P.M.H. Atwater had a handwriting analysis in the mid-sixties that led to a complete career and lifestyle change. She was redirected into public service and innovative project development and analysis. Paralleling this change she began intensive research into paranormal and altered states of consciousness. With a professional background in hypnotic past-life regressions, sensitivity work, de-haunting houses, and mediumship, she came to specialize in aura massage, astrology, numerology, dream and symbol interpretation, rune casting, divinatory and earth energy sensing.

1977 set the stage for severe health traumas resulting in death and the near-death phenomenon. The following year, in an effort to understand what had happened to her and was still happening, she began to seek out and interview other near-death survivors. She has served two terms on the Board of the International Association for Near-Death Studies.