Transformations was a 13-issue newsletter Dr. Morse wrote in 1999. Reprints are available.
Volume One, Number One: Are Near Death Experiences Real?
"But was it real, Dr. Morse?" So asked young Chris Eggleston after telling me of his near death experience. He nearly drowned when his parents’ car went off the side of Interstate 90 in a snowstorm, and landed in a river of freezing cold fast moving water. He told me of leaving his body and being in a “huge noodle, except it couldn’t have been a noodle because I don’t think noodles have rainbows in them".
Like so many who have had near death experiences, his first instinct was to think that he had some sort of weird dream or crazy hallucination. Even though the experience seems vividly real, or “realer than real” as one child told me, the vision’s content of seeing a heaven or God seems crazy or impossible.
I believe that this is the fundamental question that each person wants an answer to concerning near death experiences. If near death experiences are real, then there is a real God, and a real life after death.
I will review what near death research can tell us about Chris’s question. All articles will be referenced so anyone can read the literature and come to their own conclusions.
This section of the newsletter will present cases from my files which reflect on this issue’s theme.
A forty-seven-year-old woman is nearly raped while changing a tire. She and her attacker perceived the intervening presence of what seemed to be an angel. What can we learn from studying her story?
Dr. Ian Stevenson once told me that the most important mission for near death researchers is to find and document such stories. I will present that point of view, and counter with my own on the need for reproducible scientific studies.
Why aren’t near death experiences just another variation of urban folk tales or baby-sitter stories? I am an anesthesiologist, and I know that many drugs or a lack of oxygen to the brain can cause all sorts of hallucinations Why should we even wonder at all if near death experiences are real as it seems so obvious they are hallucinations of a dysfunctional brain?
In this section, I will present the conventional scientific viewpoint that near death experiences are hallucinations. I will do my best to present the literature objectively, which is not hard for me as it fits a scientific world model that I have held for most of my life. This section will be referenced.
What are the hot new research studies of this question, and who is doing them. We will learn how new information from the National Warfare Institute validates the perceptions of children near death
Sometimes this sort of topic can get a little too overwhelming, or too serious. One thing I have learned from studying so many people who have had near death experiences is that they typically know the most hilarious jokes about them. There will be a joke section.
Readers have a chance to respond to what I have written, correct my errors or show me the error of my thinking. No viewpoints will be excluded from this section, and submissions will not be edited by us.
A reader writes of an experience which seemingly proves near death
experiences are real. I will present my investigation of her story.
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Volume One, Number Two: The God Module:
Our Link to a Conscious Interactive Universe
I present the scientific hypothesis that human beings have a specific area in their brains that allow them to communicate directly with timeless spaceless "non local" reality. The mathematicians and physicists tell us this reality exists and is an important part of the universe. Children who have had near death experiences tell us what it is like to interact with that reality.
The area of the brain is our right temporal lobe. It is the source of what we call "intuition". Paranormal abilities such as remote viewing, premonitions, and telepathy are right temporal lobe talents.
This theory will unlock the secrets of mind-body healing. We learn that
energy "templates" of our bodies exist in non-local reality. These
templates are called morphic fields by researcher Rupert Sheldrake. We
use our right temporal lobe to "resonate" with the original template to
correct errors in our DNA. This can explain the remarkable healings seen
after near death experiences. Exciting new research from the National
Institute of Discovery Science even details where on our DNA spiritual
experiences might interact. Someday soon we may have a blood test which
can tell you if you have had a near death experience.
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Volume One, Number Three: THE TRANSFORMATON
I begin with a case report of a former electron microscope using Ph.D. biochemist who becomes a faith healer after having a near death experience. She had to undergo training just as rigorous as getting her Ph.D. from Penn State. She heals a friend of mine who had not walked in four years.
I present the findings of a long term follow up study of adults who had near death experiences as children. We learn that they have specific psychological and physical transformations, "the fingerprints of God". This is so well documented that I can apply our study questionnaire and tell someone if they have had a "near death experience" or not.
The transformation includes an increase in psychic abilities, the inability to wear a watch as they simply stop working, and a healthier lifestyle. They lose all fear of death because, as "Sara" says on the interview on this website, they "know a little more about it now".
I present a case of a murderer turned into a minister by a near death experience. We learn how anyone can achieve the same transformation without nearly dying.
Finally, I answer reader's questions about other realities. I
investigate a murdered teenager who appears in an after-death
communication to give her mother clues about her own death.
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Volume One, Number Four: DRUGS, DREAMS, and NDEs
In Volume 4, I discuss if you can have a near death experience while you dream. We will learn how to have after death communications and near death experiences. I will discuss the science which shows that NDEs can happen while dreaming, and what taking drugs such as ketamine or LSD has to do with near death experiences.
We will discuss Jonas Salk's statement that the polio vaccine came to him from aliens, while dreaming. We will also discuss the work of Carl Jung, Australian aborigines, and present a mother/daughter shared spiritual experience while dreaming
A reader presents her child's NDE, and I attempt to answer why Jesus doesn't return all the children.
Finally, many readers and researchers are upset that the newsletter called other researchers pseudoscientists and dissected their research in an unflattering way. My mission is to answer a grieving father's question: How do we know if visions of a dead child are real, or just a crazy dream. I am not going to give some flip condescending answer that just tells him what he wants to hear. In my effort to answer his question, I will be looking very critically at the research that has been done. Such a scientific housecleaning is long overdue in this field.
My in-house skeptic returns the favor by shredding my research, but he
is very funny so it wasn't too bad.
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Volume One, Number Five: Parting Visions From Premonitions to
After Death Communications
I present the entire range of "parting visions" from premonitions of death, to at-death and after-death communications to shared dying experiences.
I discuss what the real meaning of these experiences is and how they can help us to understand death and help with grief. I try to be practical, not just a bunch of touchy feely words.
I answer a reader's question about how we can help children deal with the death of someone they love, and how spiritual visions impacts this age group.
I met with Dr. Kubler-Ross in early October. I shared with her that
when I was a young Neuro-Oncology research Fellow, I tried to prove her
wrong about near death experiences, and instead proved her right. I
spent two hours with her learning her practical approach to discussing
death and dying. I learned more than I did in 4 years of medical school
about how to support those we love as they die.
I was surprised how down to earth and practical she was. I was
expecting a lot of philosophy. Instead I learned the nitty gritty of
what to do at the bedside.
Dr. Kubler Ross broke two taboo topics in our society, death and
spiritual visions. In a culture in which we can discuss our tribal
leaders' sexual preferences on national television, we still have a hard
time talking about death. I learned why her Center was burned down, and
why she is so mad at God. I will share with you how the ultimate Death
and Dying researcher faces her own mortality.
I spent two hours asking her detailed and specific questions on how to
handle common situations in grief counseling. I will share with you her
replies. I will also discuss her major works, and respond to her
critics.
I also report on my meeting with Christine Longaker. She wrote a very
practical bedside handbook Facing Death and Finding Hope. I learn, to
my surprise, that ancient Tibetan death teachings have some very
practical implications for modern Americans.
The Amazing Randi Special on the Power of Healing portrayed me as a
"believer" and National Warfare Institute researcher Jim Whinnery as a
"skeptic". Jim wrote to me upset at this portrayal, as we, have, in
fact, reached similar conclusions coming from very different backgrounds
and patient populations. I remind the reader that the "skeptic versus
believer debate" is, in fact, a debate between atheists and
Fundamentalist New Agers, and is not a scientific one. I review Carl
Sagan's discussion of pseudoscience.
I present a well documented case of the spiritual healing of a fatal
genetic disorder, diagnosed by electron microscopic examination of her
tissues. I told her parents that she would die, only two days before
Christmas. She is now a healthy four year old.
I will present a new scientific analysis of mind-body healing. I will
review recent scientific understandings that reality consists of
patterns and memories, not within our bodies, but within nature. Our
bodies are templated on those energy patterns. Our right temporal lobe
allows us to "resonate" with universal energy patterns. It may turn out
that instead of being a bunch of New Age drivle, it turns out to be
scientific fact.
Regardless if you believe or disbelieve my theory that our right
temporal lobe is our link with non-local reality, everyone can benefit
from learning these lessons of "The Light". I will present evidence
from Consumer's Reports and Harvard Medical School Professor Herbert
Benson on how we can all live longer, healthier and happier lives.
I will present evidence that our energy fields are linked to the
Earth's, and to nonlocal reality. When our energy field encounters the
Earth's, we perceive that as remote viewing. When our energy field
encounters non-local reality, we perceive that as a spiritual
experience. When spiritual experiences occur in the context of nearly
dying, we call them near death experiences.
I will discuss similarities between myself and Sherwin
Nuland's work just to give everyone's mind a little twist. Most people
perceive us as being on opposite sides of the "believer-skeptic"
debate. Of course, there will be a joke. A reader asks why prayer
doesn't save every child, and a second reader stating that the peaceful
death bed is a myth.
In this issue, I will present near death experiences from around the
world and throughout history. We will learn that death is a time of
learning, in every culture, even if the near death experiences
themselves are very different. For example, in Micronesia, heaven is
often presented as being similar to a modern American city, not the
flower filled fields we hear about from American children.
Our skeptic will analyze the work of Susan Blackmore, and show how
investigator bias can often alter near death research. When we
interview people from other cultures, we often hear only what we are
expecting to hear.
Finally, we will understand that there even different ways of
interpreting the dying experience. Fundamentalist Christians, for
example, see the near death experience as being the Devil's last attempt
to enslave the mind. Africans often interpret the experience as being
the result of witchcraft. In spite of extreme variations in
interpretation and culture, there are several common elements seen in
all near death experiences.
Children often have the most compelling near death experiences, but can
we trust what they have to say? Is it really true that a child would
not lie about such an experience? Aren't children prone to fantasies
and even more likely to invent a near death experience? These are the
questions I address in this issue.
I also review the entire range of children's spiritual experiences, from
their reports of past life memories, to communications between mother
and still to be born fetus! We learn what this research has to say
about abortion and miscarriage.
Our skeptic presents a more traditional view of childhood near death
experiences as representing a regression to the infant state of having
unconditional love. We will see if the research supports his point of
view.
Kubler-Ross Special Edition Now in Press
Back to indexVolume One, Number Six: NDEs and Mine/Body Healing
Back to indexVolume One, Number Seven: Cross Cultural Near Death Experiences
Back to indexVolume One, Number Eight: Children's Spirituality
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