The strange case of Melvin Morse

Melvin L. Morse is seen in an undated photo provided by the Delaware State Police. Morse, 58, of Georgetown, Del., and his wife, Pauline Morse, were arrested Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 by Delaware State Police and charged with recklessly endangering their two daughters, including the use of a form of discipline that police say the man called “waterboarding.” (AP Photo/Delaware State Police)

A Delaware pediatrician named Melvin Morse has been charged with several felonies based on his daughter’s claims that he waterboarded her.

According to the court documents, the girl said her father would hold her face under a faucet, forcing the water up her nose, and that he once told her that she could go five minutes without brain damage. Read the story

Morse’s attorney says that’s an exaggeration from a girl with a history of lying.

But if you go to Morse’s own website, you find that he had done extensive work on near death experiences involving children.

In a 2004 report, Dr. Morse describes the case of a 7-year-old child who had drowned.

“She was underwater for 19 minutes. What she described to me was not a hallucination, it was a blow-by-blow accurate description of her own resuscitation,” said Morse.

He felt that childrens’ near death experiences were the most pure and wanted to understand what the mysterious light was trying to teach us.

“One child said to me it was a light that told her who she was and where she was to go,” said Morse.

He also reportedly said that an imaginary falcon told him to move quickly in the dark of night to the East Coast to pursue his “BIG IDEA” which comes from children. But his ex-wife told KOMO TV, “He should not be around anybody’s children or his own, ever. I don’t think he’ll ever be normal.”

Now that he’s in jail, it appears his research will have to wait.