I was given permission from the author to share this part of her email back to me, which she so kindly wrote back in about 12 hours of my initial email. I will copy and paste my email below and the permission she allowed me to share from her email response:
My email:
Hi Laurin, I really enjoyed reading your book. I bought the kindle version and have recommended it already to several others. I was very disappointed that I was not able to see you when you came to speak at IANDS at Unity of Mesa in Mesa, AZ the other day. I would have asked the question in person that I am posing now, and it has to do with this from your book: "In some cases, I’ve combined accounts where events were similar in order to further limit personal identifiers and preserve anonymity, yet still reveal the heart of these often-transformative moments." That message has left me confused. Honestly I didn't even catch it or notice it until it was pointed out in a forum in which individuals were commenting on your book and recommending it because of how good it was. Can you clarify that statement please. It makes me wonder about the genuiness or accuracy of some of the accounts. And by the way U don't have to answer this but it sounds like the individual that u were talking about who believes in NDE's but is dogmatic in their beliefs is probably PMH Atwater. She seems to be big into the after effects and I can visualize her saying that. Anyways.. Thank you again for an awesome book and if you ever head out to AZ again on a lecture circuit, I'll be sure to make sure that I don't miss it!! Thanks Again, Bill
Her response :
Hello Bill,
Thank you so much for taking the time to reach out. My response below may be something you wish to cut and paste to the forum, if you like. I’ve italicized it so that it is clear what is separate from my personal response to you.
When writing about real people, it is not uncommon to be asked to conceal their identity, especially if they are uncomfortable with sharing their story, as many NDErs are - unfortunately. Sometimes that is possible just with a name change, sometimes it is not. Some of the physical circumstances were merged in two separate cases in my book at the request of the experiencers before they were comfortable giving permission for me to print them. In each of these two cases (four patients), the circumstances of their medical situation and the features of their NDEs were so very close that they were much more comfortable with a combined story. Everything that was represented was an accurate representation of what they shared with me. But remember, with NDEs, we are still talking about reporting on a subjective experience that we cannot film or record in anyway at this time in our evolution. All of us are taking a leap of faith (and respect) to choose to believe someone who has the courage to share. Actually, this highlights the whole theme of the book - choosing to honor someone’s experience for what they share - their reality; their truth. With any such approach to something an author is presenting, there has to be a disclaimer. Otherwise, it is false representation. This will hopefully explain this literary convention a little further. And, it is just that - a literary convention.
Actually, the benefit for the four experiencers themselves was surprising. In combining stories, they found each other and were able to provide a support and level of acceptance as an experiencer of something so similar that I, by merely listening and documenting, would never have been able to do. I don’t think this makes the experiences any less genuine or accurate - especially when I am honoring the requests of the very people who so generously allowed me to share them in my book in the first place. This concept may be uncomfortable for some readers - and I can’t help that much although I understand - but I remained true to the people who’s stories I shared and how I was able to share them in ways that were acceptable to them. This book would have been missing two incredible (and important!) examples of the impact of dismissal of a personal experience had I not been allowed to include them. In order to do that I had to work with the four patients very closely so that they felt their truth was honored and their experience represented in a way that was comfortable for them. It is unfortunate that they felt that unsafe, but that is the reality of our current societal environment.
There were some stories I would have LOVED to have included in this book, but the level of discomfort of the experiencer was such that they were willing to share it with me but did not want it in print. Let us be grateful to those who were willing to share in whatever way they were comfortable with - even if it was sharing their experience with someone else’s very similar to their own.