{"id":99681,"date":"2023-04-24T22:20:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T04:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=99681"},"modified":"2023-04-24T23:20:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T05:20:12","slug":"an-untrustworthy-nde-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/04\/an-untrustworthy-nde-account.html","title":{"rendered":"An untrustworthy NDE account?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ritchie<\/a>
The cover of Dr. George G. Ritchie\u2019s intriguing first book (Amazon.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several years ago, I posted a quotation from George G. Ritchie, M.D., regarding the near-death experience that he purported to have had in 1943, when he was twenty years old and serving in the military:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you do with your life?
\nIt seemed to be a question about values, not facts: What did you accomplish with the precious time you were allotted?
\nHow much have you loved with your life? Have you loved others as I am loving you? \u00a0Totally? \u00a0Unconditionally?
\nI have shown you by the life I lived. \u00a0I showed you by the death I died. \u00a0And if you keep your eyes on Me, you will see more. . . . \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cDeath is nothing more than a doorway,\u201d Dr. Ritchie\u00a0insisted, \u201csomething you walk through.\u201d<\/p>\n

One critical reader, responding to that quotation, took me to task for giving any credence to Dr. Ritchie, a Virginia physician and psychiatrist who died in 2007 at the age of 84. \u00a0Dr. Ritchie, he said, claimed to have been told by Jesus during his near-death experience or NDE that Armageddon would occur in 1988. \u00a0Plainly, it didn\u2019t and it hasn\u2019t yet. \u00a0So Dr. Ritchie stands discredited.<\/p>\n

I responded that, while my copy of Dr. Ritchie\u2019s book Return from Tomorrow<\/em> wasn\u2019t (and still isn\u2019t) ready to hand, I recalled no such claim. \u00a0And I think that it would have stood out in my mind, because I read the book after<\/em>\u00a01988.<\/p>\n

So, in support of his claim, the critic offered this: \u00a0\u201cRitchie\u2019s NDE occurred in 1943 when he was shown visions of Earth\u2019s future. Jesus informed him he had 45 years to accomplish his mission in life. That would be 1988: \u00a0\u2018It 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.\u2019 \u2013 Jesus\u2019 words to George Ritchie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, I still haven\u2019t looked again at Dr. Ritchie\u2019s book. \u00a0My copy is inaccessible. \u00a0And it doesn\u2019t seem that the critic ever actually looked at the book, either, since he always cited secondary sources. \u00a0Moreover, I notice that the quotation above doesn\u2019t actually say that \u201cArmageddon\u201d would occur within forty-five years. \u00a0It talks about Dr. Ritchie\u2019s \u201cmission in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0critic also cited this summary, from a website<\/a> that\u2019s obviously sympathetic to Dr. Ritchie\u2019s claim:<\/p>\n

\u201cRitchie 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the website, which I presume was launched after 1988 \u2014 are<\/em> there any websites that predate 1988? \u2014 seems to make no connection between the quoted 45-year deadline and those natural disasters.<\/p>\n

Still, puzzled\u00a0by the critic\u2019s assertion, I contacted my friend Martin Tanner<\/a>, who is the host of KSL Radio\u2019s program Religion Today<\/em> , who very capably oversees the weekly Interpreter Radio Show, and who is currently vice president of the\u00a0 International Association for Near-Death Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It turns out that Martin had been a good friend of Dr. Ritchie, and he went out of his way to tell me by telephone that he regarded Dr. Ritchie as completely honest, sincere, and credible.\u00a0 (Dr. Ritchie does indeed seem to have had a decent professional reputation, judging even from just the internet:\u00a0 Among other things, he served as the president\u00a0of the\u00a0Richmond [Virginia] Academy of General Practice;<\/sup> chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital, in Charlottesville, Virginia.)\u00a0 And, furthermore, Martin sent me the following email:<\/p>\n

Dan,<\/span><\/p>\n

Last night I looked over both of George Ritchie\u2019s books,\u00a0Return From Tomorrow<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0My Life After Dying<\/i>.\u00a0 There is nothing about 1988 in\u00a0Return From Tomorrow<\/i>.\u00a0 As I began to re-read\u00a0My Life After Dying<\/i>, it all became clear.\u00a0 There is a reference, on page 30, which is no doubt the source.\u00a0 I have attached it in pdf format.\u00a0 Here are my comments about it:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1.\u00a0 On page 30 of\u00a0My Life After Dying<\/i>, Ritchie says Jesus told him at the end of his NDE in 1943 \u201cYou have 45 Years.\u201d \u00a0Forty-five years after 1943 would be 1988.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2.\u00a0 I understood from George Ritchie himself, that he understood from Jesus\u2019 comment that he was given 45 years to share his experience with the world, which he did by publishing his book\u00a0Return From Tomorrow<\/i>in 1978, 10 years before the deadline given by Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
3.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t Jesus want Ritchie to publish his experience immediately?\u00a0 Ritchie said he was just 20 years old and without adequate writing skills.\u00a0 Plus, nothing was known about NDEs at this time, so not later than 45 years, put sharing his experience at a time when people would understand and accept it.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
4.\u00a0 Ritchie, on pages 28-30 of his book describes what I have heard from many, many people who have had NDEs \u2013 alternative visions of the future.\u00a0 The terrible vision happens if humanity chooses evil.\u00a0 The good vision happens if humanity chooses good.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
5.\u00a0 The evil potential, possible future mentions armies marching on the U.S. from the South.\u00a0 Ritchie thought this was the onslaught of illegal aliens, damaging this country, taking its resources and not understanding the ideals and opportunities of freedom the divinely inspired constitutional form of government as given by the Founding Fathers offers, thus moving towards socialism and communism.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
6.\u00a0 The only source I\u2019ve been able to find which says Ritchie had 45 years, until 1988, until he would die or the Second Coming would happen, is the\u00a0Skeptic Forum<\/i>\u00a0website at this link:<\/span><\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.skepticforum.com\/viewtopic.php?t=21538<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
7.\u00a0 The\u00a0Skeptic Forum<\/i>\u00a0is riddled with errors, misstatements and innuendo not justified by Ritchie\u2019s own writings.\u00a0 It is filled with bad grammar and typical of\u00a0ad hominem<\/i>, poorly reasoned and unfair attacks.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
8.\u00a0 Ritchie published\u00a0My Life After Dying<\/i>\u00a0in 1991.\u00a0 If he had either made up his NDE or genuinely had one and thought Jesus was coming by 1988 or he would die by then, he would have left the \u201cyou have 45 years\u201d quote out of the book entirely or cited it and said he was puzzled by it.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
9.\u00a0 He did neither.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Several years ago, I posted a quotation from George G. Ritchie, M.D., regarding the near-death experience that he purported to have had in 1943, when he was twenty years old and serving in the military: \u201cWhat did you do with your life? It seemed to be a question about values, not facts: What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":34241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13180,1727,21171,1104,5817,11681,35868,35871,27918,27921,4063,1011,16257,5820,19543,35877,900,9392,903,9916,35874,3583,14023,3589],"class_list":["post-99681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-after-life","tag-afterlife","tag-armageddon","tag-death","tag-eternal-life","tag-future-life","tag-george-g-ritchie","tag-george-ritchie","tag-iands","tag-international-association-for-near-death-studies","tag-life","tag-life-after-death","tag-life-after-life","tag-life-to-come","tag-martin-tanner","tag-my-life-after-dying","tag-nde","tag-ndes","tag-near-death-experience","tag-near-death-experiences","tag-return-from-tomorrow","tag-richmond","tag-ritchie","tag-virginia"],"yoast_head":"\nAn untrustworthy NDE account?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Several years ago, I posted a quotation from George G. 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