What is the mission or purpose of ACISTE? What values guide its policies and programs? What is its vision for the future?

ACISTE is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, public benefit corporation.

Mission

Our mission is to address the integration needs and further the well-being of those who have had near-death or similar spiritually transformative experiences through research, education and support.

Vision

Our vision is to create safe, readily accessible programs that facilitate experiencers on their paths to deeper understanding, greater clarity of purpose and greater sense of well-being while supporting them through their dramatic changes and integration phases.

Values

We set a high and ethical standard in the quality of research, education and support for near-death and similar spiritually transformative experiences.

We are compassionate, supportive, respectful and welcoming of a diversity of experiences and interpretations.

We strive to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves.

We do not represent or promote spiritual “truths” of any kind, but respect, support, and advance experiencers with their own understandings, expressions, purposes and contributions to the world.

We serve experiencers who identify with the term “spiritually transformative experience” and/or who are dealing with any or all of the integration challenges and processes. We do not invalidate or “disqualify” self-identified experiencers or their experiences.

We are inclusive of:

• the broad diversity of spiritually transformative experiences, including distressing or frightening ones.
• the variety of circumstances in which they occur
• the unique needs, struggles, integration processes and aftereffects
• the variety of aspects, meanings, interpretations, messages and knowledge derived from the experience
• all experiencers regardless of religious, spiritual or political belief systems, culture, race, age, sex, sexual orientation, criminal history, mental or physical health, career, educational or financial status

We support experiencers through all challenges and transformative phases related to the integration of these experiences.

We do not speculate or take a position as to how or why these experiences occur.

We operate from a heart-centered, wellness model; we do not utilize a pathology-based diagnostic approach.

Our supportive approaches are drawn from and adapted from the collective input from experiencers, rather than taken from an individual, theoretical, dogmatic or standard method.

We encourage self-care and self-discovery, offering the experiencer tools to utilize throughout the integration process.

All peers, mentors, group facilitators, moderators, organizers and therapists listed by ACISTE as resources reflect the values of and adhere to the policies of ACISTE.

We are protective of the confidentiality of experiencers and their experiences.