An informative book about NDEs in children. These stories lend credence to these experiences being real. ( )

This book was recommended to me by an on-line friend, for which I am grateful.

The author is a physician who has done research on children’s NDEs and thus listened to their accounts.

This is a simply written, very readable book containing many case histories of children who have been close to death/have died, and experienced Heaven and met God or Jesus.

The author informs us of the scepticism of his fellow physicians and how they were unwilling to listen to these children’s accounts. One such stated “children don’t have near-death experiences”.

Dr. Morse was good at listening to the children he interviewed and they thus opened up to him and willingly recounted their experiences.

Chris, aged 10, told his mother he had “climbed a staircase to Heaven”. He wanted to keep on but knew that if he went too far, he wouldn’t be able to come back, and that would hurt his parents, who had already lost a child.

Dean, 16, told his family he had had an experience which no human words could describe. He found himself travelling through a wide tunnel accompanied by a being about seven feet tall wearing a long white gown; his hair was golden and he radiated peace and love. It wasn’t Christ but was possibly an angel, he thought.

Kurt was 7 years old and had severe muscular dystrophy. He found himself out of his body in a beautiful place with flowers and rainbows and where there were angels. Everything was white “like it had its own light”. He spoke to Jesus, who wanted him to stay with him, but he decided to come back and see his parents again. However, he died a few weeks after his conversation with Dr. Morse. The latter would have liked to tell Kurt’s family about the experience, but medical school hadn’t taught him to talk about such things.

An 8-year old girl called June who nearly drowned started going up a tunnel and found herself in Heaven, She knew it was Heaven because everything was bright and everyone was cheerful, “A nice man” asked if she wanted to stay there, which she did, but she said she wanted to be with her family so she was permitted to come back. She totally recalled all the events of the resuscitation.

Mark, aged 7, told Dr. Morse about an NDE he experienced at the age of 9 months. He crawled up a tunnel towards a bright light. At the end of the tunnel there was a “bright place” and he “ran through fields with God”, He observed that one can “double jump” in Heaven, whatever that is.

Five other absorbing case histories were related in the chapter.

It was the author’s opinion that since people die in hospital, the dying process should be examined there. But he was not allowed to continue with his research. When he requested a grant to study Asian immigrants at the point of death, this was refused on the grounds that such a study would be intrusive on patients’ rights and would cause unnecessary suffering; in fact the opposite was the case, since patients really appreciate a doctor showing interest in their experiences. The author concluded that doctors just don’t like to research death; death is taboo in hospitals. “As patients get closer to death their doctors spend less time at their bedsides.”

I much appreciate Dr. Morse, also because of one experience he recounts. He and other staff were laughing boisterously following their attempts to save a baby, who died, when the parents suddenly appeared. (The reason for their laughter was that “they were filled with the excitement and adrenaline that such an experience can generate”.) He recounts that the shame hit him hard. It is so nice to hear doctors admit that they are human and have compassion though they often demonstrate the opposite.

There is a wonderful chapter informing us about pre-death visions. “The dying patient often sees God, angels, dead relatives or visions of heaven superimposed upon reality or actually present at the deathbed.” These experiences resemble NDEs.

We are apprised of the case of Cory who at 7 was dying of leukaemia. Chemotherapy had been unsuccessful. He began to have many visions in which he was advised to stop chemotherapy, which wouldn’t make any difference. He was told when he would die, a date what ultimately was correct to within a few days. After listening to her son’s account, Cory’s mother refused further medical treatment for him.

Here, the author disappoints me when he declares: “I personally would not deny my child medical treatment because of a spiritual vision.” Who knows more, doctors, including the author, or Spirit?? However, Dr. Morse contradicts himself on the next page by stating that Cory was right in following his visions, firstly because he far outlived his own predictions for a treated patient who’d had four relapses, and secondly, because he died the same week that God told him he would when they met.

7-year-old Seth was dying of leukaemia and towards the end had severe untreatable pneumonia. Three days before he died, he sat up and announced that Jesus was in the room. At 3 a.m. he sat up again and shouted that there were beautiful colours in the sky. At 4 a.m. Seth’s grandmother who hadn’t been out of the house in ten years saw a vision of him asking her to come to the hospital. She called a taxi and struggled out to be at Seth’s bedside.

At dawn he asked his parents to let him go. “Don’t be afraid”, he said. “I’ve seen God, angels and shepherds. I see the white horse.” He had seen where he was going and it was a wonderful place. He died two days later.

Seth’s visions consoled his family. They brought his family closer together. He had taken no painkillers or mind-altering medications. But his visions and their healing effects were never mentioned by nurses or doctors. A new resident said they could have been “cured” by giving him morphine. “The visions were seen as a problem to be medicated away, not as a solution.”

“When patients experience visions, doctors often repress them with medication and then flee to the comfort of their other, less sick patients.”

We also hear about 13-year-old Greg dying of cystic fibrosis who was experiencing “horrible hallucinations”, which turned out to be “beautiful and wondrous pre-death visions”.

In his visions Greg saw bright lights, other people and another land. God was always present.

One physician taught the author how to tackle talking to parents of a baby that had died.

“He simply told them that their baby had died and that we had tried our best to save him. He then started to cry. --- We all sat --- and cried together. Finally, he dried his eyes and said that there were other patients to see. He kissed them both, and he left.”

This compassionate doctor showed me that it is possible to share the terror and grief of death with the patient (sic). He was thinking of them and their loss, and they felt it.”

The book contains other wonderful chapters, including one entitled “The Pure Light” and one entitled “Transformation” about the transformational effects of NDEs. Experiencing the Light gives people new purpose in life, and imparts messages such as “Love your neighbour and cherish life” and “Be nice, kind and loving”.

To sum up, this is an excellent book, one of the best I’ve read about NDEs. It comprises many heart-warming case histories, and I highly recommend it. It shows us that death is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. ( )

I read this book 22 years ago, shortly after I had my own near-death experience and was trying to make sense of the phenomenon. This book, along with Raymond Moody's Life After Life, helped me see that although the experiences near-death experiencers have are shaped by their spiritual and cultural beliefs, there are some common denominators that recur even with young children. ( )