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"ANOTHER LOOK..." is an ongoing column I write for Vital Signs Newsletter, a quarterly publication of the International Association For Near-Death Studies. Each segment will appear here from now on, as well as in the Newsletter. This new feature gives me a format with which to explore varied issues about near-death states. Should you wish to make a comment or want to suggest future topics, please feel free to contact me. I may be able to use your suggestions directly. Thank you. P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)
P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.) P. O. Box 7691 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7691
© 2000 P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)
I want to talk this time about newborns and infants who have near-death experiences, but first I have a few announcements to make that you may find of interest. Subtext to Children of the New Millennium (which contains the three appendices missing from the main book) is now available free of charge over my website, www.pmhatwater.com. Download at will. I am sorry I could not attend the IANDS Conference in Philadelphia (first one I've ever missed), but I will be at the big IANDS Conference in Holland, November 26th. The Society for Transpersonal Psychiatrists has invited me to speak at their Conference on Consciousness the day before, so I get to stay over and do "two-in-one." If everything goes right, I will then go from Holland to France to meet with members of IANDS-France. This trip will be the topic of my columns after the first of the year - a chance for all of us to know more about our friends in Europe - and about a special meeting November 24 when researchers from five countries will gather with me in Holland to discuss a joint European near-death research project. To say I am thrilled about this would be an understatement! But that's not all. The latter part of September I will be at a Conference in Seoul, South Korea, and I will do everything I can to inspire the people there to form an IANDS group and perhaps consider near-death research as well. We need more input from Asia, and hopefully China. I have also been invited to speak at IANDS-Chicago and IANDS-San Francisco Bay. (Details posted on my website.) With that said, let's get back to the real subject of this column. I want to talk about newborns and infants because of the stir Children of the New Millennium has caused. . . among professionals as well as child experiencers. Linda Silverman, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development (Denver, Colorado), and one of the leading authorities on gifted children in the United States, contacted me. She had read the Children's book and she was excited. Here's why: 80% of the most profoundly gifted children in her research (kids with IQs of 180, 211, and above - one tested at 262) had very difficult births (termed "precipitous") and went on to display - trait for trait - all of the aftereffects and shifts in behavior of child experiencers of near-death states. Although her research does not address the near-death phenomenon, per se, therefore there is no data on anyone in her study reporting such an episode as an infant, much of the children's poetry and many of their drawings indicate they may indeed be experiencers. This is reasonable to me, since I discovered in my research that children are six times more likely than adults to forget, block, or repress their experience. Plus, she never thought of such a link so she never looked for it. Who in her field would? Sad to say, we haven't reached the point yet among researchers where people in the different disciplines of study talk to each other and share their findings. But, get this: the children in her study, just like the youngsters I discussed in my book, exhibit "whole brain" integration (left and right brain hemispheres equally developed and working together as if a single unit), display no difference in spatial reasoning between males and females, are abstract-conceptual learners, natural creative intuitives, and are mature beyond their years - walking as they do "between worlds." Most have electrical sensitivity, as well. These children are passionate about their mission in life, and their mission has to do with spirituality and projects dealing with human rights issues and protecting the environment. Money does not motivate them. Doesn't this sound like near-death kids? Schools can't handle these youngsters. More and more are drop- ping out and are being homeschooled or are teaching themselves via the Internet. And, in concert with the rise in technological improvements in medicine, there are corresponding jumps in the numbers of these children, paralleling increasing percentages of children simply being born this way without causative factors to explain it - as I predicted would happen in Children of the New Millennium. "The only explanation is evolution," states Silverman. She pegs them as "Evolutionary Outliers," the subject of her next book. I have no doubt that we are seeing evolution at work in our lifetime and that what is happening with near-death states is part of it. Even the Augsburg Fortress Press, the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has noted in revealing the results of one of their studies that those youngsters born after 1981 (the Millennial Generation), are seriously concerned about the environment, question authority, yet are hopeful about the future. The majority are smarter and more dedicated to making a difference in the world than any generation before them. Although this study does not encompass "the near-death angle," it still complements what Silverman and I discovered. Today's children are different from their predecessors, and in ways that cannot be linked to genetics, nutrition, or education. As exciting as this is, I am concerned about a few things. For starters, the challenges at school. With so many dropping out to seek learning opportunities elsewhere, what effect might this have on their social development? Truly, we can use research on near-death kids as a model to predict possible results; and, what I found clearly shows that social maturity and interpersonal communication skills, although improved with many, greatly suffer with the majority of youngsters who have been, what I call, "rewired" and "reconfigured." Add to this the drugging of our children with Ritalin. Most kids who have experienced near-death states, especially if they were infants when the episode occurred, become hyper-active and hyper-curious and highly imaginative/inventive/intuitive afterwards. This is a normal, natural component to the aftereffects. Even adult experiencers become a lot like this, although, usually, not quite as hyper. There are other ways to handle this development and other methods that can be used, without turning to drugs. A cautionary reminder: most experiencers, child or adult, become highly sensitive to or intolerant of pharmaceuticals after their experience. Knowing this, and taking a step towards educating parents and professionals, could make a positive difference in the lives of those involved. Another concern of mine relates to the fact that children, when faced with unexpected change or challenge, tend to compensate rather than integrate. It's an instinct that enables them to quickly adjust. Once an adult, however, this survival skill can work in reverse, masking what really happened to them and the impact that had. All too often, they grow up without the recognition and understanding necessary to use their experience as a source of life enrichment. The younger the experiencer the more I noticed this. It is not unusual for these people to take anywhere from thirty to forty years to finally integrate their near-death state. And I am amazed at the amount of guilt that surfaces in adulthood from child experiencers who repressed feelings of rejection associated with their episode. Case in point: a seriously injured boy died and, while in an out-of-body state, "walked" through several rooms searching for someone to help him. His father came running. The boy, relieved that his father "answered his call," stretched out both arms expecting to be hugged and comforted. But his father rushed past him, never giving the slightest nod of recognition or concern. The boy was devastated. After reviving, he turned his head away in shame, convinced that he must have somehow committed a grievous crime and was no longer lovable. He carried this guilt into adult life, never making the connection to when or why his feelings of rejection began. Counseling did not help. It wasn't until he learned about near-death experiences that he was able to "connect-the-dots" and realize that of course his father had run past him - as he was invisible at the time. Reclaiming his innocence, he involved himself in the classes needed to redesign his life. One more: a young girl, who died during surgery and then "walked" hand-in-hand with the people of light on the other side of death's curtain, was crushed when the bright ones suddenly left as she was being resuscitated. She blamed herself for their exit, believing that she must have done something wrong to make them go away. For years she tried to locate them. She'd look under beds, in closets, in basement rooms and attics, even in drawers, but to no avail. Finally she gave up and began "acting out" with foul outbursts of temper. Her baffled parents took her from counselor to counselor. Nothing made a difference until she discovered near-death research. I am proud to say that today she is taking classes in "complementary" forms of medicine and plans to become a physician. Both of these child experiencers exhibited all of the typical aftereffects following their near-death episode, but, because of feeling that they were somehow "rejected" during or because of their experience, they were unable to integrate the event. They compensated, instead, delaying what later became a happier outcome. We are so used to tales of how spiritual child experiencers are afterwards, how knowing and mature, that we fail altogether in taking that next step - seeing what happened to them and the impact that had from their point of view. The same is true with the new Millennial kids. We're so busy looking at these children, evaluating them, that we miss what we could see if we looked with them.
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