Chicago Author Chaz Ebert of RogerEbert.Com to Join Panel Discussion With Filmmaker William Peters and Leading Figure in Film Beth Orr
Durham, NC, July 8, 2025 — A new, award-winning documentary film Suffering into Gold, which follows the journey of a terminally ill man with ALS Paul Gralen and his wife Beth Orr, will be shown August 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) Annual Conference in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Following the screening, Chicago author Chaz Ebert of RogerEbert.com, will moderate a discussion with Beth Orr and Shared Crossing Project Founder William Peters, MA, MEd, MFT, noted expert in the field of shared death experiences. Both Orr and Ebert will describe the pain and meaning of losing beloved husbands and their shared belief that consciousness survives death. Peters will offer his perspective from his clinical and research experience, on the transformational impact of SDEs and other end-of-life experiences.
When Gralen received an ALS diagnosis, he made the brave decision to use legally available methods to end his own life. At first, his wife was scared to lose him, but together they went on a guided psilocybin journey and ultimately lost their fear of death. Beth reached out to Peters, the world’s leading expert on shared death experiences (SDEs), to begin the process of SDE training in order to have a conscious and loving end-of-life experience.
The journey they walked from diagnosis to his leave-taking, led to epiphanies that opened her heart, and erased from her mind, the myth of death. While at Paul’s bedside at the moment of his human death, Beth and Paul’s sister Ann expressed that they witnessed Paul free from his human body and experience feelings of joy and love in encountering deceased loved ones. Her greatest pain became not only her greatest teacher, but her greatest joy.
Produced by Shared Crossing Media and CounterPoint Films, the film has received an Award of Excellence from the Best Shorts Competition, the Audience Award for Best Short Film from the Illuminate Film Competition and is an Official Selection of the Fear No Film Festival.
Tickets for the event are $29 and may be purchased online. The IANDS Annual Conference is expected to draw nearly 1,000 people August 27-31 at the Hilton Chicago Oak Brook Hills Resort & Conference Center. Registration for the full event is also available online. Early Bird Registration Discounts end July 14, so plan your conference experience now.
Held each Labor Day Weekend, the 2025 Conference is themed Life After Life: Celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Near-Death Studies. In 1975, Raymond Moody, MD, published his groundbreaking book, Life After Life, and opened the contemporary field of near-death studies. At this conference, IANDS is celebrating the 50th anniversary of that seminal work.
Keynotes and presentations describe recent research, revelations and personal experiences related to near-death experiences (NDEs) and related phenomena, including shared-death experiences (SDEs), mystical experiences, after-death communications (ADCs), past-life memories (PLMs), and other expanded consciousness experiences.
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