An encounter with death: a comparative thematic and content analysis of naturalistic DMT experiences and the near-death experience

When examining the comparability between DMT and NDEs at a fundamentally more nuanced level of qualitative content (as opposed to broad themes or questionnaire items), the two experiences clearly diverge. However, a minority of NDEs, which are themselves unique, do share significant content with DMT. Taken together, DMT could be considered an 'NDE-mimetic.' The weaker comparability is likely due not only to differences in context but also to the complex neural processes occurring near death, in which endogenous DMT may only play a small role. In light of this level of parallelism with NDEs, some potential clinical applications of DMT are also discussed.