Atwater, Phyllis M. H. (1937-)

Phyllis M. H. Atwater, a researcher on the near-death experience, was born on September 19, 1937, in Twin Falls, Idaho. After high school she went to work as a secretary. In 1956 she married John Bernard Huffman, with whom she had three children. During her adult years she became interested in the occult and in 1966 she became a professional numerologist. Four years later she founded Inner Forum, Inc., in Boise, through which she offered her services as a counselor. She soon added astrology and hypnotism to her skills.

In 1976 she went through a divorce. The following year her health failed and she died on three occasions, each time undergoing a near-death experience and returning to life. After she recovered she began to seek out others who had had similar experiences to understand what she had gone through. She also wrote a book about her experiences, I Died Three Times in 1977. In 1980 she married Tony Young Atwater.

In the early 1980s, she began to systematically interview people who had had near-death experiences, which became the basis of a series of articles and then a book, Coming Back to Life: The After Effects of the Near-Death Experience (1988). Her interviews turned into a new career—exploring, understanding, and writing about the near-death experience. Her efforts resulted in a series of near-death books, Beyond the Light: What Isn't Being Said about the Near-Death Experience (1994), Future Memory (1996), and the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Near-Death Experience (2000). Her own experience guided her research and offered unique avenues of exploration. She also developed an interest in children who had had near-death experiences about which she wrote in Children of the New Millennium (1999). Atwater is an officer of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and helped establish its NDE Research Fund.

Along the way she also wrote The Magical Language of Runes (1990) and Goddess Runes (1996). Besides offering lectures and workshops on the near-death experience, she still gives astrological, numerological, and runes readings. She has a large Internet site through which she can be contacted at http://www.cinemind.com/atwater/.

Sources:

Atwater, P. M. H. Beyond the Light: What Isn't Being Said about the Near-Death Experience. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1994.

——. Children of the New Millennium. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.

——. Coming Back to Life: The After Effects of the Near-Death Experience. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1988.

——. Complete Idiot's Guide to the Near-Death Experience. New York: Macmillan Co., 2000

——. Future Memory. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1996.

——. The Magical Language of Runes. Santa Fe, N.Mex.: Bear & Co., 1990.