The Structure and Function of NDEs: An Algorithmic Reincarnation Hypothesis

The Structure and Function of NDEs: An Algorithmic Reincarnation Hypothesis

by Kevin Williams

While much of the discourse has focused on the phenomenology of NDEs – the tunnel, the light, the life review – far less attention has been paid to their possible evolutionary and functional significance. In this article, Todd Murphy proposes a novel hypothesis: that NDEs operate as an algorithmic process that transitions a person’s final state of consciousness into a nonrandom, structured sequence culminating in the so-called “point of no return.” This process, Murphy argues, serves an adaptive purpose – reinforcing behaviors conducive to survival and reproduction through the mechanisms of reincarnation.

ABSTRACT: Hypothesizes that a near-death experience (NDE) is the subjective experience of having the state of consciousness in which a person experiences the last moment of his or her life being turned, in stages, into the state of consciousness experienced as the “point of no return.” The life review is interpreted as a review of the states of consciousness experienced during our lives. Our responses to reviewing our own behaviors while in specific states reinforces and classifies them into those to repeat in future lives and those to avoid. We examine a modification of the traditional doctrine of reincarnation that takes into account biological and cultural evolution. This allows an understanding of how the attributes of NDEs could have undergone selection even though all opportunities for mating have already passed at the time of death.