[arctangent]

Julian Jaynes' book is of course relevant. [1]

Further to that, I've read on several occasions about lone survivors of disasters who report encountering a person who wasn't there who helped them to survive.

The most common I've encountered is the stereotypical tale of "mountain madness" [2] where an injured or lost climber receives help or guidance from an imaginary being (who presumably seemed quite real to them during their escape from peril).

Literature, fiction and cinema are all full of similar tales (not all in mountain scenarios) and so I expect that this "ability" is part of being human.

There would be an evolutionary advantage to be had if the brain was able to access some "hidden partition" containing recovery instructions during times of extreme stress.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

[2] https://consumer.healthday.com/fitness-information-14/climbi...

Edit: better [2]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6088769/

[sandworm101]

>>who presumably seemed quite real to them during their escape from peril

There is also the possibility that they in fact never perceived this person during the events, that their brain created the narrative after as a coping mechanism for the trauma. Unless we had footage of them at the time, the two scenarios are very difficult to distinguish.

Some war stories have paralleled this. Troops cut off from chain of command have talked spoken of non-existent leaders (officers, sergeants etc) giving them instructions. After the fact this can look like lies, made up stories to excuse some behavior. They may have actually perceived the individual, or they may only later remember that they perceived the individual. They did not consciously create the person, but nevertheless the person only appears in their minds after the events. Some 9/11 survivors spoke of being rescued by people who we now know did not actually exist. That doesn't mean the survivors don't truly remember them.

[zwkrt]

In the context of human experience I don’t really understand the difference between having a memory of a person helping and having an experience of a person helping. The imaginary person is imaginary and a coping mechanism either way, right?

[NetOpWibby]

I was sleepy but you’re last sentence snapped my eyes open. What an incredible concept.

[krisgenre]

Reminds of the movie Inception where Robert's subconscious mind is trained to protect itself from dream thiefs.

[amelius]

I think the brain may very well have some hidden parts. For example, when we dream, a different part of the brain comes up with a plot for the dream which we don't have control over. It's almost like the brain is being trained using an adversarial network.

[NetOpWibby]

Ugh, wake up and notice a typo.

[theli0nheart]

> The most common I've encountered is the stereotypical tale of "mountain madness" [2] where an injured or lost climber receives help or guidance from an imaginary being (who presumably seemed quite real to them during their escape from peril).

From the article you linked:

> the researchers believe that lack of oxygen and simply being completely dependent on oneself could trigger it.

Hypoxia can have bizarre effects on the body, but especially the brain. Anyone with chronic sleep apnea or who has dealt with hypoxia in any form can attest that the brain starts behaving in weird ways when it's deprived of oxygen.

[Fnoord]

> Literature, fiction and cinema are all full of similar tales (not all in mountain scenarios) and so I expect that this "ability" is part of being human.

Cast Away with Tom Hanks is an example of that. Not sure if The Terminal or Into The Wild or Martyrs also had that concept, but it would've fit.

I wonder if (extreme) trauma can cause people to become so-called 'paranormal'.