LAKE JACKSON — In the early 1990s, while doing a study on normal sleep patterns in babies, Lake Jackson pediatrician Richard Hardoin came across a story that inspired him to write a book.

Hardoin, 58, founder of the Southwest SIDS Institute at Brazosport Regional Health System, heard the story of a mother who had a vision of her baby’s death before it happened.

The mother had said that while putting her baby’s clothes away, wide awake, she had a vision of seeing her baby in a white casket, Hardoin said.

“She said that as soon as she saw this she threw the clothes on the ground, hysterical at what she just saw,” Hardoin said.

A week or so after the woman had this premonition, her baby died, he said. When the woman went to the funeral home to pick out a casket she saw a white one, just like the one in her dream.

“It was such an amazing story,” Hardoin said.

When Judith Henslee, the institute’s executive director, told the story to colleague Carrie Sheehan in Washington, Sheehan told them a similar story.

“We had just put out a questionnaire to give to parents whose babies died of SIDS, and after hearing this we immediately added another question — did you ever think anything would happen to your child?” Hardoin said. “The response was tremendous. We had people pouring their guts out.”

It was so tremendous that Hardoin and co-authors Henslee and Sheehan spent the next 15 years working on the book, “The Voice Within: Premonitions of Sudden Death of Children.” It will be released in 25,000 book stores across the world on Sept. 25 by Tate Publishing of Oklahoma, he said.

“It took a long time to find someone that would publish it,” Hardoin said. “They all kept telling us it was too small.”

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome claims the lives of about 2,400 babies in the United States each year, and is the No. 1 cause of death for infants between the ages of 1 month and 1 year.

Hardoin found 21.8 percent of people who responded to the questionnaire had premonitions about their babies’ deaths. Out of a controlled study conducted with 625 people whose babies did not die, only 2.4 percent had premonitions, Hardoin said.

“These are striking numbers. Literally thousands had premonitions,” Hardoin said. “We don’t know why it happens, but it does happen.”

Each chapter tells true accounts of these premonitions, Hardoin said.

“The stories in the book are chilling, but at the same time amazing,” said Arlette Hardoin, his wife.

While interviewing parents whose children died from SIDS for his book, Hardoin decided to consult with Melvin Morse, a doctor out of Seattle who writes about near-death experiences and is one of the first to detect these same type of experiences in children, he said.

Morse told Hardoin about a mother who came to him to get her baby checked out because she thought the baby was going to die. He examined the child and couldn’t find anything wrong, so he sent her home and told her to call him first thing the next day, Hardoin said.

“The lady told him, ‘I hope my baby is still alive tomorrow,’” Hardoin said.

The mother called him the next day and she was right — the baby had died, he said. Morse almost quit his practice because he was not able to save the baby, Hardoin said.

A few months later, she returned to the his office.

“He asked her nicely, ‘What are you doing here?’, because he didn’t think she would ever come back,” Hardoin said.

She said a few days before her baby died, she saw visions of a woman dressed in white who said she wouldn’t have the child for very long, he said. She told him he didn’t do anything wrong, she just wanted to do everything possible to save the baby, Hardoin said.

People of all religious backgrounds all over the world had these premonitions; many others had no religious background whatsoever.

“Many felt very spiritual afterward,” Hardoin said.

He included chapters about older kids and even adults who had premonitions and some famous people, he said. Abraham Lincoln had two strong premonitions that he would die in the White House and both President John F. Kennedy and his son had them about their deaths, Hardoin said.

A chapter also asks the question, “Can outcome be modified?”

“If you have a premonition, get your baby checked out and change your baby’s environment or your method of doing something,” Hardoin said.

Fifty percent of the children who survived and whose parents had premonitions had some type of significant near-death experiences.

“They required some type of intervention like being put on breathing monitors,” Hardoin said.

Hardoin doesn’t know why premonitions happen but believes it has something to do with an inner voice, as he calls it, some can tap into that has somehow been lost over time.

“The brain is so complex we can’t even begin to understand what it is capable of,” Hardoin said. “... Visions can be traced all the way back to the biblical days.”

As a Christian, Hardoin, believes God is the intervener, he said.

“It does happen, and with the book I wanted to show that it is scientifically and statistically feasible,” he said.

Hardoin hopes his book will help those who have had these experiences begin to heal.

“Many people who have had premonitions keep it inside because they are scared people will think they are crazy,” Hardoin said. “Many who have told others have sworn them to secrecy. When they find thousands have had these, they can feel comfortable and maybe know that their child is safe with a higher being.

“They can accept what had happened and go on with their lives,” Hardoin said.

Hardoin will leave next week to start a book-signing tour in Colorado, and while he doesn’t have the date yet, he said he will have a signing at Sonshine Book and Gift Shop and at Hastings Books and Entertainment in Lake Jackson.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on The Facts