ADVICE FOR PARENTS OF CHILD EXPERIENCERS

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

IANDS HAS CHANGED

The newly designed, latest issue of 
Vital Signs Magazine has:

• expanded articles on spirituality, research, a never-before-shared experience,

• information on how to see Dr. Raymond Moody in person,

• convenient links to all of the places, people, and things you love,

• plus, a conference insert showcasing IANDS speakers and events.

Helpful information:

• Hover over the text and images to see all of the links to great content you can access through this wonderful, free educational and support resource from IANDS. You can visit the websites associated with each article, learn more about all of the people, and be directed to purchase books and more.

• If you have trouble with the flipbook, a pdf link is included as well for mobile and printing. The links are available on mobile devices and desktops through the pdf as well.
  
  

  And they have an “Extraordinary Shop” featuring shirts/mugs/souvenirs/car magnets/more.  Yup, souvenirs.  Who would have thunk it.  A wow.  

Sign up now for the big IANDS Convention in Chicago, Illinois the last

week of August.  Even Dr. Raymond Moody will be there, as well as

outstanding speakers and guests. 

ADVICE FOR PARENTS OF CHILD EXPERIENCERS

I’ve seen this happen with parents of children who had near-death experiences - again and again.  Children, just like with adults, undergo a brain-shift/spirit shift.  Their parents are almost lost with how to handle this.

Here’s some advice for such parents.

Sleep patterns for the young abruptly alter afterwards.

Less nap time, increased flow states, and restlessness.  Some may fear sleep and suffer nightmares; others seem exhausted on waking, as if they had “toured the universe” or attended some type of school while asleep.  Reliving the near-death episode in the dreamstate is commonplace.  Encourage the child to share this.  Listen.

Love changes for child experiencers.

It is NORMAL for them to lose the parent/child bonding.  That doesn’t mean they cease to be loving and thoughtful, but it does mean they tend to act more distant than before.  The child switches gears and begins to mature faster; become independent.  Interests change.

After their experience, most kids have a marked decrease in their ability to express themselves and socialize,

Since language is the most critical skill anyone has, stimulate the child’s speech with your own.  Promote dialogue with question/answer games, group storytelling, reading outloud, speaking on “pretend” microphones.   Encourage the child to participate in community projects as a volunteer.

Writing and drawing are just as important as dialogue.

Ask the child to make a special book about his or her near-death experience.  Have lots of paper handy for pages that cover:  newspaper account of death event (if any), drawings of each aspect of near-death episode, description of what occurred, information about dreams afterward, sketches of any “beings” that continue to appear, poems, ideas, thoughts, and extra pages to record more things later on.  Choose a title:  bind book with ribbon.  A project such as this validates the experience. . . as well as the child’s feelings.  The parent(s) should keep a journal of the whole affair, too.  This helps to restimulate parent/child bonding, and can serve as an invaluable resource once the child matures.  Consider giving the journal to the child when he or she becomes an adult.

With reborns and infants, if there is any chance their life could have been at risk or if there was birth trauma, do this as soon as possible:  outline the baby’s body with gentle hand or finger strokes.  

Repeat several times each day until they can turn over and are more active.  Practice baby massage, gently exercising their limbs and pelvis, along with gentle back and shoulder rubs.  This will help to bring them back from “the otherworlds” in a healthy and positive way should they have had a near-death experience.  If they did not, well, it’s good exercise for any parent to use with “new arrivals” as it promotes trust and self-confidence.

Child experiencers of any age tend to withdraw: can even reject hugs and cuddles.  

Recenter them in their bodies through touch using techniques such as:  pat their shoulder when you pass by, touch their hand if you speak to them, nudge a knee from time to time, rub their back.  Smile.  Teach them to pat and nudge you like you do with them.  Pets are wonderful for touch therapy, as are plants and gardens, making things with clay, perhaps cloth and paper sculpture.  Make cookies that the child can help prepare, then turn him or her loose shaping the cookies by hand into imaginative designs.  Do food sculptures (inspirations in books like Play with Your Food by Joost Elffers).

Speaking of food, watch sugar levels.

Child experiencers are more sensitive than the average child to chemicals and excessive sweets, especially refined sugars and “replacement” sweetners/products.  Practice good nutrition; use veggies and maybe one piece of fruit or cheese-and-crackers for snacks.  Full-spectrum lights are preferred to fluorescent; avoid over-exposure to electrical items (especially electric blankets), with computers and television, limit use, make certain plenty of water and fresh air are available; cottons usually work best for clothes and bedding.  At meals, have a burning candle for a centerpiece, and say the type of Grace where each person in turn can offer his or her own prayer.  Flowers put children at ease.  Let them pick and arrange the flowers, if possible.  Be careful of too much exposure to bright sun (mid-afternoon), and music turned too high (loud volume is often painful to them).  Recheck former medication as it may now be too potent.

Visualization techniques are a must for the child to learn, as well as some kind of focusing exercise.

Wherever anyone has once been in mind can be returned to and re-experienced.  A child experiencer does not have to attempt suicide to go back (nor does a teenager or adult).  This can be done at will through desire and intention and the “magic” of visualization.

Child experiencers, even in the early years of grade school, are perfect candidates for the study of philosophy, of morals and integrity, especially if using the “Socrates” method - where asking questions inspires deep probing responses and critical thinking.

They can easily engage other students and promote class discussions.  Talk to the teacher and/or school administrator to see if such study can be done as a part of class enrichment.

 

Experience from “STORYWORTH 2: UFO or NDE?”

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

* I’m a “broken record” on this - but - the big 2025 IANDS Conference is in Chicago this year, August 27 to 31, held at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Center in Oak Brook, Illinois. Contact IANDS for more information. Yes, I’m going. So is my husband Terry. No speaking spot. Still happy to sign any of my previous books for you at the Conference Book Store. 

* You’ll love this “funny fact.” My new editor at Inner-Traditions/Bear & Co. contacted me last week, said she would work on my book in June and July, bring it out in May 2026. My book is ALIENS AND THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE. My new editor is a near-death experiencer who has had alien experiences. Yup.

____________________________________________________________

Experience from “STORYWORTH 2:  UFO or NDE?”

“For almost thirty years, I believed that I had been graciously been given a complimentary ride on a UFO!  In all that time, I told only my sister Karen about the incident.  Twice.  She had forgotten that I told her about it, so obviously, she didn’t believe it was real.  There was no one else that I would think about telling after that response.  Just as well.  It was probably only a lucid dream!

“Jason, my youngest son, has long been my confidant, the person to whom I can tell almost anything and know that I will be heard, and who expects that whatever I tell him is credible.  Finally, after many years, the urge to tell the story of my lucid dream or my UFO ride, whatever it was, became the subject in one of our many conversations.  I told it exactly as I remembered it.

“He and I were living in an apartment in the Cardiff area of northern Ontario, some 80 or so miles north of Peterborough.  I was attending a college course in Haliburton, a Social Service Workers Diploma Course.  I had no ambition to become a Social Service Worker, but had worked as secretary at the Women’s Resource Centre, and was anxious to have an income for two more years, as the course was paid for by Unemployment Insurance.  I graduated with Honours from the Course, and was properly ready to apply for a job at any welfare office in Ontario.

“The newspaper in Bancroft had published a few stories recounting UFO landings in the area, and I was intrigued by these tales.  Were they true?  Could I possibly see one if they were landing so close to my home at the time?  I had read all the literature that was available on the subject, and although I thought it would be a terrifying experience, I still wanted it to happen to me.  I really wanted to know if UFOs were real!  

“One night, I was sleeping peacefully in my bed in the bedroom next to Jason’s room, when I woke to find myself on a very modern-seeming ride.  I was standing on a metallic floor that was round, and just big enough to hold the three passengers that were aboard, and I was holding on to a pole like on a city bus or a subway car.  On each side of me was a woman who I perceived as a woman from Ancient Rome, in a long satiny gown, and with the longish hair in a stylish-do on the top of her head, standing in a place beside me where she could immediately steady me if I started to lean either way to the left or right side of the central pole.  We were speeding upwards, as they reassured me that I was safe and definitely not going to fall off the ride.   I remained calm at their reassurances, and although there seemed to be no spoken communication, I believed they were taking me onto a spacecraft.  In a very short time, they were guiding me into a black leather seat, like a dentist chair that had a safety arm that they locked.  Then they placed in front of me a huge book, open at a page in the centre of the book.  I immediately knew this was the Akashic Records I was seeing.  In fact, I knew it was my Akashic Record Page.  I was allowed to look at the page, but I was not allowed to see what was written there.  What I could see was the writing was completely uniform, with no punctuation, no capital letters, no unusual spaces between words.  I didn’t seem confused or unusually interested in what was written, but the structure of the sentences ran on so smoothly but that didn’t tell me much about about why I was there or what was the purpose, or how this related to the UFO literature.

“The next thing I knew, we were back on the pole-ride,  going back down.  I was about to go back into my body, and wake up, and I did exactly that!  There was a huge metallic kind of click, and I was back.  Immediately after the click, I felt a sensation of fear, and then said to myself, ‘No, I don’t want to be afraid, or I might not be allowed to do this again”!

“That was the story as I told it to Jason.

“As we critiqued the story, it was clear that the story did not make any sense as a UFO experience.  Was it real?  Was it a dream?  What was it all about?  If it was a  UFO experience, what was the purpose of showing me the Akashic Records?  Why show me the Records and not allow me to read them?  This adventure that had meant so much to me made absolutely no sense!  If it wasn’t a UFO experience, what was going on?  I felt that I had definitely had an out-of-body experience, and the click when I went back into my body was definitely part of the out-of-body-literature.

“Jason said ‘It sounds more like a near-death experience.”

“But I wasn’t sick or dying, how could I have a near-death experience?”

“That can happen with sleep apnea,” Jason replied.

Jason has sleep apnea and has been diagnosed with it.  I have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, but no studying has been done to determine what kind of sleep disorder it is.  Maybe it is sleep apnea.

“I do not intend to do a sleep study.  I will leave it all a mystery.

“I do believe there is a lot missing from the story.  Where did I hook up with the ride up to the Akashic Records?  Where was the communication where the co-riders told me it wasn’t my time and I had to go back?  Clearly, they sent me back, but I don’t remember any spoken words, or meeting the ride, or being taken back to it.

“I wasn’t allowed to read the Records, but maybe the fact that the page was full was the message that I hadn’t finished what I was supposed to do?

“Or maybe it was all just a Lucid Dream.”

 

……………………..

Or maybe I might add, you had a “near-death-like experience.”  Research has long shown that one does not have to be near-death to have a near-death-like experience.  I would encourage her and everyone else to read THE BIG BOOK OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES.  Yes, I wrote it, but gave the book to International Association of Near-Death Studies, so all royalties would go to them, not me.  Knowing the full story research shows helps all of us.  THE BIG BOOK should be in every hospital or doctor’s office, libraries across the world.  Knowing the full story of near-death experiences could help us all.  ~PMH