Guest Speakers

Bill Virga

The GOOD NEWS is that South Bay IANDS has been very fortunate in adding a staff person to help facilitate some meetings. If you were at the last meeting (the experiencer panel) you may have met him. He is Bill Virga. Bill is a transpersonal counselor (psychotherapist) and a certified hypnotherapist based locally. Transpersonal psychology is a discipline that not only looks into the patient or client, but also attempts to discern how that person’s specific psychological make-up fits into the greater reality, each other, and the universe. In other words, how we relate to the reality that we all share as human beings. This includes not only the personal psychological, but also the spiritual, metaphysical, and paranormal domains. Besides transpersonal psychology, he has many other interests and career experiences including working with sexually abused children, facilitating process groups for mothers trying to get off drugs and alcohol through the Mandela House (http://alameda.networkofcare.org/aging/resource/agencydetail.cfm?pid=SolidFoundationMandelaHouseIIandKellerHouse_2_1_0&ageGrp=), and teaching Sunday school.

Bill is a 20-year expert teaching and using the Enneagram, a psychological personality type system which assists us in having a better understanding of human behavior. He is also an active member of FMBR – the Foundation for Mind-Being Research (http://www.fmbr.org), based in Los Altos and Palo Alto. FMBR is a “friend” organization to South Bay IANDS.

Tuesday night, Bill will present a professionally produced (and directed by Tim Coleman) presentation of a video on The Afterlife Investigations featuring experts in the field such as Rupert Sheldrake, Allison DuBois, and others. See a trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pro27tT4Y, or get more information at http://www.spr.ac.uk/main/publication/afterlife-investigations-has-science-proved-afterlife-dvd.

Please come to meet Bill Virga and let’s watch this fantastic presentation together.

Welcome to South Bay IANDS. Our March meeting brings our first experiencer panel discussion featuring 3 local Near-Death Experiencers. This should be an evening of amazing stories and answered questions. The brief stories and circumstances of the 3 individuals are below. I appreciate, and so will you, their selflessness and very generous desire and motivation to tell the world that there is life after death: what it can look like and what it can sound like.

This meeting starts at 7:00 PM and could possibly last 3 hours because of its format. You are encouraged to bring snacks to share during our break! There is a suggested donation of $5.00 to $20.00, but it’s not mandatory. We want all people to be able to experience this evening.

Linda Brann

While doing household chores, Linda felt poorly. Her chest was staring to display symptoms of a heart attack. With her arms tingling, and close to unconsciousness, her husband called emergency services , and they barely got to her in time. While at death’s door, she experienced an amazing NDE that she will share with us.

Ann Fox

A hit and run driver left Ann, a television producer,  with a “pulverized” face. Her death came as she suffocated on her own bone and facial tissue. Her story is one of a beautiful NDE and of a strong survivor.

Ray Kinman

A dangerous and unsuccessful judo throw landed 4th grader Ray Kinman right on the top of his head – on concrete. The resulting edema of his brain was a secondary concern because his tongue retracted, suffocating Ray.

Eric Rice

In the winter of 1982, during a life crisis, Eric received a visit from a spiritual being he calls “the Presence”, who revealed to him God’s true nature. Over the course of weeks, the Presence also healed Eric and in so doing revealed the power of self-healing that we all possess.

Welcome to At. Andrew’s Church.  The interactive map below will bring you to us!

David had three transformative experiences; in 1983 he drowned and had a Near-Death Experience (NDE) while the Chief Engineer of the ocean research vessel Aloha. He experienced an Spiritually Transformative Experience in 1994 when he was the Manager of Dialysis Programs at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, NY. The third experience occurred November 2000, when David was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer that metastasized into his spine causing its collapse. Now in remission and retired/disabled David’s passion includes working with experiencers and cancer survivors to integrate their Spiritually Transformative Experiences. More recently he finished his book about these experiences and how they changed his life.

Dave and his wife Cindy will be with us to talk about his life challenges and crises. There will be a question and answer period after his presentation, and he will have copies of his book available for purchase and signing.

Use this interactive map to find us.

Eben Alexander was a special guest at the 2011 IANDS conference in Durham, NC. His presentation was the most emotional one of the conference. Alexander, a renowned academic neurosurgeon, spent 54 years honing his scientific worldview. He thought he knew how the brain and mind worked. In 2008 he became very ill and was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis, far more serious than viral meningitis. Doctors eventually discovered that the culprit was E. coli, a very rare situation in adults. While he was driven to the brink of death he experienced a transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) and spent a week in a deep coma. His doctors expected death, since his brain’s neocortex should have been fatally damaged. The normal glucose levels in a human’s cerebrospinal fluid are between 60 and 80 mg/dl (milligram per one-tenth of a liter), and the meningitis infection is considered severe when the level drops to 20 mg/dl. But the glucose level of Alexander’s cerebrospinal fluid was at 1 mg/dl, making it impossible for his brain to function. He experienced many things during the days he was comatose. He describes these “hyper-real” out-of-body experiences as happening in a different universe. At one point he breaks down during his talk when he looks back to identify someone he saw in his NDE. It was a very moving and emotional discussion by a brilliant man who is obviously at a loss to explain the how and why of it all. But he has spent the last 3 years reconciling his rich spiritual experience with contemporary physics and cosmology. His NDE experience is totally consistent with the leading edges of scientific understanding today. He now understands that consciousness does not originate in the brain. In fact, consciousness does not even need a brain. When we “die” our consciousness does not. He is working on a book to be released this year.

Join us to see this excellent presentation and for lively discussion.

Sign up for Eben Alexander’s newsletter here: www.lifebeyonddeath.net. His web site is under construction.

His linked.in listing: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eben-alexander-iii-md/a/345/202

News articles: http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/apr/16/coma_leads_to_life-changing_experience_for_neurosu-ar-206408/

A great interview: http://www.skeptiko.com/154-neurosurgeon-dr-eben-alexander-near-death-experience/

http://www.ymlp.com/zOVIqx

Video interview: http://subversivethinking.blogspot.com/2011/12/eben-alexander-iii-and-near-death.html

 Roberta Grimes – Thursday December 1st, 2011 at 7:30 PM

Roberta’s lecture was wonderfully spellbinding. She is an energetic and sincere person who wants to let the world know that how we live our lives here determines where we end up in heaven. We discovered that by knowing the overwhelming evidence of the afterlife, we can influence our eternal life  while we are alive here!  She spoke for 1 1/2 hours and took questions and answers after the break. This was Roberta’s second stop and a week long  visit to the Bay Area comprising 5 events. See her schedule at at www.funofdying.com/news-events/.

Austin attorney Roberta Grimes has been studying afterlife issues and evidence that has been written in the last 200 years. She has been developing a detailed picture of the realities that we enter at death. She uses quantum physics and consciousness research to show how the afterlife fits with the solid reality we know, so for the first time in human history she makes the afterlife real and accessible. Her book, The Fun of Dying:Find Out What Really Happens Next is a complete account how dying feels and what happens at, during, and after the transition.

Her book is a basic but amazing description of the afterlife. The first appendix contains references to almost all of the published  research that helped Roberta to get to the understanding she has now. Most are still available today. The Fun of Dying is the perfect place to start your own research, and the recommended reading is even more amazing. The book is short and an easy read. It is to the point and will prepare you for the questions you will assuredly have for her when she visits on December 1st. Barbara is a fun and very gifted speaker with total enthusiasm for her subject, bringing it to life as no one else can. She will be making other Bay Area appearances. You can soon view them at her web site, www.funofdying.com. She also helps administer, and is a frequent contributor to www.afterlifeforums.com. Her book can be purchased at these web sites or at Amazon.com.

Upcoming Tuesday October 25^th : Dianne Sherman at 7:00 PM

Thirty years ago, Dianne Sherman went into a hospital for a quick and common knee operation.   She would emerge with a near-death experience she had to piece together over years, but one that would radically change her life.

Of her NDE, she says, “It was so gorgeous – I’ve never been so happy.  I had no question about where I was.  Everything was so in sync.  I had never felt so cherished in my whole life.” Dealing with the material world again, though, meant challenges.  “I walked away from my religion; that was probably one of the biggest changes,” she says. Of her NDE, Dianne says, “If you experience unconditional love, you realize that there is no judgment, no right or wrong… you start looking at everything differently, and realize that you are part of the whole. “I’m loved unconditionally – it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do.” Come join us in welcoming Dianne, and bring your questions. If you have any for me, please call me at (408) 343-1276, or reach the web site, where you can leave a message, at www.sbiands.org/contact.

On September 27th, Dr. Bernard Haisch was our guest speaker. Dr. Haisch is a professional astronomer and an astrophysicist and has authored more than 100 articles in scientific journals such as Annual Reviews of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Nature, Science, Physical Review, Foundations of Physics, Annalen der Physik, Noetic Sciences Review, and the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, to name a few. Besides his academic publications, he has written two popular books presenting evidence that our multiverse was intentionally created, not formed by chance.

Astrophysicist George Ellis has written: “What is clear is that life, as we know it, would not be possible if there were very small changes to either physics or the expanding universe that we see around us. There are many aspects of physics, which, if they were different, would prevent any life at all existingŠ. We are now realizing that the universe is a very extraordinary place, in the sense that it is fine tuned so that life will exist.” There are two interpretations possible: (1) Our Universe is part of a multiverse containing vast numbers of universes which have an enormous range of properties; or (2) the laws of our Universe reflect some great intelligence. As astrophysicist Sir James Jeans wrote: “The Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.” It begins to look more likely that the creation of the Universe in the Big Bang happened for a purpose, rather than by chance. I speculate on what that purpose might be, including the necessary central role of Darwinian evolution.

See his web site at www.thegodtheory.com. Also see his books at Amazon.com: The Purpose-Guided Universe: Believing In Einstein, Darwin, and God and The The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What’s Behind It All.

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August 23rd at 7:00 PM

On August 23, 2011 at 7:00 PM, we welcomed back South Bay IANDS’ innaugural guest speaker, author and retired Lockheed Martin optical engineer Paul Robb. Mr. Robb reflected on a life of spiritual contact with God. His recent book The Kindness of God: How God Cares for Us recounts his spiritual experiences and those of others. Visit his web site at www.kindnessofgod.com.   To download a PDF file about Paul and the subject of his presentation go here. After the presentation, Paul stayed to sign books and to answer questions from the attendees.

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Irene Kendig

“This remarkable book by Irene Kendig offers deep comfort and gentle peace to anyone grieving the death of a loved one.”

-Neale Donald Walsch – New York Times Bestselling Author

July 12, 2011 – Irene Kendig

What if you could ask questions of loved ones who’d died . . . and they answered back? What would you ask? How would the answers change the way you live?

Our July guest speaker was award-winning author Irene Kendig, who answered those questions and more as she shared what she learned from speaking with seven loved ones on the other side.

“It was 2006, and I had just started a Masters Program in Spiritual Psychology,” said Kendig. “A friend called to tell me about an extraordinary woman named Jana, who could talk with people who’d crossed over. My friend said Jana wanted to make this her life’s work and asked if I would be willing to do a session with her. I hesitated. I had a lot on my plate, and even if she did have this extraordinary gift, there wasn’t anyone who’d passed on with whom I felt compelled to speak. Still, I was curious.”

“I scheduled the session thinking I was doing my friend a favor,” Kendig continued. “You can imagine my amazement when, after the hour-long session, I had connected with four loved ones on the other side in a way that was unmistakable and unequivocal. I hung up the phone and danced around my house for hours, delighting in the knowing that we are eternal. Three days later, I called and scheduled a second session. At the end of that session, I asked Jana if she wanted to collaborate on a book. She agreed. We met for an hour a day for the next two years. Last year, Conversations with Jerry and Other People I Thought Were Dead: Seven compelling dialogues that will transform the way you think about dying and living, was published. Each of the seven dialogues begins with the same question: What did you experience when you released your last breath on earth?”

“What I’ve learned has transformed the way I live,” continued Kendig. “Knowing I won’t cease to exist, I am empowered to live courageously, listening to and acting on my heart’s desires. Knowing I am an eternal being living in a beneficent universe, I am open and available to the miracle of each moment, and my moments are filled with peace, trust, and joy. My mission now is to eliminate unnecessary suffering and inspire conscious, joyous living by transforming the way we think about death and dying.”

Since its release a year ago, the book has been honored with four national awards and an international, and recently hit Amazon bestseller status at #11 in the category of death. It is endorsed by NY Times Bestselling authors Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations with God), and Bernie Siegel, M.D. (Faith, Hope and Healing). Rev. Richard Dinges of Virginia Beach IANDS offered this endorsement: “As I read Conversations with Jerry and Other People I Thought Were Dead, I began marking important passages. Then I began underlining passages of exceptional clarity. I soon realized I was marking nearly every page because nearly every page provided new and clear understandings. I have been studying near-death experiences for fifteen years and gaining bits of information about life beyond the physical. Each NDE is like a thread. Then I read Jerry’s descriptions of life beyond and I saw the tapestry.”

To watch a book trailer and read an excerpt, please visit: www.conversationwithjerry.com

June 28, 2011

For the first time, our monthly meeting did not feature a guest speaker. Many attendees had asked for an evening for general questions about the NDE specifically, and the STE (Spiritually Transformative Experience) in general. We watched an outstanding documentary DVD movie entitled Life After Life, starring the father of NDE research, Raymond Moody, after which members, experiencers, and others, asked and answer questions. As time goes by more and more television features, movies and books features are appearing about NDEs and STEs. Our June meeting went so well that we will bring that format to more meetings in the future.

There were 32 attendees, some from as far away as Monterey County.Thanks to all who came, and we hope to see the rest of you soon!

The web site www.aciste.org defines the STE in a way similar to this:

An STE (spiritually transformative experience) can be any of the following anomalous events: OBE (out-of-body experience), NDA (nearing death awareness – a person converses with unseen others within a few days of their death), NDE (near-death experiences), NDLE (near-death-like experiences), ADC (after-death communications or visitations from departed loved ones), EHE (exceptional human experiences), visions, spiritual emergencies, awakenings, kundalini experiences,enlightenment, pre-birth memories, past-life experiences, empathic or shared near-death experiences, peak experiences, etc.  STEs include or may be called numinous, noetic, transcendent, transpersonal, mystical, anomalous, religious, spiritual, paranormal, parapsychological or ecstatic experiences.