[6] The name, according to de Grey, comes from the similarity of persons affected to hypnotised people, whose subconscious minds in the trance state prefer to resort to illogical explanations rather than abandon a deeply-held belief.
By achieving their goal of defeating the pro-aging trance and, by extension, aging, they would therefore also abolish an important aspect of their identity and the very circumstance that currently gives meaning to their lives.
For example, it is mentioned that this, just like the "deathism" denounced by Nick Bostrom, prevents an evaluation of the discussion beyond the binary view of "death bad, extended life good".
[20] Another bioethicist, Gregor Wolbring, agreed that longevity researchers reject the rhetoric of ending aging entirely, but contended that ramifications of the proposal raised complications.
[22] The described pro-aging attitude is compared to the Stockholm syndrome by anti-aging advocates in the context of examining possible reasons for rejecting life-prolonging technologies: just as hostages sympathise with their captors after a certain period of time, people come to terms with the idea that they will age and eventually die.
[23][24] The Russian computer scientist and biotechnologist Alex Zhavoronkov assumes that the cause of the pro-aging trance lies in the tendency of people not to want to get their hopes up unnecessarily.
However, since they do not consider it feasible or likely in their remaining lifetime, they try to deal with the terror caused by their own mortality through investing in a cultural worldview in the hope of achieving literal or symbolic immortality.