THE HEALING PROCESS

The doctor said it would take at least six weeks for the body to work out its healing process. My “borrowed daughter” has been with me for two weeks and was a wonderful uplift. Her own mother passed away from pneumonia after only one day in the hospital. I’ve had a little time to catch up on reading books on the subject. Here’s the experience of a student who had entered his first year of medical school - now a doctor.

Dr. George Ritchie died from pneumonia and was pronounced dead in a Texas hospital at age 20. In the darkened hospital room he “woke up” and wandered the halls of the hospital. No one seemed able to see or hear him and at that moment he did not realize he was dead. He wandered back into his hospital room and looked at his bed. A body lay there covered with a sheet and only a hand of the inert form under the sheet was visible. To his confusion and horror he recognized his fraternity ring on the hand. He thought, “I was planning to be going home for Christmas soon to be with my family and now I will not be able to see them again, I was in a precarious position, discouraged and frightened.” He tried without success to reenter his body and again without success to pull the sheet from the body and his hand went right through it. Ritchie wondered what to do and where to go. He saw the old body but was no longer a part of it and he felt in total isolation. At the moment of his greatest distress the room began to fill with light and he thought the dim hospital light was getting brighter. The light continued to grow in intensity beyond description. Immediately following the arrival of this intense light a powerful voice was heard. “STAND UP,” the voice said, “YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SON OF GOD.”

“Out of that brilliant light stepped the most amazing being I have ever seen,” Dr. Ritchie said. “The hospital walls totally disappeared and I saw in detail every minute of my life from the time I was born to my twentieth year, every thought, deed and event, as the soul judged itself and the spiritual lessons it learned. A question arose, “What did you do with your life. Have you loved others as I am loving you, unconditionally, each thought and intention. There was no question that the guide through this experience was Jesus. He was unlike the pictures I have seen in stained glass windows in our churches. He had strong shoulders, the most powerful male I have ever seen.” Dr. Ritchie is still living and further information can be found about his life and work in the book “The Place We Call Home” by Robert J. Grant at your local bookstore, library or A.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach, Va. 23451-2061.