near death experience Archives

Richmond IONS July 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS July 2021 Meeting (July 17) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.d., Ph.D.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238.

When: On Saturday, July 17, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

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Richmond IONS July 2021 Meeting

“God Is Bigger Than the Bible.”

Our July 17, 2021 program will feature a talk by Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.d., Ph.D., world renowned philosopher, psychologist, physician, metaphysician, public intellectual and author, about his fifty plus years of consciousness research, as seen through the prism of his most recent book, God Is Bigger Than the Bible.

Dr. Moody has four post-graduate degrees – an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, a PhD in psychology from the University of West Georgia, and an M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia.

He has been a student and avid investigator and researcher in the fields
of epistemology, phenomenology, ontology and eschatology ever since he was an undergraduate philosophy major at UVa in the early 1960s.

During his extended stay in Charlottesville, Ray encountered the late Dr. George Ritchie, a Richmond general practitioner and later a psychiatrist in Charlottesville and Richmond, and learned of Dr. Ritchie’s apparent clinical death and subsequent return to life while a soldier in World War II (which Dr. Ritchie recounted in his book Return from Tomorrow (1978)).

His interest sparked, Ray began investigating similar stories while a graduate student at UVA, and what he observed became the basis for his first book. Ray Moody is known the world over as the granddaddy of the near-death experience (“NDE”).

Indeed, he invented the term while writing that first book, Life After Life, which became a runaway international bestseller almost as soon as it was published in 1975. The term NDE has been the coin of the realm to describe this phenomenon ever since and the fame it brought Dr. Moody catapulted him to the forefront of the global consciousness movement, where he has remained ever since.

In the forty-six years since Life After Life came out, he has authored and published twelve more books on NDEs and closely related subjects, always using the lens of these types of numinous experiences as a pathway for gaining insight about the nature of being.

God Is Bigger Than the Bible is Dr. Moody’s latest exploration of these ultimate questions and concerns, and we are elated and grateful beyond measure that he has agreed to address our group in person as our guest speaker. Again, Welcome back!

About Dr. Raymond A. Moody, our Richmond IONS July 2021 Presenter

Dr. Raymond A. Moody, Jr. was born in Porterdale, Georgia and currently resides in Sarasota, Florida. He entered the University of Virginia in 1962 and received his undergraduate degree (BA) there in 1966. Thereafter he earned an M.A. (1967) and a PhD in philosophy (1972) at University of West Georgia, and an M.D. degree (1976) the Medical College of Georgia.

He has authored and co-authored 13 books on near-death experiences and closely related topics, and he and his work have been featured in numerous movies and TV shows seen worldwide. Ever since publishing Life After Life in 1975, he has been and continues to be a much sought-after speaker at such venues as The Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, the IONS International Congress, the IANDS Annual Conference, and at numerous symposiums around the world. He also is a frequent guest on radio and podcasts, and many of his talks are on YouTube.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

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Richmond IONS Meeting July 21, 2018

Scarlett Heinbuch Richmond VA Central VA IONS Community Group Meeting (Richmond IONS Meeting) Featuring a Talk by Scarlett Heinbuch, Ph.D.and David Schwartz

Where: River Road Church – Baptist, 8000 River Road, Richmond, VA 23229

When: Saturday, July 21, 2018, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by potluck lunch at conclusion of program.

Richmond IONS Meeting Program Title:

“Waking Up To Love”

Our July 21, 2018, our Richmond IONS program will feature a talk by Scarlett Heinbuch, Ph.D., Richmond based author, educator, energy practitioner/intuitive consultant and certified Reiki Master, who, along with her husband David Schwartz, will be discussing her new book, Waking Up To Love: Our Shared Near-Death Encounter Brought Miracles, Recovery and Second Chances.

Scarlett met David for the first time in September 2005 when David was on the brink of death. He had been in an unresponsive coma for nearly four weeks, on a ventilator for life support and in complete kidney failure due to a rare form of vasculitis. When Scarlett was asked by David’s mother to visit her son David, whom Scarlett did not know, in his hospital room, to perform Reiki on him. David was still in a coma and deemed to be in his final hours of life.

Scarlett spent 12 days doing energy healing with David. During that time they had a shared near-death experience (SNDE),
resulting in an unexplained and miraculous medical recovery for David and an unexpected love story for them both.

The story of two people who woke up to a world of love on the other side and were able to bring it back to earth – together – will inspire others to know that the transformative power of healing love exists and can be applied in everyday life. Her book tells this story and Scarlett and David will be sharing how this remarkable experience changed them both at their deepest levels.

All NDE accounts are transformative and inspiring in one way or another. Scarlett’s and David’s story is especially inspiring due both to the apparent hopelessness of David’s situation when Scarlett was asked to get involved and to the rare and extraordinary nature of their shared NDE. Once opened, Waking Up To Love grabs the reader like a spellbinding thriller that is nearly impossible to put down. Their talk about this remarkable experience promises to be just as electrifying and engaging.

About Dr. Scarlett L. Heinbuch and David Schwartz, Our Richmond IONS Presenters:

Scarlett L. Heinbuch holds a Ph.D.in public policy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master’s Degree in public health from VCU’s School of Medicine. She is a certified Reiki Master in the Usui System of Natural Healing. She has
studied complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine for more than 25 years and is an energy practitioner/intuitive consultant in the Richmond area.

Scarlett has also worked in the financial services field, including several Fortune 500 companies, in banking and brokerage for more than 15 years. She is a pioneering researcher in the area of women and money, especially as it relates to women’s attitudes and behaviors around retirement planning. She lives in Midlothian, Virginia, with her husband, David Schwartz. Her website is at www.scarlettheinbuch.com.

We look forward to seeing you at your upcoming Richmond IONS Meeting (Central VA IONS Community Group Meeting) on July 21.

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Richmond IONS Meeting, May 21, 2016

Featuring a talk by Debra Diamond

“Life After Near Death.”

Our May 21, 2016 program will feature a talk by renowned Baltimore psychic and medium, Debra Diamond, about her recently published book, Life After Near Death: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Transformation in the Extraordinary Lives of People with Newfound Powers.

Debra Diamond began her quest to better understand the special significance of NDEs about five or six years ago. Just a few years earlier, in 2008, she had had an extraordinary, life-altering experience of her own, wherein she was instantly transformed and catapulted from a secure and well-established position as a prominent and successful Wall Street money manager, investment advisor, frequent media commentator in Forbes and on TV shows like CNBC, and business school professor at Johns Hopkins University.

She gave up all that to become a full-time psychic and medium, almost overnight. Several years into her surprising new career she was asked to do a reading for a man who had had an NDE. She didn’t think twice about it, but the reading itself changed her nonchalant outlook entirely.

In her own words: “When I began to read this man, I realized: this was no ordinary reading. This time, the information I was being shown was literally out of this world. This man’s brush with death had left him with extraordinary gifts, with special powers. This was no ordinary man.”

From then until now, Debra has sought to more fully comprehend the extraordinary gifts that often accompany NDEs. Thoughtful, compelling and engaging, Life After Near Death offers fascinating and often profound new insights into the breadth and depth of individualized NDE special effects, a realm few if any investigators have explored in detail before now.

Debra’s book also is groundbreaking in another way, in that she uses her spiritual channeling, psychic and mediumship abilities as an investigative tool to further inform her NDE research. Her talk promises to be a rare treat for our group and we are very pleased to have her as our May guest speaker.

About Our Presenter:

Debra Diamond is a gifted intuitive, channel, medium, psychic, healer, and now an author as well. She lectures, presents workshops and works with clients individually to assist in healing and expansion to enable them to live richer, fuller and more abundant lives.

She is certified in Reiki, a graduate of the Holistic Studies Institute of New York, has completed mediumship training at the Arthur Findlay College in the UK and has trained at the Carl Jung Institute in Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland.

She has studied in Bali, trained in shamanism and worked with spiritual teachers in Colorado, New Mexico and Cassadaga, Florida. In her previous life on Wall Street, Debra often appeared on CNBC, hosted her own radio show on CNN, was profiled in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post, and was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. When not on the lecture circuit, she splits her time between homes in Baltimore and Taos.

Richmond IONS Meeting, June 20, 2015

Featuring a talk by PMH Atwater

“Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience.”

Our June program will feature a talk by world renowned Charlottesville author and NDE researcher, PMH Atwater, on her most recent book, entitled Dying to Know You – Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience (September, 2014).

After publication of Near-Death Experiences, The Rest of the Story: What They Tell us About Living and Dying and Our True Purpose in 2009, Ms. Atwater announced: “This is my 10th and last book on my findings in near-death research. It summarizes and completes 33 years of work with nearly 4,000 adult and child experiencers.”

Fortunately, however, she has since blessed us with two more offerings, Children of the Fifth World: A Guide to the Coming Changes in Human Consciousness (2012), which she spoke about at our June 2013 meeting, and her latest, Dying to Know You – Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience, the topic of this month’s program.

By some accounts, Dying to Know You – Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience is the most emotionally poignant and intellectually engaging book Ms. Atwater has yet produced on the subject of NDE studies. We hope it will not be her last, but it definitely will be a hard act to follow.

This program will mark Ms. Atwater’s sixth appearance as a guest speaker before our Central VA Ions Community Group over the last 20 years, making her the most frequent outside guest speaker we’ve ever had. We are excited as always to have her back and greatly appreciate her continued support for our group’s programs.

About Our Presenter:

PMH Atwater is the world’s most prolific NDE author, as well as one of its original, most indefatigable and highly respected researchers. Inspired by three NDEs of her own, Ms. Atwater began her research in the mid-1970s, nearly 40 years ago.

Since then she has investigated more than 4,000 NDE cases around the world and authored a dozen books on this fascinating subject. Ms. Atwater has won many awards, appeared on numerous TV shows and spoken around the world – always inviting people to look beyond the surface appearance for the deeper truths underlying what we think we know.