Terminal Dream Hypothesis (TDH)

It's a well-known fact that time flows differently in dreams compared to reality, and this serves
as the starting point for my hypothesis. In this paper, I extrapolate this idea to the final stages of
life, leading to what I call the Terminal Dream Hypothesis (TDH). According to TDH, when
cerebral ischemia begins, it sets off an uncontrolled neurochemical cascade—involving spikes in
acetylcholine, dopamine, and possibly DMT. This creates a super-intense state much like REM
sleep. At the same time, the neural networks handling our sense of time sequence break down
quickly, causing a huge gap between what we feel subjectively and actual time. So, something
that lasts just seconds or minutes in the real world feels like an endless, vibrant, ongoing dream
to the person experiencing it, with the limbic system going into overdrive and cutting off outside
inputs. In short, TDH gives a straightforward, materialist take on near-death experiences (like
reviewing your life or feeling eternity) without needing any dualism. It comes with testable
predictions, such as spotting gamma oscillations on EEGs of dying patients that mimic REM
sleep, or linking survivors' stories to expected neurochemical patterns. This bridges the gap
between personal experiences and brain science, opening doors for real-world testing in labs and
clinics.