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1. About Dr. George Ritchie
In 1943, at the age of 20, Dr. George G. Ritchie, Jr., M.D., (1923-2007) 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 (NDE) 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 which you can read in its entirety in his book Return From Tomorrow.
2. Verified Evidence of George Ritchie’s Out-of-Body Experience
A major feature of Dr. George Ritchie’s NDE was his extensive out-of-body experience (OBE) at the beginning of his NDE. His observations have enormous implications because they have been verified by a third-party. NDE expert Robert Mays (www.selfconsciousmind.com) has investigated and verified the details of Ritchie’s out-of-body observations. While out of his body, Ritchie traveled to a distant location (523 miles away) and saw details of an unfamiliar area very accurately. What is most striking is that the location of the cafe that Ritchie saw, from the likely station hospital door, appears to be exactly due east, and the location of the blinking caution lights Ritchie saw are also at this precise latitude. Indeed, the maximum deviation from the hospital to Vicksburg could have been only 0.6 seconds of arc, or 2900 feet over 523 miles of travel. The fact that three key aspects of Ritchie’s account have likely correlates at the exact same latitude, occurring at widely spaced intervals, and that Ritchie reports having traveled east strongly suggest that his “flight” was an objective albeit unusual event. Much more evidence about Robert Mays’ investigation can be read in this article.
3. 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.” – Jesus’ words to George Ritchie
George Ritchie’s book, Return From Tomorrow, which describes his NDE, was published in 1985. This was approximately 42 years after his experience. Since Jesus told him that he had 45 years, and it took 42 years until Ritchie’s book was published, it may be assumed that Jesus meant for Ritchie to publish his testimony within 45 years.
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.
4. The Profound Aftereffects 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 Dr. 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 NDE.”
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.
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 OBE and his meeting with Jesus Christ his travel through different dimensions of time and space with Christ; and his experience in heaven. 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).
5. 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.
6. A Summary of George Ritchie’s NDE
The following is a summary of Dr. George Ritchie’s NDE. You can read his entire NDE testimony in his book, Return From Tomorrow.
a. His OBE and Life Review with Jesus
When the men released Ritchie’s arms, he heard a growing whirring sound that seemed to fill his mind. His body weakened, and suddenly he found himself sitting up, confused. His belongings were gone, and when he turned, he saw a young man lying in the bed – someone who looked exactly like himself.
Shaken, he left the room and tried to speak to others, but no one could see or hear him. He passed through objects and people as if he had no physical form. Realizing something was terribly wrong, he rushed outside and found himself traveling at incredible speed across the landscape, somehow heading toward Richmond.
He briefly stopped in a town, trying again to speak to someone, but discovered he could not touch or be noticed. It dawned on him that the world around him was normal – he was the one who had changed. Remembering the body in the hospital bed, he began to suspect he had somehow separated from his physical self.
He was suddenly pulled back to the hospital, where he searched frantically until he found a body lying still beneath a sheet. A familiar ring confirmed his fear – the body was his. For the first time, he considered that he might be dead, though he was still conscious and aware.
Then the room filled with an overwhelming light. A radiant figure appeared – a being made of light, whom he recognized as Jesus. In this presence, he felt complete and unconditional love, along with the awareness that every moment of his life was laid open before him.
A question formed: what had he done with his life? Seeing mostly selfishness, he tried to justify himself, but the response came gently – death can come at any age.
He realized the judgment he felt came from himself, not from the being before him. The true question was about love – how much he had loved others. When he thought someone should have told him, the answer came: he already had been told, through that very life and example.
b. His Guided Tour of the Earthbound Realm with Jesus
Ritchie suddenly became aware that he and Jesus were moving. One moment he had been in the hospital, and the next it had completely vanished. The vivid scenes from his life that had surrounded him were gone as well. Now, he found himself high above the Earth, traveling toward a distant point of light.
As they approached, the tiny point expanded into what looked like a large city. It was nighttime, yet the city was alive – factory smokestacks poured into the sky, and buildings glowed with lights on every floor. Beyond the city lay a large body of water. Though unfamiliar, it was clearly a place driven by constant industrial activity, likely tied to wartime production.
As they moved through the city, Ritchie began to notice something strange. Again and again, he saw people who seemed completely unaware of others standing right beside them. In one scene, a woman desperately begged another for a cigarette, but she was ignored. The woman reached again and again, trying to grab it – even attempting to take it directly from the other woman’s mouth – but she could not grasp it. With a sudden realization, Ritchie understood: like himself, she was dead.
They witnessed other scenes just like this. A young man followed his father from room to room, apologizing over and over, but his father could not hear him. A boy trailed a girl through a school hallway, repeating his regret endlessly. A woman pleaded for forgiveness from a man who remained unaware of her presence. These figures were trapped, speaking to the living, yet unable to reach them.
When Ritchie asked why this was happening, the answer came to him as a clear thought: these were suicides, bound to the consequences of their actions.
He then noticed something else. Every living person was surrounded by a faint glow, like a thin layer of light covering their bodies. This glow moved with them, almost like a second skin. The dead, including himself, did not have it.
Soon they entered a crowded bar near what appeared to be a naval base. The room was filled with sailors and civilians drinking heavily. But among them were other figures – desperate, restless beings who tried again and again to pick up drinks but could not. Their hands passed through glasses, through the bar, even through other people. Like Ritchie, they lacked the glowing sheath of light.
It became clear that the living could not see or feel these beings. Yet the dead could see and hear each other. Arguments broke out among them over drinks none could actually consume.
Then Ritchie saw something startling. A sailor collapsed, and as he lost consciousness, the glowing light around him opened at the top. Instantly, one of the disembodied beings leapt toward the opening and vanished. Moments later, there was only one figure where there had been two. This happened again and again – suggesting that these desperate beings were trying to enter the bodies of the living.
Ritchie began to understand. These spirits seemed driven by intense cravings – especially for things like alcohol – that they could no longer satisfy without a physical body. The realization sent a chill through him. This endless craving, combined with complete inability to fulfill it, felt like a form of hell.
He had always imagined hell as a distant place of fire and punishment. But now he saw another possibility: a state of being right here on Earth, invisible to the living, where desire burned strongest precisely where it could never be satisfied.
And then came a deeper realization – this was not just a possibility. This was reality. And he himself was part of it.
c. His Experience of the “Receiving Station”
Jesus then took 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 Observations of the Temple of Wisdom
Ritchie found that everything in the experience centered on Jesus, who remained constantly at his side. No matter what else was revealed, Jesus was always the focus of his attention. At first, Ritchie had the sense that they were still somehow moving along the Earth, or at least very close to it. Even what he thought of as a higher level of understanding still felt connected to a solid, physical-like world where bodiless beings existed.
Then something changed. It felt as though they had left the Earth completely behind.
In the vast distance ahead, Ritchie became aware of a city – so far away it seemed impossible to see, yet it shone brilliantly across that immeasurable space. The city glowed with its own light. Its streets, its walls, and even the beings within it radiated brightness. Everything appeared to be made of light, just like the figure beside him.
At that time, Ritchie had not yet read the Book of Revelation, but he stood in awe of what he was witnessing. He wondered how anything could shine so brightly from such an unimaginable distance. As he watched, he began to question whether these radiant beings might be those who had devoted their lives completely to Christ – people who had focused so deeply on him that they had been transformed into his likeness.
Even as the thought formed, two of the luminous beings separated from the city and moved toward them with incredible speed. This surprised Ritchie, because it was the first place they had encountered where beings could actually see both him and Christ. What struck him even more was that these beings shone almost as brightly as Christ himself. As they approached, he felt an overwhelming sense of love flowing from them. Their joy at seeing Christ was unmistakable.
Experiencing that love, peace, and happiness, Ritchie felt certain that this was the highest realm – the place above all others. The beings here were filled completely with love. He became convinced this was heaven. Compared to this, everything he had seen before seemed incomplete. For the first time, he truly understood the meaning behind the words of Paul the Apostle in First Corinthians – that without love, nothing else matters.
He did not believe the beings in earlier realms lacked love, but here, love existed in a far greater and more complete form.
Just as suddenly as the beings had come closer, they began to move away. Ritchie felt a deep panic. He did not want to be separated from Christ. What he had found in that presence was a sense of belonging unlike anything he had ever known. The thought of losing it was unbearable.
Then, Christ showed him something unexpected. A kind of corridor opened through time. In it, Ritchie saw a future filled with increasing natural disasters – hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. He saw humanity becoming more selfish and divided. Families broke apart, governments collapsed, and people acted only for themselves. He saw armies advancing and devastating explosions occurring across the world. It became clear to him that if this path continued, human life as it was known could not survive.
That vision closed, and another corridor opened.
At first, it looked similar. But as it unfolded, the future it revealed was very different. The world became more peaceful. Humanity changed. People were less critical and less destructive. They began to understand love. Both humanity and nature improved together. In this future, people seemed more like the beings Ritchie had seen in the higher realms.
At that moment, Christ communicated a message directly to him. Humanity, he understood, had a choice. The direction of the future was not fixed. Christ explained that his life on Earth had been meant to show people how to love, and that without God, nothing could be accomplished. Ritchie was told that humanity had a limited time – 45 years.
Then came the instruction to return.
Ritchie did not understand what the 45 years meant at that moment. But suddenly, the experience ended. He became aware again of his physical body. His throat burned, and there was a crushing weight on his chest.
(Here, George Ritchie’s NDE ends and he returns to earthly life.)
Note: George Ritchie’s book, Return From Tomorrow, which describes his NDE, was published in 1985. This was approximately 42 years after his experience. Since Jesus told him that he had 45 years, and it took 42 years until Ritchie’s book was published, it may be assumed that Jesus meant for Ritchie to publish his testimony within 45 years.
7. 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, “Where are you, Adam?
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 “son 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)
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:
“And I shall draw all humanity to myself, when I am lifted up from the Earth.” – Jesus, John 12:31-36
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:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus, Luke 10:25-28
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.
