4 ms·

"Evidence". The measured activity was the same as of a dream state. "Evidence" that life is a dream?!

• arcticbull 5y ago
  More likely evidence your brain produces a ton of DMT when you’re about to kick the bucket and you go out in one heck of a psychedelic drug trip. [1] [1] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-21660-002 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-21660-002
  • mettamage 5y ago
    Why are we evolved to do this?
    • robinduckett 5y ago
      Probably just in case the thing that would have made us die doesn't actually make us die so we don't fully process the horrifically traumatic thing that caused us to almost die
      • xcambar 5y ago
        In case you end up not dying, it makes it memorable enough so that you won't reiterate the action causing you to almost die. "Oh sh*t, that was traumatic. I'll never eat these gorgeous little berries if they caused that". On the other hand... "maybe if I take just a bit less, I won't almost die but just have a great trip". Hence, psychedelics.
        • zikduruqe 5y ago
          Stoned Ape Theory? https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/stoned-ape-hypothesis.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/stoned-ape-...
        • mrleinad 5y ago
          Bill Hicks: https://youtu.be/Sb5EjflughU?t=147 https://youtu.be/Sb5EjflughU?t=147
        • jason0597 5y ago
          I don't think that would apply if you were e.g. a Greek soldier and you were impaled by Persian warriors
          • xcambar 5y ago
            Certainly but it would only invalidate my point if I had stated it as universally true.
    • drclau 5y ago
      There’s no way that natural selection selected for this, simply because, well, after you die you won’t have offspring to inherit it. It is just a side effect of some other mechanism that likely has a use during our lifetime.
      • mettamage 5y ago
        What do you think of the other replies?
        • TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
          I read this quickly as "What do you think of the other reptiles?"
    • Teletio 5y ago
      When your brain dies, depending on what the issue is, your brain no longer works under normal circumstances. If your heart stops, oxygen is going down, it could just mean that your brain regularitory features stop working as designed and it's firering more random. More random / lsd / drugs can give you weird effects. Optical, sensorical etc. illusions.
    • mensetmanusman 5y ago
      Well, does it matter? Every ‘we evolved X’ statement is tautological, and is more akin to bringing up the weather. Until we can run control variables over billions of years…
  • mhitza 5y ago
    > The final section explores whether NDE and DMT experiences have a sufficient degree of phenomenological similarity to justify a causal role for DMT in the production of NDEs and concludes that such similarity is lacking. From me reading the abstract, doesn't seem like it. But I haven't read the paper, and don't know what "phenomenological similarity" is either. It would be cool to think that we could trick our brains to do that on demand, without having to experience a near death situation! I can already imagine the headlines, "Shamans hate him! Learn this one trick how you can too..."