P.M.H. Atwater

Atwater's main subject is what happens to people afterward. Coming Back to Life described a pattern of after-effects that she divided into psychological changes, such as altered values and loss of the fear of death, and physiological ones, such as changed sensitivity to light, sound, and medication.^[1]

She gave particular attention to people who had the experience as young children, arguing that they integrate it differently from adults. She also described several types of experience, including brief initial ones and distressing ones, at a time when most writing covered only the pleasant, fully developed kind.

The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences is her summary of the field.^[2]

Atwater works outside academic institutions. Her findings come from interviews and observation, and her samples and methods are not reported in the way peer-reviewed studies require. Academic researchers have confirmed some of her observations about after-effects. Her claims of physiological changes have not been established by controlled research.

Atwater's writing on after-effects belongs to the wider literature that informed the framework. On this wiki, her observations are treated as testimony gathered by an experienced interviewer, and not as controlled findings. She has no connection to The Source of Aletheia and has not reviewed or endorsed Universal Panpsychism.

1. Atwater, P. M. H. (1988). Coming back to life: The after-effects of the near-death experience. Dodd, Mead.
2. Atwater, P. M. H. (2007). The big book of near-death experiences: The ultimate guide to what happens when we die. Hampton Roads.