Explore the Extraordinary >>
Scott Taylor is president of the Expanded Awareness Institute (EAI). EAI helps people curious about near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared death experiences (SDEs) explore what those experiences mean to them and to our human culture. His YouTube podcast The Afterlife Files, is rated in the top 20% worldwide. On the faculty of The Shift Network, Scott teaches NDE meditation for his course The Bi-Location Phenomenon.
After completing her master’s thesis on disclosure of near-death experiences (NDEs), Debbie James was appointed to the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on NDEs, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Inspired by her belief in the art and science of nursing practice and education, Debbie has focused her career on the advancement of safe, evidence-based patient-centered care.
Aaron Sabori >> Aaron Sabori is a member of the Gila River Indian Community. His parents were the late Manuel and Marjorie Sabori. He was raised in the Village of Komatke in District Six. Aaron is an artist, who utilizes his Akimel O’Odham culture to design jewelry, paintings, sculptures, and murals. He is best known for creating art pieces from the Saguaro Cactus rib. Aaron has worked for the Gila River Indian Community as a paralegal both at the Office of Water Rights and the Defense Service Office. Aaron credits his Grandfather, Francis Peters, and various elders in Komatke and Santa Cruz village for teaching him about the Akimel O’odham culture. He has shared his knowledge to encourage cultural immersion throughout the community by demonstrating his artwork and providing technical consultation to Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) entities.
Scott Taylor >> Scott is president of the Expanded Awareness Institute (EAI). EAI helps people curious about near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared death experiences (SDEs) explore what those experiences mean to them and to our human culture. His YouTube podcast The Afterlife Files, is rated in the top 20% worldwide. On the faculty of The Shift Network, Scott teaches NDE meditation for his course The Bi-Location Phenomenon.
Debbie James >> After completing her master’s thesis on disclosure of near-death experiences (NDEs), Debbie James was appointed to the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on NDEs, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Inspired by her belief in the art and science of nursing practice and education, Debbie has focused her career on the advancement of safe, evidence-based patient-centered care.
Tammi Spring >> Tammi has had multiple STEs, including an NDE during cancer treatments in which she made a choice to return to this life. For more than 12 years, she has been practicing meditation. Having trained with Dharma Ocean in Colorado, and with two years of intuitive, shamanic, and psychic training in Washington, DC, with “Bridge Between Two Worlds,” her practice is primarily somatic meditation in which she blends mindfulness, loving-kindness, and visualizations that channel an energetic connection to source, spirit, and human self. With more than four years of experience leading private meditation groups in Boulder, CO, Tammi has a private practice of intuitive meditations and channeling for clients.
Ellen Wier (formerly Whealton) >> Ellen is a light worker, transpersonal and music therapist, healer, workshop presenter, and educator who uses numerous modalities in her work, including music, crystal singing bowls, chanting, visualization, and meditation. Kicked in the head by a horse at age 12, Ellen experienced an NDE in which she vowed to come back to heal people with music and then experienced tremendously impactful spiritual downloads before being drawn back to her body by music. This spiritual event gave Ellen first-hand knowledge of the immense web of love, wisdom, and support that is available to everyone at all times. Ellen has a master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling with an emphasis in Music Therapy from Naropa University. Trained in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, Holotropic Breathwork, Reiki, and Aroma-Release, Ellen is an online course instructor who provides continuing education for music therapists and counseling psychologists around the globe.
Scott Taylor >> Scott is president of the Expanded Awareness Institute (EAI). EAI helps people curious about near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared death experiences (SDEs) explore what those experiences mean to them and to our human culture. His YouTube podcast The Afterlife Files, is rated in the top 20% worldwide. On the faculty of The Shift Network, Scott teaches NDE meditation for his course The Bi-Location Phenomenon.
Debbie James >> After completing her master’s thesis on disclosure of near-death experiences (NDEs), Debbie James was appointed to the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on NDEs, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Inspired by her belief in the art and science of nursing practice and education, Debbie has focused her career on the advancement of safe, evidence-based patient-centered care.
Mary Lydia Ryan >> Mary Lydia, critically acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer, and creator of Spa Opera® utilizes her musical, mystical, and spiritual gifts to call forth, support, uplift, and encourage each individual’s unique magnificence. As seen and heard on Seattle and worldwide stages, including TEDx, Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, and One World Music Radio, as well as through group and individual sound transmission sessions, Mary’s offerings are designed to bring greater light and consciousness evolution to the world.
Georgia Wild >> Georgia has been actively practicing authentic expression for years. She first pursued many forms of dance and theater, working through layers of pain to finally find release through vocal expression. She studied opera and graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater, only to find that world did not support the spiritual nature connection she yearned for. Following her dreamtime guidance, she moved to Hawaii to enable her Soul’s roots to meet again with our Earth Mother Gaia. From this deep dive into the truth of her being, Georgia now shares her song. Holding space, she uses sound to vibrate open locked places within so that each person can greet and alchemize aspects of themselves that are ready to be given back into the ultimate source intelligence frequency of creator God that is/has always and in all ways been transcribed into our DNA from the beginning of time.
Chenée Fournier >> Chenée is an evidential medium, energy healer, and spiritual mentor. Since childhood, she has been able to sense and interact with Spirit. For more than four years, as a Reiki Master, she volunteered her services with hospice, providing Reiki to patients and sitting vigil with people as they began their transition beyond the veil. As she pursued a clinical pastoral education program, she worked as an interfaith chaplain in a hospital. Chenée believes that mediumship, when done with integrity, can lead to profound spiritually transformative experiences and is an ultimate form of energy healing.
Scott Taylor >> Scott is president of the Expanded Awareness Institute (EAI). EAI helps people curious about near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared death experiences (SDEs) explore what those experiences mean to them and to our human culture. His YouTube podcast The Afterlife Files, is rated in the top 20% worldwide. On the faculty of The Shift Network, Scott teaches NDE meditation for his course The Bi-Location Phenomenon.
Debbie James >> After completing her master’s thesis on disclosure of near-death experiences (NDEs), Debbie James was appointed to the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on NDEs, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Inspired by her belief in the art and science of nursing practice and education, Debbie has focused her career on the advancement of safe, evidence-based patient-centered care.
Christopher Rosing >> Christopher experienced so much early trauma and bullying that, at the age of 12, he set himself on fire. Surviving but being scarred forever–an outcast who felt unlovable, he first sought escape through addiction. But his search for deeper meaning and identity led to his awakening at the University of Connecticut while working as Kenneth Ring’s lead researcher on The Omega Project, which compared the transformational aftereffects of NDEs and UFO experiences. Through this work, Christopher met his wife Adrianne, who gifted him a shared death experience when she passed away in 2015. After her death, Christopher discovered Bon Buddhism, which completely transformed his life as he reconnected to the Light through Dzogchen Meditation. Dzogchen means “the great perfection” and is beyond religion or culture, as it is inherent in all sentient beings.
Kat Sanders >> Kat flatlined in 2010 from a massive brain hemorrhage. Her beautiful visit to the afterlife revealed the continuation of life and the connection between all living things. Once she pierced that veil, it would remain open to her. But returning to the physical world was a challenge. She experienced the roadblocks suffered by millions of people with similar experiences. Naysaying family members, churches, and friends made her feel uncomfortable about sharing her story. Nevertheless, over the ensuing months, Kat’s unique abilities became undeniably real. She has since evolved into a medium and medical intuitive. She authored a self-help book Unstoppable Life and was featured on an episode of the A&E TV series I Survived, Beyond And Back. She passionately shares her amazing NDE with IANDS groups and various organizations.
Mary Lydia Ryan >> Mary Lydia, critically acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer, and creator of Spa Opera® utilizes her musical, mystical, and spiritual gifts to call forth, support, uplift, and encourage each individual’s unique magnificence. As seen and heard on Seattle and worldwide stages, including TEDx, Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, and One World Music Radio, as well as through group and individual sound transmission sessions, Mary’s offerings are designed to bring greater light and consciousness evolution to the world.
Scott Taylor >> Scott is president of the Expanded Awareness Institute (EAI). EAI helps people curious about near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared death experiences (SDEs) explore what those experiences mean to them and to our human culture. His YouTube podcast The Afterlife Files, is rated in the top 20% worldwide. On the faculty of The Shift Network, Scott teaches NDE meditation for his course The Bi-Location Phenomenon.
Debbie James >> After completing her master’s thesis on disclosure of near-death experiences (NDEs), Debbie James was appointed to the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2009, Debbie co-authored and edited the first compilation of research on NDEs, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Inspired by her belief in the art and science of nursing practice and education, Debbie has focused her career on the advancement of safe, evidence-based patient-centered care.
Janice Miner Holden >> Jan grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, USA. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with honors from the University of Illinois, she taught high school psychology for 11 years and was a high school counselor for one year while she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in counselor education at Northern Illinois University. Since completing her EdD in 1988, she served 31 years on the University of North Texas (UNT) Counseling Program faculty—12 of those years as chair of the Department of Counseling & Higher Education. In 2019 she retired as professor emerita of Counseling. Beginning with her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Holden’s primary research focus has been counseling implications of near-death experiences, after-death communication, and other transpersonal experiences—those that transcend the usual personal limits of space, time, identity, and influence. In this research area she has over 50 refereed journal publications and over 100 national and international presentations; served as lead editor of the 2009 Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, and co-edited the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling’s (ASERVIC’s) 2017 Connecting Soul, Spirit, Mind, and Body: A Collection of Spiritual and Religious Perspectives and Practices in Counseling. Since 2008 she has served as editor-in-chief of the International Association for Near-Death Studies’s (IANDS’s) scholarly Journal of Near-Death Studies. She is a Texas Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor and an American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE [pronounced “assist”]) Certified Mental Health Professional. For her career-long research on and advocacy for people who have had transpersonal experiences, Jan was awarded ASERVIC’s 2013 Research Award and the American Counseling Association’s 2015 Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person. For her outstanding and sustained contributions to scholarly-creative activity, teaching, and service, Jan received the UNT Foundation’s 2019 Eminent Faculty Award, one of the highest faculty achievements whose recipient serves as an inspiration for the entire UNT community. In early 2020, Jan served for 10 days as an International Visiting Scholar at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Since 2020 she has served as IANDS’s president.
Aaron Sabori >> Aaron Sabori is a member of the Gila River Indian Community. His parents were the late Manuel and Marjorie Sabori. He was raised in the Village of Komatke in District Six. Aaron is an artist, who utilizes his Akimel O’Odham culture to design jewelry, paintings, sculptures, and murals. He is best known for creating art pieces from the Saguaro Cactus rib. Aaron has worked for the Gila River Indian Community as a paralegal both at the Office of Water Rights and the Defense Service Office. Aaron credits his Grandfather, Francis Peters, and various elders in Komatke and Santa Cruz village for teaching him about the Akimel O’odham culture. He has shared his knowledge to encourage cultural immersion throughout the community by demonstrating his artwork and providing technical consultation to Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) entities.
Felice DiMartino >> Felice is an international speaker, educational consultant, spiritual mentor, and soul-full guide committed to collaboratively creating experiences of self-empowerment and personal transformation. Eight years ago, after a series of traumatic events that threw her into Resiliency Bootcamp, Felice was hit by a truck. In addition to sustaining multiple injuries, she had a near-death experience during which she was shown the nature of life, death, and the spaces between. Returning with activated extrasensory awareness and continued connection with higher realms of light, Felice combines her personal journey of resiliency; 30 years as a Montessori educator; in-depth study with spiritual teachers and indigenous elders; certifications in several healing modalities including yoga, meditation, and mindfulness; neuroscience technologies; and insights gleaned in her NDE to assist adults of all ages in cultivating a deeper connection with their spiritual self and an alignment of body, mind, and soul.
Nuestro Ñānamoli >> Nuestro, a former Army Ranger from the 1st Ranger Battalion, shattered his neck in a diving accident which resulted in his near-death experience. He was bestowed a unique mission during his NDE by six luminous beings. Over the next three years, the beings taught him who they were and what his work would be. This work includes using embroidery as a tool to promote peace, and publicly displaying his ongoing tapestries. He feels these beings of light channeling through him in his mission to share his story and display his tapestry art. He was instructed to choose a silent mantra that would imbue each thread with peaceful energy. As he sews, he mentally recites the mantra, “May this stitch bring peace to many people.”
Lee Ann Fortunato-Heltzel>> Lee Ann is an explorer of human potential, a death doula, and a multi-dimensional artist and marketing innovator. Trained as an artist and gifted in esoteric practices, Lee Ann pioneered a new visual art genre, MetaArt. Each MetaArt piece energetically transforms its space to a specific frequency, serving as an active portal to higher states of consciousness via engagement with the pineal gland. Lee Ann’s work integrates creativity, imagination, and spirituality, making her a bridge to multi-dimensional realms and pure potential. She founded Creative One, a multi-dimensional marketing firm that taps into the highest potential for conscious creatives and leading-edge thinkers through her Signature MetaInsight(TM) process.
Virgil Wong, MFA, PhD (cand.) >> is an artist and healthcare technologist who collaborates with near-death experiencers to visualize and process their NDEs. To empower patients with better digital health tools, he worked for over 15 years at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine – and founded Medical Avatar LLC. This startup creates symptom visualization and evidence-based health management applications, including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR, AR, MR).
Virgil has exhibited his art, medicine, and patient collaboration projects worldwide, including venues like the Sundance Film Festival, the State Hermitage Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, and Deitch Projects NYC. He studied illustration and painting at RISD (BFA), new media at Transart Institute (MFA), clinical medicine and technology at Harvard University, and cognitive psychology/intelligent technologies at Columbia University (PhD). Virgil was Chief Digital Officer at HGS, a digital solutions company, and now, as a managing partner, he is leading healthcare IT consulting engagements at Gartner. He also teaches VR/AR part-time at The New School. For more information about Virgil, please visit: https://www.virgilwong.com
Daniel Ryan, BFA, MS (cand.) >> is an expert and specialist in the art, science, and practices of Hypnosis and Regression Therapy. He has maintained full-time private practice for over a decade in New York City, offering Hypnosis and Regression Therapy to individuals, businesses, and groups. Daniel is attending Columbia University to study Narrative Medicine and pursue a Master of Science. He has received board certifications in Hypnotherapy, Regression Therapy, and Neuro-Linguistic Psychology.
From 2007 to 2014, he studied and trained in meditation techniques at the School of Practical Philosophy in New York City while exploring Vedic philosophy, neuroscience, and East/West mysticism. Daniel received his undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, from Emerson College, where his work focused on writing, literature, and sociology. For more information about Daniel, please visit: https://www.danielryancrt.com
Laiken Gabbert >> Laiken became inspired by the IANDS website in 2011 after learning of her father’s multiple myeloma diagnosis. She became his caregiver for the next nine years until his passing in 2020, drawing strength and knowledge from the incredible NDE stories shared. Through her artwork, she seeks to highlight emotions and concepts that appear as common threads throughout research and personal accounts on the subject. Her goals are to bring more aesthetic beauty and positivity to the world and to create more interest in this area of study encompassing the intersection of theoretical/quantum physics, psychology/neuroscience, and consciousness. After traveling to ~55 countries, a universal truth she sees is that all societies could use more art to inspire, intrigue, and add a touch of the ethereal here on Earth.
Dean Christensen is a musical performer based in Gilbert, Arizona. Dean’s smooth baritone voice, emotive musical vibe, and melodic and catchy arrangements set him apart from other performers. Dean Christensen is also the Program Coordinator for IANDS Groups & Events.
Donna Rebadow >> Donna is a near-death experiencer, sports medicine acupuncturist, host of the Exploring Consciousness Podcast, and author of Wednesdays with Sadie, the Miracle Dog. In 1998, Donna had an NDE that changed how she viewed herself, the world, and other dimensions. After this experience, Donna began exploring consciousness by attending workshops with the Monroe Institute, Dr. Dispenza, and Tom Campbell. She has taken classes in CRV, Tarot with Richard Knight, and evidential mediumship with Suzanne Giesemann and has been interviewed several times for the media, including on the “Coming Home” YouTube channel (819K views). Donna taught at the community college level in Arizona in the areas of health, psychology, and alternative medicine. She is a jeweler and musician, and in Spring 2019 she entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame with her Wayland Baptist College teammates.
Elke Macartney >> Elke is a shaman, counselor, healer, and wisdom keeper in practice for 40 years. As an aura seer and spirit walker, her daily life is a continual spiritually transformative experience. She also enjoys dancing every day, walking in the forest, and facilitating online IANDS sharing groups.
Mary Lydia Ryan >> Mary Lydia, critically acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer, and creator of Spa Opera® utilizes her musical, mystical, and spiritual gifts to call forth, support, uplift, and encourage each individual’s unique magnificence. As seen and heard on Seattle and worldwide stages, including TEDx, Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, and One World Music Radio, as well as through group and individual sound transmission sessions, Mary’s offerings are designed to bring greater light and consciousness evolution to the world.
Georgia Wild >> Georgia has been actively practicing authentic expression for years. She first pursued many forms of dance and theater, working through layers of pain to finally find release through vocal expression. She studied opera and graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater, only to find that world did not support the spiritual nature connection she yearned for. Following her dreamtime guidance, she moved to Hawaii to enable her Soul’s roots to meet again with our Earth Mother Gaia. From this deep dive into the truth of her being, Georgia now shares her song. Holding space, she uses sound to vibrate open locked places within so that each person can greet and alchemize aspects of themselves that are ready to be given back into the ultimate source intelligence frequency of creator God that is/has always and in all ways been transcribed into our DNA from the beginning of time.
Dashmesh Khalsa>> Dashmesh is a musician, producer, and philosopher who has worked with internationally renowned artists such as Bill Laswell, Byron Metcalf, Steve Roach, Toshinori Kondo, and Ken Koshio. He has played all around Arizona at venues such as the Music Instrument Museum, Scottsdale Center for The Performing Arts, Tempe Center for The Arts, and the Berger Performing Arts Center as well as yoga studios and other intimate venues across the Valley. He has studied music traditions from around the world such as Indian Tabla, Australian Didgeridoo, Japanese Taiko drumming, and West African Djembe. He has blended styles of music including tribal, electronica, ambient, hip-hop, and jazz, thus defying traditional notions of genres and styles. Dash‘s music is informed by the need to create a healthy relationship between technology and nature, unite the ancient with the modern and bridge the difference between cultures to create more harmony where it may not have existed otherwise.
Melinda Peterson >> Melinda is an Intuitive health practitioner, registered nurse, motivational speaker, energy healer, yoga teacher, loss mama, adoptive mama, near-death experiencer (NDEr), and entrepreneur. One of the most profound changes that arose from her NDE was being called from her previous career as an environmental scientist to a career in nursing. Melinda has expanded her nursing practice by using a vision from her NDE to create the Scarlit Center, a global movement helping people connect to their bodies’ inner wisdom through workshops, movement, and nourishment to enable them to lead luminous lives. Melinda lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her daughter, son in spirit, husband, and poodle. She prefers tea over coffee, always takes an opportunity to pet a dog, and enjoys a nearby unfrozen lake via paddle board and frozen lake via ice skates.
Peter Alessandria >> Peter is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker, author, TEDx Speaker, and former entertainment attorney based in the New York City area. As Managing Director of Mindful Entertainment LLC, Peter is producing several spiritually-based film projects devoted to the topic of life after death. His most recent film, slated for release in late 2024, is a documentary entitled What Every Soul Knows: The Joy of Remembering Who We Really Are. In it, he interviewed more than 40 thought-leaders in the areas of near-death experiences, mediumship, channeling, and other psychic phenomena to uncover the path to remembering our true nature as eternal spiritual beings. Find out more about Peter and his work on his websites: www.itstimetoremember.org, www.whateverysoulknows.com, and www.mindfulentertainment.us.
Other Panelists:
After Death is a gripping film that explores the afterlife based on real near-death experiences, conveyed by scientists, authors, and survivors. From the New York Times bestselling authors who brought you titles like 90 Minutes in Heaven, Imagine Heaven, and To Heaven and Back, emerges a cinematic peek into the unknown that examines the spiritual and scientific dimensions of mortality, inviting viewers to contemplate the possibility of life after death.
Karen Michelle >> Karen is a near-death experiencer and psychic medium who has a unique understanding and compassion for her clients. She has spoken at events and conferences in regards to near-death experiences. Karen began working over eighteen years ago in the mental health care field focusing on PTSD, trauma recovery, and dynamics of abusive relationships. Wanting to honor the messages she received during her NDEs, Karen Michelle shifted her career to reflect a holistic and spiritual path. Her specialties include Resonant Kinesiology with harp and guided imagery to facilitate therapeutic music and sound interventions for stress management and relaxation. Dr. Karen Michelle’s educational background includes a doctorate in clinical psychology, Resonant Kinesiology Instructor certification, grief and loss training, and certificate training in working with survivors of sexual assault.
Christina Tourin >> Founder and Director of the International Harp Therapy Program, Christina leads training centers in multiple countries with Therapeutic Harp Practitioners serving on five continents. As an internationally award-winning artist, she trained at the Mozarteum in Austria and McGill in Montreal. She was harpist for the Vermont Symphony and for 17 years for the Sound of Music Maria von Trapp family. Returning to IANDS, she is remembered for her workshops on Music of the Spheres. Christina truly lives a life ‘As above, So below’ sharing her performances of sacred and transcendent moments. Bringing her harp to magical life, she shares with the world the deepest, most profound truths of the Universe, which rightfully and intuitively credits as the source of all she creates.
Lee Ann Heltzel>> Lee Ann is an explorer of human potential, a death doula, and a multi-dimensional artist and marketing innovator. Trained as an artist and gifted in esoteric practices, Lee Ann pioneered a new visual art genre, MetaArt. Each MetaArt piece energetically transforms its space to a specific frequency, serving as an active portal to higher states of consciousness via engagement with the pineal gland. Lee Ann’s work integrates creativity, imagination, and spirituality, making her a bridge to multi-dimensional realms and pure potential. She founded Creative One, a multi-dimensional marketing firm that taps into the highest potential for conscious creatives and leading-edge thinkers through her Signature MetaInsight(TM ) process.
Bryon Ehlmann, PhD >> Bryon, retired early as a computer science professor in 2012 and has since applied systems analysis, logic, and an open mind to the Big Questions about life and reality. As a professor, he wrote thirty-two peer-reviewed articles and a book on computer database design. In retirement, his research into cognitive psychology, dreams, NDEs, philosophy, and religion has produced three peer-reviewed psychology journal articles and a book on a natural afterlife and the theory of a natural eternal consciousness (NEC), which supports it. The NEC theory upends the current orthodoxy about death and an afterlife. It reveals that, psychologically, existence is timeless and a spiritual afterlife—ranging from heavenly to hellish—exists. Dr. Ehlmann’s current efforts are devoted to promoting the theory because as awareness of it spreads, the better our world will be.
Stephen Claxton-Oldfield >> Stephen is an associate professor in psychology at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. His research interests focus on the people who volunteer in hospice palliative care, medical assistance in dying, and unusual end-of-life phenomena – extraordinary things that can happen when someone is approaching death (i.e., during the last months, weeks, days, or hours of a dying person’s life), at the time of death, and after death. He serves on the board of directors for Hospice Southeast New Brunswick, is a certified thanatologist with the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and has published his research in journals such as OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying and the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Father Nathan Castle, OP >> Fr. Nathan has helped more than 500 “stuck” and not-so-stuck souls who died suddenly and traumatically to adjust to the afterlife. Victims of fires, automobile accidents, shootings, stabbings, drownings, and suicides come to him in his dreams seeking help to resolve their Interrupted Death Experiences. Father Nathan believes that providing such help is something the Holy Spirit has given him and his prayer partners to do. In his Afterlife, Interrupted: books, Father Nathan is quick to point out that not everyone who dies suddenly gets stuck. He is the author of And Toto, Too: The Wizard of Oz as a Spiritual Adventure and Afterlife, Interrupted (Books 1 and 2): Helping Stuck Souls Cross Over. His new book: Afterlife, Interrupted Book 3: Please Let Me Explain.
Dan Daly >> Dan is a geologist, retired research manager and independent researcher who has experienced after death communications (ADCs) and other transpersonal events. After more than 30 years of involvement in projects ranging from technology development, to environmental impact assessments, to television documentaries, Dan is currently focused on activities intended to provide basic data regarding the character of ADC experiences.
Laura O’Sullivan >> As an Assistant Lecturer and PhD student in the School of Psychology at Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand, Laura’s PhD research focuses on increasing the knowledge of end-of-life experiences. With a keen focus on understanding the impact of these phenomena on individuals and their loved ones, Laura explores if and how ELEs impact the grief of bereaved loved ones. Drawing on her academic background which includes published research on spiritual intelligence and mental health, near-death experiences, and various aspects of sleep and dreaming, Laura brings a multifaceted perspective to their work. Through mixed methods research, she seeks to unravel the mysteries surrounding end-of-life encounters and their significance within the diverse sociocultural society of Aotearoa New Zealand. By shedding light on these inexplicable occurrences, Laura endeavours to offer solace, insight, and a deeper understanding of the human experience during life’s most poignant moments.
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IANDS is the original organization dedicated to supporting experiencers, educating interested people, and researching the near-death and related spiritual experiences.
IANDS is the original organization dedicated to supporting experiencers, educating interested people, and researching the near-death and related spiritual experiences.
