A Spiritual Journey - Waking up, Growing up and Clearing out
2021-04-24 13:30 - 15:30 (America/Toronto)
Heidi Walk MD

There is a saying that “To enter the kingdom of heaven you must be as innocent as a child… but then you better grow up pretty quickly…”

At the age of 26, while in her third year of medical school, Heidi Walk had a kundalini (spiritual transformative) experience. For a period in time, she experienced a deep and embodied sense of connection with all things. Everything was love…everyone was a unique reflection of the divine…here sense of self expanded, and her ego self disappeared. This spiritual awakening radically changed her and her perspective of self, others and of the world. This transformative experience has informed and influenced most every aspect of her daily life and spearheaded / catalysed her psychological and spiritual growth.

Ken Wilber, philosopher and mystic, often referred to as the “Einstein of consciousness studies”, has said “Clean up, Wake up, Grow up”

In this talk, Heidi will share about her spiritual journey, from the kundalini awakening in her third year of medical school and the factors she interprets that led to that awakening. She will also discuss her need to do her inner psychological work after this experience. She will speak to some of the wisdom she has acquired over the years through the lived experience of heightened states of being and times of dark nights of the soul, and the need to be grounded in mindful presence in the here and now.
Heidi Walk MD. is a family physician and psychotherapist based in Ontario Canada with over 25 years of clinical practice. Heidi’s professional training includes CBT, sensorimotor psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, gestalt, and psychodrama. She also has extensive training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR with Jon Kabat Zinn as well as Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) with Kristen Neff and Chris Germer.
Since 2003, her primary clinical focus has been leading MBSR, MSC and well as other self-development and personal growth programs.
Heidi is also a certified yoga teacher and a meditation teacher, facilitating retreats around the world with a focus on helping people develop present moment awareness and deepening their inner connection.
In her essence, she considers herself to be a spiritual being with many different parts here in this world to learn, grow and share in this experience of being human.
She is passionate about helping people connect to their more authentic, true selves.
Heidi’s greatest joy lies in seeing positive transformations in attitudes, choices, beliefs, and the self-empowerment that people derive when they learn to trust their inner wisdom and to know themselves, in large part, through mindful self-inquiry.Heidi Walk’s talk will be shared live online via zoom. Registration is required.

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Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group “Experiencers” Circle
2021-03-27 13:30 - 15:30, 2021-01-23 13:30 - 15:30
We offer periodic Sharing Group “Experiencers” Circles in which anyone who has had a Spiritually Transformative Experience can come together with a group of other “Experiencers” to share and to listen.

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 (in which one has a spiritual experience when another person dies), 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 Awakening
Inspired creativity

Many people who have had Spiritually Transformative Experiences do not know to identify them as such. 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.
The group will be moderated by the Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group co-founders and will offer an opportunity to share informally, and without a larger audience. Registration is required in order to receive the private link to the online meeting.
This meeting will be private and confidential, and will NOT be recorded by Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group for future reference or viewers. The Experiencers Circle will observe guidelines for respectful and supportive communication. It is offered free of charge
You will receive the link to the online meeting the day before the meeting. Please remember to have your camera on during the meeting and ensure that the name of your computer matches the registration name, otherwise when you are in the videoconference waiting room, we will not know it is you. If we are unsure about your identity, we will endeavour to reach you at that moment, through the video platform and confirm who you are. If we are unable to do so you may not be allowed access to the meeting, for security reasons.
Please arrive 15 minutes early to the online session. You will be placed in the waiting room and will be taken into the meeting at the meeting start time. We ask for you to log in early so that we can see who is waiting and can check you in on our systems. We will do our utmost to start the meeting on time. It may be the case that the meeting will begin a few minutes late and, if so, please continue to wait in the waiting room. Your computer will display a message letting you know that you are waiting for the host to admit you.
If you are waiting to gain access to the meeting and are concerned about a possible technical issue, please email us at info@TorontoAwakenings.org and we will endeavour to coordinate with you at that time.
For any other questions, please contact us: info@TorontoAwakenings.org
We look forward to sharing together!

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When the "I" Disappears
2021-02-27 13:30 - 15:30
Fr. Charles Ogada

Father Charles Ogada was born in Uturu in Abia State, Nigeria. When he was seventeen, he had a profound spiritual transformation which changed the course of his life. Consequently, he joined the Spiritan order of the Catholic Church so as to deepen that transformation and attained a B.A., M.A. and B.Phil degrees in core aspects of religion and philosophy.
After completing his seminarian training he served as a parish priest in Nigeria. He then travelled to Zambia to gain experience as a teacher at a leading values-based school in Ndola, where he taught mathematics and religious education.
Open to the Truth of all religions, Father Ogada also travelled extensively in the study of other paths drawing on Christian Mystics, Eastern Spirituality, Sufism, the Jewish Cabbala and the teachings of Ramana Marharshi. Thus, he rediscovered the gem of Christian mysticism.
In 2010 with no resources but his own unquenchable energy he took an enormous leap of faith and founded the Spiritan Self Awareness Initiative (SSAI), a registered non-profit humanitarian organisation of which he is the current Executive Director. He runs two free values-based schools, a children’s home for disadvantaged children, two free hospitals, a co-operative farm and many other initiatives.
At present, Father Charles is a Catholic priest who spends every waking hour of his life in service to the poor and needy in Nigeria as well as in service to spiritual seekers of all faiths from around the world through the Global Joy Village community. He is a committed campaigner for a loving, inclusive, multi-faith approach to spirituality.
Father Charles’ talk will be shared live online via zoom. Registration is required.

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Validating Patients Dreams & Visions at End of Life with Dr. Christopher Kerr MD, PhD
2020-12-05 13:00 - 15:00
Dr. Christopher Kerr MD, PhD

Dr. Christopher Kerr will share his published research that describes and validates patient’s dreams and visions at the end of life. Dr. Kerr will explore how these near universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning as well as insight into the life led and death anticipated. He will also review research that explores the potential for end of life experiences to provide opportunity for post-traumatic growth, and discuss the impact of these experiences on the bereaved. The presentation includes videos of patients and families describing the meaningfulness of these powerful end of life experiences.

Dr. Christopher Kerr MD PhD is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer for Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Dr. Kerr earned his MD and PhD in Neurobiology. His background in research has evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patient’s dreams and visions at the end of life. Although medically ignored, these near universal experiences often provide great comfort and meaning. To date, the research team at Hospice Buffalo has published multiple studies on this topic and documented over 1,500 end-of-life events, many of which are videotaped. This work was the subject of his TEDx Buffalo Talk which has been viewed over 2.7 million times. It has been the subject of reports on The BBC, in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American Mind, Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and Psychology Today. It will also be featured in an upcoming Netflix production and a documentary film to be released in 2020. It has also gathered international attention.

Dr. Kerr’s work was published in his book Death is but a Dream , Penguin Random House, released in February 2020 and now published in 10 languages.

This event is being presented by Spiritual Awakenings International.Toronto Awakenings is very pleased to be a co-sponsoring this event along with Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. This is an online presentation via Zoom. There is no charge to attend but pre-registration is required. Attendance is limited so sign up now!
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Granted a Life Extension to Walk Gently with Love
2020-09-26 13:30 - 15:30
Gurbeen Bhasin

At the age of 32, Gurbeen was diagnosed with lupus. It nearly killed her many times over. One day, she was in the hospital and felt like she had to make a choice between life or succumbing to death. She asked the nurse to take her to the hospital chapel and from the depths of her heart, she spoke to a statue of Mary and told her that if she was to remain in the body, she needed to be able to walk again. Mary listened, or her higher self listened, and the universe granted her an extension! And so the journey of healing began, from one tender moment to the next, with visions of healing and support from many forms of light and love. Inspired by the healing, she vowed to walk for Mary and 7 years later did the Camino de Santiago. She continues to walk with love today doing an annual Canada Camino.
Gurbeen Bhasin is the founder and executive director of Aangen, a Toronto-based non-profit organization that focuses on advancing food security and social justice locally and globally. A trained social worker, Gurbeen established Aangen in 2000, following in the footsteps of multiple ancestors who welcomed and supported community members facing challenges. She and her team run community service programs that help families in crisis access food, shelter and other essentials; and that provide jobs and support services to those who have faced homeless, addiction, mental illness and other barriers to sustainable employment. Aangen funds these programs by operating social enterprises that sell farm products and provide catering and cleaning services. Her primary purpose with Aangen is to foster personal empowerment and nurture communities by responding to community needs as they arise with sustainable and equitable solutions. Her professional journey has included serving as project manager of a global human rights initiative; senior analyst at the Canadian Mental Health Association; and as an entrepreneur and creator in Toronto’s independent arts sector. Gurbeen holds a master of social work degree from the University of Michigan, a master of arts degree in international relations from the University of Windsor, and a bachelor of arts in political science from York University. She is best known for her mile-wide smile, her funky shoes and her mom’s timeless life wisdom.
Gurbeen’s talk will be shared live online via zoom. Registration is required.

Seek Your Own Counsel: What do you do when a Guru cannot be found?
2020-06-27 13:30 - 15:30
Aldona Mitrikas

Living in small communities in northern Ontario, Aldona Mitrikas was unable to connect with people knowledgeable about spiritual awakening or Near-Death Experiences when she was in the throes of these processes. She knew something healing was happening and turned to the resources she had at hand. She connected with helpers in the community: compassionate friends, a minister, a massage therapist, and a network chiropractor.
Through prayer and meditation, she came to understand that her experience was some type of healing process. She then developed a tool for allowing this process to take place safely and gently. As a Therapeutic Touch practitioner, she used her modality to work through each of the chakras and assist her own transformation. Amazing things happened and she learned that her role was to stay present and allow. She will describe how in this journey of many years Therapeutic Touch has been a constant companion.
Aldona has a degree in psychology, many ancillary trainings, and had a career as a counsellor in the field of sexual assault and violence against women. For nearly 30 years, she worked primarily in Sault Ste. Marie at Women in Crisis and at the Sexual Assault Centre of Sault Area Hospital. Subsequently, she worked in Wawa, Ontario, focusing on the field of violence against women and holding workshops for Lady Dunn Health Centre Mental Health Department. She retired and moved to Toronto in 2016 to be closer to family and she continues to teach Therapeutic Touch.
Aldona Mitrikas will be sharing via video conference, on June 27, 2020, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m EST. This talk is offered without charge but you must pre-register to gain admittance to the live broadcast. Aldona’s talk will be followed by a live question and answer period.

The Reckoning: How My NDE Life Review Changed My Life
2020-05-30 13:30 - 15:30
Robert Bare

Robert Bare is an almost-textbook case of someone whose life and values were forever changed by his NDE.
You have to have a tough mentality to be a police officer, and Robert spent more than two decades as a California highway patrolman, including time serving the Bay area. “I saw lots of death, and I became callous,” he says. Spirituality or religion played little role in his life.
But his near-death experience shook him to his core. It occurred shortly after he boarded a plane in March, 2009. He had a massive heart attack and was deceased for approximately 45 minutes. His NDE was profiled in the TV show I Survived…Beyond and Back, and he was a featured case study by author Amy Diamond in her book, Life After Near Death.
“Accompanied by loving beings, I gravitated toward a beautiful bright Light,” Robert recalls. “I saw some colors I had never seen before. I remember being in the presence of a Higher Power who talked to me. I had a “life review” and saw everything that I had experienced in my life.” He calls the review “the reckoning of my life… a humbling experience.”
“I could see everything in my life, but I was also in it, and I could read everyone’s mind. I realized that I could have done better, and I did not want to judge or hurt anyone anymore.”
Taken to a hospital, he had a second NDE…this time, floating above the operating room, observing what was transpiring below. This NDE included a pivotal moment: he could hear medical staff talking about him while he was unconscious. Later, the doctors verified that he had indeed heard their conversation.
“I’m a different person now,” Robert says. “Now I only want to do good in my life.”
After retiring from the police, he worked a variety of positions; an Adjunct Professor, a General Manager/City Administrator for three communities, the Executive Director of a Community Resource Center and as a Staff Executive/Consultant for an International Consulting Company.
He currently lives in Oregon, where he has been a Commissioner on his Community Planning Commission and President of a local Humane Society. Active in youth sports, he coached Little League baseball and girls’ softball, Pony League Baseball, Pop Warner football and American Legion Baseball. He coached a women’s fast pitch traveling tournament team for 18 and under girls. He was nominated as the “Citizen of the Year” twice and received other community recognition as well. Robert is the past Vice-President of IANDS.
Robert Bare will be Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group’s first online key speaker, on May 30, 2020, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m EST. This talk is offered without charge but you must pre-register to gain admittance to the live broadcast. Robert’s talk will be followed by a live question and answer period.

Lessons From Outside Time and Space with Dr. Brian Sackett
2020-01-11 13:00 - 15:15 | S. Walter Stewart Library, 170 Memorial Park Ave, Toronto, ON, M4J 2K5, Canada
Dr. Brian Sackett

In this talk, Dr. Brian Sackett will describe a Shared Death Experience that happened when his wife of 25 years passed away from thyroid cancer in his arms – this included experiencing her as a multi-dimensional being transmitting intense joy and love.
From the Shared Death Experience and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences, Brian will articulate in a simple and practical way, how each of us is both a time-bound three-dimensional human being, and a transcendent, multi-dimensional spirit-being. He will also discuss ways to access our transcendent selves as well as what blocks our ability to connect more consciously with ourselves as spirit.
Brian Sackett, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Jose, CA and is a recent Toronto resident. He specializes in working with clients dealing with trauma and abuse, spiritual emergence, anxiety and depression. Prior to becoming a therapist, Brian worked for 25 years in high tech in a variety of positions, including director of sales, national accounts sales manager, product marketing manager, business development manager, and engineering program manager. His undergraduate degree is in mathematics, from Stanford University, and he has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

NDEs - The Essentials - Everything you need to know about Near-Death Experiences
2019-11-23 13:00 - 15:00 | S. Walter Stewart Library, 170 Memorial Park Ave, Toronto, ON, M4J 2K5, Canada
Dr. Yvonne Kason MD
Studies have shown that up to 20% of patients in critical care report having a Near-Death Experience (NDE), an out-of-body and/or mystical experience that occurs during accidents, traumatic events, clinical crisis when facing death, or during cardiac arrest. As a case example, Dr. Yvonne Kason will share the story of her own 2003 NDE during an accident where she suffered a traumatic brain injury. She will describe the diagnostic features of Near-Death Experiences and their common physical, psychological, and spiritual after-effects. She will also outline the diagnostic features of other Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) and death-related STEs, including end-of-life/deathbed visions, death-watch/shared-death experiences, and after-death communications. Special issues relating to NDEs in children, active military, and veterans will be discussed. She will describe how NDEs are not symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress and are not hallucinations or a sign of mental illness.
Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group is affiliated with the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). IANDS has been supporting NDE experiencers, spreading awareness about NDEs, and promoting NDE research for 40 years.
Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP is an internationally renowned medical expert on Near-Death Experiences and other Spiritually Transformative Experiences who has had 5 NDEs and multiple STEs herself. She is a retired family physician and transpersonal psychotherapist, who previously taught at the University of Toronto. Propelled by a powerful Near-Death Experience in a 1979 airplane crash, she began to research NDEs, and in 1990 she became the first Canadian medical doctor to specialize their medical practice in the research and counseling of patients with NDEs and other STEs. Dr. Kason is a current board member of IANDS, the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and a member of ACISTE, the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences. Dr. Kason was cofounder of the Kundalini Research Network, the Canadian Coordinator of the Spiritual Emergence Network, and co-founder of the Spirituality in Health-Care Network.
Available at Amazon.ca
She has five published books, her most recent, Touched by the Light: Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences, (2019). She shares the conclusions from her 40 years of research with about 100 case stories, including her own 5 NDE stories, as a guide to help other NDE and STE experiencers as well as their friends and counselors. On demand as a media resource, her interview on the Dr. Oz Show will air December 6, 2019.
Learn more about the meeting details and our sharing group here.
