In
1943, at the age of 20, Dr. George G.
Ritchie, Jr., M.D., (September, 25, 1923
– October 29, 2007) was a private in
the Army stationed in Texas awaiting a
transfer to Richmond to study medicine at
the Medical College of Virginia to become a
doctor for the military. However, he got
sick with pneumonia and died. The Army
physician in charge stated in a notarized
statement that the medical officer summoned
detected "no evidence of respiration or
cardiac impulse" and declared Ritchie dead.
Ritchie had left his body in a near-death
experience wandering around the hospital
ward unaware he was dead. He found it
strange no one could see him. He returned to
his room and recognized his lifeless body,
which had been covered with a sheet, by his
fraternity ring. The room then became bright
and Ritchie found himself in the presence of
Jesus who then guided him through several
realms of the afterlife before being told to
return to his body. As the ward was
preparing Ritchie's body for the morgue, he
thought he detected movement in Ritchie's
chest and called for a medical officer who
provided a shot of adrenaline to the
patient's heart causing him to breathe and
his heart to beat. Ritchie then returned to
life with one of the most important and
profound NDEs every documented.
1. George Ritchie's
NDE Visions of the Future
Ritchie's NDE
occurred in 1943 when he was shown
visions of
Earth's future. Jesus informed
him he had 45 years to accomplish his
mission in life:
"It is left
to humanity which direction they
shall choose. I came to this planet
to show you, through the life I led,
how to love. Without our Father you
can do nothing, neither could I. I
showed you this. You have 45 years."
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Jesus' words to George Ritchie
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Ritchie saw
increasing natural disasters on Earth
(hurricanes, floods, earthquakes,
volcanoes); families splitting and
governments are breaking apart because of
people thinking only of themselves; and
armies marching on the U.S. from the south.
He also saw explosions occurring all over
the world of a magnitude beyond our capacity
to imagine. He was told that if they
continued, human life as we have known it
will not exist.
2. The Profound
After-Effects of George Ritchie's NDE
After Ritchie had
his NDE in 1943, he had no idea what he was
supposed to accomplish within the 45 years
Jesus gave him ending in 1988. In the late
1960s, during his post-graduate studies and
residency in psychiatry at the
University of Virginia, his NDE
testimony attracted the attention of
Raymond Moody, MD
(www.lifeafterlife.com)
Ritchie's testimony was the first contact of
Moody's investigation into over 150 cases of
NDEs resulting in Moody's publishing of his
study in the ground-breaking book,
Life After Life: The Investigation of a
Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death.
Because of the overwhelming success and
popularity of his study and book, Moody is
considered to be "the father of the
near-death experience."
Ritchie's NDE is in
a class of its own. You will find his
experience to be one of the most profound
NDEs ever documented. His NDE is also one of
the most important cases of "NDE
veridical perception" which are NDE
out-of-body observations later verified
by third-parties. During his NDE, Ritchie
traveled out of his body for a distance of
thousands of miles where he observed
detailed events later verified to be true.
Visit the website of
NDE expert Robert Mays
(www.selfconsciousmind.com)
who verified the veridical evidence of
Ritchie's NDE.
In 1978, ten years
before the allotted 45 years given to him by
Jesus, Ritchie published his first book
about his NDE,
Return from Tomorrow
(1978, 2007) co-authored by
Elizabeth Sherrill
(www.elizabethsherrill.com).
Ritchie's book became so
popular it has been translated into nine
languages. In it he tells of his out-of-body
experience and
his meeting with Jesus Christ
his travel
through
different dimensions of time and space
with Christ; and
his experience in heaven
(www.archive.org).
Ritchie authored two more books about his
NDE: his second book,
My Life After Dying: Becoming Alive To
Universal Love (1991), and
his third and final book,
Ordered to Return: My Life After Dying
(1998), was co-authored by the
famous NDE and reincarnation studies expert,
Dr. Ian Stevenson (also see
his Wikipedia page).
3. More
Information about Dr. George Ritchie
Ritchie's NDE
initially delayed his medical education and
he graduated from the Medical College of
Virginia in 1950 after the war, operating a
successful career in private practice in
Richmond until 1964. He did his residency in
psychiatry at the
University of Virginia from 1964 through
1967, winning the
William James Research Award for Research in
Psychiatry. In 1967 he began a
successful private psychiatry practice in
Charlottesville, Virginia, for 16 years. In
1983 he moved to Anniston, Alabama, to serve
as head of the Department of Psychiatry at
the
Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center
before returning to Richmond three years
later to oversee the
Richmond-Rope Harbor Alcoholic Hospital.
He also held positions as chairman of the
Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital
and president of the
Richmond Academy of General Practice. He
helped found the
David C. Wilson Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital
in Charlottesville, Virginia. He continued
his private practice until retirement in
1992.
But more than
anything, Ritchie was especially proud of
his work with youth. He was involved with
Scouting for 22 years from 1935-1957.
Ritchie was founder and president of the
Universal Youth Corps, Inc. for almost
20 years. The Universal Youth Corps (UYC) is
an organization encouraging young men and
women to follow Christ offering medical
service without pay to the poor and reached
out with a helping hand through charities.
The UYC was the inspiration for
President Kennedy to establish the Peace
Corps. In 1972, one of Ritchie's UYC
meetings,
a miraculous healing occurred when
Ritchie asked one of the boys to offer a
prayer. Ritchie reminded them of the Bible
verse where Christ says, “Again, truly I
tell you that if two of you on Earth agree
about anything they ask for, it will be done
for them by my Father in heaven. For where
two or three gather in my name, there am I
with them.” (Matthew
18:19-20). One of the boys asked God to
heal the horse of his friend - referring to
a young girl whose horse was dying from an
infection so severe the veterinarian advised
the family to "put the horse down." Ritchie
then told the girl's father, who was also
attending the meeting, that the Lord had
spoken to him while the boy was praying,
saying, "If you will give thanks for the
horse's healing now, he will be well in two
weeks." The girl's father did what Ritchie
said; but on the thirteenth night after the
meeting, the horse was no better. But on the
next morning, sometime during the night, the
horse was completely healed. Even the
incision was gone. The miraculous healing
had occurred just as Ritchie said God
promised.
Ritchie was also
a Sunday School teacher for many years and
was a charter member and elder in the
Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church. He was
also a member of the
United Methodist Church and the
Baptist Church. He is best known for his
NDE testimony which he shared all over the
world, attending speaking engagements
throughout Europe, the U.S. and Mexico.
Ritchie, an avid
fisherman who loved being out on the river,
died on October 29, 2007 at his home in
Irvington, Virginia, at the age of 84,
following a long and courageous battle with
cancer. Ritchie is survived by his wife of
60 years, Marguerite Shell Ritchie, his
daughter and son, granddaughters, and great
grandchildren.
4. A Brief Summary
of George Ritchie's NDE
The following is
a brief summary of Dr. George Ritchie's
near-death experience. You can read his
entire NDE testimony in his book,
Return From Tomorrow and the
Internet archives.
a. His Out-of-Body
Experience and Life Review with Jesus
George Ritchie dies
of pneumonia in a Texas Army hospital and
leaves his body unaware he is dead. He
wanders around the hospital ward and wonders
why people cannot see or hear him. Wanting
eagerly to travel to Richmond, Virginia, to
finish college, the thought instantly sends
him flying through the door of the hospital
and into the air - traveling thousands of
miles toward Richmond. He is bewildered
about these sudden supernatural powers of
flight and transparency he has attained. He
then arrives at a city with a bar and
discovers the people there cannot see or
hear him either. He also has no solidness
there either. He flies back to the Army
hospital where he sees his lifeless body in
the morgue and realizes he is dead..
Suddenly, a being of
tremendous light and love appeared before
him. Ritchie realizes this light is like "a
million welders' lamps all blazing at once."
Human eyes would be destroyed in a second if
they saw it. The being tells Ritchie to
stand up. Ritchie is astonished to learn he
is standing before Jesus Christ. More than
anything emanating from Jesus was the
unbelievable amount of unconditional love
shining from him - a love that knew
everything about Ritchie and loved him just
the same. Simultaneously, as Jesus appeared
to him, Ritchie watches his entire life
displayed before him. Jesus asks him, "What
have you done with your life?" Ritchie tries
to come up with several examples but
realizes he has fallen short. Ritchie
eventually realizes Jesus is not judging him
at all; but rather, Ritchie was judging
himself. And the question "What have you
done with your life?" had more to do with
"How much unconditional love have you given
others."
b. His Guided Tour
of the Earthbound Realm with Jesus
Then Jesus begins to
take Ritchie on a journey through various
realms of the afterlife. They fly toward a
large city on Earth where they notice a
group of assembly-line workers at work. They
witnesses the spirit of a woman trying
desperately to grab a cigarette from the
workers who were oblivious to her presence.
This woman had died severely addicted to
cigarettes and was now cut off from the one
thing she desperately desired most.
Ritchie realizes how
the spirits in these realms immediately know
the thoughts of other spirits around them.
This is the reason they tend to group
together with other spirits. It is too
threatening to be around others who knew and
disagreed with their thoughts.
Jesus leads Ritchie
to a house somewhere on Earth where he is
shown the spirit of a young man following
his living family members around and begging
them for forgiveness. But the family members
are completely unaware of his presence.
Jesus tells Ritchie the young man committed
suicide and is "chained to every consequence
of his act."
They then traveled
to a bar somewhere on Earth which was filled
with sailors drinking heavily. Spirits
surrounded the sailors as they tried
desperately, and in vain, to grasp the shot
glasses to get a drink. Other spirits tried
to control the sailors' alcoholic behavior.
Ritchie learns these are the spirits of
people who died still having a severe
alcoholic addiction which went beyond the
physical. He is bewildered as he observes
one of the sailors passing out causing the
sailor's protective aura surrounding him to
crack open. When it does, it allows a spirit
to scramble into the sailor's unconscious
body. This scene was repeated over and over.
c. His Experience of
the "Receiving Station"
Jesus then takes
Ritchie to another realm and is shown a kind
of "receiving
station"
where spirits would arrive in a deep
hypnotic sleep because of a particular
religious belief they held to be true. Here
there were "angels" trying to arouse them
and help them realize, "God is truly a God
of the living and that they did not have to
lie around sleeping until Gabriel or someone
came along blowing on a horn." These are the
spirits of people who believe they must
sleep in their grave until the second coming
of Christ (i.e.,
soul sleep.)
d. His
Description of the Horrors of Hell
They were still
somewhere on the surface of the Earth; but
no living person or beings of light could be
seen. Before them was a plain jammed with
hordes of spirits who are the most miserable
and angriest beings he has ever seen. Many
were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with no
weapons - trying in vain to hurt and kill
those who didn't agree with them. A lot of
verbal abuse could be heard between them as
their thoughts could be heard by everyone
around them the moment they are thought.
Ritchie is horrified as he wonders what
living in such a realm would be like - a
place where you cannot hide from who you
really are. These spirits were locked into
destructive thought-patterns, rage and
uncontrollable lust. Some were trying in
vain to get sexual gratification from each
other. The wailing coming from the hordes of
unsatisfied spirits was tremendous. Other
spirits were in despair saying things such
as, "I always knew!" and "Didn't I warn
you!" Ritchie realizes
this place is truly hell. Their
obsessive thoughts and emotions extended
beyond the physical realm and into the
spiritual realm where they cannot be
satisfied. Yet there was nothing preventing
any of the poor spirits in these realms from
leaving. There was no condemnation coming
from Jesus either - only compassion for
these miserable spirits. Ritchie realizes
Jesus hadn't abandoned any of them here.
Instead they fled from the light to escape
from having the darkness of their heart from
being revealed.
e. His Observations
of the Temple of Wisdom
They then travel
to a completely different realm where some
kind of enormous university is located.
Spirits dressed as monks busily and happily
engaged in some form of artistic behavior or
research. An
enormous library
exists here where all the important books of
the universe are assembled. Ritchie asks
Jesus if this is heaven. These are the
spirits of people who grew beyond selfish
desires while on Earth; but, like the
spirits in hell, these spirits cannot see
Jesus either.
f. His Vision
of the Heavenly City
Ritchie is then
taken into outer space toward a distant city
made of brilliant light - similar in
description to the heavenly city in the
Book of
Revelation
(see also
Revelation
21:10-27.)
This is the place where people go who have
become like Jesus while on Earth - a place
where love is the dominant focus of life.
This is heaven he realizes; but he is not
allowed to enter it. Instead, Jesus shows
him the future of Earth and is told to
return to his physical body. At this point,
Ritchie is revived from death.
5. A Commentary
by George Ritchie
The following commentary is an excerpt from
George Ritchie's book,
My Life After Dying: Becoming Alive to
Universal Love.
Across the ages,
as he did in the
Garden of Eden, God still calls out to
man:
Man, with the
help of the
dogmas of
Western Christianity, has lost his way,
and sees himself totally separated from God
because Western Christianity through the
Roman Catholic Church stressed
fallen man, with
Jesus dying for our sins on the cross.
The churches have not explained
our potential as gods (our potential of
becoming a sons of God like Jesus) with our
God-given creative power, and how necessary
it is for us to be under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit of God when we use this power.
Quoting
Psalms 82:6, Jesus asked:
"Is it not written in your law, I
said, you are gods?" (from
John 10:30-39)
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St. Irenaeus, a famous early Christian
leader stated that
God became a human being in order that human
beings might become God. I would change
what he said only to the degree that I would
say that Jesus showed us the God that God,
our Father created us to be.
Instead the
churches lead us to believe that
the church was given the authority to decide
who was going to heaven, and that those
who didn't join their particular
denomination were going to hell. This is
incongruous with the teachings of Jesus,
the Christ, who told us the tale of
the prodigal son not only to help us
understand the love and forgiveness of God
but to help us understand that the prodigal
son is the cosmic tale of each and every
human being. We have all forgotten that
we are sons and daughters of the most high
God; that our spiritual side, the soul
of man, needs to return to have total
fellowship with the Father. To do this we
have to come to ourselves and realize that
in this human realm of existence, our human,
selfish side has led us down the road of
materialism and of living only for
ourselves, which caused us to turn away from
our Father and our divine destiny and forget
who we are. It caused our spiritual death.
Jesus went on the cross to show us that
we must die to this human
egotistical side
in order to let the soul of man, which has
carried the knowledge of who it is and from
whence it came, come to life and into
control.
This is our
ultimate destiny, to reach out and begin to
communicate with the Christ, so that he can
lead us back to being alive (into that
perfect union with our Father) and let
him pass his love and thinking through us to
one another.
We must come to know the living resurrected
Christ within us, and depend on passing
his love to one another and to God, because
our human love isn't enough. When we
recognize this truth, then, like the
prodigal son Jesus told about, we will have
come to ourselves; that is,
we will come alive, and will decide to
go home, for we will know that even being a
servant in our Father's household is better
than being dead spiritually, the way we have
been living.
Then, with the
Christ, the Holy Spirit and our Father - all
of us joined together - we shall be helping
to create a universe and no longer a
diverse.
This is what I
believe Jesus meant when he said:
Christ showed us that he had to go through
the death of his physical self in order for
the resurrection of his spiritual self to
take place. I think that his death on
the cross also symbolized that we must
realize we are dead before we can be raised
up by the resurrected Christ within us. I
find it hard to believe that in our present
state of spiritual death
we can conquer our self-centered lower
physical nature without going through the
death and surrender of our will as did Jesus
on the cross. I can say from the risen
Christ's having conducted me through four
realms of life after death, that in the
highest realm, he showed me beings who had
followed his teachings and were now
resurrected into spiritual beings who
were like him when it came to the love,
light and life they put forth.
I believe Jesus
did not incarnate just to die for our sins,
but that he also lived and died to show all
of humanity, regardless of race, creed, or
color,
how much God our Father loved us. He expects
us to do the same thing. When we come to
realize this, then he will truly be lifted
up for we shall be keeping the great
commandment:
Our destiny is
not only to come to know and rise above our
human side, but, by
following his example of dying to self,
to come to know and activate, or bring to
life, our spiritual side, which he showed
was in every man, woman, and child. He
showed us how to die to self and how to rise
from the dead and ascend into our Higher
Self, life.
I'm not saying
that we have to make a sacrificial death on
a cross as Jesus did. I am saying that we
have to reach the place where
we are willing to face the death of our
self-centered nature so that our higher
spiritual nature can gain control. I
believe that being willing to follow such a
total surrender to God's will,
will bring about a resurrection and
ascension of the transformed self, which
can change a world into a
heaven on earth. He started this
transformation first in himself to show what
can happen to all who would follow him. It
changed him and all who followed him because
he surrendered his will to
God our Father, who, he showed, is pure LOVE.
Our destiny is to do the same thing in order
to survive and change our world.
His commission wasn't just to teach and show
us how to reach the highest realm, heaven,
but rather how to create heaven on earth.
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