The Near-Death Experience and Suicidal Ideation

Abstract

The near-death experience (NDE) most generally refers to a state of altered consciousness with various features that can occur during real or presumed near-death circumstances and/or life-threatening incidents. Some NDEs are associated with a nonfatal suicide attempt. This paper discusses how a belief by suicide attempters that their NDEs are a true portrayal of objective spiritual reality can at least in some cases be positively associated with a persistence or increase of suicidal ideation and on occasion lead to further suicide attempts, while also exploring why at other times such a belief may reduce the risk of suicide. The formulation of suicidal ideation associated with NDEs among some of those who did not initially try to kill themselves is also explored. Various examples related to NDEs and suicidal ideation are provided and discussed. Furthermore, this paper also offers some theoretical insights related to this matter and points out some specific therapeutic concerns based on this discussion.

Suicide Following a Near-Death Experience

“…This paper has provided four examples of individuals who had an NDE and then sometime afterward died by suicide. With the recent research showing that people who have an NDE sometimes not only suffer from active suicidal ideation, but even try to kill themselves afterward (King, 2023), the finding that some such suicide attempts post NDE are fatal should not be surprising. This, of course, makes statistical sense because well over half of all fatal suicide attempts are the individual’s first and only suicide attempt (Bostwick et al, 2016), which may have also been the case in some of the four accounts examined above.…”

“…In addition, Silverman and Berman (2014) have warned, “When passive SI [suicidal ideation] is expressed, clinicians see less risk than when active SI is expressed. The reality is that there is simply no empirical support for this supposition.” Unfortunately, there have not been any studies directly related to passive suicidal ideation and NDEs due to a general unawareness among researchers about the necessity of seriously considering this (King, 2023). This becomes especially relevant because there are many indications of this found in NDE self-reports.…”

“…In my more recent study (King, 2023), I suggested that NDEs can result in antisuicide attitudes for many because of a cognitive reappraisal of one's self-worth with a sense of feeling loved and/or a renewed sense of purpose in this world, and/or fear of the possible consequences of death by suicide, usually based on the content of the NDE that they believe to be a real incursion into the afterlife. That study, however, also pointed out that many people still experience active or passive suicidal ideation with a desire to return to those afterlife conditions and that even the positive antisuicidal aftereffects that many experience are not always sufficient to prevent suicide attempts.…”

“…In addition to these quantitative studies just reviewed, my recent study (King, 2023) has noted dozens of anecdotal self-reports, indicating that people who have NDEs do in fact contemplate and attempt suicide afterward. With all this evidence for active suicidal ideation and nonfatal suicide attempts after NDEs that is now apparent in the research, based on known suicide-related statistics, it is only logical to deduce that some suicides might occur after an NDE.…”

“…99–101; Ring & Franklin, 1982; Sutherland, 1990). However, this position has been mostly based on (1) various methods of inference from experient self-reports or questionnaires that did not directly ask them if they had contemplated suicide at any time post NDE; (2) responses to questions meant to measure antisuicidal attitudes in general without the use of recognized suicide risk assessment instruments – but which also did not directly ask the experient if they had contemplated suicide at any time post NDE; (3) informal naturalistic observations during interactions with experients; and (4) some isolated case studies that did address the issue more directly (for more information, see King, 2023). It should be noted, however, that there has been some rare dissenting voices, such as Atwater (2007), who once stated:Just because an individual has had a near-death experience does not prevent him or her from considering and perhaps attempting suicide at a later date.…”