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Near-Death News

ANNOUNCEMENT: PMH Atwater's next book "Beyond the Indigo Children: The New Children and the Coming of the Fifth World" will be available September 2005 from Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT. Advance orders for the book can be placed in two months.

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Listen to P.M.H. Atwater's interviews online with streaming audio on her website.

The most compelling and up-to-date video on NDEs, “The Day I Died” (produced in 2003 by the BBC) can now be purchased in the U.S – and IANDS members receive a 40% discount off the price. The video features in-depth case studies of NDEs including a dramatic veridical (verifiably accurate) out-of-body experience, the most recent research studies, and balanced interpretations of NDE experiences from both skeptical and “believer” perspectives – virtually everything an inquiring mind would need for an introduction to NDEs. IANDS highly recommends this video! The video, which is being sold by Films for the Humanities and Sciences at www.films.com/id/11685, comes with the rights for unlimited public showing (schools, universities, houses of worship, hospitals, hospices, community agencies and all other public venues) but not broadcast rights over television or the internet. We urge you to obtain this video and make it available to local groups in your community or to give as a donation to libraries or other organizations. [Read more]

   ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS (for IANDS members):

   ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS (for non-IANDS members):

   WEBSITE:  Description of "The Day I Died" video from Films for the Humanities and Sciences:

Telling the story to those who need to hear it, he says, is the only reason he figures he's still here. That's after 34 medical procedures, after 16 years, and after being declared dead by EMTs at the scene after the 18-wheeler rolled over his car ... All he knew at that moment, after his most recent conscious thought of rain and a bridge and a semi, was standing outside a great mother-of-pearl gate. The faces before him were of friends and family. He saw his grandfather, who had died years before after being transported, with Piper in the ambulance with him, to Bossier Medical Center. He saw his American Indian great-grandmother, stooped by osteoporosis, standing tall and smiling at him. He saw friends who had died tragically as teens. [Read more]

The patient was oblivious to what was happening to her body because, she said, she was talking to Jesus Christ, visiting a heavenly garden with lush plants and chirping birds, and standing outside Heaven's gate, which was not a golden gate as she'd always envisioned, but instead a large, transparent pearl. Carroll said her spirit left her body through her head, and three times returned to her body. She describes Heaven as a place with a "wall of jewels surrounding the whole land." She describes Jesus as bearded with shoulder-length hair and dark skin. She had previously always imagined him with white skin, she said. Carroll wanted to remain in the comforting land where she could smell roses, but she said she saw her great-grandmother, "who died when I was in seventh grade. She called out to me and said 'LeaAnn, you must go home'" in order to raise her children." [Read more]

They're celebrating a miracle Monday night, an honest-to-goodness living, breathing feel-good miracle that's almost impossible to believe. Unless, of course, you believe in miracles and the power of prayer. Bonnie Warner, the woman throwing the celebration party at the Southwest Plaza Building she manages in Topeka, believes. She looks at her 5-year-old grandson, Jacob Walker, and she believes. Four months ago, Jacob came close to dying, so close that he later would tell his mother he had been in heaven, going so far as to describe how everyone was dressed in white and how he had seen a young friend who had died. On Jan. 20, Jacob was playing with his German shepherd on ice-covered Tanglewood Lake near LaCygne when he fell through the ice ... They lowered a rescue hook three times before finding Jacob's body lying in 12 feet of water and finally pulling him up. Jacob had been under water for 19 minutes. [Read more]

Running again after nearly dying from a brain injury, area resident aims to help others. When Lombard resident Julie Papievis suffered an almost fatal brain stem injury in a car crash in 1993, no one, including her doctors, thought she would survive, let alone run again ... Papievis has written a book about her experience. "Go Back and Be Happy" (Pleasant Word, 2005) will be released at the Downers Grove race. The book chronicles her journey from her near-death experience — when, she said, her grandmothers advised her to "go back and be happy" — to the hours spent learning to feed herself to finally being able to run again. [Read more]

Determined to change the way people think about death and dying, Robin Renee Bridges in her landmark book, "A Bridge of Love between Heaven and Earth: Self-Induced Contact in the Afterlife," furnishes detailed instructions in the art of self-induced contact with loved ones in the afterlife ... For everyone interested in exploring the worlds beyond this world through unmistakable interaction with a loved one, this book offers more than ample preparation to safely navigate the realms to which we translate after death of the body. [Read more]

“There's an overwhelming chain of evidence,” said Dr. Jeffrey Long of Tacoma, Wash. “I think near-death experiences give us hope. We're here on earth to learn some important lesson that revolves around love and relationships.” Long, who is a radiation oncologist, inadvertently discovered medical research about near-death experiences during his residency. Having heard about a near-death experience from a friend also intrigued him, he said. Eighty-five percent of near-death experiences are pleasant while 15 percent have frightening or even hellish encounters. Since his research, Long and his wife, Jody, have created a website called the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation. [Read more]

This summer (June 2), Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist with London University's Institute of Psychiatry, will present a lecture on consciousness. Fenwick will speak as part of the ongoing “Voices from the Edge” lecture series, hosted by the London offices of What Is Enlightenment? magazine. The magazine's goal is to create an international speaker's forum that presents visions and values for an evolving global culture. In the “Voices from the Edge” forum, both presenters and participants are invited to peer beyond the edge of our current world crises and explore a new future of hope and possibility. [Read more]

Initially family members put up missing posters in late November and December 2004 around town and then they went to police. Family members felt they had no where else to turn. But when nothing came from that they were led to a creek at Raceway Park early this evening by a psychic. "I work a lot of murder cases," says Gale St. John, an area psychic. "I'm a psychic detective and the family learned about me. I've been on Larry King." St. John says she told the family to come to the creek behind Raceway Park. "Jesse started talking to me," St. John says. "I was in a store and he was more clear than he'd ever been before. He told me where to go, and within five minutes we were here." "We got here first," Dye says. "I identified him by his tattoos. It was my brother and then we called police." [Read more]

Can voices of the dead be heard on ordinary audio tapes recorded in a quiet room? Swedish archaeologist, documentary maker and artist Friedrich Juergenson pioneered research into Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). Eighteen years after his death, interest in EVP is surging thanks to the horror movie "White Noise" in which Michael Keaton receives messages from his dead wife ... Juergenson first heard strange voices while recording bird song in 1959. Recording silence and white noise from the radio, he identified one of the voices as his dead mother and concluded that all such voices must come from beyond the grave. [Read more]

Sweet dreams, daydreams, nightmares ... What could they tell you about your hopes and fears? Do dreams even mean anything? We took suggestions from specialists across the field of dream interpretations, from dream expert Dr. Shelley Wu (PhD., Psychology, SUNY-Buffalo) to the father of modern psychoanalysis, Dr. Sigmund Freud. Just click the button to get started. [Read more]

Languages from past lives: Some people, under some circumstances, seem to recall past lives and display familiarity with places, events and languages that bear little relation to their present lives (I wrote of this last month, April 8). Typically, the past lives are reexperienced when the present personality is suspended, as it may be during a trance. Some speakers of languages from past lives are "responsive," meaning they can hold a conversation in the second language. I wrote last month that I am seeking an explanation that does not require the hypothesis of reincarnation in order to account for this extraordinary language ability. [Read more]

He said that he noticed that humans are always attracted to light, that light was referenced constantly in the Scriptures, and that scientific theory "always came back to light" ... "Light is a some-thing and a some-one," he said. "Evolution is the ascent to consciousness. But as you go backwards, physicists generally agree that energy, or light, is the heart of everything, the force that causes things to happen. De Chardin said that matter is crumpled light." The central place light occupies in the collective experience of humankind became the focus of "Called into Life by the Light." The book synthesizes the views of Thomas Aquinas, de Chardin and other "New Vision" thinkers who see science, theology, mysticism, religion and ecology as fundamentally interrelated ... "We are all drawn to light. It captivates our attention and imagination. It is as if light is built into each being. It is a symbol for goodness, health, joy and happiness. It is basic to physical, mental and spiritual life," he said, ever the teacher desiring to help a student understand. "And at the heart of everything is a being who is light." [Read more]

Transpersonal Media in Dallas, Texas, announced today the global release of a major new DVD series focusing on the field of Transpersonal Psychology. "Transpersonal Conversations" is a six-part series of cinema-quality documentary interviews with the founders and leaders of Transpersonal Psychology, the field of psychology that scientifically studies Human spirituality and consciousness. The series includes never before seen interview footage with Dr. Stanislav and Christiana Grof, Charles T. Tart, Ph.D., Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., and James Fadiman, Ph.D. “We are very excited to be presenting these unique and intimate interviews with the greatest theoretical minds of transpersonal psychology,” said Transpersonal Media's president, Kevin Page. “Without the support of several institutions like The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology a project of this size and scope would never have been possible. This series is not only a labor of love for our company…but it has historical significance for the field.” [Read more]

There are two clinical tests currently being conducted in the United States, with government approval, testing the merits of Ecstasy and its potential to aid terminally ill patients of anxiety as well as repressing suicidal thoughts while allowing patients to express themselves to loved ones during their final days ... Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is now being applied medically for obsessive stress disorder and anxiety. The godfather of all hallucinogens, LSD, is soon to be tested as a possible treatment for debilitating cluster headaches. LSD was widely researched in the 1950s and 60s for its ability to combat depression and schizophrenia. [Read more]

While searching for the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, Chris Shearer stumbled upon a picture of what he believes is the concentric rings and canal system where Atlantis once flourished ... Back in the thirties Edgar Cayce who was a world renowned psychic was quoted as saying that parts of Atlantis would rise in '68 or '69, and indeed they did. The Bimini roads were then discovered along with under water temples which are also visible. The Bahama Islands have been over looked as being Atlantis for many years, until now. Not only was Edgar Cayce right about his readings on Atlantis he is also right about the whereabouts. Chris has done extensive research on the subject and conclude that what he has discovered is in fact the lost city and continent of Atlantis.  [Read more]

Last week Calvin Boyd was mowing his lawn when his heart failed. Calvin's wife administered CPR until help arrived. Paramedics used the "Autopulse" on Calvin. A portable CPR machine that automatically compresses the chest taking into account a patients shape and size. For Calvin the Autopulse was a lifesaver. "Within 2 minutes we administered the Autopulse and when we checked to see if he had his own pulse he did", said paramedic Chris Jennings with the St. Charles County Ambulance District. [Read more]

The sudden death of a 14-year-old baseball player this week may spark a push to make defibrillators accessible during the town's myriad youth sporting events ... AEDs are far more automated and require very little training compared to the defibrillators used by paramedics and EMTs. Paquette said school district coaches and other personnel would be shielded from liability by the state's Good Samaritan law. He said the AEDs give automated voice commands to instruct users in how to properly use the machines ... Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson said he wasn't aware of any defibrillators in Lincoln's public schools but added that more and more school districts are making them available. "It's something that's starting to happen across the country," he said.  [Read more]

Spirituality and the practice of religion may help slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 57th Annual Meeting ... "Spirituality and religiosity have been linked to better health outcomes," said Kaufman. "Our research addressed the question whether this link is also relevant in Alzheimer's disease." Spirituality and private religious practices accounted for 20 percent of the total variance. Kaufman said that further studies are needed to better understand the connection between religiosity and cognitive decline.  [Read more]

Patients motivated to seek a doctor for their death wish did so after a deliberative and thoughtful process rather than on impulse, according to a research study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study involved 35 cases in which patients considered physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and presents data which until now has been very limited. Through interviews with these patients and their family members, researchers worked to obtain detailed information regarding their thought processes, motivations, and experiences. It was discovered that patients in this study were motivated to engage in PAS due to three types of issues: illness-related experience (fatigue, functional loss, or discomfort), loss of sense of self or identity, and fears about the future (deterioration). None of the patients seemed to be seriously depressed when they planned the assisted suicide. The motivations expressed are similar to those of other patients who decline life-sustaining treatment.  [Read more]

People whose hearts beat too fast during rest and too sluggishly during exercise have a greater risk than others of dropping dead suddenly from a heart attack, a study suggests ... Experts said the findings don't mean healthy people should have routine stress tests. But they said that when heart patients get the tests, doctors should study the heart rate pattern for signs of trouble and not just look for evidence of blocked arteries as most do now ... Sudden death occurs when a heart attack, or sometimes an abnormal rhythm, stops the heart. It strikes people as young as their 30s and 40s, and is responsible for 5 percent to 10 percent of all U.S. deaths, or roughly 350,000 to 500,000 deaths a year.  [Read more]

"Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life" provides an outstanding, timely examination of how and why people die or are kept alive in U.S. society. The author observed how 27 people ended their days ... One man in his 80s makes it clear to his longtime doctor that he wants life-extending measures if they would lead to his health being restored but not if the effort probably would be futile. Because the doctor knows the patient's wishes, he is able to comfortably guide the decision to remove him from a ventilator. Another elderly patient demands to be allowed to die, yet his highly educated adult children disagree ... The decision to put a loved one on a ventilator is often prompted by the sight of watching him or her struggle for each breath. And once the ventilator is in place, the decision to remove it becomes very difficult, because that usually results in death. Hence, a deeply painful Catch-22.  [Read more]

Patients can create their own online medical records, receive electronic health alerts tailored to their ailments and exchange e-mail with their doctors free of charge. The for-profit venture, called iHealthRecord, is part of an ongoing trend toward converting patient records, many of which still are maintained on paper, to the Internet ... "Paper kills, and the faster we move into information technology, the faster we are going to save lives,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has long pushed for computerized medical records. “This is a very important interim step in the right direction" ... Patients can create their own records by going to the service's Web site, www.ihealthrecord.org, whether their doctors participate or don't, but it is most useful when a patient's physician also is enrolled in the program.  [Read more]

The decision about when to say "enough" is now much more complicated than just whether or not to turn off the machines. Doctors at palliative-care centers and elsewhere are increasingly amenable to pursuing aggressive treatment for patients who are willing to endure it in order to gain even a little more time. And physicians such as Ira Byock, director of the palliative-medicine program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, now coach patients and families to decide among a variety of deaths -- some quicker than others, or some more gentle than others. For example, stopping dialysis in someone with kidney failure usually leads to a peaceful death -- the person gets sleepier and sleepier until he or she falls into a coma and slips away. Alternatively, the patient would ultimately die of something else, such as a severe infection or a gastro-intestinal hemorrhage that could make for a more painful death. Some doctors are reluctant to push aggressive treatment that will buy only a little time and perhaps cause more suffering.  [Read more]

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The author explains the science of events such as UFOs and abductions, mystical and psychic phenomena, and the near-death experience -- events that shouldn't exist in a 3-D world, but which happen everyday. An advancement of the classic theories of R. M. Bucke and P. D. Ouspensky, this book presents the larger framework of space and time necessary for understanding how psychic phenomena happen and why some people experience it while others don't. In the tradition of recent bestsellers "The Holographic Universe" and "The Field," independent scholar Violette explains why a 3-D worldview simply doesn't work and why expanded consciousness is the missing link in current extra-dimensional theories. [Read more]

People the world over are awakening to soul consciousness — and that is what this book is about. "Soul lightning" is the term the author uses to describe this awakening. Through individual stories and anecdotes, we are taken inside the images and feelings of soul lightnings to confirm our own awakenings. The author's personal soul journey, and the life work that has evolved from it, bridges the gap between psychology and spirituality. In this book you will find models for your own life, lighting the way for a new way of being, woven from the stuff of your soul. This is essential information for anyone seeking inner wisdom and peace. Soul Lightning corroborates the evolution of spiritual consciousness that is gathering critical mass to transform our planet. Amid the great challenges of our world, this is welcome news and a reminder of the importance of our individual awakening. As one reader expressed it, “This book is a healing and a blessing for everyone.” [Read more]

In 1952, an American housewife under hypnosis recalled living a previous life in eighteenth century Ireland as Bridey Murphy. This case became widely publicized and sparked a Western interest in reincarnation that continues today. With arguments supporting and debunking the validity of the famous Bridey Murphy case and the plausibility of rebirth, how can one intelligently decide if reincarnation is fantasy or truth? Examining the debate from viewpoints of science, religion, psychology, and logic, J. Allan Danelek helps readers understand this controversial issue from all sides. He takes a discerning look at past life regression, scientific explanations, common religious/philosophical objections, and reincarnationist concepts in Gnostic Christianity. Danelek also poses theories that explain the mechanical process and purpose of rebirth. [Read more]