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Announcing Keynote Speakers at IANDS 2020 Conference + Call for Papers Due Sun. 02/02/2020 @ 11:59 PM EST

Details: Last Updated: Friday, 17 January 2020 06:59

2020 IANDS Conference:
Save the Date & Call for Papers!

OPEN TO EVERYONE including experiencers, researchers and others who seek a greater awareness of these extraordinary experiences!

We invite you to submit a proposal for a lecture presentation, panel session, workshop, poster presentation or art display that meets one or more of the following objectives.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: SUNDAY, 02/02/2020 @ 11:59 PM EST
To submit a proposal, click here for Proposal Form ~ Proposal Example.

CONFERENCE THEME: 20/20 VISION: Inner GPS & Divine Guidance from the Light:
Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) often activate profound changes in the experiencer’s consciousness and life purpose. New gifts for experiencers may include enhanced intuition and insight, clear inner “knowing,” increased compassion and caring for others, and the arrival of many aspects of creativity unknown prior to the experience.

Announcing New IANDS President - Yvonne Kason, MD; and New IANDS Vice-President - Robert Bare, MPA - Congratulations!

Details: Last Updated: Friday, 17 January 2020 06:59

Announcing IANDS Election of New Officers: President - Yvonne Kason, MD & Vice-President - Robert Bare, MPA

Yvonne Kason reduced

President - Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP, is our first Internationally based IANDS President. She is a Canadian family physician and transpersonal psychotherapist [retired], previously on faculty at the University of Toronto. She is an internationally renowned medical expert on Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs), with 40 years experience counseling and researching persons with NDEs and other STEs. She has had five Near-Death Experiences, two in her childhood and three in her adult life, as well as multiple STEs. Propelled by a powerful kundalini awakening in 1976, and a Near-Death Experience in a 1979 medevac plane crash, she began to research NDEs and other spiritual experiences. In 1990 she became the first Canadian medical doctor to specialize her medical practice in the research and counseling of patients with NDEs and other STEs. Dr. Kason first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” in 1994, in a Journal of Near-Death Studies article, and in her book, A Farther Shore.

Dr. Yvonne Kason has been a member of IANDS since 1993, and an IANDS Board member since September 2018. She is the Co-Leader and co-founder (2019) of Toronto IANDS, and is a member of ACISTE, the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences. In the past, Dr. Kason was co-founder and Board member of the Kundalini Research Network, the Canadian Coordinator of the Spiritual Emergence Network, the founder of the Spiritual Emergence Research and Referral Clinic in Toronto, and co-founder of the Spirituality in Health-Care Network. She has five published books, her most recent, Touched by the Light: Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences, (2019). Dr. Kason has extensive media and public speaking experience worldwide. She has been a keynote speaker at conferences internationally, and has made over 100 professional presentations. She was a Keynote speaker at IANDS Vancouver conference 1999, and a plenary speaker at IANDS Philadelphia conference 2019. Dr. Kason has been an invited guest on many TV talk shows including: The Dr Oz Show. Her 1979 plane crash Near-Death Experience was re-enacted on Sightings and in two documentaries. Dr. Kason retired from the practice of medicine in 2006 for health reasons [Traumatic Brain Injury]. Following a dramatic brain healing in 2016, a “miracle of brain neuroplasticity”, Dr. Kason has now resumed writing, public speaking, and giving media interviews about NDEs and STEs. Yvonne Kason lives in Toronto, Canada, and enjoys “snowbirding” during the winter months, in Encinitas, CA.

Vice-President - Robert Bare, M.P.A. has been on the Board of Directors since February, 2019. He attended West Valley College, San Jose State University and The University of San Francisco as well as a few other schools where he graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as well as two teaching credentials. He has had faculty/staff positions at the Oregon Institute of Technology and National University, where he taught Business, Public Administration and Law Enforcement courses. Robert has retired 3 times but is still active working as an International Business Consultant and as a Technical and Grant Writer and Development Director. His former careers included working and retiring in January 1992 from the California Highway Patrol after a 23 yr. career. Additionally, he held positions as the General Manager and City Administrator for three communities. He also worked as a Staff Executive / Consultant for an International Consulting Company, which allowed him to work and travel extensively in both the U.S. and Canada. He has been active in the communities he has resided in by serving on the Planning Commission, Drug Free Coalition, and the Commission on Children and Families. He also served on the California Special Districts Board of Directors and the California Special Districts Workers Compensation Board. He received recognition when selected as “Peace Officer of the Year – 1976” and nominated as “Special Districts General Manager of the Year – 1997”.

Robert is an “Experiencer”, having died and been revived in 2009. He has been featured on television shows such as “I Survived Beyond and Back” and been the featured speaker at several IANDS groups. He also participated as a Panelist at the 2019 IANDS Conference.

Promotion for The Self Does Not Die ~ Spanish edition!

Details: Last Updated: Saturday, 21 December 2019 14:37

A lively video book presentation in Spanish of El Yo No Muere, the Spanish edition of The Self Does Not Die: Verified paranormal phenomena from near-death experiences by Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven and Rudolf Smit. We are proud that both books are IANDS publications. The presentation was conducted in November at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), the National Distance Learning University in Madrid.

The three presenters are (left to right) Alejandro Agudo Crespo, physicist and one of the book's translators, Òscar Llorens García, Professor of Philosophy and administrator of the TUNEL Project, Castellón, and Mariano Betés de Toro, Doctor in Medicine and Pharmacy, holding degrees in Biological Sciences and Art History and in Bioethics.

SOMETHING'S KILLING ME: Near-Death Experiencers on HLN (CNN)

Details: Last Updated: Saturday, 21 December 2019 14:36

HLN Somethings Killing Me

11/24 When You Die Episode

Dr. Mary Neal is a spinal surgeon with an adventurous side. She used to think that near-death experiences could be written off by science – caused by lack of oxygen or certain drugs. But on a kayaking trip down the rapids she becomes trapped under water for 27 minutes – and changes her mind. T. Scott Marr was on life support. His family is told that he had a massive stroke, and brain death is inevitable. They pull the plug. Then, he wakes up – and has an amazing story to tell. Everyone has a perception of death – but what really happens when we die? For thousands of years, the dreams and visions of the dying have captivated cultures. But what are they, what causes them? And are they real? This episode also includes IANDS co-founder, former IANDS President and Near-Death Experience Researcher, Dr. Bruce Greyson, current IANDS President, Dr. Diane Corcoran, Dr. Sam Parnia and Maggie Callanan, RN. For a Trailer Click Here Or For More Info Click Here

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IANDS Newest Training Presentation at OLLI

Details: Last Updated: Monday, 02 December 2019 05:26

IANDS Newest Training presentation expanding into Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Ben Riggs The IANDS Education Committee set a goal earlier this year to expand our program to include community-based presentations supported through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). One of our members is now making this a reality. Rhode Island Group Leader Benjamin (Ben) C. Riggs, Jr. will include Near-Death Experiences: The Essentials as part of his OLLI presentation at the University of Rhode Island November 26, December 3, 10^th and 17^th.Ben has been sharing near-death related materials since 2016 at various venues. He has an excellent background when you combine his IANDS Support Group Leader functions with the fact he lives with an experiencer! Ben and his wife, Lee Thornton , have lived in Newport, RI since 2000. In 2014 she published her book, Through Heaven’s Gate and Back, sharing her life altering near-death experience during childbirth in 1973. That NDE set her on a spiritual path of healing from the aftereffects of a troubled childhood. More details on her book are found at www.heavenslight.net.

"The Self Does Not Die" Spanish edition is now on sale

Details: Last Updated: Monday, 30 December 2019 16:26

The IANDS publication The Self Does Not Die is a significant research work by Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven and Rudolf Smit, describing 104 verified paranormal phenomena from near-death experiences (NDEs). The book has already been cited 16 times in NDE scholarly literature and has sold over 3,000 copies since 2016. IANDS has now published the Spanish edition, El Yo No Muere in both paperback and on Kindle.

BookAuthors2 In 2013, NDE researchers Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven and Rudolf Smit from the Netherlands published a book in Dutch which describes 78 cases of veridical perceptions and other verified paranormal aspects of near-death experiences. These perceptions are called “apparently non-physical veridical perceptions” or AVPs in the NDE literature, for example a cardiac arrest patient reports having seen an unusual event in a different part of the hospital which is later confirmed to have happened during the arrest, just as described.

Veridical perceptions in NDEs that have been verified by third parties provide the best evidence of the apparent separation of consciousness from the physical body during NDEs. These cases strongly suggest that consciousness exists independent of the body and, by implication, survives death.

Investigation of AVPs during NDEs has been the subject of much experimental and phenomenological research in the field since 1988, including by NDE researchers Jan Holden, Bruce Greyson, Ken Ring, Michael Sabom, Sam Parnia, Peter Fenwick, Penny Sartori, Pim van Lommel and Kim Clark Sharp. This evidence has also been used by many other NDE researchers in theoretical arguments about the nature of consciousness. The on-going AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, a multi-hospital study of NDEs during cardiac arrest, led by Sam Parnia, has a major objective of detecting possible AVPs of hidden visual targets.

Until the book by Rivas, Dirven and Smit, there was no phenomenological analysis whatever of the collection of AVP cases. The debates in the literature about AVPs have focused mostly on three well-known cases: Maria’s shoe case, the dentures case and the Pam Reynolds case. Skeptics have never been confronted by the full range of AVP cases.

This book presents a strong case for the validity of non-physical explanations of AVPs. First of all, it includes only cases of AVPs that were independently verified to researchers by another person. These cases are not simply anecdotes—stories repeated from one person to another—but rather cases that have been studied and thoroughly vetted. Furthermore, the book includes a number of important later cases of AVPs that were not included in earlier analysis, for example, the case of Dr. Lloyd Rudy’s patient.

More importantly, the book provides the significant details of the cases and divides them into different phenomenological categories, such as perceptions during cardiac arrest, perceptions outside the reach of physical senses and manifestations of the NDEr to other people. The phenomenological clusters of several cases considered together allow a more thorough examination of possible causes. Physical explanations that cover all cases of a particular type then become more difficult to devise. Indeed, this book poses a real challenge to a number of the favorite physical explanations of AVPs. The fact that each case has third-party corroboration makes it difficult to argue that the perceptions were due to hallucinations, fabrication or confabulation of information derived from other sources.

In light of this, it is clear that this book is a very important contribution to the field of near-death studies and its translation into English was crucial to allow its full impact to be felt in the field. The publication in Spanish will expand the reach of its influence to a significant number of additional people.