Abstract
Near-death experiences are experiences associated with death or impending death. Those who have a near-death experience report viewing the world in a radically different way to how they did previously. These changes are especially true for those who had no religious convictions prior to their near-death experience. Such a shift in worldview has profound implications for individuals’ wellbeing—the equilibrium between challenging events and the ability to deal with them. Near-death survivors have to undergo a process of meaning-making as they re-evaluate their worldview in an attempt to make sense of their experience. Doing so can be beneficial for their wellbeing, and such persons often become ‘spiritual but not religious’. It is reasonable to assume that such phenomena will have been experienced by a larger proportion of the population in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. Hence, the question of wellbeing through meaning-making is salient. This paper therefore reports how near-death experiences come to shape the worldview of the non-religious. This paper also shows the impact that this has on the wellbeing of these individuals and the way in which they meaning-make as they pursue higher levels of wellbeing in their attempts to make sense of the world afresh. To do so, it compares a thematic analysis of 33 semi-structured interviews with UK and US citizens and inhabitants who have had a near-death experience.
Presenters
Alex FrySenior Lecturer in Social Sciences, School of Law and Society, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Religious Commonalities and Differences
KEYWORDS
Near-death experience, Wellbeing, Worldview formation, Spiritual but not religious, Sociology
