Rating: 
Summary: Very positively challenging...
Review: A precious look into the unseen world which is very real and this account challenges us to consider it for ourselves. Well written, keeping one's interest and yet very believable and ponderable. A privileged trip with one who made it, giving the opportunity to experience it without having the same circumstances in one's own life. Excellent and sobering.
Rating:
Summary: Wow...I don't know what to subject this...Wow...
Review: All religious faiths try to limit God's love. (Especially us Christians) We might as well say: 'For God so Loved the Christians that He gave-" God loves the world! This is probably the most dramatic story of God's love ever told outside the Crucifixion. (And this is also a True story of the supernatural.) I'm not talking about the fuzzy I'm sitting on a warm spot super natural. This is a story of angels, heaven, Christ, and even hell (Don't expect the American-Christian hell.) I think in this story the greatest place Christ's light is shown was in the depths of hell as he reached out even beyond the grave to save not only the souls of those in hell; but the soul of this writer before this writer was actually, literally brought back to life. Beautiful, beautiful story made me cry! And I'm a teenage male!! (It's not easy to make me cry!)
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive, but not reliable enough
Review: An impressive booklet. Ritchie had a near-death-experience in 1943, being a soldier. During this NDE Jesus Christ showed him the realms of the world beyond. In the book Ritchie also tells about his experiences as a soldier that followed. Finally he tells that in 1952 in a magazine he found a picture of new, mainly secret technology that he had seen during the NDE. After I had read the book, I recommended it to friends and lended it to whoever was interested.
One day however I read chapter 11 of Jeffrey Iverson's book "Grensgebied", the Dutch translation of "In Search of the Dead" (published in 1992). In that chapter Iverson fully quotes a summary of "Return from Tomorrow" that Ritchie told to the famous reincation researcher Ian Stevenson in a conversation that they both once had. Ritchie told Stevenson that in about 1953 in Life Magazine he had seen a photograph of the first atomic laboratory and that in that photo he had recognized one of the instruments, because he had seen it during his NDE experiences.
That was not what I remembered from "Return from Tomorrow", so I looked it up. And indeed there were some remarkable differences. According to the book (chapter XIV) the picture was a drawing, not a photo. In the book Ritchie tells that he had recognized every detail: the instruments, the stairway etcetera, so not only one single instrument. I reasoned that maybe he had not kept the copy of Life Magazine, so that unwillingly his memories about a few aspects might have changed during the years. But in chapter XIV there is a literal quote of 7 lines from Life, showing that Ritchie must have saved the article.
I decided to try to check some other aspect of Ritchie's story, to find out if this was simply an isolated error. In the book there is the incredible story about a Polish Jew. Ritchie had met him in a concentration camp near Wuppertal. This Jew had been there since 1939 and nevertheless he could work 16 hours a day as a consequence of his love for people. Easy piezy, I thought, and it was indeed. Within no time I had found out that there simply was no concentration camp in or near Wuppertal at the end of World War II. Local nazis had run a concentration camp there during 6 month in 1933, but that one had been closed in January 1934. The prisoners had been local people as well. [...]
Being a human on this planet, I wonder why we exist and what existing is all about. I found that "Return to tomorrow" for me was not a sufficiently reliable source of information.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Enlightening!
Review: Dr. Hugh Harmon and I are nationally recognized teachers and practitioners of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. This is one of the class books we use for our students and is a book we often recommend to clients who are interested in, curious about, or fearful of life after death. It is very helpful for those struggling with loss of loved ones. The book is so engrossing, you will want to read it in one sitting. The one note we would make about the content is that it may be "off putting" to non-christians that the book seems to indicate Jesus is the lighted being one meets at death. We have conducted thousands of past life regressions in which we ask what is happening after the death of the body. People often speak of meeting Beings of Light. Christians often see Jesus or will call the Being they meet God. Non-Christians will have a different identity for this being. Some refer to the Being of Light as their own Spiritual Self or Higher Self. Our knowledge is that spirit is energy. When one meets with a spirit whose spiritual energy is very great, one will see this energy as light. In near death or just after death experiences one's mind is still focused on physical form so one's mind will create an image for the spiritual light energy one encounters. This realization will help non-christians better appreciate this book and this individual encounter with death and higher spiritual energy beings. Addendum: The prisoner in the concentration camp who the author of this books writes about: This was the man who made the decision to not hate, but to help in any way possible and to hold in love all he encountered, thus experiencing health when others were failing and joy when others sank into despair. This was as inspiring and as enlightening and as life altering as the rest of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Enlightening!
Review: Dr. Hugh Harmon and I are nationally recognized teachers and practitioners of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. This is one of the class books we use for our students and is a book we often recommend to clients who are interested in, curious about, or fearful of life after death. It is very helpful for those struggling with loss of loved ones. The book is so engrossing, you will want to read it in one sitting. The one note we would make about the content is that it may be "off putting" to non-christians that the book seems to indicate Jesus is the lighted being one meets at death. We have conducted thousands of past life regressions in which we ask what is happening after the death of the body. People often speak of meeting Beings of Light. Christians often see Jesus or will call the Being they meet God. Non-Christians will have a different identity for this being. Some refer to the Being of Light as their own Spiritual Self or Higher Self. Our knowledge is that spirit is energy. When one meets with a spirit whose spiritual energy is very great, one will see this energy as light. In near death or just after death experiences one's mind is still focused on physical form so one's mind will create an image for the spiritual light energy one encounters. This realization will help non-christians better appreciate this book and this individual encounter with death and higher spiritual energy beings. Addendum: The prisoner in the concentration camp who the author of this books writes about: This was the man who made the decision to not hate, but to help in any way possible and to hold in love all he encountered, thus experiencing health when others were failing and joy when others sank into despair. This was as inspiring and as enlightening and as life altering as the rest of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Reader Beware
Review: Great book that will be hard to put down. This book inspired Raymond Moody to publish his book Life After Life. Don't start this book if you have something else to do. You might not get to it!
Rating:
Summary: My Saving Grace
Review: I am often told that books are read at the right time for the right reason. At a point in my life where I was feeling suicidal, I was given "Return from Tomorrow" to read. It has truly changed my life. Specifically the sentence "suicides are attached to the consequences of their actions", meaning once you are dead, you are not suddenly absolved from any heartache on earth, but it is still something you are meant to work through. Knowing this has certainly changed my outlook. I would rather work through my problems here than be stuck in my own private hell in another realm. What an amazing experience for Mr Ritchie. It has certainly made me want to live a more loving life - if the heaven he described is the gift we are to receive once we die. A must read for anyone who is feeling lost or alone.
Rating:
Summary: My Uncle's "Vision" A family member speaks out!
Review: I am the nephew of George G. Ritchie. I am also an Episcopal priest in the Church of Rwanda.I have an earned doctorate in Christian Spirituality from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. My uncle's story certainly is fascinating and apparently real, the question is, "What is the message?" AND Does the message come from God or from some other source? While the message of Ritchie's NDE is a bit more palatable to people who believe the Bible is God's Word in this small book, compared to his later work, ORDERED TO RETURN, let me tell you the problem of his message. 1. Ritchie denigrates Scripture 2. Ritchie believes in reincarnation 3. Ritchie believes that man's ultimate destiny is to become a god. 4. Ritchie believes that his experience is more authoritative than Scripture. 5. Ritchie's account is not consistent with that of Betty Eadie, Dannion Brinkley or other NDE'rs. Who is right?
Rating:
Summary: Open your mind and heart and explore the possibilities
Review: I am very grateful that I came across this book and your story. It gives me great joy to hear of someone who has also encountered Jesus and has gone through the emotional, spiritual and mental journey that this experience made us travel. I wouldn't give up the experience even though it did cause much anxiety to my family and myself. I experienced a near death experience in May of 1974 at the age of 32. Like yourself, I was a little fearful to share this experience because nobody that I knew had ever shared this type of experience. In 1975 our family was fortunate to be able to buy a Christian Book Shop and this is where I was able to come across some literature on my experience. Of course the great mystical saints like St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross wrote many books on their mystical experiences with Jesus but coming across Dr. Raymond Moody's book "Life after Life" was the greatest comfort for me at that time. In reading your story, what is the most helpful is that with all the turmoil you experienced you realized that love is the greatest of the gifts and it seems the message is the same in many cases, including my own experience. It is a "tall" order, it sounds so simple and the message is simple but the "ego" gets in the way and at times our self-centerdness comes forward. To let go and let God . At times we are our own worst enemies when it comes to the acceptance of being loved and in return loving others. Like yourself, I started reading the bible with a different perspective. Before this "re-born" experience, I read with only an intellectual, study mind attitude, now I read the bible with my heart open wide.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgetable..........
Review: I can sum this review up in one sentence-trust me you will not be able to put this book down until your finished with it!
|
