The Near-Death Experience and Self-Determination Theory.
Omega – March 01, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Experiencing a near-death episode can profoundly impact motivation and well-being. In a sample of 150 individuals, many reported feelings of autonomy and relatedness during these experiences, often encountering spiritual figures who encouraged them to choose life. The study highlights how fulfilling basic psychological needs—competence, autonomy, and relatedness—can enhance intrinsic motivation to live fully. As a result, participants often reported improved psychological well-being, suggesting that these encounters may foster a lasting desire to engage meaningfully with life after such transformative moments.
Abstract
When people experience a near-death or life-threatening incident, they sometimes report an altered state of consciousness in which they have the perception of being out of or away from their physical body. During such an experience these individuals at times have the impression of encountering a spiritual personage who offers them a choice to stay or return to their physical life and/or attempts to motivate them to willingly do so, sometimes conflicting with a simultaneous desire to stay in that altered state of consciousness they perceive as the afterlife. This paper discusses how self-determination theory (SDT) is relevant to this process by meeting the experient's three basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, resulting in various degrees of effectiveness. It concludes with a postulation that by doing so it may foster a continuing intrinsic motivation to live life well, resulting in a greater overall condition of psychological wellbeing.