Remembering and sharing NDEs

P. M. H. Atwater writes: “We have been told since ‘the near-death phenomenon’ first hit the scene in 1975 that experiencers become honest, loving, spiritual paragons after their experiences. Well, many do. The rest improve greatly. Still, there’s a shadow side, and we need to admit that.

“The narratives that experiencers give help to establish the veracity of near-death experiences—they hold up over time. The stories are as clear, coherent, and vivid as the day originally told, even if twenty years or more have passed. If anything did fade, seldom is it of any significance. This is almost unheard of in memory trials. 

 

“There are a few complicating factors when dealing with experiencers that appear to challenge the honesty factor, but really don’t. The majority tend to hold back until they trust you. Perhaps this is because of the fear of being labeled crazy. Whatever the reason, it is fairly common for narrative stories to be delivered in bits and pieces and spread out over a few months or a year or so.

 

“And then there’s ‘downloading.’ Few experiencers can process the revelations that surface during their episode. You hear comments such as: ‘I felt like I would explode if the information didn’t stop coming,’ or ‘I can’t handle this—too much too fast,’ or ‘I just can’t remember it all.’ And, indeed, most of the deeper materials that often flood in during a dying episode, ‘the revelations,’ are lost.

 

“Yet, some experiencers report downloading afterward as if what was lost is now coming back. This can occur in dribs and drabs or be quite extensive and go on for years. What I am describing here is not an embellishment, per se. Rather, it often signals that the experiencer has developed another form of sensitivity to ‘otherworldly realities’ and has become like a ‘channel.’ This ‘extra’ material does not affect the individual’s original narrative—thus no embellishment. But it does expand on what is commonplace afterward.

 

“During my research of the phenomenon, I discovered a pattern to the way death visited most of the experiencers, and it went like this: A little over half the men I contacted died because of heart-related ailments, while another 25 percent were involved in violence or accidents. A whopping 70 percent of the women experienced their episode during childbirth, miscarriage, or a hysterectomy.”

 

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