The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) announced a new Advisory Board comprised of prominent figures in or associated with the field of near-death studies. Advisory Board members will provide periodic advice, assistance, and guidance on the organization’s policies, procedures, and direction.
The Board is comprised of 23 experts from the U.S., France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Wales, including eight physicians, near-death experiencers, academics, mental health care providers, and others deeply engaged in the field.
“We are grateful that these leading experts have generously offered valuable time and expertise in support of IANDS’s vision: a world in which near-death experiences and related phenomena are widely recognized as valid and profound experiences that inspire and create lasting positive change,” said IANDS President Jan Holden, EdD.
Link: IANDS Advisory Board
After Actor, Al Pacino told leading media outlets that his brush with death led him to conclude that “There’s nothing there,” IANDS President Jan Holden, EdD, sent a letter to Pacino detailing near-death experience (NDE) research and the mounting evidence that the consciousness survives physical demise.
Pacino’s comments have been carried by numerous outlets including Variety, Vanity Fair, and People magazine as he has embarked on a book tour for his autobiography Sonny Boy.
“As someone who has spent her academic career studying near-death experiences (NDEs) and who leads the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), I noticed that the recent Variety article about you mischaracterized your experience.
Enjoy our 2023 Annual Report in magazine format!
This year's report emphasizes that together we are taking action to serve the IANDS community through support, education, and research. Together, we are advancing global understanding of near-death and related phenomena.
Your donations and involvement are the cornerstones that make this happen! Please donate to help us Light the Way!
NEW BOOK:
What Near-Death Experiences Teach Us about Living in the Here and Now
by Kenneth Ring, PhD and Evelyn Elsaesser
Foreword by Bruce Greyson, MD, bestselling author of After
“No other researcher has been able to transmit to the rest of us the true meaning and impact of near-death phenomena for the planet.”
—Bruce Greyson, MD, bestselling author of After
“A major contribution that offers a wealth of case materials together with balanced and insightful commentary.”
—Raymond A. Moody, PhD, bestselling author of Life After Life
“This amazing book is the gold standard of how everyone can benefit from learning about the life-changing wisdom of NDEs! “
-- Jeff Janssen, author of Your Life’s Ripple Effect
While providing many remarkable accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) from men, women, and children of all ages and backgrounds, Lessons from the Light is much more than just
TRANSFORMED by Near-Death and Related Experiences
August 28th - September 1st
EARLY BIRD RATES END JULY 1st!!
Saturday, April 20th, 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM ET ~ Symposium Online Schedule
Symposium registration is now open at https://symposium.iands.org
Non-members $95; IANDS Members $60; Students $30
Video Replays available until April 30, 2025
IANDS Publications is pleased to announce the publication of Robert Christophor (Bob) Coppes' book Impressions of Near-Death Experiences. In this book, Coppes presents many hundreds of quotes from more than 100 experiencers from all over the world. By organizing these excerpts into categories, he gives the reader a more in-depth and nuanced impression of the near-death experience (NDE). NDEs come alive and this effect multiplies as the reader progresses through the book. The message from these stories will touch a truth that is deep within you—an inner core that you can trust.
If you have had a near-death experience (NDE), NDE-like experience or related experience, please consider participating in the on-going research studies below. All of these studies have been reviewed and approved by the IANDS Academic & Research Committee.
Once again, researchers have published an article about bursts of brain activity in the dying human brain, and people interested in the question of the origin of NDEs have contacted Journal of Near-Death Studies editor, Jan Holden, EdD, asking whether the results described in the article provide a materialist explanation of the source of NDEs.
A challenge for intelligent lay readers is that most of us do not have the expertise to understand technical references to medical procedures and assessment results, such as "EEG gamma bursts," described in such articles. So, Jan reached out to two IANDS members who do have such expertise: cardiologist Pim van Lommel, MD, and emeritus professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences Bruce Greyson, MD.
In the brief (4.5 double-spaced pages) Invited Commentary linked below, these experts explain—in terms most readers should be able to understand—why the findings of this most recent study and others like it "do not and cannot explain" either confirmed aspects of NDEs or the source of NDEs. Their Invited Commentary will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal but, as a service to IANDS members and to the general public, is provided here as a pre-print publication.
