Bryn Athyn College hosts 'The Unintelligible Afterlife' panel presentation Sept. 19

What do deathbed conversations—those sometimes startling or perplexing final utterances of friends, loved ones or celebrities—mean? What do they tell us about the next stage of existence for those who are passing out of this life?

These are the questions three experts in the field of final conversations will discuss during a panel presentation, “The Unintelligible Afterlife: What Deathbed Conversations Tell Us about a World Beyond,” hosted by Bryn Athyn College on Saturday, September 19, 7:30-9pm, in the Mitchell Performing Arts Center in Bryn Athyn.

Tickets are still available for this pioneering presentation: $25 for reserved seating, $15 general admission and $10 students and seniors, in advance. All seats are $25 at the door. Order tickets at www.mitchellcenter.info or call 267.502.6003.

The event provides an opportunity to hear psychiatrist, best-selling author and renowned near-death investigator Raymond Moody Jr., MD, PhD; psychotherapist, clinical social worker and Bryn Athyn College professor Erica Goldblatt Hyatt, DSW; and linguist Lisa Smartt, MA, founder of the Final Words Project.

The evening’s program also launches their collaboration on the groundbreaking project, Research into the Communications of the Dying (RICD)—the first-ever scientific research on this topic—sponsored by Bryn Athyn College and using formal scientific protocols with approval from Holy Redeemer Health System Institutional Review Board.

“We are broaching a discussion that was previously kept silent because society tells us to avoid the topic of death,” says Dr. Goldblatt Hyatt. “This presentation formally opens this discussion in a warm and non-judgmental way, and all are welcome to interact with panelists at the end to ask questions.

“As a clinician working at the end of life, I have witnessed the deaths of the old and young…. There’s just something there, in those moments, that I want to dive into instead of run away from because I know it can tell me more about why we are all here and why we have to leave.”

Featured Panelists
Dr. Moody, who coined the term “near-death experience” in the ’70s, significantly changed how people think and talk about death and dying with his 1975 book, Life After Life. The author of 12 books, his latest—The Unintelligible Afterlife—promises to once again break new ground with his more recent research into “unintelligibility” and “perimortal nonsense.”

At Bryn Athyn College, Dr. Goldblatt Hyatt oversees a curriculum integrating psychology and spirituality from both applied and clinical perspectives. A nationally recognized speaker, her research interests include after-death communication and near-death experiences, adolescent sibling bereavement, pediatric end-of-life decision-making and the intersection of spirituality and psychology. She wrote Grieving for the Sibling You Lost for teens (New Harbinger Publications, September 2015) and her academic work has been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Ms. Smartt established the Final Words Project in 2014 and has collected more than 100 case studies, transcripts and anecdotes associated with end-of-life communication. Ms. Smartt is writing Words Between Worlds, a book about language of and beyond the threshold of life. She recently worked with Dr. Moody on The Unintelligible Afterlife.

Bringing the conversation to the public
The not-to-be-missed event on September 19 gives audiences an opportunity to hear Dr. Moody discuss his “typology of unintelligible language” and its relationship to consciousness. He will present his thesis that the communications of the dying—especially those that appear to be puzzling or nonsensical—may offer new revelation into life beyond death. Dr. Goldblatt Hyatt and Ms. Smartt will discuss how they are applying Dr. Moody’s innovative typology to their research design and what they have already discovered.

Also joining the panel are Dan Synnestvedt, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bryn Athyn College, and Rev. Jonathan Rose, PhD, series editor of the New Century Edition translation of Emanuel Swedenborg’s writings. They will share their reflections on Swedenborg’s approach to language and spirituality as it relates to this study.