An exploration of the roles of trauma and dissociation in mystical experiences and near-death experiences

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to corroborate the notion that mystical experiences and near-death experiences (NDE) are associated with trauma and dissociation and to test whether the prevalence of NDE is congruent across cultures. Among 100 university students who completed a 99-item questionnaire, 20 scored 7 or above on the NDE Scale. Furthermore, group comparisons showed that participants with either mystical experiences or NDE scored significantly higher than those without such experiences on all dissociative measures, but not on the trauma-related measures and absorption. The results support earlier findings implying that dissociation is a common feature in NDE and mystical experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma
• dissociation
• mystical experiences
• near-death experiences
• absorption

Acknowledgments

We thank Alinaghi Ghasemiannejad for his constructive feedback on the manuscript.