A group of scientists from Denmark and Belgium, in a recent study, proposed the hypothesis of thanatosis as the evolutionary basis of near-death experiences (NDE). Thanatosis is a simulation of death: immobility and silence are natural reactions to danger experienced by many living creatures, from insects to rabbits, rats, and humans. This is, first of all, a way to scare off predators that avoid carrion. Secondly, sacrificing oneself for the sake of the group’s survival also has an evolutionary value.
Intrigued by these arguments, the American researcher Kevin Nelson from the University of Kentucky, published an article that expands upon them. As Nelson adds, the thread running through many stories about clinical death is atony – or, in other words, loss of strength and immobility. Almost all reported cases of NDE occur when the person is lying down, rather than sitting upright, standing, walking or running.
The main feature of NDEs, however, is the onset of REM sleep (the phase of rapid eye movement). In people who are on the verge of death, the processes that are responsible for inducing this phase are activated. Moreover, the simple belief that a person is facing death is enough to generate experiences that are almost indistinguishable from NDEs.
The mechanisms of REM sleep also have a connection with cardiopulmonary function. Its stimulation, as Nelson explains, reflexively triggers REM in animals and strongly promotes REM in humans. This is, therefore, another study confirming the connection between the states that we call phase states (a term combining lucid dreams, near-death and out-of-body experiences, etc.).
The article was published in July 2021 in the journal Brain Communications.
