Believing and Connecting with your Higher Self

QUESTION 

“I hope you’re well and are having a happy holiday season. Your experiences are fascinating to me, especially the cyclones and all your lives playing out simultaneously [refer to my book I Died Three Times in 1977 - The Complete Story, available on Amazon.com].

“I believe you and also empathize with your experiences just enough for me to have faith that death is not the end. Reading experiences like yours makes me cry with relief, but often feel a deep unfulfilled yearning to be home, too. I miss my mom. She died a couple years ago and I began searching for an explanation for why we’re here. I had always been a seeker, but, after losing her, I sought more seriously. I learned that we’re here to grow spiritually and that we needed to incarnate to learn certain lessons. I’ve also come to understand that we choose our lives beforehand or else we agree to them with encouragement that everything will be okay in the end. 

But, I’m really stuck even though I know all that. I feel blocked from giving and receiving love. What I really need is to be able to connect with my higher self. How? Even though I believe all these things now, I haven’t connected with my higher self.”.....Allen

ANSWER 

You write about what I went through, and the experience of others you have read about. Because you are familiar with my NDE, then you know that The Voice Like None Other, who spoke to me during my third NDE told me to become a researcher. This I did, and, in many ways, still am.

My research base is over 4,000 adult and child experiencers of near-death states. Having said that, I urge you to read my book Dying to Know You: Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience. I urge you to read it because it is “the people’s book.” That’s what I call it because all those voices from all I’ve heard, from my own work and that of others. . . their voice, their words, their truth, their knowing. . . is condensed into that one little book. You want to know about higher self, your soul, our comings and goings, life and death, God, mission, heaven and hell, and so much more, my dear, read that book. It’s the people’s book. Get it and hear what all those people, adults and children, had to say. It will amaze you, uplift you, and expand your mind and your heart.

The how-to book is just out. Yup, I wrote a manual. Not an ordinary manual. During my third near-death experience, when that Voice spoke to me, it told me to write three special books. The firsts one perhaps was Coming Back to Life, although I was never told for certain. The second and third were named. The second was Future Memory. It contains the what and why of life, existence. The third and last is A Manual for Developing Humans. It contains the how of life.

With the Manual, my mission, what I was told to do, is over. Well, that part is over, but not what I want to do with my remaining years. Actually, there are four more books I want to write. The first of the four I am currently engaged in doing - it concerns research on those who had a near-death experience between womb and the age of five. I’ve noticed that this group is decidedly different from other NDErs. I intend to find out why.

On your own quest, you might consider attending a metaphysical church, like Unity or any of the Centers for Spiritual Living; or even subscribing to the small digest-sized magazine, Science of Mind. What you will learn by doing so, experience yourself, will be wonderful and will help you to learn more about yourself and expand the potential of who you are. Please consider this.

Thanks for your inquiry. Blessings, PMH

"Heaven for Real," "The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven," and meeting God or Goddess?

QUESTION

The movie “Heaven is for Real” is so wonderful yet I hear the Christian community is against it.  Why?”. . . Anonymous

ANSWER

The answer is complicated.  And it involves two boys who had near-death experiences, a book about what happened written by their respective fathers.

Todd Burpo, a Methodist Minister, wrote the book Heaven is for Real about his son’s near-death experience that occurred when his son almost died during surgery.  Colton Burpo was four, and during the days and weeks that followed, he began to talk about angels and Jesus and his grandfather “Pops” (a grandfather long since deceased), and his mother’s previous miscarriage (he met that “older sister” while he was in heaven).  Since there was no way he could have known what the long deceased grandfather could have looked like, much less having heard the affectionate nickname of “Pops;” nor could he have ever known about his mother’s miscarriage, these were taken to be verifiable proof that little Colton indeed had a near-death experience.  He also saw the doctors working on him “from above” during surgery and described where his parents were and what they were doing while they waited to hear news about him (both were in different places doing different things). Again, Colton was right on - every detail.  The major motion picture made from the book Rev. Burpo wrote leaned heavily on what the child actually saw and did, not the father’s version of it.  For that reason, I can stand behind the film as being genuine - except that in this case - the family and parishioners in his father’s church eventually came to embrace and believe Colton.  In most families, the opposite occurs, leaving the child to deal with not only the event but the aftereffects alone, unaided, and often not believed.  Both the book and the movie were best sellers.

The other boy was Alex Malarkey; his dad Kevin Malarkey wrote The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven.  Alex lay in a coma after a car accident (when he was six years old).  The coma lasted two months, his injuries leaving him with lifelong paralysis.  The book brought in millions of dollars, all the while Alex and his mother rejected what the father had written.  The mother kept saying that what her son had described “was not biblical”- therefore it could not be real.  This dissention continued for several years.

This spring, Alex publicly announced he made the whole thing up.  An investigator was called in and found irregularities with the book’s contract, giving all the money to the boy’s father, none to Alex, and that the book’s publisher, Tyndale House, knew almost two years ago that there may be a problem with the story itself yet they refused to pull it off store shelves because, according to the investigator, “it was making so much money.”   Alex’s parents are now divorced.  There is reason to wonder about all of this, in the sense that maybe, because Alex was told his experience wasn’t real because it wasn’t biblical, he later decided it must have always been just his imagination.  This ending is far more typical of what happens with child experiencers, than the Burpo case.

Now, today, Christian publishers have decided that “heaven tourism” will no longer be published.  Those denominations considering themselves Fundamental Christian Churches, have publicly announced that near-death experiences from both  adults and children are not real, and that if anyone wants to know about heaven they should read their Bible.  Yup, we are witnessing the narrowing of the religious mind!!!

QUESTION

“Hello, I’m curious to know if there ever have been NDE accounts with Wiccans.

Do they encounter a Goddess, or other Pagan deities?  And what about NDE’s for Satanists?  Are there any?  I understand that Satanists are more colorful atheists, but I imagine all the demonic themes they surround themselves with would have some influence on their NDE’s.”....Shawn

ANSWER

I find it very interesting that your question occurred at this time with the narrowing of the religious mind.  If you’ve been reading the news or watching television, that return to a more fundamental viewpoint is not just with Christians.  You find it worldwide, in and through religion itself.  

Back to your question.  Within nature-based religions - pagan, Wicca, Native American, Aborigine, etc. - all encounter the same basic components identified with near-death scenarios and deal with the same pattern of physiological and psychological aftereffects.  Any idea that a Christian always meets Jesus, a Muslim Father Abraham, or a Wiccan the Great Goddess does not hold up with broad-based research, either in this country or abroad.  Where you tend to find “matches” with previous beliefs is via language constraints, how an individual chooses to describe what happened and what that might mean.  Cultural constraints also occur.  For instance, in those countries that are “we” centered (tribal/collective/nature-based), you seldom find life reviews.  Life reviews are more common in those cultures that recognize and encourage “I,” the individual.

Of the nearly 4,000 child and adult experiencers I have had sessions with or talked at length with, not one, regardless of age, was ever met by a Goddess figure.  Please read Dying to Know You:  Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience for more details about this.  Please note the God one finds in death is not necessarily the God of Holy Writ - rather larger, bigger, more powerful than that, a God without gender, a power of unspeakable voltage, range, and strength.  Yes, there are demonic-types of hellish experiences, yet these too do not match what you might think.  I discuss these also in the book.

As a brief note, there was an elderly Catholic priest who recently made the news, claiming that when he nearly died he was greeted by “Mother God.”  He now believes God is female, not male.  I do not know the details of his life or his beliefs.  I only know he is deeply touched by the caring and love he received from this God-figure.  

Many blessings, PMH

NDE'r: "Please help me get my life back"

QUESTION:

"I have come to you seeking help. Up until a few days ago, I was a profound believer in NDEs. Even though I have never experienced one myself, I followed it's well-known paradigim. I based my entire life on it, and I certainly do not regret it. It gave me the strength I needed to achieve so much of my dreams, and helped me enjoy life to the fullest. But a couple of days ago, I was sitting down on the balcony observing the beautiful sky, when a thought crossed my mind. 'Can this be true? Is life really that beautiful? Or is it all just wishful thinking?' Ever since then I do not know what happened to me. I simply stopped believing in NDEs. Everytime I look back at it, it seems like it's too good to be true. Everytime I try to believe again, a voice inside my head keeps telling me 'don't delude yourself...something so good cannot be true.'

"I do not know what to believe anymore. There are so many things people are claiming to be true which are not. And the other way around as well. I do not know what I should believe anymore. I look at all those people not believing in NDEs, and I ask myself 'why?' If it is true, why don't people believe in it?

Also, I was reading your Q&A blog, and the latest question kind of upset me. The thing about the Tom Sawyer guy. In some NDEs I read that it is not our choice whether to stay there or not. Yet in some, people are asked if they want to or not. Now, in most of these, they say they want to stay, but they are asked to think it over, until they choose to come back. And that isn't different from it not being our choice, just a gentler way to tell us it's not our time, I guess. I couldn't find the NDE of Tom Sawyer so I thought I should ask you. Did he say he wanted to stay, and the beings agreed for him to stay? And yet still he came back? If that is so, doesn't that imply in a sense that NDEs are just a dream of some sort? Or did he say he wanted to stay and before anything happened, he came back? Or was he told that he will go back anyways?

"Sorry if I sounded too skeptical, Dr. Atwater. Personally I am amazed by NDEs, and maybe with your help I can believe in them again. I feel like I'm running out of strength without the belief of NDEs in my life. I look at my life right now, and I feel as if I'm looking with the eyes of a stranger. My friends, my beliefs and my dreams...Please help me get my life back."
... Robert


ANSWER:

Near-death experiences are nothing to "believe in." They are fact. They happen, and to millions and millions of people worldwide and of every age. They are not always pleasant. Some are nightmarish and haunt people; some are enlightening and uplift people; some challenge people and inspire them to look beyond what they think life is. Since we humans see barely 10% of the electromagnetic spectrum, it is of no reach to claim that experiences like this enable one to access more of what is already present in the world around us and has always been present. It's just that we didn't have the ability to look beyond the view before we were jerked around or challenged by this type of incredible phenomenon.

Please know the near-death experience, really, is just one of many types of transformative experiences that engender either the same or similar aftereffects. Those aftereffects move us closer to spirituality, to a walk with God or Deity, if you will. It is the aftereffects which validate the near-death experience or any type of impactual spiritual experience, not the other way around.

What climbed into your mind recently was your own ego, and your ego planted doubt. That's the ego's job, by the way, to keep you in the limited world of the left-brain hemisphere. Since we have two brain hemispheres, not one, it makes no sense to limit the input we receive. A healthy person is a whole person - whole brained. The world of the ego is important and meaningful. The world of the spirit is also important and meaningful. When you merge them or allow them to blend and work together, well, that's when things get really good - logic and intuition as one. I can't think of anything better - and that's exactly what Albert Einstein said - and look what he did with that combination!!!!!!!!!!! The world has never been the same since.

There are various ways to control one's ego and keep it in check. There are exercises and disciplines which are good for this. I recommend places, people, and books in the back of each book I've written. My favorite for this, though, is the teachings of Ernest Holmes and his book "Science of Mind." Good stuff. You might look into this, if it appeals to you. A good laugh will spin your ego around, since the ego has no sense of humor. Laughter, prayer, meditation, contemplation, poetry, dance, creativity - give your right-brain a chance.

What should you believe in? If you're wise, the God Within.
Many blessings, PMH

(Google Tom Sawyer. There have been several books written about him. He died not long ago, leaving behind not only his family but the effect he had on the thousands of people he helped, taught, and uplifted. The man lived unconditional love!!!!)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

"Beginner's Guide to Conscious Dying: The Path to Soul Healing, Peace of Mind, & Unconditional Love," by Diane Goble, MSCC, CCHt, is now available. Diane is a near-death experiencer. She came back to do this work, to help people die consciously and peacefully, ready for whatever might happen next - after they cross over to the "other side."

What makes this small volume so perfectly precious is Diane's ability to see through the veil and help people in a very personal way, specific to their own needs and wishes. Diane has a relationship to this day with spiritual beings, some she met in death years ago when she herself died and then came back, others around all of us - spiritual helpers of every sort. Those who have passed over sometimes return in spirit to be with her, some you may know aided her in writing this book - like Juliet Nightingale. There is an appendices for the type of practical/legal information you need when a loved one dies, plus a good bibliography.

This book is readily available. Should you have any problems finding it on store shelves or via Amazon.com, you can contact her several ways:

• e-mail, cosmiccreativity@mac.com
• postal, 14774 Bluegrass Loop, Sisters, OR 97759, or
• P. O. Box 3352, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
• on the web at: www.ArtOfConsciousDying.com www.TransitionGuideTraining.org www.BeyondtheVeil.net