According to past clinical studies, 5% of Americans have experienced what researchers characterize as a near-death experience (NDE). Not only are these experiences profoundly life-changing for those who experience them, but they can also leave people with unanswered questions or a renewed sense of purpose.
Now, recent research from the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine is providing deeper insight into how people who have had an NDE can best be supported after the experience.
UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) believes this is the first study of its kind to explore counseling and support for people navigating the profound changes that can follow an NDE.
“We know a lot about these experiences—their typical manifestations, incidence, and medical circumstances—but research on how to support these patients is still limited,” said Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD, of UVA Health’s Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. “Our goal is to address this gap and inspire clinicians to devote care and attention to these unique needs.”
In an interview with The Debrief, Pehlivanova said that a majority of the data they have collected to date is from cardiac arrest survivors.
“Depending on the study, 10% to 23% of cardiac arrest survivors will report an NDE,” Pehlivanova said. “So these are considerable percentages, and this is from the best kind of scientific data that we have that catches people very shortly after they recover, as opposed to asking them about something that happened years to decades in the past.”
“It’s pretty reliable data,” she says, adding that “in reality, the percentage may be even higher because not every person is willing to share that they had an NDE.”
The Study
The research team surveyed 167 individuals who have experienced a near-death experience, with questions ranging from the types of professional help, therapy, and other support experiences they received after the NDE to the resources they found helpful. Results indicated that 64% of experiencers sought support, and of those, 78% found it useful. The study revealed that the intensity of the NDE and a personal history of psychological difficulties were important indicators of whether a person would seek support.
“After an NDE, it’s important to first talk about why they need support,” says Pehlivanova. “There are certain ways that people tend to change, especially if they have a very profound NDE.”
Pehlivanova also notes that the research shows people may “become more spiritual” after such experiences, and may find themselves more interested in “examining that spiritual dimension of life.” At the same time, some people tend to become convinced that life continues after death, which promotes a more compassionate outlook toward others.
The pain of not being believed
Pehlivanova says not everyone has a positive experience with the adjustment period that may follow an NDE. “Experiencers may often also want to talk about the experience and how profound it was or how it changed them, what it meant for them. And they may find that not everyone is open to listening or really willing to understand. And that may be especially prevalent with health care professionals.”
Another dimension to the work that Pehlivanova adds involves how many people discuss having a longing feeling to go back to a place they discovered during their NDE, which some characterize as their “real home”. However, she adds that some people express concerns that professionals might label them crazy, saying, “they’re worried about not being believed.”
A key finding of the recent research involves the vital role that acceptance and validation played for individuals immediately after their experiences. “The very first reaction kind of sets the stage for how that person will do with the NDE because if you’re shut down immediately, some people may literally not talk about it for decades.
“So we found that people who received a positive first reaction from the very first person they told about the NDE were more likely to benefit from the support they received,” Pehlivanova said.
Another finding suggests that participants whose mental wellness was already in an ideal state were less likely to seek support after they had an NDE, but when they did, they rated it as being highly helpful. This may indicate that mental wellness plays a key role in helping individuals to process NDEs more effectively, and that validation and supportive care contribute to maintaining their overall psychological well-being.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Following their initial description in medical literature decades ago, NDEs were not widely noted throughout the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Before the 1990s, education regarding the topic had not been made available in academic resources for professionals to reference when they encountered individuals who had experienced an NDE.
“In 1994, the version at the time of the DSM, the DSM-4, added a new category called spiritual or religious problem,” Pehlivanova explained. “I think the name is still not great. It was added as a category separate from any pathological labels or other mental illness labels that people who had a profound experience like that would have previously been lumped into.”
“One of the motivating experiences behind adding this new category,” she adds, had been the recognition “that the experience itself is not necessarily pathological, but it may lead to challenges that may show up as psychological struggles that people may need support for.”
Fundamentally, Pehlivanova says that while few changes have occurred since the changes instituted in the mid-1990s, current society is at the point where we “need to be educating professionals more broadly about what these experiences are, and drawing heavily from decades of academic research on these experiences.”
The recent study, “Support Needs After a Near-Death Experience: A Quantitative Study With Experiencers,” appeared in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.