How could an illusion effect covering all senses scare someone to death?

The "Weird" spell in my world is basically a magical version of the US government's goals with the "MK Ultra" project from the 1950s: it induces a shared hallucination in every creature within a 9.1m radius of the spell's ground zero.

It manifests the victims' worst fears (and possibly combines them) as an implacable monster. The spell's effects are supposed to be strong enough to cause physical harm and even death, even though the monster itself is just an illusion, albeit one that can deceive all six senses (the sixth being magnetoreception).

Magic doesn't actually exists in my setting; it is just super technology (we're talking utility fog levels of super).

Is it actually possible to create an effect that can scare (almost) any sentient being to death?

posted about 5 years ago

Mephistopheles‭

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