Dr. Ritchie's NDE: Dr. Moody's Inspiration George Ritchie's death from pneumonia, as a soldier in 1943, may stand as the most historically influential NDE account since Plato's description of an NDE attributed to Er, a soldier who died some 2400 years before. That's because Raymond Moody was present at a talk Dr. Ritchie gave on the NDE he'd experienced. That talk inspired Dr. Moody to research and writing that led to today's wide-spread public interest in NDEs.