Melvin L. Morse | |
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Born | [ citation needed ] Sandy Springs, Maryland | December 11, 1953
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | George Washington University |
Occupation | Pediatrician |
Known for | Near-death experience interest |
Children | 6 |
Website | www |
Melvin L. Morse (born December 11 1953) [1] is an American physician who specializes in pediatrics. He has authored several books and articles on paranormal science and near-death experiences in children, including the 1987 New York Times bestseller Closer to the Light, written jointly with Paul Perry, and with a foreword written by Raymond Moody. Morse has authored many journal articles, and has given media interviews on the subject of near-death experiences.
Morse is head of the Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ISSC), an institution founded by Charles Tart, PhD in 1979 dedicated to the scientific exploration of human consciousness and its different manifestations.
In 2023, Morse became one of the winners of the BICS Challenge, a ground-breaking research program created by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies to support research into both the survival of human consciousness after physical death and the nature of the afterlife. Together with the ISSC team of associates, which includes Dr. Jose Miguel Gaona, MD, Ph.D., Isabelle Chauffeton Saavedra, Lance Williams Beem, MA, Raymond Moody MD, and AJ Parr, Morse conducted the groundbreaking research with the participation of nineteen hand-picked, certified mediums who were asked to connect with the afterlife over a nine-month period and later prepared the conclusions and final report: “An Investigation into the Current Status of the Spiritual Progress of Humanity as Ascertained by Interviewing Nineteen Mediums,”
Morse graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Science. Morse earned a medical degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1980. [2] He interned in Pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco, and then completed a residency in Pediatrics at Seattle Children's Hospital. He subsequently completed a two-year fellowship in Hematology/Oncology and a one-year fellowship in Behavioral Pediatrics. [3]
Morse practiced pediatrics in Renton, Washington during the 1980s, and also served as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle. [4] In the mid 1980s, Morse began to research near death experiences. In November 1986, he published a study on the subject in the American Journal of Diseases of Children. [5] The study interviewed 11 patients, who had all by definition had a near death experience, such as a cardiac arrest. These experiences were documented during interviews with the children, and then compared to 29 children that had been admitted to intensive care, but not had a near death experience. All of the near-death children had memories from being unconscious, such as seeing a tunnel or light, and actively deciding to return to the body. In comparison, the 29 children in intensive care had no memory from the time they were unconscious. [5]
Morse suggested to the Los Angeles Times during an interview that he and his colleagues at University of Washington School of Medicine had to abandon their initial theory - that near death experiences were simply a reaction to drugs during life saving attempts. Initially the aim of the research had been to narrow down which drugs likely caused near death experiences. The findings led Morse to spend the next decade of his life studying near death experiences. [4] In 1991, Morse released Closer to the Light, which included some of the initial theories and further findings from investigating NDE's in children. [4] In March 1995, Morse's studies featured in an article ran by the Los Angeles Times analyzing near death experiences. [6] The book documented the near death experiences of 26 children and became a New York Times bestseller. [7] He was interviewed on Oprah Winfrey about the book in 1992 and on Larry King in 2010. The PBS show Upon Reflection produced a half-hour episode devoted to Morse. He was the subject of an article in the Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 entitled "In search of the Dead Zone" [8] and appeared in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. [9] In 2000, Morse and Paul Perry released a book studying the scientific frontiers in the study of cognitive psychology. The book "Where God Lives" presents the theory of plausibility in various subject areas, such as religion and the paranormal, including that religion is often associated with the right frontal lobe. This continued from research Morse did in the 1990s. [6] A review in the peer reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies stated "Morse wrote the book for mainstream audiences interested in a New Paradigm... it will hold their interest and fascinate them." [10] John Tomlinson for the American Institute of Health and Science stated he believed the authors "lead us right to the edge of faith-based science." [11]
He retired from the full-time practice of Pediatrics in 2006 and worked at a pediatrician office in Milton, Delaware.
Morse was voted one of “America’s Best Doctors” by his peers in 2001–2002 as one of the top pediatricians in the country. [12] [13] [14] In 2010 the Journal of Near-Death Studies published his article “Near-death experiences, deathbed visions, and past-life memories: A convergence in support of van Lommel’s Consciousness beyond life” [15] A year later, in 2011, he became one of the recipients of the Warcollier Research Award granted by IRVA/IRIS. [16] He has also conducted research on children’s near-death experiences, childhood leukemia, PTSD management, the new scientific paradigm of consciousness, random number generation, and the benefits of reiki therapy and kundalini meditation, among others. [17] In 2023-2024 he participated as research team leader in the BICS Challenge Program, organized by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies, which queried the afterlife through sixty-seven mediums from six international teams on four foundational, interlinked, existential questions. [18]
Following a hearing in June 2022, Morse’s medical license was reinstated after being suspended in 2012, when he was arrested and later convicted of child endangerment. In 2012, he and his second wife were arrested on child endangerment charges based on allegations made by his eleven year old step-daughter. [19] [20] Morse was convicted of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to serve three years in prison. [21] [22] His license was also suspended in Delaware following his arrest. [2] [23] The step-daughter who made the allegations against Morse & his wife, was later proved to have lied on the witness stand in a previous case, which resulted in her sister spending a year in juvenile prison. [24] In 2023, Morse became one of the winners of the BICS Challenge Program [25] funded by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies [26] to support research into both the survival of human consciousness after physical death and the nature of the afterlife.
Following his release, Morse co-founded The Recidivism Prevention Group, a company dedicated to assisting addicts and former inmates in developing spiritual understandings to re-enter society as productive members. The group uses meditation techniques to accomplish these goals. Morse now resides in Washington, DC. [27] [ better source needed ]
On September 13, 2022, Delaware's Medical Licensure and Discipline Board announced that the temporary suspension of Morse's medical license had been lifted. This was following a hearing by the board that took place on June 16, 2022. [28]
Morse has been married twice and has six children, five of whom are adopted. [29]
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the age of 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people seek pediatric care through the age of 21, but some pediatric subspecialists continue to care for adults up to 25. Worldwide age limits of pediatrics have been trending upward year after year. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word pediatrics and its cognates mean "healer of children", derived from the two Greek words: παῖς and ἰατρός. Pediatricians work in clinics, research centers, universities, general hospitals and children's hospitals, including those who practice pediatric subspecialties.
Parapsychology is a field of research that studies a number of ostensible paranormal phenomena, including telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, near-death experiences, reincarnation, and apparitional experiences.
Raymond A. Moody Jr. is an American philosopher, psychiatrist, physician and author, most widely known for his books about afterlife and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975 in his best-selling book Life After Life. His research explores personal accounts of subjective phenomena encountered in near-death experiences, particularly those of people who have apparently died but been resuscitated. He has widely published his views on what he terms near-death-experience psychology.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of policy statements, ranging from advocacy issues to practice recommendations.
Near-death studies is a field of psychology and psychiatry that studies the physiology, phenomenology and after-effects of the near-death experience (NDE). The field was originally associated with a distinct group of North American researchers that followed up on the initial work of Raymond Moody, and who later established the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Since then the field has expanded, and now includes contributions from a wide range of researchers and commentators worldwide. Research on near-death experiences is mainly limited to the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry.
Robert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman. He owns Budget Suites of America and is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace.
Mary Ellen Avery, also known as Mel, was an American pediatrician. In the 1950s, Avery's pioneering research efforts helped lead to the discovery of the main cause of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature babies: her identification of surfactant led to the development of replacement therapy for premature infants and has been credited with saving over 830,000 lives. Her childhood, mentors, drive, and education inspired Avery to be the visionary that she was. In 1991 President George H.W. Bush conferred the National Medal of Science on Avery for her work on RDS.
Pam Reynolds Lowery, from Atlanta, Georgia, was an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, at the age of 35, she stated that she had a near-death experience (NDE) during a brain operation performed by Robert F. Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Reynolds was under close medical monitoring during the entire operation. During part of the operation she had no brain-wave activity and no blood flowing in her brain, which rendered her clinically dead. She claimed to have made several observations during the procedure which medical personnel reported to be accurate.
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, joy, the experience of absolute dissolution, review of major life events, the presence of a light, and seeing dead relatives. When negative, such experiences may include sensations of anguish, distress, a void, devastation, and seeing hellish imagery.
Luther Emmett Holt was an American pediatrician and author, noted for writing The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses in 1894.
Sylvester Sanfilippo was an American pediatrician from Edina, Minnesota, who first described a mucopolysaccharide storage disease that bears his name - Sanfilippo syndrome. Sanfilippo was born in Rochester, New York. After graduating from the University of Rochester in 1947, he moved to Salt Lake City to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Utah. There he received a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry and earned his medical degree in 1955. He did his Pediatrics training at the University of Minnesota, interrupted by a two-year period as a pediatrician in the United States Navy Medical Corps in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia.
Samuel Lawrence Katz was an American pediatrician and virologist whose career has been devoted to infectious disease research, focusing principally on vaccine research and development. Katz was the Wilburt Cornell Davison Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics at Duke University.
Eben Alexander III is an American neurosurgeon and author. In 2008, he went under a medically-induced coma while being treated for meningitis. His book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife (2012) describes his near-death experience while in the coma. He asserts that the coma resulted in brain death, that consciousness is not only a product of the brain and that it can go on to an afterlife.
Pim van Lommel is a Dutch author and researcher in the field of near-death studies.
Deathbed phenomena refers to a range of experiences reported by people who are dying. There are many examples of deathbed phenomena in both non-fiction and fictional literature, which suggests that these occurrences have been noted by cultures around the world for centuries, although scientific study of them is relatively recent. In scientific literature such experiences have been referred to as death-related sensory experiences (DRSE). Dying patients have reported to staff working in hospices they have experienced comforting visions.
Lala Suraj Nandan Prasad (1914–2009) was an Indian pediatrician and a former professor of pediatrics of the Patna Medical College and Hospital whose efforts were reportedly behind the establishment of the department of pediatrics and the development of the children's ward into a 250-bed Children's Hospital at the institution. He was the founder president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics when the organization was formed in 1964 though the merger of the erstwhile Indian Pediatric Society and the Association of Pediatricians of India. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri in 1974.
Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children is a 1991 nonfiction book written by Melvin L. Morse and Paul Perry with foreword written by Raymond Moody. The book documented the near-death experiences (NDEs) of 26 children and became a New York Times bestseller.
Roland Boyd Scott was an American researcher, pediatrician and authority on sickle cell disease. Scott authored a key paper in 1948 describing the incidence of sickle cell in infants that eventually led to the establishment of routine screening for newborns. He established the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease. He was chairman of the pediatrics department at Howard University. He lobbied Congress to pass the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act of 1971. He authored over 250 academic publications on allergy, growth and development, and sickle cell disease.
Daniel Cody Darrow was an American pediatrician and clinical biochemist whose research focused on fluid and electrolyte balance in the human body. He pioneered the routine use of intravenous potassium in patients after surgery, and in children with diarrhea.
Milen Minkov, is a Bulgarian-Austrian pediatrician and a professor of pediatrics at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, Austria.
Morse and his wife, Pauline, were charged with several felony counts Tuesday based on the daughter's claims. Acting upon a complaint by the Delaware attorney general's office, state officials on Thursday ordered the emergency suspension of Morse's medical license.
Sullivan wrote about an intern named Melvin Morse… His work with near-death children surprised him so that he became intriqued with their experiences and began a long term study… As he began to be confronted with the very real sense of a Person or Intelligence that children met on the other side, he said, "…I'm deliberately holding back from dealing with it, because I know that once I cross that line, I'm no longer a scientist."
Prosecutors say a former Delaware pediatrician accused of "waterboarding" his stepdaughter by holding her face under a faucet, terrorized the girl for several years. In opening statements Tuesday, a prosecutor said Melvin Morse exercised total control over the girl including "her right to draw breath."