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 In this new section of the newsletter, Dr.
P.M.H. Atwater will answer questions submitted to her from subscribers to this free newsletter. If you have a question that you would like her to answer, just email your question to http://www.near-death.com/contact.html for consideration.
Dr. P.M.H. Atwater's next book, entitled
The New Children and
Near-Death Experiences, will be released on December of 2003.
You can order your copy now through Amazon.
Dr. Ken Ring had this to say about her book: "This book is the richest, most probing, and most comprehensive available of NDEs in children."
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 QUESTION:
Why is it that so many near-death experiencers are
drawn to divination afterwards? I noticed this again and again and have
puzzled about it. Doesn't seem to matter what form of divination - any
type. --
Tom |
 P.M.H.
Atwater's answer:
One of the after-effects of near-death states (and of transformations of consciousness) is an enhancement of intuitive/psychic
skills. And you're not the only one this has puzzled. All of the early
researchers in the field had trouble understanding this; so did Richard
Maurice Bucke, M.D. in his marvelous book about the after-effects of
consciousness transformations called Cosmic Consciousness (Citadel Press, New York City, continuous printings -- a
classic). Still today, few professionals are comfortable discussing any of this.
During my early years of near-death research, I was heavily
criticized, even threatened, for daring to state that: "If you weren't
psychic before your experience, you became psychic after. If you were psychic before, you became very psychic afterward." I was most open about this because I felt I had to be. If I couched my words, "beat around the bush," or ignored the subject, in my mind I would be lying. My job, as I saw it, was to report as objectively and clearly as possible all my observations and findings in the fieldwork that I had conducted. Anything else or less was unacceptable
to me. Fortunately enough research eventually surfaced that, what was once considered risque, became almost
expected.
You cannot talk about near-death experiences without talking about
issues polite society would like to avoid. It isn't possible. And, one of
those taboos is psychism: expansive abilities, unlimited landscapes,
otherworldly occurrences, things future oriented, and, dare I say it ...
the paranormal ... and, all of this, absolutely all of this, becomes
perfectly normal!
Forget paranormal. Think normal.
We human beings are electromagnetic by nature and natural
transmitter/receivers of signals, subtle and otherwise. It is no wonder we are dubbed psychic when we become increasingly sensitive and open to faster, higher frequencies after a near-death or related experience. The episode we went through does this to us - it lessens or dissolves the barrier that separates us from the existence of multiple realities. Fuller access to the electromagnetic spectrum opens up and we become privy to what was once invisible or unimaginable.
The higher the frequency we are exposed to, the more pure its source
of light and sound. Traditionally, this is said to be more positive and
heaven-like. The lower the frequency, the more diffused and dense its
light source and the more distorted its signals. This is said to be more
negative and hell-like. There is nothing mysterious about the world of psychism unless in our fear and ignorance we claim it to be something it is not.
 Based on my own past experiences and on my research, I have found
there are physical and mental components to psychic skill. Physically, I
believe the endocrine system is most directly involved along with spinal
fluid, brainstem and limbic, temporal lobes, blood pressure, nerve and skin
sensitivity. Mentally, the subconscious mind. In its regular duties, the
subconscious processes over a billion pieces of information per second,
far surpassing what any computer can do. When expanded further during
an altered state, the subconscious is capable of accessing greater and
greater sources. During transformative experiences, where the brain
evidences the possibility of structural change and access to the supersubconscious, limitless expansions can occur.
Look around you.
Notice how many psychics develop health problems that are
endocrine-related such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, thyroidism, immune
deficiencies, adrenal problems. Notice how many psychics ingest stimulants and/or drugs to
increase their abilities. Wine, salt, sugar, spices, vinegar, as well as cigarettes and alcohol, are known to
artificially expand the psychic if used in excess. Now, notice how quickly many
psychics age or begin to look somehow drained. Notice also how early
in life many of them die, or become mentally unstable.
The more sensitive the psychic the more sensitive and vulnerable the
psychic's body.
Developing such abilities out of context from a balanced and healthy
life is not wise. Perhaps the reason there are so many warnings against psychism is because the price for misuse and abuse is so high.
Psychism is easily perverted - but it is just as easily converted into helpful, constructive abilities which enliven and enrich life.
Psychic
abilities are not by nature positive or negative, destructive or constructive,
spiritual or demonic. They simply are. How used and for what purpose
determines worth.
 I once heard Reverend Carol Parrish-Harra say: "The psychic is God's Fishhook. It is how many of us get introduced to spirituality. The trick is -
don't get stuck on the Fishhook. It's just a bait to get you started on the
spiritual path." Carol is a fellow near-death survivor (check that section
in The Marketplace on my website for Santa Sophia Seminary - Carol
was its founder). I agree with her wholeheartedly.
From the pen of the late Paul Brunton, noted journalist, editor,
philosopher, and writer, comes the following statement:
"Scientific, psychical and psychological research is changing the Western
world's attitude towards matters which were once dismissed as fanciful
nonsense. Such research is lifting the ideas of the ancients out of the
undeserved contempt in which they have lain while younger notions sprang
to lusty manhood ... Our best scientists and foremost thinkers are joining
the ranks of those who believe there is a psychic basis to life. What they
think today, the masses will think tomorrow. We have begun - and perhaps
rightly - as complete skeptics; we shall end as complete believers: such
is my positive prediction."
Psychic ability, if truth be known, is merely an extension of faculties native
to our existence, providing us with a healthy extra. Direct that extension
toward the spiritual and those same abilities become Gifts of the
Spirit, treasured components to spiritual discipleship. By the way, the word
psychic literally translates of the soul, the inference being that
psychic abilities are really soul abilities, part of our inheritance as Children of God.
There is nothing wrong with intuitive/psychic skills. They are neither supernatural, abnormal, or paranormal. But neither are they a key to any
kind of Golden Door. There is no magic in their use, only skill.
As concerns your specific question, divination itself is a universal
experience as ancient as it is timely. Most board games, card games,
gambling systems, and dice games rely on acts of divination, as do feng shui
(geomancy), dowsing, pendulums, tarot, I Ching, and Ouija, to name but a
few. Anything that depends upon elements of chance is a type of divination.
Any object can be used as a tool in the divinatory process. A stone that is
fairly two-sided will do. Just dub one side yes and the other side
no and toss it. The side that lands straight up is your answer, like when you
flip a coin.
Practice makes perfect; the more you do it, the more skilled you will become. This practice, by the way, is called sacred play. Our inner
child, that innocent and trusting part of our nature that most of us have
tucked away inside our deepest self, easily surfaces when we make a game of learning, when we play. Actually, any type of divination is really
no more than a simple, direct, and childlike way of asking for help or
seeking assistance from a parent-like source of universal or higher knowledge.
Why then would near-death experiencers, especially child
experiencers, be drawn to divination and divinatory systems more so than any other route
to the world of psychism? Simple. It's fast and easy, perfectly natural, and
fun! Yes, there are divinatory systems that are complex and highly detailed,
requiring a lifetime of study. Yet even these are easier for experiencers. I
consider interest in divination to be a typical response to that urge within
you to connect, or should I say, reconnect with the Truth of Your Being.
You flow into it and, suddenly, you just know.
 In my own case, along with all the other enhancements I had, I found
myself drawn to Goddess Runes and the art of free-form casting. These are
not oracle runes (like the Germanic "Futhark"), but are much older, tracing
their lineage back to the matriarchal societies of Old Europe (Crimea,
Ukraine, Georgia, along the Danube). Never had I heard of them, nor had I
seen them before, yet on first glance I knew them as if I had been their
creator. Past life? Maybe.
What I know for certain is that they're a part of me, in me, as genetic memory.
Still, what amazes me is that most people respond in the same fashion once
introduced to them. It's as if these ancient Goddess Runes are encoded in our
primordial essence as human beings on the Earth plane, male or female. People
catch on to their use quickly, whether or not they are an experiencer. Using
them for me was like therapy after my episodes. That's because my brain/mind assembly worked differently than before. My challenge was to find a way to
relearn how to use my own brain. "The Way of a Cast" (the art
form of casting with Goddess Runes) requires that one become whole brained, not just adept
at using the right hemisphere of the brain, but balancing both right and left brain
hemispheres together. This was a godsend for me, and I wrote a book about it
to pass along the skill and what I had learned from using the runic glyphs.
I first wrote The Magical Language of Runes. Then I did more research and
wrote, Goddess Runes. Both books have been out-of-print for years. I am
happy to announce that the book, Goddess Runes, will be coming back into
print in a few more months, thanks to A. Merklinger Publishing in New Mexico.
You may want to explore my website, that section on Goddess Runes, as the
brief instruction booklet and audio presentation are available now, and so too
several services I can provide in that regard.
Yup! I'm a typical near-death experiencer. And the divinatory option I chose,
or, I should say, the one that chose me, was Goddess Runes. It's interesting
how things work after you've experienced the near-death phenomenon or
undergone a transformative state, you tend to respond to life in a happier, freer
way, that embraces otherworldly realities as typical aspects to everyday
living ... and as expressions of the spirit we truly are.
Many blessings,
P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D.
www.cinemind.com/atwater
& www.pmhatwater.com |
