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1. About P.M.H. Atwater
P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.) (pmhatwater.hypermart.net) is a near-death experiencer and one of the original researchers in the field of near-death studies. Sign up for her free online newsletter. Visit Atwater’s Q & A Blog and her NDE News Blog. She is the author of many wonderful books which can be purchased at her Amazon author’s page.
2. Lynn’s NDE With Her Pets
The following near-death experience appears in P.M.H. Atwater’s book, The New Children and NDEs where she reports the account of a child named Lynn, at age thirteen, who had an NDE during which she saw her beloved dogs in heaven. It occurred when Lynn underwent open-heart surgery at age thirteen to correct a condition she had almost since birth. Before the surgery, she was unable to run and play with the other kids, and she would on occasion turn blue and get sick. A large black Great Dane named Harvey was her constant companion and best buddy. The following is Lynn’s testimony of her NDE as described in P.M.H. Atwater’s wonderful book.
3. Lynn’s Out-of-Body Observations of Family and Doctors
“The last thing I remember in surgery was a male voice saying in a very matter-of-fact way, ‘Uh-oh, we have a problem here.’
“The next thing I knew I was floating around the ceiling looking down on my body. My chest was open wide and I could see my internal organs. I remember thinking how odd it was that my organs were a beautiful pearl gray, not at all like the bright red chucks in the horror flicks I loved to watch. I also noticed there was a black doctor and an Oriental one on the operating team. The reason this stuck in my mind is that I was brought up in a very white middle-class neighborhood, and I had seen black schoolteachers but never a black doctor. I’d met the operating team the day before, but they were all white.
“Suddenly, I had to move on, so I floated into the waiting room, where my parents were. My father had his head buried in my mother’s lap. He was kneeling at her feet, his arms wrapped around her waist, and he was sobbing. My mother was stroking his head, whispering to him. This scene shocked me, as my father was not prone to showing emotions. Once I realize they would be fine, I felt myself pulled into a horizontal tunnel.
“The ride through the tunnel was like nothing else. I remember thinking, ‘So this is death.’
“The tunnel was dark, and every once in a while something that looking like lightning would flash across my path. These flashes were brilliant in color and didn’t scare me. At the end of the tunnel was a bright light.”
4. Her Reunion With Her Deceased Dogs
“From the light came two dogs of mine. One was a collie named Mimi who had died three years previously from an infection, and the other was a boxer named Sam who had died two years before after being hit by a car. The dogs came running and jumped on me and kissed my face with their tongues. Their tongues weren’t wet, and I felt no weight when they jumped on me. The dogs seemed to glow from a light that was inside them.
“I recall saying to myself, ‘Thank you, God, for letting my dogs be alive.’
“I hugged my dogs as tight as I could. I then called my dogs and together we started walking toward the light. All colors were in the light and it was warm, a living thing, and there were people as far as the eye could see, and they were glowing with an inner light – just like my dogs. In the distance I could see fields, hills, and a sky.
“The light spoke and it said, ‘Lynn, it is not time for you yet. Go back, child.’
“I put my hand up to touch the top of the light. I knew then that I had touched the face of God. I told God that I loved him, and I wanted to stay with him.
“Again the light said, ‘Lynn, go back. It is not time for you. You have work to do for me. Go back.’
“I know this sounds silly, but I asked the light, ‘If I go, can I come back and will my dogs still be here waiting for me?’
“The light said, ‘Yes,’ and then told me there were people who wanted to see me before I left.”
5. Her Homecoming With Grandparents and an Unknown Uncle
“From out of the light came my maternal grandparents. I ran to them and embraced them. They were going to walk me part of the way back.
“Just as I was turning to leave, a man stepped from the light. He wore a full dress uniform, U.S. Navy. He was very tall and very blond, with blue eyes. I had never seen the man before, but he knew me and smiled.
“‘I am your uncle Franklin. Tell Dorothy that I’m okay and that the baby is with me. Tell her I never stopped loving her and that I am glad she got on with her life. Tell her that when her time comes, I will come for her. Remember to tell her I love her.’
“As I turned, the man shouted, ‘Tell Dorothy, tell her you met Franklin and I’m okay and so is the baby.’
“My grandparents told me if I stayed any longer I might not make it back. But I wanted to talk with Jesus. I had a very important question to ask him.”
6. An Important Question Answered By Jesus
“A beam of light, different from yet similar to the first one, covered me. I knew this light was Christ. I leaned against it for one moment and then asked my question.
“‘Dear Jesus, is it true that you gave me this heart condition so that I would have a cross to carry like you did?’ (Sister Agnes, my sixth-grade teacher, had told me that my heart condition was my cross to bear from Christ.) I heard the voice of Christ vibrate through me as he said, ‘No, this heart condition of yours is not a cross from me for you to bear. This heart condition is a challenge to help you grow and stay compassionate. Now, go back.’
7. Her Future Foretold and an Interesting Tunnel Experience
“As I walked back, my grandmother told me that my father was going to leave my mother and that I would be my mother’s strength.
“I saw people hiding in the tunnel, people who were afraid to come into the light or who were disoriented about where they were. I expressed concern for them but was told not to worry, as a guide would be along to help them. Some of these people looked like soldiers. Then I remembered Vietnam and I knew where the soldiers were coming from.”
8. Psychic Aftereffects and Verified Out-of-Body Perception
Lynn detailed what it was like to be resuscitated and then wake up hours later hooked up to a myriad of tubes. She recalls being unable to speak and being fascinated by shadows moving among the medical staff, shadows she came to realize were people who had died there. She claims it didn’t take long before she could watch death take place — to see the soul as it exited the body. Her doctor released her after a month because he was afraid that all the time she spent talking to dead or misplaced souls would drive her crazy. Her early release pleased her father, as if it gave him an excuse to be cold and unemotional again.
“The day I left, in front of my parents, I asked Dr. Davidson who the black doctor was in the operating room. Dr. Davidson said he had been called in at the last minute when one of the team members became ill. He wanted to know if this doctor had been by to say hi, but I said no, I saw him during surgery. Dr. Davidson stopped smiling and told me to go home and forget everything.”
Once Lynn returned home, her life changed. Light bulbs would pop if she got angry, and formerly inanimate objects would move around of their own accord (the research term for this is psychokinesis). She would see images whenever she touched anything (synesthesia). From touching jewelry, she could tell who owned it and where it had been worn (psychometry). When she looked at a person, she could see their life in flashes, including their future (clairvoyance). School became easy, as she no longer had to study to get really good grades (intelligence enhancement). But sunshine bothered her, and so did loud noise (increased sensitivity to light and sound).
9. Lynn’s Foretold Future Becomes Reality
“My father left us. In front of the whole family, he told me he thought I was crazy and belonged in a mental hospital. It was Thanksgiving Day, one year after my surgery.
“I told my father I could prove I wasn’t crazy. I turned to Aunt Dorothy and said, ‘Who is Franklin?’
There was silence. Every eye at the table was on me. Mouths were wide open. Uncle George, who was married to Aunt Dorothy, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Lynn, if you wanted to hurt me, you’ve done a good job.’
“Everyone went home early and my father left us.
“A few weeks later my aunt wanted to know how I knew about Franklin. I told her exactly what had happened during surgery.
“Then my aunt led me up to her attic and unlocked a large trunk. (I had never been in her attic before, nor had I seen the trunk.) She pulled out pictures of the man I had seen in the light.
“My aunt told me that she had married Franklin during World War II, after a brief twenty-four-hour courtship. She had been engaged to Uncle George at the time, but left him for Franklin. My aunt started to cry as she told me that she and Franklin were very happy together for two months, and then he was shipped out. After he left, she discovered she was pregnant. When she was seven months along, my aunt received word that Franklin had been killed in the invasion of Italy. He was on the lead ship dropping off troops. The news caused her to miscarry. She hemorrhaged so badly that a complete hysterectomy had to be performed to save her. The next year Uncle George married her and destroyed all pictures of Franklin, requesting that everyone in the family never speak Franklin’s name again. The only pictures to survive were those Aunt Dorothy hid in the trunk.”
10. The Bitter Aftermath Involving Her Beloved Great Dane
With this final verification of what she had seen during her near-death experience, Lynn became openly confident and trusting, although she preferred solitude to a social life. She lost all fear of death, changed her diet to include less meat, began to exhibit steadily increasing displays of psychic abilities, and became a friend of ghosts.
Yet the guilt she felt about her father’s actions and what he did to her Great Dane still haunts her. When her father left the family, he took Lynn’s beloved Great Dane, Harvey. He would phone her and accuse her of being possessed by the devil because of her psychic ability and knowledge gained about Franklin. Her father would phone her and threatened to kill Harvey unless she became a Christian. One day, he made good on that threat.
“I couldn’t believe my father actually did it until that night, when Harvey’s soul came to say good-bye and let me know he was okay.
“For years afterward I’d have coughing fits where I could hardly breathe. It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I connected the coughing to my pent-up emotions about my dog’s death.”
After years of counseling. Lynn has yet to release the grief she feels about her near-death experience.
“My father walked out on our family because of me, because of how I changed after my episode, and my relationship with my uncle was never the same again. My family was badly hurt and my dog was killed, and it’s all my fault.”
