NDERF/ADCRF/OBERF is the premier spot to help you with your media needs.  We have been a resource for over 100 projects on near-death and related consciousness experiences.  This includes the O'Reilly Factor, Fox News, CBS, BBC, The Learning Channel, Discovery, and a host of others.  We also have been filmed for several DVD segment trailers on several films including Hereafter, Charlie St. Cloud, and White Noise 2.  Additionally, we have also appeared on many radio shows, podcasts, and in books, newspapers, and magazines.

CONTACTING NDERS or Other Experiencers:  With that in mind, here are a few pointers.  There is a media haven that can connect you with NDErs and is organized according to where they are located.  https://www.nderf.org/NDERF/Media/media_city_state_country.htm  Read the description of the NDE and e-mail me name and number of the individual(s) you are interested in speaking to.  These people are not pre-screened, but they have given their permission to be contacted by media.  I forward your e-mail to them and they can then respond directly to you.  This preserved NDEr confidentiality and gives them the option to choose if they want further contact with the media.  I would urge you that if you wish your contact information to be confidential, then let me know and also give me the e-mail/phone number you wish the NDEr to contact you at.  For other Experiencers, I need the name, corresponding web number, and which website you found the experience.

MEDIA CONTENT:   So far, the most popular format is to write  a little about NDEs, sprinkle it with a few NDErs for authenticity, with maybe a couple of opposing doctor views to add balance to the interview.  It is easy and inexpensive to produce and to write about.  Generally, large media has not strayed from this experience format.  This is what is used for documentaries.

The other avenue has been entertainment.  This is usually for all other experiences like OBEs/ADCs and briefly developed for NDEs.  Unfortunately, this isn't usually based on enough facts to expand the human paradigm towards a more loving and peaceful society.  For instance, NDEs are not fuzzy.  They see crystal clear and many times in 360 degree spherical vision.  The subject of consciousness is too important to the future of humankind minimize it into a corner of human fancy and fantasy.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:  Society needs an infrastructure and there needs to be some powerful messages of hope, love, peace and what is truly important in the world ' each other.  Big media can do that. 

FACT FROM FANTASY:  NDEs are for real.  They are the most important, verifiable link that there is life after this life.  As such, many scientists and writers try to tie their work to NDE so that they become more important than what their science actually 'proves.'  For instance, take the work of Olaf Blanke.  He works on diseased brains (epilepsy) and observed that by electrically stimulating certain parts of the brain, he can reproduce a few memories of what he thinks is close to an OBE.  The number of subjects he originally published on was extremely small and primarily due to one patient's comments.  To make the study sound more fantastic, he made sweeping conclusions that he discovered that the NDE was a byproduct of the brain.  He conveniently forgets to mention that in 1942, Wilder Penfield did similar work and discovered that what people remembered could also be wrong ' like talking about hearing their mother in a lumber store when in reality, they hadn't been in the lumber store.

Blanke, like Nelson, Whorley, Blackmore, and a host of other skeptics continue to hock their theory of the day; but if the scientific explanation was actually real, it would take into account ALL the facts.  Unfortunately, there are those pesky exceptions that don't fit neatly into their world view.  That is why there is no definitive study or skeptical argument that disproves that the reality of NDEs.  Personally, when a scientist can explain to me why a blind from birth person has a visual NDE ' then I'll listen.  Until then . . . well, you get the picture.

Lately, there is an interest in after death communication.  I thought the movie 'Hereafter' did an excellent job of showing that many mediums are entertainers.  They ask from general cues from an audience and then hone in on one person based on reactions and responses to their questions.  Most don't come close to talking to a particular loved one.  South Park had an excellent show on John Edwards. 

Consider that most NDErs report that if they cross the boundary, they wouldn't come back to earth.  Many realize that they'll see their friends and families in a short time because time on earth is different than time over there.  When NDErs decide to come back to earth, it is mostly for children and less so for parents.  But, this is a fairly small percentage of the whole. 

The point being, that it is unlikely that a medium can contact someone who has died because that person has moved on.  What they might be able to contact is the essence of a soul which can remain on earth for about 7 days.  It is like an etheric body double, but is not the seat of individual consciousness which has passed on.  Coincidently, the ADC website shows that the most ADC contacts happen within 24 hours of death, and then up to a week later.  Our burial customs recognize that a soul may  hang around the earthly plane for 3 days.  Contacts are higher among blood relatives.  The number one reason for the contact is to comfort the living person and let them know that they are still alive on the other side.  Another reason is to say they are sorry for the way they treated the living person.

The other scenario is a disturbed soul who doesn't realize they are dead or who is afraid to go to the light.  This could account for some contact between the medium and the deceased.  However, again ' this is rare.  The vast majority of people go to the light.

SUGGESTIONS: 

Spend less time on skeptics and more time on things that matter.

An ordinary interview can be transformed by paying more attention to the actual experience.  For instance, spend more time on replicating the majesty and surreal-ness of going to the light and the life review.  These special effects would easily draw in a crowd and it is based on reality.  I also like the human interest aspect that comes with the changes that NDErs make when they return to earth.  They bring more love into their lives and into the world.

I hope that media can use this writing to promote the powerful messages of hope, love, peace and what is truly important in the world ' each other.  This is the true message of the NDE and the world so desperately needs this right now.  So, be an activist and be responsible when writing about NDE or other related phenomena of consciousness.

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Movie/Series

I called it Transformations - E.R. meets paranormal or Lost .  In a time when the economy is in a downward spiral, gas prices in an upward spiral, our boys to die in war, the cost of food going up, our homes and welfare of our children are falling apart ' Yet, there is hope in the middle of all this madness.  We are so much more than our physical bodies and this TV series explores not only the action and incredible emotions that are evoked surrounding issues of emergency and death, but it also explores the unconditional love and spiritual growth that give the series a human touch.  It also gives people confidence that there is an afterlife.  The stories surrounding near-death experience are so powerful, that they not only change the experiencers, but they change the viewers.  Transformations is the bridge that takes viewers beyond death and back again.

The two main characters are Pickworth Kennedy and Karly Smith. 

Pickworth Kennedy, 'Eagle' for short,  is a young atheist emergency room doctor.  He has the handicap of starting out as a hard-core scientist with a narcissist personality;  yet gradually starts to bloom into a loving, spiritual person as he realizes that his view of the world was wrong.  Up until now, he had played the role of God;  For doesn't he hold the power over life and death as an emergency room doctor?  He slowly discovers God with every NDEr he encounters.  He turned atheist when God not only failed to answer his prayers after taking his father by heart attack and his mother by cancer within several months of each other, but he blamed God for taking the woman of his dreams in a violent car accident where he watched her die in his arms.  Although narcissists don't have much emotion if any, he did have feelings for Anna.  As a Doctor, he is trained to suppress what little emotions he has.  Yet in the middle of the night, he is constantly and subconsciously haunted by the memory of Anna and his parents.

Karly Smith is the leader of a local near-death experience group.  Karly not only is a NDEr, but she is always experiencing strange, paranormal events.  She is wise and a shoulder for Eagle to talk to.  As Eagle continues to talk to the NDErs he brings back from the dead, he starts to wonder about other NDErs.  He is curious about how they have integrated this amazing experience into their lives and is especially fascinated by the changes and unconditional love he finds in this group.  When the group gets together there is a special energy.  The NDErs tell their story.  There is a lot of group interaction afterwards.  Questions and answers.  And socializing.  Each person that Eagle meets gives him a profound realization about himself.

The basic plot in every episode is a person has an accident or life-threatening event that makes them come to the emergency room.  There is a lot of action in the event and in the emergency room.  The NDEr wakes up and tells the doctor their heavenly or hellish experience.  This may be followed by personal events in the Eagle's life as he meets people or is involved in situations that cause him to re-evaluate himself. 

Transformation has all the action and drama that could make this into a top ranked show.  E.R. did extremely well.  So did Lost.  Transformation is E.R. with a heavenly twist.  The doctor is trying to find himself.  People really enjoy paranormal and to film a heavenly journey or hellish one is always attention grabbing.  But you also need to make the audience reflect on themselves and come out with feelings of love and hope.   The real kicker is that the near-death experience IS real.  It isn't in the realm of fantasy or make-believe. 

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