What is the evidence, what survives, and how do our beliefs about it affect us?
Friday, September 11, 2020
11:00am-12:15pm Pacific
In both media and scientific research, much attention has been paid to the questions, “Is there life after death?” and, “What do people believe about the possibility of life after death?” Several studies about Near Death Experiences (NDEs), apparitions and hauntings, mediumship, and reincarnation suggest that consciousness does persist in some form after someone dies.
Join us on Friday, September 11th as three expert panelists explore the current evidence on survival of consciousness research, how it is beginning to gain acceptance in clinical settings, and why people often don’t share that they’ve had an NDE.
While research evidence is strong that some aspect of our consciousness may exist beyond physical death, the ideas about exactly what persists are varied. Do our personalities—with memories, thoughts, and emotions—remain intact indefinitely, or does our consciousness merge with something larger, or something else entirely? World religions certainly have much to say about this topic, but what do people believe? IONS is conducting a study to assess people’s beliefs on what survives physical death. The preliminary results are in and Dr. Wahbeh will share those results. You’ll also be invited to participate in the study yourself.
PANELISTS
Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR is the Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Wahbeh is clinically trained as a naturopathic physician and research trained with a Master of Clinical Research and two post-doctoral research fellowships. She has published on and spoken internationally about her studies on complementary and alternative medicine, mind-body medicine, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder and their relationships to physiology, health, and healing.
Terri Daniel, CT, CCTP is a hospice and hospital-trained clinical chaplain (interfaith). She is certified in death, dying, and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling, and in trauma support by the International Association of Trauma Professionals. The focus of her work is to assist dying and grieving individuals to discover a more spiritually and socially-spacious understanding of death, grief, and beyond. She is the founder of the Conference on Death and Afterlife Studies, and the Ask Doctor Death podcast.
Leslie Kean is an independent investigative journalist and author of Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife (2017, Crown Publishing Group), a personal story of research into astonishing and thought-provoking information suggestive of survival past death. In 2010, her book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (Crown Publishing Group, 2010) was a New York Times bestseller. She helped produce a 2011 documentary based on UFOs for the History Channel, made by Breakthru Films, an award-winning independent film company. Kean has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, The Colbert Report, and NPR and in USA Today, Vanity Fair, US News & World Report, and Columbia Journalism Review, among other media.
