The point about anaesthesia is a really good one, I hadn't considered that -- if the mind were outside the brain then the most that anaesthetic could do is sens

The point about anaesthesia is a really good one, I hadn't considered that -- if the mind were outside the brain then the most that anaesthetic could do is sensory deprivation rather than loss of consciousness. > There is no outside. This is unknowable. To take my example from the other comment: there is nothing within the Doom video game universe to indicate that there is a real universe outside. You can go as far as you want in X, Y, or Z and you'll never break out of Doom and find yourself in real life. But that doesn't mean there is no outside: the mind controlling the player is outside the Doom universe. (But anaesthetic can't work within the Doom universe, because the anesthetic has no way to reach the mind.)