Near-death experiences and the importance of transparency in subjectivity, ontology and epistemology

Abstract

I read with great interest and diligence the paper from Peinkhofer et al. regarding how near-death experiences (NDEs) could be understood as the evolutionary product of death feigning (thanatosis). The authors provided this rather novel and interesting hypothesis regarding the evolutionary origin of NDEs, a topic that has most definitely received little attention in research.Could there be anadaptative or survival benefit biologically justifying the rich, subjective perceptions of the NDE? The authors of the paper provide a straightforward approach with a predefined methodology to test their hypothesis. But after this point, the argumentation and evidence brought forward by their quite rigorous approach, in my humble opinion, is less than compelling.