ELVIS PRESLEY IS ALIVE
By Christina M. Schumacher

     A good number of you probably cringed, rolled your eyes, or made an offhand disgusted comment under your breath upon reading the title to this article. That's good. Some kind of reaction is better than no reaction at all. If your first thought is to go elsewhere to read, I urge you not to do so as you may be quite surprised at what you'll discover here.
     The fact is, The Night Watchman and I do think Elvis Presley is alive, though not in the sense that he faked his death and is living out the rest of his life after plastic surgery and a change of identity. We believe that we have found a person who is the reincarnation of Elvis Presley AND, before you cringe, roll your eyes, and snort in disgust again, hear me out.
   A bit off the beaten track for a moment, I'd like to introduce you to a man by the name of Ian Stevenson, a physician and psychiatrist who spent 40 years of his life doing amazing case studies on reincarnation in the States and in such places as India and Lebanon. These were not hynotherapy studies. These were studies of children from about the age of three (this age varies depending on when the child was able to speak clearly enough in sentences to be understood without mistake) who remembered being someone else. Oftentimes, these children would deny who their present life dictated they were and insist that they belonged somewhere else with an entirely different family. They had names of family members, descriptions of locations and, oftentimes, had a birthmark that corresponded to the death of the person they believed themselves to be. Ian Stevenson was able to check out the claims of each child and was unable to negate or explain away how these children knew what they knew without ever having traveled in their current life further than their own small village.
     Recently, The Night Watchman had the honor of playing lead guitar with a band for a college fundraiser. The singer of this band - we'll call him J - has been an Elvis impersonator from the age of three (note the age as per the previous paragraph). This man, J, was born to parents who were huge Elvis Presley fans. So much so that they gave him Elvis's middle name. Elvis died August 16, 1977 and J was born three years later.
     At this point, you're probably saying, "So what. There are thousands of Elvis impersonators out there." You are correct and this is also what we thought until we had the honor of actually meeting J and hearing a bit about his life. As much as we would like to give his real name here, we cannot as we don't believe that he would welcome our theory with open arms. However, there are definitely some points that make a good argument toward the possibility that J is, indeed, the reincarnation of Elvis Presley.
     As a side note here and at the risk of being tarred and feathered, I must admit to never being an Elvis fan. If an Elvis movie came on TV, I turned the channel immediately. If an Elvis song played on the radio, I turned the station or turned the radio off. It was quite a challenge to be thrown into the position of meeting J and hearing the music I despised. I must say that J changed my thinking to a huge degree.
     The first thing we noticed upon meeting J was that, without any effort, J LOOKS like Elvis. It was difficult for us to see him as anyone else. There was, to us, absolutely no resemblance to his parents whom we also met. Though he's lived his life in the Midwest, he speaks with a southern drawl as Elvis did. Of course, this could be from years of impersonating Elvis, but most people go back to "themselves" when their show is over, just as actors/actresses can play various parts and return to "themselves" once the show or movie is completed. There is no indication from J's speech that he grew up in the Midwest, and he is a very down-to-earth great guy despite his success.
     J, beginning his career locally at the age of three, moved on to be a very successful Elvis impersonator doing incredible shows in Las Vegas, Japan, Memphis, France, etc. These were not just night club acts. We saw footage of some of the shows and they were huge stage shows with all the frills that were Elvis all the way.
     It wasn't just his appearance that led us to our theory. It was the fact that, out of all the Elvis impersonators, J is the only one to ever be invited inside Graceland. This honor was bestowed upon him as a thank you for bringing Elvis's fan base to numbers not seen since he was alive. It's the fact that he is the only person alive who has been able to perform all 800 of Elvis's songs (twice) from memory with no effort and won a specific award each time. Elvis moves, including the entire upper body shake that Elvis impersonators have difficulty duplicating is as natural to J as breathing. His performances, as exciting as Elvis's and with energy expenditure just as high, are to "see" Elvis just as he was - the effortless body movements, the voice AND the look.
     We have no doubt that if J were to share more about his life with us, there would be many more areas that would offer proof of our theory. One last interesting tidbit, however. When considering doing a timeline of Elvis's life , J was the only Elvis impersonator considered for the part. To those considering the project (and these were big name producers), no one else WAS Elvis.
     This is not to say that J is not his own person. He is. No soul, upon reincarnation, can ever be the EXACT replica of a previous life personality as there would be no lessons learned were this the case. However, a soul can choose to repeat certain parts of their previous life if it opens up necessary avenues of learning for the personality they have become.
     J has spent 23 years being Elvis, but is now working toward entertaining as himself with a style of music that fits who he is in this life. He is a fabulous stage presence, very much worth the money paid for a ticket or CD, and we have no doubt that he will be just as successful as J as he was as Elvis.

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