2016 meet the speakers

Linju Alias

Support the dying and your energy can give rebirth!

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

Linju Ann Alias, Associate Professor Mental Health Nursing (Rohini College of Nursing ) at Dr. NTR University, India, is a Near-Death Experience Researcher and facilitator at Edify School, E-city Bangalore. She conducted a phenomenological study to explore near-death experiences among cardiac arrest survivors in selected panchayats (villages) of Kannur district, Kerala, India at Manipal University, which extracted several themes like an encounter with the divine and loved ones, and floating out of body experience. She is interested to research the phenomenon across cultures. She insists on the importance to “Call back the dead…support the dying and your energy can give rebirth!”
P.M.H. Atwater

Aftereffects: The Real Story

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Nobody talks about the real story of near-death aftereffects. When the experience is over, it isn’t over. Whether you felt angry to be back (you wanted to stay) or excited about telling everyone only love is real, the fact is: your body has changed. Your mind, emotions, and sense of the numinous are suddenly different. Experiencers have been known to walk out on their families; divorce rate within the first 10 years afterward is inordinately high. The question of whether or not you can integrate your NDE rests on how well you can handle the aftereffects.

Visit her web site

Nancy Baumgarten

How Do You Explain Your Spiritually Transformative Experiences?

General Session | Thursday | Free Evening Presentation | Live Stream

How do you explain your spiritually transformative experiences? Concerned you are “crazy”? NO, you are not! Here is the science to give you fortitude and stories from the psycho-spiritual/mystical “front”. Introduction to your own knowing! For parents, educators, kids and all, come find out what “non-local” consciousness is all about.

Your living human anatomy, your biofield, rides on the currents of the quantum field around us. Here lies your innate supernormal sensory perception that blends the invisible light into your visible physical body. Discover your 33 powers of awareness(multiple intelligences) waiting for you to unfold into your brilliant life. Using illustrations from her own life experience, and sharing with her audience the intuitive abilities of her daughter, which began her search for a community of learning and fun for super sensing children and their families, we will be energized by this metaphysical mentor. Children of all ages will be convinced of the normalcy of profound awareness, and the necessity to honor that cosmic connection within ourselves and those entrusted to our care. Includes questions and answers session.

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Robert Scott Bell

From Heaven to Broadcasting

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

Robert Scott Bell had an NDE at the age of 12, when he suffocated and had to be revived by his 6th grade science teacher. He was transformed from the beautiful experience and grew up knowing that he had to give back to life. When he developed countless allergies and sensitivities, and pharmaceutical drugs provided little or no benefit, Robert discovered other options and eventually shared these alternatives with others as a homeopathic healer. Robert Scott now shares his enthusiasm for giving back to others and helping people to have more appropriate experiences dealing with health and healing through his radio broadcasts on the Robert Scott Bell radio show. Robert Scott will put on his radio interviewer hat and will interview an experiencer.

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Laurin Bellg

Near Death Experiences in the ICU

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Keynote Presentation | Live Stream

For twenty years, Dr. Laurin Bellg has worked with patients in the intensive care unit who have near-death and out-of-body experiences during sudden cardiac death and severe trauma. Many of those accounts have been documented in her book Near Death in the ICU: Stories From Patients Near Death And Why We Should Listen To Them.

These experiences are profoundly meaningful, yet when they are reported, they are frequently met with skepticism and dismissal by medical caregivers and family members. Dr. Bellg maintains that we don’t have to fully understand these events to honor the transformative role they often play in the lives of those who experience them. A thought leader in the area of working with patients who’ve had near-death experiences, Dr. Bellg has been a keynote speaker at many venues throughout the United States. Her presentations are popular for their strong story telling and thought-provoking message on the importance of honoring personal experience as a part of healing.

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Bo Billups with Paul Culbertson, Peter Panagore

NDE Panel: Bo Billups – Integrating the Spiritual Lessons of the NDE

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

For people of faith – or no faith – integrating the spiritual life lessons of the Near-Death Experience (NDE) into our understanding of consciousness can lead to a life of greater happiness and well-being. The spiritual implications of the NDE can challenge both the NDEr and the non-NDEr to think outside the boxes of limiting faith traditions that focus on divisions (the “us and “them” mentality) or the limits of a strictly materialist perspective. As an example, the speaker will share his own faith journey, a transition aided by academic perspectives on Jesus and the early Church. The speaker respects all personal beliefs and believes no one religion has a monopoly on truth. The spiritual aspects of the NDE can help in our journey; case studies will help outline these lessons.

Bernd Boettger with Ana Gonzalez

Near-Death Experiencer Panel: Bernd Boettger – Beyond Light Speed

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

While being 20-25 min. clinically dead after a cardiac arrest I can tell about my experience of bodiless going up from earth moving through a field of extreme love to the “border” of the universe when a voice which cannot be described sent me back. My travelling I estimated was more than 16000 times light speed; I know we believe this is not possible, any way. After an extraordinarily fast recovery and without neurological damages, my life had changed, I had changed. After some strange things, like completely having lost the fear of death, being certain to know how long somebody will live, having the feeling knowing some seconds before what will happen, etc. my life changed in many respects.

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Maggie Callanan

QUICK DYING ….SLOW DYING……..MESSAGES OF HOPE

General Session | Sunday | Keynote Presentation | Live Stream

People in a sudden state of clinical compromise, marked by disruption of all signs of life, often report a remarkable experience known as NDE or Near Death Experience. These experiences are only shared after medical intervention or CPR brings the experiencer back to life. These are the messages of those who have died quickly and have returned to teach us what it is like. When people dying slowly of a terminal illness are approaching death, they too often have remarkable experiences, as well as an expanded awareness. This is called NDA or Nearing Death Awareness.These are the messages from those who are dying slowly. They teach us while they are dying because they can’t come back. Although the NDE and the NDA have many similar characteristics, there are profound differences. Understanding the differences and learning how to interact with the dying can help us identify and participate in the NDA while it is actually happening. This information is of vital importance for all critical care clinicians and for all – professional or lay persons who care for, or are close to someone who has had an NDE or to a dying person experiencing an NDA . Whether the dying is fast or slow. These are remarkable messages of peace, comfort and hope that can change our lives..

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Geralyn Cappabianca w/ Mark Pitstick

Life Review: The Spiritual Timeline

General Session | Sunday | Concurrent Presentation

Many NDE and STE experiencers have had a life review during their time “on the other side”. They were sent back to finish out their lives with new perspectives and insights.Why not do a life review now, without having to go through an NDE or STE? The Spiritual Timeline is a personal and enlightening way to review one’s life and see the graces and challenges that have created the life we have lived up till now. Creating a personal spiritual timeline will offer insights for healing, gratitude, opportunities to make amends and offer forgiveness, and plan a life going forward that will capture the best qualities of mindful living.

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Christophor (Bob) Coppes

Please, don’t turn NDEs into a new religion

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

There are many different NDEs. Not one is equal to another. Yet, there are a limited number of wonderful common themes in NDEs that can be of great help to heal NDErs and non-NDErs. These common themes when adopted by a sufficient number of people (a critical mass) can even heal the world. However, some people who study NDEs (including those who have had an NDE themselves) tend to create their own theory of how the visible and invisible world is constructed. And in doing so they sometimes go much further than the limited number of common NDE themes justify. This carries the danger of creating a new sort of religion, which will significantly reduce the value that NDEs could have for everyone and the world.

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Diane Corcoran & Tony Woody with Roberta Moore

Discussion Group: NDEs, Military Issues & Veteran’s Video

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

Discussion Group: NDEs, Military Issues and Veteran’s Video with NDEr Tony Woody; IANDS President & retired Army Colonel, Diane Corcoran; and producer of Near-Death Experience: What Veterans Need To Know, Roberta Moore.

Diane Corcoran, currently President of IANDS Board and a retired Army Colonel, was a young Army nurse in Vietnam when she treated a soldier whose leg had been amputated. One night he called her over to tell her about his very unusual battlefield experience of coming out of his body and seeing other fellow soldiers leaving their bodies as well. He then described a transcendent experience into another realm.

Through the years, Diane became more and more aware of a hidden problem for veteran NDErs. Their care providers have virtually no training to distinguish the after effects of NDEs from other conditions such as PTSD or brain injuries. Veteran NDErs are getting little support and are sometimes being misdiagnosed and over-medicated, and they are left with nowhere to turn. Thousands of our vets have had NDES and they don’t even know what has happened to them.

In response to this lamentable situation, several years ago Diane conceived the idea of a video to train veterans and their care providers about NDEs and their aftereffects.

Visit her website

Paul Culbertson with Bo Billups, Peter Panagore

NDE Panel: Paul Culbertson – Journey To The Other Side

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

I would simply like to tell of my NDE experience, which took place nearly thirty years ago. However, I’ve only recently begun to be open about this. This NDE was extremely visceral and powerful. It has been my experience that when there are people with open hearts listening to me tell this story, that something very powerful can happen. I feel a power within myself, and when I feel that power – I know that someone is being touched and moved (I’ve received confirmation of this). This is the energy I am seeking, for myself, and for my purpose. So that this hardship (the aftereffects) would eventually be for something. To stir people, and hopefully, that this love that I felt in Heaven will be transmitted through the telling of the experience.

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Diana DiFranco

The Clinical Approaches to the Near Death Experiencer, the Aftereffects and Challenges

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science l Thursday l Concurrent Presentation

This program will present the near death experiencer’s positive and negative aftereffects, the challenges and aftereffects reported by the experiencer during the first year following the experience and the Six Major Challenges faced by near death experiencers. A near death experience can often be a spiritually transformative experience (STE). The STE can arouse Kundalini energy at the base of the spine. The Kundalini experience can start the process of a spiritual awakening. This process could take years to unfold. Symptoms of the Kundalini experience, as well the NDE itself and the aftereffects can be misdiagnosed as pathology. For example the experiencer maybe misdiagnosed as being psychotic. Distinguishing between mental illness and the STE/NDE is of the upmost importance for the experiencer as well as the mental health professional. Therefore, this program will address the similarities and the differences between pathology and the STE/NDE. Sometimes, the experiences or their integration present challenges for the experiencer that call for the need of a competent mental health professional. The presenter will discuss the clinical approaches to assist the near death experiencer with the integration of the experience and the aftereffects as well as guidelines to further educate and prepare clinicians.

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Angie Fenimore

Beyond the Darkness

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

January 8, 1991, I was deep in the darkness of a cycle depression that came every January and June. With memories of childhood abuse at heightened level and forgotten, suppressed memories emerging, I chose to end my life. The extraordinary near-death experience that I had and the new, expanded view of myself, of God, of my purpose and the nature of all things spiritual in this plain gave me access to healing and living a rich, empowering life. Providing access to others of the knowledge, understanding and gifts I received in being restored to life is my life’s purpose.

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Suzanne Giesemann

Adventures in Consciousness: To What End?

General Session | Saturday | Keynote Presentation | Live Stream

As eternal souls temporarily in physical form, many of us have experiences of connection with higher aspects of our selves at some point in our human lives. These experiences can be transformative on a personal level, with ramifications that extend beyond our immediate circle of friends and family members. Join Suzanne Giesemann, a former Navy Commander and aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is now an evidence-based medium, for a look into why and how we can honor these extraordinary gifts of the spirit for the benefit of the greater good.

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Ana C Gonzalez with Bernd Boettger

Near Death Experiencer Panel: Ana Cecilia Gonzalez – After Death Experience

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

I was born with a complicated heart congenital problem: Transposition of great vessels and one single ventricle with pulmonary stenosis, expecting to live for a few years and die at around 8 or 9 years old. I believed I would die soon so I developed a special communication with an “angel” that would be my companion during very difficult times. As a miracle I kept on living. I got married and had a beautiful daughter. Just then my heart got real sick and finally doctors were able to do a surgery on me, since there was none.

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Krista Gorman & Ainsley Threadgold

The NDE: Aftereffects, Integration and Assimilation

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

Our presentation will consist of a 30 minute presentation/discussion on the above topics. Krista will focus on the NDE and Healthcare Provider’s role in assisting the experiencer afterward. She speaks from the perspective of both having had an NDE during labor with her daughter 15 years ago and being a Physician Assistant.

Ainsley will speak about the myriad of aftereffects he had following his NDE as a 13 year old boy that he did not recall until last year. His recollection of the NDE was through the healing modality of hypnosis which then allowed him to assimilate his previously not entirely understood gifts/abilities and newly discovered gifts/abilities that were a direct result of his NDE into his life as an adult.

We will do this in a presentation/discussion type format.

Visit Krista’s web site

Bill Guggenheim & Christopher Guggenheim

The After-Death Communication Course − “The ADC Course”

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

This will be a 60-minute oral presentation of our new work, “The After-Death Communication Course.” This will include a definition of after-death communication (ADC) experiences, and a brief overview of our book, Hello From Heaven! which founded the field of ADC research in 1995. In addition, we will describe our new work, “The ADC Course,” which prepares people and trains them how to have ADC experiences with their loved ones who have died. We’ll be happy to answer all questions from the audience.

Visit their website ~~ The ADC Course

Neil Helm

Effects of NDEs on Religious Beliefs and Spiritual Values

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

This presentation will be the first public discussion of my Sofia University PhD dissertation that is scheduled to be completed prior to the July conference. My dissertation will investigate the influence that near-death experiences, especially their after-effects, have on religious beliefs and spiritual values. While some excellent research has taken place on the after-effects of NDEs on religious beliefs and/or spiritual values. Holden, Long, and MacClurg (2009), conclude that “Further research on this question is clearly warranted” (p. 119). In the study of the influence of NDE after-effects on religion and spirituality, it is important to establish a basic understanding of religion and then one can look at the similarities and differences between religion and spirituality. My presentation will include the results of a questionnaire that I plan to submit to over 100 NDErs. This questionnaire will seek data on how NDE after-effects have changed personal lives and family dynamics, especially in the area of religious beliefs and spiritual values. The questionnaire data may reveal that certain after-effects are more positive and/or negative to family dynamics than others.

Jan Holden & Rebecca Valla

Working with NDErs and Other Potentially Spiritually Transformative Experiencers: A Primer for Health Professionals (IANDS & ACISTE)

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) present life challenges and disruption for a person, and their sense of normalcy.
Careers, religious beliefs, families and relationships are deeply affected. Alienation, depression, and even suicide have been reported. lf these experiences are dismissed as “dreams”, or worse, if they’re considered symptoms of psychopathology, the experiencer feels invalidated, and isolated, creating or adding to hopelessness about finding needed assistance in processing and inlegrating what they have experienced as “real”. The American Center for the lntegration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE) conducts and fosters research to continually increase understanding of the integration process and to develop ever more effective tools in supporting experiencers. ACISTE provides resources to experiencers and their families, and also trains, certifies, and regularly updates professional therapists, spiritual guidance counselors, mentors and support group facilitators who specialize in supporting specific or general needs of experiencers. IANDS and ACISTE both set high ethical standards in the quality of research, education, and support for NDEs and STEs. Both organizations are inclusive of positive and distressing or frightening experiences. Supportive approaches are drawn from and adapted from the collective input experiencers have offered; and a heart-centered, wellness model identifies both groups.

More about Jan Holden ~ Rebecca Valla’s web site ~ ACISTE web site

Mary Holtschneider

Saved By Those You Trained: The Honor and Privilege of Completing the Circle

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

As a near death survivor from a massive pulmonary embolism that struck me in my workplace parking lot in December, 2013, I was fortunate to have been found and treated by many of the healthcare provider staff that I had trained over the years. Working as a Nurse Educator at the Durham VA Medical Center and previously at Duke University Hospital, I have trained thousands of staff on emergency procedures, such as Basic and Advanced Life Support. In addition to the initial staff that resuscitated me, the staff that continued the care in the intensive care unit and stepdown unit were also those whom I had trained. Though I currently have no conscious memory of my NDE, my resuscitation was extremely extensive and my prognosis was poor. Since the event, I have come to realize that I have subconscious memory of the event and share many of the aftereffects of those who have conscious memory of their NDE. I am a Registered Nurse and former paramedic and regularly speak to healthcare provider audiences about my experience, the interprofessional teamwork that was essential to my survival, and the importance of understanding the effects that an NDE has on a patient.

Alan Hugenot

The Nature of Consciousness, the Science of Survival & Mediumship

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

What is consciousness? How has recent science redefined this? What is the latest scientific research on NDE’s mediumship, remembered prior lives, out of body consciousness & biocentrism telling us? Why is materialism no longer a valid way to see the world? How has it been disproven?

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Robert Kopecky

How to Survive Life (and Death): My 3 Different Types of Near Death Experiences, and What We Can Learn From Them

General Session | Sunday | Concurrent Presentation

A description and examination of the miraculous nature and compelling meanings of my three NDEs, and what were the specific lessons learned in each. Despite many similarities, what accounts for the dramatic differences in NDEs? My three NDEs were all different–an exploration into why some people experience elaborate ‘heavenly’ landscapes, and others humble reunions or dark, hellish realms; and the relationship of our “eternal self” (or soul) with Consciousness (which I consider to be a kind of ‘quantum field’ of potential–and possibly even what many consider to be God).Why was I guided not to elaborate too much on the very specific details of my NDEs, but instead on their profoundest inner meanings? What is ‘death’ actually, in its different forms? And very importantly, why do our souls require the death experience, from life to life?

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Robin Aisha Landsong

Called Back by the Song of an African Tribal Woman

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation

When I was eight years old I was abducted from the US and taken to Africa. It was 1977. We landed in Rhodesia during the Bush War. I was soon separated from the man who kidnapped me. I spent the night alone in the bush, then made my way to a rural village. The people of this tribe took me in, and cared for me as one of their own. They taught me how to sing their traditional songs. One woman adopted me as her own. In a singing ceremony I was given the name Aisha (which translates as “she is life”). Days later, guerrilla soldiers came near the village and shot me. I began to die of blood loss and shock. I crossed over into death and met five beings who led me through my confusion to acceptance. During my journey I looked back and saw my Mama holding my body and wailing. Though I treasured her, I journeyed onward through veils that separated me from the living. I began to hear a song that made me pause in my journey. Mama’s wailing had turned into her Medicine Singing that was so clear I heard her through the veils. Her calling song reminded me of my purpose. I decided to return so I could do my purpose which is to offer Medicine Singing to people. I will be telling my story using my art about my death experience, and finishing with Singing Medicine that I do with my husband, John Utter.

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Charlotte Martial

Characteristics of Near-Death Experience memories and personal changes following Near-Death Experiences

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

For many Near-Death Experience (NDE) experiencers, an NDE permanently and dramatically alters personal attitudes, beliefs, and values. We studied their self-reported answers regarding impact on life and changes of opinion (concerning meaning of life, death, altruism, religion, and spirituality) following the NDE. Moreover, this retrospective investigation compared the answers of experiencers who lived NDEs after a non-life-threatening event (i.e., “NDE-like” experience) or after a pathological coma (i.e., “real NDE”). 106 NDE experiencers (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score >7/32) were invited to answer a questionnaire on demographic and clinical data and subjective changes with Likert scales, whose +3 and -3 anchors were positive changes and negative changes, respectively. 71 experiencers (67%) responded to the structured questionnaire. 61 (86%) of them reported a positive effect on their life (rating>0,median+3). The large majority of participants declared that NDE leads to positive changes in meaning of life (79%; rating>0,median+3), death acceptance (89%; rating>0,median+3), altruism (80%; rating>0,median+3), religion (38%; rating>0,median+1), and spirituality (66%; rating>0,median+3). Percentages did not significantly differ between “NDE-like” (n=14) and “real NDE” (n=57) groups. Our findings showed that, for the majority of experiencers, NDE has a positive impact on life and their self-reported changes meet the definition of spiritual transformation (Schwartz, 2000). Lastly, it appears that self-reported opinions of “real NDE” group are similar to those of “NDE-like” group.

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Richard Martini

The Architecture of the Afterlife

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

In light of my research into the flipside via deep hypnosis as detailed in my best selling amazon book and film “Flipside”, I began to focus on NDE’s, OBE’s and others altered states of consciousness, interviewing scientists and near death experiencers who were able to use hypnosis as a tool to examine their NDE in more detail. Subsequently, I’ve found that based on my experience with the architecture of the afterlife with regard to this research, I’ve been able to interview people who are fully conscious, yet are able to access or remember their near death experience, a hypnosis session, or even dreams. I’m working on a new book “Hacking the Afterlife” which details attempts made to reach out to those no longer on the planet. But in order to do so, a blueprint of what is happening on the flipside is needed – a map if you will. The map that I’ve constructed allows us to examine quantum physics along with what thousands have said about their journey.

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Richard Martini

Near Life Experiences; How Examining NDE Cases Gives Insight Into Having More Fun While On The Planet

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Near Life Experiences; How examining NDE cases gives insight into having more fun while on the planet.” I’ll talk about the “flipside of the flipside” – how there are some fun stories about interacting with the other side… how realizing that we don’t die (in spirit anyway) can help us navigate our lifetime.

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Carolyn Matthews

How the Healing Professions Can Better Enable the Near-Death Experiencer’s Path to Inner Healing and Fulfillment

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) face a journey of integration and recovery after their life-changing event. Apart from health issues, many NDErs also face the challenge of not knowing what they came back into physical life to complete. This can cause depression and a sense of loss of direction in life, affecting relationships, work issues, and health recovery. It is important that nursing and other healing professions are knowledgeable about this challenge, and able to offer practical help and support. It is also important to be aware of the spiritual level of consciousness of the NDEr. Inner healing is promoted by the subconscious and the waking consciousness working together. To meet these needs, this author has designed a course using transpersonal tools to access the psyche, and guide NDErs to discover their life mission. This is available in her book: Mentoring the Near-Death Experience Survivor. Course guidance can bring life purpose, fulfillment, validation and inner peace, which promotes self-healing. Also including medical research findings and discussion on the NDE and its survivors, this book is a useful resource book for those in the health care professions and other support services for NDErs.

Visit her web site

Robert & Suzanne Mays

Unraveling the Mystery of Memory: EEG Evidence from NDErs

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Near-death experiencers (NDErs) report that the memory of their NDE is more vivid and lucid than ordinary memories. Two recent analyses of NDE memories showed that they have significantly more characteristics, like visual details, memory clarity, self-referential information (being involved in the event) and emotional content than both memories of real events and imagined events. In addition, the EEG patterns in NDErs differ significantly in several characteristics when the NDErs recall their NDE than non-NDErs when they recall real or imagined events. The hypothesis that the non-material mind separates from the physical body during an NDE is consistent with these findings. According to the hypothesis, when the mind is separated from the body, sensations are experienced directly rather than through the physical senses and the memories are recorded directly in the mind rather than through the hippocampus. The recall of NDE memories would then use different pathways and electrical patterns than ordinary recall of episodic memories. Indeed, we hypothesize that the recall of NDE memories involves an altered state of consciousness which is more like a re-living of the experience than simply recalling a series of events. The evidence from NDEs supports the idea that memories in general are stored in the non-material mind rather than as pattern encodings in neural structures. Ordinary episodic memories are recorded in the mind through pathways in the hippocampus and are recalled again from the mind through reverse hippocampal pathways that reactivate the same sensory and mental neural components, but at a lower intensity.

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Roberta Moore w Diane Corcoran & Tony Woody

Discussion Group: NDEs, Military Issues and Veteran’s Video

General Session | Saturday evening | Concurrent Presentation

Diane Corcoran, currently President of IANDS Board and a retired Army Colonel, was a young Army nurse in Vietnam when she treated a soldier whose leg had been amputated. One night he called her over to tell her about his very unusual battlefield experience of coming out of his body and seeing other fellow soldiers leaving their bodies as well. He then described a transcendent experience into another realm.

Through the years, Diane became more and more aware of a hidden problem for veteran NDErs. Their care providers have virtually no training to distinguish the after effects of NDEs from other conditions such as PTSD or brain injuries. Veteran NDErs are getting little support and are sometimes being misdiagnosed and over-medicated, and they are left with nowhere to turn. Thousands of our vets have had NDES and they don’t even know what has happened to them.

In response to this lamentable situation, several years ago Diane conceived the idea of a video to train veterans and their care providers about NDEs and their aftereffects.

This video will provide reliable information about NDEs to veterans’ hospitals, clinics, and centers, as well as to libraries and individual veterans and their families. In our proposed video, veterans who have had NDEs are ready to share their experiences in order to save other vets from the psychological pain that they have carried for too long.

Veterans deserve to understand what has happened to them and to have greater peace in their lives. You can help our vets by helping us make this video. Near-Death Experience: What Veterans Need to Know.

More about Roberta Moore

Anita Moorjani

Embracing the Gift of Life

General Session | Friday | Keynote Presentation | Live Stream

Join New York Times’ best-selling author Anita Moorjani, for a riveting course that will radically alter your current beliefs about yourself, your purpose on earth, your health, your relationships, and your life! In February of 2006, Anita was on her deathbed. Having suffered from cancer for several years, Moorjani was in a coma with malignant tumors throughout her body. Doctors told her husband and mother that she had only hours to live. After coming out of a 30-hour coma, Moorjani emerged from an out-of-body experience where she says she experienced the afterlife and gained a new understanding of our physical life. Medical records show that Anita was miraculously found cancer free within three weeks of her NDE. The lessons from her experience in the other realm were powerful: Love yourself unconditionally, live fearlessly, release your fears and be yourself. Surviving cancer and a NDE have shaped Anita’s life and work. She has since shared her story with audiences all around the world as a highly sought-after inspirational speaker. Anita will inspire you to transform your life by living more authentically, discovering your greatest passions, transcending your deepest fears, and living from a place of pure joy. You will feel energized as Anita explains such mind-bending concepts as timelessness, non-duality, and simultaneous realities, in such simplified terms that everyone will understand. You will experience many “aha” moments as she explains how by merely understanding and becoming aware of these concepts, and adopting an “inside out” view of the world, you can radically alter your reality instantly.

Visit her web site

Julijan Naskov & Igor Poje

Quality of Death in Life

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation

A child and a 65-year-old person naturally have different points of view in regard to death. Near Death Experiences may be similar, but our main task in regard to them differs. Quality of death is possible while we are still in this life. It does not depend so much on our thoughts, but on the state of our mind at the time of death. People who reached the state we call “enlightenment” do not make difference between the states of life or death, because in the state of “enlightenment” they are, in a way, “untouchable”. We should prepare for the process of dying while we are still alive.

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Jeff Olsen

Exploring Spiritual Gifts in the Aftermath of an NDE

General Session | Friday | Plenary Presentation | Live Stream

Jeff Olsen transforms his own Near-Death Experience into keys to explore the extraordinary in day to day life. After a devastating auto accident crippled Olsen and took half of his family, Olsen draws from the answers provided in his own NDE to explore the gifts and profound miracles in everyday life. Olsen expounds on what we do here, now to literally bring heaven, and greater spirituality to this planet. Olsen takes his NDE to the next level by sharing what can be done in day to day life to create miracles and more joy in the lives of everyone, not just those have a Near-Death Experience.

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Peter Panagore with Bo Billups, Paul Culbertson

NDE Panel: Peter Panagore – Heaven is Beautiful: How Dying Taught Me That Death is Just the Beginning

General Session | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation

I am a United Church of Christ minister. I offer a harrowing account of my near-death experience when I was a young man in 1980 on an ice-climbing adventure in Alberta, Canada. Along with a more experienced climber, I set out on a trip that took us to Lower Weeping Wall, where we two mountaineers found ourselves trapped as we descended the face of the frigid mountain wall. After our rope became snagged and we were overcome by hypothermia, frostbite, and exhaustion, I lost consciousness, my body shut down, and I died. What happened on the other side of death changed my life, resulting in my pursuit of a master’s degree focusing on systematic theology and Christian mysticism from Yale, a complement to my English BA from U of Mass. Feelings of overwhelming love, forgiveness, and caring-but also of shouldering the burdens of others who I hurt during my lifetime on Earth-met me on the other side; I encountered God. I have spent my life in pursuit of the Pursuer as a mindfulness/Centering Prayer practitioner, old yogi, community pastor and storytelling host of a TV morning show that reaches 50,000 viewers a day in Maine and New Hampshire.

Visit his website

Robert Pease

Shine Your Life – Writing and Presenting Your Story Effectively from Stage

General Session | Sunday | Concurrent Session | Live Stream

Traumatic experiences are both profound and transformational and at the same time often become the largest hurdles to overcoming doubt, frustration, post-traumatic emotional problems and long term challenges to communicate effectively your personal story as an intimate healing experience and a miracle. The NDE story is very unique, personal and revealing beyond the normal framework of the general population and offers a point of view rarely presented to the mainstream. This presentation, workshop and panel discussion offers and explores in what capacity a NDE can present from any platform (stage, film, keynote, Ted Talk, auditorium and video) their deeply personal story conveyed with emotional impact to create transformation in the audience. The process of writing, performing through a variety of art forms most comfortable suited to the NDE and sharing with an audience becomes catalyst to a deeper understanding of their unique footprint to become fully exposed, expressed and engaged with society. Learning in five step the process of creating an entertaining and compelling presentation with the highs, lows and the catalyst of transformation in an engaging format allows personal testimony to a unique life adventure that others are invited to experience from you.

Visit his Website

Mark Pitstick with Geralyn Cappabianca

10 Keys for NDErs and Their Support Team to Integrate the STE into Everyday Life

General Session | Sunday | Concurrent Presentation

Near death-experiencers have seen a greater portion of reality than the average person and their lives will never be the same. Their spiritually transformative experiences contain immense potential for improving themselves and others for the better. Using higher and finer energy approaches to self-care and optimizing ones environment is vital for those who have literally seen the Light. This class will share ten holistic keys that can facilitate a smoother reentry after a NDE. These same understandings and strategies can also help family, friends, and health care team members to better understand and transform.

Visit his website

Dan Punzak

How the Multiple Spirit Concept of Humanity Can Explain NDEs

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation

The ancient Greeks spoke of human as having two different spiritual components, psyche and pneuma, or soul and Spirit. This tradition was carried into the Bible. The Jewish Torah also spoke of humans having two spiritual aspects, nephesh and ruah. These are also translated as soul and Spirit and a prophet may speak of my spirit and not the same as being under the influence of the Spirit of God. Several years ago, I spoke to IANDS about shamanism and shamans also believe that humans have more than one spiritual aspect. Finally, Theosophy and Eastern religions describes humans as having an etheric body, an astral body, a mental body, and a self. I intend to demonstrate that an NDE can best be understood by describing the function of each of these spiritual components. I believe an OBE is the soul aspect leaving the body and a transcendental experience involving the light is the soul encountering the Spirit aspect of that same person. I will then explain how this Spirit aspect is active in each person and how it manifests itself.

Tibor Putnoki

9 minutes – My path to the Light

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Tibor Putnoki went through a profound near-death experience in 1994. His NDE lasted for 9 minutes. This experience not only changed his earlier life entirely, but also gave an inspiration for the rest of his life: “People need to be told, they need to know, not to live and act as they do, and I did”. In the presentation Tibor would give a talk about his own NDE story, including his path to healing/recovery and about a totally new life with a much wider scope and aims compare to his previous one. Since he speaks only in Hungarian, an English translator, Kristof Toth, will translate. Tibor Putnoki is the Founder and Spokesperson of Light of Love Public Benefit Foundation, which is the IANDS Affiliate Group in Hungary.

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Tamara Caulder Richardson with Robert Scott Bell

Near-Death Experiencer Interviewee by Robert Scott Bell

General Session | Saturday| Concurrent Presentation

Tamara Caulder Richardson a.k.a. Southern Belle Medium is a six time NDExperiencer, professional evidential medium, and spiritual teacher. Tamara states that she acquired this God-given gift as a small child, grew up to be a successful ad agency owner/art director and marketer for 25 years. She now uses this gift giving beautiful messages from loved ones crossed over, to those around the country to spread healing messages of love. She’s trained with mediums and authors such as John Holland, Janet Nohavec and UK’s most famous medium, Tony Stockwell.

Visit her website

Nancy Rynes

Awakening To Life

General Sessions | Saturday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

After eye-opening, spiritually-transformative Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), many NDErs struggle during their return to human life. I was no different until I realized that my NDE itself gave me all of the tools I needed not only to reintegrate to human society, but to turn my life into one I have always wanted to live. In this presentation, I discuss the wisdom I was given during my NDE including: our power of choice, how gratitude and compassion can transform our lives and the world, the amazing gifts that we have here in the physical plane. I then give examples of how I used this wisdom to transform my own life, and ways that many of my family and friends have made changes for the better as well. I also present exercises that others can use to transform their human life, one step at a time, whether or not they have had an NDE.

Visit her website

Gregory Shushan

Near-Death Experience and the Origins of Afterlife Beliefs

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Whatever their source (biological, psychological, and/or metaphysical), NDEs are unquestionably part of human experience. While they share similar themes wherever they occur, no two descriptions are exactly alike. As with any experience, NDEs are filtered through our layers of culture, language, and individuality. The interpretation of the phenomenon as indicative of survival after bodily death, however, appears to be universal. Accounts from around the world and throughout history show that NDEs regularly impact beliefs about the afterlife, despite cross-cultural differences. This presentation addresses their role in the formation of afterlife beliefs; the relationship between NDEs and cultural expectations; and the varying modes of interpretation and assimilation of these experiences in different societies. The argument that NDEs are a driving force behind religious beliefs aligns well with the conference’s focus on the transformative aspects of NDEs, and how they are integrated into people’s lives.

Visit his web site

Rudolf Smit

The Self Does Not Die: 104 cases of verified paranormal experiences from NDEs

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Plenary Presentation | Live Stream

Claims of paranormal phenomena/experiences during Near-Death Experiences are not just purely subjective. There are cases of NDE in which a third party (partner, relative, friend or medical professional) directly confirms these claims, rather than only through the NDErs themselves. Skeptics have tried to debunk such strong cases but they have failed.

This presentation introduces the new English translation, The Self Does Not Die, of the earlier Dutch book which is a compilation, now of 104 such cases of verified paranormal phenomena during NDEs. The book is a new publication of IANDS, which has been supported by donations from dozens of IANDS members and friends over the past year.

Ainsley Threadgold & Krista Gorman

THE NDE: AFTEREFFECTS, INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

HEALTHCARE-EDUC-RESEARCH-SCIENCE | THURSDAY | CONCURRENT PRESENTATION

Our presentation will consist of a 30 minute presentation/discussion on the above topics. Ainsley will speak about the myriad of aftereffects he had following his NDE as a 13 year old boy that he did not recall until last year. His recollection of the NDE was through the healing modality of hypnosis which then allowed him to assimilate his previously not entirely understood gifts/abilities and newly discovered gifts/abilities that were a direct result of his NDE into his life as an adult.

Krista will focus on the NDE and Healthcare Provider’s role in assisting the experiencer afterward. She speaks from the perspective of both having had an NDE during labor with her daughter 15 years ago and being a Physician Assistant.

We will do this in a presentation/discussion type format.

Visit Krista’s web site

Rebecca Valla

Self Love Is Not Selfish: What’s The Difference and Why Does It Matter?

General Session | Friday | Concurrent Presentation | Live Stream

Self-love is a hugely important concept in the context of expanded consciousness and “inner child work”. As distinguished from selfishness, which is ego-based and without regard for others or for one’s best self, self-love is a manifestation of heart-consciousness. We have an enhanced awareness of our own lived experiences and compassion for our once innocent selves. The longings and pain that have been generated out of loss, misattunements, abuse, and fear are ours to resolve. This is the soul work we have come here to do. This presentation will be relevant for all participants and will draw on what we know from NDEs and STEs, Law of Attraction, Psychosocial and Spiritual Developmental theory, Past-life Regression and Soul Retrieval work, and Soul-Purpose work such as presented in the 2014 Conference keynote by Rob Schwartz.

Visit her website

Rebecca Valla & Jan Holden

Working with NDErs and Other Potentially Spiritually Transformative Experiencers: A Primer for Health Professionals (IANDS & ACISTE)

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) present life challenges and disruption for a person, and their sense of normalcy.
Careers, religious beliefs, families and relationships are deeply affected. Alienation, depression, and even suicide have been reported. lf these experiences are dismissed as “dreams”, or worse, if they’re considered symptoms of psychopathology, the experiencer feels invalidated, and isolated, creating or adding to hopelessness about finding needed assistance in processing and inlegrating what they have experienced as “real”. The American Center for the lntegration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE) conducts and fosters research to continually increase understanding of the integration process and to develop ever more effective tools in supporting experiencers. ACISTE provides resources to experiencers and their families, and also trains, certifies, and regularly updates professional therapists, spiritual guidance counselors, mentors and support group facilitators who specialize in supporting specific or general needs of experiencers. IANDS and ACISTE both set high ethical standards in the quality of research, education, and support for NDEs and STEs. Both organizations are inclusive of positive and distressing or frightening experiences. Supportive approaches are drawn from and adapted from the collective input experiencers have offered; and a heart-centered, wellness model identifies both groups.

More about Jan Holden ~ Rebecca Valla’s web site ~ ACISTE web site

Francisco Valentin

Near-Death Experience – Spanish Introduction

General Session | Friday | Free Workshop 4:45 – 6:45 PM (in Spanish)

Frank Valentin is a respected author, lecturer and spiritual mentor dedicating his life to help people understand how life continues on the other side. Today he will share when he first experienced life on the other side in 1979 when at the young age of seventeen he died in a car accident in Puerto Rico. But what brings Frank to his calling is not his death experience in 1979, instead, it’s a Spiritually Transformative Experience that took place in 2011 to remind him of an agreement he made in 1979 before coming back, and a unique gift entrusted to him to deliver the message to humanity. You can learn more of Francisco Valentin work in his website www.searchingtruth.org .

Francisco Valentin es un autor, conferenciante y guía espiritual dedicando su vida a ayudarnos a entender como la vida continúa más allá de la muerte. Francisco compartirá con nosotros su primer experiencia con el más allá cuando a tan solo 17 años de edad un accidente de auto le robó la vida en su país natal, Puerto Rico. Pero esa experiencia no fué la que trae a Francisco fuera del anonimato. Más bién fue una experiencia espiritual que transformó su vida en el año 2011, cuando Francisco fue recordado de un acuerdo que tuvo lugar en 1979 antes de regresar a la vida, así como el nuevo legado de llevar un mensaje al mundo. Puede conocer más sobre la obra de Francisco Valentín con el mundo espiritual a traves de su página web:

http://www.searchingtruth.org

 

Tony Woody w/ Diane Corcoran, Roberta Moore

Discussion Group: NDEs, Military Issues and Veteran’s Video

General Session | Saturday evening | Concurrent Presentation

Discussion Group: NDEs, Military Issues and Veteran’s Video with NDEr Tony Woody; IANDS President & retired Army Colonel, Diane Corcoran; and producer of Near-Death Experience: What Veterans Need To Know, Roberta Moore.

 

 

Marjorie Woollacott

Exploring Meditation after NDEs: Returning to The NDE Experience

Healthcare-Educ-Research-Science | Thursday | Concurrent Presentation

A key element of an NDE is the transformational change it brings about in the individual in the coming years. For example van Lommel and colleagues (2011) in their prospective study on NDEs found that patients show a decrease in the fear of death and an increase in belief in the afterlife. One additional transformational aspect of NDEs is an interest in exploring the practice of meditation, as a tool to return to the state of expansive consciousness experienced in the NDE (Woollacott, 2015). In this presentation we will explore 1)) examples of this shift in awareness in persons with NDEs, 2) characteristics that the NDE and meditative states have in common, and 3) the characteristics of the meditative state and the meditative process that help the ND experiencer return regularly to the state embodied in their original experience.

Visit her web site

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    20/20 VISION - 2020
    Friday, Aug. 14, 2020 -
    Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020

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