Dr. George G. Ritchie, M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 (25 September 1923 – 29 October 2007) held positions as president

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 of the Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

 Academy of General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc. for almost 20 years. In 1967, he entered private psychiatry

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 practice in Richmond and in 1983, moved to Anniston

Anniston, Alabama

Anniston is a city in Calhoun County in the state of Alabama, United States.As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 24,276. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 23,741...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, to serve as head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center. He returned to Richmond in 1986 to continue in private practice until retirement in 1992.

Near-death experience

At the age of twenty, George Ritchie apparently died in an army hospital and was pronounced dead twice by the doctor on duty. Nine minutes later he returned to life. Dr. Ritchie wrote of his near-death experience (NDE) in Return from Tomorrow

Return from tomorrow

Return From Tomorrow is a book by Dr. George G. Ritchie describing his near-death experience in an Army hospital at the age of 20.In "Return from Tomorrow," he tells of his out-of-the-body encounter with other beings, his travel through different dimensions of time and space, and ultimately, his...

, co-written with Elizabeth Sherrill (1978). In Return from Tomorrow, he tells of his out-of-body experience

Out-of-body experience

An out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....

, his meeting with Jesus Christ, and his travel with Christ through different dimensions of time and space. Return from Tomorrow has been translated into nine languages.

Ritchie's story was the first contact Dr. Raymond Moody

Raymond Moody

Raymond Moody is a psychologist and medical doctor. He is most famous as an author of books about life after death and near-death experiences , a term that he coined in 1975. His best-selling title is Life After Life.-Life:...

, PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 had with NDEs, during his undergraduate studies in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

. This led Moody to investigate over 150 cases of NDEs in his book Life After Life

Life After Life

Life After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences . The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die...

and two other books that followed.

Passing

Dr. Ritchie died on Monday October 29, 2007 at his home in Irvington, Virginia

Irvington, Virginia

Irvington is a town in Lancaster County, Virginia, United States. The population was 673 at the 2000 census and it is located on a peninsula of land known as the Northern Neck. It is the name also of a historic district....

, following a courageous battle with cancer.

External links

• Obituary, Anniston Star, October 31, 2007. Accessed 2007-12-18.
• Obituary, Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 31, 2007. Accessed 2007-12-18.
• Book review of Return from Tomorrow by Joan Fulcher, April 19, 2002. Accessed 2007-12-18.
• Heaven and Hell: Dr. George Ritchie's near-death experience (WebCite archive). Accessed 2009-06-02.
• Miracle at Easter by Sharon Barrett Kennedy: the story of a healing miracle "foretold by the Lord" to George Ritchie. Accessed 2007-12-18.