P. M. H. Atwater - 3 Sept

This book is dedicated to Tracy Coen. Her near-death experience occurred in utero while her mother was attempting suicide. Memories of both her episode and its aftereffects became a lifelong journey into the very heart of her soul. She was very anxious to read the results of this study but died before it could be finished.We all miss you, Tracy.

The
FOREVER ANGELS

P. M. H. Atwater, in her new study, establishes that the full pattern of NDE aftereffectsphysical, mental, emotional, spiritualhas a far greater impact on children (and adults) than anyone thought or has found before. She concludes that it takes the average child experiencer at least twenty to forty years to integrate their NDE, because they usually try to compensate, to adjust, and to ignore. This new book is a very important and valuable contribution to our knowledge and insight about NDE in very young children.

PIM VAN LOMMEL, M.D., NDE RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR OF CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND LIFE

In The Forever Angels, P. M. H. Atwater tackles the particular challenges of the very youngest near-death experiencers but from an innovative angle. In this novel approach, Atwater interviewed hundreds of people near the end of life who recalled having had an NDE in their first years of life. This strategy gives us an unprecedented long view of how NDEs influence these children over the entire course of their lives. Unlike adult experiencers, these children did not have the chance to develop normal attitudes and behavior patterns before their NDEs, which makes them a unique group of people, with unique traits and challenges. There is no other book like this, nor is there likely to be one.

BRUCE GREYSON, M.D., CARLSON PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROBEHAVIORAL SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEM

In her truly groundbreaking book, P. M. H. Atwater has boldly gone where no researcher has dared to go beforeinto the lives of the newly born who have had NDEs. And what she has found gives us an important new way to view NDEsfor these children, it isnt what we thought. P. M. H. Atwater is the fields most creative and tireless researcher! This is a helluva book.

KENNETH RING, PH.D., AUTHOR OF LESSONS FROM THE LIGHT:
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

I had a near-death experience when I was five years old, and I had not understood my early childhood difficulties until I read The Forever Angels. Besides helping you understand yourself, this books greatest value may be for parents who need to understand an alienated child, a child in great need of finding security at home.

BARBARA HAND CLOW, AUTHOR OF THE MIND CHRONICLES:
A VISIONARY GUIDE INTO PAST LIVES

One of the most influential researchers into the mystery of the near-death experience is P. M. H. Atwater. She has given a voice to those whose experiences during childhood and infancy has, to date, been somewhat neglected and, in doing so, has given other authors like myself, a great deal of food for thought and an intriguing new area of investigation.

ANTHONY PEAKE, AUTHOR OF OPENING THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION

P. M. H. Atwater is unafraid to venture into sketchily charted territory. Using her considerable knowledge and skills, in direct staccato style, she exposes life experiences too fragile or too subliminal for others to have unmasked. Read The Forever Angels; you will be guided beyond the mundane into our larger existence.

LYNN B. ROBINSON, PH.D., AUTHOR OF LOVING TO THE END... AND ON

If you want to know what really happens in near-death and out-of-body experiences in the words of real people in the real world, look no further. P. M. H. Atwater has assembled an astonishing collection of accounts that shows us not only what occurs during these events but how they impact the individuals development over the lifespan. A beautiful work!

REV. TERRI DANIEL, M.A., CT, END-OF-LIFE ADVISOR, INTERFAITH CHAPLAIN, AND FOUNDER OF THE AFTERLIFE CONFERENCE

As a psychotherapist, I found this book expanded my understanding of the powerful impact of NDEs on childrens development. I recommend this very readable, very interesting book. Its full of detailed information that will be especially relevant for psychotherapists working with young children.

FONYA LORD HELM, PH.D., ABPP

The Forever Angels is a triumph. I was riveted from beginning to end with these amazing stories.

JULIE LOAR, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF GODDESSES FOR EVERY DAY

A fascinating review of the youngest survivors of near-death experiences.

KAREN NEWELL, COAUTHOR LIVING IN A MINDFUL UNIVERSE

INTRODUCTION

Child Experiencers Are Different

A newspaper headline of March 2015 reads: Toddler Dead for 101 Minutes Is Now Alive. The news clip told of a Pennsylvania toddler who was pulled from an icy creek. No pulse. No breathing. No neurological function. Yet the child came back to lifeunscathed.

Death of the very young seems somehow obscene, as if in all certainty such a thing must be a violation of Gods will. Their stories grab us, and we hang on every detail, every word said. Yet once the full story is revealed, folks backstep... because in 70 to 80 percent of the cases, either of a near-miss, terrible fright, or total finality, the children who survive talk about what it was like to be quite alive on the other side of death... wide-awake alive in their mothers womb... totally alive in worlds beyond this one. They describe what is called a near-death experience, or NDE. (Note that these terms are used interchangeably throughout the text.)

For the record, a near-death experience is generally described as an intense awareness, sense, or experience of otherworldliness, whether pleasant or unpleasant, that happens to people at the edge of death. It is of such magnitude that most experiencers are deeply affectedmany to the point of making significant changes in their life afterward. Medical research affirms that while clinically dead, close to death, or in a state of utter shock (a fear death), an individual can have a vivid out-of-body experience, clear enhanced consciousness, self-identity with emotions, cognitionthought perception, full use of faculties, intact memoriesall of this happening when the brain is NOT working, nor are heart and lungs.

I entered this research field in 1978, the year after I was raped and had experienced crisis after crisis that resulted in death/near death three times in three months and later, a total collapse, body systems barely functioning, my blood pressure at 60/60. Along with having to relearn everything from the ground up, what turned my world upside down was not only what I witnessed elsewhere but also a voice bigger than big that spoke to me during my third episode, saying, Test revelation. You are to do the research. One book for each death. I was shown what that meant but not how to do the work. The first book was not named by The Voice at the time, but the second and third were.

The way I was raised as a child determined how I did what I did. Yup, I was a cops kid raised in a police station (went there often for a ride home during Dads coffee breaks). Dad always said, The body says more than the mouth does, which means you dont just ask questions of people, you observe their every movement. Body language can be quite loud sometimes. And you involve significant othersneighbors, spouses, children, caregivers, whoever will talk to youand have sessions with them, too. I shy away from scientific protocols because they are biased (use words before the individual does) and do not dig deep enough, nor are they thorough (at least not thorough enough for me).