EAST COUNTY RESIDENTS FEATURED IN NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE CONFERENCE OCTOBER 16-17

October 14, 2009 (San Diego)—Experts on near-death experiences will be in town for the annual conference of the International Association for Near Death Studies from October 15 – 17. There will be a pre-conference Healing/Arts day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 15th, followed by the full conference for the next two days. In addition, several East County residents will be featured as speakers and panelists.

The conference theme will be "Transformed in the Light: Helping Humanity with Balanced Abilities after NDEs". The theme reflects the "psychic, healing, and artistic abilities many near-death survivors discover and the changes they make in their life’s direction following a near-death experience," according to a press release issued by conference organizers. 

Speakers include authors Charles Tart, PhD, internationally known transpersonal psychologist; Jeffery Mishlove, PhD, parapsychologist and President of the Intuition Network; PMH Atwater, LHD, a researcher who underwent a near-death experience, and Melvin Morse, MD, pediatrician and pioneering researcher of children’s NDEs. Research and experiencer presentations and panels round out the program.

Many local community members have been instrumental in putting on this international conference:

1) Beverly Brodsky, an El Cajon resident, is the chair of IANDS in San Diego County and
the leader of the San Diego contingent planning this conference. Beverly’s near death
experience (NDE), which happened 39 years ago, revealed everything that currently matters
in her life, she says.  The International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) gave her a voice
to end 18 years of silence. Her account is the concluding one in Dr. Kenneth Ring’s book
Lessons from the Light (2006 –paperback reprint), as the most complete in his collection. She
is also featured in Arvin Gibson’s They Saw Beyond Death (2006), P.M.H. Atwater’s Children of
the New Millennium (1999). She was profiled in McCalls, the BBC documentary The Human
Body, did the first NDE program on Israeli public radio, and has been featured in Who’s Who in
America for the past three years. A Vassar graduate, retired Federal analyst, transformative
experience researcher, Science of Mind minister and Director, and acclaimed international
speaker, Beverly believes in the mission of IANDS on the local level to support people who have
had similar experiences by providing community for them and educate similar experiencers by
providing community for them and educate the public about mysteries surrounding the last
taboo—death.

2)Yolaine Stout is a writer and life coach who lives in Alpine, CA. She had a suicidal near-death experience in 1982 due to severe depression. An atheist at the time, her NDE turned her beliefs about the purpose and meaning of life, and what follows, inside out. She is the past President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and is President and Founder of ACISTE, an organization to address integration needs of experiencers. She is the author of Your Blueprint to Passion: A Spiritual Solution to Depression and is working with Dr. Kenneth Ring on a series of workshops based on his book: Lessons from the Light.
 

3) Vanessa Chicca is a Bonita resident who founded the San Diego Chapter of IANDS many years ago and served as its President for ten years..Her past conference presentations have included The Significance of Spirituality in Healthcare, A Walk in the Garden,and Homesick for Heaven. She is currently serving as Chairman of the San Diego CountyCoalition for Improving End of Life Care. Vanessa is also an active member in the SanDiego Bereavement Consortium, and the Senior Specialists Networking Group of SanDiego County. She has worked with Dignity Memorial since 1998 when she joined GlenAbbey Memorial Park & Mortuary, in Bonita, California. She is the author of Love Is Your Legacy. The Teeny Tiny Diet Book and the Create Your Own Cookbook Kit.

5) Gary Guthrioe states that “My first memories of life were in Point Loma, Californiawhere we lived one block from the bay of San Diego. I swam a lot with my 3 brothers and other children in the neighborhood. After high school I joined the Navy and became a medic at a naval hospital on Long Island, New York. In college I majored inLanguages and became a teacher in Australia and Singapore. I then taught English in the Middle East for 20 years among the Arabs, spending my vacations mostly in neighboring countries, India in particular because of its unique culture. Now my book on near death studies is being published."

6) Sharon Lund is a San Diego resident who has danced with life and death. She has overcome nine years of sexual abuse as a child, suicide attempts, anorexia, destructive relationships, and HIV/AIDS for twenty-six years. She has had two near-death experiences. Sharon will be presenting at the IANDS Conference, as well as showing her documentary Dying to LIVE: NDE, and selling her books.

The conference will be held at Mission Valley Resort, 875 Hotel Circle South, from 8-5 Friday and Saturday, plus evening events. Registration 7-8 a.m. each day. Call 1-800-362-7871 for hotel information. For more information in the International Association for Near Death Studies, contact Beverly Brodsky at 619-660-5106.