A 10-year-old claimed to be Hollywood actor from the 1930s — then he recounted details of his past life

Not many people in the film industry will be able to recognize the name Marty Martin, a Hollywood actor who turned agent in the 1930s. However, in 2015, a 10-year-old boy named Ryan Hammond started sharing detailed stories about Martin’s life and career, including stories that have never even been documented. This left people stunned and even more astonishing was Ryan's claim that he was Martin's reincarnation. This extraordinary revelation came in 2015 when the young boy began recalling his past life as a famous actor.

Ryan began having terrifying dreams when he was just four or five years old. He insisted that he was someone else when he woke up every night crying for his mother, Cyndi Hammond. Like any parent, Cyndi initially dismissed it as his vivid imagination. However, Ryan's parents became concerned when he began insisting on visiting a house that wasn't theirs. They then consulted renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker, who confirmed the startling accuracy of many of Ryan's claims regarding his previous life. Even more unexpected was the fact that Ryan's clear recollections suggested he had previously worked as an actor in Hollywood.

One day, Cyndi gave Ryan a book titled "Mae West Film: Night After Night, a look inside Hollywood's Golden Age," published in 1932. As they turned through the pages, Ryan pointed to a black-and-white picture of a man and instantly recognized him as himself. The identity of the individual in the picture was later verified by an old Hollywood archivist as, Marty Martin. His parents were shocked, particularly when they discovered that Ryan's memories strangely matched Martin's life. They were even more astonished by Ryan's full description of Martin's last moments, in which he spoke of his heart exploding as he approached the light. The actor had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Fascinated by Ryan's story, a documentary crew went on to locate Martin's daughter, who verified that Ryan’s memories were real. This discovery prompted the little boy's mother to seek the expertise of child psychiatrist Dr. Tucker. As reported by The Sun, he said, "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." Tucker was so captivated by the boy’s story that he featured it in his book, "Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives."

Here’s a passage from Tucker’s book, specifically from the chapter titled He Came From Hollywood. The author wrote, "We were able to piece together a picture of Marty Martyn’s life, and we could compare it to Ryan’s statements. In most of our cases, people have tried to see if a deceased person could be identified whose life matched the statements the child had made." As reported by NBC News, he added, "Here, there was only one guy that Ryan could have been talking about, because he had pointed to him in a picture. We weren’t trying to see if there was anyone whose life matched Ryan’s statements; we were looking to see if Marty Martyn’s did."