Author's Note:
"The New Children and Near-Death
Experiences" is
a remake of this original book, "Children of the New Millennium." It
is much larger, same basic format but with new cases and new research never
before published. Additional sections cover such material as information
about our tiniest near-death experiencers (newborns, infants, and toddlers),
evidential
memories of past lives, the youngest hellish case yet recorded, and some
amazing facts about Albert Einstein.
I am very happy about this revised and much larger version of this original
book. I know you will be, too.
"This is a major study of child
experiencers of near-states, their episodes, variations, and aftereffects.
Also included is material on the millennial generation, those born
between 1982 and about 2003, for comparison. Evolutionary factors
are explored, especially the concept of "root races" and multi-dimensional
children. No matter what your belief system is, or what you've previously
read about near-death states, this book will surprise you."
Error - In rewriting this book for my publisher, an
important case study was lost, that of Judith Werner, Bronx, NY,
who
had an unpleasant near-death episode during a surgical crisis - when
she was only nine days old! This is the youngest such case I have
yet found. The only reference to this in CHILDREN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
is on page 70, second paragraph, but an error was made. It says, "at
age nine" when it should have said "at nine days old."
Hopefully, the correction to the book will be made by
the publisher at reprint. But, to correct the deletion of this important
case, Barbara Rommer, M.D., author of BLESSING
IN DISGUISE, has enabled me to include a brief discussion of this
case in a new Addendum, added to the second edition of her important
work. My apologies to Judith Werner for this oversight and subsequent
error, and my gratitude to Dr. Rommer for her kindness in allowing
me to publish this case in her book.
Also Note: There has been a change of address for author
Kathy J. Forti, Ph.D., 12401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 306, Los Angeles,
CA 90025; (310) 709-7221; e-mail kjforti@aol.com
"Fascinating and Mind-Stretching , P.M.H. Atwater is a well-respected
long time researcher on the subject of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs).
Her fascination for the subject originated with her own multiple NDEs.
Children of the New Millenium is the most complete work, to date, dealing
with the NDEs of children. Dr. Atwater feels that transformation of
consciousness, regardless of the cause (including NDEs) is a "structural,
chemical, and functional change that occurs in the brain." She states:
"This sudden change, sometimes akin to a quantum leap, flings the experiencer
from one mode of existence to another - as if on cue....I call the phenomenon
a brain shift/spirit shift." She feels that the "brain shift", in particular,
is affected to a greater degree in children than in adults, "propelling
them into abstractions and learning enhancements". She presents an excellent
and thorough discussion of all aspects of the characteristics and many
possible after-effects of the NDE in children. She then compares and
contrasts these with the changes commonly seen after adult NDEs. As
well, there is an excellent presentation of four phases in the process
of integration which she sees the child experiencers undergoing after
the event. She has documented an average of 15 years for children, as
opposed to an average of 7 years for adults, to integrate the NDE into
their lives. Dr. Atwater obviously loves children. She is fascinated
with, and respects, what those child NDErs can teach us all. She shares
more directly quoted childhood NDEs than can be found in any other source
including my own book which is Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of
the Near-Death Experience (Llewellyn 2000). She also includes many of
the sketches that the children drew of their events. Her statement that:
"The child you get back after a near-death episode is a remodeled, rewired,
reconfigured, refined version of the origional" certainly piqued my
interest! This book also addresses a multiplicity of other fascinating
subjects such as pre-birth memories, reincarnation, future memory, a
review of the author's classification of four types of NDEs, and even
alien abduction to name a few. There is something for every reader of
every background. Whether or not you are open to the concept of alien
existence and/or abduction, and whether or not you accept the author's
theory of brain shift/spirit shift, the fact remains that the absolute
merit of this book is the wealth of information it contains, especially
about childhood NDEs, their after-effects, and their impact on us all.
Most of us have come to agree that we most certainly are all interconnected
to each other and to that Energy Source which created us. Therefore,
what happens to one of us (including the child NDEr) will ultimately
impact us all. Whether or not the author's theories resonate with your
own, I believe that you will find them as intriguing as I have. This
is a fascinating mind-stretching work!" ...Reviewer: Barbara
R. Rommer, M.D., author of: Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the
Near-Death Experience (Llewellyn 2000) from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
"If you have had a near-death experience as a child: Please read
CHILDREN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM by P.M.H.Atwater. Here you can learn
of the changes set into motion as a result of your experience with spirit
that influenced your development. Perhaps for the first time you will
be able to get an objective view of how you function psychologically
and why your sensitivities and priorities seem to differ from those
of most of the people you know. Even though my experience was decades
ago, I gained significant insight and understanding from Atwater's well
researched and comprehensive work. The effects last a lifetime!"
...Carolyn Millhone, M.A. Counseling Psych.
"I just finished reading CHILDREN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM this morning,
and it is a masterpiece. I am now recommending it to parents of gifted
children everywhere. When I queried about the birthing histories of
the most profoundly gifted, I found that about 80% had had difficult
births. They match your profile for child experiencers of near-death
states exactly! Even more remarkable, in the last month, I've come
across children who are so far evolved beyond anything I've seen in
my four-decade career in the field of gifted children, that neither
heredity nor environment can explain their advancement, their wisdom,
their sense of mission, their adult minds, or their moral development.
The only explanation is evolution. And I don't know of anyone else
who addresses this situation better or more clearly than you do. Your
research is incredible." ....Linda Silverman, Ph.D., Director,
Institute for the Study of Advanced Development; Editor, Advanced
Development Journal.
"CHILDREN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM" by P.M.H.Atwater is another
of her remarkable works dealing with Near-Death Experiences, this
time of children. This is a book no one interested in psychical research
ought to miss. This book is wonderfully well written, her case histories
are excellent, and if one might take issue with her religious attitudes,
such as Jesus conducting an interview Over There, no one can quarrel
with this work of a great writer and researcher." . . . Prof. Dr.
Hans Holzer, Author of STAR IN THE EAST, LIFE BEYOND and 124 other
books.
"P.M.H.Atwater's CHIDLREN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
is a very important book and quite revolutionary. It is the first
to treat near-death experience comprehensively. She describes four
types of near-death experience: initial, unpleasant, pleasant, and
transcendent, thus bringing order and sense to the notions that float
around about this. She describes the aftereffects of near-death experience
for children, as indicative of a shift in the evolution of the brain
and the corresponding shift in spiritual evolution. Her point that
making sense of the NDE is harder for children, that 'they have it
tougher' deserves serious attention.
"Atwater inspires optimism by alerting us to the new generation of
profoundly gifted children and what we must do for them to help them
carry out their mission. For many of them school is going to be difficult
because it is too slow and too regimented. Of course, many such children
are already here and are facing the difficulties Atwater describes.
This alone makes the book highly significant and of enormous importance.
"While in most cases near-death experience is highly positive, there
are cases when it is not. It is most startling to learn of the misery
and proneness to suicide of those who after being shown paradise feel
rejected and abandoned. Having this information on hand should promote
a better understanding of the impact of these experiences." Michael
M. Piechowski, Ph.D., a Leading Educator with Gifted Children
"Thank you for writing this book. I now can understand myself
so much better. There were so many days I cried wondering why no one
liked me. I was so sensitive to people that it was difficult being
around some of them, even my parents. May you keep on writing, for
it is your work that has shown me so much about the experiences I
have had." Francis Piekarski of New Martinsville, WV --Child experiencer
of a near-death state (now an adult)
"This book is now the richest, most probing, and most comprehensive
work available of NDEs in children, and at that level alone, it is
a major contribution to the field of near-death studies. But it is
more than that - it is a truly seminal exploration of the possible
evolutionary significance of NDEs as we move into a new millennium,
and is in my view the capstone of P.M.H. Atwater's distinguished career."
Kenneth Ring, Ph.D. Author of "Lessons from the Light"
"Couldn't let another day go by without sending you my thanks
for "Children". Just finished it and find myself with handfuls of
thought provoking ideas and as well a certain almost peaceful feeling
surrounding the hope and the challenge of the future. "Children" is
indeed a major step and a major work - marvelously researched, straight
forward and no loose ends. Reading it is like talking to you. I'm
recommending it to all and sending prayers that this book gets the
proper publicity it deserves!!!" Fran Pressey
"It may be that the greatest value of a book is its ability
to disturb, unless one wants only to be entertained. In either case,
Children of the New Millennium is quite a cup of tea. This
heady adventure into the inner world just may be P.M.H. Atwater's
magnum opus, though it can become threatening and disturbing to our
commonly held assumptions. (At least it was to mine.)
Read with an unprejudiced eye, or mind, (which, again, was not easy
for me) it surely should rank with Wm. James' classic Varieties
of Religious Experience if nothing else. Like James' work, it
raises a rich substrate of unanswered questions concerning the nature
of the human mind and its incomparable, awesome creativity. Thus this
is both a seminal work, demanding further and deep, philosophical
inquiry and objective pursuit, while at the same time a work of astonishing
thoroughness, brilliance, insight, and prodigious, admirable research.
Atwater has simply covered her subject with impeccable thoroughness,
even as her rigorously disciplined approach opens her subject to a
wider question which might be beyond the scope of any single book.
And she wisely knows when to leave a question hanging (always risky
academically,) rather than trying to make the definite statement about
everything, as some of us are wont to do. Every time I think
she has boxed herself into an untenable position, she offers counter
experiences which prove to be outside that box and which show her
objectivity to any part of the remarkably rich material she has gathered.
And much of this is material is academically suspect - politically
incorrect so to speak - even as it is undeniably a rich segment of
actual human experience, material which rings resonate with my own
history as it will that of many readers, (whereas the academically-politically
correct tends to leave me as a lived experience rather out
of the picture.)
Surely there are unresolved issues in this book, as there would have
to be in a work of this scope. Time and again I wanted to stop and
insist on battling out some issue, though it might take years. Memory
itself is a gaping black hole of mystery, in spite of all research
into this area. False memory has been the subject of much study. Shared,
archetypal memory is almost surely a real phenomenon. Nobelist Gerald
Eddleman claims that memory is quite organic, shifting, growing, changing,
the brain-mind continually updating and reshuffling its memory. David
Chamberlain, contrary to current academic opinion, denies that memory
is "in the brain" at all, and gives serious evidence to back his point.
I just received a disturbing paper concerning our "biomythological
memory" that remakes itself continually on behalf of rationalization,
self-aggrandizement, apology and what Caroline Myss calls "woundology."
Atwater's contribution to this perplexing and open-ended issue should
prove rich and ongoing. I trust this book is read and accepted over
a wide population." Joseph Chilton Pearce, Author of "Magical
Child" and "Crack in the Cosmic Egg" (Named by New
Age Journal as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.)
"Once again, P.M.H. Atwater pushes the envelope of near-death
and transformational studies. 'Children of the New Millennium' examines
childrens' near-death and similar experiences through the childrens'
own eyes and voices, and in so doing, challenges us to rethink what
us thought we knew about these vital phenomena. Pulling together data
from her own investigations and form a broad range of published sources,
Atwater gives us a provocative new perspective on child development
and humanity's future." Bruce Greyson, M.D. Professor of Psychiatric
Medicine, Editor, Journal of Near-Death Studies
"P.M.H. Atwater's book is a treasure trove of valuable information.
As usual, she is on the cutting edge of near-death research. Her book
is fascinating. If you think you have heard everything about NDE's,
now you need to read this book." Melvin Morse, M.D. Author
of "Closer to the Light"
"Over the past 20 years, P.M.H. Atwater has been an innovative,
creative, talented, and well-documented author in the field of Near-Death
Studies and Parapsychology. This book is another of her outstanding
contributions." E.W. Fenske, Ph.D. Therapist
"P.M.H. Atwater has been a dedicated researcher in the NDE field
for over 20 years. Her work on aftereffects is unparalleled and has
been used extensively by near-death experiencers, and health-care
professionals. In 'Children of the New Millennium,' P.M.H. has once
again broken into new territory by introducing new insights and some
differences in children's near-death experiences. Her current work
with children is critical to NDE research and even more important
for parents, the children, and teachers. She has provided extensive
documentation of resources and practical information for assistance
and a stimulus for a wealth of new research. I personally want to
thank P.M.H., for her monumental contributions to the field and most
importantly to children. I also want to acknowledge her excellent
work on the Board of the International Association for Near-Death
Studies." Diane Corcoran, Ph.D. President, IANDS
