Near-death experiences occur across cultures, suggesting a biological basis. This work tests the hypothesis that thanatosis, or death-feigning—a last-resort defense seen in animals from insects to humans—is the evolutionary origin of near-death experiences. Thanatosis is a highly preserved survival strategy. Humans attacked by animal, human, or modern predators can exhibit both thanatosis and near-death experiences, and their phenomenology and effects overlap. The evidence indicates thanatosis is the evolutionary foundation of near-death experiences, with the shared biological purpose of survival. Language may have transformed these stereotyped death-feigning events into the rich perceptions of near-death experiences, extending them to non-predatory situations.
This commentary criticizes a recent paper by Parnia and colleagues that proposed guidelines for studying death and near-death experiences. The authors argue that the original paper contains omissions and knowledge gaps, including incorrect neurological claims about brain death and misunderstandings about consciousness terminology. While the commentators agree that research on near-death experiences needs a framework, they contend that the Parnia paper is misleading and, despite its intentions, actually impedes scientific understanding of near-death experiences and the neural mechanisms of the dying brain.