2026-10-14T08:18:39Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33949837 2026-09-21T05:34:20Z category_173 portal_316 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Table 1_Self-reported near-death and near-death-like experiences in a Chinese online sample: an exploratory mixed-methods study.docx Yufei Xue (4782441) Fangting Wang (14194409) Chunyan Yang (261158) Runzhi Zhang (183438) Huiyu Zou (14308569) Yiyun Zhang (2291920) Steven Laureys (62057) Haibo Di (3838246) Applied Psychology Chinese culture consciousness mixed-methods study NDE-C scale near-death experiences near-death-like experiences thematic analysis Introduction<p>Near-death experiences (NDEs) are subjective experiences reported during actual or perceived life-threatening situations, whereas near-death-like experiences may occur in non-life-threatening altered states. Empirical data from Chinese populations remain limited, particularly regarding culturally specific narrative content.</p>Methods<p>This exploratory mixed-methods study examined self-reported NDEs and NDE-like experiences in a Chinese online convenience sample. Participants recruited through Chinese social media completed an online survey comprising sociodemographic questions, the Chinese Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale, and an open-ended narrative question. Quantitative analysis included 63 participants: 23 NDE cases, 25 NDE-like cases, and 15 below-threshold comparison cases. All classifications were based on self-report. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on 48 valid narratives.</p>Results<p>Self-reported NDE and NDE-like narratives shared recurrent features, including out-of-body experiences, bright light, bodily sensations, emotional changes, and altered perceptual content. Compared with NDE-like narratives, NDE narratives showed descriptively higher frequencies of peaceful emotions, encounters with entities, deceased loved ones or spiritual entities, personal insights, panoramic life review, and culturally specific Chinese imagery. Chinese cultural motifs were infrequent overall, occurring in four of 23 NDE narratives and one of 25 NDE-like narratives. These motifs included Guimen Pass, Black and White Impermanence, Lord Chenghuang, reincarnation, karmic judgment, and underworld-related imagery.</p>Discussion<p>Because this study relied on retrospective self-report, an online convenience sample, and unverified medical contexts, the findings should be considered preliminary and hypothesis-generating. The findings provide localized exploratory evidence that Chinese self-reported NDE narratives may combine recurrent NDE-related features with culturally specific symbolic content.</p> 2026-09-21T05:34:20Z Dataset Dataset 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1935246.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Table_1_Self-reported_near-death_and_near-death-like_experiences_in_a_Chinese_online_sample_an_exploratory_mixed-methods_study_docx/33949837 CC BY 4.0