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The existence of true unconsciousness is clouded by a seemingly-impenetrable self-reporting problem: From the perspective of recall, unconsciousness is indisti
by md224 9y ago
The existence of true unconsciousness is clouded by a seemingly-impenetrable self-reporting problem:
From the perspective of recall, unconsciousness is indistinguishable from a gap in memory.
There is no way for a person to determine whether they were truly unconscious or just conscious at a sub-memory level.
(This is why I personally doubt the existence of true unconsciousness. I think it’s entirely possible that consciousness is uninterruptible, at least during the lifetime of a conscious organism.)
- kenning 9y agoI know this is going to sound bullshit but hear me out. I agree with you, because when I took DMT it really felt like for the first time in my life, my brain had been completely reset. I had to re-remember absolutely everything, including the fact that i existed. This doesn't happen when you wake up, instead it feels like you just appeared in the real world, having just recently experienced things in dreams that you may or may not remember. DMT was not fun, also
- monktastic1 9y agoIt can also feel like one is not exactly re-remembering the world, but re-creating it. As if one is recalling the trick of creating the world.
- montyf 9y agoI used to worry about this a lot, especially in the context of anesthesia and whether I was conscious during my surgery and just blocking all memory of it. Does it even matter if we don't remember it? It's an interesting question. Can we form lasting traumas and phobias without any memory, conscious or unconscious, of the event? Who knows. The brain is incredibly complicated and, to my knowledge at least, we still don't even know how anesthesia works.