Omega
March 1, 2025
Robert A. King
7 citations
People who have a near-death experience sometimes perceive being outside their body and encountering a spiritual figure who offers a choice to return to life or stay in an afterlife-like state. This paper applies self-determination theory to explain how such experiences can meet the three basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, which may motivate the person to willingly return to life. The authors postulate that this process fosters intrinsic motivation to live well, leading to greater psychological wellbeing.
Omega
March 10, 2023
Robert A. King
4 citations
A near-death experience (NDE) is an altered state of consciousness that can occur during life-threatening incidents, including nonfatal suicide attempts. For some suicide attempters, believing their NDE reflects objective spiritual reality may either increase or decrease suicidal ideation, sometimes leading to further attempts. The paper also explores how NDEs can trigger suicidal ideation in people who had not previously attempted suicide. It provides examples and offers theoretical insights and therapeutic considerations based on this discussion.
Crisis
September 1, 2024
Robert A. King
3 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are altered states of consciousness during real or perceived life-threatening events. For decades, researchers assumed NDEs produce positive antisuicidal attitudes, making suicide afterward highly unlikely. This paper challenges that assumption by presenting four case studies of individuals who died by suicide after an NDE. While quantitative data are lacking, these cases show that suicide after an NDE does occur. The influence of the NDE on each suicide remains uncertain. The authors call for more research on post-NDE suicide risk and advise therapists to monitor for both active and passive suicidal ideation in NDE experiencers.
Omega
September 19, 2023
Robert A. King
3 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) often involve a sense of existing as a disembodied self, sometimes near the physical body or in a transcendental realm, and encountering deceased people, spirits, or divine beings. This paper argues that these features form a broader death motif in NDE reports. It provides qualitative examples of different types of death symbolism and suggests that this motif may serve a purposeful psychological function: to heighten awareness of a threat to life, using death symbolism to boost the desire and resilience to live and survive.
Omega
April 28, 2025
Robert A. King
Some bereaved people experience after-death communications (ADCs) in which they sense a deceased loved one through visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, or sentient phenomena. A specific type, the bereavement detachment experience (BDE), involves feeling out of or away from the physical body during the encounter, even without a near-death threat. These BDEs share features with near-death experiences (NDEs), such as meeting the deceased, traveling through darkness or a tunnel, encountering a bright light, entering otherworldly environments, and feeling love or peace. This exploratory study examines seven BDE cases for thematic patterns, compares them to NDEs, and explores beneficial psychological aftereffects, offering therapeutic insights for bereavement care.