Banishing consciousness: the mystery of anaesthesia

[orogenicman]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21...hesia.html

The development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. It is one of the commonest medical procedures in the world, yet we still don't know how the drugs work. Perhaps this isn't surprising: we still don't understand consciousness, so how can we comprehend its disappearance?

More at the link.

[Anomalocaris]

untrue. Consciousness has been successfully banished with almost every copy of the bible read.

[Autumnlicious]

Sorry Chuck, but this flashed in my head when I read your post. Intonation and everything.

[Minimalist]

Science will keep looking until they find the answer.

[Welsh cake]

I experienced, or rather recall, being nothing after given sedatives. No different than a computer shutting down and rebooting.

Unconsciousness and/or lack of sensation is not the actual mystery, now evolving life-forms forming the 'illusion of consciousness' unnecessary to its own survival within a universe that is hostile to life regardless of whether it is self-aware of itself or not and its relationship to what it perceives as "reality" however is the mystery.

Consciousness is not reality though, or an accurate picture of our world, it is merely a perception, an 'interpretation' of reality, formed by whatever senses we access via our bodies. I imagine if we could see everything, that is, all frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum and not just visible light, we'd be blind, unable to differentiate any one thing from anything else. With it, you may grow and develop to love life, however consciousness can obviously be an abomination of annoyance if you have a grim outlook on life or are experiencing a pretty shitty life in general.

I personally think, our brains are so complex its little wonder a consciousness didn't form as a by-product, no different than our imaginations. Sadly when people are brain damaged by birth, disease, injury or malicious assault you see their personality alter substantially, they are no longer the same person and may never recover or interact with reality properly.

[Mister Agenda]

My experience as well, before that I had trouble imagining what oblivion would be like. Hours went by and I only perceived dropping off and waking up, seemingly only a moment later.