seemed to match a real case more than two decades ago.
The account, which later appeared on television and was examined alongside similar cases documented by researchers, drew attention to the specificity of the child’s statements and their consistency with recorded events.
The name appeared without explanation
Luke Ruhlman first started talking about “Pam” when he was about two years old. His mother, Erika Ruhlman, said the name came up repeatedly in daily conversations, although the family did not know anyone by that name. At first I thought it was fictional. That changed when I asked him directly who Pam was. “Well, I was.” When I wondered what he meant, Luke continued with a more detailed account: “Well, I was, but I died and went up to heaven. I saw God, and then in the end, God pushed me down and I was a baby and you called me Luke.”
Luke’s mother, Erica, contacted Pam’s family and learned about the similarities between the deceased and her son/Photo: Fox8
Erica later said in interviews with Fox 2 in Ohio that this was especially confusing because the family was not religious and had never discussed heaven, God, or reincarnation with him.
Details about the life he said he lived
As he grew older, Luke continued to describe aspects of this alleged past life in consistent detail. He said he was a woman, and would often point out that he had black hair and wore earrings, and would point to the jewelry and say, “I used to wear earrings like that when I was a girl.” He also talked about traveling by train to Chicago, a place his family, who live in Cincinnati, had never been before.
Luke started talking about a mysterious woman called Pam when he was just two years old/Photo: Fox8
When his mother asked how Pam died, Luke answered: “Yes, it was fire.” He then made a gesture with his hand as if he were jumping off a building, Erica said. He also described the place as a tall building. These repeated and specific details prompted her to check whether any such incident had occurred.
A real fire and a victim with the same name
Erica’s research led her to reports of a fire at the Paxton Hotel in Chicago in 1993, where 19 people were killed. Among the victims was Pamela Robinson, a woman in her 30s who died after jumping out of a window during the fire. It was the consistency between what her son, a woman named Pam, a fire, and a fall from a building in Chicago, described, and the documented case, that prompted Erika to take his claims seriously.
As Luke began sharing more details, his mother learned of a woman named Pam Robinson who had died 24 years before Luke was born/Photo: Fox8
She later obtained a picture of Pamela Robinson and placed it among other papers without drawing attention to it. According to her account, Luke found the photo himself and recognized it.
Television testing and further verification
The family later appeared on the TV show The Ghost Inside My Child, where producers conducted a controlled test.
Locke was shown a full page of photos of various black women, including Pamela Robinson, and asked to identify her.According to his mother, Erika Ruhlmann, he pointed to the correct picture without hesitation and said:“I don’t know anyone. But, I remember when this photo was taken.”Erika also contacted Pamela Robinson’s family to learn more about her life and said she found similarities between her son and the woman, including a shared interest in Stevie Wonder and playing the keyboard.
Pam Robinson died in a fire at the Paxton Hotel in Chicago in 1993/Photo: Fox8
The family has continued to speak publicly about the experience, including in interviews with Fox 2, while stressing that they were not motivated by financial gain. “We didn’t receive any money for the show,” said Lisa Trump, Luke’s grandmother, who was closely involved in sharing the family account.Erika said they chose to talk about it because of what they believe the story represents. “It’s a positive idea.
“It’s one of loneliness, it’s one of love,” she said.Lisa Trump added that for her the experience had a broader message: “I think it tells us that we shouldn’t define the spirit by race or gender.”The family also stressed that they are not religious and did not raise Luke with beliefs about reincarnation, heaven or past lives, making his statements more difficult for them to interpret.
Similar cases and how to study them
Cases involving young children describing what they claim to be past lives have been documented and studied, particularly by Jim Tucker, medical director of the Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic and associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. In his 2013 book Back to lifeTucker collected accounts of children who reported detailed memories of past identities. They included a five-year-old named Ryan who described life in Hollywood, a three-year-old golf prodigy who believed he was the reincarnation of 1930s golfer Bobby Jones, as well as a two-year-old whose visit to the Museum of Aviation sparked memories linked to the Battle of Iwo Jima. Researchers note that such accounts often appear at a very young age and tend to fade over time.
Memories eventually disappeared
This pattern seems to apply to Luke’s case as well. According to his mother, his references to “Pam” gradually stopped as he grew older, and the detailed memories he once described faded. He eventually resumed what the family described as a normal childhood, without continuing to talk about the previous allegations.While Locke’s family spoke publicly about the case, Pamela Robinson’s relatives generally declined to comment when contacted by reporters at the time. This case remains one of many widely cited examples where the child’s account appears to closely match documented events, although there is no explanation as to why such similarities occur.
