I’ve had a general anaesthetic. One curious thing about it is that when I woke up from it, it was like —bam— awake, with no sensation of time having passed since before. I seem to be the same person. If one accepts the physicalist hypothesis, and that what makes a mind be this mind is the pattern, then suspension of that pattern for a while has no implication that one person died and another woke up with their memories.
On the other hand, I have read that this experience of apparently having not existed at all for a while shook one person’s faith in immaterial souls.
I’ve also been under them, and yes, there is a very strong sense of having been temporarily annihilated. While it didn’t affect my metaphysical beliefs, it’s easy to see how it could for some people.
I’ve had a general anaesthetic. One curious thing about it is that when I woke up from it, it was like —bam— awake, with no sensation of time having passed since before. I seem to be the same person. If one accepts the physicalist hypothesis, and that what makes a mind be this mind is the pattern, then suspension of that pattern for a while has no implication that one person died and another woke up with their memories.
On the other hand, I have read that this experience of apparently having not existed at all for a while shook one person’s faith in immaterial souls.
I’ve also been under them, and yes, there is a very strong sense of having been temporarily annihilated. While it didn’t affect my metaphysical beliefs, it’s easy to see how it could for some people.