He has acted opposite Mae West , tripped the light fantastic on The Great White Way and even partied with Rita Hayworth - and now Ryan is sharing his stories about life during the Golden Age of Hollywood . The only problem is that Ryan is a 10-year-old boy from Muskogee , Oklahoma who was born to Baptist parents . The amazing life he describes belongs to actor and Hollywood agent Marty Martin . Ryan says it was his past life . His vast knowledge , vivid recollections and stunningly accurate descriptions of the era have convinced even experts that the young man may have in fact been reincarnated . Scroll down for video . Ryan ( above with his mother ) a 10-year-old boy from Muskogee , Oklahoma with Baptist parents claims he has been reincarnated and was an actor and agent in a past life . He believes he was Marty Martin ( left ) , who was in the Mae West ( right ) film Night After Night and performed on Broadway . It all began when Ryan was just 4 years old , his mother Cyndi told Today . She says he began having nightmares that neither she or her husband , a local police officer , could find a way to stop . He would talk about his heart exploding and , more than anything , Hollywood , a place that was thousands of miles away from Oklahoma . What 's more , the reserved youngster would always speak in a matter-of-fact manner during these times . Then , after a year of this , he finally sat down his mom . 'He said `` Mom , I have something I need to tell you , '' ' said Cyndi . ' I used to be somebody else . ' Having been raised Baptist , Cyndi did not believe in reincarnation or past lives , and decided to hide her son 's admission from his father . But she slowly became curious and then somewhat convinced the more her son spoke of Hollywood , his five marriages , lavish trips to Europe , his old homes and how all his acting clients kept changing their last names , so she decided to start doing some research on Hollywood during the studio era and shared some of the books she found at the local library with her son . Then , one day , Ryan had a breakthrough when he saw a still from the from the 1932 movie Night After Night starring Mae West . 'That 's me , ' Ryan told his mother . Ryan began seeing Dr. Jim Tucker ( above ) soon after he revealed his past life , a highly respected child psychiatrist who works with children who remember past lives , and does not think Ryan is lying . Ryan also recalls parting with Rita Hayworth ( above ) when he was Martin . Ryan 's father ( center ) is a local police officer and neither her nor his wife knew anything about old Hollywood . Ryan was pointing to an extra in the film , a man with no lines that they later learned was bit-actor-turned-agent Marty Martin . That is when Cyndi decided Ryan should talk to someone , and the family found Dr. Jim Tucker , a highly respected child psychiatrist from the University of Virginia who has spent time talking with and studying children who claim to remember past lives . And even he noted there was something very special , and different , about Ryan . Most remarkable to Dr. Tucker , besides Ryan 's incredible detail , was how accurate his claims matched up with the life of Martin , a virtual unknown who neither Ryan 's family nor Dr. Tucker knew anything about , even his name , until they reached out to a film archivist . The film archivist gave them the name , and they then contacted one of Martin 's daughters to ask about his life . That is when they discovered that 55 of Ryan 's statements matched up perfectly with Martin 's life - including the street he lived on , how many children he had , how many siblings he had and those aforementioned five marriages . The most shocking claim however came when Ryan told Dr. Tucker during a session one day that he wondered why God had him die at 61-years-old only to be reincarnated as a baby . This seemed to clash with Martin 's death report , that stated he was 59 at the time he died . That is until Dr. Tucker looked through old census reports and discovered that the certificate , and not Ryan , was incorrect . The certificate claimed Martin was born in 1905 when in fact he had been born in 1903 according to the census . And so , Martin was likely 61 years old at the time of his death . Ryan now says his memories of Martin are starting to fade , and as for Dr. Tucker , he has compiled Ryan 's story and other like it in his book Return To Life .
Ryan , 10 , a boy from Muskogee , Oklahoma , with Baptist parents claims he has been reincarnated and was an actor and agent in a past life . He claimed he was Marty Martin , who was in the Broadway film 'Night After Night ' and performed on Mae West , after seeing him in a movie still . Ryan began seeing Dr. Jim Tucker soon after , a highly respected child psychiatrist who works with children who remember past lives . Even Dr. Tucker was amazed by Ryan 's story , and found that 55 of his details match perfectly with Martin 's life . What 's more , Martin is such an obscure actor that there were no articles of pieces about him at all , and it took a film archivist to even learn his name . Ryan also knew the year Martin was born , even though it was listed incorrectly on his public death certificate .