The near-death experience (NDE) as an inherited predisposition: Possible genetic, epigenetic, neural and symbolic mechanisms.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) likely arose from a pre-adaptation that allowed early humans to have self-reflective awareness and experience specialized states of consciousness, enabling flexible responses to life-threatening situations. This predisposition probably originated and persists through multi-factorial biological, social, and symbolic processes, shaped by direct, indirect, or neutral selection. The paper reviews evolutionary models, neural mechanisms including limbic system and neocortex integration, and epigenetic inheritance, arguing that NDEs are a higher cognitive trait influenced by complex dynamic systems. It contrasts NDEs with similar experiences in dreams and trance, and calls for improved methodology and field studies to clarify genetic, epigenetic, and social contributions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The paper is divided into four parts. In Part I, I review principle NDE models, important recent research findings and limitations of NDE research I remark on the absence of consensus on an explanatory model of NDEs. Part II begins with an overview of NDE evolutionary thinking up until now. I define an NDE predisposition as a specialized kind of higher cognitive trait and argue that this predisposition probably originated from a pre-adaptation that permitted early hominins to have self-reflective awareness and experience specialized states of consciousness involving complex mental imagery ensuring flexible adaptive responses to unpredictable or life-threatening situations. I argue that a model of evolutionary dynamics underlying an NDE predisposition must be contextualized in a more general theory that views body-brain-environment as a dynamic complex system influenced by biological, psychological and symbolic processes. I describe evolutionary scenarios that may have led to the origin and persistence of an NDE predisposition in populations through direct, indirect or neutral selection involving both biological and nonbiological inheritance mechanisms. Specifically, I examine the evolutionary dynamics of an NDE predisposition from the perspectives of multi-factorial fitness landscapes, the neuronal replicator hypothesis, socio-cultural, behavioral and symbolic inheritance systems. I contrast NDEs reported in the context of lifethreatening situations to phenomenologically similar experiences that frequently take place in non-life-threatening contexts such as dreams and in trance. I examine claims of spiritual and psychological changes following both pleasant and frightening NDEs in the context of different evolutionary scenarios. In Part III I discuss possible neural mechanisms underlying evolutionary dynamics of an NDE predisposition. Topics covered include heritable modules that solve problems related to survival, implications of functional integration of the limbic system and neocortex, the concept of brain-to-brain replication of semantic information as a pre-adaptation required for socio-cultural transmission of NDE narratives as memes, and the possible roles of epigenetic mechanisms in shaping the inheritance and transmission of an NDE predisposition. In Part IV I critique the various evolutionary scenarios discussed in the paper and argue that an NDE predisposition probably originated and persists through the operation of multi-factorial biological, social and symbolic processes that shape inheritance. I argue that an NDE predisposition could have resulted from direct or indirect selection or both direct and indirect selection depending on factors that shape evolutionary dynamics of different populations at different times. Finally, I make recommendations for improvements in methodology in near-death research broadly, and propose field studies that may clarify the relative contributions of genetic, epigenetic and social mechanisms influencing the evolutionary dynamics of an NDE predisposition.