Not knowing anything about Raymond Moody, M.D. or his best selling book, began her independent study of the phenomenon in 1978 after having met Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago. It was Kubler- Ross who named her a "near-death survivor" after hearing of her three death and near-death episodes that had occurred the previous year.
Using police investigative techniques as her protocol, Atwater has specialized in original fieldwork - strictly adhering to non-leading questions, observation of non-verbal cues (gestures and behaviors), and followup sessions whenever possible with family members, health-care providers, and other significant people to the experiencer. Her goal has been to study the phenomenon from "360-degrees." To date, her research base numbers nearly 4,000 adult and child experiencers.
Her seven books about her findings are: Coming Back to Life, Beyond the Light, Children of the New Millennium, Future Memory, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Near-Death Experiences, The New Children and Near-Death Experiences, and We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death. She has also created "As You Die," the world's first audio presentation that talks a dying person through death as it physically occurs and the soul's separation. Focus Worldwide (non-profit) handles the CD: link on Atwater's website, http://www.pmhatwater.com. Her monthly Q&A column is at http://pmhatwater.blogspot.com. Several of her findings have now been clinically verified, including in the Dutch Study, Lancet, 12-15-01 (integration phase), and the Bonenfant Outcome Study, Journal of Near-Death Studies, Spring 2004 (synesthesia as an aftereffect).
"It is not an exaggeration to say that I have traveled millions of miles since 1978 giving talks about the near-death experience and seeking both adults and children who might have undergone such an episode."My journeys have taken me from the coal fields of West Virginia to packed auditoriums in Korea, Turkey, Holland, Canada, and Norway."My talk is about all those audiences: about the people I met along the way, what they are curious about, how they respond. I have good news to share, and cautionary advice for researchers and for all of us in how we regard the near-death experience today and what it implies.
" As far as I am concerned, we have just begun to study what I feel is one of the most important conditions that exists in the field of medicine and in the exploration of consciousness. Already findings strike at the very heart of what defines a human being, the range of brain function, mind, faculties, and the nervous system. The aftereffects, both physiological and psychological, validate the near-death phenomenon. . . as a condition of fact that, like it or not, has profound spiritual implications that strongly suggest the presence of a soul, an afterlife, and Deity."
Tags: NDE, Research