In 2008, Dr. Eben Alexander’s brain was severely damaged by a devastating case of bacterial meningitis, and he lapsed into a week-long coma. It was almost certainly a death sentence, but Dr. Alexander miraculously survived – and brought back with him an astounding story (told in his best-seller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife). During seven days in coma, he was plunged into the deepest realms of consciousness, and came to understand profound truths about the universe we inhabit. What he learned completely violated everything he ever knew about brain, mind and consciousness, and drove him to question some of the most fundamental assumptions of conventional science, leading to a complete flip from his former worldview.

Visit his website

Many respected people in ancient and modern times have reported a Near Death Experience (NDE) and receiving communication from spirits. Some of these luminaries include: Plato, Apostle Paul, Mozart, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and George Lucas. In fact, “The Force”, a concept developed by George Lucas for the Star Wars films was influenced by his NDE. “The Force” is not Hocus Pocus, but rather another way of explaining Quantum Physics which is the basis for understanding the afterlife and the reality of Near Death Experiences. Mark Anthony will demonstrate how Near Death Experiences, Life After Death and Interdimensional Communication (Contact with Spirits) is based on sound scientific principles, quantum physics and human physiology. He will demonstrate how these Spiritually Transformative Experiences can not only help people lose their fear of death but how they also expand one’s consciousness to an elevated state of being.

This entertaining, educational and uplifting presentation by Mark Anthony the Psychic Lawyer® author of the best-selling books Evidence of Eternity and Never Letting Go is for anyone who has wondered if there truly is life beyond physical death. Mark’s spellbinding speaking style, humor and knowledge combined with colorful visual aids will take the audience on a mystical yet logical journey into the Science of the Afterlife.

This event is for all people of all faiths and anyone interested in learning more about “what happens when we die” or in the case of NDErs, “what happens when we almost die!”

Visit his web site Visit his YouTube channel

In her third near-death experience, PMH Atwater was told by “The Voice Like None Other” to test revelation, then write three specific books. Result: she is now one of the original researchers in the field of near-death studies, and has written 16 books on the subject. Of those from “The Voice,” Book One was never named, so remains an unknown. Book Two is Future Memory (the labyrinth), and Book Three is A Manual for Developing Humans. The Manual, as the ultimate how-to-on-every-level, invites us all to take control of our lives and align ourselves with the directive of our soul. It contains life’s basics in easy, fun exercises, games, and stories: know thyself, love thyself. “Hu,” once considered the sound/tone of God, described “Human” as God-Man, God-Woman. Thus, we are and have always been. . . . gods in the making. Every religion and spiritual discipline throughout recorded time acknowledges this in some form. It is our heritage, our truth, our life. Workshop covers how the Manual was created, fun exercises (acupressure facelifts, power secrets, how we really say our prayers, other surprises), as well as a discussion about the larger cycles ahead of us and how to navigate them.

Visit PMH’s website

Near-death and other transpersonal experiencers, health professionals, and scholars have all encountered dogmatic materialists: people who maintain staunch commitment to philosophical materialism– the belief that all phenomena arise from and can be explained in terms of physical phenomena, including that the human brain is responsible for human consciousness such that, when the brain dies, consciousness dies–without having examined the evidence for idealism–the belief that consciousness is primary, including that although the brain and consciousness are closely associated during human life, consciousness preexists the brain and survives brain death. Participants on this panel have all experienced—and research has shown that NDErs have sometimes felt harmed by—such encounters. One challenge of such encounters is to reconcile a fundamental message of NDEs—to treat others lovingly—with the frustration of being “dissed”—dismissed, discredited, etc.—by dogmatic materialists. Panelists will each address these topics and will then engage in discussion between themselves and with the audience, including panelists’ favorite publications pertinent to the topic.

Eben Alexander: Eben Alexander III, MD, FACS, BCNS, former associate professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, has delved deeply into investigation of the mind-body problem and the fundamental nature of consciousness ever since his life-changing near-death experience due to gram-negative bacterial meningitis in 2008, resulting in the books Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven, and, most recently, Living in a Mindful Universe (co-authored with partner Karen Newell), which is all about the emerging scientific view of consciousness.

Neal Grossman: Since retiring a few years ago after over 40 years on faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Neal Grossman, PhD, associate professor emeritus of philosophy, no longer has anything to profess but has published a 2014 book, The Spirit of Spinoza: Healing the Mind, a readable presentation of Spinoza’s remarkable system of spiritual psychotherapy.

Stephan Schwartz: Stephan A. Schwartz, Distinguished Consulting Faculty of Saybrook University, Fellow of the William James Center for Consciousness Studies at Sofia University, and Research Associate of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory of the Laboratories for Fundamental Research; columnist for the journal Explore and editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net; is an experimentalist who for half a century has studied the nature of consciousness, is one of the small group that founded modern Remote Viewing research, and is the principal researcher studying the use of Remote Viewing in archaeology as well as a researcher of creativity, meditation, and Therapeutic Intent/Healing.

Marjorie Woollacott: Marjorie Woollacott, PhD, professor emerita of Neuroscience and Human Physiology at the University of Oregon, has been a neuroscientist for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four; having had research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, she has coauthored a popular textbook for health professionals and has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles, several of which were on meditation, the topic that motivated her to write her most recent book, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind, in which she explores scientific studies supporting the premise that consciousness functions beyond the mind.

Visit Marjorie’s website

Standing in the street, on a sunny day in July 1998, I was struck by lightning. Electrocuted, convulsing, unconscious, dead. During my brief dead time I was transformed. Following this “en-lightning” experience I began my search for a way to help others achieve this same transformation without the trauma of being killed. In time I came to Life Between Lives regression and from that I have developed NDE Regression. I would like to demonstrate for you how NDE Regression can be used to re-experience many of the transformational aspects of an NDE. By watching a filmed demonstration, you will see how it is possible to return to that state of unconditional love and oneness to recover memories, messages and gifts from guides and loved ones.

Visit his website

One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of a near-death experience is being connected to the expansive consciousness of God and then having to return to a physical form with the limitations of this dimension. Many NDErs wake up for a longing to be in direct connection with the loving, intelligent consciousness of God. They may try to explain their experience and encounter a variety of negative and positive reactions from others. Spontaneous OBEs, deeper meditations, timelessness, psychic flashes (sometimes disruptive), mediumship abilities, technological disruptions, sensitivity to the paranormal, healing abilities, and a love and openness to all people are a few of the after-effects that I experienced and that many other NDErs experience. This talk will cover the ways to embrace these types of gifts (and challenges) with greater ease. It will also cover ways to support those who have recently had a NDE and how to lead change in various organizations based on the wisdom from near-death experiences. At the end, I will lead a short, guided meditation with an intention to offer healing and help others connect deeply to their intuition. In small groups, we will also brainstorm ways that various organizations could better support near-death experiencers. Embracing the gifts as opposed to resisting them offers great benefits to experiencers personally and professionally.

Visit her website

Chris Batts: Discussion of my NDE: I want to present about my near death experience and the spiritual messages that come through my angels to this day. My NDE happened after a suicide attempt. I was not loved as a child and had no family who cared. My experience started with seeing my body below and my friends crying. Next I was taken to the spiritual realm. I experienced telepathic thought. I was hugged by God and told “Yes, I am God, Yes I am real, Yes, angels are real. They are a gift from me.” I didn’t believe in any of this before. I was overwhelmed by the presence and love of God. I met many angels including two angels who were familiar. I am in continual contact with my two guardian angels. They guide my understanding of the spiritual realm and how it works. One of my strongest missions is to get the word out about suicide prevention. Many people who go through dark times and depression don’t realize how much they are loved. God’s message to me was to “Go and Tell Everyone that I Love them.”

Darla Johnson: Growing up LatchKey; From PTSD to Spiritual Awakening: Developmental trauma did not become the focus of attention within the mental health community until the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. PTSD symptomology and treatment was mainly focused on returning veterans of war but little was understood or researched about juvenile effects of post-trauma growing up in an environment of abuse and neglect. With the advent of neuroimaging, medical and mental health communities now recognize that chronic or one event trauma(s) among children of abuse or neglect, alters the brain’s structure and function and negatively influences their world-view and perceptual outlook for the remainder of their lives unless proper post-trauma expert treatment is sought. Many individuals, such as myself, living with the negative effects of developmental childhood traumas however, have had either an NDE, OBE or STE that had caused a complete spiritual awakening and healing.

Visit Darla’s website

Lindsey Scott: Facing the Dark, What My Childhood NDE Taught Me About Reality, Karma & Time: I will cover the beginning of my journey in 1974 at the age of eight years old when my twenty eight year old sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the empathic bond we developed before her death, her passing & the extensive contact between us after. Then my own NDE, months later, from child abuse and how these events are related. I will focus in particular on my sister’s lessons about how we manifest reality in the afterlife, the levels of heaven and growth, my experience in viewing the Hell Realms & how I experienced a timeless reality. All of these will be detailed in my forthcoming book, Soul to Keep. The terminology I present was used by either my sister, angels or God. In addition, I encountered both a male & a female aspect of God.

Bo Billups is an active member of Toastmasters International, a world leader in communication and leadership development. Bo served as an Area Director, coaching six clubs in Washington, DC during the 2017-2018 Toastmasters year and is currently serving as President of a club. He has presented many of the organization’s Better Speaker Series talks. Bo has been an active member of IANDS since 2011 and has twice been a national conference speaker. He has led various NDE-related presentations and book discussions in his community.

Lee Campbell: Lee Campbell, Pastor Emerita in the American Baptist denomination, serves on a variety of non-profit, community-service boards. Lee is a retired accountant who serves as Seattle IANDS Treasurer and does accounting for Coalition for Refugees from Burma, a Seattle organization providing educational support for refugee students. She is the recipient of a World AIDS Day HIV/AIDS Community Service award for “…volunteering, unconditional caring and loving dedication as the HIV/AIDS Support Group Facilitator” for Snohomish County, WA. Her years of involvement with IANDS and near-death experiencers were extremely helpful during the nine years as Support Group Facilitator during the AIDS crisis.

Liam Chris Devlin: NDE and “A Course in Miracles”: reframing aftereffects, sharing peace: Years ago Kenneth Ring commented on the “ego” in a lecture. After the talk I asked him if he was referring to the ego as defined in A Course in Miracles (ACIM). He replied “yes” and offered there was some evidence showing many NDEr’s gravitating to the ACIM as a form of spiritual practice. He later wrote on using some perspectives from ACIM in understanding negative NDE experiences. There have been a few references to ACIM in the IANDS journal over the years. I first heard ACIM referenced, in terms of NDE’s, at the 2001 IANDS conference here in Seattle when Jayne Smith spoke. My “NDE and ACIM” presentation will include my NDE story and experience with ACIM. I will compare and current conceptual understandings of forgiveness, the “ego” self, the life review, Oneness vs separation, NDE aftereffects and healing, from both perspectives. Useful tools for health professionals will be highlighted when working with grief and with integrating NDE aftereffects.

Greg Wilson: Greg has been very involved with Seattle IANDS since the late 1980’s; as Program Coordinator, he has interviewed hundreds of near-death experiencers. The content of the interviews has been extremely helpful in many of the contacts he has made during his years of working at Quest Bookshop, a landmark Seattle spiritual book store. He has had a life rich in spiritual-transformative experiences.

Father Nathan Castle: The Interrupted Death Experience: Father Nathan is a Catholic priest who for over twenty years has been visited in dreams by persons who died suddenly or traumatically and have not been able to complete their transitions to the afterlife. Instead of joining loved ones, moving along a path, through a tunnel, or toward a light, these persons shut down and isolated. These Interrupted Death Experiences are later processed in prayer with Father Nathan and a partner. Together they help these persons complete their transition. Their dramatic stories are presented in their own unique voices in Father Nathan’s forthcoming book.

Visit Nathan’s website

Laura Dunham: Sharing the Gifts of NDEs in Conversation with the Mystics and the Spiritual Tradition: Extraordinary experiences like NDEs and STEs need meaningful contexts through which to be interpreted and understood. Often, sudden death or traumatic circumstances precede these experiences. While transformative, they generally require considerable processing time and expert help before their participants heal from the trauma and are able to identify, develop, and confidently express the spiritual gifts they have received. To support healing and reflection, NDE studies and persons affected may benefit from the spiritual wisdom and guidance offered by an overlooked resource: the mystics. Mystics consciously and purposefully participate in the energy of Divine Love. Their moments of spiritual illumination and ecstatic union with the Divine offer parallels to those experienced in NDEs and the like. Mystics intentionally bear the fruit of their spiritual encounters in their daily living, relationships, and work, providing models for those seeking meaningful ways in which to share the gifts and express the fruit of their transformational experiences. In this presentation, two spiritual leaders experienced with NDEs and STEs will share insights from their engagement with the mystics, extensive work helping survivors of trauma heal, and explorations of enduring spiritual transformation through afterlife encounters with Divine justice, mercy, and love.

Visit Laura’s website

Norma Edwards: NDE- Life Beyond the Experience: A shared in-depth examination of life beyond the Near Death Experience through the eyes of a NDE Experiencer forty years later.NDE – a paradigm shift resulting in a massive leap in consciousness. Mapping elements of change and transformation. The learning trajectories around life in the fast lane of heightened states of consciousness. Moving beyond mediocre through to discipline, focus, empathy, ethical and purposeful living. Emergence of new talents, and healing streams; acknowledging the pressing need for research leading to integrative medicine. NDE survivors and their potential to share and participate in the evolution of a new model for life in the twenty-first century.

Visit Norma’s website

Whether we choose to come back from a near-death experience (NDE) or are sent back, it is the presenter’s belief that we enter a covenant with Spirit and with Life to use what we have learned in the NDE to help others. Using her own NDE and decades of interviews with people who have been at death’s door and beyond, this presentation will demonstrate the importance of sharing our gifts from this profound experience – reduced fear of death, visions of entities and deceased loved ones, increased earthly and otherworldly abilities and more – to bring hope and love to the world and thus fulfill our spiritual covenant.

Visit her website

Janet Elizabeth Colli: Visitations by otherworldly Beings, the spiritually-based use of entheogens, and even trauma can initiate transformational crisis. Experiencers often develop special awareness or enhanced perceptual abilities. Spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) may also entail difficult challenges before the experience has fully integrated into the experiencer’s personality and life. What challenges can occur for the budding shaman who is straddling two worlds? What support may be needed to usher in the New World? This presentation guides us though the aftershock of a STE — to the gifts of the integration process — through the case files of a transpersonal psychotherapist.

Symptoms may signify a difficult stage of a radical personality transformation. So too, must our collective radically transform. Such transformative processes as STEs are at odds with the medical model of Western psychiatry that emphasizes pathology. As a mental health professional who provides psycho-spiritual support for a full gamut of processes, including spiritual emergency, I believe that psycho-spiritual transformation is a natural, evolutionary process. A transformation within psychology is sparked when this evolutionary dynamic is embraced. This paradigm shift amounts to the psychology of the future.

Visit Janet’s website

Susie Herrick: I recently published a memoir about an experience I had with my father that enabled me to emotionally transform internal misogyny into a vibrant feminine voice. This book opened the door for the co-authoring of a timely and similarly themed self-help book with Elle Luna, released by Workman Publishing on March 8th 2018 for Women’s Day. The event that catalyzed the dark-night preceding this heroine’s journey was the not so unusual experience of a heartbreaking divorce. Why the first book was so difficult to finally finish after writing it for nine years by 2011 was a mystery until my ex-husband died suddenly, offering an intriguing twist to the ending of my story. I was familiar with after-death-communications (ADCs) because I had experienced them throughout my life and professionally (as an educator and psychotherapist) had familiarized myself with NDEs. So when I received an ADC from my former husband I was surprised, but not unprepared. What I was unprepared for was how comprehensive this ADC was, for the profound emotional effect it had me, the similarities it had to an NDE experience, to the Bardo research I had done based on my time in Tibet, and on the events that followed.

Visit Susie’s website

Discussion Group with IANDS President Emerita & retired Army Colonel, Diane Corcoran

The U.S. military and the Veterans Administration (V.A.) are a special environment that make it difficult for service members to reveal their experiences. The newly created Veteran’s Video, Near-Death Experience: What Veterans Need To Know, will be shown and discussion/sharing will take place regarding these issues. Retired Army Colonel, Diane Corcoran, RN, PhD, will also recommend what we need to do to help veterans and military VA facilities support veterans who have had a near-death experience.

More about Diane Corcoran

Alex Doman: Alexander Doman, MD is a board certified orthopedic surgeon in private practice in Atlanta Georgia. On July 19, 2012, he had a spiritually transformative experience while driving home from work that instantly completely transformed every aspect of his life 180 degrees from that day forward. He will discuss the dissolution of his soul as it merged with source/God. The world of shape and form and space and time disappeared and his soul returned home. He will discuss his journey home and what it means for all of us.

Yvonne Kason: Yvonne Kason, MD first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs) and defined them in 1994 in her book, A Farther Shore. Panel moderator Dr. Kason will highlight the broad range of types of STEs. She will describe her own Kundalini awakening experience, how she struggled to find an accurate name for her STE and how her life was deeply impacted by the aftereffects. Dr. Kason will emphasize the need for clear definitions of types of STES to avoid confusion and mislabeling, as occurs all too frequently.

Diane Willis: Diane Willis is founder and facilitator of Chicago IANDS, one of the largest such groups in existence. She is an experiencer (STE) from Spring of 1995 during which she went through the tunnel, encountered the White Light and had an extensive conversation with the Creator. In May, 1998, she started Chicago IANDS, with much guidance from the other side. As leader of Chicago IANDS, she hosted the IANDS conference in 2004. She has done many years of local teaching, hospice work, lectures, consultations and counseling about death and dying. She is also a flutist, having taught 1000s of students for over 50 years. Her CD, Improvisations From the Other Side, with pianist, John Fish, was released in 2002.

Helen Folsom: A Near Death event touches more than just the person who experiences it. The ripples move outward, touching family, friends, loved ones, even strangers. The gifts received by NDEers also expand and profoundly change lives. For the past 8 years I have lived in partnership with an NDEer who has developed a unique gift for healing. I have been touched by that gift, and it seems to have rubbed off on me as well. As we open to the possibility that there are hidden abilities waiting in the wings for us, whether we have had an NDE or not, a new life emerges. Explore your own healing nature in this 1 hour presentation, open up your own gifts, and create the next steps in your mind-bending human journey.

Visit Helen’s website

Elke Macartney: I call us the “left behinds”—those who haven’t seen the light, but might have witnessed the death or the hospital visit. We caregivers pick up the pieces after the experiencer has had his/her experience. As a counselor and spiritual healer, I have the tools to help my husband heal, but am hugely challenged with the everyday reality of picking up the pieces and living with someone who has profoundly changed after several near deaths.

Visit Elke’s website

Anastasia Hernandez: Muggles: Living with an NDEer: Life with an NDEer has been for me a journey of great joy and has also come with its own unexpected challenges. After spending more than 11 years as wife and partner to Jose Hernandez, a gifted healer and artist, I have grown in ways I could not have imagined. I had to learn to reestablish my own connection and remember the value of my own path, even as I witness my partner be swept away in profound experiences and support him during deep spiritual ‘lows’. This experience has helped me deepen my own relationship with Creator to the point where I no longer feel like an abandoned toddler left behind as my partner is whisked off in ecstasy in front of my eyes. I can now once again delight in my own relationship with Spirit and find the ‘magic’ and grace in my own gifts and connection.

Discover how you can reconnect with the fabric of existence that permeates all that “is” without having to have a near-death experience. The Force or cosmic field of infinite potential is accessible to everyone. It is not reserved for a chosen few. “It” is looking to us for a greater expression in this universe. Join Joan as she shares insights from her near-death experience, subsequent spiritually transformative experiences and stories that demonstrate that no matter what an individual’s background or occupation we are now able to immediately access this field of awareness to bring harmony and balance to ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us. Join us for a lively and experiential presentation! May the Force Be You!

Following a near death experience in 1989, Joan longed to feel the elation and knowingness that was present during her NDE. In 2008 as she picked up Eric Pearl’s book, The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself, she was struck by a powerful electrical sensation. “The Reconnection opened a portal to a timeless knowingness across many planes of existence. What unfolded during The Reconnective Healing Sessions was similar to my NDE but there was so much more.” Joan Fowler received her formal education in Engineering at the United States Military Academy West Point. In 2009 she left a successful Engineering career to explore Healing. She is currently an Associate Instructor for The Reconnection and has taught and presented at healing events around the world. She also has an MBA and is a certified Hatha Yoga Teacher.

Visit her website

NDE has potential effects not only on the experiencer, but also might shape attitudes and beliefs of non-NDErs. Some bereaved individuals who have suffered grief and loss, have reported finding peace and comfort through learning about near-death experiences (NDEs). Meanwhile, information about NDEs has been used by therapists to comfort bereaved individuals and people with terminal illnesses. This presentation focuses on the potential impact of insight gained through learning about NDEs on 12 bereaved Iranians. This is a part of my ongoing qualitative study about impact of NDEs on non-NDErs. The result showed that bereaved persons, through learning about NDEs can find insight about death and after death, which in turn, might help them to achieve peace and comfort, and cope with the loss.

Visit his website

A rich literature has developed about NDEs, focusing on their frequency, common features, possible physiological and psychological causes, and common aftereffects. This information has been greeted by the public, to a large extent, as comforting entertainment, and it has been dismissed by scientists, to a large extent, as meaningless tricks of the brain. Are NDEs more than that? Are they important enough to demand the serious attention of both scientists and the public? I argue that NDEs are far more than entertainment or brain tricks, but in fact are critically important to experiencers, to scientists, and to the public at large. I will outline why NDEs matter to experiencers, why they matter for our scientific view of the relationship between mind and brain and for scientific ideas of survival of consciousness after death, why they matter for how we provide medical care, and finally why they matter for how we all lead our lives and view our role in the universe.

Visit his website

This presentation shares experiencer stories and key findings from doctoral research that explored if and how personality plays a role in life-changing NOTEs (non-ordinary transcendent experiences), their aftereffects, and the meaning experiencers make of them. Examples of NOTEs include NDEs, NDLEs, kundalini awakenings, out-of-body experiences, revelation, divine encounters, paranormal experiences, psychedelic experiences, spiritual crises, and other STEs. The findings suggest there are transcendent dimensions to personality that are “switched on” or enhanced by profound NOTEs. These transcendent dimensions provide indications of the types of gifts experiencers come to know through their experience(s), often significantly shaping their life after their experience(s) and may eventually become gifts they choose to share with others.

Visit her website

Transformative experiences such as NDE’s and spiritual awakenings frequently open people to healing in unexpected ways. Awareness begins to develop about healing at physical, emotional and spiritual levels. As a cell biologist/biophysicist I learned a lot about the body’s amazing ability to recover and renew, and after my NDE that knowledge became integrated with a gift for energy healing. In this session you will learn how to recognize your innate healing nature and expand that gift. I’ll show you images of the healing process of cells that are going on inside of you constantly. You can also experience healing in action and learn to deeply connect the dimensions of the ‘other side’ with your earthly here and now for yourself, your family, and in service to others. Check out her workshop: Friday 4:30-6:30 pm

Visit her website

David and Scarlett have made dramatic changes in their lives due to their SNDE in 2005, including publishing a book, Waking Up To Love: Our Shared Near-Death Encounter Brought Miracles, Recovery and Second Chances in 2018. Scarlett has worked with several other people with equally dramatic recoveries, including someone on the brink of death from a suicide attempt, one with a stroke/brain hemorrhage from a rare congenital birth defect; and one who had a surgical complication from routine gall bladder surgery with near fatal results. David provides healing in the recovery community. Scarlett & David met for the first time during a shared NDE that spontaneously occurred in September 2005 when David was on the brink of death. He had been in an unresponsive coma for nearly four weeks, on a ventilator for life support and in complete kidney failure due to a rare form of vasculitis —Wegener’s Granulomatosis. While working with David, they had a shared near-death experience (SNDE) in which they met in a spiritual dimension of living liquid light and love, resulting in an unexplained medical recovery for David and an unexpected love connection for them both.

Visit her website

With a September 6, 2018 UK/ Irish publication of her new book, Bringing Death To Life, Dr. Hensley will discuss some of the topics that she and her co-authors have covered, ranging from, signs and messages, the practicalities of assisting in the death process and profound spiritual discoveries made by three of the four authors during their own NDEs. Narrated by the voice of number one best-selling author(twenty-two times over) Patricia Scanlan, authors and experiencers Aidan Storey(Angel Healer), Pamela Young(Spirit Medium) and Dr. Mary Helen Hensley(Chiropractor/Metaphysician) have created a book which is the first of its kind. Dr. Hensley’s book, Promised By Heaven, gives a detailed account of her NDE and its subsequent impact on her life as a healer. She has just finished a book entitled Understanding is the New Healing based on healing sessions she has conducted over the last twenty years utilizing gifts acquired following her NDE. Each of these subjects will be woven together in a delightfully humorous yet informative presentation, allowing each listener to empower themselves with the knowledge that we already are that which we seek.

Visit her website

Jose Hernandez: The Art of Dying: The core belief that nothing exists outside of what we can see and touch and that we are fighting to survive in an unconscious, indifferent universe greatly affects how we interact with others and with the world around us. The NDE profoundly demonstrates to the experiencer the fallacy of that view and opens us up to a whole new world of experience right here in these very same bodies. While there can be great challenges in letting go of the old paradigm with the associated loss of the old belief structure, relationships and habits, the effort required to embrace and learn new ways is indescribably worth every struggle. Letting go of the old limitations, embracing new and expanded horizons, and allowing the flow of source energy to move you and through you opens the door to new gifts and abilities that were previously non-existent or dormant and into a deeper connectedness with the world.

Visit Jose’s website

Laurence Martin: Self-Love and Surrendering to the Universe: A shared death experience at my Mother’s death in 2006 brought me to “the other side”. I remained “there” for a whole week. Edmonde’s life had been ravaged by extreme self-hatred. This had led her to view her children as enemies, even as babies. This is a powerful story of total Forgiveness and Love, culminating shortly before Edmonde’s last breath when I became infused with an extraordinary Energy I had no idea could exist. Words cannot describe the magnitude of the heavenly feelings in my body. As I was consumed by an out of this world burning Love for Edmonde, I saw the extraordinary magnificence of who she truly was. She was radiating the infinite innocence of a new born. She died fully alive! In these moments I was flooded with astounding revelations: I am this indescribable Energy in physical form; It is the most powerful thing in the Universe and it can heal anything. Many others followed. It took me years of struggle to finally accept that I had awakened to my true nature, realizing that Self-Love and surrendering myself to the Universe would allow me to experience my divine reality in my earthly costume.

Rebecca Austill-Clausen: Increase After-Death Communication Experiences: Learn a variety of methods to expand after-death communication. Rebecca is an Occupational Therapist who had an STE 22 years ago when she started communicating with her 37-year-old brother who passed, even though she had no prior psychic or spiritual experience. Explore the healing benefits of nature, forest bathing, Reiki, shamanic journeying, crystal energy, sound healing, meditation, and complementary and integrated health modalities.

Visit Rebecca’s website

Totalmente hablado en español: Introducción a experiencias cercana a la muerte por Jose Hernandez

Jose Hernandez hará una presentación para aquellos que son nuevos para el tópico de la experiencia cercana a la muerte (ECM). Recibirá información básica de lo que es una ECM, incluyendo incidencias de ECM, características y efectos posteriores a una ECM. Jose compartirán con ustedes, como testigo, sus experiencias vividas cercana a la muerte y terminará con una sesión de preguntas y respuestas.

NDE 101 Introduction to Near-Death Experiences completely spoken in Spanish by Jose Hernandez

Jose Hernandez will present the topic of the Near-Death Experience (NDE) for those new to the topic. Jose will explain basic information about what a NDE is, including incidents of NDEs, features and NDE aftereffects. Jose may share with you his Near-Death Experience and end with a question and answer session.

Visit his website

Researchers have suggested that experiences similar to yet different from near-death experiences (NDEs) contain many of the same features and aftereffects. In this presentation, we consider the case of Paula Lenz. Following her brother’s sudden accidental death, Paula had a spontaneous experience that was a combination shared-death experience (SDE) and after-death communication (ADC). In this presentation, she will describe this experience, subsequent experiences, and their ongoing psychospiritual gifts. Then Jan will discuss how she used the Near-Death Experience Scale to assess Paula’s initial experience as well as the ADC of another case study subject and will compare aftereffects of these NDE-related experiences with those of NDEs, providing additional support to the idea that these various experiences are, indeed, related.

Janice Miner Holden: Janice Miner Holden, EdD, LPC-S, NCC, ACMHP, professor of Counseling and chair of the Department of Counseling & Higher Education at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, has for the past 30 years researched, published, and presented on NDEs and related phenomena.

More about Jan Holden

Ingrid Honkala: A Brightly Guided Life, a Gift from a NDE: The beginning of the awakening of my conscious awareness came to me when I drowned in a tank of frigid water, when I was almost three. During my NDE, I experienced myself as a Being of Light and realized that I was much more than my physical form. After returning I felt detached from my body and knew that my biological parents where not really my parents. I didn’t feel like a child anymore and preferred to be with adults. Soon after I started to see and communicate with Beings of Light (BOL) and through time I discovered that I have extrasensory perception and psychic abilities that I have been able to use to access higher order wisdom to help others. But I have not done this alone I have been guided throughout my whole life by the BOL. However, my path has not been easy. For most of my life I felt different and alone and unable to relate with most people. When I was five the BOL said to me, “Someday your experience will talk for you.” Today the meaning of this message is clear to me, that my hardships are enabling me to relate and help others.

Visit Ingrid’s website

The Next Steps: Balancing Life and Processing Personal NDE Meanings, Messages & Gifts: The aftereffects of any type of Spiritual experience can enhance and expand our understanding of the experience itself. We can be greatly changed. How does one process what has happened or deal with such profound new understandings? How might we work with the gifts from those experiences to flourish in the physical world while nurturing the inner spirit? The universe is calling to us and the NDE experience is just one of the untold ways it does. For the past nine years, I have been learning to lean into the messages while also coming to terms with the gifts given me through my own NDE experience. Some of the aftereffects produced even more spiritual occurrences. I will share and have a reciprocal discussion covering the many aspects of such life changing experiences and the profound aftereffects that can manifest. I will also discuss what I feel is very important to impart from my years of listening to inner directed messages from Source. Join the discussion and share your own gifts….together we can find a way to grow in love, light and the fullness of the magnificent spirits we are. The Near Death Experience is the teacher, the aftereffects is the homework given!

Visit Deirdre’s website

William Taylor: The Last Jedi in a Human World, an Experiencer’s Point of View: NDErs have just been introduced to the gift of knowledge of unconditional love and the mechanics of the universe. Is it the NDEr that has aftereffects or have they just been reminded of who they really are and where they come from? Is this gift of new knowledge an aftereffect? Are the NDErs now the normal ones? What about the non-NDE humans? Are they the ones with aftereffects of being human? What are those aftereffects? Can you exist in both worlds simultaneously? Where do you find your “real” world? Is the difficulty of coming back to a reality of this world one of a misunderstanding of who you are and where you belong?

The prevalence, significance and meaning for society and the individual with a special emphasis on the experiences of combat veterans. Extraordinary Spiritual Experiences (ESEs), such as near-death experiences and after-death contacts, are common around the world and have been shown to be normal and salutogenic. Substantial data indicates that several of these experiences are associated with better psychological health. ESEs have healing power, a power partly rooted in the way that the knowledge they confer to the experiencer produces a cognitive re-appraisal of threats and, therefore, stress. Since stress can produce morbidity and death, and cognitive appraisal modulates stress, the spiritual resources arising from Extraordinary Spiritual Experiences can be potent mediators of the stress response and, therefore, health. To facilitate the use of this resource it is necessary to combat the stigma of psychopathology that has been consistently used by skeptics to “debunk” ESEs, and to assist experiencers in an appreciation of the empirical and rational support that exists for taking ESEs seriously.

More about David Hufford

Everything begins with your thoughts. What you think leads to how you feel; how you feel leads to what action you’ll take next. So if your first thought is, “I’m not good enough,” “I’m so fat and I hate my body!” or “I’m such an idiot,” your emotions take a nose-dive. Our physical energy lowers, we become anxious, our self esteem crashes. Sadly, any actions (or inactions) we take in those states often end up supporting the original thought-belief. The truth is, an enormous number of our negative thoughts are unconscious. As a result, we end up with painful emotions and unhealthy behaviors – based on those thoughts – that harm our self worth and happiness – and we don’t even realize we’re doing this. This was the gift of my incredible 4-hour life review during my NDE: understanding the devastating effects of “Mind Loops” – negative thoughts that get stuck in a pattern, like a crazed hamster on a wheel. When I “came back” from my NDE, I dove into researching the neuroscience behind negative thinking – and most importantly, how to change entrenched neural pathways that cause looping thought patterns. I now train individuals and corporations to stop negative Mind Loops to raise self esteem and lower worry and anxiety. The result is astoundingly increased confidence, happiness, and peace of mind.

Visit Her website

Debbie James, RN, PhD, and Bev Byers, RN, EdD, will present an introductory lecture for those people who are new to the Near-Death Experience (NDE) field. They will present the basic information on NDEs, including the incidence of NDEs, the main features of NDEs, and the typical after-effects of NDEs. Best Practices in the delivery of quality nursing care of patients touched by near-death experiences (NDEs) is impacted by increased knowledge of the all aspects of the phenomenon. Registered Nurses may implement strategies to promote disclosure of a Near-Death Experience and support building and fostering relationships after an NDE. This interactive session will provide a diverse approach to and regard for the essentials. Participants will be invited to discuss personal and professional insight and approaches to care giving.

More about Debbie James More about Bev Byers

Dr. Yvonne Kason first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs) in 1994, further defining them in her books, Farther Shores, and Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences, in an effort to minimize mislabeling of STE experiencers. Dr. Kason divides STEs into 5 major categories, which will be described in detail in this presentation: Mystical Experiences; Kundalini/Spiritual Energy awakenings; Psychic Experiences, Near-Death-Experiences and other death-related STEs; and Inspired Creativity. She will show how all STEs, including NDEs, tend to transform the experiencer, changing them in a more spiritual direction, initiating or accelerating a long term process of spiritual transformation of consciousness in the experiencer. The many common after-effects of physical, psychological, and spiritual or paranormal symptoms will be described. These possible after-effects include both positive/uplifting ones and/or ones challenging to the experiencer. Dr. Kason will outline some of the factors which may contribute to the development of challenging after-effects including spiritual crises /spiritual emergencies, as well as strategies for grounding, to lessen/mitigate challenging after-effects.

Visit her website

There are many roads that lead us to spiritual transformation. The road I took was off the beaten path. I’m a psychotherapist in Seattle and a lifelong experiencer of the paranormal. I have spent my life researching and attempting to grapple with experiences that left me feeling lost and alone, with a growing mountain of questions. I have struggled to find my footing in a culture that denies the reality of experiences that transformed my life in profound ways. I have seen first hand the amount of stress a secret like this can be on a family system and how hard it is to function on a daily basis under it’s weight. I know what it’s like to live a dissociated, compartmentalized life, as I attempted to fit into society. I spent the first half of my life trying to deny the reality of the double life I led and the second, working to figure out how to integrate it. The phenomenon facilitated a shift in my consciousness and the way I perceive the world. I’ve learned how to integrate these two realities and finally become whole and it is my journey that I will be discussing.

Visit her website

In the context of my book, How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor, Llewellyn Books, March 2018. A description and examination of my three very different NDEs. An exploration into the qualities of NDE experience associated to our ideas of “Heaven;” and the different natures of NDEs as inter-dimensional phenomena—their personal and cultural exclusivities, and their “custom-made” qualities. The extra-dimensional relationship of our “spiritual self” with what I call Divine Consciousness—including how our karma shapes and forms our lives (reflected in our NDEs), as well as how it defines our realization of “Heaven” as a state-of-being, not a location (the idea that “illusion” does not end in the afterlife). How may I account for the differences in my three NDEs, and what were the three very powerful, timeless lessons of each? How do these eternal principles define and shape every life we live—including our recognition of the Divine (“The Field of Love”), our synchronicitous relationships, and our spiritual responsibilities. Asking what is ‘death’ actually, and why do our souls require the death experience? Ending with how do NDEs inform our ongoing human role as stewards of a potential spiritual Heaven-on-Earth?

Visit his website

Terry Larkin: Wake Up and Live in Greatness! Terry offers insights to audiences through her understanding of how Near-Death Experiences can shape a healthy and happy authentic life, or one filled with anxiety. Terry uses her own 1982 death experience to share with others her momentous journey to awaken consciously. Her spiritually transformative path guided her desperate search for answers. A natural teacher of 30 years and her sense of humor help audiences feel comfortable with their own spiritual journey. Researching in the areas of science, brain research, and natural healing modalities, Terry relates her serious health problems that began plaguing her in 2006. She shows how she was able to revisit her NDE “healing” message, combine researched knowledge, and bring herself to quality health today.Terry’s life led her to many fascinating cultural and mystical experiences as she led environmental workshops for middle and high school students into the Amazon Basin of Peru, hiking the Inca Trail, and exploring the varied eco-systems in Costa Rica and Kenya. She uses these stories creatively to help others process their own experiences. Her messages share our oneness, navigating life, and helping one another. She offers practical techniques to help others grow in health through her hands-on workshops.

Visit Terry’s website

Jim Macartney: New Creations in the Wake of Sudden Death Experiences: Crisis and chaos of any kind threaten our notion of a reality that can be somehow understood and controlled, leaving uncertainty as the pervasive predicament of life. This panel examines how integration of NDEs and STEs opens the door for experiencers to physically heal and profound new insights— revealing treasures that anyone can use to realize higher levels of wellbeing, regardless of circumstance. A portion of Jim’s NDE in 1997 of merging toward total unity is used to outline of the cycle of crisis, chaos and creation. Medicine currently is challenged to expand their horizons to harness the power latent in chaos that opens one to unlimited opportunity: highly creative people consciously employ the same creation cycle as people in deep crisis who finally surrender.

In 1997, damaged brains were considered to be untreatable. Subsequent to his second sudden death and severe stroke in 2012, a time when medicine acknowledged brains do have limited capacity to change, Jim is writing an intuitively derived map of the universe arising from consciousness that can be scientifically verified: To be presented separately from the panel.

Researchers have suggested that experiences similar to yet different from near-death experiences (NDEs) contain many of the same features and aftereffects. In this presentation, we consider the case of Paula Lenz. Following her brother’s sudden accidental death, Paula had a spontaneous experience that was a combination shared-death experience (SDE) and after-death communication (ADC). In this presentation, she will describe this experience, subsequent experiences, and their ongoing psychospiritual gifts. Then Jan will discuss how she used the Near-Death Experience Scale to assess Paula’s initial experience as well as the ADC of another case study subject and will compare aftereffects of these NDE-related experiences with those of NDEs, providing additional support to the idea that these various experiences are, indeed, related.

Visit Paula’s website

NDEs have an astonishing power to supplant our fear of death with expectation and even heartache for what is to come: our ultimate transformation. For hospital patients, this aftereffect is the greatest gift of the experience. If they quickly receive support, there tends to be more rapid integration of the NDE, and decreased existential dissonance before death. The effect this can have on loved ones is equally profound, helping them be deeply present in wonder, just as they are being swallowed by grief. Explore with hospital chaplain David Maginley the beautiful, transformative effect NDEs can have at the end of life, as well as the destabilizing impact that comes with increased psychic ability and shifts in foundational beliefs. Learn of the deep effects his own NDE had on his life, including angelic encounters and healing gifts. Through moving stories and tender humor, David brings you to the bedside to encounter ordinary people realizing their extraordinary potential as they touch, for that eternal moment, the love from which we flow.

Visit his website

Presenter, a psychotherapist, owner of Uncommon Wisdom Counseling Services, LLC, will facilitate a discussion sharing her unique therapeutic healing modality which incorporates: * Indigenous wisdom * Vedic systems including seven Chakra energy centers * Jungian psychology of the Unconscious * Twelve-step recovery’s Higher Power concept, with focus on treating her psychotherapeutic clients while in non-ordinary states of consciousness. Informed by a decade work with trauma survivors facilitating their healing integration, these survivors in presenter’s practice have experienced NDE’s, spiritual transformations, and After Death Communication (ADC’s). NDE’s can create a cascade of new information to process. This can give rise to a newfound consciousness. Helpful integration from a therapist or healer, can lead to a full-circle sharing of gifts created from this shift. For a hands-on demonstration, there will be a short ten-minute guided visualization led by the facilitator. A question and answer discussion will follow, along with time to process the meditation experience.

Visit her website

Near-death experiences (NDEs) imply that there is a transmaterial, transcendent aspect to human beings. NDErs report hyperreal experiences of both the physical realm and a transcendent realm. In both realms, NDErs report obtaining veridical information that would be impossible through ordinary physical senses and report encounters with deceased persons and spiritual beings. NDErs frequently describe a transition between the two realms. We propose that the physical and the transcendent or spiritual realms are both real. From NDE evidence, the transcendent realm interpenetrates and is coextensive with the physical realm and is more fundamental than the physical–it is a “fifth dimension” of reality. Human beings are transcendent, spiritual beings united with a physical-energetic bodily sheath. There is confirmatory evidence of this view from such death-related phenomena as veridical shared death experiences, veridical after-death communications, veridical mediumship communications and verified cases of reincarnation memories. Other theories of consciousness proposing that transcendent phenomena derive from nonlocal, quantum-level physical phenomena fail to explain the NDE phenomena fully, in particular NDErs’ experience as an individuated spiritual being encountering other individuated spiritual beings. This view helps elucidate ultimate questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of physical life? Why does a loving God allow suffering and evil to exist?

Visit their website

I have spoken to the IANDS group in the past regarding my 1999 NDE after drowning while kayaking in South America. In the past, I have focused primarily on the story-telling aspect of my experience and less on the lessons contained within the experience. I have discovered that what I learned not only that changed my own life, but these lessons have the ability to change the daily life of others. In sharing these lessons with other people, I hope to show that the joy-filled life that was borne of my transformational NDEs is available to all people, not just those who have had a spiritually profound experience.

Visit her website

Marcy Neumann: You Lived, You Died, You’re living Again. Now What? Have you experienced emotional trauma as the result of an NDE that left you reeling in its wake? Have you experienced feeling confused, guilty, rejected or isolated from the rest of the world as a result? The glimpsing of ‘Heaven’ and living to ‘talk about it’ is a challenge that often becomes greater in time rather than time producing a greater sense of ease. The NDE experience is unique in that time unfolds the experience. Layers of details once lodged in the memory begin to surface out of thin air. Slowly, the realization that you have seen, heard, visited what others only dream about is quite real. Then comes the dread…what does it all mean? Have you been rejected by Heaven or, sent back as its messenger? Either option is impossible to wrap your head around. You slowly begin to realize that the bits and pieces of your recurrent dream is a call and something much bigger, grander than you is doing the calling. When this reality hits, you have a choice to either recoil or launch. Why you? Now what? How do you move past the fear and start to live the messages of Love you were given to deliver?

Visit Marcy’s website

Mary Jo Bulbrook: After-Effects Re-Integration using Energy Therapies for Near-Death Experience’rs: A Near-Death Experience alters significantly the integrity of a person’s energy system that supports all life functions including physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions. This experiential workshop describes the energy system, addresses what to look for in NDE and STE as energy dysfunctions and misalignment based on bio-psycho-social-spiritual energetic dynamics can occur. Included are strategies to heal, manage and address the After Effects that challenged the person, their family, friends, religious organization and health professionals to an expanded world view. This workshop is based on over 50 years using holistic, energetic and psychotherapeutic approaches dealing with health and healing. Includes incorporating indigenous teachings when appropriate, discussion of mental health and/or nursing applications for out of body, near death and spiritual transformative experiences.

Visit Mary Jo’s website

This pilot study explored the roles of trauma and dissociation in mystical experiences and near-death experiences. 100 participants were administered a 99-item questionnaire designed to detect the extent of mystical experiences, dissociation, absorption, childhood and recent traumatic events, and NDE. The data showed that mystical experiences and near-death experiences were strongly associated with all dissociative measures. These results imply a) that mysticism might embody, or express, culturally-adaptable dissociative responses and b) that the capacity for complex dissociative processing might also provide a phenomenological template for how near-death experiences are shaped and processed.

When Jeffery Olsen had his horrific automobile accident, experiencing his own NDE, his Level One Trauma Physician also had an amazing Shared-Death Experience while overseeing Olsen’s care. Best selling author and international speaker Jeffery Olsen is now joined with Dr. Jeff O’Driscoll, MD as they share their perspectives from both the doctor and patient experiences surrounding the incredible gifts manifested out of the Near-Death, Shared-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences. Dr. O’Driscoll experienced communications from Olsen’s deceased wife, who was killed instantly at the scene of their traumatic accident, while Olsen was having a near-death experience of his own and is now willing to share publicly as well.

When Jeffery Olsen had his horrific automobile accident, experiencing his own NDE, his Level One Trauma Physician also had an amazing Shared-Death Experience while overseeing Olsen’s care. Best selling author and international speaker Jeffery Olsen is now joined with Dr. Jeff O’Driscoll, MD as they share their perspectives from both the doctor and patient experiences surrounding the incredible gifts manifested out of the Near-Death, Shared-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences. Dr. O’Driscoll experienced communications from Olsen’s deceased wife, who was killed instantly at the scene of their traumatic accident, while Olsen was having a near-death experience of his own and is now willing to share publicly as well.

Visit Jeff Olsen’s website Visit Jeff O’Dricsoll’s website

My presentation begins with a six-minute descriptive poetry reading over twenty slides lasting six minutes to catch-up the audience about my first NDE while ice climbing so that we have a common starting place to talk about living with, and cultivating, the strange aftereffects of NDE. My aftereffects story includes the usual — electromagnetic interference, breaking watches, love of all, dream visions, near constant déjà vu, non-attachment, feeling alien, longing for Heaven, depression, naiveté, struck by lightening, no fear of death, hearing plants, seeing the dead, a change in the course of my life, knowing I am an immortal soul and living as if I am, intimate interactions with wild animals (my grown children call me Snow White), etc. I will focus on sharing the unusual and deeper aftereffects of NDE such as repeated, witnessed, and prolonged states of Divine Mystical Union, the resulting divine healing and wisdom messages that marked my soul that came from each OBE event. I will share the practical spiritual tools that I have used for forty years to open my mind and open my heart to transportive and uplifting grace of God, the Nameless One. I end with a 1: 55-minute production that I shot on my iPhone in 2016 for TV of when I returned to the place I died and found more healing.

Visit his website

An NDE turns the world upside down for most die-hard atheists, who are forced to rethink all their beliefs. But what if you were also addicted to alcohol, drugs, and academia? Louisa Peck, then a recent Vassar grad, locked the door on her 1982 NDE because drinking and drugging had to come first, justified by a super-cool Modernist view of a godless universe. But then, what if God had different plans for you, such that the spirit world kept butting into your life over and over with 14 paranormal events – life-saving messages, inexplicable knowings, an ultra-specific clairvoyant dream, and a real-as-day ghost? Would you change? Louisa Peck was forced to. In 1995, God got her clean and sober. And in 2012, after almost 30 years of being smacked over the head with the undeniable reality of the other side, she finally went to IANDS – and has never looked back.

Visit her website

Explore the gifts that are available in the morphic field of death itself- for those who are presently entering into it themselves (the dying), those who enter it to care for the dying (healthcare, spiritual care and mental healthcare providers and caregivers) and those who pass through it (experiencers of all kinds- NDErs, SDErs, STErs, etc), We will examine the gifts that occur in this phase of existence that are currently underappreciated and often misunderstood. What can be mined from this stage and brought back into our consensus reality to positively transform and enrich our daily lives?

Visit his website

Near Death Experiences have commonalities with peak experiences in other aspects of life, but they have a key characteristic that is different from other peak experiences. They are transformational, that is, they create a dramatic change in the person’s life. What elements of the NDE are essential to this transformational process? In this presentation we will describe case studies of NDEs to find clues to the essential elements contributing to transformation; we will complement these studies with evidence from scientific studies on NDEs examining significant transformation changes across the NDE population. Studies suggest that it is the experience of discovering that, as one NDEr stated, “I am not this body; I realize that consciousness is primary and it is the substratum of all that exists” that is the key to transformation.”

Bettina Peyton, M.D.: When Dr. Bettina Peyton almost died, she had a powerful spiritual awakening. It was a pivotal experience that would prove to have a profound and enduring impact on her life. Dr. Peyton subsequently switched the focus of her medical career to caring exclusively for patients in the final phase of life. One of the first physicians in the country to be board-certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Dr. Peyton helped establish and direct New Hampshire’s first free-standing inpatient hospice. Now retired, she is writing a memoir.

Marjorie Hines Woollacott, PhD, has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Her most recent book is Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind, which explores scientific studies supporting the premise that consciousness functions beyond the mind. She has also co-authored a popular textbook for health professionals and has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles, several of which were on meditation, the topic that motivated her to write her latest book.

Visit Marjorie’s website

Wren Richardson: Messages from the other side in the Operating Room: A near-death experience caused by a reaction to anesthesia, allows the author, Wren Richardson, to provide a profoundly healing message to a surgical assistant. After her NDE, she awoke from anesthesia and was able to look at all of the people in the operating room and perceive energy patterns that allowed her to feel and understand their life experiences (consciousness). Using this temporary form of perception, she sees that one of the operating assistants has a dark spot in his energy pattern, which to her feels like he is stricken with grief from losing someone he loved. Wren conveys this to the operating assistant and then provides a message from the other side (from an entity) that offers a healing transformation for his life. The message is about moving forward in life, even after we’ve lost someone we love. Wren gives an account of her transformative journey, the struggles and triumphs that occurred during the integration of her NDE and the newly found spiritual awareness of what happens when we die.

Visit Wren’s website

Susanne Seymoure: After effects Communication: As a 12 year old girl I was hung by my neck on a ski lift rope. Hanging was always an effective was to execute. I was left presumed dead on a snowy slope during a blizzard in 1975 for 45 minutes before volunteer help arrived. I was driven for over an hour to hospital and was called a miracle by both doctors and nuns. My mother asked me to keep it a secret so I honored her until she passed. It shaped my life and inspired me to become a Registered Nurse to help others. As a child I had to learn for many years how to recognize the after effects and to try to mainstream my gifts and insights. I also chose during my scientific studies to try and find common ground, and hoped to find ways to communicate the information to help others. I learned to do this without revealing how I obtained it. That was challenging as a child. At first as a child I thought everyone had the knowledge or gifts I had. Over time people noticed I was very helpful in problem solving. When I applied for jobs and took tests such as the Myers Briggs and others it was discovered that I excelled in problem solving skills in all of the areas. Director of Human resources said he was amazed and interviewed for 4 hours instead of the usual 30 minutes. The test is designed to locate one area at best per person. My NDE has been for 43 years and counting. It has gotten stronger and stronger with time. Information was strong as a child but has become stronger over time.

Nancy Sullivan: Near Death Experiences at Birth: We know that people who experience a NDE as a child or adult often change their perspective on life’s meaning, relationships and spirituality. But what happens when a baby is born dying, receives baptism and last sacraments within moments of birth and lives only after a 100% blood transfusion? How do they live their lives differently? What are their expectations and understandings of life? What happens when they are faced with ‘what life is supposed to be’, vs. their ‘knowing’? As a survivor of a NDE as an infant I have learned that it creates both gifts and challenges as life progresses. You live with a philosophy and an inexplicable ‘knowing’ that others cannot understand. Eventually, faced with the feedback that how you see life is somehow ‘wrong’ or ‘impossible’, you begin to question your core beliefs and search for explanations. After many years, I have begun to unravel that extraordinary experience, and understand what it means in my life; how it impacts those around me, and how different it is from a ‘later life’ NDE…and how it continues to evolve!

In Spring of 2014, we conducted a survey of physician trainees (residents and fellows) at the University of Florida. Our primary aim was to understand the various factors that influence a physician trainees’ comfort with end-of-life care and these results have been previously published. Our secondary aim was to characterize the attitudes and beliefs held by physician trainees regarding “metaphysical” experiences and results are presented further. We found that 10% of the physicians who responded to our survey reported that they had had an experience they considered metaphysical in nature. An additional 23% of physicians responded ‘maybe’ or ‘unsure’ to the same question. Compared to those who answered ‘no’, physicians who thought they had (or may have had) a metaphysical experience were much more likely to feel comfortable caring for dying patients. They also had less fear of death, greater spirituality (without increased religiosity), and were more likely to believe in an afterlife. Furthermore, they were more likely to state that metaphysical experiences were ‘real’, as opposed to being caused by biochemical disturbance. Our findings support that having a transcendental experience is common, even among medical professionals, and results in lasting positive effects on the individual.

Spontaneous after-death communication (ADC)–encounter with a deceased person–is commonly reported in near-death experiences and is reported overall by one in three people. Experiencers who are bereaved almost always report that the experience eased their grief. At an IANDS conference over a decade ago, psychologist Allan Botkin reported on his discovery and development of Induced After-Death Communication (IADC), a counseling technique to facilitate a grieving client to have an experience of ADC with the deceased loved one. We describe the results of the first-ever study of the comparative effects of traditional grief counseling and IADC on grief among adults from the North Texas region. We include case examples and discuss implications for clinical mental health professionals and future researchers.

Most NDErs come back from their experience wanting to touch that space again. Many try for years and become frustrated in their attempts. Others, having heard about NDEs would like to have the experience, but wisely avoid the accompanying physical trauma. We’ve known for years that some people have NDEs spontaneously while in deep meditation. We also know that binaural beat technology can hold awareness in a very specific vibratory level for extended periods of time. This presentation delves into the conditions necessary for exploring the nonphysical universe of the NDE using tested technology and tools. We discuss the efficacy of using meditation to visit the tunnel, departed relatives or divine beings. And we address common questions of Why explore? How similar are these to “real” NDE aftereffects? What deeper understanding this type of meditation bring to life in the physical universe? What potential does it hold for the general public? Dr. Taylor has been facilitating workshops using The Monroe Institute’s binaural beat technology, Hemi-Sync, for over 30 years. He has presented NDE trainings all over the US and most recently in Canada and France. More than 10,000 people use his best-selling NDE CD series, “Into the Light.”

Visit his website

Researchers have recently identified the near-death experience (NDE) aftereffect of spontaneous mediumship experiences (SMEs) in which the experiencer (NDEr) is visited uninvited by a deceased entity asking the NDEr to do their bidding, most often to convey a message to another living person. This workshop will be provided by two people: a mental health professional specializing in transpersonal experiences and aftereffects, and an NDEr who experienced numerous aftereffects, may of them challenging or distressing such as SMEs—and who developed strategies to cope effectively with them. Together the workshop presenters will provide SMErs with a forum in which to discuss their experiences and share coping strategies.

visit Janie’s website Visit Janie on Facebook

According to our current medical concepts, it is not possible to experience consciousness during a cardiac arrest, when circulation and breathing have ceased. But during the period of unconsciousness due to a life-threatening crisis like cardiac arrest patients may report the paradoxical occurrence of enhanced consciousness experienced in a dimension without our conventional concept of time and space, with cognitive functions, with emotions, with self-identity, with memories from early childhood and sometimes with (non-sensory) perception out and above their lifeless body. Since the publication of these prospective studies on NDE in survivors of cardiac arrest, with strikingly similar results and conclusions, the phenomenon of the NDE can no longer be scientifically ignored. It is an authentic experience which cannot be simply reduced to imagination, fear of death, hallucination, psychosis, the use of drugs, or oxygen deficiency, and people appear to be permanently changed by an NDE during a cardiac arrest of only some minutes duration. According to these studies, the current materialistic view of the relationship between the brain and consciousness held by most physicians, philosophers and psychologists is too restricted for a proper understanding of this phenomenon.

Visit his website

Is there an Afterlife? Where did you come from and where do you return to? Is it possible that you have had a Near-Death Experience but have forgotten? NDE’s can hold vital clues and profound evidence when searching for a more meaningful, deeper understanding of universal knowledge, love, hope, joy, peace, compassion, your origin, your higher self and your connection to all. Each NDE is as unique as the experiencer and will resonate differently for each being. The myths and truths from my NDE, have had an extraordinary effect on my life, and have aligned others with memories, feelings and a timeless place deep within, giving comfort, peace of mind, a hope filled outlook on life and a benevolent connection to all.

Visit her website

Explore the gifts that are available in the morphic field of death itself- for those who are presently entering into it themselves (the dying), those who enter it to care for the dying (healthcare, spiritual care and mental healthcare providers and caregivers) and those who pass through it (experiencers of all kinds- NDErs, SDErs, STErs, etc), We will examine the gifts that occur in this phase of existence that are currently underappreciated and often misunderstood. What can be mined from this stage and brought back into our consensus reality to positively transform and enrich our daily lives?

Visit her website

Greg has been very involved with Seattle IANDS since the late 1980’s; as Program Coordinator, he has interviewed hundreds of near-death experiencers. The content of the interviews has been extremely helpful in many of the contacts he has made during his years of working at Quest Bookshop, a landmark Seattle spiritual book store. He has had a life rich in spiritual-transformative experiences.