Is There Life After Death?

NBC10.com ^ | Friday, April 30, 2004 | NBC 10 Investigators

[Momaw Nadon]

Seattle Doctor Specializes In Near-Death Experiences

The NBC 10 Investigators tracked down a doctor in Seattle whose research may come closer to anyone else to answering the question, is there life after death?

Dr. Melvin Morse is a pediatrician who used to think that people who were interested in near-death experiences just wanted to be on television talk shows.

But something happened to one of his patients that changed his opinion. Now he believes the evidence points to something after life.

Most scientists will explain that near-death experiences are caused by the lack of oxygen in the brain in the last moments of life.

But Dr. Morse believes he's found evidence that it is a glimpse of something beyond our existence.

"I interviewed a 6-year-old boy," said Dr. Morse. "We resuscitated him. He opened his eyes and he dramatically said, 'That was weird, two guys just sucked me back into my body.'"

Dr. Morse is a respected pediatrician. He was a skeptic about the issue of life after death until he was confronted with a story he couldn't explain away.

"She was what you would call clinically dead," explained Morse. "She was under water for 19 minutes."

After the 7-year-old girl was resuscitated, she started drawing pictures.

"What she described to me was not a hallucination. It was a blow-by-blow accurate description of her own resuscitation, but from a bird's eye point of view," said Dr. Morse.

The child believed she had to go back to her body to help her mother with her unborn brother. She drew her unborn brother with a big red heart. Several months later her brother was born with heart disease.

"How can dying, comatose patients perceive anything? That's what fascinated me," said Dr. Morse. "I knew that something important about human consciousness was to be learned."

Dr. Morse has recorded dozens of interviews with children who have experienced near death. He says he finds the experiences with children to be the most pure.

Dr. Morse says he doesn't believe in God himself and he has little interest in the experiences many adults often have reflecting their own religious beliefs and cultures.

Critics say it is because Christians tend to see Jesus and Indians see Hindu gods, the near-death experience doesn't seem scientifically credible.

Social worker Kimberly Clark Sharp says she couldn't come to terms with her own out of body, near-death experience until one of her own patients had one.

Sharp's patient went into cardiac arrest. After she was resuscitated, the patient insisted she had risen out of her body and floated up around the hospital where she saw a blue tennis shoe on the third floor ledge.

To calm down her patient Sharp went to look. "I did find a blue tennis shoe on the ledge," said Sharp. "She got everything right as she described it to me."

"It's clear even when people are flat lining in the last moments of life, something profound is happening," said Dr. Morse. "It is something today's monitors can't pick up."

Dr. Morse's findings have been published in medical journals and he's working to see if something physically changes in the right temporal lobe of the brain when someone has a post-death experience.

"One child told me it was a light who told her who she was and where she was to go," said Dr. Morse. "I want to interact with that light that tells us who we are and where we are to go while we're still alive. That to me is a challenge of the near-death experience."

Dr. Morse believes you can get in touch with that part of the brain through prayer, meditation, even the rhythmic movement of knitting. There's no absolute proof, but he believes that people who have that near death experience are stepping into another realm.

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[SandRat]

Well, we definitely know that there is no income in the afterlife or the RATS would be taxing it and it would be listed in the IRS tax codes.

[EggsAckley]

Interesting article. One line, however, makes me giggle:

prayer, meditation, even the rhythmic movement of knitting

[Tijeras_Slim]

There is RAT voting after death.

[rickmichaels]

Critics say it is because Christians tend to see Jesus and Indians see Hindu gods...

And Muslims see fire and brimstone.

[Junior]

If there isn't, we'll never know -- nor care...

[mtbopfuyn]

Many years ago I read that a doctor had tried to determine if the soul had substance. Supposedly, he put some kind of a scale on the hospital bed of a woman who was near death. At the moment the woman died, the bed's weight decreased by 4 oz. (iirc). He claimed to have done the same experiments with animals and they had souls too. Don't know if there is some medical explaination like a relased of air or what could make the weight decrease. Just thought it was interesting.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Nice report, but I still have to ask,

Is there a life before death?

[dc-zoo]

Kerry is reported to have had a near-life experience once.

[backhoe]

Many years ago I read that a doctor had tried to determine if the soul had substance. Supposedly, he put some kind of a scale on the hospital bed of a woman who was near death.

Yep- I still have the copy of "Forgotten Mysteries," the book that had the story about that. Eerie little book...

[lafroste]

I, for one, believe it. After witnessing a miraculous event at my sister's own death, to the incident at an I-40 rest stop, and my own ability to astral project (which I was warned in no uncertain terms to never attempt again), I am convinced that your spirit lives on. I also think that it is the nature of things that these phenomena cannot be adequately proved to the skeptic. Annecdotal evidence by the truck load will not suffice, yet once a person has experienced it for themselves, they know.

[Momaw Nadon]

Other questions to ask are,

Where are we before we are born?

Is there a beforelife?

[hosepipe]

[ "I interviewed a 6-year-old boy," said Dr. Morse. "We resuscitated him. He opened his eyes and he dramatically said, 'That was weird, two guys just sucked me back into my body.'" ]

Likely story:
Sounds like "Tales from a San Fransisco Pediatrian".

[GWB00]

Interesting post. As I have tried to develop a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ, I have thought about the afterlife more and more.

I don't agree with doctor who does not believe in God. He is our Creator and does what he sees fit with our souls when we leave this earth.

[Auntie Mame]

After witnessing a miraculous event at my sister's own death, to the incident at an I-40 rest stop,

Care to share? I'm very interested.

[DollarBill]

I have no doubt about the afterlife because of one thing: EVP (electronic voice phenomena). I had never heard of EVP until two months ago when a friend of mine had his home "investigated" for ghosts; they had several significant incidences with doors opening, things falling off shelves, etc. What they found, aside from "orbs" in pictures when magnetic readings were found, were EVP's. Throughout the entire 4-hour investigation, a tape recorder is used to tape the investigation. Afterwards, the tape is listened to for EVP. What they heard is nothing short of incredible. Because of this, I began looking into EVP, which is widespread on the Internet with ghost hunting groups. I know for a fact that what has occurred and found in my friend's house is real. Being one who never gave much thought to the afterlife and ghosts, I am a believer now! The ghost hunter's website chronicles their findings from the April 3rd investigation at http://ghost-investigators.com/

[neutrino]

I definitely believe that there is life after death - and life before birth, for that matter. For those who wish to experiment, try http://www.monroeinstitute.org/

[tbeatty]

Just tell me if I am getting 72 virgins.

[Doctor Stochastic]

PJ Farmer wrote a novel about this called "Inside Outside."

[mel]

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