NDE Talking Dead Panel - “NDEs and Post-Traumatic Stress”
Raymond O’Brien - UK
The Medical and Spiritual World: Psychological Impacts upon the Survivor through Surviving Cardiac Arrests. Raymond will share his experience as a multiple cardiac arrest and NDE survivor, of a lack of understanding about how some survivors are not coping well – due to the ripples of surviving a cardiac arrest, and also attempting to process such an event, in addition to perhaps having an NDE. Raymond will discuss some of the issues that many cardiac arrest survivors are now experiencing. Some feel a sense of hopelessness, abandonment, and isolation in the search for qualified help in such a specialized field. He will talk about the sense of spiritual isolation, the complex Post-Traumatic Stress and the need to identify the grief process of the loss of the organismic self, or even the loss of a partner or family connections. These all play a role in helping the survivor to start to process such a traumatic event. Raymond’s own experience of the “Gap of Care” within the medical and social world was at times life threatening to him, in the form of suicidal ideation. The crisis he entered post cardiac arrest and NDE was something he was not told about. He saw last year with his own eyes whilst recovering from a serious heart issue. He found it deeply disturbing how countertransference played a big role in some of those who care for or treat survivors.
Raymond O’Brien is a British Seer, multiple NDE Experiencer x12, multiple STE Experiencer, and a survivor of ten cardiac arrests and six heart attacks over a period of 13 years. His first arrest was an out-of-hospital arrest, with a survival rate of 1 in 10. These experiences have led Raymond down the road to become a qualified Counsellor and Psychotherapist solely dealing in the Spiritual and Psychological themes that come about from such an event. Raymond has given talks to the British National Health Service (NHS) to help to educate them on how cardiac arrest survivors may struggle to cope on a daily basis. He has taken part with Professor Ken Spearpoint on the BBC Victoria Davenport Show, and he has presented with Professor Chris French at the British Film Festival. Raymond has been a featured speaker twice, for Spiritual Awakenings International, and other international groups. Raymond worked on a Chemotherapy Unit as a Seer in the UK, assisting with Pain Management. He has had some remarkable results and still today endeavors to help others around the world on a daily basis. Raymond O’Brien serves on the Advisory Board of Spiritual Awakenings international.
Robert Bare MPA, PhD - USA - SAI Vice President
There is No Normal: The Challenge to Resume Life after NDEs when double-downed with PTSD from NDEs & a 23-year career as a First Responder in Law Enforcement. Robert will share how recovering mentally and physically from death and also a NDE “reckoning” with a life review in the presence of the “Higher Power”, triggered Post-Traumatic Stress issues that needed to be dealt with to function normally until reality told him “There is no normal anymore”. He was forced to adjust to a life-changing emotional event while rehabilitating his health, and a lifestyle that once existed but didn’t work anymore. Adjusting to a completely different mindset, values, his introduction to the spiritual world, and the challenges of NDE after-effects, made him a different person. Having to deal with PTSD from a previous 23-year career in law enforcement virtually double-downed a recovery process that is still ongoing. In reality, during his NDEs he did die, and when brought back to life a part of his life also died, because he came back a different person, one that could not be comfortable with many previous relationships with family, friends, and at work.
Robert Bare MPA, PhD, is the Vice-President and Co-Founder of Spiritual Awakenings International, a 3x NDE Experiencer, and Multiple STE Experiencer. Robert is a 22-year retired California Highway Patrolman, who had assignments in South Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland & Santa Cruz. After retiring from police work, he worked a variety of positions; an Adjunct Professor, a General Manager/City Administrator for three communities, the Executive Director of a community resource center, a tribal administrator for a Native American Nation, and as a Staff Executive/Consultant for an international consulting company. But his 2009 Near-Death Experience shook him to his core. It occurred shortly after he boarded a plane on March 22, 2009. He had a massive heart attack and was deceased for approximately 45 minutes. His NDE was profiled on the TV Show “I Survived… Beyond and Back”, and he was a featured case study by author Debra Diamond in her book, “Life After Near Death.” Also, he is currently featured on the National Geographic show “Visiting the Beyond”, William Shatner’s new show “Unresolved” and has been interviewed for other featured documentaries. Robert Bare currently lives in Oregon, where he is working as a grant and technical writer.
Dr. Yvonne Kason MD - Canada SAI President
Circle of Honor Honoree
Breaking the Silence: Both are True – NDE Bliss and Post-Traumatic Stress. Over the years, many people have been eager to hear the stories of Dr. Yvonne Kason’s 5 Near-Death Experiences. But what people wanted to hear was about the Out-of-Body Experiences and Mystical Experiences in the Heavenly realm of Love and Divine Light that she glimpsed while on the other side. Yes, it is true that those glimpses of “Heaven” transformed her spiritually, uplifter her, and have inspired her for the rest of her life. However, a fact that few know is that 2 of Dr. Kason’s Near-Death Experiences also gave her Post-Traumatic Stress afterwards, from the traumatic impact of the fatal and near-fatal accidents. Dr. Kason will describe her two NDEs that gave her PTS, describe the PTS symptoms she had to deal with, and share the challenges of dealing with PTS and integrating a powerful NDE at the same time.
Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP, is the President and Co-Founder of Spiritual Awakenings International, a 5x Near-Death Experiencer, multiple STE Experiencer, author, and in-demand speaker and media resource. She is the person who first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs) in 1994, and has written extensively about STEs in her last 3 books, her most recent Touched by the Light (2019). A renowned international expert on Kundalini Awakenings, Near-Death Experiences, and Spiritually Transformative Experiences, Dr. Kason is a retired MD-Psychotherapist and Family Physician, previously on faculty at the University of Toronto. She has over 40 years experience researching STEs and counseling STE Experiencers. Dr. Kason was the first Canadian medical doctor to specialize her practice in 1990 in the counseling and research of persons having diverse types of Spiritually Transformative Experiences. In 1990 she was Co-Founder of the Kundalini Research Network (KRN), and became Chair of the KRN Questionnaire Research Project. In 2000 she was Co-founder of the Spirituality in Health-Care Network. She Chaired the University of Toronto’s first international conference on Spirituality in Health-Care in 2002. She is also the Co-Founder (2019) and Group Leader of Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group. Dr. Yvonne Kason has been recognized for her groundbreaking work as an Honoree on the Spiritual Awakenings International Circle of Honor.