I am a hypnotherapist of over 38 years. Over time many of my San Diego and Encinitas hypnotherapy and psychotherapy clients have told me of their near-death experiences and others want to know what they are and what they imply in our lives. This series of articles is to help you understand what near-death experiences are and how they can profoundly impact our lives for the better.
P.M.H. Atwater in her book Coming Back To Life: The After-Effects Of The Near-Death Experience reports on a Gallup Poll survey made in 1982 that at that point about eight million Americans reported that they have had a near death experience. The study reported that the experiences came as a result of a close brush with death, almost dying, or even having been pronounced dead. George Gallup, Jr. claimed that the estimate would at that time be closer to twenty-three million. Gallup’s claim indicated that number would be for the United States alone. Atwater estimates in her book, The Big Book Of Near Death Experiences published in 2007 that the estimated incidents are fifteen million. She claims that twelve to twenty percent of individuals who are dying or near dying have had a near death experience and that seventy percent of children close to death have a near death experience.
Incidents of reported NDE’s have surfaced over time. Plato wrote of an incident of a soldier who had died and was left on the road with other dead but whose body had not decayed. When his family found him ten days later the soldier reported his experience on the other side. (Atwater, Coming Back To Life: the After-Effects Of The Near-Death Experience.) Many other accounts of NDE’s have been recorded throughout history.
This article will be followed up by more information about near-death experiences. To learn more about psychology and spirituality go to www.wendyhill.com.