Description
In September 2022 the 12-Step Near-Death Experience-Integration (NDE-I) process for experiencers was introduced at the annual IANDS conference. This work began in response to needs expressed in our Connecticut IANDS NDE Support Group. A review of the literature revealed Williamson and Carson’s (2000) IANDS paper on NDEs and the 12 Steps from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). They likened the spiritual transformation reported by AA cofounder Bill W. to a near-death experience. While the NDE and AA experiences differ, there are lessons that can guide NDErs on the path to a peaceful, integrated life.
The 12 NDE-Integration Steps have been applied with Connecticut’s IANDS group. Support group members met monthly to discuss and share their unique perspectives on these emerging 12-Steps for NDE-I, refining the steps and adding resource links and supporting information.
This presentation builds forward, responding to the six major challenges faced by experiencers identified by Stout, Jacquin & Atwater (2006), while integrating the research from Brook (2019) on effective practices following spiritually transformative experiences. A second presentation in 2023 at the Annual IANDS Conference occurred, and the 12 NDE-I Steps continue to evolve. In additional to a book, supports for the 12-Step NDE-Integration process are in development for families and healthcare professionals.
The authors will share the 12 NDE-I Steps, effective group meeting tools and formats that have facilitated discussion, active empathic listening, healing and integration for experiencers.
About the Presenters:
Bethany B. Silver, Ph.D. has been an educator for 20+ years. She began her teaching career as a psychology instructor at Manchester Community College. At UConn’s Neag School of Education she served as the Director of the Professional Development Academy and Assistant Professor of Educational Technology. Dr. Silver has taught courses in research methods, evaluation, assessment, and learning. She has engaged her research skills with neurology patients at Hartford Hospital, Bloomfield Public Schools, and currently serves as the Chief Performance Officer for the Hartford Public Schools. Dr. Silver has always been interested in NDEs. Her work in post-NDE-Integration has been inspired and informed by Jim Bruton and Diana Marquez-Lyons.
Jim Bruton has been a world traveler and adventurer for much of his life – his adventures ranging from living in Africa as wildlife filmmaker for National Geographic to serving as a war journalist for NBC News. Using a backpack-sized satellite video system he invented, Jim provided news coverage as a war journalist for NBC News in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was a Lecturer in Telemedicine at Yale University School of Medicine. When his experimental aircraft crashed in Oct. 2016, Jim had an adventure that topped them all. Transported to the in Between, his NDE there was not a typical passive one but required him to do something- to change his future and see how all things are interconnected. Jim has documented all of this in his book, “The In Between, A Trip of a Lifetime”.
Diana Marquez Lyons (formerly DiFranco), is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in supporting Near Death Experiencers and their families. Ms. Marquez Lyons has had her own psychotherapy practice since 2010. A spiritual seeker most of her life, in 2010 Diana had a shared death experience when her mom passed. She was the founder and leader of the CT Shoreline IANDS for seven years and has also had a kundalini awakening. Diana has spent the majority of her adult life studying Spiritually Transformative Experiences, as well as Near Death Experiences and the after effects. Diana earned her ACISTE Certified Mental Health provider certification from The American Center for the Integration of Spiritual Experiences (ACISTE). She was invited to present at the ACISTE conference in 2013. Diana also presented at the 2015 IANDS conference, and again in 2021, this time with Jim Bruton.
Ms. Marquez Lyons has provided numerous invited lectures at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Columbia University. In addition, she has presented many times on the topics of NDEs and the after effects to different community groups. She was recently interviewed about NDEs and after effects by Healing Outside the Box. Diana had also appeared on Connecticut’s WTNH, Channel 8, as well as an online French TV channel.
