“I Was Told to Come Back and Share This”: Social Media-Based Near-Death Experience Disclosures as Expressions of Spiritual Beliefs

Summary

Individuals sharing near-death experiences (NDEs) on TikTok often use these narratives to express personal meaning, primarily featuring spiritual and religious themes. An analysis of 200 videos showed that posts with spiritual content attract more engagement and encourage deeper discussions about faith. This highlights how social media can enhance community engagement around spirituality and suggests ways to improve online spaces for shared expression.

Study at a glance

Abstract

People who experienced near-death events often turn to personal expression as a way of processing trauma and articulating beliefs. While scholars have examined how individuals share near-death experiences (NDEs), limited research has explored how these narratives are communicated collaboratively on today’s social media platforms. We analyzed 200 randomly sampled TikTok videos tagged with #nde and related hashtags. Content analysis revealed that individuals often use NDE narratives to articulate personal meaning, with spiritual and religious themes appearing in the majority of posts and serving as a means of exploring and making sense of personal spiritual perspectives. Consistent with this, analyses of comment sections reveal that videos containing spiritual themes tend to attract more engagement and foster deeper conversations around faith and meaning. Our findings offer insights into how online platforms facilitate community-level engagement with spirituality, and suggest implications for design of spaces that support shared expression and connection in specialized communities.

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