After writing a previous article entitled, “Victims of Terror”, I became slightly obsessed with the story of Cade, a boy who believes he is the reincarnation of a 9/11 victim. For several weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to focus on anything other than discovering the identity of the man Cade believes he was in his past life. From my research for the previous article, I knew:
-He was a businessman
-He could see the Statue of Liberty from his office window in the World Trade Center
-He either jumped or fell and saw his “brains come out of his head” before being covered by rubble
After searching the deep, dark recesses of the World Wide Web, I was able to find a few message boards Cade’s mother had gone on in hopes of discovering her son’s identity in his past life as well. Through this I learned additional information to aid in my search:
-The explosion occurred above him
-The ceiling on his floor collapsed, blocking the stairwell
-His parents were “abusive drunks” and he hated them
-He got married very young
-He was from New York State, and moved to New York City
-He lived in an apartment or hotel
-He rode a bike or motorcycle to work
-He had been in the armed forces
-He had loved taking ferry rides to the Statue of Liberty as a young man
-He got a dog when he was 25
-His remains are still at the former site of the World Trade Center
Unfortunately, this could describe hundreds of the World Trade Center employees killed in the attacks. Cade did, however, remember one extremely useful piece of information:
-His name was Robert
-His middle initial was ‘E’, for Elliot or Elion, he believes
-His last name, he thinks, might have been ‘Pattison’
There was, indeed, a man who worked and died in the World Trade Center named Robert E. Pattison. Although the ‘E’ stands for Edward, not Elliot or Elion, his parents are convinced this must be the man Cade was in his last life.
Robert E. Pattison was 40 years old when he was killed on September 11, 2001. He was employed by WCBS as a maintenance transmitter supervisor and tended to the transmitters on both the World Trade Center’s North Tower and the Empire State Building. Although most of Robert’s work was done on the 110th floor, on the day of the attack, it is believed Robert Pattison was on the roof of the North Tower. This would mean that unless he chose to jump from the roof sometime after the first plane hit, he would have remained there for over an hour until the North Tower came crashing down. He was one of six children born to a family in Woburn, Massachusetts and it has been said by his siblings that he was a bit of a trouble maker. After joining the air force, he began to straighten his life up. He lived in Boston for several years before moving to New York City, and although no wife is mentioned in his obituaries, through my research I have discovered he may at one point have been married to a woman named Maryellen who he later divorced. While there is not much information to be found about the life of Robert Edward Pattison (due in part to the overshadowing of information on actor Robert Pattison who plays Edward in the Twilight movies), you may have noticed that much of the information that is known regarding Robert’s life does not quite correlate with Cade’s memories of his former life. In fact, aside from the name, many of the memories contradict what Cade has told his parents. While I do not discount this boy’s story, I do discount the accuracy of some of his memories.
Most of us have experienced, at one time or another, a very long and detailed dream which we want to retell. As soon as you wake up, the dream is fresh in your mind and you remember it perfectly only to find later, when you try to tell someone about this crazy dream you had, you’ve forgotten pieces, have forgotten the order in which things occurred, and even forgotten or mixed up important details. “We were somewhere else- I don’t remember where but I think it was a corn field or something, maybe in Illinois or Ohio and I was a farmer… No wait, you were the farmer- anyway, it doesn’t matter- one of us was a farmer. We were in the field, then all of a sudden a crop circle just appeared… No, actually there was a bright light first. Oh no, that was after… Anyway, the space ship was full of people from my office. I don’t remember who all was there, but I remember they were from my office. I think my boss was there… Uhg I forgot what even happened in the dream that made me want to tell you about it. Nevermind.” Now imagine this dream lasted for 20, 40, 60 years or more and you waited five to ten years to tell anyone about it. It would be incredible if you remembered that dream at all, as it is incredible any children are able to recall past life memories at all. We must assume that often times, as in dreams, these children get details mixed up and begin to forget, especially as they get older.
In the case of Cade, while he seemed quite certain his name was ‘Robert’, he was a bit unsure about his middle and last name. ‘Pattison’ may have seemed familiar to him if he had ever heard the name of the actor ‘Robert Pattison’, which is quite likely due to his celebrity status, or he could have known Robert E. Pattison from having simply worked in the same building together, using the same elevator everyday. Cade was also quite insistent that he was born in New York state, whereas this Robert E. Pattison was born and raised in Massachusetts. Although Mr. Pattison was a supervisor, he was an electrician, not a ‘businessman’. If he was on the roof of the building on September 11th when the first plane hit the North Tower, he wouldn’t have been in his office, as Cade recalls and there would have been no ceiling above him to fall in and block him from escape. Even if Robert had not been on the roof that day, as is believed, and was instead on the 110th floor, Cade recalls an explosion somewhere above him. The plane which struck the North Tower ripped a hole spanning from the 93rd to the 98th floor, which suggests he was on or below the 92nd floor. Cade describes in graphic detail witnessing his “brains come out of his head” when he hit the ground. If Robert E. Pattison remained on the roof of One World Trade in hopes of a helicopter rescue and went down with the building as is his assumed fate, he wouldn’t have had the ability to see his “brains come out of his head”, as he left his body because he would have been entirely enveloped by the rubble in the fall. Not to mention, Cade requested his mother begin calling him ‘Robert’ because he didn’t like the name ‘Cade’ when in fact, Mr. Pattison hated being called ‘Robert’ and in life had always gone by ‘Bob’.
I continued my search for the real ‘Robert’ Cade claimed to be in his last life. I individually researched over one hundred men named ‘Robert’ who had died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, slowly eliminating them based on careers, family history and anything other descriptors I could go off of. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no ‘Robert’ who fit the description Cade had given. Each and everyone had some piece of major information that was opposite of what Cade had recalled. Once again, I do not discredit this young man’s story but unfortunately for Cade, it has proven impossible to determine who he had been in his previous life. Often times, memories of dying in past lives relived through dreams can be just as traumatic as experiencing death everyday. Unless the individual is able to have some form of closure, they may be haunted and hindered by their past life memories in the current life. Hopefully, as time goes on and people become more accepting of the possibility of reincarnation, there will be more information and resources made available to people who are experiencing past life memories.
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If you enjoyed this article and Victims of Terror, you may also like Joshiah: We Are the Creators of Our Universe, Scientists Have Answered the Question: If a Tree Falls in the Forest, Does it Make a Sound?, Evidence to Supports Sixth Sense (PSI) in Humans, and The Bombing of Guernica
When Caroline noticed smoke coming from the North Tower of The World Trade Center she began filming the events from her 32nd floor room at 200 Water Street. Their initial confusion is caught on camera as the woman speculate what is taking place a short distance away and Megan frantically explains the situation to her mother over the phone. Megan began seeing what she correctly believed to be people falling from the North Tower and shortly afterward at 9:03 am , the South Tower is attacked. Megan realizes they are witnessing a terrorist attack and immediately insists they evacuate the building. Feeling even less safe on the street, the pair decide to return to their dormitory with friends who watch in horror as the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am.
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