Willis was born with curly blonde hair which was gradually replaced by darker hair as she grew older. However, one spot of blonde hair remains at the top of her head, just slightly to the back, measuring about two inches in circumference.

Once when Willis visited a hair stylist, the stylist had begun dancing when she saw Willis’s blonde spot. Yelling “Praise be to God,” the woman rejoiced at allowing Jesus to “show [her] eleven of you”; the Bible, according to the stylist, says that fifty were anointed in heaven before being sent to Earth. She believed that Willis was one of the anointed.

In 1970, Willis became friends in Nepal with a teenager named Tenzin. Tenzin begged Willis to visit her home and meet her mother, and Willis finally agreed to do so. Over tea, Tenzin’s mother excitedly told Willis a story about Willis’s former life. She believed that Willis was the reincarnation of one of the founders of the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. 

Willis was reminded of this experience when Lama Yeshe asked her to accompany a visitor to meet Tulshig Rinpoche, a renowned lama who was residing in Bodhanath. Since the highly respected teacher rarely came down from his mountain monastery, Willis was thrilled by the opportunity to meet with him. 

When Tulshig Rinpoche spotted Willis, he stopped and beckoned her forward. Smiling, he took Willis’s chin in his hand and revealed that he should be bowing to her since she was “one of the people who built the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.” He explained that when it was completed, the king of Tibet sprinkled tsampa in their hair and that the light spot in her hair was a result of that sprinkling. 

Willis was deeply touched and felt “really special,” desperately wanting to believe him and Tenzin’s mother.