In Dr. Melvin Morse‘s book, Parting Visions, the following angel encounter is documented:
In my own research I have found angels to be an integral part of visions of all kinds. At least 50 percent of the children in my studies see “guardian angels” as a part of their near-death experience. I have also found that guardian angels lend their help at other times of crisis, when a person needs answers to bolster his or her flagging spirit.
Angels are reported under a variety of circumstances. Another report comes from Dr. Frank Oski, a professor of pediatrics under whom I trained at Johns Hopkins University. Oski is not a new-age guru. Rather he is a demanding pediatrician with an encyclopedic knowledge of medicine who insisted that his students come to the hospital having read the latest medical-journal articles. Yet to my great surprise Dr. Oski has been touched by the same mystical light described by people down through the ages who have had visions, including near-death experiences.
As a medical student Oski was enthusiastic about the potential of modern medicine, but frustrated by the fact that children die of congenital defects that are beyond anyone’s control. One night he went to bed pondering the fate of a dying patient. Although he was doing his best, the child was not improving. He felt powerless to help and went to sleep wondering why this child had to die. About an hour after falling asleep Oski was awakened by a bright light, one that shone in his room like a private sun. Oski could make out the form of a woman in the glow of the intense light. She had wings on her back and was approximately twenty years old.
In a quiet and reassuring voice the woman explained to the speechless Oski why it was that children had to die:
“The angel (I don’t know what else to call her) said that life is an endless cycle of improvements and that humans are not perfect yet. She said that most people have this secret revealed to them when they die, but that handicapped children often know this and endure their problems without complaining because they know that their burdens will pass. Some of these children, she said, have even been given the challenge of teaching the rest of us how to love. It stretches our own humanity to love a child who is less than perfect,” said the angel. “And that is an important lesson for us.”
Oski has been courageous enough to talk freely about his experience. He has even written about it for a major pediatric journal. In that article he wrote, “I will make no attempt to convince you as to the reality of my story. But I would merely ask that you keep an open mind on the mysteries of life which occur to you on a daily basis.”
