Transformed by the Light - a Study of Near-Death Experience
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| Photo Copyright Janet Cameron |
Dr. Melvin
Morse,MD, in the book written with Paul Perry, Transformed by the Light, says that the near-death
experience does not resemble drug-induced hallucinations, transient psychosis,
schizophrenia, psychotic breaks, anaesthetic reactions or dreams. Nor is it
like any medically-described hallucinations. He says:
"The near-death
experience is a logical and orderly event that involves floating out of the
body, entering into darkness and experiencing a wonderful and indescribable
light."
Dr. Morse explains that, unlike people who hallucinate or
experience episodes of mental illness, those who encounter a near-death
experience feel in control of their situation and are not detached from their
being.
Transformed by the Light is a powerful and convincing book, although Dr. Morse
admits that the results were not widely accepted by the medical community. One
of the problems is that we still do not yet know enough about these
experiences.
"The irony of science," says Dr. Morse, "is that
the scientific method sometimes destroys our ability to study a
phenomenon."
To back-up his statement, Dr. Morse cites the now well-known
phenomenon of how, by observing an experiment, its outcome can actually be
changed.
Dr. Morse has
worked extensively with children, including at the Seattle Children's Hospital.
NDE Case Studies
This is an
account of Dr. Morse's first encounter with an NDE child. In 1982, while
working at an Idaho clinic, Dr. Morse helped to revive a young girl who had got
into difficulties in a community swimming people. After she recovered, she gave
a joyful description of her encounter with death, finally telling the doctor
not to worry, because heaven was fun.
The following
is an independent case, and not taken from Dr. Morse's book. An Eastbourne
nurse, Jeanette Atkinson, was eighteen-years-old when she had her near-death
experience.
Jeanette had
suffered a blood clot in her leg and the main vessels to her arteries became
clogged, preventing her body from receiving oxygen. The doctors were not
hopeful and did not expect the young woman to recover. But she did and here is
her experience in her own words:
"The
first thing I noticed was that the world changed. The light became softer but
clearer. Suddenly there was no pain. All I could see was my body from the chest
downwards, and I noticed that the time was 9.00pm. In an instant I found myself
looking at the ceiling. It was only a few inches away. I remember thinking it
was about time they cleaned the dust from the striplights."
Common Factors in Near-Death
Experience
NDE's do vary
from one person to another, but there are factors that are repeated in a number
of cases. Many people lose their fear of death. They say they value themselves
and others far more and that they feel a need to help out wherever they can.
Like Jeanette, many people hear themselves pronounced dead, leave their body
with a sense of great peace and then begin to move through a dark tunnel
towards a bright and inviting light. Some even report meeting up with their
long-lost friends and relatives.
One of the
most inspiring quotations from Dr. Morse's book is the following: "When I
died I felt free of all things that had bothered me on earth. But when the
doctors brought me back I felt free of them, too."
The following
statement appears in the medical journal The
Lancet:
"One
study found that 8 to 12 percent of 344 patients resuscitated after suffering
cardiac arrest had NDEs (near-death experiences) and about 18% remembered some
part of what happened when they were clinically dead."
A Natural Process
Dr. Morse's
main aim in working with NDE patients is to help them, but he refuses to write
these experiences off as particularly "New Age" or spiritual
experiences. Instead, he insists that they are "...a natural and normal
part of the dying process and have profound implications for those of us who
work with death and dying." Also, they happen to perfectly ordinary people
- ordinary people who manage to survive an extraordinary experience.
Dr. Morse is
working on localising the area of the brain that is responsible for spiritual
visions and he believes it may be something to do with the right temporal lobe.
His latest book is entitled: Where
God Lives.
Sources:
·
Transformed by the Light, Dr.
Melvin Morse, with Paul Perry, Pitakus, 2001.
·
The Lancet, 15 December 2001.
·
www.newsmonster.co.uk
·
Partly adapted from Paranormal Eastbourne, Janet
Cameron, Amberley Publishing, 2010.
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