Near-Death Studies Researcher Suzanne Gordon on The Joiner Report

Laura Suzanne Gordon, Ph.D., was among the earliest researchers affiliated with the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) to champion the formation of an organization  to address the NDE-related health and support needs, as well as the potential social-wellness value, of tens of millions of experiencers of NDEs, and similar spiritually-transformative experiences—including a conservative estimate of 13 million NDE survivors in the U.S. alone.   As a result, she was one of the first two members of the founding and incorporating board of directors of the newly-formed, non-profit American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences  (ACISTE)

Dr. Gordon’s PhD dissertation, Field Notes from the Light:  an Ethnographic Study of the Meaning and Significance of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), is the first comprehensive study to focus on the lives and life-history narratives of near-death experiencers (NDErs); and to explore the long-overlooked question of how experiencers themselves describe and interpret the meaning of these profound, life-transforming experiences.  It is also makes an important contribution to the clinical near-death studies research field in being the first project to use the intensive, field work-based, ethnographic research method.  This made her the first researcher to closely interact with, and study the lives of, each of her project’s 50 formal participants and hundreds of background sources for a minimum of two years and, in some cases, for well over a decade. (Gordon, 2007). 

As a researcher, her focus is on consciousness, “anomalous”/”visionary” experiences,  and cultural change.   She is currently writing a research-based, death-and-dying education text.  (Working title:  The Contemporary, Insiders’ Guide to Death and Dying:  The First-Hand Accounts that Challenge Medical Science and Religious Fundamentalism)

 Dr. Gordon presents talks and experiential workshops on her near-death studies research for medical, counseling, hospice and other organizations through the UMCP experts’ bureau. She has given research presentations at annual meetings of various scholarly organizations including:  the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), and the American Anthropological Association/Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.

She has been teaching across disciplines at the University of Maryland—College Park (UMCP) since 1998; and since 2008 has been a Lecturer in the Department of American Studies, where she is also on the Advisory Board for the Project on Religion, Culture, and Globalization.  Since 2003, she has also served as a member of the Affiliate Sociology Faculty of Loyola University in Maryland.  

 Gordon is a founding member of NWSA’s International Task Force on Women’s Spiritualites, and was a pioneering grass-roots organizer of both the second-wave feminist movement and the women’s spirituality movement.

The Joiner Report will welcome Dr. Laura Suzanne Gordon, Friday, Dec. 11, 9-10 p.m. CST, on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network, http://ufoparanormalradio.homestead.com/Main_Page_version_2.html. For the live broadcast, click on button for USSTREAMtv or LIVE 365 or On Air.