The internal narrative is important, but yeah, the NDE is just a side effect of trying to maintain that narrative when the stage falls to pieces around you. We

The internal narrative is important, but yeah, the NDE is just a side effect of trying to maintain that narrative when the stage falls to pieces around you. We hold onto that narrative of self through some astonishing events. Instead of "oh, the visual cortex is dying, so it's trying to see through the other sensory systems, triggering memories", we have a white tunnel narrative[1], but in the white tunnel our persona remains intact. We don't need to start simulating the outcomes of having our simulation / sensory system fall apart - we can keep going, if we make it. Simulating the failure of your simulation capacity, that's a lot of complexity the organism doesn't need. Again, just shooting my mouth off here. Some observations as science gadfly. [1] Psychedelics introduce similar paths to having mystic narratives, and have been used as such for at least thousands of years. Probably longer than that, judging from their usage among even primitive mammals.