Transcending Time: Benjamin Carraud's Encounter with Reincarnation

In this podcast episode, author Benjamin Carraud discusses his book, “Goodbye Fields of Prokhorovka,” his childhood in northern France, and intense early nightmares accompanied by sleepwalking. 

He describes later moving abroad, including time in Shanghai as an entrepreneur. He had a sudden, vivid flashback-like experiences of leading soldiers through a WWII battlefield under artillery fire.  In the flashback he had  tactical awareness, vulnerability, and a sense of command.  The flashback - like episodes recurred regularly and made him fear he was losing his mind. 

After returning to France, he took a calming job as a castle receptionist, remained withdrawn, and sought help.  A psychiatrist said he was not schizophrenic and suggested exploring less routine techniques. A documentary on a child's recollection of the battle of Iwo Jima—helped him connect his nightmares and flashbacks.  This leading him to speak with researcher Jim Matlock and find community and research-based discussion of reincarnation phenomena.

00:00 Welcome and New Book

03:14 Growing Up in France

04:05 Childhood Nightmares

05:54 Leaving France for Abroad

06:45 Shanghai Flashback Begins

08:18 Inside the Battle Vision

13:23 Aftermath and Fear of Losing It

15:25 Back Home and Quiet Job

17:12 Clues in the Memories

18:15 Reincarnation Documentary Link

20:10 Therapy and Past Life Regression

22:43 Jim Matlock and Community

27:30 Wrap Up and Next Episode

Transcript

james_1_01-15-2026_080658 2:13

Welcome, Benjamin Carro. I'm very excited about our podcast today and in this series. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having, it's a pleasure, my voice. Really looking forward to what we offer to the business today. Yes. It's really very exciting. We've been meeting to get ready for today and for me the excitement has just been building and we have a lot to talk about. So I'll quit jabbering and and get down to it. You are the author of a book that is just going to be coming out and that is Goodbye Fields of Roka. Could you say that better for me? Would it's goodbye Fields of Roka. Okay. Okay. There's a story as to why the name of this place where neither me or my previous incarnation have ever been. But I would get to why I decided to. Okay. We'll get to that later. Yes. And good. I I, we might as well start at the beginning. You are born and raised in France. Okay. So I was born in 1991 in Paris, but I grew up in north France, actually. So lovely countryside to spend my Holy Years. I wanna just ask you have a brother and a sister and your parents, what occupation were they? So my my mother is British. She's from England, actually. Okay. She started her career, I think she worked in finance in the city in the eighties. Okay. And she decided for more life and she became in France English teacher. Oh. So she ran an English school. Okay. As for my father, he was a businessman. Oh, okay. He's retired. He's retired now. You're the oldest of the three then And went to school there in Northern France. When you were really young you suffered from nightmares that were very extreme. Can you tell us about that please? Yeah, it's it's strange because when people ask me, random question, what are your earliest memories? Mine is waking up crying, but instead of waking up in my bed, I wake up in my parents' living room with my parents essentially trying to Oh, understand what's going on. was just one examples of the many nightmares that I had. It's strange enough to say that my brother and my sister never had these night girls. Yeah. However in my case it was pretty intense to the point where even recently I was talking to some distant family members and they, when I mentioned my story, they didn't react at all except when I mentioned those nightmares because I say, oh, yes, it's true. We didn't really know how to handle you when you were young because it was a strange sense of, almost like a trance. Because I'm a sleepwalker as well. Okay. Okay. And I tend to feel like the way it works is the same in the way that I would've, those extremely violent nightmares. Yes. And they took the formula at night there. So I would be leaving my bed and trying to explain what I was saying to my parents. If you've actually seen the. The, to, I believe about the reincarnational composing. Okay. There's an anecdote behind this because my father listened to that token, came back to me after and said, you really need to put in your book that the nightmares you were having, they sound a lot like one of the battles I described. Oh, okay. Okay. But thanks for having each other, which is, explain why I was dreaming about that. But I was, when I was two or three. Oh my goodness. I know that my father was a sleepwalker and he, in his later years he woke up as he had one leg out the second floor window. It, it was woke up after you finished your schooling then you didn't stay in France. What, how come? How come? Consequences of growing up in a small village, even beyond that, I think we're all wire differently when we come on this planet. And I always say as a joke that whether I born 300 years ago, I was probably the kind of guy to volunteer to go on boats for a year. Long planet. Yes. It just so happened that in this day and age I was able to actually travel, study, and then work a abroad. Oh, okay. And it never really crossed my mind to stay in France. Even. Even right now, I'm in a situation where I wrote my book in town in Vietnam, but then I went back to France to edit it. And literally less than two weeks after I was done editing, I was back in a plane and back to where I am now in Vietnam. That's so interesting. That That is just Benjamin. Got settled in in Vietnam or, and China, I think you were at that time. 24. Okay. So I arrived in Shanghai and it, it wasn't love at first sight because I never had a love relationship with that country. Okay. How, however, very clearly it, it struck me that the I, the preconceptions in China. Oh, that's so neat. And to, for you to understand exactly how I felt when this experience happened. Okay. I had just spent a very rough winter in China. My situation, my work situation was entrepreneurship. So obviously there's some risks. And I think the novelty of the country had worn off. Okay. I had gone through a pretty rough winter. The weather was bad. I tried to be balloon, and spring came and I really had a lot of hope because I was always very I was aware of the rhythms. Okay? The fact that there, there's a cadence to the year and usually the spring is where I feel the best. Okay? But for some reason it didn't change that year. And but the pressure, the stress. But then one day I'm working to work and this was, this is meaningful for me because this was usually my only moment of and all of a sudden I wasn't in China anymore. I wasn't in the street. Without realizing it, I had entered a completely different world. And it's such a physical experience because I think I could describe what I was seeing, but for some reason this is not what really struck me. I instantly I'm in a city that, that experiencing vicious fighting and I noticed that there are men around me. And it's immediately apparent to me that those people are, I'm leading them. Okay. I'm the officer. I decide where we go and especially at what rhythm, because there was this strange dance that I immediately noticed that the wave we move in this landscape is very staggered. You move, you wake, you sit, you look around for any sound. And speaking of sounds, now I realize that there is. Some things whistling about my head. Okay. Quite Quite like, and immediately apparent. That's artillery of it. Even though I've never heard artery in my life. These are all, you can hear it and the change of frequency tells its story. And so even though I've never been in the army Yeah, I understand all these things. Yeah. Yeah. You could, these were artillery rounds that were going over your head. And in this flashback, even though you hadn't been in the army in this lifetime you you had um, noticed that the wave we move in this landscape is very staggered. You move, you wake, you sit, you look around for any sound. And speaking of sounds, now I realize that there is. Some things whistling about my head. Okay. Quite like, and immediately apparent. That's artillery of it. Even though it's strange because it wasn't a conscious analysis of the situation. No. You find yourself holding some, at what point in my current life would I feel comfortable having artery wheezing over the health? None None. But in that situation I know that it's our guys sending those rounds. And the fact also that there is no returning fire also tells its own story. I have all this information coming together. The thing that left the biggest impression was Okay. the threats. Even though I, in that. In that image. I'm not shooting, nobody around me is shooting. I think, and I especially don't see any soldiers. However, the, their presence is felt very sharply. Okay. Because I'm aware of several risks. I'm aware of strives who willingly let themselves be overrun by the advanced party of the German army. And I know that there are some guys out there there Yes. That will at some point come out of their hiding spot to. Take a pot shot or two and that sensation that you could be in somebody's Yeah. Sites, yes. Cross hairs. Yes. Especially in a, in a city like that where it's, it's a three dimensional right back of view because my, my fear is, is up there, I'm looking at the top floor on both sides.'cause I know that this is where the threat will come from. And as quickly as it came, it just vanishes. It lasted maybe five seconds. Oh my goodness. And, and, and, and did you, and so you felt the emotion of fear, did you, or whatever that was, I guess maybe alertness and concern and that sort of thing. Not, yeah. So. Very role to be able to identify one, but I don't, yes. Fear as in the same thing, right? You have when you're standing over a precipice. Right? Right.'cause both fear, there are other things and there's also this idea, although it wasn't clear in my mind at the time, but now understanding the trajectory of that specific Sites, yes. Cross hairs. Yes. Especially in a city like that where it's a three dimensional right back of view because my fear is up there, I'm looking at the top floor on both sides.'cause I know that this is where the threat will come from. And as quickly as it came, it just vanishes. It lasted maybe five seconds. Oh my goodness. And, and, and, and did you, and so you felt the emotion I understand that by that point. There was enough years, enough, enough campaigns for an officer not to be, let's say, fear is in information at this point. Right. Right. That's kind of how I would describe it if you ask me to go deep into that. Mm-hmm. But that wasn't really the dominating effect. Right, right. Vulnerability was one. Right. But what was the leading was really practical situation. The fact that I think we are winning because we are, we have support, they don't, we're obviously advancing and, um. Yeah, any dance, and you're left with without no answers. No. enough campaigns for an officer not to be, let's say, fear is in information at this point. That's how I would describe it if you ask me to go deep into that. But that wasn't really the dominating effect. Vulnerability was one. But what was the leading was really practical situation. The fact that I think we are winning because we are, we have support, they don't, we're obviously advancing and, not a big enough word for it. Yes, I think it so they, there was a whole evolution of the situation because strangely enough, I wasn't it, it never even crossed my mind that any of this could be real, oh. Reaction was I've something snapped and I've I know I was prone to course anxiety sometimes. Okay. Like everybody, yes, sure. I just didn't know, what to do with it, because now it's also not like it happened once and then for three months I had nothing. I think a few days after I had another one. Okay. And then it started goodness. Oh my, oh wow. That, oh wow. I guess so. I guess so. And, and, uh. Well, you, you really must have thought that you are, you are losing your mind. That was the only explanation I could think of. Wow. Wow, wow. Wow. And the thing is, I had no framework to understand what was going on. Yeah. I had heard of visionary experiences, but I didn't connect the dots because I wasn't mitigating, I wasn't doing drugs. I, I don't think I was even drinking alcohol.'cause I'm big drinker. And so the, for me, the only explanation was the stress that I was going through. Okay. The pressure that I was fighting had caused something to snap and Right. It was, that was my first thought. Something has snapped and Right. And. What do I do with it It's the worst loneliness you can feel. It's not trusting your own mind. Oh, knowing whether what you. Perceived because, there was, these were, as far as I was concerned, these were perceptions. These images in my mind. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a very traumatic feeling, especially since my first reaction was just not to talk about it. I did. Yeah. And then became a different journey because the the unintended consequence was that, I went back to wherever. Oh is familiar. The China actually, and that didn't have any impact whatsoever on frequency or the intensity of those? Flash as far as that. Oh, happening. Oh my goodness. I know that, that you sought out a very Oh, happening. Oh my goodness. I know that, that you sought out a very calm type of job Oh yeah. I have a degree in marketing and I had a lot of experience working on abroad, but I ended up becoming a receptionist in the castle, and I absolutely loved it. Besides the fact that I always say now everybody should have at least six months in the service industry, least six months in the service industry, uhhuh for being able to vote and but me, a lot of good, it's. Kind of job where I had to be extremely well dressed and groomed every day. So that's Yes. Yes. Yes. That I mean, providing some base. oh, And about a year do something. Yeah. I it didn't happen. It's, you put it very eloquently in my mind. It wasn't that simple. It's more like I came back and I wanted to do something, and if I remember correctly, my mom saw a job. And I just responded. And of course they hide me because they have some, I, again, small village. Yeah. Where I come from, somebody that speaks. Two or more languages is pretty rare. Yeah. Yeah. So they just hide me on the spot. Okay. I don't have to worry about that. Yeah. Check the checklist. It's, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. But I wasn't thinking so far as to say I need guidance and structure. It was a much more organic process. Okay. Okay. I think it's, I could simplify as to say that my mother saw me come back from China a little bit hurt. And she wanted to help me out and she. Yeah. She helped me find this job. Good good. That's actually, I don't think about this period of my life so much. Very lonely. Oh, yeah. Very withdrawn. And lots of questions in my head. Yeah. Yeah. What else could you tell from the flashbacks? There was, I was apprehending this story very different people to reasons number one, as you say, is the amount of flashbacks I had. After a while I started to obviously Germany in the Second World War was obviously. From the uniforms. And also, German soldiers tend to do something with their right arm. It's pretty hard to Oh, basic with each other. So that was surprising because even though I've never been in Army, uh, I have some understanding of what his fiction and what his fantasy. And I think what puzzled me is that it was obvious to me that I was watching the perspective of a staff officer. Okay. So somebody who deals with logistics. Somebody who deal with organization, somebody who deals with a lot of reporting, lot of information. Yep. Yep. Because at this point I never remember even powering open. Okay. It just never happened. I was one realization thinking, Hey, that's strange. It's always the same thing, and it's never something egregious pressure. The weight of command as I, yeah. And another thing happened when I was in China. I had a very random encounter with a documentary done by a French journalist called St. And I'm even to this day, I'm really not big into this new age slash esoteric stuff. Yeah. I eat a bit wary. Yep. Maybe a bit much for my own. Yes. It's same for many people, but I, and I find this documentary about reincarnation. Oh, reincarnation. Okay. I think it was the title was called extraordinary Investigations. There was three or four episodes. Okay. And each I lived in one, and there was one of them where they covered cases of essentially individuals who have passed life noise. Okay. That documentary left a very good impression on me. Not so much because I related with my flashbacks. For some reason I. Just didn't make the connection. Okay. What, where I did make the connection was the nightmares. Oh, okay. This is something that had always puzzled me and something I didn't tell you at first is that those nightmares I had when I was a child, I don't think they really fully stopped because I have souvenirs of very disturbing nightmares when I Oh, okay. That stuck with me and there was usually two. Two kind of nightmares are usually it's wi witnessing others being tortured. Oh wow. That's a horrible nightmare. Or just being abused and yeah. Yeah. And or just driving through yeah. Or doing things also. And we don't have to talk about it. I give one example in my book and I lot data Okay. Just things that you shouldn't be dreaming about. Or even younger. And think about maybe six months or a year after I came back to France the two started to merge naturally. And I started to think, Hey, what if there was some kind of. Alternative explanation to what I'm going through. I can't explain. I had gone to see a psychiatrist in France who said, I didn't mention this past life thing or the past life memories precisely. But I did say I was bothered by things and his, as his assessment was that I wasn't schizo. Because he thought I had a very good grasp on reality. And actually my problem came from the fact that I could identify what was those flashbacks and what wasn't. And there was a clear distinction. So he said, I think you should try to look at the more what this, it's less routine. Okay. Techniques. And And Oh, wow. Yeah. The big dive it I did, but there was some things that happened before that. I think my Okay. My original, Uh, reaction. When I was introduced to the concept of past life regression, I was a bit skeptical. Not so much that it would work or not work but the idea of seeing things even more clearly, I wasn't really excited with that. Fair, every step I took up until that point, and even much later down the line, I really thought Hey, I hope this is the one and I can. Move on or Right. Or even the hope in the back of my head that some doctor would come and say, Hey actually we think you would benefit from this drug and it's gonna take it away completely. Yes. Wouldn't that have been wonderful? That would've been a very nice relief for you. Yeah, but I, we, hindsight I tend to, I view the suffering as not necessary because I think identifying with the pain. It was probably the cause of a lot of my troubles. Okay. Okay. Often this kind of pain and this is what happened with my therapist the problem is you go with your own perception of how the therapy is gonna go. At least that's how I went from I to see her. I just talk and talk. And she just noticed me and I remember she did something that a bit pissed me off.'cause I went on a 15 minutes monologue and she just said, I hear you. And I said that's it. No, I react, I acknowledge my thought. And I, so I think I repeated what I said. Again, I went to my second monologue stuck shoulder and she said I see you notice you, but you can't identify only to your pain is more, and then when you're just experiencing right now. And the journey to customer do this past life regression, which was life changing. You had heard, it's interesting. It's a Yeah. Yeah. us. Yeah. It would change your life if you do it with the right people. had, talked story about a young man named James Inger. And what was that about? That was in the documentary I saw. Yeah, because to be fair, when I heard adults talking about their past life stories or past life memories, I thought that's very interesting. Because a lot of the details they win through. And those people, especially the one you interview, they don't benefit directly from this claim whatsoever. They have a career job, they do the same. something I always do when I listen to people who have extraordinary experie is what, how do they want me to feel when they turn? It's something I learned and I find it very useful, but I just couldn't really wrap my hand around why they would make this up. So I took it at face value and said, okay, those people have experienced something that is definitely buzzing. But then came the case of Jane. And how can you argue against the child? Yes. and that, something that really struck with my last story is that when you reach the end of it, his closure, he think he was invited by some Japanese journalists to go back around. Iwo Jima and they Iraq. Oh really? Okay. And there I saw the release. I. Yes. And extremely moving case. And I have to give, I have to give credit to his father. He has no idea how many people he has. He has have been treated because he was the key that allowed me to open this old lock that has been locked for a long time. Yes. Picked through the door, instead of just looking at the lights that like shined through under the opening. It's it's an incredible relationship. I think Jim has really, he has opened a lot of things for me. He's not the only one, but I have to give credit with you. He's responsible for a lot of positive choices I made in my life. Actually, it's funny actually how pretty quickly I was contacted by one of his research assistants who said, Hey, I have this Dr. Here who's a specialist. I had never heard of him before. No. And say, yeah, he runs this Facebook group called Signs of Tonation. Come check it out. And I remember thinking, okay, this is gonna be some fringe thing. Yes. 250 at the time. 250,000. Yes. Yes. I was like, what? And they have strict guidelines about how to talk about those stories because at the time I was, the goal at some point to write a book about my story. That was in 2018 or 19. Okay. So I refused religiously to read anything about commissions so I could yes. My account without having, like those frameworks. Yes. Change too much. Use my words. Yeah. And that logic actually came, it wasn't as noble as that. There was also some other ations the motivations the number one is that I want you to get away from that also, because, by 2018 when I reached out to, when I contacted Jim and we started to talk I wanted to have as little to do as possible with those things. To be honest, I was just like, I mean, I was fine. I had just gone through very transformative experience. I was like, in China, uh, very quickly I met a lovely girl and I mean, I was like, like I, I'm not interested in. Becoming a specialist of the theory. Yes, yes. It's not my, it's not my calling. I've got a life. I'm living life. Oh yeah. I was like, just let me, let me be, let me do my thing. Uh, even when I went public with my story, I debated, uh, for a very long time using my name and not because I was like, maybe I want people to know I have this, because this was not something I told very easily, as you can imagine. But yeah, that was my, uh, encounter with Jim Matlock. Oh, I would, I would say this to the people who are listening to our exchange and are interested in learning about, uh, I'm not gonna say the theory of inclination. I would say the, the analysis of the inclination as a phenomenon. There are some scientists out there, Jim, one of them, but he's not the only one. Yeah. He's done a tremendous amount of work to. Uh, investigate so many cases that you can, you can look at the body of data that we have and come up with generalization, and I think it's extremely important for somebody going through that because when I was going through my own experience and hearing somebody's testimony and say I felt the same mm-hmm. I know, I know how it feels. That's the feeling of community is. So important. So I can't imagine how much you would yearn for that in your lonely spot of having been through this. Yeah. Yes. Well, on, on that note, let's, let's finish up this episode and, and let's come back and talk about your, your first past life regression and, and move forward from there, if that's okay. Alright, thanks. If you got some all. as possible a just like, specialist of the theory. Yes, yes. It's not my, it's not my calling. I've got Yes. It's not my, it's not my calling. I've got a life. I'm living life. Oh yeah. I was like, just let me, let me be, let me do my thing. Uh, even when I went public with my story, I debated, uh, for a very long time using my name and not because I was like, maybe I want people to know I have this, because this was not something I told very easily, as you can imagine. But yeah, that was my, uh, encounter with Jim Matlock. I was like, just let me, let me be, let me do my thing. Uh, even when I went public with my story, I debated, uh, for a very long time using my name and not because I was like, maybe I want people to know I have this, because this was let me be, let me do my thing. Even when I went public with my story, I debated for a very long time using my name and not because I was like, maybe I want people to know I have this, because this was not something I told very easily, as you can imagine. But yeah, that was my encounter with Jim Matlock. Oh, I would say this to the people who are listening to our exchange and are interested in learning about I'm not gonna say the theory of inclination. I would say the analysis of the inclination as a phenomenon. There are some scientists out there, Jim, one of them, but he's not the only one. Yeah. He's done a tremendous amount of work to. Investigate so many cases that you can look at the body of data that we have and come up with generalization, and I think it's extremely important for somebody going through that because when I was going through my own experience and hearing somebody's testimony and say I felt the same I know how it feels. That's the feeling of community is. So important. So I can't imagine how much you would yearn for that in your lonely spot of having been through this. Yeah. Yes.