Return from Tomorrow
Ritchie, George G., and Elizabeth Sherrill. 1995. Return from Tomorrow. Revell.
Rating:
1
Summary:
George Ritchie, the main character in the book, is a practicing psychiatrist in Virginia (whether he still is, I am unsure). What makes George special is that he had a ‘return-to-life’ experience, which is the focus of the book. However, the book goes a step beyond just recounting his experience by setting up a scenario in which George has an opportunity to tell his experience to a patient. His patient, an embittered man, has just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, which initially leads him to even more bitterness. When the patients shows up for a session with George after learning of the terminal diagnosis, George suggests that rather than die embittered, the patient should do his best to come to terms with his family and employer (who are estranged) and with God (who has been dismissed as irrelevant by the patient).
When the patient initially laughs at this suggestion, George proceeds to tell him that he takes the idea of God seriously as the result of a ‘return-to-life’ experience he had years before. This sets the stage for George to recount his experience:
George was in training in Texas during World War II as an enlisted man when he came down with pneumonia. The onset of the pneumonia coincided with George learning he was going to be sent to medical school instead of the front lines because he had a pre-med college background. However, to take advantage of the offer, George had to get to the school by a certain date and the only way he could do that was to get over the pneumonia.
However, the pneumonia got worse instead of better. It developed to the point that George eventually expired but was brought back to life 9 minutes later with an injection of adrenaline to his heart. The main point of the book is what happened during those 9 minutes.
George talks about leaving his body and traveling in spirit form. He first travels solo until realizing that he is disembodied and dead. Once he realizes this he encounters Christ, who is depicted as a brilliant white light. Christ then takes him around the spirit world, showing him what can happen if he doesn’t give himself to Christ and what can happen if he does. He shows him hell, which is depicted as spirits who are enslaved by their sins and addictions in this life as well as a veritable battlefield of spirits who can’t hurt each other but insist on trying anyway. The lower realm of heaven is depicted as a beautiful university engaged in scientific study. George is given just a glimpse of the highest realm of heaven, which is depicted as a glowing city of light.
All this supposedly happens during the 9 minutes that George was dead. At the end of the 9 minutes, Christ takes him back to his body as he is being brought back to life by the doctors. Interestingly, the experience doesn’t immediately change his life. First, George has to realize that Christ can only work in your life if you focus on helping others rather than focusing on yourself. Much of this motivation plays into George’s desire to work as a psychiatrist.
The result of George telling his patient this story is that the patient does change his life before he dies.
Review:
The book isn’t superbly written, but neither is it atrocious. It’s written at a mid-range level where pretty much anyone that can read could understand it. The descriptions in the book (of heaven, hell, spirits, etc.) aren’t stunning or memorable. They work to evoke the bare minimum of imagery, but don’t really force you into what is happening.
As for the actual story, the biggest problem I had, which I’m sure most skeptics would have, was the very basis for the story. The argument employed to illustrate the veracity of George’s experience was very weak. The author claims that he knows it was real because it “was the most entirely real thing that’s ever happened to me” (p. 16). Unfortunately, I wouldn’t consider this evidence. There are a number of alternative hypothesis which are much more probable than an actual out-of-body experience. For instance, George had fainted before expiring and was comatose for several days afterward. It is highly likely (from both a scientific perspective and using Occam’s Razor) that the entire experience was a dream that took place while he was unconscious. By claiming it felt real he is not offering any evidence other than his personal witness of something that happened to him while he was unconscious. As with all other ‘return-to-life’ experiences, I think the best and most parsimonious explanation is simply the firing of neurons in the brain. Thus, though the story is kind of an interesting version of how one person envisions the afterlife, I’m inclined not to believe that what he claims happened did happen.
But aside from whether the story actually occurred, as the author claims, there are several additional points I found noteworthy. At one point the author claims he saw the light of Christ in a Jew (a man who survived a concentration camp in Germany). Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on Judaism, but I know enough to know that Jews don’t believe in Christ as their savior. If the man was a Jew, must what George saw be something other than the light of Christ, like, perhaps, a caring and considerate person who was concerned about the welfare of others? Unfortunately, George doesn’t seem to pick up on this point.
Additionally, there was one line (and yes, I’m aware that I’m getting a bit nitpicky here) that really bothered me. George, who eventually capitalizes on both his delusional experience and the gullibility of Americans (by saying ‘capitalize’ I don’t mean to imply he made money, simply that he ‘took advantage of’), decides to share his experiences with a number of groups. He describes this decision as follows, “And it must again have been His timing: I who could never string two words together found myself talking to youth groups, clubs, churches, anyone who would listen to the message that God is love, and all else is hell” (p. 121). The part that really got me was the very end, that ‘God is love, and all else is hell.’ If you think about this, it’s somewhat akin to the phrase, ‘If you ain’t a cowboy, you ain’t shit.’ The implication of the cowboy phrase is that if you are a cowboy, you are shit. With the ‘God is love’ phrase, George Ritchie is saying that everything that is not God is hell. This would include relationships, humans, science, this planet, the Bible, religion… just about everything. The only thing that is love, according to him, is god. Thus, whatever god is not, is hell (including everything that god may have created according to religions, including the religions themselves). As an agnostic/atheist, I found this notion to be particularly disturbing as the only role god plays in my life is as a position against which I argue. And as I choose not to recognize the existence of god, then by default, George Ritchie is saying that everything in my life is hell. Well, I disagree. I have a pretty good life and god doesn’t have a part in it (I know, I know, someone is bound to say that he does even if I don’t believe in him; to you I say ‘you’re welcome to your opinion’).
Overall, I’m sure individuals that believe in a life after death will find comfort in this book. I, personally, found it interesting to read, but probably just because I find almost everything I read interesting. If you look at the book from a believer’s perspective, it makes several good points, namely, that a divine experience doesn’t automatically result in a divine individual. I often wish more Christians would take that advice, as they might act more civilly and humanely and less self-righteously ‘Christ-like.’ Anyway, it might also be interesting for the non-believer, but only to see what believer’s use for their evidence of the supernatural. I’m not inclined to see a dream as evidence for the existence of god, but I’m sure some do. I wish them the best, but also wish they would find a better way to occupy their time; like making the world a better place rather than focusing on the glory of next world.