Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences (Notes)
The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences (Notes)
Atwater
The Resurrected
Types of Experiences
Near-Death Look-Alikes
• “When you go into heaven, you are as perfect as the environment you
are in.” (43)
The Innocents
• “If it isn’t your time, you will either cheat yourself out of what might
have been had you remained, or you will not stay dead no matter what
method you use to kill yourself.” (77)
• “I have come to believe that body and spirit need to nourish each
other, and cannot remain separate indefinitely.” (80)
• [In tribal traditions:] If the individual survived the tests, and was able
to transcend this world and in the process enter another one, they
were then considered to be “initiated” and could advance in tribal
favor and trust. (81)
• Old mystical and spiritual texts speak about the proper way to
determine if the dead really are dead. Most of them warn that three
days must lapse before a corpse can be burned or tampered with. The
warning explains that the departing soul…needs this time to remove
all its history from the body parts, and is somehow energized by early
stages of decay from the vacated corpse. The warning further states
that during these three days, it’s possible for the departing soul to
change its mind about leaving. (159)
• Death is a process, not a definitive event. (160)
• The average length of time a near-death experience is “dead” usually
clocks out at between five and twenty minutes. (161)
• The medical community cautions that without sufficient oxygen, the
brain can be permanently damaged in three to five minutes…neither of
these people suffered any ill effects – in fact, they returned smarter
and more creative than they had been before (161)
• He found that he could project himself anywhere on Earth he wanted
to go and experience what was there, and that he could do the same
thing regarding events in history (165)
• He claims that children can see and hear spirit beings (165)
• For more than half an hour, Pam’s brain was completely and absolutely
dead. Yet afterward, Pam recounted that…she could see, hear, and feel
what was going on (167)
Heavy on Research
• …a way of perceiving that only comes into play “when the senses are
defunct.”… mindsight… (179)
• There seems to be a cause-and-effect relationship between many a
person’s life activities and hellish near-death states. Those he
interviewed claimed that they could identify the causal condition – an
unkind, abusive, immoral circumstance – that led to their experience
being unpleasant. (186)
• To prove that personal consciousness survives death, we have to then
show that memory, too, can exist independent of the physical brain.
(187)
• 80 percent of the experiencers in [Cherie Sutherland’s] study acquired
a belief in reincarnation (188)
• Changes in diet and lifestyle habits included less television watching
and newspaper reading, more concern about eating nutritious food,
and a preference for alternative medical and self-healing procedures
(189)
• In the Evergreen Study, only 9 percent of the subjects had a
panoramic life review (191)
• …researchers found that 20 percent of the experiencers had accounts
of “hellish” experiences…which the researchers defined as “one that
contains extreme fear, panic, or anger” (191)
• The researchers of the Southern California Study suggested that rather
than contradicting or undermining science, this newly discovered
human experience “extends rather than refutes what we already know
much in the same way that Einstein’s view of the universe extended
Newton’s.” They observed that: “The implications the near-death
experience presents…are potentially so revolutionary that at this point
in history, when mankind has harnessed enough energy to destroy
itself many times over, a deeper understanding of ourselves and our
continuum might be crucial” (193)
Scientific Naysayers
• Having a life review and seeing a tunnel, for instance, are often part of
the near-death experience in Christian and Buddhist cultures, but are
seldom if ever found in the scenarios of native peoples of North
America, Australia, or the Pacific Islands (210)
• Subjective responses to an experience don’t make the experience itself
subjective (210)
• Most people who have a close brush with death tend to have some
form of post-traumatic stress disorder, whereas people who get that
close and have a near-death experience have none (212)
• Most accounts claim that the dead are 100-percent real-looking, and as
lively as when they last breathed a puff of air. Notable differences
include: They always look younger than when last seen; they’re cured
of any illness, handicap, or injury they may have had; and they’re
aglow with a special light that seems to emanate from within (283)
• [Cryptomnesia] does not account for all reincarnational memories,
especially those of small children with vivid, detailed recall that was
later verified (289)
• Trained hypnotherapists regress an individual into past lives…This
method has, on occasion, been more effective than medical CT scans,
MRIs, and blood tests in arriving at an accurate physical diagnosis
(290)
• The multidimensional kids who related most to the cosmos made it
quite clear to me that they were here to help “for the changes.” When I
asked what they meant by that, all said that Earth, its countries and
people, would have to deal with “big troubles.” They described this
time of massive change as happening when they were grown and had
children of their own, or when they were grandparents (this differed
according to the child’s age at the time)…I came up with the time
frame of 2013 to 2029. This matches predictions from both statistical
analysts and professional astrologers as to a time when the United
States will face the greatest challenge in its history (292)
• The ones I met spouted advanced concepts about wave forms, energy
sources, and power grids in much the same manner as the average
child might quote football scores (292)
• These cosmically oriented kids, although aware of the life stream and
soul progression, were determined to “save the Earth” and “make
repairs”. Their physical body and emotional nature seemed of little use
to them, as if they existed mostly in their heads. Ecological
sustainability fascinated them, as well as alternate power sources,
leading-edge science, photonics, and large-scale economic and
medical reforms. They regarded themselves as “keepers” of the matrix
or fabric of the universe (292-293)
• Brian was met by what he calls a highly evolved spirit who told him
about his past lives (293)
• David Bohm’s…tests showed how subatomic particles are able to
respond and relate to one another in ways not explainable by the law
of cause and effect. In other words, he found that on the subatomic
level, Newtonian fundamentals are no longer reliable. At this level, all
things are interrelated, intertwined, and intimately connected, because
physical reality is threaded together in a seamless web of responsive,
conscious intelligence – a continuum. He defines this in terms of an
“unbroken wholeness” which cannot be analyzed into separate and
independent parts because no such separation actually exists (294)
• Sukie Miller’s four adjustment stages:
1. Waiting Place – where the deceased is transformed from a
physical to a spiritual being
2. Judgment Place – where the “traveler’s” life is reviewed and
evaluated
3. Realm of Possibilities – either a time of enjoyment or something
to be endured, as determined by the previous judgment
4. The Return (Rebirth) – where the “traveler” is reintroduced to the
physical world via a new body and a new identity (295)
• George W Meek counts 11 planes of life and consciousness (296)
Transformations of Consciousness
Brain-Biology Link
• Who had the research expertise necessary for a field that would
straddle religion and mysticism, science and biology, consciousness
and the super-natural? (350-351)
• How do you know if your mind is closed? When you reject alternate
viewpoints without giving them a fair hearing. When this is done in the
name of “science”, it is called scientism (351)
• The second generation active today is more focused on the
aftereffects, the brain, and biology, and on inviting specialists in other
and related fields to share their expertise and participate in joint
projects (people such as microbiologists, bioengineers, theologians,
shamans, and experts on consciousness and physics) (354)
• “By their fruits ye shall know them.” I can’t think of a better measuring
rod for assessing the true spiritual effect of a transformative
experience (360)
• “…we are all living a Bible whether we write it down, whether we look
at anything formal or not.”(399)
• Stanislav Grof noted that any attempt to dismiss transpersonal
experiences as irrelevant products of human fantasy or hallucinations
was naïve and inadequate – for they represent “a critical challenge, not
only for psychiatry and psychology, but for the entire philosophy of
Western Science.” (399)
• “It seems to exist independently of matter, and to be contained in the
field of consciousness itself or in some types of fields undetectable by
scientific instruments.” (400)
• [DNA] seems to work as a receptor mechanism that attunes people to
their specific field of consciousness. This observation has become an
issue with organ transplants. The DNA of any organ belongs to the
consciousness field of the donor, not the recipient. There are numerous
cases of record now where an organ recipient developed radically
different desires and lifestyles after the transplant – which exactly
matched those of the donor (401)
• [Info on Dr. Moody’s apparition chambers is on 403]
• The apparition chambers of ancient Greece provided anyone interested
with an opportunity to experience “otherworldly spirits” and receive
“guidance” (403)
• No method yet discovered, however, can top prayer and meditation for
effectively setting the stage for miracles and laying the groundwork for
an intimate ongoing dialogue with the spiritual (404)
• The technique of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
(EMDR) not only enabled a patient to relax into a deep focus that
aided in moving the individual’s brain into higher processing modes, it
did even more. Patients who were “locked” into reliving the horrors of
war were sometimes able to move past that and actually converse with
the deceased. In a number of cases, the deceased person related
information previously unknown to the patient that later proved to be
true (404) (Allan L. Botkin, PsyD)
• ..those born between 1982 and 2003…IQ scores show a jump of about
24 to 26 points over previous ratings…All other countries administering
the tests reported the same phenomenon... “nonverbal intelligence”
(that which is based on creative problem solving) soared (405)
• …with these children, philosophy must be part of standard curriculum
in grade school (406)
• …near-death kids who exhibit certain telltale characteristics that make
them appear as if they were “rewired and reconfigured” by the
phenomenon:
1. Temporal lobe expansion in the brain begins to precede or
accelerate natural brain development
2. The learning curve starts to reverse itself, placing abstract
conceptualization before foundational understanding
3. IQ and sensory enhancement accompany heightened
spatial/nonverbal/sensory-dynamic thinking, giving rise to unique
problem-solving skills
4. Future awareness becomes commonplace, along with the ability
to rehearse life demands before they occur
5. The ability to sense in multiples enables whole new worlds of
possibilities to surface
6. A drive toward social justice and moral integrity becomes
primary, complemented by a tolerance for ambiguity and
paradox (406)
• Many psychics today say that fifth root race types can best be
recognized by differences in their eyes (greater field depth with pupils
not as reflective), digestive systems (less tolerant of “rich” diets), and
DNA structure (unique immunities). Also, they supposedly have
noticeable sensitivities to electromagnetic fields, certain foods,
excessive light and sound, and industrial chemicals/pharmaceuticals,
and they are creative intuitive, with abstraction one of their greatest
talents (407)
• Various mystical traditions refer to times when the life stream alters,
enabling the “root race” to advance. No reference is made to “race” in
the sense of genetic subgroups, but rather, to evolutionary mutations
in the “root stock” or gene pool of the human species. Seven
evolutionary advancements have been predicted before humankind is
said to reach its full potential. The first four are scientifically termed
Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, and Homo sapiens
sapiens. What was foreseen for our current period is the emergence of
the “fifth root race”, those “quickened” in spiritual awareness and
genetic makeup – what consciousness researcher John White calls
Homo noeticus (407)
• Why doesn’t God stop the violence? Because God didn’t start it in the
first place (409)