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Can you cause your own death by the sheer power of your will? Is it possible to command your heart to stop beating? Without any physical act of suicide or deliberate starvation, can a human being die just because they wish to?

While there is plenty of folklore surrounding this topic, the science is disputable. There is, however, something called the nocebo effect, which is the psychosomatic physical damage to a person involved in a clinical study who believes that something harmless (like a placebo sugar pill) can harm them. In one unfortunate drug trial, a subject swallowed 26 placebo antidepressants in order to commit suicide and his blood pressure dropped dangerously low. The patient survived.

To explore the idea of expiring at will, we reached out to a neurologist with a background in exposing medical hoaxes, a philosopher and expert on death, and an author of books on psychology and spirituality.

--Steven Luper: Philosopher specializing in Epistemology and Ethics at Trinity University authored the entry on death in the Stanford Encyclopedia, author of The Philosophy of Death
Let me see if I have your question right. You aren't asking whether you can (a) choose to die and (b) do something (or omit to do something) as a result (and as a means) that will quickly be fatal, such as jumping off of a building or opting not to take your heart medication. You are asking whether choosing to die is itself fatal, or perhaps whether choosing to die will be fatal if accompanied by the right state of mind, such as (perhaps) a strong and sincere desire to die.

Well then, as far as I know choosing to die is not fatal. There are some physiological processes by which the body kills some of its cells. This is apoptosis.

But I am not aware of any mechanism by which choosing to die will be fatal.
--Dr. Simon Galperin PhD: Neurologist with a PhD of Neurology and Physical Therapy, editor of Fraud Catalog, an "anti-sharlatan" website reporting on fraudalent medical, scientific and technological claims and media coverage
I have never encountered actual cases of this.

There are documented instances of patients who fall into a deep depression while they're experiencing other serious illnesses. They feel as if they are going to die, and eventually they do, but it is difficult to determine how this is related. It's usually because they are in the final stages of their disease. They could potentially feel it coming.

All life-threatening diseases have final stages: diseases of the heart, diseases of the lungs, any disease that affects life functions such as breathing and blood circulation, any advancing toxicity. Patients experience signs of imminent death, for example, increased exhaustion. They feel doomed. They are likely to die in the near future, but it is impossible to predict their exact date of death, even by their treating physician.

This is a subjective definition. Sometimes a person is dying consciously, but sometimes the illness confuses consciousness and their experience of their condition.

However, in the scientific community, there are no cases of people stopping a life function, like breathing or the beating of their heart, by their will alone. When people talk of yogis stopping their heart, for example, it is passed on as a verbal account. All these incidents happen outside of proper clinical trials. There is no way of knowing what actually happened.
--Steve Taylor PhD: A senior lecturer in psychology, Leeds Beckett University, UK, author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality
Human beings have more control over our physiological functioning that is generally believed. Our thoughts and attitudes have a strong effect on the health of our bodies. For example, it is well known that a strong sense of purpose has a powerful positive effect on physical health. The psychologist Viktor Frankl was convinced - based on his experiences in concentration camps during the Second World War - that a strong sense of purpose could keep people alive, and that the loss of purpose could lead to illness and death. Frankl believed that a "loss of hope" could lead to a person "giving up" and allowing themselves to die. So a person's intention and will can certainly help to determine their survival or death. Frankl was convinced that a "loss of hope" could lead to depression and possibly even to death. There are many cases of people who are seriously ill, in the process of dying, who keep themselves alive in order to experience specific events - such as the marriage of a daughter, a final Christmas or a birthday. Once the event has passed, the person "allows' themselves to die.

In a different context, there are cases of Indian yogis who have developed a powerful control of their physiology, and are able to massively slow down their breath, heart rate and blood pressure and other physiological functions. These feats sound remarkable, but we're all capable of doing something similar, at least to a lesser degree. This is what the process of "biofeedback" is about - learning to consciously change our physiological activity. The idea that we can "will" ourselves to die could be seen as an extension of that.