The importance of deathbed visions
In his book Parting Visions, Dr. Melvin Morse made the following observations:
• family members who know about the visions of the dying are known to spend more time at the dying person's bedside.
• spiritual visions empower dying patients making them realize that they have something to share with others.
• spiritual visions remove all fear of dying in the patient and are enormously healing to the relatives.
• they can prevent burnout on the part of nurses and doctors.
• if attended to, they can dramatically reduce wasteful medical procedures that are often painful to the patient.
Morse claims that 30-60% of the American healthcare dollar is spent in the last few days of a person's life, and 'most of it is spent in useless procedures that do nothing to prolong life' (Morse and Perry 1994:136).