Meetings
Attend our meetings and share your Near-Death Experiences and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences.
About
Find out more about Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group and its in-person and online meetings.
Founders
Meet Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group’s co-founders, Dr. Yvonne Kason, Monica Maurin, and Dr. Shira Taylor.
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group in the News!
“Not some hallucination: Near-death experiencers share their stories at Toronto organization”
By Ryan Rocca, Global News
February 16, 2023
Toronto resident Yvonne Kason has had multiple near-death experiences in her life — experiences so powerful that they dramatically changed her view of reality.
Kason, a retired family physician who was also on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine for many years, has since started two organizations — one of which is based in Toronto — where people can listen, discuss, and gain insight into similar experiences.
Near-death experiences, referred to as NDEs, are often so powerful, extraordinary, and difficult to put into words that those who experience them commonly don’t know where to turn, Kason says.
The internet is full of NDE accounts and while each one is often unique, there are similarities.
Join Our Meetings
You are most welcome to join us. We will be exploring Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs).
We are the Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group. Our in-person and Zoom video-conference meetings feature a STE related speaker and a question and answer period. We also offer “Experiencers” Sharing Circles, hosted by Spiritual Awakenings International starting October 2021, which are small sharing groups in which you are invited to share your STE experiences and listen to others. This is not a therapy group but rather a meeting of those who are curious to learn and share their experiences. Sharing is not required, but attentive and respectful listening is. Our meetings are held roughly 5 times a year. Please sign up for email notification of upcoming meetings.
Upcoming Events
Heather Gurd
All for The Way of Love: Heather Grace Gurd’s Spiritual Journey
Saturday, March 22, 2025 – 1:00PM
This celebratory presentation will relate the Near Death Experience (NDE) and several of the Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STE’s) Heather has had. They each gifted her with life changing, and life saving lessons. Powerful and practical teachings and paradigms were received through these experiences. They not only guided and shaped Heather’s life, marriage, family, and career, but have helped many others. For example, her most recent, and highly acclaimed workshop for the Therapeutic Touch Network of Ontario, focused on how the study, experience and practice of the “Pyramid of True Relationship”* and the practice of “Oneness Meditation through the Traditional and Harmonic Values of the Chartres Labyrinth 6 Petal Rose”* can instantly and profoundly affect our personal presence and touch as healers, family care givers, good friends, and community participants. (* paradigms received through NDE and STEs.) All are very welcome to this presentation which shares the illumination and birth of these simple paradigms which work the everyday miracles of peace and transformation.
Around 1961, age 4, Heather Gurd had a near-death experience on the family farm. Returning from “heaven” came with many gifts as well as the heightened ability to perceive subtle energies. By age 5 she was called Nurse Heather. The Way of Love (Love God/ Love Each Other) became her innocent way of being. Defying medical challenges and diagnosis, Heather started her lifelong, conscious practice of yoking body, mind, and spirit through movement and meditation in 1977. She then began her exploration of consciousness and healing through experience, world travel, sacred sites, the study of world religions, philosophies, mythologies, storytelling, psychology, energy healing modalities, mystery schools, and sacred geometry. She received degrees from University of Waterloo, and Wilfred Laurier as well as an International Championship in Improv Comedy. By the early 90’s, Therapeutic Touch™ (TT) a modality created by nurses for nurses in the 70’s, became Heather’s anchoring holistic modality. ( Work bio here ) Heather has had several life changing Spiritually Transformative Experiences over the last 35 years, leading her to create her website: heathergracegurd.ca She guides a live meditation Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m for The Way of Love as her way of giving back.
Spiritual Awakenings International
Experiencers Sharing Circles
First Saturday of Every Month: at 1 PM EST or 6 PM EST
Join us the first Saturday of each month at the “Spiritual Awakenings International Experiencers Sharing Circle” in which anyone who has had a Spiritually Transformative Experience can come together with a group of other “Experiencers” to share and to listen. SAI Sharing Circles will be offered the first Saturday of each month. These meetings are confidential, and not recorded.
Spiritually Transformative Experiences* include, but are not limited to the following:
- Near-Death Experiences
- Other death-related experiences such as: deathbed visions, deathwatch experiences/shared-death experiences and After-Death Communications
- Mystical experiences
- Diverse psychic or intuitive experiences, including clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, out-of-body experiences, past-life recall, mediumship, channeling, and more…
- Spiritual energy and/or Kundalini Awakenings
- Inspired creativity
- Spiritual Emergencies
Many people who have had Spiritually Transformative Experiences seek a safe place to share their story. If you think that perhaps you have had such an experience or you are interested in learning more, you are welcome to join the Experiencers Circle to share and learn.
*Note: “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” was first coined by Dr. Yvonne Kason in 1994.
Live online via Zoom. Register at www.spiritualawakeningsinternational.org
About Our Group
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group was started in 2019. We call it an “Awakenings Sharing Group,” providing discussion time for those who are interested in Near-Death Experiences and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences. All are welcome to the meetings, whether they have had any of these experiences or not. (Minors must be accompanied by their legal guardians.)
We are not organized by or affiliated with any religion or religious organization. Near-Death Experiences and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences come to those of all different faiths and no faith at all. They also come to those of different cultures, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ability, and we hold openness for each unique experience and experiencer. We are a non-aligned group and do not endorse any one doctrine, philosophy, religion, religious interpretation or political position. We welcome participants with diverse views and perspectives and ask all participants to respectfully engage as listeners to others’ experiences, without offering judgment, challenge, comment or advice. The views and opinions expressed by any individual or speaker attending our meetings do not reflect any official position of the Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group. To read more on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy, click here.
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group was created to offer interested individuals a safe, supportive place in which to share, network, and learn more about diverse Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) and their often powerful after-effects on body, mind and spirit.
The term “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” was first coined by Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, in 1994. STEs include: Near-Death Experiences (NDEs); Mystical Experiences; Spiritual Energy or Kundalini Awakenings; diverse Psychic Experiences; Inspired Creativity; and other death-related STEs such as Deathbed visions, Death-Watch/Shared-Death Experiences, and After-Death Communications. Research studies have show that up to 15 percent of the population have had an NDE or other types of STEs. Many people find these occurrences very impactful and even life transforming. Sadly, experiencers often find they are misunderstood by their family or friends, and feel they have no one with whom to share their understanding. Our group meetings aim to provide just such an opportunity, to share privately and respectfully, with support and understanding of the diversity of each person’s STEs.
We believe that Near-Death Experiences and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences hold a wealth of information for all of us, especially given that no two experiences are identical. Our meetings are facilitated by Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group’s three volunteer co-founders, who have worked with and have also experienced their own Spiritually Transformative Experiences.
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group is affiliated with Spiritual Awakenings International. www.spiritualawakeningsinternational.org
Meet Our Co-Founders
Dr. Yvonne Kason, Monica Maurin and Dr. Shira Taylor founded the Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group in 2019. All three co-founders have had many Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) and two have had Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). They felt there was a need for a community such as this in Toronto and began to offer bi-monthly meetings to all who feel sincerely interested.
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group is not a therapy group and no counselling can or will be offered. Rather, it is a forum in which to share personal NDE and STE stories in a supportive environment, and to learn more about all types of STEs from our meetings’ featured speakers. Experiencers, their friends, families, physicians and counsellors, as well as all persons sincerely interested in learning more about the wide range of Spiritually Transformative Experiences are welcome to attend.
We believe that Spiritually Transformative Experiences are part of the spectrum of healthy human experiences.
Currently, Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group is led by Dr. Yvonne Kason and other volunteers. Please direct all inquires to: info@torontoawakenings.org
Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP
Dr. Yvonne Kason MD is a retired Family Physician and Transpersonal MD-Psychotherapist previously on Faculty at the University of Toronto. She has had 5 Near-Death Experiences and multiple Spiritually Transformative Experiences. She first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs) in 1994. She has 40 years experience researching and counselling persons with NDEs and other STEs.
Dr. Kason is President of Spiritual Awakenings International, www.spiritualawakeningsinternational.org, Past-President of IANDS, cofounder of the Spirituality in Health-Care Network and the Kundalini Research Network, and author of 6 books, her most recent “Soul Lessons from the Light: How Spiritually Transformative Experiences Changed my Life” (December 2022), and “Touched by the Light: Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences.” (2019). Learn more at Dr. Kason’s website: www.dryvonnekason.com.