Sonia Barkallah, a French filmmaker who explores near-death experiences (NDEs), will screen her NDE documentary Témoins (Witnesses) August 27 at 2 p.m. at IANDS Conference 2025, which will be hosted at the Hilton Chicago Oak Brook Hills.
Barkallah has been studying NDEs for about twenty years. In her new NDE documentary, she invites viewers to dive into the heart of consciousness through the perspectives of experiencers, doctors, and researchers. The film explores the question of whether near-death experiences are hallucinations or objective experiences.
The screening of the 113-minute NDE documentary will be followed by a panel discussion and will include a box dinner. Tickets for the special event are $50 and may be purchased on the IANDS Conference website, as a stand-alone item or as an “add-on” to conference registration.
NDE Documentary Explores the Hallucination Theory In Depth
For some scientists, NDEs are hallucinations caused by chemical reactions in the brain, triggered, for example, by medications or oxygen deprivation. Others question the very nature of consciousness: Is its seat truly in the brain? Some experiencers’ accounts contain precise details, not only about their resuscitation but also about places where they were not physically present and conversations they could not have heard. This seems to rule out the possibility of acquiring information through the five senses. How is this possible?
Although these testimonies are still classified under the “paranormal” category, NDEs have paradoxically become a legitimate field of study and research since the publication of Dr. Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life in 1975. NDEs are increasingly the subject of medical and neuroscience theses and dissertations.
The goal of Barakallah’s documentary is to bring together top international experts to examine the latest studies alongside exceptional and previously unseen testimonies. What are the arguments and tangible evidence that could decisively contribute to the debate between the hallucination hypothesis and the objectivity of these perceptions? Does science currently have the appropriate tools and instruments to measure, evaluate, and characterize these experiences?
Leading Experts Offered Their Voices to Témoins
Film contributors include some of the leading experts in the field: Prof. Steven Laureys, neuroscientist, CERVO Center, Quebec, Canada; Charlotte Martial, Ph.D., neuropsychologist, Coma Science Group, Belgium; Foucaud du Boisgueheneuc, MD, neurologist, CHU de Poitiers, France; Janice Holden, EdD, president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, USA; Susan Blackmore, PhD., parapsychologist, consciousness specialist,United Kingdom (retired); Christopher French, PhD., Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of London, United Kingdom (retired); Laurence Lucas Skalli, MD, Psychiatrist, [resident of the Conscience Sans Frontières fund, Belgium; Sylvie Cafardy, MD, geriatrician, Confolens Hospital Center, France.
