Keynote Speakers at IANDS Conference 2026

Anita Moorjani

Thursday, August 27th

Anita Moorjani, New York Times best-selling author of Dying to Be Me (and her subsequent books, What If This is Heaven?; Love, a Story About Who You Truly Are; and Sensitive is the New Strong), is a woman with a remarkable story! After a 4-year battle with cancer, Anita fell into a coma and was given days to live. As her doctors gathered to revive her, she journeyed into a near death experience (NDE) where she was given the choice to return to her physical form or to continue into this new realm. She chose the former, and when she regained consciousness, her cancer began to heal. To the amazement of her doctors, she was free of countless tumors and cancer indicators within weeks.

Anita was a protégé of the late, great Dr. Wayne Dyer, who discovered her story on the internet and brought her on to the world’s stage in 2011. Prior to her cancer diagnosis, Anita lived and worked in Hong Kong with her husband. Today, Anita lives in the United States with her husband Danny and continues to share her incredible story and lessons internationally.

Helané Wahbeh

Friday, August 28th

Helané Wahbeh is the Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and a former president and current board member of the Parapsychological Association. Dr. Wahbeh is trained as a naturopathic physician and holds a Master of Clinical Research along with two post-doctoral research fellowships. She has published and spoken internationally about her studies on complementary and alternative medicine, mind-body medicine, extended human capacities, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and their relationships to physiology, health, and healing. Dr. Wahbeh is particularly recognized for her research on channeling and her noetic approach to it.

Alex Ferrari

Saturday, August 29th

Alex Ferrari is the creator and host of Next Level Soul, a global platform dedicated to exploring spirituality, consciousness, and the deeper meaning of life. Through profound conversations with near-death experiencers, spiritual teachers, scientists, and mystics, Alex helps illuminate the nature of the soul, the continuity of consciousness, and humanity’s evolving spiritual awakening.

With over 25 years in filmmaking, Alex brings a storyteller’s heart and a seeker’s mind to his work, translating complex spiritual concepts into accessible, transformative insights. His journey from the film industry into spiritual media was born from a deep personal calling to understand life beyond the material world and to create a bridge between science, spirituality, and lived experience.

Through Next Level Soul, Alex has cultivated a worldwide community committed to self-discovery, higher awareness, and soul-level growth. His mission is to empower individuals to remember who they truly are, deepen their connection to the divine, and live with greater purpose, compassion, and authenticity.

By weaving together storytelling, spiritual inquiry, and consciousness exploration, Alex Ferrari serves as a guide for those seeking truth beyond the physical and inspiration for living in alignment with the soul’s highest calling.

Vera Spillner

Sunday, August 30th

Vera Spillner, PhD, is a theoretical physicist, philosopher, and professor of media studies based in Germany. Her interdisciplinary work explores the intersection of quantum theory, philosophy of mind, and the societal and ethical implications of near-death experiences (NDEs).

For over two decades, Vera has engaged with questions of free will, consciousness, and responsibility at the limits of a purely materialistic worldview—particularly where NDE reports resonate with foundational questions in quantum theory and cosmology.

A defining element of her approach is her long-standing dialogue with experiencers. A key influence has been her collaboration with the near-death experiencer and artist Vincenz Hensle, whose work shows how visual art can communicate what words often fail to capture. These encounters have shaped her conviction that NDEs are not only personal turning points, but catalysts for genuinely interdisciplinary inquiry across science, art, and ethics.

Vera serves on the extended leadership team of IANDS Germany (Netzwerk Nahtoderfahrung), is a frequent speaker at international conferences, and is currently working on several book projects exploring consciousness, human dignity, and the ethical consequences of an expanded view of reality.