QUESTION:  Have you come across any near-death experiencers who were blind or deaf? -- Jeffrey

PMH Atwater's reply:  I encountered some adult near-death experiencers who were blind, most of them since birth, in my research, but no children who were. Of the adult experiencers, all of them claimed to see and clearly during their near-death episode.

What amazed me is that those who were blind since birth - never saw - recognized colors instantly and knew what color was which just by the site of it, and used the right words to describe what they saw - even if it was to describe people who entered their hospital room, people they had never before touched, heard, or were around. This was very evidential to me. But what amazed me most is that they knew and recognized everything - shapes, sizes, objects, patterns, all of it, all of life. They recognized this from what they said was "before time," before the time of their birth.

I didn't meet that many, maybe seven or so, but enough to make an impression on me which I briefly shared with Kenneth Ring, to back up what he was finding. If you haven't read either of Ken's books about this, his work with the blind, then I highly recommend that you do. The books you want are as follows: Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (with Evelyn Elsaesser and published by Insight Books, New York City, 1998; and Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind (with Sharon Cooper and published by Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA 1999).

Unfortunately, I never had a session with an experiencer who was deaf, so I cannot comment on that particular segment of our population. Nor can I give you a reference. -- PMH

ANOTHER QUESTION:  I have read many accounts of people who have pre-birth memories, as well as those who have had NDEs, who say that we not only choose our parents, the time we live in, etc., but we choose our time and way of death. I find this hard to believe, for I don't think anyone would actually choose burning to death in fire. Sure, it may help burn off (no pun intended) bad karma, and may help a spirit advance quickly in heaven, but there are a million ways to burn off bad karma and there are a million ways to advance spiritually without having to go through the agony of burning to death. My feeling is that those who do die in a fire are just victims of misfortune, or the wrong choices they or others made. What do you think? -- Fred

PMH Atwater's reply:  There is some truth to the idea of picking one's parents as a spirit or soul before birth. Child experiencers speak of this and at length. So do some adult experiencers - even in cases where the soul entered a body that either was or would become seriously ill or handicapped.

That we choose certain "dates" with destiny, certain events to happen to us, I also know is true. But there can be screw-ups, mistakes, errors, and all kinds of changes that can and do hurry things along or cause delays or swing one off onto a detour that was not planned. Whatever one faces in life (planned at the soul level or not), does not count as much as what we do about it - responses, results, consequences. Therein lies our "fail-safe." No matter what happens we can turn it around. We have that power if we choose to use it. We can get "back on course."

Do we always die when slated to? Yes and no. For some, the exact moment seems to occur at the exact moment. With others, changes are made, dates switched, etc. As an example, I was original "informed" through Guidance that I would die around the time of my 70th birthday in 2007. Now, that may still occur, but I have since come to know that my destiny has changed. I will hang around much longer than that. How much longer? Well, a psychic recently told me I have 15 more years to go. That would make me 82 when I exit. Four other psychics, independently of each other, said the same thing to me within a period of 24 hours. Are they right? We'll both know, won't we ...

I have no doubt that Jesus chose to die on the cross, a most horrible death. I have been involved in many people's deaths that were "right on" as if somehow "planned," down to the last moment. I talk about this in-depth in my book We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death (A.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach, VA 2004). But I've also been privy to people's deaths that were a mistake and the soul left screaming.

For the most part, I can say that the soul plans its birth and death, and the major events that will occur in life. Are such plans fool-proof and exact? No way. We have free will, you know. And, with that precious gift of choice, we have the right and the ability to switch the program around, sometimes for the best and sometimes at our detriment.

Be careful of anyone who makes absolute statements in this regard. Research on pre-birth and near-death experiences show that what seems to be true, isn't always. There are variables. Lots of them.

Many blessings,
P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D.
www.cinemind.com/atwater or www.pmhatwater.com