Near-Death Experiences, The Rest of the Story: What They Teach Us About Living and Dying and Our True Purpose

by P.M.H. Atwater

Real-life stories of out-of-body experiences, encountering a special light, greeters from the afterlife, life reviews, tunnels, and 360-degree vision--are all part of this intriguing look at near-death experiences (NDEs) by one of the world's noted authorities, P.M.H. Atwater. Atwater shares her amazing findings, based on her sessions with more than 4,000 adults and children, and over 40 years of research; a breathtaking culmination to a successful and controversial career.
Atwater examines every aspect of the near-death from first-hand accounts of survivors experiencing flash forwards, waking up in morgues, and developing psychic abilities, to stunning cases of groups experiencing NDEs together. Atwater offers statistics from her findings to show the distinctive common patterns that people experience, as well as the common aftereffects and how it changed their lives.
She also explores the physiological and spiritual changes that result from near-death experiences and looks at the connections between the NDE experience and what is often called "enlightenment." Near Death Experiences provides a glimpse of not only what lies beyond the veil of our temporal existence, but points to what--or who--we really are and what we are meant to be.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Science, Metaphysics

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2009

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I simply petered out in reading this book. I hoped to find a collection of fascinating near death experiences in this book. Instead, the author, who has experienced near death herself, surveys people who have had near death experiences and (here's the bad part) analyzes and even deconstructs the experiences into some odd "findings." Her attempts to use the "scientific method" to reach her conclusions is hard pressed. The intended audience for this book really seems to be only people who have had near death experiences. The us-them vibe in the book is almost Dr. Seuss-like or like the division between the wizarding world and muggles in the Harry Potter books. The writing is not very good, meanders at times, and actually seems a bit loopy to me at others. So, although I had high hopes. I give this one only two stars and that barely.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable book. It's fascinating, educational, and mind expanding. It encompasses so much that I don't know how to do a proper review. The title doesn't come close to covering all that's in this book. The book is intelligent, scientific, extremely well researched, and crosses many different subjects aside from what the title intimates. If the reader isn't part of this type of investigation, the nomenclature may be challenging because words can mean different things in different disciplines. I reread many passages for more understanding and others because they struck me as profound.

Near-death stories are usually interesting, as those sprinkled through this book were, but the book and author take a totally different approach to any books you've read on this subject before, unless you've read this author. I'll read the book a second time, after time passes, for greater understanding. It's the kind of thing that not only affects every person on earth but all those who were here before us and will be after us, and the concepts are supported increasingly by other sciences and ongoing research by others, some of it pertaining to the universe.

There is some religion in the book, not in a way you'd expect. It's discussion, some of which may confirm some beliefs around the world, some of which will shake up beliefs in some ways, but the overwhelming theme is that a deity exists but not so separate from us as we might think. All life is related, down to bugs and plants, trees, animals, all.

The book should be helpful to anyone who has had a near-death experience, as there are pros and cons in the immediate aftermath that need to be worked though. The experiences include children and have been verified by others in nearly all cases.

The ideas (put simply) here are far from reality for anyone who has never had one of these experiences, or several, as the author has. But they're comforting, apparently, for those millions of us who have had them because people don't believe them when they describe a different realm. We humans are excellent at labeling people, usually wrongly.

I have not had a near-death experience, though I've been near death more than once. Not near enough to be declared dead, though, or thought to be. Neither has my son, to my knowledge, the person who insisted I read this book. He's a normal person with a normal job and a high sense of humor, but he's also a deep thinker, as I find on the occasions he recommends a book to me that I have a little trouble getting through. Some of this book is a challenging read, some is easy and straightforward. It will probably change any reader who gets through it with an open mind. I'm not sure I'll kill bugs anymore and thought about the garden-fresh carrots I dug today.

When I finished reading, I wanted very much to go to one of the big gatherings near-death experiencers have and just sit and absorb what I might from them. To listen and understand. Or try. I wanted to talk to someone about the book, another reader. This kind of book can spark endless conversation and greater understanding that there's more to our world and universe than we've been conditioned to see. That makes sense, of course.

Apparently we are endless and we're sent to earth to learn, to provide service to others, to evolve. We must evolve. That may be one of our true purposes, although I didn't understand this bit as well as most others. Our purpose on earth is to serve in order to help humans evolve, in part. I'm unclear as to what the purpose is when we shed our bodies and belong again to the universe.

If you are religious and believe every word of the stories in your faith, no matter where in the world or what faith, this book might not be for you. It necessitates an open mind. If you have no faith, don't believe in deity of any kind, or that you are connected to anything, much less the universe, then you might find a good deal to think about in the book. There's brain research information, universe information, people on and not on earth information, and more. I was happy to see the pat description of tunnels mostly debunked. It's also true that our culture dictates to a small extent what people experience in a near-death scenario. That makes sense -- we need to at least partially understand what we see and experience in order to impart it to others, to evolve, to help others evolve.

It seems more clear to the author, the expert by far, than to me, that induced states of near-death do not behave the same as real ones. It can't be replicated except under genuine near-death circumstance. I understand that concept but question whether the near-death experience is so similar across cultures, including countries and indigenous tribes, because of the electrical and energetic things that happen at those times. And do these happen for other species? The book isn't really about that though it touches lightly on it. The book is about us, the human species.

And so, I will read the book again when some time has passed, and I'm please to find the author is working with thousands more subjects to learn more. There are lots of references and supporting evidence and materials here for those in various disciplines, including pastors, scientists of all kinds, medical professionals, and too many others to mention.

If this sort of book interests you, I highly recommend it. If not, don't read and give a bad review. It's not for everyone. This is a highly intelligent author and the book reflects that. Not a light read. If you don't learn enough this time around, maybe you'll come back to earth at another time and suffer as everyone does. Maybe you'll have a near-death experience, maybe not. If you have one, it will change you completely. I can identify with some of the items on the various lists, maybe because I was close to death, but I just didn't have the real thing, so much of this is foreign to me but not something I'd ignore.
_________________________

Addendum to this book. About a month and a half after finishing this book, I had a near death experience rather suddenly. All the doctors I saw said I am lucky to be alive, that most people don't make it through what happened. I was out for around 2 minutes and didn't see any lights or other things people describe, but my experience has changed me. It was real, I can tell anyone what I did experience, and it gave me a sense of overwhelming well being, at a time when I was definitely not OK, and I was not present in this life. As a loved one shook me trying to understand, and talked, I reluctantly returned, sensing my loved ones still needed me somehow. I won't go into details, but for me, all these stories I read about are now real and I never expected this in a million years -- and hope it never happens again until my life is done. But I won't fear the end now, I can say that much.

[Lee Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I begin this review, I should explain my interest in NDE’s from a religious viewpoint. It’s not just that they hint of a possible afterlife, because I honestly don’t know what to make of that. It’s that they dig down below the surface of religion to what Atwater labels a “core experience.” Says Atwater,

“The core truth or root of all religions and all sacred traditions is virtually the same throughout the world and always has been. It is the spiritual. It is that personal experience of Source/Deity/Allah/God. The majority of near-death experiencers glimpse that core truth in a moment of self-surrender they neither understood nor were prepared for, and they are forever changed.” (p. 104)

Atwater is not a scientist, and doesn’t approach her research from that direction. No double-blind studies with a control group. But she has logged 43 years of research, involving nearly 7,000 people. She explains,

“I am an observer and analyst who specializes in fieldwork … My protocol is that of a police investigator. I cross-check my findings with different people in different parts of our country at different times.” (p. 238)

By the way, I'm an outsider. An estimated one in twenty people remember a near-death experience, and Atwater has enjoyed three herself. But No NDE for me, even though I should qualify, having drowned once. I’m still peeved that I got nothing out of that.

Atwater’s new book is not as much about the experiences themselves as it is about the profound affect they have on those who survive them. People are changed by this brush with the divine, whether we label it a religious experience or not. I do enjoy when Atwater lets the experiencers speak for themselves, leaving it up to us to make sense of the mysteries. When she jumps in, speaking in her exotic language, using phrases like "electromagnetic spectrum," I tend to lose focus. I’m a newbie to the paranormal, sorry.

This is a world where animals often speak and angels often fly on wings. I say "often," because different people, with different backgrounds, have different experiences. Hell is only hot and fiery if you're a Christian fundamentalist. Most others recalled hellish NDE’s as cold and clammy. Dark tunnels often connect this world to the next, but they didn't used to. Tunnels with a light at the end were quite rare in NDE’s before Robert Moody's book Life After Life became a bestseller, and the public began to fixate on tunnels. Too bad; everybody loves afterlife tunnels and the explanations they provide for wormholes, time travel, and shamanic visions.

But one commonality in these experiences is that they are life-altering, and for that reason alone, the rest of us should not ignore what we can't explain. What these people experience will probably never be a part of our worldview—most of us are trapped in a reality wrapped around matter—but NDE experiencers' connection often remains after the event, like a window left open to the supernatural. They are suddenly changed. Experiencers begin to remember the future before it happens, see auras of energy, see dead people. Atwater helps experiencers adapt back to a world that has become foreign, and helps the rest of us adapt to experiencers who have been radically changed. This is no trivial issue; 21% of experiencers in Atwater’s research attempted suicide afterward. 75% divorced. Both spouses usually voiced the same complaint: “I don’t know that person anymore.” The vast majority return from their experiences convinced that there is a “plan” for life, yet two-thirds leave organized religion, or never have a religious commitment to begin with.

Atwater loses me when she delves into her otherworldly explanations for these phenomenon, talking about holograms and power punches and colloidal conditions. When she shifts from paranormal language into scientific explanations, I get at least a glimpse of what she's talking about, but can't really relate the explanations to scientific principles other than as vague parallels meant to describe the indescribable. "Superfluidity" doesn't really explain how out-of-body travelers can go through walls. "Quantum entanglement" has a long way to go before it explains entangled minds. “Multiverses” is a concept I find more than a little disturbing. But these comparisons do help me relate. In many ways, Atwater's book will feel like home to experiencers but leave outsiders like me still out in the cold. Four stars for the research and fascinating peek into a world that remains a bizarre mystery to the uninitiated.

One final note: Atwater’s opinions about Jesus and the Bible don’t increase her credibility. She should probably have left that to the Jesus scholars. :-)

[Erin Dunn]

I borrowed this from a friend, but I can't even get into it. All the stories are so obviously fake. Lol. Not for me.

[Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had an NDE and I recommend this novel to anyone else who has experienced one also! This book was amazing and covered all facets of the genre.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the ideas presented, 2 stars or less for the writing. I found the charts confusing, the tone at times defensive and/or condescending, and some of the late middle chapters downright boring.

But the experiencer stories are more than worth it. My favorite was this exchange a man had with the spirit being that appeared in his near death episode:

"...then why was [life] so scary?"

"It was necessary that your experience be intensified by the belief in your own mortality, or you would never have taken the exercise seriously."

That one's going to stick with me.

[Rex Libris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book starts off describing near death experiences, the tunnel, meeting relatives, and stuff like that. But then it warp speeds off the deep end. Such topics are multiple near death experiences, two-year-olds remembering multiple near death experiences and their births, auras and vibrations, and the brain may be a hologram.

Very rarely do I think I wasted my tie reading a book, butt his was one of them.

[Cathy D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got bored rather quickly. I would have preferred more NDE stories, and less of the author putting herself front and center. The author's tone came across as smug; she seemed to me that she thinks her research on NDE's is far superior to anyone else's.

[Renee Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an author I respect. I skipped through this book, however, having interest only in the personal anecdotes.

[CJ Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle of this book is What they teach s about living, dying, and our true purpose.
Ms Atwater has been researching near-death experiences for thirty years.Mingled with the scientific studies are the stories by people who came back.
A woman came back to life just before the coroner began her autopsy
A child who had fallen into a well of freezing water and wasn't found for three days
A report from a man who had been in the Vietnam war who had seen many of the severely wounded leave their bodies and leave the place. He wold slate the soldiers and wave goodbye to the women and children. One man who had left and was revived told this man that he had seen him salute him as he left his body.
I will have to read the book again to understand the brain-science and quantum physics sections. Since there are many stories in my family told by people who came back, the experience was not foreign to me, but the scientific explanations were.
A book well worth reading for anyone curious about life after death, psychic gifts, or how those who come back are changed in predictable and provable ways.

[Justin Elzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Medium who has studied NDE’s since I was a little boy and I loved this book. This is a deep book with a lot of good info. If you are looking for a fluffy book with just NDE stories, then this is not the book for you. This author has done numerous interviews and surveys of NDE’ers and she puts together an amazing book looking at the psychological effects and brings science to the table. This is an excellent book.

[Keith Haan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very comprehensive book detailing near-death experiences. It get rather clinical about half way through and was difficult to keep focused. Eventually it returned to more near-death experiences and a more spiritual focus.

[Raewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I expected was a bunch of re-telling of near death experiences. What I got was an interesting interwoven view on world religions, where they combine/compare and the 'spirit' self. Worth a read if you're into that kind of thing.

[Circa Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The breadth of this theoretical study of what near death experiences imply is impressive, but each topic is only explored for like two or three pages each. It's a good starting place to know which quantum and relativity physics rabbit hole you might want to study later though.

[Rebecca McCoy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thought this was an okay book until about halfway thru it, when i read the description of lsd, being a woodstock related drug for hippies, once i read that sentence. I put the book down. I will not read ignorance!

[Elaine Skidmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is always life.
A new reality: One God, one people, one family, one existence.
Love, Service, Forgiveness

[Bookewyfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading about NDE years ago. I watch documentaries and listen to podcasts about it. Atwater took a deep dive into studying it after having had her own NDE, and has written several books on the subject; her NDE is told in detail in her book ‘Coming Back to Life’. This new book has got to be one of the best I’ve ever read on the subject as she goes into a lot of detail about culture, science, metaphysics, and more. Fascinating!

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every chapter begins with a quote and I chose Chapter Seven to begin my review ”One can’t believe impossible things,” Alice said. “daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Somewhat of a challenging read, especially if you are hoping for a book chock full of near-death experiences. Atwater’s approach was more that of a researcher on a scientific investigative trail, at times intriguing, while at other moments technical and somewhat boring. I found myself re-reading sections, browsing others and enjoying the next. If you have the patience and perseverance to continue reading I believe you will experience a moment where you will find the ability to at least reflect on the possibility of one of those impossible things.

”Everything you can imagine is real.” ~Picasso

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far (reading the last few pages now) I'm liking it... Because unpleasant to very unpleasant and distressing experiences also do occur, apparently not all nde experiences are peaches and roses only – even though we’d like to think so. I think it’s a good thing that these types of experiences are also taken up in the book.
I also liked reading about the after-effects that experiencers have to ‘deal’ with – generally most become very ‘psychic’. I say ‘deal with’ because as described in the book some handle it well, and others have trouble handling this phenomena.
Last part of the book ... is more of an overview on the authors (personal build-up) theories and concepts regarding the subject. One either likes this latter part of the book, or one does not. Either way, I personally find it a very good book indeed.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual I find myself gravitating toward subjects on either near death experiences or hauntings. I love the concept that humans can exist after their body has shutdown. I find it comforting and fascinating at the same time. I enjoyed this book bc it gave an analytical and personal experience of what thousands of people go through when they are confronted with their death. I enjoyed how the author presented his information in an easy manner. The more I read the more I tend to believe that there really is something on the other side! I would recommend this book to anyone that is dealing with a loved one that is transitioning or if they are just plain curious. I think it is a great read and answers a lot of questions that most people have.

[Rich Foss · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most frustrating aspect of this book is how the author constantly makes intriguing statements or raises compelling questions or facets of NDEs, only to stop and change the subject. This happens over and over. The book has so much content that is underdeveloped. Along the same vein, her charts are not clearly explained in the accompanying text, or written in such a way that no further explanation needed.

The only reason I gave the book 3 stars is that I find it valuable to learn what this researcher found in her 43 years of research, though the material was poorly presented. Reads like a first draft.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting book. Now, having said that, I don't think it 's work the effort it takes to read it. The reason why? As a Christian, I choose to form my opinions on such books by comparing them to the Holy Bible. The experiences in this book many times stray far from what's acceptable to me as valid spiritual experiences. For example, many of those who had a near-death experience, came back to life with an attitude that all religions are pathways to God. Well, they're not. Thoughts like those convinced me this book held nothing of value to me.

Don't bother reading it!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read other near death experience books, most of them are better than this. The author seems to think her ideas are the best ones on what these experiences mean, but doesn't really back it up with anything. I would like more experiences and less guessing what it all means.

[Sandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author has done extensive research including the effects of a near death experience. Relates some stories/incidents, but mostly what her research has found. Interesting, but sometimes too technical.

[Robin Imperial]

Too painful to continue even after 100+ pages...+

[Robby Bradbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

P.M.H. was and excellent interview and also and excellent Author/Researcher. I have listened to her on other talk shows and podcasts and find her passion very inspiring. This book will move you

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting if you take it with a grain of salt and can stifle your reaction to the irritating tone.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful. I could only get through one chapter. The writing was choppy and hard to follow.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very expansive professional investigation of the scope and perhaps meaning of NDE's. A must read for anyone researching this topic.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.