SelfConsciousMind

What's new?

Research summary

Ritchie's OBE

Barkeley hospital

Vicksburg cafe

Return to Vicksburg

Possible explanations

Conclusions

References

Bottom





Investigation of George Ritchie's NDE OBE
(updated 02/18/2010 --» What's new?)
Contents

What's new?

Research summary

One of the earliest detailed accounts of a near-death experience (NDE) was that of Dr. George Ritchie which occurred in December 1943, published in the book Return from Tomorrow (R1: Ritchie and Elizabeth Sherrill, 1978). Ritchie wrote more details of his story in a later book, Ordered to Return (R2: Ritchie, 1998). A major feature of his NDE  was an extensive out-of-body experience (OBE) at the beginning of the NDE.

In December 1943, Ritchie was in Army basic training at Camp Barkeley outside of Abilene, Texas, when he had the opportunity to get further medical training in Richmond, Virginia. Unfortunately he contracted severe double pneumonia shortly before he was to travel back east. He collapsed in the x-ray department of the station hospital and was placed in an isolation cubicle in a nearby ward building. During the early morning ward rounds, the ward man found Ritchie with no pulse, respiration or blood pressure. Ritchie was pronounced dead by the medical officer. After about 9 minutes, as a last resort, the doctor injected adrenalin into his heart muscle. Ritchie's NDE apparently occurred in the 8 or 9 between when the ward man found his body and the injection with adrenalin.

After collapsing, Ritchie remained unconscious for about 24 hours, but "woke up" and sat up on the edge of his bed. He noticed that there was someone lying in the bed he just rose out of. Ritchie remembered he had missed his train. He rushed out of the rear door of the ward building and found himself apparently "flying" about 500 feet in the air. He appeared to "fly" many miles eastward from the Camp Barkeley station hospital over the frozen Texas plains, passing over a town with multiple blinking caution lights, and stopped at a city on the eastern shore of a large river, above an all-night cafe. He realized that he could not be seen by other people and that his "body" did not interact with physical objects. He subsequently "flew" back to the station hospital he had left and had an extensive near-death experience, visiting other realms in the presence of a Being of Light whom he identified as Christ.  

Ritchie recovered from the illness that had precipitated his NDE and, ten months later, as he drove through Vicksburg, Mississippi on the way back to Camp Barkeley, he recognized the layout of the city and the river and then found the all-night cafe he had stopped at during his NDE "flight".  

A key aspect of Ritchie's OBE is that he recognized that he was "flying" eastward by the position of the North Star to his left. The evidence we have compiled suggests that the all-night cafe was exactly due east of the likely ward building door Ritchie left during his OBE.

Our research question was: can we verify any of the facts that Ritchie recounted in his story, in particular about the details of his description of the all-night cafe in Vicksburg, the town with several blinking caution lights, and the Camp Barkeley station hospital ward building. We spoke briefly with Dr. Ritchie in November 2006 about whether he could recall other features of the night sky during his OBE, such as the position of the moon that night (which was visible, having risen around 1:50 am) or the orientation of the Big Dipper constellation. He did not recall any such details as he was looking down at the ground during his "flight" (Ritchie, 2006). We did not ask about the all-night cafe or the ward buildings, and unfortunately Dr. Ritchie subsequently died in October 2007.

What we have found is that there was indeed a restaurant or cafe, located at 1501 Levee St in Vicksburg, called "Mike's Place", that very likely was an all-night cafe in December 1943. However, its construction was different from the description Ritchie gave in 1978. The other possibilities for cafes at that time (1943-44) do not fit Ritchie's story: all of the other possibilities are located on east-west streets (wrong direction), or on the wrong corner, or are the wrong construction or color (e.g. brick).

The Camp Barkeley station hospital was spread out over several city blocks, perhaps an area of 80-90 acres. From an aerial photograph of the hospital taken in 1943, matched with a current satellite photograph of the site, we have identified one ward building in the hospital complex, out of approximately 85, whose rear door is at the exact same latitude (32o 20' 54" N) as the front of 1501 Levee St. That ward building was close to the likely location of the hospital's x-ray department. Ritchie wrote in 1978 that he had been placed in an isolation cubicle near the x-ray department where he had collapsed. In addition, Ritchie's account that he passed over a town with multiple blinking caution lights during his "flight", is consistent with this exact latitude, which passed just south of the main street in Tyler, Texas. There were four traffic lights along that path at the time in Tyler, which were set to blinking at night.

Implications

The OBE portion of Ritchie's NDE is very unusual in that it involves the experience of being out of his body, traveling to a distant location (523 miles away) and seeing details of an unfamiliar area, apparently very accurately. What is most striking is that the location of the cafe from the likely station hospital door appears to be exactly due east, and the location of the blinking caution lights is also at this precise latitude. Indeed, the maximum deviation from the hospital to Vicksburg could have been only 0.6 seconds of arc, or 2900 feet over 523 miles of travel. The fact that three key aspects of Ritchie's account have likely correlates at the exact same latitude, occurring at widely spaced intervals, and that Ritchie reports having traveled east strongly suggest that his "flight" was an objective albeit unusual event.

Camp Barkeley to Vicksburg map
Map of the path directly east from Camp Barkeley (southwest of Abilene) to Vicksburg (just north of the I-20 bridge across the Mississippi River), approximately 523 miles. This path passes through Tyler, Texas which in 1940 had a population of 28,300. In 1940, Abilene's population was 26,600 and Vicksburg's was 24,500.

Ritchie's immediate impulse on "awakening" in the ward building was that he had to get to Richmond whatever way he could. Evidently, in his mind, Richmond was "east", even though he did not know exactly in what direction Richmond actually was from the camp. What is striking is that the mind evidently can subconsciously determine directions very precisely, even when the ordinary conscious mind cannot. 

Ritchie's experience is a striking example among many NDE accounts where the experiencer's will or intention appears to operate immediately and precisely in response to a felt desire. Ritchie's account contains other examples of this phenomenon as well: upon wishing to go down to the city to find someone to give him directions, he immediately slowed down and stopped above the all-night cafe (R1, p. 39); upon feeling intensely that he had to get back to the station hospital, he immediately found himself traveling rapidly back (R2, p. 30), arriving at the hospital's main entrance.

Postcard of Station Hospital Area, Camp Barkeley Aerial of hospital with latitude line leading to Levee St 1501 Levee St front after tornado 1953
Barkeley station hospital area, near the probable location of Ritchie's ward building; showing a covered walkway across the main street, between buildings. 1943 aerial view of hospital complex (on right of photo). Ward buildings run east-west. Yellow line is the same latitude as 1501 Levee St and crosses the rear door of leftmost ward building, third from the top. Aerial view of 1501 Levee St after the tornado of 1953 (the small, light colored building in center, at the corner of two streets (Levee St and South St)

Thus if one accepts that Ritchie's account is true of flying over the Texas and Louisiana landscape to an all-night cafe in a city on the other side of a broad river, which he later verified by locating the cafe in Vicksburg -- in other words, if one accepts that Ritchie's mind in some way separated from his physical body at the time he was pronounced dead and had veridical perceptions of a location many miles away, then it also implies that his mind had access to specific knowledge (the precise direction of east) which no one ordinarily has. If the mind can separate from the physical body and operate independent of it, then the simple intention or desire to do something appears to work immediately and can draw upon knowledge beyond the reach of ordinary consciousness.

Further work

We are trying to verify more strongly the details and location of the all-night cafe and pinpoint the station hospital ward building in more detail. In Vicksburg, we continue to focus on the 1501 Levee St property: 

  • Why are Ritchie's two descriptions of the cafe different in significant details? 
  • Can we get a better photograph of the front of 1501 Levee St and determine the color of the building's front and roof? 
  • Can we verify that "Mike's Place" was indeed an all-night cafe in 1943 with a blue neon Pabst sign in the right window? 
  • Can we identify the particular Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer neon sign that was in common use in 1943-44? (Possibilities are listed here).
We would like to get  a description of the location of the buildings at the Camp Barkeley station hospital:
  • Can we find a site plan showing the location of specific buildings, in particular the x-ray department?
  • Can we locate detailed floor plans for the ward buildings? 
  • Is it possible that Ritchie's medical records might be archived which would show which ward he was in when he "died"?


Comments on our work are welcome!
Please feel free to comment on our Discussion Group on the Self-Conscious Mind.

Robert and Suzanne Mays

top


George Ritchie's out-of-body experience

In December 1943, Ritchie was in Army basic training at Camp Barkeley outside of Abilene, Texas, when he had the opportunity to get further medical training in Richmond, Virginia. Unfortunately he contracted severe double pneumonia shortly before he was to travel back east, and in the early morning of December 21, 1943, he was found to have no pulse, respiration or blood pressure and was pronounced dead by the medical officer. After about 10 minutes, as a last resort, the doctor injected adrenalin into his heart muscle. Ritchie miraculously revived, although it took several days for him to regain consciousness and several weeks for him to recover and finally get to Richmond. His medical case was attested to in affidavits by the medical officer in charge of the ward area he was in, Dr. Donald G. Francy, and the nurse who cared for him, Lt. Retta Irvine (R2, p. 25; Spraggett, 1974, pp. 68-69).

The eastward flight
Ritchie had been unconscious but "woke up" and sat up on the edge of his bed. It was about 3 AM, Tuesday, December 21, 1943 (R1, p. 78). He noticed that there was someone lying in the bed he just rose out of. He remembered he had missed his train east and he felt driven to get to Richmond whatever way he could. He tried to get the attention of the ward man who was walking through the corridor, but the man walked right through him. He ran through the metal door of the ward and found himself flying east about 500 feet in the air (R1, p. 38; R2, p. 29). He knew he was going east because the North Star was on his left (R2, p. 29). He looked down as he passed over snow-dusted fields and partially frozen streams. He passed over a town with caution lights blinking at the intersections. The countryside then appeared more wooded. Further on, he came to a broad river with a bridge over it and, on the far bank, a large city. He decided to stop and get directions, since he didn't know exactly how to get to Richmond.

He somehow slowed down and found himself looking down from about 50 feet directly above a white, rectangular single-story building with a red roof that was situated on the corner where two streets came together (R1, p. 39; R2, pp. 25, 29). The blue light of a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer neon sign and the light from the window cast out on the ground. The all-night cafe had two windows with a door in the center. The Pabst neon sign was in the right window (R2, p. 29). (There may also have been a neon sign above the door, "Cafe" (R1, p. 39)). Ritchie saw a man in an overcoat but no hat walking briskly down the sidewalk toward the cafe. He wanted to speak to him and he found himself light down about 12 feet in front of the man and then walked along side him, trying to ask him what city this was and how to get to Richmond. The man didn't hear him and also walked through him; Ritchie tried to touch his shoulder as the man opened the door to the cafe and found his hand went right through him. Nearby there was a telephone pole with a guy wire. Ritchie leaned on the guy wire to think and found that his hand went right through it.

Ritchie now realized that he had left his physical body back in the Camp Barkeley station hospital and thought he needed desperately to go back there. He then found himself flying back more quickly than he had come and ultimately found his body in an isolation cubicle with the sheet drawn over the face. He recognized that this was his body, from his college fraternity ring on the left hand. He went on to have a very profound experience which began with a meeting with Jesus Christ and was ultimately told that he had to return to his body.

Ritchie's experience probably took place in the 8 or 9 minutes from when he was first pronounced dead to when the doctor returned and injected his heart.

Return to Vicksburg, ten months later
About 10 months later, after he had recovered but had flunked out of medical school in Richmond, Ritchie and three other soldiers were assigned back to Camp Barkeley. On October 23, 1944, they drove from Cincinnati through Memphis, along the Mississippi River and stopped overnight about 9 p.m. in Vicksburg. In the morning they were driving through Vicksburg along the river with Ritchie sitting in the back left seat (R2, p. 51).

In the city Pete [the driver] took a street leading down toward the river.
 
"See any signs?" he asked me over his shoulder. From my position in the back of the seat I was supposed to keep an eye out the left-hand window. I didn't answer. For the last mile my mouth had been feeling dry, my stomach tight. Something about the layout of this town seemed strangely, impossibly familiar: I knew I had never been there before, and yet I knew exactly how the shoreline would look around the next curve. How the streets would intersect. There! Just as I'd known they would! And all at once I knew for sure that straight ahead on that very street we would come in a few blocks to a white frame building with a red roof and the word "Cafe" in neon letters over the door.
 
"There it is! To the left!" The guy in the front next to Pete pointed to a small sign at the corner. "The bridge must be back up that way." Pete slowed the car and put out his hand to signal a left-hand turn.
 
"Please!" My voice was harsh. "Don't stop, Pete! Keep going straight." The guy who had seen the sign turned around to stare at me. "The sign points up that way." "I know. I--I'd just like to drive another couple of blocks in this direction, that's all." Everyone in the car was looking at me now. "I thought I recognized something," I said. Pete shrugged and straightened the wheel. "How much farther?" he said, driving slowly ahead. My heart was hammering too hard to speak. A block ahead, on my side of the car, on the corner, was a white all-night cafe with a red roof. The neon letters over the door were turned off in the bright daylight but the Pabst sign was still propped in the right-hand window. There was the sidewalk where I walked beside a man who could not see me. There was the telephone pole [and guy wire] where I had stood so long . . . how long? In what kind of time and what kind of body? "Stop!" I cried. For Pete was passing the little restaurant. (R1, pp. 97-98).

Camp Barkeley Station Hospital

The 2300-bed Barkeley station hospital consisted of numerous one-story buildings for admissions, surgery, laboratories, clinics, x-rays, dining, administrative offices, officer and nurse quarters, storage, a post exchange and a movie theater. The construction was "theater of operations" level construction. The hospital's ward buildings were one-story 24-bed barracks. In the aerial photograph of the hospital area, there are over 85 such ward buildings. We estimate that each ward building was long and narrow, approximately 24' x 120'. The hospital buildings were interconnected with one another by connecting walkways which can be seen as black lines running between the front of the buildings. A post card of the hospital area shows a covered walkway running across the main road of the hospital between the main complex on the right and what we surmise were the nurses' quarters on the left.

Postcard of Station Hospital Area, Camp Barkeley
 larger image (3M) Aerial Photograph of Station Hospital
Post card of station hospital area showing covered walkway across the main road. This view is facing north. This area is shown in the upper left of the aerial photograph (right) where a dark line crosses the main road. The area to the right of center is probably the emergency entrance of the hospital. Aerial photograph of station hospital from 1943 (north at top). The north-south distance on this photograph is about 3000 feet (0.6 mi). The ward buildings run roughly east-west. The covered walkways can be seen as dark lines running between the buildings. (Note the added longitude and latitude lines.) The main hospital entrance was probably the circular driveway off the main road on the western side of the complex, about half-way down. Shadows are cast approximately toward the northwest.

The connecting corridors opened into each ward building. At the front of the ward building was an interior hallway, on one side of which were three offices, for the doctor, nurse and ward man; on the other side of the hall were three small isolation cubicles reserved for the most serious cases. The corridor then opened through two glassed doors to the ward area containing 24 beds, each with a chair, a table and a small night-light. Although Ritchie does not describe it in detail, we assume that another hallway led from the other side of the ward area to lavatories, showers, a linen and supply area and a small kitchen. At the other end of the building was a metal door leading to the outside (see R1, pp. 19, 27, 38; R2, p. 28). Apparently other ward buildings in the hospital had 36 beds. There was sufficient space between the buildings to have windows to the outside on both sides and frequently a south-facing sun porch (Rees, 1943), which can be seen in the aerial photograph. We estimate that the distance between the ward buildings was about 75'.

Detail of aerial of station hospital showing 6 ward bldgs Detail of panorama showing hospital under construction
Detail of aerial photo of station hospital from 1943 (north at top). Shows six ward buildings (long and narrow, oriented E-W) connected by walkway (black line going N-S). The top two wards have a small addition on the NE wall. The dark areas between some wards are variations in the ground color. To the east of the ward buildings are a large and small storage building running N-S. Detail of a panorama of Camp Barkeley taken from one of the camp's two water towers by E. O. Goldbeck Photo in February 1942 when the camp was still under construction (facing southeast). This area shows the central part of the station hospital complex. The main road is in the foreground, the likely hospital entrance with circular drive is on the right. Two long, narrow buildings running N-S are in the foreground in the center, with a connecting walkway (not yet enclosed) between them. Behind these two buildings are several ward buildings running E-W. The walkways running in front of these ward buildings (also not yet enclosed) can also be seen. The power plant with the large smokestack is seen in background on the left. All of these buildings can be seen on the aerial photo as well.

Ritchie's experience at the station hospital
Just before Ritchie was to leave the hospital to catch the train to Richmond, he was found to have a fever of 106.5oF. He was taken by ambulance to the x-ray department where he fainted as the doctor took his chest x-ray. He was placed in a ward building near the x-ray department, in one of its isolation cubicles (R1, p. 78). He remained unconscious for the next 24 hours until he had been found by the ward man with no pulse, respiration or blood pressure and was pronounced dead twice by the medical officer of the day (R1, pp. 78-79).

It is fair to say the Ritchie had been obsessing about catching the train to Richmond for several days as he tried to recuperate from his respiratory infection, even up to the moment he collapsed in the x-ray department (R1, pp. 20-23, 26-35; R2, pp. 20-23). Upon "waking up", his first thoughts were: Where is my stuff, where are the train schedules, where is my watch? I've missed the train! (R1, p. 36). He then rushed out the rear metal door of the ward building: "Even if I had missed that train, I'd find some way of getting to Richmond!" (R1, p. 38). Immediately upon leaving the ward building, Ritchie found himself traveling at great speed toward the east about 500 feet in the air (R2, p. 29), and stopped when he had come to a very broad river with a city on the opposite shore.

In front of the all-night cafe, Ritchie realized that he had left his physical body back in the station hospital and he felt strongly "I have to get back to that hospital."  He immediately found himself flying westerly even faster than he had come and found himself standing in front of the station hospital (R2, p. 30). Inside, he found the admissions department and, to the left, the staff dining room (R1, pp. 41-42). He wandered through many ward buildings searching for his body. He eventually came to the x-ray department and, proceeding further, came to a ward building where his body lay in one of the isolation cubicles. Although the sheet had been pulled over the head, Ritchie recognized his chipped fraternity ring on the left hand (R1, pp. 45-46).

Ritchie's possible ward building at the station hospital
From the aerial photograph of the hospital area, the main hospital entrance appears to be the circular driveway off the main road on the western side of the complex. If Ritchie had searched in a general direction to the left (heading north) he would ultimately have reached a ward building that matches the latitude of 1501 Levee St. The x-ray department would very likely be one of the buildings which is relatively near the hospital admissions building and accessible by ambulance, perhaps accessible from the main road near where the postcard photo was taken, and could thus have been along the way as Ritchie searched for his ward building.

To find if there was any overlap of ward buildings with the likely all-night cafe, we located a nearby landmark on the current satellite image of the camp in GoogleEarth. Fortunately the southeast corner of the concrete foundation of a large building, probably one of the camp's larger movie theaters, lies on the latitude of 1501 Levee Street. From this location on the 1943 aerial photograph, we drew a line parallel to the latitude line in the aerial photograph. To show the ward buildings more clearly, we lightened the ground areas between them in the top of the photograph. From this line, we find that this latitude appears to cut through the rear door of the west-most ward building, the third down from the top. Interestingly, this building is the first ward building one comes to from the entrance shown in the postcard photo. This secondary entrance was probably the hospital's emergency entrance. Various emergency services including x-ray would likely have been situated in buildings off this entrance.

Satellite image of hospital area and theater
Aerial of hospital area with line at 32 20' 54" N
Detail of aerial of hospital with latitude line
Current satellite image of hospital area from GoogleEarth, showing foundation of theater building on the left and pin near the southeast corner marking the latitude of 1501 Levee St in Vicksburg, namely 32o 20' 54" N. Aerial of hospital showing the southeast corner of the theater building and a parallel yellow line drawn from it. This line appears to cross the west-most row of ward buildings at the center of the third ward building down. Larger image (2.0M) Detail of yellow latitude line as it crosses the hospital ward buildings. The areas between these ward buildings have been lightened from the original to highlight the buildings. The ward building of interest is the third building from the top in the left-most row of buildings and has a small yellow dot at the center of the roof at the rear exit.

Did Ritchie "fly" over Tyler, Texas?
Two features Ritchie mentioned about his "flight" across the plains of Texas were: "A town flashed by beneath me, caution lights blinking at the intersections.... The countryside appeared more wooded now: broad snow-dusted fields surrounded by dark trees. Occasionally I'd see a road, but there was little traffic at this time of night, and the towns I passed were dark and silent." (R1, p. 38, italics added).

Where was the town with multiple blinking lights at its intersections? From Ritchie's account, this appears to have occurred somewhere in the middle of the "flight". If we take the latitude of Ritchie's "flight" as the latitude of 1501 Levee St, then Ritchie would have passed directly over Tyler, Texas. In fact, he would have passed directly over streets that are just two blocks south of Erwin St, the main street in Tyler at the time. In the 1940 census, Tyler had a population 28,300 and was reported somewhat larger than Vicksburg in population, manufacturing, wholesale business and retail business.

According to a longtime resident of Tyler, in the early 1940s there were four traffic lights in Tyler, three along Erwin St and one at Front St and South Broadway Ave (McNamara, 2009). The signals were hung in the center of the intersections from cables from the four street corners, and were set to blink at dark, after most of the traffic had left, such as when workers went home or when theaters let out. The buildings in this area were mostly one story with some two stories. Ritchie estimated he was "flying" 500 feet in the air and thus would readily have seen all four blinking traffic signals along these two streets.

Map of Tyler, Texas
Current map of Tyler, Texas (current population 108,800) showing the locations of the four traffic signals that were in operation in the early 1940s and the latitude line of 32o 20' 54" N which lies along the streets that are two blocks south of Erwin St and one block north of Front St. If Ritchie had been "flying" at night directly east along this latitude in 1943, he would have seen blinking caution lights at three intersections along Erwin and one along Front St.

The change in vegetation from central to east Texas and further eastward that Ritchie reported is consistent with current vegetation patterns in these regions and may have been more pronounced during 1943, as north central Texas had been part of the 1930s dust bowl.

Another possibility for Ritchie's observation of a town with multiple caution lights is Cleburne, Texas, a town 30 miles south of Fort Worth. In 1940, it had a population of 10,600 and had a major rail facility. Ritchie's "flight" along the latitude of 1501 Levee St would have taken him directly over the railroad intersection with the main street, Henderson St. However, it is not clear that there would have been multiple blinking caution lights along this path.

Map of Cleburne, Texas
Current map of Cleburne, Texas (current population 29,000) showing the latitude line of 32o20' 54" N which passes near or crosses over several main intersections. Given the smaller population in the 1940s it is less likely that there were multiple caution lights in this town.

Tyler and Cleburne are the only towns along the east-west path between the Barkeley station hospital and Vicksburg. The rest of the countryside is essentially rural, with occasional hamlets at the intersection of two roads.
top

Vicksburg all-night cafe

We have concluded that 1501 Levee St was the likely all-night cafe that Ritchie "visited" during his out-of-body "flight". To understand Ritchie's account of the topography of the land, it is important to note that most of Vicksburg lies on a plateau overlooking the Yazoo River. The main north-south street is Washington St. To the west of Washington St, the land slopes fairly sharply down to the river. Levee St is the west most street. Numerous industrial facilities were located between Levee and the Yazoo River, including P. P. Williams & Co., a very large wholesale grocery company and Anderson Tully, a very large lumber supplier.

Ritchie's description of the all-night cafe
In references R1 and R2, Ritchie gives two descriptions of the all-night cafe with certain conflicting details. The story in R1 (1978) was written by Elizabeth Sherrill based on two lengthy interviews she had with Ritchie, in 1963 and 1977 (Sherrill, 2006). Overall, the second account of his experience (R2, 1991) appears to provide more details of a corroborative nature (especially chapter 2) than R1, for example including excerpts of the notarized statements of Dr. Donald Francy and nurse Lt. Retta Irvine (pp. 24-25), more details of the return trip from Richmond to Camp Barkeley 10 months later (pp. 25-26, 51), and the fact that he recognized he was traveling east by the position of the North Star (p. 29). (In R1, Ritchie had noted that the fact that Vicksburg was due east of Camp Barkeley was a significant corroboration for him, but he didn't elaborate why.) In chapter 2 of R2, Ritchie also provides the essential corroborative details of the all-night cafe which he recognized on the return trip: the color of the building, the placement of the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer neon sign and the topographical location on the land as it related to the Mississippi River (actually the Yazoo River runs by Vicksburg and then joins the Mississippi).

Thus, the details given in the second account (R2) appear to be more accurate and Ritchie appears to have wanted to correct certain details from the first account (R1), in order to "[remove] any possibility of my experience being a delusion or a dream as so many skeptics wanted to believe" (R2, p. 26). Even so, it is important to examine the conflicting statements about the all-night cafe since they will help clarify the evidence for any particular candidate cafe.

In R1, Ritchie describes the cafe as follows: "Almost immediately I noticed myself slowing down. Just below me now, where two streets came together, I caught a flickering blue glow. It came from a neon sign over the door of a red-roofed one-story building with a "Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer" sign propped in the front window. "Cafe" the jittering letters over the door read, and from the windows light streamed onto the pavement. Staring down at it, I realized I had stopped moving altogether. Finding myself suspended fifty feet in the air was an even stranger feeling... I found myself down on the sidewalk, hurrying along at the stranger's side... [I] leaned up against the guy wire of a telephone pole to think things through..." (pp. 39-40, italics added). Upon driving through Vicksburg ten months later: "I knew for sure that straight ahead on that very street we would come in a few blocks to a white frame building with a red roof and the word "Cafe" in neon letters over the door... A block ahead, on my side of the car, on the corner, was a white all-night cafe with a red roof. The neon letters over the door were turned off in the bright daylight but the Pabst sign was still propped in the right-hand window." (p. 98, italics added).

The description of the cafe in R1 is thus: a white one-story, frame building with a red roof on the corner of two streets coming together, on the east side of the street (visible from the driver's side of the car). There was a blue neon sign "Cafe" over the door and a "Pabst" sign propped in the right-hand window. The cafe was located down by the river because "Pete [the driver] twisted the wheel impatiently and followed the signs back up the sloping streets to the bridge." (R1, p. 99), that is, via Washington St.

In R2, Ritchie describes the cafe as follows: "I came down in front of a white, rectangular all-night cafe. There was a front door, flanked by large windows. In one window was a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer neon sign. Ten months later, while driving through Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the way from Cincinnati, Ohio to New Orleans, Louisiana (sic), I recognized this same building. The color of the building and the neon sign were the same. The topographical location on the land as it related to the Mississippi River (sic) was the same." (pp. 25-26, italics added). In describing the trip through Vicksburg ten months later: "We spent Monday night in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then drove all day Tuesday, arriving in Vicksburg, Mississippi, around 9:00 p.m. While driving down the street the next morning, I could look over on the right and see the Mississippi River (sic). Then I thought, "Something looks very familiar to me." I looked over on the left and there stood the white all-night cafe with the Pabst Blue Ribbon neon sign in the front window. I looked down the river and there was the big bridge crossing the Mississippi, the one I had seen that night I was trying to get back to Richmond."  (p. 51).

The description of the cafe in R2 is thus: a white rectangular building with a red roof. There was a front door flanked by two large windows, in one of which was a Pabst neon sign. The building was on the east side of the street, with the Yazoo River to the west. Down from this location was the bridge over the Mississippi.

Thus, the main discrepancies between the two descriptions are in the size and construction of the building (one-story frame versus "rectangular") and in the wording and placement of the blue neon sign ("Cafe" over the door versus "Pabst" in the window).Given that Ritchie's second account of his story appears to include a number of points of clarification including the description of the all-night cafe, it is reasonable to accept the second description as more accurate.

Locating the all-night cafe
The Vicksburg telephone directories up until relatively recently had the useful feature of listing all buildings by address, as well as the usual listing of all businesses by business type (a "yellow pages" directory). Thus we can identify all of the candidate restaurants (which included cafes and retail beer establishments) and also list all structures which were located on a particular street. In this way we used the 1941 and 1944 directories (there were no directories in the intervening years) to compile a list of all restaurants in the general downtown Vicksburg area and particularly those restaurants that were located on streets down the hill toward the river (Levee, Mulberry, Pearl and low-numbered addresses on cross streets). Our list had 14 candidate restaurants. All but one of these could be eliminated because they were too far away from the river, were of the wrong construction (e.g. brick, unpainted) or did not match the description in other ways, most commonly that they were situated on the wrong side of the street or not on a corner.

1944 directory of Vicksburg restaurants - part 1 1944 directory of Vicksburg restaurants - part 2 1944 directory of Levee St addresses
1944 Vicksburg directory of restaurants, page 1 1944 Vicksburg directory of restaurants, page 2 1944 Vicksburg directory of addresses on Levee St ("c" stands for "colored")

Given Ritchie's description of driving down to the river and then turning around and driving back up the sloping streets to get to the bridge, Levee St was the most likely location of the cafe. Along Levee St, there were two candidates restaurants in 1944: 1501 Levee, listed under Michael Guido and Hilton's Cafe on the southwest corner of Depot St and Levee St (318 Depot St). The latter was a one-story frame building situated on the west side of Levee and thus would not fit Ritchie's account of driving along the river, with the river on the right and the all-night cafe on the left.

History of 1501 Levee St
This leaves 1501 Levee St as the most likely candidate, a building on the corner of Levee St and South St.. For the first 40 years of the last century, this location was a retail grocery store. In 1912 and later in 1914, Ralph Romano and Rosa Setaro purchased the two parcels at 1501-1505 Levee St. The previous structure at 1501 Levee was replaced probably during this time by a two-story concrete block building with a slate or tin roof. Concrete block construction began in Vicksburg around the 1915s and consisted of solid concrete blocks 8" x 8" x 12" whose outside face had the appearance of stone (Tuminello, 2008). The other buildings on the two parcels consisted of six one-story frame structures housing eight African American households. The building at 1501 Levee was listed as a retail grocery store along with an upstairs residence through the 1941 Vicksburg directory. In 1941, it was owned by Eugene and Isabel Breeden and was their residence.

Aerial photograph of 1501 Levee St in 1932 Sanborn map of 1501 Levee St and environs Deed for sale of 1501 Levee, Breeden to Guido, 1943
Aerial photograph of 1501 Levee St and environs, in 1932. It is the small gray building with a dark roof, at center on the corner of two streets. Note the telephone pole and what appears to be a tree on the corner next to the building. The P. P. Williams & Co. buildings are in the lower left, marked by a tall water tower. South St runs uphill behind 1501 Levee St. Sanborn insurance map of 1501 Levee St (blue structure at the center left) and environs, showing a two story concrete block building. Blue denotes stone or concrete block, red denotes brick and yellow denotes frame construction. Deed recording the sale of 1501-1505 Levee from Isabel and H. E. Breeden to Mike Guido on August 23, 1943. The tax stamps are a total of $4.40.

On August 23, 1943, Mike Guido purchased the two parcels for $4,400. In the 1944 address directory, the place was listed as a "restaurant" having a telephone, with Michael Guido proprietor. In the 1948-49 directory, it was listed as "Mike's Place" and selling beer. On May 13, 1950, Guido sold the two parcels to Lawrence and Ruth Nosser for $9,900. The Nossers apparently owned the property until 1954 or 1955, and operated it as a bar or restaurant called "The Shamrock". In the 1950-51 directory the location was listed as "retail beer" and in the 1953 it was listed as vacant.  Most surviving Nosser family members do not recall the place at all. Larry Nosser's sister-in-law recently said she remembered that it was "some kind of pool hall" (Nosser, 2008), but she may have been recalling Nosser's more successful billiards room, called "Nosser's Smoke House", located on Washington St, which was listed as offering "pool, cigars, tobaccos, sports results and beverages".

On December 5, 1953, a severe tornado hit Vicksburg killing 38 people and destroying nearly 1000 buildings. The western edge of the tornado passed over 1501 Levee St damaging several P. P. Williams buildings both across the street from and adjacent to 1501 Levee. The frame houses on the property sustained significant damage but 1501 Levee St itself appeared to have less severe damage (broken windows and torn awnings). Photographs of the devastation provide a record of how the building looked 10 years after Mike Guido opened his cafe and 10 years after Ritchie's apparent "visit".

Path of 1953 tornado 1501 Levee St front after tornado 1953
Path of 1953 tornado through Vicksburg. The streets are not accurately drawn (the west-most blocks of South St are missing). The 1501 Levee St property is located at the intersection of Levee and Pearl St. Front of 1501 Levee St building after the 1953 tornado. The center door and flanking windows are clearly visible. There may be writing above the front door and left window and writing on the side of the building. The odd structure on the side may be a second-story entrance to an enclosed porch with stairs to the ground. The P. P. Williams water tower is in foreground.
1501 Levee St from rear after 1953 tornado 1501 Levee St north side after 1953 tornado
Rear of 1501 Levee St building after the 1953 tornado. The building is seen down South St, at the bottom of the hill, on the left. Some cleanup has already occurred, including installing replacement telephone poles (not seen in the next picture, taken earlier). North side of 1501 Levee St after the 1953 tornado. This view is looking up South St from Levee St and the cafe building is on the right. The concrete block construction is clearly visible. Torn awnings and broken windows are visible. Damage to the adjacent frame houses is also evident. The National Park Hotel is seen in the background above Levee St.

After the tornado, the two parcels were sold to a number of different owners. The building served as a restaurant or bar called "The Shamrock" (1955-61), "Seawall Cafe" (1962-67) and finally "Bar-B-Cue House" (1969-70). From 1971-74 it was listed as "vacant" and from 1975 on there was no listing for this address: the building was torn down as part of urban renewal. The property currently houses two large metal storage buildings. The site of the main P. P. Williams & Co. building is now the parking lot for a casino.

Could 1501 Levee have been the all-night cafe?
A number of details of George Ritchie's description of the all-night cafe are supported by the evidence from 1501 Levee St. First, this building fits Ritchie's story of driving down to the river and seeing the cafe on the left. It is a rectangular building with a door flanked by two large windows. Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer neon signs were very common in restaurants and cafes around this time and many of these signs have been recovered in recent years from buildings prior to renovation or demolition (Tuminello, 2008).

We have not yet been able to verify the color of the building's front or the roof. From the tornado pictures, the north side and rear of the building do not appear to have been painted. It was not uncommon for building owners to paint concrete block buildings to try to improve their attractiveness (Bell, 2008). From the aerial tornado picture, there may be writing above the front door and left window and writing on the south side of the building (possibly ending in "Corp" or "Comp"...). There are many examples of Vickburg buildings painted with advertisements visible from the Yazoo River or from other vantage points. If Mike Guido painted the south side of the building for advertising, he may well have also painted the front (west side) of the building to advertise his cafe and thus the front may have been white. Preliminary color analysis from grayscale values of the picture of the rear of the building (above) suggest that the roof color was probably "red in color or reddish brown" (McCoy, 2009), although this result is not conclusive.

During World War II, Vicksburg was a major commercial transportation hub in the south. Merchant marines, Coast Guard personnel and numerous workers from P. P. Williams & Co., Anderson Tully and other manufacturing and shipping companies were all present along Levee St. P. P. Williams and a number of other firms were probably open all night (Tuminello, 2008). It is likely that an all-night cafe would have been a successful venture in August 1943 when Mike Guido purchased the building and converted it into a beer establishment, possibly with one or more pool tables. Guido added enough improvements to warrant more than double the value of the two parcels, not counting the effect of inflation, from 1943 to 1950.

Return to Vicksburg ten months later

In reference R2, Ritchie describes the car trip he and three other GIs took from Richmond, Virginia to Abilene, Texas, returning to Camp Barkeley: "We spent Monday night in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then drove all day Tuesday, arriving in Vicksburg, Mississippi, around 9:00 p.m. While driving down the street the next morning, I could look over on the right and see the Mississippi River (sic). Then I thought, 'Something looks very familiar to me.' I looked over on the left and there stood the white all-night cafe with the Pabst Blue Ribbon neon sign in the front window. I looked down the river and there was the big bridge crossing the Mississippi, the one I had seen that night I was trying to get back to Richmond."  (R2, p. 51, italics added).

In reference R1, Ritchie describes driving through Vicksburg: "In the city Pete [the driver] took a street leading down toward the river. 'See any signs?' he asked me over his shoulder. From my position in the back of the seat I was supposed to keep an eye out the left-hand window. I didn't answer. For the last mile my mouth had been feeling dry, my stomach tight. Something about the layout of this town seemed strangely, impossibly familiar: I knew I had never been there before, and yet I knew exactly how the shoreline would look around the next curve. How the streets would intersect. There! Just as I'd known they would! And all at once I knew for sure that straight ahead on that very street we would come in a few blocks to a white frame building with a red roof and the word 'Cafe' in neon letters over the door." (R1, pp. 97-98, italics added)

In the R1 account, Ritchie gives us several details of the drive through Vicksburg: (1) they drove down to the Yazoo River, (2) they drove for a considerable distance through the city ("for the last mile") and (3) the cafe was straight ahead on the same street they were driving down. Given the details of the R1 account, it is clear that the R2 account is a short summary of the trip, but it contains additional details: (4) they stayed over night in Vicksburg, probably in a hotel and (5) he saw and recognized the large bridge over the Mississippi River (south of Vicksburg but still visible from it).

Starting with these details, the trip from Cincinnati to Vicksburg is about 700 miles, probably taking 13-14 hours, so it is very likely that they arrived after dark, as stated in R2. During the war, there were three hotels recommended for servicemen staying in Vicksburg, listed in the Serviceman's Guide to Vicksburg Mississippi, namely Hotel Vicksburg, National Park Hotel and Hotel Carroll (Mississippi Writer's Project, 1942). It is very likely that the four GIs stayed in one of these hotels.

Their actions the next morning pose a problem: why did the GIs drive down to the river when the shortest route to the bridge across the Mississippi was to go south on Washington St, rather than toward the Yazoo River? There are a number of possibilities, as this would be their last stop before resuming their basic training. They probably had to get gas for their car. They may have wanted to pick up some groceries, and/or ice, and/or beer or liquor. In addition, one or more of the GIs may have wanted to drive past and look at 15 China St, a well-known "house of ill-repute", deemed to be the most notorious address in Vicksburg, having nationwide recognition (Cotton, 1984), although this establishment was no more than a flophouse in 1944 (Cotton, 2009).

These stops could have taken them to a number of different places including down to Levee St for groceries at the People's Grocery Store on the corner of China St and Levee St. Ritchie said that they had been driving through Vicksburg for about a mile and drove down to the river. A detour that included a stop at the People's Grocery Store (1201 Levee) would first take them north on Washington St, then left on China St and finally end at the river on Levee St. From this position, the story given in R1 (turn left to get to the bridge, no keep going straight) makes sense. And straight ahead, on the left, two blocks from the first sign to the bridge was 1501 Levee St.

Map of downtown Vicksburg (west is at top of map), showing the possible routes driven by the four GIs in October 1944, from one of the three hotels, down the steep hill of China St to People's Grocery on Levee St at the Yazoo River. Locations of gas stations and T. M. Morrissey Beer (off the map two blocks further, at 923 Washington St) are shown.

The proposed path of Ritchie's "flight", across the Yazoo River and the large P. P. Williams & Co. building to just above "Mike's Place", is shown in yellow at the top.

The three possible hotels the GIs probably stayed at are shown: the National Park Hotel, the Carroll Hotel and Hotel Vicksburg. The route to the bridge is to the left along Washington St (blue arrow on left). The possible routes taken by the GIs going down to the river are in magenta. Just past 15 China St and along Levee St, we estimate that Ritchie would have been able to see the large bridge over the Mississippi River. It is certainly visible today from Levee St.

The two routes back up to the bridge are shown as blue arrows. There would have been signs at these points to go back up the hill to Washington St to get to the bridge (Tuminello, 2008).
Map of Vicksburg showing possible route driven


Aerial view of Vicksburg ca 1965
Aerial view of Vicksburg toward southwest, circa 1960s: A: Hotel Vicksburg, B: National Park Hotel, C: Carroll Hotel, D: China St, E: Levee St (lower right). Along Levee St, 1501 Levee is shown (the building is mostly obscured by trees). From the layout of  buildings in 1944, we estimate that the distinctive form of the bridge south of Vicksburg would have been visible while driving down China St toward the Yazoo River and along Levee St. Larger image (2.4M)

Given the R1 narrative, this proposed route through Vicksburg is plausible and suggests that the GIs stayed at the National Park Hotel because the trip would have been longer and Ritchie would have had a chance to look down the hill on South St to the river and the P. P. Williams buildings ("For the last mile ... Something about the layout of this town seemed strangely, impossibly familiar.").

For George Ritchie, the experience of his trip through Vicksburg going back to Camp Barkeley served as corroboration that his out-of-body perceptions had been real: he recognized a number of aspects of the place he had "visited" and verified that his perceptions had been accurate. For him, this verification then verified all of the other aspects of his deep near-death experience: "So it was here! Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here was where I stopped in that headlong bodiless flight. Here I stopped, and thought, and turned back..." (R1, p. 99, italics in original). "[The correspondence of the building and topography with his memory] removed any possibility of my experience being a delusion or a dream as so many skeptics wanted to believe." (R2, p. 26).

top

Possible explanations

There are hundreds accounts of NDE OBE perceptions which are claimed to be veridical or real. Usually the perceptions are checked by the NDEr himself soon after the experience (as with Ritchie) or they are are verified by asking one other witness. As a rule, NDE OBE perceptions are found informally to be veridical, that is, they appeared real, were checked with witnesses, and were verified. In contrast, reports that perceptions in an NDE were found to be non-veridical are very rare (Holden, 2009). There are several possible explanations why NDE OBE perceptions appear to be veridical:
  • The perceptions appear to be veridical but in fact are unreal, just illusions or false memories. The usual mechanism suggested for the formation of these perceptions and memories about them is a malfunction of the brain caused by hypoxia or similar deficiency. This explanation does not explain why the perceptions are described as extremely lucid or vivid and how veridical perceptions of unfamiliar events or locations, such as an unfamiliar place more than 500 miles distant, could be formed by brain malfunction.
  • The claimed perceptions are actually deliberately fabricated by the experiencer to deceive others. This explanation does not seem very plausible in light of the hundreds of such reported cases (were they all trying to deceive) and the extreme reluctance of the experiencers, including Ritchie, generally have in telling others about their experience (if they are making up a "proof" of their experience, why aren't they broadcasting it to the world). In Ritchie's case, it doesn't explain the apparently good correspondence of his account of passing over multiple blinking caution lights with a path over Tyler, Texas when that detail has only now been noted.
  • The claimed perceptions are not deliberate fabrications but are subconsciously developed out of some psychological need and manifest as déjà vu experiences. This is the explanation given by Paul Edwards (1996): 
"...the sights of [Vicksburg] including the cafe seemed familiar and were at once interpreted as identical with certain of the objects 'seen' in the early phase of George's astral trip. The various physiological changes--if they really happened--made the whole thing emotionally all the more impressive to him. It seems to me entirely possible that there was not even a silent prediction about the location of the all-night cafe. When it came into view it seemed familiar as did other objects in Vicksburg." (pp. 125-126).

Edwards' explanation is a variation of the deception explanation but includes self-deception. Edwards supplied no justification for Ritchie's perceptions being déjà vu, and his use of the term déjà vu is incorrectly applied to Ritchie’s experience. The standard definition of déjà vu, “any subjectively inappropriate impression of familiarity of a present experience with an undefined past” (Brown, 2004, p 12), does not apply, because Ritchie stated that he recognized specific details of the building and the locale from memory of a specific experience, hardly an “impression of familiarity with an undefined past.” Edwards' explanation also appears implausible in light of (1) the vividness of Ritchie's perceptions, (2) his great reluctance to share his experience with others (if he had successfully deceived himself, why not tell the world about the "proof"), and (3) the correspondence of other details of the story which Ritchie didn't even notice (the exact correspondence of latitudes in three places, the blinking caution lights).
  • The perceptions are in fact veridical and the mind is somehow operating and perceiving at a large distance from the physical body. Given the NDEr's sense of complete separation from, and even alienation from, the physical body, it is likely that the mind is operating independent of the physical body.
top

Conclusions

One objective we had in this investigation was to see if the details of an NDE could be verified simply from objective details of the narrative, even though many years had passed and all of the principals had passed away. George Ritchie's NDE account was sufficiently rich in details of objective locations, buildings and events in the world that a reasonable verification of those details was possible. In this respect we feel that we have demonstrated the validity of trying to verify the details of purported veridical perceptions, even long after the fact.

Ritchie's own recognition of the cafe building and topography, as verification of his out-of-body perceptions, stands on its own merits. It is difficult to find an alternate explanation for the accuracy of his perceptions of an unfamiliar location so far distant from his physical body at a time when he was declared dead, other than that his mind had somehow in fact "traveled" to the location and actually perceived them.

Our work to verify the details of his story strengthens the credibility of his account. It is an objective fact that Vicksburg was due east of the Camp Barkeley station hospital. The maximum deviation in travel from exactly due east would be no more than 0.6 seconds of arc over a distance of 523 miles. The correspondence of three aspects of Ritchie's account with likely correlates in the physical world, all at the exact same latitude, makes a strong case that his perceptions were in fact veridical:
  • Ritchie described leaving the rear door of a ward building that was near the x-ray department of the station hospital. There was a ward building whose rear door was at the appropriate latitude, which was likely near the hospital's x-ray department.
  • Ritchie described passing over a town with multiple blinking caution lights at intersections. The main street in Tyler, Texas ran directly east-west and lay just north of the appropriate latitude. At the time, Tyler had four traffic lights along this path that were set to caution blinking at night.
  • Ritchie described arriving directly over an all-night cafe in a city by a very large river with a large bridge, which he later recognized was Vicksburg, Mississippi. There was a cafe at the appropriate latitude at 1501 Levee St matching the description Ritchie gave and matching the story of his return visit to Vicksburg. Although Ritchie later saw and recognized the building and his later perceptions could have influenced his written accounts, his recognition matched the reality in nearly all details (rectangular building, front door flanked by two windows, telephone pole with a guy wire nearby, situated by a large river with a large bridge nearby) and matched other details which were very likely the case (Pabst blue neon sign, all-night operation).
In addition to these three aspects of his account, Ritchie also described recognizing that he was traveling east by the position of the North Star in the clear night sky, to his left. The fact that three key aspects of the account have likely correlates at the exact same latitude and that Ritchie reports having traveled east strongly suggest that an objective, albeit unusual event occurred. It is highly unlikely that Ritchie could have imagined events, or had déjà vu of experiences, with such strong physical correlations: a particular ward building rear door, a particular street with multiple caution lights and a particular cafe in a city on the far shore of a large river. It is highly unlikely that Ritchie could have fabricated such an account where the details have only now been shown to be so highly correlated, and where one of the aspects (the caution lights) was mentioned apparently only in passing.

Two of these three aspects of Ritchie's experience need further verification:
  • The color of front of 1501 Levee St and the color of the roof, evidence of all-night operation, etc.
  • Ritchie's hospital medical records, showing the ward he was in, and a detailed layout of the station hospital buildings in the complex including the location of the x-ray department.
It is very likely that some of these details can no longer be verified, but we continue to investigate all of these open questions.

References

Bell, Nancy (2008). Personal communication on July 31, 2008. Nancy Bell is the executive director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.

Brown, A. S. (2004). The déjà vu experience. New York: Psychology Press.

Cotton, Gordon (1984). 15 China and other tales, pp. 8-13. Raymond, MS: Keith Printing.

Cotton, Gordon (2009). Personal communication on July 20, 2009. Gordon Cotton is a lifelong resident of Vicksburg, local historian and past curator of the Old Court House Museum (Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society).

Edwards, P. (1996). Reincarnation: A critical examination. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.

Holden, J. M. (2009). Veridical perceptions in near-death experiences. In J. M. Holden, B. Greyson, & D. James (Eds.), The Handbook of Near-death experiences: Thirty years of investigation. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

McCoy, M. (2009). Personal communication on May 24, 2009. Mike McCoy is owner of L&L Photo in Vicksburg and does colorization of black and white photographs using grayscale analysis.

McNamara, Mary Jane (2009). Personal communication on July 23, 2009. Ms. McNamara serves on the Board of Governors of the Smith County (Texas) Historical Society. She grew up in Tyler and was a teenager there in the early 1940s.

Mississippi Writer's Project (1942). Serviceman's Guide to Vicksburg Mississippi. Jackson, MS: Work Projects Administration, January, 1942.

Nosser, Johnnie (2008). Personal communication on July 31, 2008. Mr. Nosser is the nephew of Lawrence Nosser.

Rees, Gerald (1943). Letter from Camp Barkeley, July 2, 1943. In Center for Archival Collections: Gerald Rees Papers, Transcripts: July 1943, MS-1007.

Ritchie, George (1998) (R2). Ordered to Return: My life after dying. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing. Originally published as My Life after Dying, 1991.

Ritchie, George (2006). Personal communication on November 22, 2006.

Ritchie, George and Elizabeth Sherrill (1978) (R1). Return from Tomorrow. Waco, TX: Chosen Books Publishing.

Sherrill, Elizabeth (2006). Return from Tomorrow web page, describing how the book was written. http://www.elizabethsherrill.com/sherrill_return_from_tomorrow.html

Spraggett, Allen (1974). The Case for Immortality. New York: Signet.

Tuminello, Skip (2008). Personal communication on July 30, 2008. S. J. (Skip) Tuminello is an architect and life-long native of Vicksburg who specializes in the restoration of historic buildings. He served as vice president of the Mississippi Historic Foundation of Vicksburg.


Acknowledgements

We are indebted to a number of people who have helped this research including Mike McCoy, Dr. Vernon Williams, Skip Tuminello, Nancy Bell, Mary Jane McNamara, Gordon Cotton, George Bolm, Christine Chouccoli, Johnnie Nosser, Dr. Gary Lindsey, and Mike Hernandez.

count of visits visits since August 2008
 
WebCounter

Copyright © 2008-2010 Robert G. Mays and Suzanne B. Mays

Return to top