[論文レビュー] "I Was Told to Come Back and Share This": Social Media-Based Near-Death Experience Disclosures as Expressions of Spiritual Beliefs

Yue Zhai, Yuxin Fang+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 12, 2026

Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs被引用数 0

ひとこと要約

Study analyzes 9,868 English-language TikTok NDE self-disclosure videos and their comment interactions to reveal that spiritual/religious framing is prevalent and linked to higher audience engagement, with insights for design of empathetic online spaces.

ABSTRACT

People who experienced near-death events often turn to personal expression as a way of processing trauma and articulating beliefs. While scholars have examined how individuals share near-death experiences (NDEs), limited research has explored how these narratives are communicated collaboratively on today's social media platforms. We analyzed 200 randomly sampled TikTok videos tagged with #nde and related hashtags. Content analysis revealed that individuals often use NDE narratives to articulate personal meaning, with spiritual and religious themes appearing in the majority of posts and serving as a means of exploring and making sense of personal spiritual perspectives. Consistent with this, analyses of comment sections reveal that videos containing spiritual themes tend to attract more engagement and foster deeper conversations around faith and meaning. Our findings offer insights into how online platforms facilitate community-level engagement with spirituality, and suggest implications for design of spaces that support shared expression and connection in specialized communities.

研究の動機と目的

• Investigate how NDE content is expressed in TikTok videos and what narrative forms creators use.
• Examine how NDE disclosures reflect users' cultural and religious backgrounds.
• Explore how creators and viewers co-construct meaning through comments and interactions in NDE videos.
• Identify visual and paratextual strategies used to present NDE narratives on TikTok.
• Provide design implications for platforms to support shared expression and empathetic communities.

提案手法

• Conducted a mixed-methods analysis of 200 randomly sampled NDE videos from a dataset of 1,017 identified NDE self-disclosures on TikTok.
• Applied grounded theory and multimodal discourse analysis to code narrative content into four frames (emotional, cognitive, religious/spiritual, supernatural).
• Categorized disclosures into Physiological Crisis Experiences (PCEs), NS-NDEs, and S-NDEs to capture spiritual content.
• Performed a functional-code analysis to identify six themes of purpose (e.g., identity clarification, self-expression, information sharing, resource gain, entertainment, emotional support).
• Conducted a parallel visual analysis to identify three patterns of disclosure (self-initiated, responding to comments, updating video series).
• Sampled and coded 1,943 comments from the 200 videos to identify eight thematic topics and assess engagement dynamics.]
• research_questions:[
• RQ1: How do creators express NDE content through video, and what narrative forms are used?
• RQ2: How do people express NDEs as reflections of their cultural and religious backgrounds?
• RQ3: How do creators engage with viewers and express beliefs through video comments?

Figure 1. Motivations of NDE TikTok Videos by Category

実験結果

リサーチクエスチョン

• RQ1 RQ1: How do creators express NDE content through video, and what narrative forms are used?
• RQ2 RQ2: How do people express NDEs as reflections of their cultural and religious backgrounds?
• RQ3 RQ3: How do creators engage with viewers and express beliefs through video comments?

主な発見

• Spiritual and religious themes consistently structure NDE disclosures, with S-NDEs forming distinct narrative patterns.
• Audiences engage more with videos containing spiritual themes, fostering deeper conversations around faith and meaning.
• Three visual-disclosure patterns emerge on TikTok: self-initiated posts, responses to viewer questions, and ongoing video series.
• Six functional themes describe why videos are made, including identity clarification, self-expression, information sharing, seeking help, entertainment, and providing emotional support.
• Comment analysis reveals eight topics, with religious belief, personal experiences, and gratitude being prominent engagement drivers.
• The study provides design implications for reducing context collapse and supporting empathetic, thanatosensitive online communities.

Figure 2. The associations between comment topics and video themes. Topics are in descending order of comment count.