REMEMBERING PMH ATWATER, THE FIRST MAJOR FEMALE NDE RESEARCHER
I had just arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2022 International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) conference. The busy lobby of the massive hotel and conference center was thronged with people.
Suddenly, a sweet voice called out, “Mark! Mark! Mark!” A petite and elegant elderly woman glided across the room and embraced me. She had a bright and almost magical demeanor. Her vivacious laughter resonated through my heartstrings. She was none other than Dr. P.M.H. Atwater—one of the world’s foremost experts on near-death experiences. I’d met P.M.H. and her husband, Terry, over 10 years earlier at my first IANDS Conference. P.M.H. and Terry had been married since 1980. They were more than just spouses; they were soulmates. It was a privilege to know them as friends.
Dr. P.M.H. Atwater earned her (L.H.D.) doctorate from the International College of Spiritual and Psychic Studies in Montreal. Due to her profound research, she was also awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the International University for Complementary Medicines in Sri Lanka.
While P.M.H. was at the top of the hierarchy in NDE, afterlife, and psychic research, her journey to attain that status did not come easily. Phyllis Marie DeKeyser was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1937. Immediately a stigma surrounded this baby who was born out-of-wedlock during a time when “such things” were not discussed openly. Nonetheless, she was lovingly adopted by Kenneth Johnson, who was a police detective.
Her adoptive father often took her to work with him as he admired his young daughter’s insatiable curiosity and keen observational skills. She used to sneak up to the interrogation room door and watch through the skeleton keyhole while the police questioned the subjects. This is where she learned to observe and listen without judgment—a skill which served her greatly throughout her life.
In 1956, while still a teenager, she married John Bernard Huffman. Together, John and Phyllis Marie Huffman (P.M.H.) had three children. She worked as a journalist and was recognized as the “Most Influential Newspaper Columnist in the State of Idaho.”
Always drawn to the spiritual, P.M.H. founded “Inner Forum,” Idaho’s first metaphysical nonprofit organization, where she served as editor of “Inner Forum Magazine.” She launched the Northwest’s first speaker’s bureau focused on metaphysical topics and was active as an investigator and researcher of psychic phenomena and altered states of consciousness. P.M.H. practiced hypnotherapy, taught numerology, and became a member of the American Federation of Astrologers.
In 1976, her first marriage ended in divorce. Not long after, she was raped, became pregnant, and miscarried. This event triggered a succession of severe medical conditions on January 2nd, January 4th, and March 29th, 1977. Each time she died—and then returned to life.
Surviving death three times in rapid succession is astonishing enough, but what she perceived and experienced during those deaths was miraculous. Each time, P.M.H. was catapulted into another realm of consciousness, and what she encountered was even more profound than the last episode. Delving into the scope and magnitude of what P.M.H. Atwater encountered during her near-death experiences far exceeds the scope of this article. But, to find out, I highly recommend her book, “I Died Three Times in 1977—The Complete Story.”
But what exactly is a near-death experience? In her book “Forever Angels,” P.M.H. describes the phenomenon as “an intense awareness, sense, or experience of otherworldliness, whether pleasant or unpleasant, that happens to people at the edge of death. It is of such magnitude that most experiencers are deeply affected, many to the point of making significant changes in their life afterward.
Medical research affirms that while clinically dead, close to death, or in a state of utter shock (a fear death), an individual can have a vivid out-of-body experience, clear enhanced consciousness, self-identity with emotions, cognition, thought perception, full use of faculties, and intact memories—all of this happening when the brain is NOT working, nor are the heart and lungs.”
After her three NDEs, P.M.H. began her lifelong spiritual and scientific quest to understand every facet of this phenomenon. In 1978, she moved to Virginia, where she joined and served on the board of directors of the newly formed International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). P.M.H. was a trailblazer as the first female researcher of near-death experiences at a time when the field was dominated by men such as Dr. Raymond Moody (who coined the term “near-death experience”), Dr. Bruce Greyson, and Dr. Kenneth Ring. Her male counterparts, however, welcomed and respected her personally and professionally. This created opportunities for other women researchers, including Nancy Evans Bush, who joined the NDE research team in 1982.
For over four decades, P.M.H. studied the long-term psychological, physiological, and spiritual after-effects of NDEs. Her research involved nearly 7,000 adults and children. As a pioneer in the research of childhood near-death experiences, P.M.H. discovered, “Child experiencers of near-death states are not like adult experiencers. Many cannot compare ‘before’ with ‘after’ as adults do, because they don’t have a ‘before’—at least not in this world.” As someone who had an NDE as a young child, her work resonated deeply with me.
P.M.H. and Terry Atwater were active with the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach. They frequently attended the conferences there.
In 2024, I was a keynote speaker at the annual Ancient Mysteries Conference. When you’re on stage, it’s always reassuring to see friendly faces in the crowd. That day, those faces for me were P.M.H. and Terry.
After my presentation, refreshments and hors d’oeuvres were offered. A group of the presenters, including some of the world’s top archaeologists, was gathered around P.M.H. and Edgar Cayce’s Director of Legacy Education, John VanAuken.
I walked up just in time to hear P.M.H. say, “My next book isn’t about the typical alien abduction; it’s about people who’ve been abducted by aliens who also had near-death experiences.”
“Well,” I interjected, “you don’t pop into the middle of a conversation like this every day.”
Everyone cracked up. Then P.M.H. said, “So, Mark, I take it that means you’ll endorse my next book.”
She certainly had a way of making an offer you couldn’t refuse. I am honored to have endorsed her book “Aliens and the Near-Death Experience,” which was released in May 2026.
This book was also her final work. Dr. P.M.H. Atwater passed away two months later on July 10, 2026, at the age of 88.
The legacy of Dr. P.M.H. Atwater fills volumes of books, research papers, television appearances, and documentaries. While I know she’s begun a new adventure in the afterlife, everyone fortunate enough to have known P.M.H. dearly misses her presence in our world. Yet, as Dr. Atwater said, “Any death in a way is an opening to something else. And if we embrace that, then it can be joyful.”
“The Near-Death Experience is an intense awareness, sense, or experience that happens to people on the edge of death.”
-Mark Anthony, JD, Psychic Explorer®
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