Does the human body have energy fields?

One of my favorite books on the subject of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) is 'Return from Tomorrow' by George Ritchie. I first read it in 1993 after being introduced to it by a friend. It was written and published in 1978. Dr Ritchie is a retired psychiatrist who had a remarkable experience when he was a 20-year-old private during WWII in 1943. He died while in an army hospital.

Nine minutes later he returned to life. What happened during those nine minutes is the subject of the book. I have known people who have died and been resuscitated. None of them have claimed any memories of what happened to them during their near-death experiences. Dr. Ritchie's NDE is not unique but it is one of the most profound, complete and telling experiences ever related and documented.

Did George Ritchie really die? I don't know but I loved his book. Now admittedly he had help crafting it. Elizabeth Sherrill is a best-selling Christian author who wrote the Hiding Place which is the story of Corrie Ten Boom and the Cross and the Switchblade. The story is compellingly told and is an easy one-evening read at 124 pages. I was fascinated from the beginning and could not put it down.

I have reread it several times and refer to it often to refresh my memory of some of the sections that contain unique insights into things that he saw on his journey that I have found nowhere else in literature. Some have dismissed the book as fiction, and others as fantasy but I am compelled to believe Dr Ritchie's story although some of his interpretations of the events that happened to him may be open to question.

I'll just share one point from the book that introduces a theme of future discussion for this blog. On page 59 of the paperback edition Dr Ritchie is relating some of the early scenes of his journey while out of his body. He is observing some differences in the beings that he is seeing before him: "Gradually I began to notice something else.

"All of the living people we were watching were surrounded by a faint luminous glow, almost like an electrical field over the surface of their bodies. This luminosity moved as they moved, like a second skin made out of pale, scarcely visible light." In the next scene of his journey he finds himself inside a dingy bar and grill near a naval base observing men standing at a bar drinking and relates what he sees.

"Then I noticed a striking thing. A number of the men standing at the bar seemed unable to lift their drinks to their lips. Over and over I watched them clutch at their shot glasses, hands passing through the solid tumblers, through the heavy wooden counter top, through the very arms and bodies of the drinkers around them. And these men, every one of them, lacked the aureole of light that surrounded the others." He concluded that the cocoon of light that he saw must be a property of physical bodies only. Then he relates something very interesting.

"I watched one young sailor rise unsteadily from the stool, take two or three steps, and sag heavily to the floor. Two of his buddies stooped down and started dragging him away from the crush [of drinkers at the bar]. But that is not what I was looking at. I was staring in amazement as the bright cocoon around the unconscious sailor simply opened up.

"It parted at the very crown of his head and began peeling away from his head, his shoulders." What is this cocoon that Dr Ritchie is describing? Do you conclude as I do that it is some sort of protection or shield that is given to all mortals? Perhaps it is some sort of electrical energy that many have claimed to have discovered and documented over the years - the energy fields of the body.

What do you think - does the human body have energy fields and if so, can it be scientifically proven? If you can, James Randi will give you a million dollars. I doubt that anybody will ever be able to prove that the human body has energy fields. I also doubt that anybody will ever be able to prove that there is a spirit within the human body. Not being able to prove something scientifically may stop others from believeing it but I choose to believe. Of course, I'm very careful about what I choose to believe.

See this next essay for a continuation of this discussion.