IANDS Conference 2026 took place at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue August 26-30 2026 in Bellevue, Washington. With over 1,200 attendees, IANDS Conference 2026 was a record-setting event for IANDS. Interested in learning more about our conference history? Be sure to look at our comprehensive list of Past IANDS Conferences.
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IANDS Conference 2026 Schedule & Speakers
Click the tabs below to view sessions, speakers, and presentation details from each individual day of the conference.
An Evening with Betty Eadie
“An Evening with Betty Eadie” is a more intimate opportunity to hear the rich story of one of the most respected near-death experiencers and early members of IANDS. This evening, Betty will share some of the highlights of her experience and, more importantly, how her near-death experience has transformed her life. Moderated by Kimberly Clark-Sharp, MSW, LICSW, insights from Betty’s life, will leave us all feeling inspired and uplifted.
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.
Kimberly Clark Sharp, MSW, LICSW, is the founder of the Seattle International Association for Near-Death Studies, the oldest local group affiliated with IANDS. For two decades, she has served as a clinical associate professor in the University of Washington’s School of Social Work and taught the university’s terminal illness seminar for 20 years. Kimberly also founded the Department of Social Work at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, the world’s first bone marrow transplant center. She is the author of After the Light: The Spiritual Path to Purpose, as well as journal articles, textbooks, and magazine articles. Kimberly received her Master of Social Work at the University of Washington in 1976.
Film Premiere! Kenneth Ring: How a Foremost Near-Death Experience Research Pioneer Expanded Our Lives
The work and impact of leading near-death experience research and IANDS co-founder Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., are documented in this incredible film, premiering at the IANDs 2026 Annual Conference. Colleagues and friends who know him best offer their reflections about how he shaped the field of near-death experience research and impacted how people view life, death and the afterlife. Dr. Ring is the recipient of the Bruce Greyson Research Award and the author of Lessons from the Light and Heading Toward Omega.
Opening Invocation and Blessing
This opening morning meditation prepares us for the weekend ahead, guiding us into a heart centered space to welcome what is certain to be a powerfully enriching Conference!
Thursday Welcome and Announcements with Dani Foffa
Dani Foffa holds several roles within IANDS, including podcaster, Board member, and Team Leader for Italy. He is also a lecturer on NDEs at the University of Padua and works with people who are struggling with a fear of death, who have lost a loved one or who are looking for support as they approach the end of life.
KEYNOTE: 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.
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.
Twenty Years After The Shared Near-Death Experience (SNDE): New Term, Healing Miracle, and Enduring Love Story
In 2005, David Schwartz lay in an unresponsive coma with multi-system organ failure and little chance of survival. While doing energy work with him, Scarlett Heinbuch experienced a Shared Near-Death Experience (SNDE) in which she encountered David’s spirit in a realm of overwhelming love, light, and intelligence. Together they experienced interactions with luminous blue healing beings and witnessed events that would profoundly alter the course of their lives.
Against all medical expectations, David survived and experienced a remarkable recovery, including the healing of previously scarred kidneys. These experiences at his bedside not only transformed their understanding of consciousness, healing, and the nature of existence, but also marked the beginning of a love story that has endured for more than twenty years.
Through their firsthand account, this presentation examines the emerging phenomenon of Shared Near-Death Experiences (SNDEs), distinguishing them from traditional Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Shared Death Experiences (SDEs), and related transpersonal experiences. As reports of SNDEs continue to grow, we will explore their defining features, transformative effects, and implications for healthcare professionals, chaplains, families, and others who find themselves at the bedside of those facing life-threatening illness.
Beyond Words: Near-Death Experience, Autism, and the Shared Field of Human Knowing
(Cara Currey) I am a four-time near-death experience (NDE) experiencer, an autistic woman, and a person living with seizure disorder. Across my life, these experiences converged into a single understanding: human consciousness is fundamentally nonverbal, relational, and shared, with language as a later expression.
Much of my life was spent calibrating to a world others did not consciously perceive. Like many autistic individuals, I experience sensitivity to light, sound, movement, and relational dynamics—often framed as deficits, yet revealed through lived experience and multiple NDEs as direct access to a field of knowing.
From this perspective, an NDE is less a journey than a pause, where ordinary opposites quiet and understanding arrives without words. I will describe my relationship with Noah, a non-speaking autistic individual, explaining how we communicate through shared attention, movement, emotion, timing, and sensation together.
NDEs Under General Anesthesia (Academic and Professional Track)
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are increasingly recognised clinically, yet mechanisms remain debated. NDEs reported during surgery under general anaesthesia offer a unique test because consciousness faces a ‘double-hit’ from critical illness and anaesthetic drugs. We collated 5,758 NDE narratives and used an AI-assisted pipeline, with human validation, to score Greyson Scale items. In life-threatening cases meeting Greyson threshold, NDEs during surgery plus anaesthesia (n=562) were compared with cases with neither condition (n=3,836). Total Greyson scores were slightly higher under anaesthesia (median 20 vs 19; p=0.034), and cases under anaesthesia were more likely to meet the NDE diagnostic threshold (97.0% vs 92.0%; p<0.0001). Subtle content shifts favoured transcendental and paranormal features, including encounters with deceased or spiritual beings, extrasensory awareness, and entering unearthly worlds. Overall, NDE phenomenology appears preserved, and perhaps modestly enhanced, despite anaesthetic exposure, posing a challenge for neurocentric explanations relying solely on brain arousal during crisis.
Dr. Greg O’Grady is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where his research spans surgical recovery, medical technologies, artificial intelligence, and consciousness. His recent work seeks to bridge the gap between frontline clinical observation and the deeper questions surrounding human awareness and consciousness during critical medical events
What We Bring Back: Turning Expanded Awareness into End-of-Life Advocacy
Join Danielle Slupesky, former emergency room nurse turned death doula, as she shares her lived journey from the intensity of frontline medicine to the quiet, sacred work of accompanying others at the end of life. After a life-threatening illness and near-death experience, Danielle’s relationship with death, meaning, and presence was profoundly transformed, revealing a calling to walk beside others as they approach life’s final threshold with awareness, dignity, and peace.
Danielle invites participants to explore how near-death and related experiences can deepen the way we live, speak, and prepare for dying. Through reflection, practical guidance, and real-world examples, she introduces the role of the death doula, offers tools for advance care planning, and shares gentle ways NDE experiencers can draw from their expanded awareness to open compassionate, grounded conversations about death. Together, we explore how conscious living unfolds into conscious dying, enriching connection, gratitude, and purpose in everyday life.
From First Responder to Last Responder
Danielle Slupeksy has spent her life caring for others, beginning as an EMT at age 18 and later as an ER nurse. In 2013, a life-threatening illness and near-death experience transformed her understanding of life and death. Months of recovery taught her surrender, resilience, and deep compassion for those facing serious illness or end-of-life. Today, as a death doula, Danielle guides individuals and families through these vulnerable transitions, helping them plan, make informed choices, and embrace death with love, courage, and dignity. Her purpose, pleasure and passion is guiding her clients and their families through this natural passage with dignity, peace, and meaning.
PANEL: Both Sides of the Bedside
Step into a powerful and thought-provoking conversation with Both Sides of the Bedside: What Experiencers Bring to Caregiving. This unique panel brings together nurses whose professional expertise has been profoundly shaped by their own Near-Death Experiences.
Join Anita Stewart, Michelle Ledbetter, and Melinda Peterson as they share how crossing the threshold between life and death transformed not only their lives, but the way they care for others. Guided by Debbie James, this discussion explores the integration of deep personal insight with clinical practice.
Why attend? First, gain rare perspectives that bridge science, spirituality, and compassionate care. Second, discover how personal transformation can enhance empathy, presence, and connection in caregiving. Third, whether you are a nurse, caregiver, experiencer, or simply curious, you will leave with a deeper understanding of what it truly means to care for another human being.
Come listen, reflect, and be inspired.
Debbie James has been working in the Adult Critical Care arena for the last 50 years as a clinical nurse, nurse manager, nurse educator, and Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UT Health School Nursing San Antonio. Debbie collaborates with MD Anderson Cancer Center, directing the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Program. She is a certified bereavement facilitator and is responsible for the formation of two support groups in San Antonio: one for those touched by Near-Death Experiences and the other for families of organ donors. She continues to provide presentations throughout the country on Death and Dying, Bioethics, and Palliative and End-of-Life Care. She serves on the Board of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on Near-Death Experiences, Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation.
Michelle Ledbetter, RN, CHPN, is a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse with more than 30 years of bedside experience caring for individuals in the final stages of life across hospice and private end-of-life caregiving settings. Her clinical background includes active dying care, terminal agitation assessment and management, and supporting families through the emotional, psychological, and relational dimensions of the dying process.
Following her own near-death experience, Michelle underwent a profound transformation in her understanding of consciousness, life, and death. Returning to hospice work with expanded awareness, she began recognizing recurring experiential patterns within end-of-life phenomena, including life review, visioning, relational communication, and terminal lucidity.
She is the founder of VitalFlo Caregiving Services and the author of From Fear to Freedom: A Near-Death Journey Through Darkness and Awakening, bridging clinical hospice practice with near-death insight to expand understanding of consciousness at end of life.
Melinda Peterson is a Health Intuitive, Registered Nurse (RN), Near-Death Experiencer, Speaker, and Yoga Guide. A near-death experience (NDE) from a fatal pregnancy complication sent her into a coma with odds of less than one percent, and a baby named Oak with whom she parted lovingly on the other side. During her NDE it was revealed that she was to return for bonus time to become a nurse and a healer, and to raise another child born halfway across the world. Melinda’s business, In Tune with Melinda, helps people re-connect to their unique body’s wisdom – melding science and organ consciousness. She and her family live in Fort Collins, Colorado. In the summer you might see her with iced tea and a paddleboard. In the winter, chai and ice skates.
Anita Stewart, RN(ret.) is a spiritual guide and facilitator whose work explores Spirtuality, Consciousness, and transformative experiences. With a clinical background in emergency department and critical care nursing, Anita brings grounded, experiential perspective, exploring consciousness, identity, and the human response to life-altering events.
Following her own Near-Death Experience, she founded Bridges of the Heart, LLC, where she supports individuals from diverse backgrounds in examining and releasing limiting belief structures and conditioned patterns, allowing for a direct, embodied experience of awareness and presence. Her work emphasizes integration, personal responsibility, and the practical expression of expanded states of consciousness in everyday life.
Anita was interviewed on the Jeff Mara Podcast and received comments like this: “She was hands down the BEST guest you have ever had on. I was glued to the podcast”
Anita is married, enjoys hiking, pickleball, and riding horses, activities that support inquiry into presence, connection, and embodied living.
PANEL: Verifiable ADCs: Evidence and Impact: A Panel Discussion (Academic and Professional Track)
After-death communications (ADCs) are reported across cultures and are often experienced as comforting, meaningful, and life-changing. Scientific study has been limited, in part because of the challenge of evaluating potentially veridical features: information perceived during an ADC that is later corroborated and was not plausibly known to the experiencer at the time. This panel presents the UVA DOPS approach to identifying, characterizing, and assessing such cases using standardized intake procedures, triangulation with collateral informants and available records when feasible, and an evidence-grading framework to evaluate corroboration strength. Panelists will discuss phenomenology, methodological rigor, and ethical nuance, including how to minimize suggestion, protect privacy, and communicate uncertainty responsibly without collapsing into either dismissal or uncritical acceptance. A distinctive feature of this work is a set of consented video narratives in which experiencers, and when available corroborators, share ADC accounts in their own words. These narratives preserve the lived texture of the experiences while also contributing to systematic research and education.
Kim Penberthy, Ph.D, ABPP was born and raised in West Virginia where she developed a strong tie to the natural world. She attended Wake Forest University and majored in psychology and biology. After graduation, she helped conduct research at the Center for Alcohol Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She then returned to graduate school at Wake Forest University where she obtained a master’s degree in experimental psychology with a focus on evaluative conditioning and the power of human learning potential. She worked at the Duke Cancer Center helping in psychosocial support of patients before obtaining her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr. Penberthy completed her internship in clinical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine in Norfolk, VA. She went on to complete her fellowship in behavioral medicine in the Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine from 1998-2000. Dr. Penberthy has also completed her board certification in clinical psychology, as well as a fellowship in humanism in medicine at UVA.
Gino Crededio Jr is a master’s student in the religious studies department of the University of Virginia where he serves as a GSASC Religious Studies Co-Representative. His studies focus primarily on American spirituality and comparative religious approaches. Before starting his path as a scholar, Gino spent 10 years in ministry at the School of Metaphysics, helping others to be whole Selves through a combination of American and interfaith spiritual modalities, teaching topics such as meditation, concentration, healing, the nature of mind, and dream interpretation. In 2023 he presented a talk at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago titled “On the Importance of Spiritual Education”. At UVA he’s been privileged to serve as a graduate research assistant at both the Division of Perceptual Studies, where he works primarily as an interviewer for individuals reporting verifiable after-death communications, and at the CIRCL team of the Contemplative Science Center, where he is authoring a paper on the intersection of worldview and contemplative practice. Gino strongly values the belief that scholarship should benefit people directly and in that vein his thesis is titled “The Role of Chaplains in the Extraordinary Experiences of Those Under Their Care – An Intervention in Spiritual Care”. Its purpose is to aid chaplains in better mediating NDEs, OBEs, and ADCs.
Gwen Grams has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, Quantitative Experimental track, from DePaul University in Chicago. She is recently retired from a career in the behavioral health field including ten years as a national consultant on state data and research systems. She currently serves as a Research Lecturer on the Research Faculty Support Track at the University of Virginia, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, Division of Perceptual Studies, focusing on after-death communication.
A Conversation with Eben Alexander & Karen Newell moderated by Janet Riley
A rare opportunity for a conversation and Q & A with two of the most well-recognized voices in the field of Near-Death studies. 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.
Eben Alexander, III, MD 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. He was once staunchly committed to the materialist world view — the belief that the physical world is all that exists. His scientific belief system was altered by his 2008 transcendental near-death experience (NDE), an odyssey into another realm during a week-long coma. Despite a bleak medical prognosis, Dr. Alexander awoke to make an inexplicable return to full health. His medical case and recovery were validated in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
Since his NDE, Dr. Alexander has been reconciling his rich spiritual experience with quantum physics, cosmology and the philosophy of mind. Dr. Alexander speaks around the world to educate about the role that consciousness plays in wellness, healing and recovery.
A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader, Dr. Alexander has been featured in more than 600 media interviews, including for ABC-TV’s Good Morning America and 20/20, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, Larry King Now, Fox and Friends, Discovery Channel, Biography Channel and numerous international radio, digital and podcast programs.
His books are available in more than 40 countries: Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife, and Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, co-authored with Sacred Acoustics co-founder Karen Newell. http://ebenalexander.com/
Karen Newell is an author and specialist in personal development with a diverse body of work that rests upon the foundation of heart-centered consciousness and spiritually transformative experiences. Her personal growth programs, workshops, guided meditations and teachings enable individuals to achieve life transformations towards greater self-fulfillment and contentment, quality relationships and choices aligned with one’s soul calling from a heart-centered consciousness. As an innovator in the emerging field of brainwave entrainment audio meditation, Karen empowers others in their journeys of self-discovery. Using Sacred Acoustics recordings and other techniques, she teaches how to enter and engage with your inner world to connect to guidance, achieve inspiration, improve wellness and develop intuition. Karen is co-author with Eben Alexander III, M.D. of Living in a Mindful Universe (2017). At international workshops presented with Dr. Alexander, Karen demonstrates key practices of consciousness exploration: heart awareness, intention, maintaining neutrality, emotional management and cultivating internal knowing. www.sacredacoustics.com
Janet Riley, MS, joined IANDS in 2024 after a career in non-profit leadership and corporate communications. She is a Certified Association Executive, expert communications strategist, professional facilitator and media trainer. For 28 years, she served as the meat industry’s lead spokesperson at the North American Meat Institute in Washington and led a transformation in the industry’s approach to animal welfare. For five years, she led corporate communications for Maple Leaf Foods in Toronto, Canada.
She is featured in the award-winning documentary “The Open Door” about the incredible work of animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, Ph.D. now airing on Amazon Prime. Janet is the author of several papers for Food Safety Magazine, as well as a book chapter on historic efforts to educate consumers about food safety. She earned her master’s degree in organizational development and leadership at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and her bachelor’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Morning Meditation: Entering Stillness
This guided experience will facilitate your resting into Presence with the Stillness that resides within so you begin the morning grounded, centered and ready for the day ahead.
Jonathan – “Jonah” – grew up in the suburbs of Seattle living what looked like a fairly ordinary life — while quietly wrestling with life’s biggest questions. After several unexpected life experiences and spiritual experiences, including an NDE at 29, everything shifted in 2011, opening into a period of profound inner awakening and reflection.
In the years that followed, Jonathan discovered a natural capacity for subtle healing and an increasing call to share what he had learned. Today, through talks, retreats, and individual sessions, he helps people reconnect with their deeper awareness, gently release long-held patterns, and live with greater peace, clarity, and authenticity. His approach blends spiritual depth with grounded practicality — and a light touch that reminds us awakening can be both meaningful and deeply human.
Friday Welcome & Announcements With Dani Foffa
Dani Foffa holds several roles within IANDS, including podcaster, Board member, and Team Leader for Italy. He is also a lecturer on NDEs at the University of Padua and works with people who are struggling with a fear of death, who have lost a loved one or who are looking for support as they approach the end of life.
KEYNOTE: 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.
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.
Becoming Ready to Live: Integrating the Peace of the Other Side into Everyday Life
Have you ever wondered what a near-death experience actually feels like—and whether the peace, joy, and unity often reported by near-death experiencers can be accessed while fully alive? According to Bubba Herrick, it can.
Drawing from his near-death experience, life review, and the integration process that followed—including writing Becoming Ready to Die while living out of his car—Bubba shares a practical, repeatable framework for living in alignment with the same state of peace and clarity he encountered on the other side. By weaving together insights from elite athletic performance, the creative process, and near-death research, Bubba reveals a unifying thread across these experiences: flow state—a state of deep presence and coherence that mirrors many qualities reported in NDEs.
In this presentation, Bubba explores flow state as a bridge between peak human experience and spiritual insight, and introduces four foundational pillars for living that support sustained access to this state.
Bubba Herrick is an author, speaker, and personal coach whose work bridges near-death experience research, neuroscience, and lived integration. After a life-altering medical emergency during routine surgery, Bubba underwent a profound near-death experience that dismantled his identity as a Division I athlete and sent him on a multi-year journey of healing, meaning-making, and spiritual reintegration. He now helps experiencers, athletes, and seekers understand fear, trauma, and flow as doorways to deeper presence and purpose. Bubba is the author of Becoming Ready to Die and co-founder of Martin Pitching Performance. He lives a creatively driven life devoted to service, storytelling, and human potential.
From Addiction to Purpose: A Journey Through Jail, Death, and Redemption
From a jail cell to a near-death encounter that would redefine his life, David B. Holt’s journey challenges everything we think we know about transformation. In this unforgettable keynote, David shares how a life once marked by addiction, brokenness, and despair was interrupted by experiences that revealed a deeper reality and a new calling. But this is more than a story about dying. It is about what happens after: The return to life when the other side is wide open and the unexpected miracles that followed. Since sharing his testimony, millions have responded to his message with tears, hope, and renewed purpose. With raw honesty, humor, and humility, David invites audiences to explore how near-death and related experiences can expand not only our understanding of purpose, but our capacity for compassion, redemption, and meaningful change.
David Holt’s life is a story of radical redemption. Once at the edge of death in a jail cell at the height of a devastating drug addiction, David experienced a complete and miraculous transformation. His viral story has brought viewers to tears, restored hope, and renewed faith for people across the world.
After a major heart attack and a profound near-death experience in 2019, he was told that his gift was meant to be shared. Since then, he has dedicated his life to serving others, speaking with humility, love, and a power that resonates deeply in the hearts of those who hear him. He is also a gifted landscape designer, now focused on being a spiritual messenger. He is a dedicated father of five and grandfather of eight. David Holt is beloved for his honesty, humor, and compassion. His life is living proof that no one is beyond God’s reach.
Mental Health Support Needs of Near-Death Experiencers: Insights From Their Own Words
This presentation examines the impact of near-death experiences on the mental health of NDErs. It provides an overview of a study currently in progress and the preliminary findings from the pilot for this study, which will analyze the narrative responses of NDErs to a survey conducted by a team from the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) at the University of Virginia. The presentation will inform the audience about the language experiencers use to describe their support needs and experiences, and address barriers NDErs face in receiving adequate mental health support. The presentation will then address factors of helpful and less helpful support experiences. The presentation will conclude with comments on the importance of adequate mental health support for NDErs.
Norman Klaunig, MA, MBA, NCC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas. He is currently a PhD candidate in Counselor Education and Supervision at the University of the Cumberlands. His interest in near-death and other transpersonal experiences started during his youth. Now, Norman identifies as a transpersonal counselor, integrating the spiritual dimension into the counseling process. He has a virtual counseling practice serving all of Texas. Norman extensively studied and continues to study the NDE/STE literature and has contributed to the Journal of Near-Death Studies and the IANDS magazine Vital Signs.
I Have a Bone to Pick About After NDE Expansion, But It’s a Funny Bone
“Limp in, Laugh, Leap Out” sums up this presentation. After a profound NDE in 1970, which included a Life Preview showing a life of service, Kimberly has experienced almost every possible post-NDE life-altering expansion of awareness there is to be had, the entirety of which has been put to use helping others deal with NDEs, STEs, grief and fear of death. This presentation will cover all of these subjects, wrapped in the warm, often irreverent humor for which Kimberly is well known.
Since a profound NDE in 1970, Kimberly Clark Sharp founded Seattle IANDS in 1982; authored many publications including “After the Light,” which is now in The Library of Congress; has been featured in many podcasts and documentaries, including Netflix’s “Surviving Death”; pioneered ICU-CCU Social Work, which led to finding a now famous shoe on a hospital ledge; retired from the University of Washington as a Clinical Associate Professor; remains a happy wife and mother.
Infinite Bond of Goodbye and Hello: How a Pregnancy Near-Death Experience Led Me to International Adoption
How are hello and goodbye infinitely bonded? An expectant mother plans joyfully for her first child. Unexpectedly, planning turns to praying as she experiences a complication, turning into complete life support, multi-organ failure, and loss of her growing son. Facing less than a one percent chance of survival, mother crosses into the near-death realm, far beyond ordinary consciousness. In this near-death experience, she experiences phenomenal love and supportive light beings that share many truths and support her in saying goodbye to her son, Oak. Upon learning she will be sent back to her body, she is shown becoming a nurse, and does, as a result of this calling. She also encounters the presence of a child whose soul would ultimately become her daughter. However, this is not fully understood until she meets her daughter, waiting in an orphanage across the world.
Melinda Peterson is a Health Intuitive, Registered Nurse (RN), Near-Death Experiencer, Speaker, and Yoga Guide. A near-death experience (NDE) from a fatal pregnancy complication sent her into a coma with odds of less than one percent, and a baby named Oak with whom she parted lovingly on the other side. During her NDE it was revealed that she was to return for bonus time to become a nurse and a healer, and to raise another child born halfway across the world. Melinda’s business, In Tune with Melinda, helps people re-connect to their unique body’s wisdom – melding science and organ consciousness. She and her family live in Fort Collins, Colorado. In the summer you might see her with iced tea and a paddleboard. In the winter, chai and ice skates.
Spiritual Awakening Stories From 12-Step Recovery Programs
In this presentation, Mick will report on the status and findings of two Pacific Northwest-based research and demonstration projects: the “11th Step Sanctuary,” conducted in Yamhill County, Oregon prior to the COVID pandemic; and the “11th Step Club,” an ongoing national project based in Anacortes, Washington. Long-time members of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and other 12-step programs experience addiction recovery as ‘a daily reprieve based on our spiritual condition.’ These two research and demonstration projects provided a safe place for members and friends of 12-step organizations to share their spiritually transformative experiences. Mick will summarize results of the 11th Step Sanctuary project and present an interim report on the status of the 11th Step Club project.
Mick is a recovering alcoholic who is 38.5 years clean and sober—and more than 36 years without a cigarette. :-). He earned an MS in economics from the University of Vermont, and since the late 1970s, he has been continuously employed as a research economist. He currently runs a national health services research company out of his garage in Anacortes, Washington. Mick likes gardening, scuba diving, hiking, camping, boats, RVs, horses, dogs, cats, marine mammals, fish, and (some) people. One of Mick’s goals is to become more like Will Rogers, who famously said, “I never met a [person] I didn’t like.”
PANEL: When Love Continues: Film, Story, and Communication Beyond the Veil
Love is at the core of powerful storytelling, yet conversations about love beyond death are often kept private. In this session, film producer and author Stephen Simon and author and medium Tricia Barker discuss how film and narrative create space for honest dialogue about a continued relationship after loss. Drawing from Simon’s work in cinema and his experience writing “What Dreams Have Come” with his wife Lauren after her passing, and from Barker’s NDE and memoir “Angels in the OR,” they explore why such stories often encounter resistance and why they remain culturally significant. Attendees will explore how love continues after death, why communication is often subtle and heart-centered, and how authentic storytelling can transform grief into meaning and connection.
Shaun Lether is the founder and leader of Hawaiian IANDS, where he has helped cultivate a large and active local and online community within the International Association for Near-Death Studies. Following multiple Near-Death Experiences and a profound Spiritual Emergency that reshaped his life, Shaun transitioned from a career in marketing, finance, and real estate to spiritual service and community leadership.
For the past six years, he has facilitated weekly Near-Death and Spiritually Transformative Experiencer sharing circles, hosted monthly speaker events and workshops, and provided mentoring for individuals integrating NDEs and spiritual awakening. He has also created and led multiple Near-Death Experience and Life After Death social media communities with a combined membership of over 1,200,000 people worldwide. Shaun’s work centers on compassionate integration and supporting experiencers as they navigate expanded awareness.
Tricia Barker is a near-death experiencer and the author of “Angels in the OR,” a memoir exploring her profound NDE and its lasting spiritual and psychological impact. She is a college writing professor who teaches storytelling and nonfiction, with a focus on authentic voice. Tricia also works as a medium and speaker, addressing themes of consciousness, grief, and spiritual experience.
In over 40 years as a producer, director, and production executive, Stephen Simon has been involved in the production of over 20 films.
Stephen personally produced such acclaimed projects as the Academy Award® winning What Dreams May Come (starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr.), Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), and All The Right Moves (Tom Cruise).
Stephen was also co-executive producer on fan favorites Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (Keanu Reeves), produced She’s Out of Control (Tony Danza), executive produced Body of Evidence (Madonna), produced the first original film to premiere on the Internet (Quantum Project), starring John Cleese and Stephen Dorff, was an executive producer on Linda McCartney for CBS Television, and was nominated for an Emmy Award as one of the executive producers of Homeless to Harvard for Lifetime Television.
Stephen also directed and produced Indigo and the film version of Conversations with God.
In 2004, Stephen co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle (www.spiritualcinemacircle.com), a monthly DVD distribution service that became an immediate international success. The Circle is now in its 16th year with subscribers in all fifty United States and dozens of other countries.
PANEL: Post-Traumatic Growth Through the Experiencer Lens
This panel brings together three experiencers who each underwent a Near-Death Experience (NDE) or Spiritually Transformative Experience (STE) following significant trauma. Two panelists are survivors of sexual assault, and one experienced an abusive relationship; each will share how these events preceded profound encounters with expanded states of consciousness.
Through personal narratives and reflection, panelists will explore how their experiences catalyzed post-traumatic growth, including shifts in identity, reduced fear of death, a deepened sense of purpose, and an increased connection to others and the transcendent. The discussion will also address the challenges of integrating spiritually transformative experiences in the aftermath of trauma.
By examining transformation through the experiencer lens, this session highlights how adversity can, for some, serve as a catalyst for psychological, emotional, and spiritual development. Attendees will gain insight into the lived realities of experiencers and pathways toward healing and meaning-making.
Barbara Bartolome founded IANDS Santa Barbara in 2011 and its monthly meetings attract between 50-100 attendees. Since retiring from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014, I have traveled extensively to speak about my two Near-Death Experiences (1958 & 1987), their after-effects and amazing contributions they gifted me, as well as my lifetime of amazing angel interventions. My 1987 verified NDE account has been featured on radio and TV shows, including the NBC Today Show, and for podcasts, documentaries, and movies. US News and World Report featured that NDE in an article validating NDEs, and it’s also appeared in other print and online media articles. I have spoken about both of my NDEs in-person at IANDS groups in the U.S. and Canada, and for hospital and hospice staff/volunteers, and also for church/religious groups for over 15 years now, after attending my first IANDS Conference in 2009.
Rebecca Kastl is a pediatric speech-language pathologist, speaker, healer, and teacher who underwent a life-changing two-year-long Spiritually Transformative Experience (STE) while healing from trauma. During her STE she experienced an array of spiritual phemenoma including seeing a bight white light, sensing angels around her, precognitive dreaming, viewing alternate timelines of her life, and more. She now speaks about her healing journey, spiritual experiences, and integration process on podcasts and to groups around the country, and offers her Sacred Soul Sessions to clients around the globe. She is the author of Daily Moments with the Angels: A Year of Messages for Hope and Healing, published in 2025.
Julie Mizuki Walters is a licensed massage therapist with over 13 years of experience in therapeutic bodywork. After surviving a near-death experience in 2012, she encountered the complex process of returning to and inhabiting her body again. Her forthcoming memoir, Not Yet Home, is written through the perspectives of mind, body, and soul and reflects her continued inquiry into embodied consciousness. Her journey into bodywork, including CranioSacral Therapy and movement practices, deepened her respect for the human form as a vessel for lived experience. Julie’s work centers on supporting others in returning to embodied presence by restoring nervous system balance and felt connection within everyday life. She facilitates ecstatic dance experiences as a guided pathway to embodiment, inviting participants to fully inhabit the vessel they live in and rediscover appreciation for being alive.
PANEL: The Healing Power of Connection: Exploring Love’s Communication Across the Veil
Through personal stories, lived experiences, and spiritual reflection, this conversation offers insight into after death communication. This panel invites you to consider a new perspective transforming grief into healing through Collaboration with Spirit.
Jennifer Parks is a Funeral Arrangement Counselor who has served as General Manager of McDermott‑Crockett Mortuary for the last 21 years. In 2022, she suffered the devastating, sudden loss of her son Jake at age 17. Despite her experience helping thousands of families, she wasn’t equipped to handle the depths of her grief and loss. Jennifer explored additional pathways for grief and healing by working with evidential mediums and developing her own intuitive conversations with Jake which revealed for her the continuing power and connection of love after death.
Jennifer’s work is informed not only by professional training but by her profound personal experience and insights that she gently brings into her work with grieving families. She is supported by a wide tribe of family and friends whose unwavering care has been central to her own journey through loss and renewal.
Mari Kelley, RN, CHTP, CHTI, has 51 years of Clinical and Administrative Nursing in Hospital settings, as well as Community Health Outreach Volunteer and Maternal and Child Health Specialist with the US Peace Corps in Uganda and Zambia. She served as Nurse Manager of Critical Care and Renal Dialysis at hospital institutions. As a Certified Instructor she started Healing Touch International training at a number of Veterans Administration Medical Centers nationally and in a multiple community health care institutions for those persons interested in raising their awareness in integrative medicine. She has presented at numerous National and Local Conferences. Her private practice provides basic and advanced practice in a variety of healing modalities and incorporates the nursing process, mentoring, coaching, lecturing, and teaching workshops for Healing Beyond Borders, the School of Inner Sound and Energy Codes for the community, combining conventional and complementary therapies as an Integrative Healing Process.
Sarina Baptista is a Certified Evidential Psychic Medium, Spiritual Teacher, Award-Winning Author, and International Speaker. She was a featured speaker for the “Life, Death and Beyond” International Conference in Crete, Greece, and teaches classes and is a visiting medium at Lily Dale, NY, during their summer program. She is a presenter at the IANDS Conferences, and has created many training programs, including spiritual mentoring, long distance training, workshops, and retreats. Sarina discovered her gifts through her own tragedy – the passing of her seven-year-old son, J.T., in March 2007. She learned that her son did not really die. He was still very close and led her to her incredible gifts. Sarina Baptista is the bridge between this world and the next.
Workshop: All the Things You Always Wanted to Ask About Quantum Reality (separate Ticket)
In this interactive workshop, participants are invited to bring their own questions about quantum physics and the quantum reality, consciousness, time, and near-death experiences into an open and supportive space. Rather than offering a formal lecture, the session is designed as a guided dialogue: participants can ask the questions they have always wanted to ask but never quite knew where to place. Drawing on perspectives from theoretical physics, philosophy, and NDE research, the workshop encourages active participation, reflection, and shared exploration. No prior knowledge of physics is required — only curiosity, openness, and a willingness to think beyond familiar frameworks. In between, Vera Spillner will take up some frequently asked questions and discuss these as well.
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.
Workshop: Body as Cosmos: An Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Awareness, Parallel Realities, and the Living Intelligence of the Body (separate ticket)
There are moments in life when your sense of self loosens—when the edges of identity soften, and something vast begins to move through you. This workshop opens a grounded, spacious inquiry into those moments.
Guided by Rev. Kimberly Braun—lifelong experiencer of spiritually transformative events (STEs), near-death experiences (NDEs), and paranormal phenomena—you are invited into a field where ancient wisdom and modern understanding meet. Drawing from wisdom traditions, physics, and neuroscience, we begin to ask:
What is actually happening in these expanded states of awareness? Is the body not simply in the cosmos—but an expression of it? Together, we explore how perception shapes reality, and how identity can extend beyond the familiar boundaries we’ve been taught to trust. Rather than reaching outside yourself, you will learn to recognize the innate capacity already present within you.
The experience includes two guided energetic practices designed to gently expand awareness and deepen embodied presence. These are paired with integrative frameworks to help you bring insight into daily life—so that expansion does not remain a moment, but becomes a way of living.
This is an invitation to meet yourself beyond assumption. To experience life not as fixed—but as responsive, relational, and quietly miraculous.
Rev. Kimberly Braun, impelled from spiritually transformative, multi-dimensional and mystical childhood experiences, and her NDE at the age of 19, lives to inspire and catalyze others to awaken to and life from Divine Love at their center with greater freedom and joy. She spent over a decade as a Carmelite monastic nun exploring the path of Presence and then obtained her master’s in theology, and formal ordination where she explored the many facets of self-realization and the essence of Being. Kimberly is a TEDx speaker, Reiki Master, international speaker and retreat leader, former meditation faculty at the renowned Omega Institute and has served tens of thousands through her writing, speaking, retreats, online courses, and community. She has three books, three CDs, online spiritual community, videos, articles and much more available to you today. Kimberlybraun.com