What happens to my soul when I’m under deep anesthesia?

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GEddie said:
Not really. Asleep, there is dreaming and subconsciousness, neither of which occur under general anesthesia.

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Plus, if someone were to try and cut you open and operate while you were sleeping, you WOULD wake up and definitely feel the pain.
 
Della said:
Yes, it’s like the engine is running but the wiring to the starter has been cut off, to put it in mechanical terms.
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Or, rather, the motor is running but there is a Denver boot on one wheel.

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laocmo said:
I should think that if my soul is separate from my body and my thinking mind that it would have remained awake and alert during my deep anesthesia. And it should remember what took place even though my brain‘s awareness was shut down. It makes me think that my “soul” is just my thinking process, my mind, and not some special thing. Is the soul by itself aware of anything?

The awareness a person has is apparently created by some brain process that can be shut off. If the soul does not have some special awareness of its own, separate from the mind, then it would seem when the mind dies the soul is left with nothing but that black void experienced in deep anesthesia. How could such an inactive soul experience any life after death? laocmo
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“Awareness” is indeed a body process. No big surprise there. Almost all of what we are aware of comes from our bodies and body senses.

It is governed by the brain stem, just above the back of the neck, which also governs vitalisms such as your breathing and muscle tone.

But awareness per se is not the mind.

If you suffered a neck knock, you would black out (lose awareness), but your mind, having gone into an abeyance, would resume once your body recovered from the shock.

If you died (say the blow broke your neck rather than just rattling it), you would never again be “aware” from inside your human body, but your mind would resume from your spiritual body in the next life.

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Della said:
Denver boot? I don’t know what that is, but I’ll take your word for it. 😃
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A Denver boot is a heavy metal lock over a wheel, used by some police forces to disable cars belonging to traffic violators until a fine is paid.

I mentioned it because it is a means of disabling the “process” (movement) the way anesthetics disable a mind, without physical damage occurring.

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GEddie said:
A Denver boot is a heavy metal lock over a wheel, used by some police forces to disable cars belonging to traffic violators until a fine is paid.

I mentioned it because it is a means of disabling the “process” (movement) the way anesthetics disable a mind, without physical damage occurring.

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I see. I’ve heard those called tire locks and wheel locks but not Denver boots. Not here in MN, that is. 😉

Yes, that or tire spikes that disable a car’s ability to move, as well. Of course they’re metaphors for the same thing–the inactivity of the brain during anesthesia. 👍
 
The human mind is mostly unconscious. What goes on in the unconscious mind is a bit of a mystery. Again, it’s may be a big error to assume that no pain is registering somewhere in the unconscious mind while under anesthesia.
 
Robert_Sock said:
The human mind is mostly unconscious. What goes on in the unconscious mind is a bit of a mystery. Again, it’s may be a big error to assume that no pain is registering somewhere in the unconscious mind while under anesthesia.
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Yes, it may be that the brain is merely disconnected from it, as I once experienced on pain meds. I could still sense pain, but I wasn’t “plugged into” it. Odd sensation.
 
Robert_Sock said:
The human mind is mostly unconscious. What goes on in the unconscious mind is a bit of a mystery. Again, it’s may be a big error to assume that no pain is registering somewhere in the unconscious mind while under anesthesia.
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A professor once said that most of what occurs in our minds is “under the hood,” because it simply does not fit into the consciousness.

While conscious, most of our mind is employed using the eyes, nose, limbs, skin, etc.

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I’d imagine that pain does not “register” until it hits the conscious mind. That is why although pain will awaken you from sleep (a sleeping body is not fully unconscious), it will not awaken someone in a coma or anesthetised.

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GEddie said:
I’d imagine that pain does not “register” until it hits the conscious mind. That is why although pain will awaken you from sleep (a sleeping body is not fully unconscious), it will not awaken someone in a coma or anesthetised.

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Yes, that is correct, I think thats why a nerve block works so well, it literally stops the pain ‘signal’ from reaching the brain, so if they wanted to, a person could have a nerve block, and stay fully aware and awake for major surgery, but I would imagine just seeing this happen would be too much for most people (it would for me).
 
mikekle said:
Yes, that is correct, I think thats why a nerve block works so well, it literally stops the pain ‘signal’ from reaching the brain, so if they wanted to, a person could have a nerve block, and stay fully aware and awake for major surgery, but I would imagine just seeing this happen would be too much for most people (it would for me).
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Well, no, because in addition to blocking pain you also need to make sure the body does not move during surgery. This requires a very deep level of unconsciousness.

I imagine that the mind could remain conscious and a paralytic agent could be used (as it is) to prevent movement, but ISTM that the sensation of immobility would be even more stressful than pain to the subject, especially when they also became unable to breathe.

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laocmo said:
I should think that if my soul is separate from my body and my thinking mind that it would have remained awake and alert during my deep anesthesia. And it should remember what took place even though my brain‘s awareness was shut down. It makes me think that my “soul” is just my thinking process, my mind, and not some special thing. Is the soul by itself aware of anything?

The awareness a person has is apparently created by some brain process that can be shut off. If the soul does not have some special awareness of its own, separate from the mind, then it would seem when the mind dies the soul is left with nothing but that black void experienced in deep anesthesia. How could such an inactive soul experience any life after death? laocmo
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Interesting… Your soul separated from your body… And, I guess, you, somewhere, contemplating the separation of your…, “tools”?, “possessions”?.. Your body here, your soul there…

Because, when you say “my soul”, “my thinking process”, “my mind”, “my body”, who is the speaking subject?

And when you say “the soul”, “the mind”…, who is speaking at all?

Would you say that you are a whole brain, or that you are just a small part of a brain which controls the rest of it, and a body, and a small portion of the world around you? But which part of a brain could you be? One which at certain degree knows its surroundings, but which does not know it’s own precise location, nor its own appearance, nor…?

Wouldn’t you say that it is you yourself who is a thinking process?.. But, perhaps, more than just a mere process, because you are characterized by certain permanence; aren’t you?
 
I believe that your soul, just like your body, hovers between life and death during anesthesia. There are more than a few of accounts of people watching their surgery from the ceiling of the operating room.
 
Little_Sheep said:
I believe that your soul, just like your body, hovers between life and death during anesthesia. There are more than a few of accounts of people watching their surgery from the ceiling of the operating room.
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The state of death then is black void if we accept your statement and accept the fact that state of life is awareness.
 
Padres1969 said:
Don’t know about that. I’ve had some trippy dreams under general anesthesia. And I’ve had nights where I didn’t dream at all, like last night.
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Under ether, I had the worst of dreams. Last year, I had my gall bladder removed and I didn’t remember a thing.
 
Little_Sheep said:
I believe that your soul, just like your body, hovers between life and death during anesthesia. There are more than a few of accounts of people watching their surgery from the ceiling of the operating room.
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No, the soul remains in the body as long as there is life.

Now, the body could be said to be “between life and death” if, as is normally the case, anesthesia is deep enough to prevent breathing. But as long as life is maintained, by a respirator or otherwise, the soul remains with the body.

I don’t really know how out-of-body perception can occur while someone is alive, but living souls don’t just leave town.

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ProVobis said:
Under ether, I had the worst of dreams. Last year, I had my gall bladder removed and I didn’t remember a thing.
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Modern drugs produce a deeper anesthesia than ether. Dreaming would not be possible.

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ProVobis said:
Under ether, I had the worst of dreams. Last year, I had my gall bladder removed and I didn’t remember a thing.
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You were asked: “what happens to my soul when I am under deep anesthesia?”; then you correctly rephrased it this way “what happens to you when you are under deep anesthesia?”; and responded to it according to your two personal experiences. Though correct, your answer was partial, of course, because some other things happened to you during the surgical intervention. For example, you didn’t feel pain; you were unconscious…; in general, your ability to interact with the world was dramatically inhibited. When you die, your ability to interact with this world, at least from what your relatives and friends will know, will be eliminated. What is the complete picture of what will happen to you when you die? Who knows!

But Iaocmo is questioning a thought according to which you have a soul, and a body, and some thoughts, etcetera, because he sees certain problems in it. What is that soul that you supposedly have? Can you lose your body and still keep your soul? Or can you lose your soul, and still keep your body? Or can you lose your soul and your body and still exist somehow, with your thoughts, for example? Very strange questions…
 
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