The Near-Death Experience and Self-Determination Theory.
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying March 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1177/00302228221126561 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Keywords | Autonomy Competence Motivation Relatedness Self-determination theory |
| Citations | 7 |
| Key points | Proposes that self-determination theory's three basic psychological needs—relatedness, competence, and autonomy—are relevant to the process of near-death experiences and may foster intrinsic motivation to live life well. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times | 1987 | Historical analysis | |
| Neuroscience and the Near-Death Experience: Roles for the NMSA-PCP receptor, the sigma receptor and the endopsychosins | 1990 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Implications of near-death experiences for a postmaterialist psychology. | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Near-Death Experience as a Probe to Explore (Disconnected) Consciousness | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Near-death experiences between science and prejudice | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Recognizing the Death Motif in the Near-Death Experience. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying September 19, 2023
- The Bereaved Detachment Experience: An NDE-like Phenomenon. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying April 28, 2025
- The intertwining of death and life: a hermeneutic phenomenological investigation of near-death experiences among coma survivors. BMC Psychology September 29, 2025
- An exploratory study of alternative life experiences in comparison to transcendental near‐death experiences Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2025
Cites 10
- Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands The Lancet December 1, 2001
- The Near-Death Experience Scale The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease June 1, 1983
- The phenomenology of near-death experiences American Journal of Psychiatry October 1, 1980
- The Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale: Development and psychometric validation Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2020
- NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES WITH REPORTS OF MEETING DECEASED PEOPLE Death Studies April 1, 2001
and 5 more in the library