Will Inducing a Near-Death Experience Become a Therapy for Alleviating Fear of Death?
- Apr 2
- 9 min read
Researchers are experimenting with techniques that can induce several traits of an NDE
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”― Mark Twain
Most of us don’t view death as lightly as Mark Twain did. Contemplating our own mortality can make us feel uncomfortable, even when we are not being directly confronted with this inescapable fate. The fear of death is one of the strongest drives behind our behavior. This fear can move us to do extraordinary things, but it can also paralyze us. There is, however, one way to instantaneously cure a paralyzing fear of death: a near-death experience (NDE), and to be effective, it requires a time span as fleeting as a momentary cardiac arrest.
Before digging into the phenomenon of NDE, I will first discuss what I mean by fear of death. Generally speaking, thinking about death doesn’t bring us much comfort. However, there are people who fear death to such an extent that it interferes with their normal functioning and/or their ability to lead a happy and worry-free life.
Thanatophobia is the term used to describe the fear of death or of ceasing to exist. Thanatos is the personification of death in Greek mythology, while phobia comes from the Greek φόβος (phóbos), meaning “fear” or “morbid fear.” Thanatophobia not only encompasses an intense anxiety of dying and death but also the dread of thinking about death. This phobia can be the root cause of other phobias, such as aerophobia (fear of flying) and claustrophobia (fear of crowded, confined spaces).
It can make people become obsessed with staying healthy to the point that they develop hypochondriasis, a disorder that causes excessive worry about becoming ill. It can also underlie obsessive-compulsive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and panic disorder, culminating with the avoidance of any situation that they relate to death or dying (e.g., attending a funeral).
How do you know whether you have thanatophobia? Signs could include noticing yourself obsessively checking for moles on your skin or avoiding places where people are ill. You might also avoid anything that even slightly heightens the risk of being involved in an accident. Struggling with anxiety attacks may also point to a fear of dying as the root cause.
Who fears death the most? Many factors can increase the fear of death. Research (1) (2) indicates that:
The fear of death tends to peak in men and women during their twenties.
Men and women may experience an increased fear of death in their forties, with women tending to revisit this fear in their fifties.
According to some research, the fear of death declines as people grow older, although other research has suggested the opposite.
Becoming ill with a serious disease, especially in younger patients, tends to increase this fear.
Dealing with a loved one who has contracted a terminal illness makes one more fearful of death.
Religious belief systems can increase or decrease the fear of death, depending upon whether punishment in the afterlife for acts committed during life is part of their teachings.
There are also cultural differences. For instance, in societies where death remains integrated into people’s daily lives, the fear of death tends to be lower than in societies such as Western cultures where exposure to human mortality has been progressively sanitized and removed from the public domain (e.g., graveyards situated in secluded locations outside of urban areas). (1)(2)
Due to its immediate connection to survival, thanatophobia is very difficult to treat. Even the most advanced and empirically established psychological therapies have limited effect. So, how do the aftereffects of an NDE help people lose their fear of death in such an immediate and pervasive way? To answer this question, a new research field has emerged in which studies are designed to determine whether NDEs can be induced and, if so, whether they can create the same positive results.
Let me ask you, “Would you ever volunteer to participate in a study in which researchers intended to induce an NDE in you?”
These experiments are not as scary as you might imagine. You don’t need to worry about being put through the agonizing process of dying, as depicted in the movie Flatliner. (By the way, I prefer the 1990 version.) The effects of NDEs that are induced in real-life experiments are much less traumatic than those experienced by the characters in the movie. Actually, you don’t even need to be on the verge of dying to experience an NDE. For instance, Dr. Nelson argues that “for half of the instances of ’near-death,’ the term is a misnomer because the person does not face imminent death”(3). In fact, intense fear can, by itself, induce a near-death experience.
Researchers are experimenting with techniques that can induce features of an NDE, and the following phenomenological aspects of NDEs are often recounted by people during and after the event (4):
Cognitive Elements:
Extraordinary conscious abilities, improved awareness, accelerated thought processes, sudden insight and understanding, instantaneous memory revival, and the perceived dissociation of mind from body, or altered perceptions.
Paranormal/Transcendental Elements:
OBE (floating above one’s body, observing medical staff, having the ability to move through walls), psychic abilities, communication through thoughts rather than words, seeing a tunnel or passageway, meeting deceased loved ones or spiritual beings, seeing one’s entire life replayed at times from different perspectives, experiencing visions of the future, gaining a deep understanding of life’s purpose, being told “it’s not your time,” or being given a choice to return.
Sensorial Elements:
Vivid colors, sharper hearing, an altered perception of time, seeing a bright, warm, and loving light, the feeling of being pulled back into the body, and a sudden awareness of pain and physical sensations after an OBE while returning to the physical body.
Affective Elements:
Intense positive affect, such as joy, happiness, peace and unconditional love, feeling cosmic unity/oneness, feeling drawn toward or merging with a light, a sense of disappointment or reluctance upon returning, long-lasting emotional or spiritual transformation, increased sense of purpose and spirituality, difficulty adjusting back to everyday life, heightened empathy.
Four key elements of an NDE can be directly associated with the loss of thanatophobia (5):
1. Disembodiment
2. Positive emotional content
3. Spiritual encounter
4. Exposure to a bright, otherworldly light
Thus, the paranormal elements of an NDE seem to be associated for the most part with the diminishing or losing of the fear of death. Interestingly, these experiences can occur during the cessation of brain activity. Therefore, one could argue that consciousness can exist beyond the functioning of the physical body. That being said, there have been instances of NDEs that included less pleasant elements. In the book The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, edited by Janice Miner Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James (6), the following categories of distressing near-death experiences are described:
The Void: A sense of eternal emptiness or nonexistence
Hellish Experiences: Perceptions of tormenting environments or beings
Life Review with Negative Emphasis: A review of one’s life focusing on negative actions and their impacts
The following three quotes from people who experienced a distressing NDE are taken from the book The Near-Death Experience, a Reader by Lee w. Bailey and Jenny Yates (4):
First quote: There’s a cosmic terror we have never addressed. The despair was because of the absolute conviction that I had seen what the other side was — I never thought of it as Hell — and there was no way to tell anyone. It wouldn’t matter how I died or when, damnation was out there, just waiting.
Second quote: I passed through the stage of terrible thirst and the voices kept laughing and telling me, ‘You think this is bad? Wait till the next stage!’ I found myself hurling towards the final torment: I was to be suspended in a total vacuum with nothing to see or do for eternity.
Third quote: Demons were all around me; I could hear them but could not see them. They chattered like blackbirds. It was as if they knew they had me, and had all eternity to drag me down into hell, to torment me. It would have been the worst kind of hell, trapped hopeless between two worlds, wandering lost and confused for an eternity.
Some near-death experiencers have reported escaping a distressing NDE after they stopped fighting, surrendered to the experience, or asked for help from a higher power.
One study indicated that distressing NDEs seem to be more common in cases involving suicide attempts, perhaps due to the suicide attempter’s frame of mind (7), however, more research is needed to substantiate this theory. Interestingly, another study showed that a lowered fear of death in suicide survivors, due to non-distressing NDEs, did not increase the likelihood of subsequent suicide attempts or suicidal ideation. On the contrary, some of the suicide attempters even strongly rejected the concept of suicide following their NDE.(8)
Not only do non-distressing NDEs tend to decrease or eliminate the fear of death, but they are likely to lead to other beneficial consequences as well. Natasha, Tassell-Matamuaa, and Lindsaya (8) describe the consequences as follows:
When integrated appropriately, overwhelmingly positive psychological outcomes tend to result, and can include: greater concern or compassion for other people; enhanced appreciation and subjective quality of life; positive attitude towards self; enhanced sense of self-identity; reduced consumerism and materiality; reduced negative affect and cognitions; and a greater ‘thirst’ for knowledge.
Although these consequences are generally viewed as positive, partners, family members, and friends may struggle to accept the altered perspectives and accompanying behavior of the person who survived this life-changing experience. For some people, this altered perspective on life and the accompanying behavioral changes have even led to divorce.
Will the induction of NDEs ever become available as a technique to alleviate the fear of death? Although this possibility is being explored, there is still a lack of understanding as to whether it can be a safe or effective therapeutic method. Below are examples of techniques that are explored to induce NDE-like states:
For inducing floating sensations such as in OBEs, seeing a tunnel or passageway, or having encounters with (spiritual) beings that are life-like, researchers experiment with techniques that induce lucid dreaming and wake-induced OBEs. Studies suggest lucid dreams activate the brain area known as the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), which is involved in OBEs.
For experiencing tunnel vision, feeling cosmic unity/oneness, and meeting entities, holotropic breathwork (a deep meditation method) is being studied. According to Dr. Stanislav Grof, hyperventilation can likewise induce altered states.
For inducing dissociation of the mind from the body, timelessness and peacefulness, a sensory deprivation tank is often used. Through this technique brainwave activity will be reduced to theta waves, as occurs during deep meditation.
For experiencing features such as seeing one’s life replayed or a bright, warm, and loving light, experiencing encounters of (higher) beings, or strong sensorial elements (colors, hearing), the use of psychedelics are studied.
These techniques, however, only induce features of an NDE instead of an actual NDE and might, therefore, not have the same powerful after-effects.
Even though an NDE can have positive effects on a person’s fear of death and other psychological aspects, it can also be quite distressing and confusing. For people who are struggling with having had an NDE, no specialized therapy model is currently available. In the not-too-distant future, NDE-focused therapies might be developed, as an increasing number of people are experiencing NDEs due to improved survival rates through modern medical techniques.
For the time being, if you have had an NDE and are looking for support to help you deal with the experience, you can pursue therapy that offers evidence-based techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and somatic experiencing. Through these techniques, therapists can help you to process your emotions, manage anxiety, and develop healthy coping mechanisms. You can also visit the website of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). This organization provides information about NDEs and supports those who have had near-death experiences.
Until a more specialized therapy becomes available, for those who are struggling with a crippling fear of death, evidenced based psychotherapy is also recommended.
References:
D. P. Sulmasy. (2013). Ethos, Mythos, and Thanatos: Spirituality and Ethics at the End of Life. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 46(3), 447–451.
Blomstrom, Mackenzie; Burns, Andrew; Larriviere, Daniel; Penberthy, Jennifer Kim. (2020). Addressing fear of death and dying: traditional and innovative interventions. Mortality, (), 1–20. doi:10.1080/13576275.2020.1810
Nelson K. (2015). Near-death experiences — Neuroscience perspectives on near-death experiences. Mo Med, 112(2), 92–8. PMID: 25958650; PMCID: PMC6170042.
Baily, L. W. (ed.), & Yates, J. (ed.) (1996). The Near-Death Experience: A Reader, edited by Lee W. Bailey and Jenny Yates. New York, NY: Routledge
Tassell-Matamua, N. A. (2014). Near-Death Experiences and the Psychology of Death. Journal of Death and Dying, 68(3), 259–277. doi:10.2190/OM.68.3.e
Holden, J. & Greyson, B., & James, D. (2009). The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Mortality. 15.
Cassol, H., Martial, C., Annen, J., Martens, G., Charland-Verville, V., Majerus, S., & Laureys, Steven. (2019). A systematic analysis of distressing near-death experience accounts. Memory, (), 1–8. doi:10.1080/09658211.2019.1626
Tassell-Matamua, N. A., & Lindsay, N. (2015). “I’m not afraid to die”: the loss of the fear of death after a near-death experience. Mortality, (), 1–17. doi:10.1080/13576275.2015.1043