Impending danger can stimulate us, but danger with no way out numbs us, and we take flight into sleep, a sleep which protects us from what is unendurable. It is not a natural, refreshing sleep. It is the petrifying of all our senses, which makes us sick. Our eyes are open, but we no longer see anything. Our ears are open, but we are deaf and hear nothing. We are apathetic, and feel nothing. When danger threatens, we spontaneously and involuntarily "play dead."

Jurgen Moltmann, Walking with God in a Fragile World by James Langford, editor, Leroy S. Rouner, editor