We've made a number of important changes to our web site and social media:

• We now have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Please join/follow us!

• We now have an IANDS YouTube channel and we list many of the Conference Video Recordings here. Please subscribe to our channel!

• Our Research Index to NDE Periodical Literature was recently updated through 2011 (an additional 6 years)

• Downloads of guest speakers at the monthly Group Leaders Conference Calls were added to the Shopping Cart (free to IANDS members, $1.00 each to non-members). They are available directly to logged-in members here (bottom of page).

Jeff Garton of Veteran Empowerment Training recently interviewed IANDS President Diane Corcoran about her Combat NDE Project, reviewing her military career as a nurse and her work on near-death experiences (NDEs) and with IANDS.

Dr. Corcoran launched the Combat NDE Project to develop education materials and videos to reach out to veterans in military or VA facilities—to get the word out to veterans about NDEs to help them understand their own NDE and the aftereffects they may be experiencing.

The Veteran Empowerment Training is a job and career readiness training for veterans.

Dr. Sam Parnia was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air about his new book, Erasing Death: The science that is rewriting the boundaries between life and death, released in February. The book reveals that death is not a moment in time, but rather a process that can be interrupted well after it has begun. Dr. Parnia reveals how some form of "afterlife" may be uniquely ours, as evidenced by the continuation of the human mind and psyche after the brain stops functioning.

In the interview, Parnia relates some initial results of the AWARE study: only about 1 in 1,000 patients has remembered an NDE with an OBE component. A number of OBEs were reported but some occurred with no target images installed and some patients looked at events at a different angle from where the target was installed, but still described accurate details. The researchers are adjusting the study. See also excellent article in The Guardian.

Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander debated skeptic Michael Shermer on the Larry King Now show about "Does heaven exist?", along with spiritual activist Marianne Williamson and Rabbi Marvin Hier. Larry King had earlier interviewed Dr. Alexander and later the debate among the four thinkers was recorded.

Shermer's argument was that all experience derives from the brain as we can see from cases of senility and dementia. Alexander's near-death experience can be explained completely by neurological phenomena occurring very quickly as he came out of coma, producing a very powerful dream-like hallucination which Alexander later elaborated with confabulations. Alexander countered that his experience was way too real and rich to be an hallucination and that it is a mistake to assume that all experience occurs through the brain.

The AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation) is a multi-hospital clinical study of the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest, including tests of the validity of perceptions during the out-of-body portion of near-death experiences. The latest status is that more data and larger scale studies will probably be required, and an end to the study is not anticipated in the near future. A report of preliminary results from the first five years of the study is likely this fall, to be presented through a scientific journal or a scientific conference.

In the meantime, Dr. Sam Parnia, Director of the AWARE study, has written a new book, Erasing Death: The science that is rewriting the boundaries between life and death, to be released in February. The book reveals that death is not a moment in time, but rather a process that can be interrupted well after it has begun. Dr. Parnia reveals how some form of "afterlife" may be uniquely ours, as evidenced by the continuation of the human mind and psyche after the brain stops functioning.

IANDS member Ann Frances Ellis drew on 478 NDE accounts submitted over the years to the IANDS research archives for her book Revelations of Profound Love (also here). When people submit their near- death experience to IANDS, the account can be used by NDE researchers.

Dr. Ellis used the IANDS research archives to write her Ph.D. dissertation and now to publish a book on the profound Love that is revealed in NDEs. She was recently interviewed on Fox News about her book. In 2010, she presented her research at the IANDS Conference in Denver (part1, part2). One reviewer said, "Revelations of Profound Love is a rich book filled with stories of many people who have experienced near-death experiences. When you read story after story of people experiencing profound love, you gain confidence and faith that we don't die when our bodies do."

Thanks to over 100 donations from more than 90 donors, we have reached the goal to raise $20,000 to produce the training video for medical professionals on caring for patients who have had a near-death experience. The target is for Blue Marble Films to complete the video package by Feb. 2013.

Thank you to all our generous donors! You have helped us meet this challenge in just 8 short months. You know how important it is for medical professionals to understand near-death experiences and how to care for NDE patients.

It's not too late to give: we still need additional funds for follow-on work, like in-depth video interviews and a veterans focus, so if you would still like to contribute, make a secure donation to this project here.

See more information on the project. Follow the project on Facebook. See a promotional video on Vimeo or on YouTube.