In 1988, Lesley Lupo was crushed by a stampede of horses and pronounced dead—yet she remained conscious, watching from nearby. What followed was a journey she calls “Upstairs,” where she encountered beings of light and chose whether to return to life. Her story traces recovery, reckoning, and the moment she realized there is more beyond the physical world.
In 1988, Lesley Lupo was critically injured when a stampede of horses crushed her against a hay barn. With her skin gray and her lips “as blue as her jeans,” she was declared dead, yet she perceived herself standing nearby, watching it all. This moment marked the beginning of a profound journey she refers to as going “Upstairs,” where she encountered beings of light and received guidance while deciding whether to remain or return to life on Earth. In this talk, Lesley recounts her accident and subsequent experience “Upstairs”, her recovery and seeking for understanding, and how she finally “Got it!” She reflects on reconciling her lifelong atheism with what she had witnessed. Attendees will leave with a renewed sense of faith that there is something beyond this physical world.
About Leslie:
Lesley Joan Lupo is a gifted healer, NLP specialist and near-death experiencer. She has a unique and rare gift for explaining the science behind intuition and spiritual phenomenon. After being killed by a stampede of horses, her profound near-death experience resulted in her book entitled “Every Breath is Precious: Dying Taught Me How to Live.”
Leslie’s website:
https://lesleyjoanlupo.com
Leslie’s book: https://a.co/d/ge8gMvq
This event will be recorded and available to view on our Videos page 3-5 business days after the live event!
New research! France Lerner shares: • NDEs are difficult to fully express through words alone, which creates limitations for research that relies only on narrative interview data.
• This talk introduces an alternative, hybrid method that combines chronological segmentation of the experience with participant-generated graphic reconstructions.
• The approach is designed to capture spatial, perceptual, and embodied aspects of NDEs and OBEs that may not emerge through verbal reports, offering researchers a complementary tool for future studies.
Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) are frequently described as ineffable, making them difficult to study through language-based research alone. This event presents an innovative multimodal methodology that goes beyond narrative testimonies by integrating chronological experience segmentation and participant-generated graphic reconstructions. These visual representations allow for the documentation of perceived spatial structures, embodied viewpoints, and motion trajectories that are not accessible through verbal accounts.
By examining how Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) and NDEs unfold over time, the study isolates the NDE core and clarifies its relationship to OBE phases whether distinct, overlapping, or sequentially dependent. The resulting visual data reveal consistent spatial invariants across participants, suggesting that NDE spaces may follow recognizable perceptual or cognitive organizing principles. Attendees will gain insight into an emerging research paradigm that expands the empirical accessibility of extraordinary experiences through structured visual and spatial documentation.
• NDEs are difficult to fully express through words alone, which creates limitations for research that relies only on narrative interview data.
• This talk introduces an alternative, hybrid method that combines chronological segmentation of the experience with participant-generated graphic reconstructions.
• The approach is designed to capture spatial, perceptual, and embodied aspects of NDEs and OBEs that may not emerge through verbal reports, offering researchers a complementary tool for future studies.
France Lerner, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher and educator working at the intersection of visual art, altered-states research, and immersive technologies. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BIMSA), where she teaches courses in neuroaesthetics, embodiment, and generative/extended reality methodologies. Dr. Lerner holds a Ph.D. in Art and Science (summa cum laude) from the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels in collaboration with the Coma Science Group in Liège, focusing on visual and spatial representations of Near-Death Experiences.
Her academic trajectory includes a multi-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she conducted research in virtual reality and motor control within the Laboratory for Robotics and Virtual Reality.
She is a research affiliate of the ALIUS Network for the study of consciousness and non-ordinary experiences and has developed several pioneering research-creation methodologies combining experiential sequencing, participant-generated spatial reconstructions, and immersive visualization tools.
Dr. Lerner has presented her work internationally across art, neuroscience, and consciousness-studies contexts and is the author of multiple peer-reviewed publications and research-based exhibitions addressing visual field structure, embodiment, and spatial organization in NDEs and OBEs. Her current work explores hybrid scientific-artistic protocols that integrate VR-based visualization with graphic reconstruction methods to expand empirical access to non-ordinary human experience.
https://www.francelerner.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/france-lerner-52939a66
In this intimate and transformative talk, Jeanette shares the inner truths revealed through her Near-Death Experience — insights about resonance, identity, and the unique frequency each person carries. Rather than focusing on dramatic details, she invites listeners into a deeper recognition of their own power: that we are not victims of life, but creators within it. Through her story, attendees are reminded of their inherent inner authority and leave with a renewed sense of their own vibration, clarity, and possibility.
In this heartfelt and transformative talk, Jeanette shares the essence of her Near-Death Experience and the profound clarity it awakened within her. Rather than focusing on the dramatic details, she brings forward the deep inner truths she encountered — truths about resonance, identity, and the unique vibration every human carries.
Jeanette explores how her NDE revealed the possibility that we are not victims of life, but creators within it. She speaks about the moment she understood that we each hold a frequency that is ours alone, and that aligning with it can change everything — how we heal, how we choose, and how we show up in the world.
This talk invites attendees into a space of recognition and remembrance: that each person has their own medicine to offer, their own truth to live from, and their own way forward that begins within. Through her lived experience, Jeanette opens a doorway into what becomes possible when we stop seeing ourselves through fear or limitation, and instead reclaim the inner authority we are born with.
Attendees will leave with a deeper sense of resonance, a renewed awareness of their own unique vibration, and inspiration to step into the creator within — the part of us that knows we are not powerless, and never have been.
About Jeanette:
Jeanette Bergelin Hedström is an entrepreneur, speaker, retreat host, coach and near-death experiencer from Sweden. She is co-founder of IANDS Sweden and a facilitator for IANDS USA.
Her work focuses on authenticity, self-love, consciousness, and helping others integrate extraordinary experiences into everyday life. She runs Sju Sjöar, a creative healing retreat center on the Swedish west coast.
Jeanette’s websites:
https://www.healingdoll.com
www.sjusjoar.se
Jeanette on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/jeanettehbergelin/
https://www.instagram.com/healingdoll/
www.facebook.com/NettanH/
Jeanette’s book: https://a.co/d/41ucjFL
This event will be recorded and available to view on our Videos page 3-5 business days after the live event!
NDEs are widely understood to be deeply transformative for the experiencer. But, what if years pass before the episode is recognized for what it was? Lorene Stanwick tells of her realization as an adult that she once had died at a tender age at the hands of her older sister. What might the belated remembrance of such an experience bring?
Lorene Stanwick had a near death experience (NDE) at the age of five when her older sister strangled her – but she did not remember it until decades later. Deeply committed to her spiritual practice, she had a period of profound spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) in recent years – including recovery of the memory of her NDE. As she learned more about the ‘gifts’ of NDEs, she began to understand that what once made her a ‘victim’ had indeed become a gift, helping her to understand many experiences from throughout her life and giving her the strength, faith and clarity to continue on the path she has been guided to walk. On Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00 pm Central Time, Lorene will join us live via Zoom from her home in Kitchener, Ontario, to share her story of a childhood NDE and its profound aftermath.
Lorene Stanwick’s life, learning, and work weave together art, education, mental health, personal growth and advocacy. After a fearful childhood that included ongoing sibling abuse, followed by years of struggling with addiction, mental health and suicidal ideation, she was finally able to connect her struggles with that abuse, and she received the clear message that she was to be a voice in raising awareness, including being ‘guided’ to write a play about it. Her play, Broken Branches, had a 2-week run in Toronto in 2019.
With an academic background in Drama, Education, and a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, she has been a college disabilities counsellor, a drama teacher, a performer both onstage and in mental health education, and has worked with groups of artists to create original plays based on their lived experience of mental health and addiction.
As mentioned above, Lorene is a survivor of sibling abuse. Her awakening to the impact of that experience inspired her not only to write and produce her play, but also to launch SiblingAbuse.ca, a forum for learning, sharing stories, and building community. She is currently working with the research team that will soon be sharing the results of Canada’s first national study on sibling conflict, aggression and abuse.
https://www.siblingabuse.ca
