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
Anchor in Your Light
Begin the day by connecting with, centering in, and grounding the light of your Divine Self. In this guided meditation, we’ll quiet the mind, settle into the body, and come into presence with the light within to ready ourselves for the day ahead.
Felice Beth DiMartino is a Near and Shared Death Experiencer, award-winning educator, and awakening guide who supports others in Remembering the deeper truths of who they are. Drawing from the profound transmissions and expanded states of awareness experienced during her near and shared death experiences, activated extrasensory perception, and more than four decades of spiritual exploration, Felice helps others access their inner wisdom, deepen their connection with the Divine, and embody the voice and frequency of the soul.
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: Truth in the Age of Spiritual Noise
In a time of unprecedented spiritual growth, we are also faced with an overwhelming flood of information, teachings, and voices all claiming to be true. In this keynote, author and Next Level Soul Founder Alex Ferrari explores the critical role of discernment as the foundation of a grounded and authentic spiritual journey. Attendees will learn how to navigate the noise, recognize the difference between fear and truth, and reconnect with their own inner authority. Through practical tools and powerful insights, this talk empowers individuals to move beyond blind belief and into conscious sovereign awareness. In the end, the path forward isn’t about who to follow; it’s about learning how to trust yourself.
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.
Winks From Heaven: After-Death Communication and the Transformative Effects Shared with Near-Death Experiences
Millions of people around the world report extraordinary experiences after the death of a loved one. After Death Communications (ADC’s) are more than just comforting to those left behind, they are transformative moments that parallel near-death experiences and forever change our understanding of life and death.
In this presentation, Susan Wysoki, author of Winks From Heaven, shares personal stories, emerging research and recurring themes reported by experiencers that parallel the aftereffects of Near Death Experiences (NDE’s). Susan examines what these encounters may reveal about consciousness, grief, healing, and growing evidence of the enduring connection between our loved ones in spirit.
Whether you’ve experienced ADC’s, want to learn how to recognize signs from loved ones, or are simply curious about the intersection of science, spirituality, and human experience, you’ll have a deeper appreciate for one of the most profound—and surprisingly widespread—experiences reported after loss.
Susan Wysoki is an acclaimed author, speaker, and award-winning communications strategist whose work bridges science, spirituality, grief, and hope. She is a Hospice Chaplain and a Certified Grief Educator trained by David Kessler. Her memoir Winks From Heaven, endorsed by several New York Times bestselling authors, including Dr. Eben Alexander, Dr. Bruce Greyson, and Bill Guggenheim, chronicles her journey through loss and the extraordinary communication that unfolded after her daughter Jessica’s transition. Susan speaks to grief and spiritual groups including Helping Parents Heal and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She was featured on the leading Apple Podcast, Grief & Rebirth: Finding the Joy in Life. Her writing has appeared in Glamour, Vanity Fair, Pregnancy and Psychology Today. Since her daughter’s transition, Susan has dedicated herself to guiding others in grief by sharing the profound comfort and peace she has experienced from her ongoing connection and communication with her daughter.
Understanding Evil, Hell, and Demons Beyond Religious Teachings
Many NDE experiencers report that God is unconditional love. How do we reconcile that with the image of a judgmental deity that condemns any soul to hell? And why do some people have distressing NDEs and STEs?
Our ideas about evil, hell, and demons did not appear overnight; they developed and evolved over millennia. This session explores a fresh perspective on the causes and potential cures of distressing spiritual experiences (DSEs), drawing on many spiritual traditions and Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow. Jung’s own NDE-like experience helped shape his view that healing requires integrating the shadow rather than repressing or rejecting it.
Bringing together insights from multiple spiritual teachings and traditions, this presentation reframes outdated notions of hell and challenges the belief that a judgmental God condemns anyone.
This session will examine the source of these ideas, how they influence us today, and what a compassionate perspective looks like.
Daniel has studied spirituality, metaphysics, philosophy, and paranormal phenomena for more than 50 years. Since January 2011, he has led private monthly classes and co-hosts IANDS themed sharing groups on Open Spirituality, Distressing NDEs, Interfaith Clergy, Jewish Spiritual Experiences, and ET/UAP Experiences—supporting experiencers and non-experiencers in processing, integrating, and making sense of transformative encounters. He specializes in distressing spiritual experiences (DSEs) and has moderated the IANDS conference DNDE panel for four years (2022–2025).
A former IANDS board member for two years, Daniel’s interest in near-death experiences began in the early 1980s. Since then, he has studied thousands of published NDE accounts and interviewed many NDErs and researchers on YouTube. Being spiritually oriented from an early age, he rejected religious dogma in his teens and became what he calls a “spiritual independent.”
He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Boston University and is a successful entrepreneur.
Honouring the Experience: Bringing Research Methodologies into Alignment with What NDEs Reveal
Many near-death experiencers describe a reality of profound interconnectedness in which consciousness appears primary and separation dissolves. Yet most research methods used to study these experiences are grounded in assumptions of distance, objectivity, and observer–observed separation. Joan Walton has worked for many years to create an alignment between worldviews and research methodologies. This presentation asks a provocative but constructive question: Are our methodologies fully aligned with what NDEs seem to reveal? Exploring research paradigms rarely discussed within the field, it proposes autoethnographical, participatory and phenomenological approaches that could deepen coherence, expand inquiry, and honour the transformative realities experiencers describe.
Dr. Joan Walton is a researcher in the School of Education, Language and Psychology at York St John University (UK). Her work focuses on consciousness education and research paradigms, exploring how underlying assumptions about reality shape methods of inquiry. She has supervised over twenty doctoral researchers and writes on participatory and relational approaches to knowledge. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in consciousness studies, quantum physics, philosophy of science, and education, she examines the alignment between ontology and methodology. At IANDS, she brings a meta-scientific perspective to near-death research, inviting reflection on how research design can deepen coherence with the transformative realities many experiencers describe.
Remote Viewing the Location of Consciousness During NDEs
Does an experiencer’s consciousness “go somewhere” during a near-death experience (NDE)? If so, what is the nature of that destination—an external physical or semi-physical location, a metaphysical environment, or an internally generated state of consciousness? This presentation explores whether intentional psi methodologies, specifically remote viewing, can be used to examine perceived locations associated with near-death states.
Remote viewing is a structured, intentional, psi-based perceptual method formerly studied in U.S. government–sponsored programs and now practiced internationally. The session examines conceptual and methodological distinctions between spontaneous psi experiences, such as NDEs, and intentional psi methodologies.
The presentation centers on an exploratory study in which multiple blind viewers attempt to describe the “location” of consciousness associated with well-documented NDE cases, including distressing NDE’s. Viewer data are analyzed using AI-assisted qualitative methods to examine thematic convergence, divergence, and inter-viewer correlations, using remote viewing as a comparative tool alongside experiential NDE reports.
Debra Lynne Katz, PhD, is a parapsychologist and internationally recognized authority on remote viewing, clairvoyance, and consciousness studies, with extensive professional experience in remote viewing, clairvoyant practice, mediumship, and energy-based healing modalities. She holds a PhD in Psychology, an MSW, is the former President of the International Remote Viewing Association. She is founder and Director of the International School of Clairvoyance, now in its 20th year. Dr. Katz is the author of You Are Psychic, The Complete Clairvoyant, Extraordinary Psychic, Freeing the Genie Within, The Popular Psychology Controversy, and Associative Remote Viewing. She has led and collaborated on research involving remote viewing, virtual reality, AI-assisted analysis, and large-scale qualitative synthesis, serves as an adjunct instructor at the California Institute of Human Sciences, and is a guest host on New Thinking Allowed and co-host of the Psi Chicks talk show. She previously served as a Federal Probation Officer.
Communicating with Animals: Intuitive and Scientific Perspectives
In this illuminating presentation on animal communication, intuitive communicator Kat Sanders and veterinarian Dr. Allen Schoen explore the profound connections shared between humans and animals through both intuitive and scientific perspectives shaped by their near-death experiences.
Beginning with practical ways to recognize and strengthen intuitive communication, Kat Sanders shares how animals communicate through feelings, images, emotions, and energetic impressions within a universal field of consciousness. She offers accessible insights for deepening awareness and learning to “tune in” to the wisdom animals naturally share.
Building on this foundation, Dr. Allen Schoen discusses the scientific basis of intuitive interspecies communication, including telepathy and consciousness studies, while introducing his C.A.L.M. approach — the Conscious Animal Lovers Movement. Together, they invite participants into a deeper understanding of the extraordinary bond between human and non-human animals, both within this world and beyond the veil.
Dr. Schoen is one of the pioneers of Veterinary Acupuncture, Complementary & Alternative Veterinary Medicine. In 2016 he was recognized by his peers as one of the top veterinarians in North America for his pioneering contributions expanding veterinary medicine. He has written and co-edited eight books on animal health care including Love, Miracles & Animal Healing, Kindred Spirits, How the Remarkable Bond between Humans & Animals Can Change the Way We Live, and The Compassionate Equestrian, for the public. He also edited the book Textbook of Veterinary Acupuncture, 1st & 2nd edition as well as co-editing Complementary & Alternative Veterinary Medicine, Principles & Practice. He has been on faculty at two U.S. veterinary schools. He has lectured globally for decades on these subjects. He is addressing why he came back, sharing insights from the animals after his NDE. His hobbies include walking in nature and being with animals.
Kat Sanders brings a strong foundation of formal education, professional licensing, and specialized training that supports their work in telepathy, animal communication, and non-local awareness. She is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Medical Intuitive, trained in accessing altered states of consciousness while maintaining discernment, ethics, and personal responsibility. Her professional background includes extensive experience in broadcast journalism, where she worked as Broadcast Manager for the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team, as well as a Producer and Assignment Editor for an NBC-TV affiliate. She also served as a News Anchor for KVAN Radio, roles that required accuracy, clarity, and ethical communication under pressure. Kat currently hosts a podcast focused on intuitive development and consciousness exploration, further reflecting her ability to translate complex ideas into accessible language for wide audiences.
Kat is a psychic medium and near-death experiencer, offering firsthand experiential understanding of non-local consciousness that complements her formal training. Her education, licensure, certifications, and professional experience create a balanced, credible, and ethical foundation for teaching and presenting on intuitive and telepathic communication.
Ancestral Consciousness After Death: A Pragmatic, Cross-Cultural Model for Afterlife Interaction (Academic and Professional Track)
This lecture presents a pragmatic, cross-cultural framework for understanding post-mortem consciousness that integrates ancestral worship traditions, documented after-death phenomena, and principles consistent with modern science and physics. Drawing on Chinese ancestral belief systems—which are often misunderstood as religious rather than experiential—the talk proposes that consciousness undergoes an energy transformation at death, allowing limited, non-eternal interaction with the living.
The model distinguishes between localized after-death phenomena (such as site-specific hauntings) and non-localized, relational interactions between deceased individuals and close genetic relatives. Using reported cases of shared death experiences, visitation dreams, aviation-related phenomena, 9/11 communications, and reincarnation research, the lecture explores how remembrance, emotional bonds, and directed attention may sustain post-mortem coherence of identity.
Rather than relying on immortal deities or moral judgment systems, this approach frames afterlife interaction as finite, relational, and energetically constrained, offering an inclusive model accessible to believers, seekers, and skeptics alike.
Nathan Chao, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Engineering Technology at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York, where he taught electrical and engineering technology courses for many years and supported student success across disciplines. He holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and a Ph.D., and has extensive experience in higher education and technical instruction.
In addition to his academic career, Dr. Chao pursues independent research and writing on human consciousness, near-death and related experiences, and cross-cultural models of post-death interaction. His work seeks to bridge phenomenological evidence with pragmatic frameworks that are compatible with scientific inquiry while honoring lived experience. He brings a lifelong commitment to rigorous thinking, interdisciplinary exploration, and compassionate inquiry into topics at the frontier of consciousness studies.
Warren Chao is Nathan’s son. Warren is a computer scientist who graduated from Harvard University and assists his father with NDE research.
Workshop: The Psi Games Experience: for Exploring Intuition, Consciousness, and Integration through Play and Community Fun (separate ticket)
The Psi Games Experience is a 90-minute, interactive workshop that transforms abstract conversations about consciousness into a lived, hands-on exploration of intuition, perception, and non-local awareness. Inspired by the Psi Games Event, this session invites participants to actively engage in short, guided interactive games drawn from the 5 main disciplines at the Psi Games (remote viewing, precognition, mindsight, dowsing and psychokinesis), all within a safe, grounded, and supportive environment. Rather than framing psi as belief or spectacle, the experience approaches it as a trainable and meaningful part of our multi-dimensional nature. Using simple protocols, real-time feedback, fun games and playful structure to help participants observe how expanded awareness arises and how it can be integrated into daily life. No prior experience is required; curiosity, openness, and self-reflection are the only prerequisites. Designed with consciousness explorers in mind, this workshop emphasizes fun, exploration empowerment, and inspiration through extraordinary experiences.
Hakim Isler is the creator of the Psi Games. He is a renowned expert in consciousness research, holistic health, and personal development. With a bachelor’s degree in Integrative Health Medicine, specializing in herbal medicine, and extensive study in the Eight Limbs of Yoga, Hakim integrates these practices with his hands-on experience as a wilderness explorer and survival instructor to offer a comprehensive approach to human potential. He is a dedicated practitioner of Remote Viewing and Mind-sight (extra-ocular vision), having trained with some of the field’s top experts. Hakim is also a 40 year practitioner of martial arts, holding multiple black belts in various arts. All of his experience fuels his research into the extraordinary capabilities of the human mind and body. As an advisory board member of the Monroe Institute, celebrated for the Gateway Program, a board member of the Center Lane Project, focused on preserving Ingo Swann’s CRV.
Workshop: Best Practices for Channeling (separate ticket)
This interactive 2-hour workshop distills the core teachings from a six-week Channeling Practicum into a concise, grounded, and experiential format. Led by scientist and channeler Dr. Helané Wahbeh, participants will explore evidence-informed best practices for channeling, including how to support the physical body, clear ego-based filters, set precise intentions, ground and protect consciousness, work with nonphysical helpers, and responsibly open and close channeling sessions. Drawing from contemporary research, cross-cultural wisdom traditions, and clinical discernment, the workshop emphasizes clarity, safety, and ethical engagement. Each concept is introduced through brief didactic teaching that is integrated through guided experiential practices, allowing participants to directly explore their own intuitive and channeling capacities. The session concludes with applied exercises focused on discernment and practical integration, supporting participants to engage in channeling in a way that is balanced, responsible, and relevant to daily life.
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.
Saturday Night Dance Party!
Dance to the tunes of a DJ and enjoy a cash bar. The theme is The Wizard of Oz and the color is emerald green!
Morning Meditation: Deepen Your Divine Connection
This morning meditation will guide you to raise your consciousness, increase your insight, deepen your Divine connection and begin the day feeling terrific!
Sharon Cohen is an intuitive transformation specialist. She has been involved in the field of consciousness for the past 25 years. She is certified in hypnosis, and many energy healing techniques including, Chinese Energetics, Angelic Healing, Emotional Freedom Technique, Spiritual Response Therapy and Restructuring, and Red Light Therapy. She has had a near death experience and a stroke and she utilized her tools to heal herself. She is a member of the American Society of Dowsers and the Psychotronics Association. She has devoted the rest of her life to helping people transform so they can live an abundant and meaningful life.
Sunday 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: 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.
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.
Visualizing Near Death Experiences
This session offers a thoughtfully curated series of visualizations inspired by near-death experiences, inviting participants into a reflective and contemplative space. Through imagery drawn from personal accounts, the presentation explores how visual impressions often accompany these profound moments of transition. Some images feel deeply intimate and individual, while others resonate across cultures and histories, highlighting the collective aspects of these experiences. By engaging with both the personal and the universal, participants are being supplied ways to recognize common patterns and symbolic elements that emerge during these passages. The session also introduces a framework for understanding the various stages often described in near-death experiences, presenting them as visual and conceptual markers. These images can serve as interpretive keys, helping us better understand the emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of these phenomena, while honoring the mystery and individuality inherent in each journey.
Professor Jeremy Kagan is an award-winning director, writer, and producer of 13 feature films including Heroes; The Big Fix; The Chosen, The Journey of Natty Gann, and Shot. Among his many television credits are the DGA Award-nominated Crown Heights; Conspiracy: The Trial of The Chicago 8 (ACE Award); and the Golden Globe-nominated Roswell: The UFO Cover-up. He has also directed popular series like The West Wing and received a Primetime Directing Emmy Award. He also is a full tenured professor at famed USC’s School of Cinematic Art. He has written 4 books on filmmaking and an illustrated book on his near-death experience: MY DEATH: A Personal Guidebook – jeremykagan.com. He has chaired the Directors Guild Special Projects Committee providing educational events for its 19,000 members and is founded of The Change Making Media Center– www.tcmmc.org.
From Experience to Evidence: How an NDE Changes Choices, Relationships, and Work
Near-death experiences are often called life-changing—but inspiration is not the same as transformation. This session explores the uncomfortable question that follows every profound encounter: what actually changes afterward? Rather than revisiting the story of the event, Kellan examines its aftermath; the observable shifts in choices, relationships, leadership, and daily conduct that demonstrate whether an experience has truly altered a life.
What responsibilities accompany revelation? What habits must fall away? And how do we distinguish enduring integration from spiritual nostalgia? Drawing on lived experience and years of working with individuals navigating major identity shifts, Kellan challenges attendees to move beyond fascination into disciplined embodiment. This presentation invites experiencers and researchers alike to consider whether expanded awareness should produce expanded accountability.
Kellan Fluckiger is an author, educator, and speaker whose near-death experience catalyzed a sustained inquiry into consciousness, identity, and post-experience integration.
Rather than centering on the event itself, his work examines how spiritually transformative experiences reshape behavior, relationships, leadership, and life direction over time. Drawing on decades of executive leadership, creative work, and coaching, he bridges profound personal experience with disciplined, real-world application. Kellan is known for his clarity, conviction, and ability to translate revelation into embodied responsibility.
He works with experiencers and leaders who seek not only meaning, but measurable change in how they live and serve. His focus is simple: if the experience was real, it must transform the life that follows.
Near-Death and Related Evidence Suggests the Existence of an Energetic ‘Etheric Field’ Supporting Human Life
In an NDE, the NDEr’s consciousness separates from the physical body as a nonmaterial “mind entity” or soul which interacts with the brain during embodiment. The NDEr’s prior memories are retained and new memories are formed, indicating that the content of memory is carried in the nonmaterial soul, not the brain. Evidence from organ transplants shows that the donor’s memories, personality, and behavioral patterns are transferred to the recipient, indicating an energetic aspect of the donor’s soul is carried over in the organ to the recipient. Similarly, evidence from reincarnation and pre-birth experiences shows that experiences, memories, tastes, habits, phobias, and temperament from the previous personality—an energetic aspect from the previous life or interim period—can be carried over to the incarnating soul and may even appear as bodily birthmarks and birth defects. We call the energetic aspect of the soul, appearing in all these forms, its “etheric field.”
Robert and Suzanne Mays have studied NDE phenomena together for 50 years, although neither has had an NDE. They are particularly interested in veridical perceptions during NDEs and apparent interactions during NDEs between the NDEr and physical reality, as well as the neurological evidence of the interaction of the nonmaterial mind with the brain during ordinary consciousness. Among other areas, they focus on the social and moral implications of NDEs and prebirth memories including NDErs’ prophetic visions of world events and the question of when human life begins.
Unexpected Revelations from 5,000 NDEs and 40 Years of Research
When you read one near-death experience, you get a story. When you use AI to analyze 5,000 of them at once, alongside 1,100 research papers and 80,000 community reports, you get something reading alone can’t reveal: a hidden architecture. The evidence that something real is happening at the threshold of death becomes overwhelming.
Most NDEs follow a recognizable sequence, leaving the body, a tunnel, deep peace, beings of light, life review, and a choice to return. These elements travel in consistent pairs across thousands of independent accounts, regardless of age, culture, or circumstance. The aftereffects are just as consistent: 42% report their fear of death completely disappeared, while 75% describe a permanent spiritual shift.
This presentation will share these discoveries and demonstrate the platform live, including a 3D visualization of experiences clustered by similarity and a feature where attendees can submit their own experience to find journeys similar to theirs.
Mikias Abera is the creator of NoeticMap, the largest AI analysis of near-death experiences ever conducted. Built in partnership with NDERF, the platform brings together nearly 5,000 analyzed accounts, 1,100+ research papers, and over 80,000 community reports. Experiencers and researchers have been using the platform to explore their own journeys and the broader research landscape, and the reception from the NDE community has been overwhelmingly positive. Mikias built NoeticMap out of personal conviction — he’s been researching NDEs, OBEs, and consciousness for over 15 years, driven by questions about whether we exist beyond the body. He sees the platform as a tool for experiencers, researchers, and seekers alike.
Veridical Perception in Near-Death Experiences
Although most near-death experiences (NDEs) are private subjective experiences, some experiencers’ perceptions can be assessed for their objective accuracy. Under certain circumstances, accurate perceptions indicate apparently non-physical veridical perception (AVP) that points to mind or consciousness functioning lucidly and complexly in the absence of brain function normally considered necessary for such functioning. In this presentation, Dr. Holden will summarize the history and current status of the study of AVP and its implications for the relationship between mind and brain and for the question of the existence of consciousness prior to and following physical life.
Janice Miner Holden, EdD, completed her doctoral degree in 1988 and spent 31 years on the University of North Texas Counseling Program faculty, retiring in 2019 as professor emerita. Her primary research focus has been near-death experiences, after-death communication, and other transpersonal experiences—those that transcend the usual personal limits of space, time, identity, and influence. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor in Texas and an American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE) Certified Mental Health Professional. She has published and presented extensively and has received several awards and honors—most recently the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling’s 2026 Lifetime Service Award. Since 2008, Jan has served as editor of the scholarly peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies, and she is recent past-president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (2020–2026).
Communications From Another Dimension: Reflections of a Speech-Language Pathologist
This presentation explores a series of personal and clinical experiences that challenged a speech-language pathologist’s understanding of communication, awareness, and the limits of brain-based explanation. Drawing from four distinct encounters—including an apparent visitation at the moment of a friend’s death, an episode of terminal lucidity at a parent’s deathbed, a patient’s veridical report of ICU awareness during coma, and a post-mortem encounter involving a long-lived companion animal—this talk offers a reflective, phenomenological examination of communication that appears to occur outside ordinary sensory and neurological conditions. Rather than advocating a specific belief system, the presentation invites attendees to consider how such experiences reshape professional humility, listening, and meaning-making. Attendees will be encouraged to reflect on how near-death and end-of-life phenomena may inform our understanding of consciousness, connection, and the enduring human need to communicate.
Brian Shute, Ph.D., CCC–SLP, is a clinical speech-language pathologist with more than 40 years of experience working with people with traumatic brain injury, stroke, voice disorders, and complex neurological communication disorders. His clinical work focuses on speech, language, cognition, and communication breakdowns associated with brain injury and neurological disease across medical and rehabilitative settings. Drawing from long-term clinical observation, end-of-life encounters, and patient-reported experiences that challenge conventional explanatory models, Dr. Shute brings a careful, phenomenological perspective to discussions of near-death and extraordinary communication phenomena. He practices in Spokane, Washington, where he continues to explore the interface between language, consciousness, and clinical humility. Brian is a husband and father and enjoys cooking, gardening, and caring for animals.
Closing Ceremony and Announcements
Vinney Tolman and Evan Mecham, President of IANDS: Join us for a Closing Ceremony and final remarks as we celebrate the wisdom, connections, and experiences cultivated throughout our time together. As we conclude, we will consider how these insights can continue to inspire and enrich our lives beyond the conference and ripple outwards in meaningful ways.
Evan Mecham has been a successful American businessperson for over 40 years. He is currently the Chairman Emeritus of BPE, Inc. and lives in Colorado. He has been married to his wife, Jill, for 55 years. Evan and Jill have 18 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
When Evan was in his young 30’s, while driving in the mountains, he was involved in a horrendous automobile accident. He swerved to avoid a deer, lost control of his automobile on the wintry highway, and his vehicle was literally cut in half by a semi-truck. Suffering crushed lungs, a shattered hip, a broken shoulder, and bleeding profusely internally from a ruptured spleen, he exited his devastated body and found himself in a place of beauty, gentle kindness, and unconditional love. Given a choice to stay or return, his reply shot him back into his broken and freezing body, and resigned him to many years of healing and rehabilitation.
Evan’s life was transformed by his NDE. His discussions of what he learned from his crossing have often been uplifting and helpful to listeners of his many podcasts and presentations. His life transformed as Evan studied consciousness, earning a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology and becoming a teacher of meditation and dreamwork. Being of service was compelling, and Evan found himself as a board director of Caritas Spiritual Center in Boulder, Colorado. He then joined IANDS as a board director in 2023 and has recently been elected President of IANDS.
Vinney Tolman is a Near-Death Experiencer, speaker, and author of The Light After Death. After being declared dead for over 45 minutes and later revived, he returned with profound insights about life, purpose, and consciousness. Today he shares his extraordinary journey and inspiring messages of love, healing, and spiritual awakening.