For Spiritually Transformative Experiencers & Those Who Love Them

Proposed Date: TBD

ACISTE is planning its first retreat for people who have had spiritually transformative experiencers (STErs) and for those who love them!

It will be held on the beautiful island of Maui some time in 2024.

About the Conference

Please join us for our first virtual event!

UP TO 24 HOURS OF CEs AVAILABLE^*

The main conference will be held from 11am to 7:30pm EST – Online

Friday, October 8, 2021 and Saturday , October 9, 2021.

Conference recordings will be available to ticket holders for 30 days.
The Main Conference tickets sales are non-refundable.

Throughout history, during contemplative practice and during everyday life people have felt oneness with others, nature, or the universe.

ACISTE members are invited to participate in a ground-breaking survey on ONENESS.  Eric Van Lente is conducting this research as part of his PhD program at the School of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Eric is especially interested if you have some type of meditative practice, but he’d like to invite everyone to participate. (The survey takes 30 to 50 minutes).

Participatory Aesthetics: A Phenomenological Study of Aesthetic Experiences of Persons in Substance Abuse Recovery

Participatory aesthetics is understood as an active involvement in a creative endeavor. Similar to Spiritually Transformative Experiences, (STEs), an aesthetic experience can be explained as a transformative experience; awakening self to being interconnected with creation and beauty.

For this study, 25 participants will be asked to describe their transformative experiences and creative activities in relation with their recovery. Interested participants need to be older than 17 years and free from alcohol and drug abuse for more than 3 years. Some interviews can take place in the state of Georgia, in-person with adherence to Covid19 safety protocol. However, online meeting interviews are possible and encouraged. Only audio will be recorded. All participant identity is protected by consent agreement.

People everywhere have experiences like hearing voices and seeing things other people don’t. Sometimes, these are part of mental illness. Often, however, they occur in healthy individuals. There are usually a few differences between the experiences of people who seek psychiatric care and people who don’t. One difference is the ability to regain empowerment in the distressing life experiences that aren’t working for them—specifically with perceptual experiences. For example, many people say they can schedule times for when their voices (whether they consider them voices, aspects, guides, spirits, etc.) can talk to them.

Influence over our experiences is complex. It involves neurological, psychological, and social factors. Today, there is no way to measure the ability to influence perceptual experiences.

We have made the first tool to study these experiences. It will help us design new treatments for individuals to gain empowerment in voice-hearing and other perceptual experiences. But we need your help!

On August 14-16, the International Association for Near-Death Studies will hold its annual conference virtually for the first time: Unlocking the Healing Wisdom of NDEs.

Featured speakers include:

• Anita Moorjani (Dying to Be Me, NDE-related healing from end-stage lymphoma),
• Mary Neal, MD (To Heaven and Back: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death),
• Howard Storm (from atheist to NDE to MDiv), and
• Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD (Research Survey of Near-Death Experiencers and Their Various Types of Support Needs).

ACISTE 2020 Annual Conference
LIVE ONLINE
October 9 & 10, 2020

ACISTE joins you in embracing changing times by shifting our 2020 conference online OCTOBER 9th & 10th! Save the date & submit your proposal now. (Details below.) We hope this inspires many more of you to join us as presenters and attendees from your respective corners of the world!<

ACISTE is recruiting presenters for our annual Fall 2020 professional conference on the Therapeutic Issues of Spiritually Transformative Experiences. Presentations should be approximately 45 minutes (with time allowed for Q & A).

The ACISTE 2020 Annual Conference will take place LIVE ONLINE on October 9 & 10, 2020. Be sure to mark your calendars now!

Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD, is a junior researcher at the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Pehlivanova’s work at the Division focuses on near-death experiences, children reporting past-life memories, as well as other unusual experiences. Marieta holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from American University. Prior to her academic work, she pursued a career as a statistician in medical research. In addition to her academic work in human consciousness phenomena, Marieta is also personally interested in the exploration of consciousness. You may contact Marieta at mp8ce@virginia.edu if you have questions about the study outlined in this article or any future research opportunities. If mental health professionals would like to participate in the current research, please click here.

A new research project at The University of Adelaide is seeking people who have experienced a psycho-spiritual crisis (spiritual emergency) for an investigation into psychic phenomena.

To participate you will need a computer or laptop with internet connection and a quiet space where you can work uninterrupted for approximately 35 minutes. Participation will include responding to a few questionnaires about spirituality, unusual experiences and paranormal beliefs. This will be followed by a 10 minute creative visualisation audio track (you will need to wear headphones for this), a simple number generator task and a picture recognition task.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Monika at monika.goretzki@adelaide.edu.au for an access code.

Monika Goretzki PhD
Visiting Research Fellow
The University of Adelaide