Hell-Like Near-Death Experience

QUESTION

    “Atwater said that God/Light is never angry and thousands of NDE’s prove that, but that guides and greeters can be more negative and strict.  She explained in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m7yQaWnIxs.  Well, that is similar to my own experience.  I was filled with such hate and anger in my heart that I came across a spirit, guide, greeter who got angry with me and cursed me.  It was not a fun experience, and my heart has felt hurt, empty, and in constant pain.  I can’t love anymore.  I can’t feel emotions anymore that would make me human.  And I’m afraid for my soul.  Not mad at God/Light since this isn’t him, it’s one of the guides, greeters who cursed me saying I would receive nothing including no abundance or love.”...James

ANSWER

    Sounds like you had an unpleasant, frightening, or hell-like experience.  One out of seven in my research base of adult near-death experiencers had something like this.  In my research I found a connection between how some individuals had lived their life, what they felt about their life, or in some way what they feared or dreaded and what they experienced in their near-death episode.  Notice I said “some.”  This was not true of everyone, but many.  Nancy bush, in her research of frightening or hellish cases, and she had one herself, found a way to understand this that is quite extraordinary.  Her book, Dancing Past the Dark:  Distressing Near-Death Experiences, is well worth getting.  Read it.  I believe she has written another one and has a running correspondence, perhaps in a chat room, that would be most healing for you.

    Hundreds of thousands of cases have been studied now, and going into the millions.  My own research base is nearly 5,000 adults and children.  So I can say this to you with full strength as a researcher, and with enormous strength as an experiencer (I died three times in three months in 1977 and each time had an NDE), there is no such thing as a lost soul.  No matter what you think or feel, no matter what you experienced in your near-death state, it’s all about healing and learning and broadening your concept of yourself and what you think life is.  I’ve noticed that all NDEs on some level, no matter what, are learning experiences.  We, the experiencer, have an opportunity, if we choose to take it, to start all over again with who we think we are, our life as we have lived it, and what we think life is. . . to choose again.

    You are not damned.  You are not shunned.  You are not cursed.

    No matter what beings on the “other side” said to you, you have an opportunity to take those words, look at them, think about what they mean and who said them, then use that information to look again.  Is there something about the way you speak and what you say that could be worked on, changed, done differently?  Is there something about you, yourself, that you would like to turn around, alter, or do differently?

    No matter how beautiful or threatening a near-death experience is - it is still a “learning experience,” an opportunity for you to learn more about yourself and this incredible world we live in - including in the heaven worlds beyond earth.  Confronting the “dark side” of our nature is deeply healing.  That’s what those beings were trying to get you to do, I bet.  No one knows for certain, yet I still feel there’s something about all those curses and foul language and stages of darkness and feeling lost, that are offering you an opportunity to stand up for yourself and find out who you really are.  Really, take heart.  Read what Nancy Bush wronte, maybe e-mail her, certainly consider what she has to say, and I know you will find not only healing but a different way to consider all those unkind and awful voices.  Stages of darkness are important for all of us.  That’s how we grow.  That’s how we learn.

    Do not despair.  You are special.  Soon enough, you will find a way to reconsider what happened to you, and in a new light.  

Blessings, PMH

There’s no such thing as “the way it always is.”

 QUESTION

“Why do criminals experience beautiful near-death experiences?  Their souls should have a low vibration.  Why do they not experience hell?  This is unfair that good people have hellish experiences.  The theory with the soul vibration cannot be right?  This injustice makes me very afraid.  Please help me to understand.”......Kristin

ANSWER

Don’t fret about this.  Consistently, I find that people are looking for “the way it always is.”  There’s no such thing.  People’s story will vary - according to their sense of culture and their ability to describe what’s going on.  For instance, in Viet Nam, invariably children have scary or stern NDEs, and are judged by animals in a court-like setting.  They can also tell stories about being met by Yama Toots - beings who work for Lord Yama, the head of the Underworld.  Yama Toots can be very scary and threatening, but they can also be friendly.  

There are just as many violent souls who experience a hellish scenario as those who do not.  Remember, the near-death experience opens wide a broader reality than what we experience on earth in our daily living.  It often opens up the life of the soul, above and beyond what we know or see as the human being in front of us.  The truth of their life now, what caused what, what was the real reason behind whatever happened, reasons beyond our knowing - all of this - everything about a person on the soul level can be opened.  No, that doesn’t happen to everyone.  But it does happen to the majority.  Revealed is what that person really went through in life, the choices made or not made, whatever pain or joy resulted, what was and is the real truth behind what seems to be important.

Yes, sometimes near-death scenarios can seem unfair and unjust.  But when you find out the whole story, before and after, opinions change.  Don’t be too quick to judge until you know the whole story, the whole person.  Those that really deserve a hellish environment get it, and they stay there until they “wake up.”  But even those who seem to be saints, or at least very loving people, can wind up in hellish environments.  I found this to be true again and again in my work.  Don’t be too quick to pass judgment until you know more.  People are not always as they seem.

There is always something “more” or “greater.”  Let the higher orders pass judgment as needed.  We are enjoined to forgive, or at least affirm what is truly right for everyone’s highest good be what happens.  What we think is true, may not be.  The more we find out about different people’s near-death experiences, the more we come to realize that a Force greater than we can imagine does indeed exist.  

Blessings, PMH

The Dynamic of Heaven and Hell, and Study Groups

QUESTION

"Dr. Atwater, what happens to people who commit the ultimate crimes? Is there eternal damnation in the afterlife?. . . Dominic"

ANSWER

No one can say for certain how all of this works on the other side. I know from my research that the majority of those who had hellish or uncomfortable cases were those people who seemed to be sterling figures in their communities, or, at least not the kind of people one would think had a "dark past." Conversely, many of the criminal types, even hard core, that I had sessions with experienced rather beautiful scenarios. . . most often, though, with a really tough life review. Truly, life reviews can be far more horrific or difficult to handle than a hellish episode. When you experience what the other person went through, live through their pain and what happened to their families because of what you did, hey, that's hell.

I can offer you this. Of the thousands of cases I have covered/experiencers I've had sessions with, the dynamic of heaven and hell seems more like a "layer-cake" of levels on the other side, separated by degrees of vibratory frequency. Resonance is the factor. By that I mean, after death you move or are attracted to that level that matches your own rate of vibratory energy. Like attracts like. Still, there seems to be no top or bottom to the system. Rather, it appears as if open-ended. As such, choice and change reign. In other words, you cannot stay in hell forever any more than you than you can play harps on a cloud in heaven forever. As an open-ended system, an active dynamic based on choice and change, this system seems incredibly beautiful to me and is far more fair than anything anyone could possibly imagine. God/Allah/Deity seems far bigger than our little minds and far more dynamic in providing opportunities for us that move in accordance with our highest good and the highest good of all concerned. Not our will. The Greater Will. Blessings, PMH

QUESTION

"I just love your book. All that you talk about in this book applies to me, as I believe I have experienced more than one NDE. It is so accurate and yet not understood by doctors. I recently had some very vivid dreams associated with a 'burn-out' condition. Psychiatrists locked me up for 35 days in a psych. ward, when I knew I was sane. If only these doctors had read your book. I am an author and wish to refer to one character (based on my experiences) in my latest book referring to certain behaviours/insights written in your book - to refute suggestions that I am schizophrenic. I have been told that I will have to take antipsychotic medicine for life, which I dispute, but cannot argue validly about. My friends believe the doctors and tell me that I have to accept the doctor's views that I am seriously mentally unwell. This is utter bunkum and leads me to row with my friends who are well-meaning. Your book is, therefore, sensational in justifying my wild imaginations, etc. and supports my view that the previous psychotic episodes were in fact premonitions/prophecies about not only the future of the world on Earth, but also about likely changes in the Universe itself.

"I also believe that God (universal intelligence) has a good and a dark side as you suggest in your dedication. . . Thomas"

ANSWER

What would really help you here is to get involved with study groups of the type of phenomena you seem to be experiencing. Go to my website at www.pmhatwater.com, and into the Marketplace. You want to look up the A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) and the Monroe Institute. Both are wondrously sane and practical, yet offer lively programs for exploring spiritually and dimensions beyond our own. The A.R.E. sponsors Study Groups internationally. Inquire. If you can, you might plan a trip to the A.R.E. They are located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and offer conferences, health-care facilities, and a host of classes and varied opportunities to explore not only your own life but what may be a universal reality that is beneficial to know about and interact with. The Monroe Institute is especially geared for this, for helping you have a direct experience beyond the norm that may be helpful to you. They have well-trained teachers and directors to assist in whatever you would like to explore.

If you could get into Study Group work in your own area, this would enable you to spend more time with people who have had similar experiences to your own. Hearing the experiences of others, learning about ways to handle the extraordinary, may be exactly what you need to better understand yourself and live in a productive and healthy way. You can even learn to "split dimensions" as I do daily. I keep myself grounded, balance my checkbook, meet my deadlines, hug my husband, cook our meals, and have a great deal of fun doing all of this. I also take part in helping to educate our medical community. You could do all of this and more. And, by exposing yourself to peer-reviewed published papers that underscore the "differences" healthy people can exhibit, especially those who have had a near-death experience or a spiritual breakthrough, you can not only help yourself but you can have a direct effect in the education and upliftment of the medical and psychiatric community. Many blessings, PMH