When Stalin died, he sat up, looked up, and raised a defiant fist towards Heaven. He then breathed his last. He cursed God, then he died.
Looks like God won.
If it is purely a biological response rather than a supernatural one, I wonder what survival of the fittest situation this could affect since you're neither surviving nor breeding at that point. Then I realized as social beings, those most likely near you at death are family members. Those who die screaming and thrashing are more likely to attract predators to their family, while those who die in a burst of endorphins are less likely to, thus more surviving relatives among those who die quietly.
Wouldn’t want to be him!
I had read that the dying Stalin suddenly opened his eyes and pointed fearfully at something past & above those around him, with a look of utter panic on his face before he suddenly died.
Some think Stalin was seeing the gates of Hell opening.
A book some 35 years ago told of the dying experiences of famous people, from the dark ages and forward. One such was Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist. As Moody’s spirit neared departure, he began to see and feel into the next world, and to describe what he was seeing and feeling. As he closed his eyes for the last time, his final words were, “Bliss.....bliss.....bliss....” My 10 year old sister Nancy’s passing was much the same. With parents and siblings around her bed, she described the wonders and people she was seeing and the euphoria coming over her. Then she told us all she loved us, and she breathed her last, with an angelic smile on her face. We’re talking eternity here folks. Let us make sure we’re in right relationship with our Creator. We slough it off at our own eternal peril.