The medical standard for death has equated it with brain death since at least 1981, though arguably it started in the 1960s. The history of the definition of death[1] is fascinating.

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5570697/

I’m putting the current medical definition aside, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and who knows what the next centuries redefine. For the longest time in human history “clinical death” was almost always followed by permadeath.

As the person doing the dying you can’t rationalize it as “no worries, it’s just clinical, I’ll be back”. You die, it’s light out, later on, a blink for you, you recover and are told “you were clinically dead”. You experienced death for all intents and purposes because I don’t think there’s a cognitive process that allows you to differentiate the stages. Heck, deep sleep might be how death “feels” like.

Do people fear death (excluding suffering) because of the threshold itself or the FOMO? Missing on what would come next?

Fair enough, and I had the (mis?)fortune of watching folks go through that as an EMT.

For sure when clinical death starts (even if later reversed), some processes kick in that never would otherwise activate, totally agree. The commonality of near-death-experience suggests something very basal.

I had the misfortune to make some medical professionals watch me go through this :).

sorry to hear that and glad you are here to comment :)

These days I'm rather more concerned that a lot can come next.

The cessation of my sensory experience might be a very long time, but from my perspective random chance bringing me back would be instantaneous.