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JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES
The book consists of an introduction followed by 17 chapters illus-
trated with many of her subjects' drawings, then the endnotes, a list
of suggested additional readings, a list of Internet resources on NDEs,
information on the International Association for Near-Death Studies,
and the index. In the first eight chapters, she addressed her subjects'
memories of the NDE itself, in the next seven chapters their reports of
aftereffects, then a chapter on historical cases, followed by two chap-
ters of commentary on her overall observations.
Atwater has found that child NDErs are different from adult
NDErs. "Most cannot compare 'before' with 'after' because they don't
have a 'before' at least not in this world," she said. "They emerge as
outliers, called upon to create new ways of living and loving" (p. 4).
She found that NDE aftereffects for children include psychic and in-
tuitive abilities and a pervasive feeling of being "homesick for heaven."
She explained,
I call this book The Forever Angels because it is an in-depth look at
tiny ones who are forever part of where they left. . . . No matter how
long child experiencers live, the vast majority never lose their sense
of HOME, the memory of where they came from, where we all came
from. They still remember. We forget. (p. 203)
Atwater reported that 33 of the childhood NDEs she collected fol-
lowed intrauterine problems and 33 followed problems at birth. An-
other 21 occurred during infancy or in the earlier months of life out-
side the womb, six occurred between 12 and 18 months, six from 24
to 30 months, 12 from 4 to 4.5 years, and 14 at 5 years (p. 13). All of
her interview subjects claimed to recall events in a discarnate realm
before their conception; this is the "home" to which she referred in the
above quotation. A few of her subjects reported past-life memories. She
found that these experiences stayed with her respondents and affected
them into adulthood in a variety of ways, impacting family life, dat-
ing, marriage, education, health, and spirituality. Some respondents
had histories of spontaneous out-of-body experiences or experienced
post-traumatic stress, suggesting a high level of dissociative tenden-
cies possibly stemming from their childhood NDEs. As in Atwater's
earlier sample, over 70% of respondents reported having had suicidal
thoughts, and two had actually attempted suicide.
Each chapter in this book was replete with case material, often in-
cluding quotations she attributed to her subjects. All in all, I found
this book to be a provocative read and one that readers particularly
interested in childhood NDEs are likely to find interesting.
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