Atwater explains her NDE research

P. M. H. Atwater writes: “As of this writing, my sessions with experiencers of near-death states (at times simple interviews) number nearly four thousand adults and children. This figure does not include the sessions I had with significant others: parents, spouses, children of experiencers, relatives, health-care providers, neighbors, coworkers, friends. I lost count of this segment of my research base long ago, although an estimate in the range of around five hundred people would be reasonable. The bulk of my findings were obtained between the years of 1978 to 2004, after which the search for meaning took precedence (although some fieldwork continued). The majority of these additional cases were from child experiencers who are not adults. These people sought me out after the publication of Children of the New Millennium, and later The New Children and Near-Death Experiences.

 

“Knowing that personal bias could jeopardize anything I did, I put my own experiences on a ‘back shelf’ in my mind and played dumb a lot. What I mean is that I asked as many open-ended and unstructured questions as possible, trying not to reveal either my identity or intent. If I did say who I was, experiencers would counter with, ‘Well, you know how it is.’ I’d stand my ground if this occurred: ‘Maybe yes, maybe no, but tell me anyway. Give me details and don’t leave a thing out.’ Mostly, though, I used simply phrases like ‘oh really’ or ‘tell me more’ or that wonderful all-purpose lead of ‘and . . . ?

 

“I found that voice intonation and inflection, along with easy, nonthreatening body language, netted more information than ‘arranged’ questions. All I had t do was ‘leave the door open,’ and the experiencer would willingly ‘walk through,’ as if utterly relieved. There’s nothing like a nonjudgmental, sincerely interested listener. I did alter my style somewhat with children, though and in this manner; no parents allowed, same eye-level contact at all times (with little one what meant I was on my belly), changed body postures to elicit response, replacing note-taking with a gentle sincerity and steady focus, encouraging feelings as well as memories, opening myself to sense the ‘wave’ of consciousness they ‘ride’ so I could see through their eyes. I had sessions with parents, too, as I wanted to explore what they noticed and any opinions they had. This was important, as children can and sometimes do slant their stories to fit the emotional expectations of their parents."

 

3,000 adult experiencers

 

80 percent White (from Canada, England, Belgium, France, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine)

 

20 percent Black (15 % African American, 5% Kenya, Haiti, Canada)

 

277 child experiencers

 

60 percent White (from Canada, France, England, Ukraine)

 

23 percent Latino (U. S., Mexico, Argentina, Colombia)

 

12 percent Black (U. S., Canada)

 

5 percent Asia (Malaysia, China)

 

P. M. H. Atwater, Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of the Story (Hampton Roads, 2011).