Books Return from Tomorrow
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - A poignant, personal account of a Near Death Experience...
My mother who is 78 and just went through a health crisis, handed me this book after she was done saying just that it was interesting. I agree with her. I've been interested in NDE since before I went to school for Neuroscience. I read about some accounts as well as the view of science for these experiences, which is that as the mind shuts down neurons fire strangely causing people to have these hallucinations. I didn't find these explanations to be satisfactory, partly because they haven't been able to research this phenomenon well. How do you predict when someone is going to die, then come back to life? You certainly cannot risk causing this to happen. It's unethical. Plus as is often the case in medical research, those doctors come to the research expecting to validate their own preconceptions. For the most part, those who have reported NDE of their own, do not go into it 'expecting' to experience similar to what has previously been reported.

George Ritchie went through this experience during WWII. This was prior to all the current interest in this phenomenon. The book itself was written during the 1970's, and is considered 'The' classic book on NDE.
He felt the need to share this experience with others, and was probably surprised to find the amount of interest it has garnered. As with most young men, he went into this experience without expections or preconceptions...he basically hadn't thought of something like this happening before. Who does at age 20.

Whether or not what he experienced is valid, the experience itself was life-changing for good. That alone is reason enough to look into this with an open mind. That which changes people in such a way as to produce good has significantly more promise than that which leads people to wrong-doing.

The book itself, and the writing is quick and well-done. Ritchie is obviously a person of intelligence...he went to medical school (so has probably heard some of the scientific reasoning for this), and then became a psychiatrist (some of the biggest skeptics). At age 20, he wasn't very religious. He certainly didn't expect to die.

Those who choose to read books such as this usually are those with an open mind. Each person has to decide for themselves what they choose to believe. I'm sure that this book offers comfort to many, especially those who know they are approaching their own deaths. Since this book has been printed over and over again for the last 40 years, it must 'ring true' for some reason to an awful lot of people. Readers need to approach this book (and others like it) without their own expectations or preconceptions to get something out of it.

Karen Sadler

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Rating: - One Sitting - You can't put it down
Unlike most other "life after death" books, this one relates a very different experience. Before meeting Jesus, the Light of the world, he saw what hell is like, and it isn't what Dante wrote about--and it isn't where you want to spend your eternity. After you read it, you'll understand why this book is still in print.

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Rating: - Great Book
I really enjoyed this book. It was a different perspective from other "near death" experiences I've read about. It was recommended to me and I will recommend it to others.

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Rating: - An ego loss manual?
This wonderful book calls for us to take responsibility, to learn our weakness and to let it all go so that we may experience uninhibited love 'from above'. Whether you've experienced unconditional love through the use of psychoactive chemicals, exhaustive ceremony, prayer, or like Mr Ritchie, a NDE, you can't deny that the one unifying principal that links all these methods is forgetting yourself. This book seems to address this many times as Mr. Ritchie talks of being self centered and turning away from Christ. His quote from PSALM 139:8 touches on this totally, letting us know that the source of love is always there, but only in awareness when we drop our ego centered concerns.

Non Christians can easily read this book and at the very least take away this lesson. Our sense of division is an illusion ;) A wonderful book.