Michael Kinsella, a graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies, and Michael Barlev, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology, are the lead researchers on a collaborative study of near-death experiences, entitled “The Role of Near-Death Experiences in the Emergence of a Movement: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study of IANDS.”  The project, which combines ethnographic field research related to Kinsella's doctoral dissertation, with quasi-experimental field and laboratory research, received a $250K research award from the Immortality Project at UC Riverside. The award is supported by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Other members of the research team include Ann Taves, Professor of Religious Studies (PI), Tamsin C. German, Professor of Psychology (co-PI), and Raymond F. Paloutzian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Westmont College.