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Peri-Natal Experiences:
From the Mouth of Babes
by Dr.
Mark Pitstick
While
getting a bath, a four year old child begins to talk
to his mother: “I remember when I was in your tummy
. . .” He tells her specific details about events
that happened when she was pregnant with him.
Later, he also correctly reports what happened just
before and after his birth: which family members
were there, medical instruments and tests, and even
what people were wearing. The mother is
incredulous; she is sure that no one has ever told
him these details. How could he know what happened
when he was in her womb and just a newborn?
The term
‘peri-natal’ refers to the time period just before,
during, and after birth. Research on awareness
during the peri-natal period suggests that a wise
and objective consciousness resides within the
newborn baby. The peri-natal experience,
abbreviated as PNE, is particularly fascinating
because it points to a preexistence of
awareness, consciousness that predates birth. NDE
research has strongly indicated a continuation of
consciousness after death; PNE research addresses
the other end of the spectrum, the time period
just before and leading into this physical
lifetime.
In
Mindsight, Ring and Cooper review peri-natal
research and note an emerging picture of a dual
nature of human consciousness. First, there is a
brain-based consciousness that develops as the
fetus and baby grows. In addition, however, a great
deal of empirical evidence points to a
transcendent source of consciousness (TSC) that
“predates physical life and survives bodily death.”
The TSC is most apparent during NDEs, mystical
states of consciousness, and peri-natal experiences,
but is usually overshadowed by the brain based
consciousness so predominant in our hectic physical
world.
One
documented example of a peri-natal memory is
reported in Babies Remember Birth by David
Chamberlain, Ph.D., who states: “Jason, a
three-and-a-half year-old boy, surprised his mother
by saying that he remembered being born, that he had
heard her crying and was doing everything he could
to get out. It was ‘tight’, he felt ‘wet’, and felt
something around his neck and throat. In addition
something hurt his head and he remembered his face
had been ‘scratched up’. Jason’s mother said she
had ‘never talked to him about the birth, never,’
but the facts were correct. The umbilical cord was
wrapped around his neck, he was monitored via an
electrode on his scalp, and was pulled out by
forceps.”
Although
most people have never heard of PNEs, this is
another impressive category of evidence that adds to
the proof that our real selves—our soul, spirit,
consciousness, awareness—does not begin with this
human birth and does not end at death.
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