Speakers and Presentations

I will discuss my childhood, young adulthood, and the culture and society that surrounded me and contributed to my depression and hopelessness. I will discuss my near-death experience in detail and how my main mission has become suicide prevention.

If 5% of the world has had a Near-Death Experience, that’s 60 million more people than live in the United States (2021 USA population is 331,420,000). The global postings of NDEs, indicate a statistically significant percentage of similar attributes. As Experiencers come to grips with this shift in consciousness, they report amusing and frustrating after-effects. This presentation discusses the 3rd phase that follows, the integration of the NDE into one’s life and the challenges in coping with that reality. NDE stories are plentiful but actionable information for the phase of coping is sparse. Every day, the Experiencer wakes up asking, “Is what was true yesterday still true today?” An emerging version of themselves reacts to the world in new ways because they are experiencing themselves differently. Instead of Big Answers, this presentation uses Big Questions as a way orient then navigate the new internal landscape.

I have spent the last 27 years trying to understand my NDE/OBE and what it meant; concluding that we have been lied to by church and state from the beginning of history. My research into Quantum Physics, ancient Summerian writing, pre-biblical writings not included in the Bible, The RA material,and numerous other sources tells me that we are not alone in the universe; and more importantly, man has dualism...a spiritual self and a physical self. The spiritual self is eternal and has non-local consciousness with connection to everything.

This lecture will explore ancient religious and spiritual practices aimed to imitate the near-death experience to bring back spiritual or esoteric knowledge for the benefit of individual healing or the survival of a society. This presentation will explore practices from various cultures throughout ancient and modern history and explore how attitudes and perspectives were impacted by the rise of the scientific method, philosophical materialism, and the industrialization and how these attitudes are changing in the current climate.

If 5% of the world has had a Near-Death Experience, that’s 60 million more people than live in the United States (2021 USA population is 331,420,000). The global postings of NDEs, indicate a statistically significant percentage of similar attributes. As Experiencers come to grips with this shift in consciousness, they report amusing and frustrating after-effects. This presentation discusses the 3rd phase that follows, the integration of the NDE into one’s life and the challenges in coping with that reality. NDE stories are plentiful but actionable information for the phase of coping is sparse. Every day, the Experiencer wakes up asking, “Is what was true yesterday still true today?” An emerging version of themselves reacts to the world in new ways because they are experiencing themselves differently. Instead of Big Answers, this presentation uses Big Questions as a way orient then navigate the new internal landscape.

Claudia Edge and Janet Tarantino will moderate a two-person 60-minute presentation interjecting their similar past/present/future experiences where pertinent. Janet will talk about the past/present/future moments God revealed to her in her 3rd NDE. God told her: “These moments matter. Understand them.” Claudia will interject that she received a similar communiqué in a dream vision when her guide told her, “dreams matter.” Both presenters compare how they both saw—future child/children and how Claudia helped her son pick out his body. Janet will interject about her mother viewing other bodies before she died. Their conversation will cover the coinciding aspects pertinent such as—we have contracts with other souls/specific life moments are preplanned for learning. Every moment matters, and we can utilize our spirit team daily using open awareness to detect their clues, ending our talk with the bigger picture and how our talk can help them.

Spontaneous After-Death Communications (ADCs) occur frequently, with an estimated 50-60% of people, in particular mourners, having experienced one or more spontaneous ADCs. Testimonies collected on all continents and for centuries suggest this phenomenon to be universal and timeless. We have conducted a research project entitled Investigation of the phenomenology and impact of spontaneous and direct After-Death Communications (ADCs) from February 2018 to January 2020. With 1,004 completed questionnaires in the three languages of the survey (English, French and Spanish), this is the largest multilingual collection of spontaneous ADCs worldwide. Quantitative research findings will be presented, illustrated with ADC accounts. Research findings show that ADCs are deeply consoling and transformative experiences which are highly valued by experients. The impact of these spontaneous contacts on the belief system and the beneficial consequences for the bereavement process will be highlighted.

Respected 18th century scientist and inventor, Emanuel Swedenborg began having extensive spiritual experiences over the course of 31 years. From the age of 53 in 1744 until his death in 1772 at the age of 84 he visited the spiritual realms almost daily.

Swedenborg wrote that the Lord had opened his ‘spiritual eyes’ so that he could freely visit heaven and hell and converse with spiritual beings of all sorts. Today we call these OBEs. He was accompanied by spiritual beings and given ‘guided tours’ of the spiritual realms. He took extensive notes and wrote 19 books detailing his experiences. He brought scientific rigor to his spiritual studies and became known as a philosopher, theologian, and mystic in addition to his extensive scientific credentials.

This presentation provides a detailed examination the extensive similarities between Emanuel Swedenborg’s unparalleled spiritual experiences and the common attributes of what we call “near-death experiences.”

We are two representatives from clinical psychology who wish to help bridge the divide between the mental health field and the IANDS realm. We will discuss spiritually transformative experiences (STEs), with an emphasis on after-death communication (ADC), from the mental health perspective. Our goal is to illuminate some psychological processes that may occur as people process ADC. The first aim of this presentation is to explore how the field has historically trained mental health providers to interpret reports of ADC. Next, we will illustrate some human processes that can occur in relation to ADC, including provider and client perspectives. We will discuss how the mental health field can improve its spiritual literacy, and how mental health providers can support individuals who have ADCs and who also struggle with mental illness. Finally, we will suggest ways in which the clinical and spiritual realms can be complementary.

Tibor Putnoki went through a near-death experience in 1994. His NDE lasted for 9 minutes. This experience not only changed his earlier life entirely, but also gave inspiration for the rest of his life: “People need to be told, they need to know, not to live and act as they do, and I did”.

Since this experience, he walked on the path he called “active love” and he founded and worked at the Light of Love Public Benefit Foundation.

As the leader of the Light of Love Movement, I would like to introduce the acting love in the manifested heritage of Tibor: the activity of our organization and the importance of active love in our everyday life.

Join Cathy as she shares her story of healing from two near-death experiences AND cancer. Like Discover how Cathy healed from the negative effects of her NDE's and how she found the extraordinary gifts of trauma. Learn how to heal after an NDE and how to manifest your own paranormal gifts!

It is an informative but scientific approach, carried out by a forensic neuropsychiatrist, to the near death experiences (NDE). With numerous testimonies from people all over the world who have suffered the "tunnel effect", the more or less complete sequence of events that precede death is explained. A journey out of life and back to it, in which topics such as: the sounds of death, light, astral travel, visits from relatives who died before death, techniques to approach an NDE are discussed from a scientific point of view but in a very comprehensible manner.
Neurology, brain and spirit are fully compatible and open up new avenues for understanding these spiritual experiences.

An NDE is a doorway to another realm, and it takes some time to recover from the crash course in altered awareness and figure out what to do next. Through words and images take that journey into the past, the present and the future with Joyce Hawkes, a scientist/atheist, who went there and came back utterly changed. Allow yourself to feel the pull and notice how you are drawn to the horizon of your own legacy to humanity – the nudge to serve before you go.

Carl Jung had a mid-life crises in 1913 when his six-year association with Sigmund Freud ended due to a difference regarding the unconscious. He plunged into a crises where all his friends and acquaintances dropped away. He felt his unconscious had an intelligence and he decided to see what he would find if he dropped into it. He discovered his soul.

He also described another painful period of adjustment regarding his NDE which he recalled as a vision. He detached from his physical body and floated in space approximately 1,000 miles above earth. Both painful periods aided in his complete creation of Analytic Psychology. Transpersonal Psychology was created later so spiritual experiences would not be pathologized.

Earth is currently near the end of a planetary period of chaos affecting all aspects of the planet, as seen by biospheric degradation of the planet (weather, oceans, earthquakes), animal species vanishing, social systems deconstruction (religions, financial, political, medical). Some studies indicate we are entering a Sixth Extinction. I suggest we need to revisit our perception of Reality to fully understand the implications of this chaos.

Humanity as a whole has been conditioned to only perceive the external, materialistic world as the
basis for life, many not realizing there is an internal world of energy just as dynamic, which NDE’ers are demonstrating.

Humanities perception of Reality is focused in the wrong direction. Science, religions, and social conventions believe life emerges from the physical. This is not the case. Those who have experienced an NDE show there is another Reality to be experienced.

This presentation draws upon a study of over 100 personal shared death experience reports to compare and contrast SDEs to NDEs. Some researchers have identified SDEs as being identical to NDEs in terms of features, effects, and interpretations. However, there are a number of unique features of SDEs of which audiences familiar with NDEs may be unaware. By comparing and contrasting SDEs and NDES, audiences will have the opportunity to apply knowledge about NDEs in order to better understand SDEs.

This paper reports findings from a retrospective, non-experimental doctoral research study exploring after-death contact (ADC) experiences which occurred to 21 bereaved men and women (the embodied) after they had experienced the death of someone close (the disembodied).

The study utilises a qualitative Heuristic (Moustakas, 1990) research design, methodology and strategy of enquiry, and takes an interpretive approach to data analysis. It acknowledges and responds to the need for empirically robust transpersonal social science research, and draws from and is informed by the grief narratives of the bereaved, who during their bereavement experienced random, unexpected and unsought encounters of those close to them who had died; the returning deceased.

Findings are consistent with humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow’s conception of knowledge gained in what he describes as peak experiences; insights, revelations or mystical illumination (1964, p.19).

A lecture/presentation starting with a description of my 3 very different NDEs; and the 3 timeless lessons learned from each; leading to an exploration into the qualities and differing natures of NDEs—mine and others—as instructive inter-dimensional phenomena; and how these consistent qualities, principles, and “custom-made” phenomena of NDEs describe an underlying Spiritual Technology that informs and directs all of life on Earth, before and beyond. We examine the extra-dimensional properties NDEs share, and how these commonalities describe the field of limitless potential that NDEs arise within.

We explore my three lessons–what an OBE teaches us about our true spiritual nature; what a Life Review teaches us about timeless principles; and what being Forced Back Into Life teaches us about the karmic purpose of our spiritual self within the fundamental field of Consciousness; and how we can we access and interact with this Spiritual Technology to co-create our lives.

When Elizabeth Krohn got out of her car with her two young sons on a rainy night in September 1988, she couldn’t have anticipated she would within seconds be struck by lightning and have a near-death experience. When Elizabeth recovered, her most fundamental understandings of what the world is and how it works had been completely transformed. She found herself able to interact with those who had died, and she began to have inexplicable and unwelcome prescient dreams predicting upcoming news events. Elizabeth will discuss surviving the trauma of being struck by lightning, the wonders of her subsequent near-death experience, and how she successfully navigates and thrives in her new life.

Jeffrey Kripal will discuss how we can use information gleaned from a near-death experience as an empowering tool. He will discuss his groundbreaking new idea on how we are shaping our own experiences in the future by how we engage with near-death experiences in the present.

When Elizabeth Krohn got out of her car with her two young sons on a rainy night in September 1988, she couldn’t have anticipated she would within seconds be struck by lightning and have a near-death experience. When Elizabeth recovered, her most fundamental understandings of what the world is and how it works had been completely transformed. She found herself able to interact with those who had died, and she began to have inexplicable and unwelcome prescient dreams predicting upcoming news events. Elizabeth will discuss surviving the trauma of being struck by lightning, the wonders of her subsequent near-death experience, and how she successfully navigates and thrives in her new life.

Jeffrey Kripal will discuss how we can use information gleaned from a near-death experience as an empowering tool. He will discuss his groundbreaking new idea on how we are shaping our own experiences in the future by how we engage with near-death experiences in the present.

Your NDE, STE, or Mystical Experiences have the potential to heal people, inspire groups, and transform culture. How do we find effective communication so listeners can be reached in their current state of thinking? How do we watch for clues when it is safe to offer our wisdom story?

Over the last year and continuing on until the conference and into next year, I have been interviewing Near Death Experiencers and taking them through the hypnosis process to access the memories associated with their NDE. I am also taking Experiencer's that don't quite recall their experience to see if they can recover any memories that they might have lost. Hypnosis is a wonderful tool to access the memories and recover any pieces of their NDE that they may have had trouble recalling. After studying NDE's for the last 8 years I have seen how many do not recall as much as they would like, or they feel that lessons or messages are lost afterwards and they often feel lost themselves. Through much research and taking people through the process I am looking to help Near Death Experiencers obtain information that has been lost so they might feel whole again.

In 1994, while working as a firefighter, Bill Letson had a profound NDE. Fifteen years later he set out to discover first-hand the true nature of ourselves and our earthly journey. His story weaves together the notion of the incredible power of our emotions, intentions, thoughts and motivations. How our earthly mission is to align with our infinite & eternal divine mind and to live our lives by the wisdom of a compassionate heart. To strive to be peaceable, friendly, kind, and fearless in our thoughts and emotions and how this highest vibrational living will free us from the cycle of rebirth. The presentation infers this simple message is subtly throughout our popular entertainment media and there for us when we’re ready to receive it.

After effects of the NDE require integration by both the Experiencer and those who are “left behind:” their loved ones and caregivers.

Long time spiritual teacher Elke Macartney will explore the NDE from both the perspective of the experiencer (her husband), as well as being the witness to several Near Death and almost death experiences of her husband.

Upon his return to this side of the veil, Elke’s husband Jim’s near death experience affected him in profound ways—physical, emotional, mentally and spiritually. As the one who was “left behind” and had to perform CPR on Jim, she also experienced profound after effects, including: Post traumatic stress, her new role as caregiver, profound spiritual experiences and more. Since Jim’s death in 2020, Elke continues to experience messages from the other side.

Dr. Mango will define the term nearing death awareness and differentiate it from the term near-death experience. Dr. Mango will share how her educational background in Metaphysics and a lifetime of STEs enabled her to provide the necessary comfort, support and validation of her dying father’s NDA experience during his final weeks in hospice care. Dr. Mango will discuss how her patient-centered compassionate care approach helped facilitate the emotional healing of their relationship, allowing her to experience shared STEs with her father and being a witness to his final transformation from atheist to believer in the afterlife. Dr. Mango will compare and contrast her compassionate care approach with that of relatives who openly shared their denial of the reality of his experiences which exacerbated his level of distress. From a chaplain’s perspective, Rev. Witting will share his observations.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) provide three main areas of evidence that there is no death. First, NDE evidence of veridical perceptions in the physical realm during cardiac arrest or coma imply that the mind separates from the physical body and operates independent of it. In addition, apparitional NDEs show that the mind is an objectively real entity. Secondly, there is strong NDE evidence that the separate mind entity interacts with physical processes including neural activations in the brain to produce awareness. Thirdly, the continuity of awareness throughout NDE, especially involving deceased persons, are implicit evidence of personal survival after death, especially when the decedent was not known to the NDEr or was known but was not known to have died. Shared death experiences (SDEs) including veridical perceptions and shared life reviews show a continuity from an NDE to the transmaterial realm at the time of physical death.

Topics are a description of his death from a drug overdose. He learned about the structure of the physical body as it relates to energy vibration. There is a description of how death felt. He learned about souls, time, thoughts and scenes of the past events in his life. There is a life review and insights concerning reincarnation and David’s personal future. David gained an understanding of the nature of the universe. He felt extreme, indescribable feelings of love, joy and peace. David experienced insights concerning energy dynamics, the light, the senses, and an awareness of the future. Other insights include the world of spirit, the spirit city, guardian angels, Jesus, the structure of the universe with a border. There is a description of a return to the physical life and what happened afterward.

We are two representatives from clinical psychology who wish to help bridge the divide between the mental health field and the IANDS realm. We will discuss spiritually transformative experiences (STEs), with an emphasis on after-death communication (ADC), from the mental health perspective. Our goal is to illuminate some psychological processes that may occur as people process ADC. The first aim of this presentation is to explore how the field has historically trained mental health providers to interpret reports of ADC. Next, we will illustrate some human processes that can occur in relation to ADC, including provider and client perspectives. We will discuss how the mental health field can improve its spiritual literacy, and how mental health providers can support individuals who have ADCs and who also struggle with mental illness. Finally, we will suggest ways in which the clinical and spiritual realms can be complementary.

The NDE literature and popular culture have focused on positive aftereffects of NDEs, such as greatly increased compassion, spirituality, and appreciation of life, as well as decreased fear of death, among others. However, many NDErs may experience challenges in integrating the experience and find it difficult to talk about their NDE with medical professionals or loved ones, for fear of rejection, ridicule, a label of mental illness or simply lack of understanding. At the same time, specialized professional help is limited by the scarcity of counselors or health professionals familiar with NDEs. In this talk, I will present online survey data from an exploratory study of the types of professional help, therapy, and support groups near-death experiencers have sought out to process their experience, and whether those have been helpful. The study included 167 NDErs, as well as a smaller group of counselors who have worked with NDErs in addressing their therapeutic needs.

This presentation draws upon a study of over 100 personal shared death experience reports to compare and contrast SDEs to NDEs. Some researchers have identified SDEs as being identical to NDEs in terms of features, effects, and interpretations. However, there are a number of unique features of SDEs of which audiences familiar with NDEs may be unaware. By comparing and contrasting SDEs and NDES, audiences will have the opportunity to apply knowledge about NDEs in order to better understand SDEs.

If your body perished today, what would your life review be like? What positive changes can you make NOW so your life review is a work of art? Dr. Pitstick will share four ways you can make that happen:

1. Know the life review is a loving and instructive – not judgmental and punitive process.

2. Understand original Aramaic and Hebrew language meanings that clarify what heaven and hell really are.

3. Learn about the Life Review Technique and how it can improve your future life review. Ken Ring PhD, found you don’t have to nearly die to benefit from a life-review. Rather, self-work and visualization during deep relaxation can create lasting positive changes. Dr. Ring gave Mark permission in 2000 to share this technique.

4. Make a ‘mini-life review’ part of your daily selfcare practice. In just a few minutes per day, you can improve your here and now experience whether you seem to be living on earth or elsewhere.

This presentation discusses the findings of a PhD thesis which investigated how NDErs experience psychological challenging aftereffects and how their wellbeing is impacted. This was done through mixed methods involving a questionnaire analyzed via statistical testing, content and thematic analysis, and interviews analyzed via interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings of these multiple analyses discovered relationships between certain features of the NDE, age of when the NDE occurred, and wellbeing domains. It also focused on key challenges that NDErs endorsed to explore what impacts integration of those challenges, and what mental health professionals may need to consider when working with NDErs as clients.

The experiences of an NDE or STE are extraordinary for most people, but some may not realize such states of consciousness can be identified and understood according to documented esoteric descriptions of the spiritual afterlife. The presentation will explain and contextualize such experiences by also illustrating them with personal examples.
Suzanne’s partner, Lindsay, deceased unexpectedly from complications after surgery the same day as her panel discussion the weekend of the 2020 IANDS conference. Afterwards, she experienced various types of communications with him over the next several months. Suzanne will use these to illuminate the kinds of experiences that happen to people on different levels of conscious awareness. She will also provide pointers to prepare anyone to access similar experiences in waking, dream and contemplative states through simple, uplifting spiritual exercises that enhance personal enlightenment.

Near-death experiences require a scientific explanation, that is a third person explanation. However, current physics has many missing links so if we try to explain NDEs using the current scientific paradigm we end up with incomplete, contorted, explanations. However, assuming a new paradigm, one which takes consciousness to be everywhere in the universe we should be able to formulate more adequate theories. In this paper it is argued that physics theories should take the NDE and require the whole experience to be explained by physics. It will also be argued that science derives its first hypotheses from experience and that, at the end, a theory of everything should also incorporate experience. In addition, the NDE will be a missing link required to unify physics and understand the nature of fundamental reality. I suggest that in order to model fundamental reality quantum computer simulation will be required and that any such model should be constrained by near-death qualia.

Christian will give a presentation about his pre-birth memory, with the focus being on the reasons why we choose to accept the “veil of forgetfulness” and come to Earth.

Claudia Edge and Janet Tarantino will moderate a two-person 60-minute presentation interjecting their similar past/present/future experiences where pertinent. Janet will talk about the past/present/future moments God revealed to her in her 3rd NDE. God told her: “These moments matter. Understand them.” Claudia will interject that she received a similar communiqué in a dream vision when her guide told her, “dreams matter.” Both presenters compare how they both saw—future child/children and how Claudia helped her son pick out his body. Janet will interject about her mother viewing other bodies before she died. Their conversation will cover the coinciding aspects pertinent such as—we have contracts with other souls/specific life moments are preplanned for learning. Every moment matters, and we can utilize our spirit team daily using open awareness to detect their clues, ending our talk with the bigger picture and how our talk can help them.

A life with spirit guides is discussed. The experience started at the age of 5 months and continues through the life of the presenter with multiple methods of communication. Included are direct contact with his guardian angel and numerous guidance communications with his spirit guides. His spirit guides have been with him during hard times such as near death and also being on death watch when he gave up but was not allowed to die. The speaker has also been asked by his spirit guides to help others die and to live in critical moments. Hear how his awareness has grown as he has gotten older.

When Rose’s husband committed suicide at their home, she fell into a pit so deep and dark that medical professionals expressed doubts that she would ever recover.

Two years later, Rose was diagnosed with cancer, and during a “minor medical procedure,” she died, and had no heart beat for 10+ minutes.

In heaven, she was told that if she agreed to return to earth, she’d be completely restored to perfect health, physically, emotionally and mentally. As a nice bonus, her friend (who’d witnessed her death) was instantly transformed from an avowed atheist to a believer when an angel visited him while he waited in the hospital hallway.

The story of Rose’s “temporary death experience” has garnered more than 3 million views on a wide variety of video platforms, including a recently released documentary (Life to Afterlife: Death and Back 2) and the prevalent comment shared by viewers is, “This is the best NDE story that I’ve ever heard.”

We are all part of a consciousness transformation. As more and more people are experiencing NDE’s and sharing our stories, as well as the help from all of those that are experiencing a spiritual awakening without an NDE, it is helping us move our fellow humans of our global community to a higher vibrational frequency and consciousness awareness. We are going through an enlightenment process and paving the path for future illumination for all. We are all interconnected through our ancestors DNA and the invisible energetic grid that connects all that is. Our own vibrations affect all that is around us, and as we expand our own consciousness, we not only transform ourselves, but also heal our past ancestral lineage as well as future generations by creating illumination and enlightenment for past, present and future souls.

The clues we drop for ourselves prior to our lifetime on earth are uncanny. Planned during the pre-birth process, they are intended to subconsciously keep us on our chosen path of learning during a given lifetime, and over various incarnations. Join me on a thrill ride as I share awe-inspiring clues from my own and others’ journeys. Then, be inspired to do some soul-sleuthing of your own!

This channeled presentation provides experiential guidance familiar with those who have experienced NDEs that enables them to leverage their NDE into living a more balanced, peaceful, spiritual fulfilling life and fulfill the purpose of their NDE.

Dr. Mango will define the term nearing death awareness and differentiate it from the term near-death experience. Dr. Mango will share how her educational background in Metaphysics and a lifetime of STEs enabled her to provide the necessary comfort, support and validation of her dying father’s NDA experience during his final weeks in hospice care. Dr. Mango will discuss how her patient-centered compassionate care approach helped facilitate the emotional healing of their relationship, allowing her to experience shared STEs with her father and being a witness to his final transformation from atheist to believer in the afterlife. Dr. Mango will compare and contrast her compassionate care approach with that of relatives who openly shared their denial of the reality of his experiences which exacerbated his level of distress. From a chaplain’s perspective, Rev. Witting will share his observations.

In Eastern traditions the spiritually transformative awakening of Kundalini energy is considered the biological mechanism that drives both individual enlightenment and evolution toward higher consciousness. These experiences include spontaneous awakenings, e.g. in meditation, emotional crisis, and during an NDE. An interview questionnaire was used to collect descriptions of both the physical and mystical experiences associated with energetic awakenings in 300+ participants. Subjects reported the experience was mystical, involving feelings of expansion and a sense of being enveloped in light or love. 85% reported unusual flows of energy through or around the body. Transformational changes included increased sensory sensitivity, creativity, and changes in beliefs e.g., a sense of unity, and immortality. Participants reported a lack of understanding of the phenomenon by healthcare professionals, resulting in an inability to address experiencers' needs.