Spontaneous mediumship experiences: A neglected aftereffect of near-death experiences

2014 Journal of Near-Death Studies  
In talking with near-death experiencers (NDErs), we had encountered cases of what we called spontaneous mediumship experiences (SMEs) in which the NDEr experienced an uninvited visit by a deceased person who asked the NDEr to convey a message to another living person. We were unable to find reference to this phenomenon in the existing NDE literature. In this article, we present a brief case study and results of an exploratory quantitative study of SMEs among NDErs. We created a 38-item online
more » ... rvey and recruited adult participants primarily through the International Association for Near-Death Studies' approximately 45 local U.S. groups. The 89 participants were predominantly female White non-Latina/o. Whereas 15% of participants reported at least one SME prior to their first or only NDE, 56% reported at least one following it. Participants reporting deeper NDEs were significantly more likely to report at least one post-NDE SME, with a medium effect. Number of reported post-NDE SMEs ranged from 1 to over 20. Of those who reported degree of distress related to their SMEs, only 4% indicated very or extremely distress-JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES ful. Of participants who responded, 28% reported having sought help with their SMEs, 62% reported they had found at least one helpful coping strategy, and the most frequent source of helpful coping strategies was reportedly personal experience. We discuss implications of these findings for healthcare providers working with NDErs and for consciousness researchers. Based on our results, further research, both quantitative and qualitative, seems warranted regarding this apparently heretofore uninvestigated NDE aftereffect.
doi:10.17514/jnds-2014-33-2-p67-85. fatcat:4vmaapg2hzbchlgm3nd4zf3a6u