Where God Lives: The Science of the Paranormal and How Our Brains are Linked to the Universe – Proof of Afterlife and Paths to Healing and Enlightenment - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Melvin Morse has co- written the bestsellers Closer to the Light and Transformed by the Light.

He is a practicing pediatrician in Seattle, Washington.

Paul Perry is an internationally bestselling author who has co-written nine books on near-death experiences.

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Is there proof that "near death" and other spiritual experiences can cure afflictions of the body, mind, and spirit? Are there simple ways to tap into a "universal power source" that spiritual masters call enlightenment? Is there scientific evidence of life after death that is being overlooked by skeptics? Is there scientific proof of a spot in our brains that communicates with God and the universe?

Pediatrician Melvin Morse believes the answer to all these questions is yes. Shedding new light on the links between science and mysticism, Where God Lives not only reveals the area of the brain that is our biological link to the universe, but also shows us the secret of tapping into the universal energy to achieve healing, personal peace, and transcendence. Filled with moving case histories, Where God Lives applies the rigor of science to the study of the spiritual to prove once and for all the existence of life after death.

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Excerpt

The Near Death Picnic

It was good to see the kids again, the ones who were the subjects of my initialresearch into the occurrence of near death experiences (NDEs) in children. Theirstories were first told seven years ago in Closer to the Light andfifteen years after my encounter with Katie, the young lady whose remarkablestory launched me on this path of exploration. Seeing them again, I couldn'tbelieve how much they'd grown and changed, but that's how it is with kids, isn'tit?

They had been arriving all afternoon with their families to visit with my wifeand me. We had the perfect place for a picnic?plenty of open space for games,horses to ride, a pond, barns to explore, and fields to walk in. This was one ofmany such picnics we'd had for these children who'd crossed the threshold ofdeath and lived to tell their miraculous stories. These picnics were anopportunity to catch up and have a good time but, more important, they were achance to learn how the NDEs they'd had as small children influenced who theywere today.

Judging from everything I'd seen and heard so far, their lives were unfolding inremarkable ways. As a group, these young people were different from their peers.Different, not just because they nearly died when they were young, but becauseof the unique perceptions and outlooks that their NDEs had brought to them.

The commonly perceived boundaries of personal growth and potential seem to beirrelevant to them. They possess intuitive and empathetic natures that put themin touch with aspects of our world about which most of us only dream. Their NDEshave given them a variety of unusual abilities, like telepathy or the power toperceive the future.

They also stand out for other, more obvious reasons. They're a solid, steadygroup. In growing up, they've managed to avoid many of the pitfalls in judgmentthat have ensnared others their age. Not one of the girls in this group ofthirty is pregnant, nor is anyone addicted to drugs or alcohol. All areachievers in their own way.

There's a lesson we can all learn from these children, one which those of us whohaven't had an NDE can appreciate. It is a lesson of mystical unity with theuniverse. These children have often expressed to me such ideas as ?I learnedthat we are all connected,? ?I learned that everything is important,? ?I seepieces of that light everywhere.? These children describe precisely the sameinsights as those of the mystics who are present in virtually every societythroughout human history.

This awareness is encouraging. Not only do they tell me that mysticalexperiences transform people, but they represent a change in thinking, aparadigm shift, about the end of life and its implications.

Scientist and author James Burke has detailed many of these paradigm shifts inhuman consciousness over thousands of years. He points out that the changesoccur through the process of new data being discovered that are not explainableunder the old world view of what is real.

These new facts, often discovered by chance or serendipity, lead to a tension inwhich the old order is vigorously defended by a dying generation of scientistsand philosophers even as new ideas emerge. Change is never easy and is rarelywelcomed by those who are comfortable with the familiar and are in positions ofpower.

The Science of Change

Those in the field of science are no exception to these prejudices. Even so,change is part of the important process of scientific progress. Take theViennese obstetrician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. In 1861, he showed conclusivelythat women were dying of childbirth fever because physicians didn't wash theirhands between autopsies and deliveries. In the absence of a ?germ theory,? theysaw no reason to. Semmelweis's ideas about the existence of invisible agents ofdisease were laughable to right-thinking scientists of the day.

It took fifty years for hand-washing to catch on. It took the invention of themicroscope, Lister's invention of the germ theory, and, finally, a youngergeneration of scientists before hand-washing became standard procedure. Thisyounger generation was able to see clinical data objectively?women who wereattended to by physicians who washed their hands had better outcomes than thosewith doctors who didn't wash their hands. A change in clinical practicefollowed.

A more recent example of a discovery changing medicine is the finding in theearly nineties that a common bacteria caused most cases of ulcers, and not highlevels of stress, as was thought for so many years. This discovery, not widelyaccepted in the beginning by most doctors, has completely changed the treatmentof ulcers. Now most cases of ulcers are treated rapidly and successfully withantibiotics instead of with surgery, antacids, and changes in diet that do notwork.

The bottom line is that a paradigm shift occurs only when the old theory cannotexplain new scientific data. And yet, new facts can only be understood andaccepted once there is a scientific theory and framework in which to place them.

In the 1700s, French peasants reported strange sightings?rocks that came fromthe sky. Even though their accounts of this phenomenon were well documented, itwasn't until scientific theory progressed enough to understand planetary motionaround the sun, and gravity, that scientists accepted that meteors were real.

The same is true of reports of ball lightning. Such sightings were similarlydismissed as hallucinations or mass hysteria despite astute observations by suchreliable sources as airline pilots. Not until theoretical physics progressed toexplain the phenomenon did it receive acceptance among the general scientificcommunity.

The same is true with the NDE studies I conducted at Children's Hospital inSeattle. I collected information from children who nearly died and who sharedwith me their observations and encounters at the point of death. Theirexperiences have many common denominators?a sense of leaving their physicalbodies, having contact with a consciousness even though their physical bodieswere clinically dead, and encountering an all-knowing, loving being that most ofthe children call God. They also experienced the sensation of bright light andrecall encounters and conversations with dead relatives.

Excerpted from Where God Lives by Melvin Morse, M.D. with Paul Perry. Copyright © 2000 by Melvin Morse, M.D.. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.