Michael Pascal, Luke David, Robinson Oliver
School of Human Sciences, Old Royal Naval College, Centre for Mental Health, University of Greenwich, Greenwich, United Kingdom.
Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, Centre for Psychedelic Research, London, United Kingdom.
Front Psychol. 2025 Mar 5;16:1532937. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1532937. eCollection 2025.
Classical near-death experiences (NDEs) refer to states of disconnected consciousness characterised by a range of features occurring in the context of being close to death. Various psychedelic substances, such as dimethyltryptamine (DMT), consistently replicate NDE features and may be considered 'near-death- experiences.' However, a systematic qualitative analysis comparing the specifics of content with the broader themes of both psychedelic and NDEs has yet to be conducted.
We report the third thematic and content analysis of the DMT experience from a naturalistic field study, focusing on themes related to death and dying. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews, this analysis is then directly compared, qualitatively and in terms of content frequency, with a novel extension of a previous thematic analysis of 34 written NDE narratives.
The 'canonical NDE themes' identified across the DMT experiences included Translocation, Bright Light(s), Sense of Dying, The Void, Disembodiment, Tunnel-like Structures, Light Being-esque Entities, Deceased Family, Life Review-like, and Hyper-empathic Experiences. A total of 95% of participants reported at least one of these. Twelve 'less typical NDE motifs' were also noted. Five classical NDE features were entirely absent from DMT, while DMT exhibited an even broader array of experience features that were absent from NDEs. DMT clearly shares a more basic phenomenological structure with NDEs but shows differences in the prevalence of certain features. Furthermore, DMT did not present any immediately recognisable linear sequencing of themes. Overall, DMT is distinctly unique in its qualitative content, characterised by its more prodigious and stereotypical nature, which includes kaleidoscopic, extraterrestrial, transcultural, fluctuating, and overwhelming elements.
When examining the comparability between DMT and NDEs at a fundamentally more nuanced level of qualitative content (as opposed to broad themes or questionnaire items), the two experiences clearly diverge. However, a minority of NDEs, which are themselves unique, do share significant content with DMT. Taken together, DMT could be considered an 'NDE-mimetic.' The weaker comparability is likely due not only to differences in context but also to the complex neural processes occurring near death, in which endogenous DMT may only play a small role. In light of this level of parallelism with NDEs, some potential clinical applications of DMT are also discussed.
经典濒死体验（NDEs）指的是意识分离状态，其特征是在濒死情境中出现一系列特征。各种致幻物质，如二甲基色胺（DMT），始终能重现濒死体验的特征，可被视为“濒死体验”。然而，尚未对致幻体验和濒死体验的具体内容细节与更广泛主题进行系统的定性分析。
我们报告了一项自然主义实地研究中对DMT体验的第三次主题和内容分析，重点关注与死亡和临终相关的主题。基于36次半结构化访谈，然后将该分析在质量和内容频率方面与之前对34篇书面濒死体验叙述进行的主题分析的新扩展直接进行比较。
在DMT体验中确定的“典型濒死体验主题”包括移位、亮光、濒死感、虚空、脱体、隧道状结构、类光存在实体、已故家人、类似生命回顾和超共情体验。95%的参与者报告了这些主题中的至少一个。还注意到了12个“不太典型的濒死体验主题”。DMT体验中完全没有五个经典濒死体验特征，而DMT展现出一系列濒死体验中没有的更广泛的体验特征。DMT显然与濒死体验共享更基本的现象学结构，但在某些特征的普遍性上存在差异。此外，DMT没有呈现出任何可立即识别的主题线性序列。总体而言，DMT在定性内容上明显独特，其特点是更丰富和刻板，包括万花筒般、外星、跨文化、波动和压倒性的元素。
在从根本上更细致入微的定性内容层面（与广泛主题或问卷项目相对）审视DMT和濒死体验之间的可比性时，这两种体验明显不同。然而，少数本身独特的濒死体验确实与DMT共享大量内容。综合来看，DMT可被视为一种“濒死体验模拟物”。可比性较弱可能不仅是由于背景差异，还由于濒死时发生的复杂神经过程，其中内源性DMT可能只起很小的作用。鉴于与濒死体验的这种平行程度，还讨论了DMT的一些潜在临床应用。
