ArticleBrain sciences2021
Losing the Self in Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of Ego-Dissolution.
Article in Brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors associated with post-traumatic growth in severe COVID-19 patients discharged from intensive care: the influence of near-death experiences.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Role of Psychedelics in Contemporary Psychological and Interdisciplinary Inquiry.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Review
- A neuroscientific model of near-death experiences.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2025Review
- Measuring transformative virtual reality experiences in children's drawings.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- On the varieties of conscious experiences: Altered Beliefs Under Psychedelics (ALBUS).Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
- Within-subject comparison of near-death and psychedelic experiences: acute and enduring effects.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2024Article
- Induced Coma, Death, and Organ Transplantation: A Physiologic, Genetic, and Theological Perspective.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Exploring the needs and barriers for death education in China: Getting answers from heart transplant recipients' inner experience of death.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Chinese translation and validation of the Near-Death Experience Content scale.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Cross-validation of the ego dissolution scale: implications for studying psychedelics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- The ego in psychedelic drug action - ego defenses, ego boundaries, and the therapeutic role of regression.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
- Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Many people who have had a near-death experience (NDE) describe, as part of it, a disturbed sense of having a "distinct self". However, no empirical studies have been conducted to explore the frequency or intensity of these effects. We surveyed 100 NDE experiencers (Near-Death-Experience Content [NDE-C] scale total score ≥27/80). Eighty participants had their NDEs in life-threatening situations and 20 had theirs not related to life-threatening situations. Participants completed the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI) and the Ego-Inflation Inventory (EII) to assess the experience of ego dissolution and inflation potentially experienced during their NDE, respectively. They also completed the Nature-Relatedness Scale (NR-6) which measures the trait-like construct of one's self-identification with nature. Based on prior hypotheses, ratings of specific NDE-C items pertaining to out-of-body experiences and a sense of unity were used for correlational analyses. We found higher EDI total scores compared with EII total scores in our sample. Total scores of the NDE-C scale were positively correlated with EDI total scores and, although less strongly, the EII and NR-6 scores. EDI total scores were also positively correlated with the intensity of OBE and a sense of unity. This study suggests that the experience of dissolved ego-boundaries is a common feature of NDEs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.