The Forever Angels

Near-Death Experiences in Childhood and Their Lifelong Impact

By: P. M. H. Atwater LHD

Narrated by: Rosie Akerman

Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

A groundbreaking study of the lifelong effects of near-death experiences in the newly born, babies, toddlers, and children up to age five 

• Draws on interviews with nearly 400 childhood experiencers, both fully matured and young, as well as more than 40 years of NDE research involving over 5,000 people.
• Reveals how those who experience a near-death state at a young age are profoundly affected for the rest of their lives, including developing psychic and intuitive abilities, “wisdom beyond their years”, and a pervasive feeling of being “homesick for heaven”.
• Investigates the wide-awake consciousness of babies being born, womb memories, and the experience of being alive on the other side of death. 

In this major study of near-death experiences with the newly born, babies, toddlers, and children up to age five, NDE expert P. M. H. Atwater reveals how those who experience a near-death state or other worlds at a very young age are profoundly affected for the rest of their lives, including developing psychic and intuitive abilities, higher intelligence and “wisdom beyond their years”, and a pervasive feeling of being “homesick for heaven.”  

Drawing on interviews with nearly 400 childhood experiencers, both fully matured and young, Atwater explores their accounts of what it is like to be alive on the other side of death as well as what makes them different from others, complemented by a deep analysis of statistical evidence from her more than 40 years of NDE research involving more than 5,000 people. She shows how, in contrast to adult experiencers, child and infant experiencers of near-death states cannot compare “before” with “after” as adults do, because they don’t have a “before.” The world of these “forever angels” is the life continuum, a stream of consciousness that has always existed and always will. Integrating “where they once were” with “where they now are” is a lifelong challenge. The author explores how those who have a near-death experience very early in life, or even in utero, grow up “different” - sometimes geniuses, sometimes lost, yet unusually psychic and smart, all at the same time. She reveals how these experiences and their knowledge of the afterlife affect the individual in many areas, including family life, dating, health, education, and spirituality, as well as increasing the experiencer’s potential for thoughts of suicide, out-of-body experiences, and PTSD symptoms.  

Examining the forever angels’ memories of the womb, birth, early childhood, and the other world, Atwater investigates the wide-awake consciousness of babies being born, the vivid recall of mature childhood near-death experiencers, and how memory of the life-continuum never fades, nor does the desire to go back.

©2019 P. M. H. Atwater, LHD. All Rights Reserved. (P)2019 Inner Traditions Audio. All Rights Reserved.

Critic Reviews

“P. M. H. Atwater, in her new study, establishes that the full pattern of NDE aftereffects - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - has a far greater impact on children (and adults) than anyone thought or has found before. She concludes that it takes the average child experiencer at least 20 to 40 years to integrate their NDE, because they usually try to compensate, to adjust, and to ignore. This new book is a very important and valuable contribution to our knowledge and insight about NDE in very young children.” (Pim van Lommel, M.D., NDE researcher and author of Consciousness Beyond Life) 

“In The Forever Angels, P. M. H. Atwater tackles the particular challenges of the very youngest near-death experiencers but from an innovative angle. In this novel approach, Atwater interviewed hundreds of people near the end of life who recalled having had an NDE in their first years of life. This strategy gives us an unprecedented 'long view' of how NDEs influence these children over the entire course of their lives. Unlike adult experiencers, these children did not have the chance to develop 'normal' attitudes and behavior patterns before their NDEs, which makes them a unique group of people, with unique traits and challenges. There is no other book like this, nor is there likely to be one.” (Bruce Greyson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia)

“In her truly groundbreaking book, P. M. H. Atwater has boldly gone where no researcher has dared to go before - into the lives of the newly born who have had NDEs. And what she has found gives us an important new way to view NDEs - for these children, it isn’t what we thought. P. M. H. Atwater is the field’s most creative and tireless researcher! This is a helluva book.” (Kenneth Ring, PhD, author of Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience)

What a joke

I typically enjoy books on this topic, and understand that studying NDEs will always be imperfect from a scientific perspective but as I listened to this book I kept rolling my eyes and thinking come on... for example at one point she describes how NDE survivors tend to be awkward in dating but enjoy sex (just like the rest of us) or how children survivors have an affinity to math and music (which means nothing, since there are a lot of kiddos with the same traits, NDE or not). Disappointing listen overall.

This research belongs in every family on the planet?

Dr. Atwater’s research validates my experience as an identical-twin and Director of “International College of BioEnergetic Medicine”, and founder of the Unified Medicine Institute. I am adding this to our patient education materials. Thank you!

Excellent survey and filled with true stories

This is an excellent survey book (and is also filled with true short stories (primary source testimony)) about/from people who experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE) during their childhood years. This fills a niche in the literature about NDEs, focusing on hundreds a cases of childhood NDErs. It is uplifting and joyful, but also an honest look at the unique struggles, gifts, abilities, and the longing for HOME (Heaven) that NDErs experience. The impact of the NDE on their lives is powerful and the 'ripple effect' ripples outwards for the rest of their time on Earth, our home away from HOME (heaven).

This book is available as a paperback, audiobook, and Kindle.