God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

  Howard Pitman’s Near Death Experience, August 3, 1979 I first heard part of this story on www.theedgeam.com web radio station, but I found myself frustrated because the interviewer had to pass on many questions sent in by the listeners as Howard spoke. It interrupted the flow of the story and, in my view, wasted time. So on June 17, 2006, I called him in New Orleans and got the rest of it. I wasn’t so interested in all of his theology, which could be his own interpretation of the Bible, as I was his actual experience. At the time of his shave with death, Rev. Pittman had been a preacher for over 30 years and a foster parent of 32 children besides his own three. His life had been full of good Christian works. He attended a typical fundamentalist Baptist church that likes to emphasize the positive side of the Gospel message, God’s love and mercy. He had also been a policeman in New Orleans, and had attended seminary. Like many fundamentalists, he was laden with theological certaint...

  I first heard about John and Annie Bidwell in a book called Under God's Spell: Frontier Evangelists 1772-1915 by Cathy Luchetti, 1989. It’s written from the diaries of Catholic and Protestant missionaries, both men and women, in the 1800’s. Annie’s story is taken from her own writings. I managed to visit the Bidwell mansion many years ago and found the source, a casually published compendium called Rancho Chico Indians, by Annie E. K. Bidwell, edited by Dorothy J. Hill, 1980/1987, Bidwell Mansion Cooperating Association. Some of Annie's most compelling and spiritual narratives were in this publication, but were forgotten until my visit. Fun story about that below. She was born in 1841, related to some of the elite that helped found our nation. Her great grandfather was the surveyor who laid out Washington in 1790. As she grew, her contemporary social circle was full of influential leaders. She married John Bidwell, who went west without her to acquire a 22,000 acre ranch a...

Source: George G. Ritchie, Jr., MD, My Life After Dying, Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 1991, 1998. Italics are quotes from the book. In Part I of this series, we followed George Ritchie’s life as he joins the Army, dies of double lobar pneumonia, meets Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and accompanies his mighty Lord on a tour of inter-dimensional realms. When he returned, he married, went on to med school, became an MD, then proceeded to receive a degree in psychiatry. It took him many years to be able to process and describe his experience in 1943 when he was only 20 years old. He describes Jesus more fully in this second book. He had blue eyes and chestnut hair parted in the middle. He was over 6’2”. This was no sweet, gentle Jesus, meek, weak or mild. Here stood a robust male who radiated strength. [Note to the UFO community: Jesus was not an alien.] The young George Ritchie was shown five inter-dimensional realms. The beings in those realms could not see Ritchie and Jes...

From the book, Return from Tomorrow, by George G. Ritchie, 30 th Anniversary Edition, Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2007. In my last post, I blogged about Kat Kerr’s visions of heaven. My conclusions as to the integrity of her story were quite negative. In 2010 I blogged about the story of Dr. George Ritchie, who passed away in 2007. That story rarely receives a visit on my blog, perhaps because his near-death experience happened a generation ago. The event occurred in 1943. His book came out in 1978 and was a sensation for quite a few years. Today, however, few know who he is, in spite of the fact that his NDE experience was particularly enlightening. It occurred long before talking about NDE’s was popular, and way before any medical or professional personality studied these experiences in a scientific way. In my two-part series of 2010, I glossed over the details of Ritchie’s experience because I wanted to contrast his narrative with that of Michael Newton, a hypnotherapist who reg...

We all want to know what is on the other side of death. Such a compelling topic is certain to sell a lot of books. The latest set that I’ve read in this genre is by Kat Kerr, a handsome woman with purple in her hair. The books, Revealing Heaven and Revealing Heaven II are controversial, however. Several online reviews from bloggers like me are not flattering, and I’m afraid I’m going to add my voice to that chorus. The format. The first irritant is the format, and not just because the books are self-published. The text is double spaced. New chapters begin on an odd-numbered page. If the previous chapter ends on an odd numbered page, the following even page is blank. There is enough wasted space in the 147 pages of the first book to add the information of the second book. But with two books, one can garner twice the profit. The second book is formatted in a similar manner except all in bold text, which takes up even more space. Many stories are similar between the two, so the promis...

In my first post on this topic, Myra shared the two visions she had of Jesus Christ that changed her from a flaky, pot-smoking teen to a disciple of the Lord. In Part II, Charles described what it was like to be haunted by demons after a seance, slain onto the sawdust floor of a revival tent, and speak in tongues for a half hour. The stories in today’s post will not disappoint. Charles explains: "We went to London, our first and only visit, and we were touring the Anglican sites there. We went to Westminster Abbey, and we were really shocked that it was like a big cemetery. We didn’t know that we were going to walk by so many tombs. And we went into a side chapel called St. [?] Chapel where it was quiet, and we were able to sit there and pray for a while. We were just being quiet and praying, and I looked over at Myra, and when I did, I saw a woman standing in front of her in a long dress, and her right hand was kind of raised with the index finger extended. And um, she wa...

Religious boxes. They don't overlap much, unfortunately. I have no smoking gun, no definitive answer to complex afterlife questions, but I can point to what I have read and heard and look for patterns in the growing body of material since 2009. The Protestant/Evangelical box I can’t help but picture the TV guru, Dr. Oz. He takes one of his audience members by the hand and leads them to a table. He uncovers whatever he wants to show them, then takes them to the next table. So, come with me, Reader. Let’s go to this first table, on which is a box labeled “Protestant/Evangelical.” Looking in this box we find all kinds of books and ‘testimonies’ about healings, miracles, prophecies, exorcisms, changed lives, media scandals (alas), and even resurrections from the dead. The people in this box believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God, Who died on a painful cross, was resurrected from death by the power of the Holy Spirit, and now represents all of those who trust in Him...

1. The Reptilian version For years, Laura Knight- Jadczyk met with friends on Friday nights. They were interested in the paranormal and felt that they might be alien abductees . They put their hands lightly on the planchette of the Ouija Board and took notes on what the spirits had to say. Most of it they didn't take seriously, but one day an entity showed up calling itself a Cassiopeaen . This entity had much to say about alien abductions, especially about a group called the Orions , a "Service to Self" group often called Reptilians, or in slang, Lizards or Lizzies . According to the Cassiopaeans , the Lizards plan to supplant humans in time. Here is a sample of information attained in those interviews: Q. Bob Lazar referred to the fact that aliens supposedly refer to humans as containers. What does this mean? A. All are containers; 94 percent will be used. Q. (L) Used for what? A. Consumption. Q. (L) What do you mean by "consumption?" You mean eaten? A. Tot...

Here is some early marketing information for Dust or Dew: Wipf and Stock will has it available on their website for $24.80 + shipping. You can also call their customer service on M - F at 541-344-1528. They are located in Eugene OR, so no tax. Go to http://www.wipfandstock.com/ and enter "dust or dew" into the search box. There are discounts for ordering 5 or more. It will be available online around mid-April (amazon.com, etc.). Amazon retail will be $31 plus shipping. At that time, a Kindle version will be available for about $19. It's an academic book, so it might be a hard read for some, but there are chapters that are readable for those who know something about the Old Testament. My approach is that God's revelation to us fully human types was gradual. He stepped into their ancient culture and spoke through a contemporaneous worldview. The step-by-step process of changing their worldview was often jarring. Blood was spilled, families were divided as people tried ...