About nde week
Near-Death Experience Week is a new IANDS initiative created to bring greater awareness, understanding, and open conversation to one of humanity’s most profound experiences: what happens when a person comes close to death and returns with memories, insights, or a transformed sense of life’s meaning.
About the event
As part of IANDS’ first Near-Death Experience Week, Near-Death Experiences for Newcomers offers an engaging introduction for anyone who is curious about NDEs, new to the subject, or seeking a clearer way to understand what these experiences can mean.
The event will open with a brief look at new IANDS survey findings on near-death experiences, including how common these experiences are and how they can affect people’s lives, beliefs, and priorities.
Near-death experiences can be profound, life-changing, and sometimes difficult to put into words. For many people, hearing directly from those who have had an NDE opens the door to a deeper understanding of life, death, consciousness, and what may lie beyond.
The event will feature two compelling near-death experiencers: IANDS President Evan Mecham, who had an NDE in 1980, and Vinney Tolman, who had an NDE in 2003. Together, they will share from their personal experiences and reflect on how their encounters shaped their lives, priorities, and understanding of existence.
The conversation will be moderated by IANDS Executive Director Janet Riley, and attendees will have the opportunity to post questions.
Whether you are an experiencer, someone who loves an experiencer, or simply curious about what near-death experiences may reveal about life and death, this event offers a thoughtful and accessible place to begin.
About evan mecham
Evan Mecham is President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and Founder of Conversations to Heal the Heart – Transpersonal Therapies. A near-death experiencer, Evan had an NDE in 1980 that profoundly shaped his life and spiritual understanding. He is a 
transpersonal psychologist, minister, spiritual counselor, and former entrepreneur. He also served as a Major in the United States Air Force Reserve. Through his work with IANDS and his own healing practice, Evan is dedicated to supporting deeper understanding, compassion, and integration around near-death and spiritually transformative experiences.
About vinney tolman
Vinney Tolman is a near-death experiencer and author of The Light After Death: My Journey to Heaven and Back. In 2003, at the age of 25, Vinney was 
found dead in the bathroom of a small restaurant and was later revived after being placed in a body bag. He spent three days in a coma and returned with vivid memories of what he describes as his experience on the other side. Since then, he has shared his story and its message of hope, love, and spiritual transformation with audiences around the world.
This event will be recorded and available to view on our Videos page 3-5 business days after the live event!
live. During that time, she experienced a profound NDE that transformed her understanding of love, healing, fear, and the purpose of life. After regaining consciousness, her condition improved rapidly, and she went on to share her story with audiences around the world. Her work invites people to release fear, embrace self-love, and live with greater awareness of their true nature.
near-death experiences, children who report past-life memories, and other end-of-life experiences. She is interested in various aspects of these phenomena, including their underlying causes and mechanisms, their phenomenology, their impacts, as well as how to change social and professional cultures toward recognizing both their occurrence and their effects. Dr. Pehlivanova holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with a Cognitive Neuroscience focus from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a B.S. in Statistics from American University. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Washingtonian Magazine, and The Washington Post.
