Four keynote speakers will deliver addresses at IANDS Conference 2026—one on each of the four days of the event. Anita Moorjani will speak on Thursday, followed by Helané Wahbeh on Friday, Alex Ferrari on Saturday, and Vera Spillner on Sunday. Below, you can learn more about the four keynote speakers at IANDS Conference 2026.
IANDS Conference 2026 will take place in Bellevue, Washington from August 27th through August 30th, with a pre-conference day on August 26th.
Betty Eadie
Wednesday, August 26th
Betty Eadie comes from the Seattle IANDS community. She is the author of the book, Embraced by the Light, which she initially sold out of the trunk of her car while driving around to local bookstores. Though she was an unknown author, the book gained so much attention that it remained at the top of the New York Times list for a record 78 weeks. She has spoken around the United States about her near-death experience and what she has learned from it. As one of the earliest members of IANDS, Betty has contributed a great deal to the history and work of IANDS.
An Evening With Betty Eadie
In this special pre-conference evening session, Embraced by the Light author Betty Eadie will reflect on her 1992 New York Times best-selling book and public reaction to one of the earliest bestsellers in the near-death experience (NDE) genre. During a relaxed, on-stage conversation with Seattle IANDS founder Kimberly Clark Sharp, MSW, attendees will be inspired by her story of transformation following her NDE.
Eben Alexander, III, MD and Karen Newell
Thursday, August 27th
Dr. Eben Alexander was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2008, he experienced a transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection that completely transformed his worldview. A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven, and Living in a Mindful Universe.
Karen Newell is an author and specialist in personal development with a diverse body of work that rests upon the foundation of spiritually transformative experiences. As an innovator in the emerging field of brainwave entrainment audio meditation, Karen empowers others in their journeys of self-discovery by demonstrating how to connect to inner guidance, achieve inspiration, improve wellness and develop intuition from a heart-centered consciousness. She is co-founder of Sacred Acoustics, and co-author with Eben Alexander III, M.D. of Living in a Mindful Universe.
A Conversation with Eben Alexander and Karen Newell
During this special evening event, attendees will be inspired by a relaxed conversation with two leading thinkers in the field of consciousness: neurosurgeon and Proof of Heaven author Eben Alexander, MD, and brainwave meditation innovator Karen Newell. Together, the husband-wife team founded Sacred Acoustics.
Anita Moorjani
Thursday, August 27th
Anita Moorjani is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the world’s most influential
voices in personal transformation. Her extraordinary near-death experience during a battle with
end-stage cancer not only reshaped her understanding of life and human potential—it led to a
rapid and medically documented recovery.
Her groundbreaking book Dying to Be Me has sold over three million copies and is published in
more than 45 languages worldwide. Anita has been named in the Watkins list of the world’s
most spiritually influential living people for 13 consecutive years.
Blending profound spiritual insight with lived experience, Anita challenges conventional
thinking and delivers a powerful message: true healing begins with self-love, authenticity, and
the courage to fully be who you are.
From Awakening to Embodiment — The NDE is not the destination; it’s the doorway into who we truly are.
What happens after we touch the infinite… and return to the finite?
In this deeply personal and expansive keynote, Anita Moorjani shares her near-death experience not as an ending, but as a beginning; a doorway into a deeper truth of who we are beyond fear, beyond identity, and beyond the roles we’ve learned to play. Through her journey, she invites us to peer beyond the veil, to sense into the vast, loving intelligence that exists beyond this physical life, and to discover how that knowing can transform the way we live here and now.
Anita will also speak about how the greatest challenge is not the NDE itself, but learning how to live from it.
With warmth, honesty, and profound insight, Anita explores the real journey of integration: the unraveling of old identities, the pull of fear-based conditioning, and the courage it takes to live authentically. She invites us to recognize that what we glimpse beyond the veil is not separate from us; it is who we are.
This is a call to embody that truth, and to become, in this lifetime, all that we have always been.
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.
When Consciousness Awakens: Channeling, Discernment, and the Long Arc of Transformation
Near-death experiences and related spiritually transformative experiences often initiate enduring changes in perception, identity, and ways of knowing. One frequently reported outcome is the emergence or amplification of channeling and other forms of non-local information access. This keynote examines channeling as a common, innate human capacity spanning a continuum from intuition, precognition, and telepathy to rarer forms such as mediumship and trance channeling. Drawing on international survey data and laboratory research, Dr. Helané Wahbeh reviews what is known about the prevalence of channeling experiences, the distinction between belief and direct experience, and individual characteristics associated with non-local perception. Beyond whether channeling occurs, the presentation focuses on long-term impact. Research and clinical observation suggest that sustained engagement with non-local states can reshape identity, values, relationships, and worldview. Framed as a developmental trajectory, the keynote offers a research-informed perspective on responsible integration that supports well-being and meaning-making long after the initial experience.
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.
Oneness and Timelessness: What Fundamental Physics Can and Cannot Say About Near-Death Experiences
People who have had near-death experiences often describe two deeply moving elements: a sense of being connected with everything, and a feeling that time no longer exists in the way we know it.
In this Keynote, physicist and philosopher Vera Spillner explores how fundamental ideas from Theoretical Physics — such as Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Cosmology — seem to point to surprisingly similar features of our universe. She introduces concepts like entanglement (suggesting separation may not be fundamental) and timeless models such as Einstein’s block universe or the Wheeler–DeWitt equation, where past, present, and future may coexist. She also touches on the hard problem of consciousness and presents receiver-type models of the brain, allowing for personal continuity beyond neural activity without metaphysical claims.
At its heart, this is a bridge-building journey between physics and lived experience, clarity and wonder, and what we know — and what we may still be learning about consciousness, time, and continuity.
Following the presentation, Vera Spillner will be available to sign her forthcoming book Quantum Trees of Gold.