This is an interesting topic. Let us examine the knowledge and ignorance of Scientists. Anaesthesia, Coma and Amnesia. So, one can banish consciousness to nothingness using Propofol or Isoflurane. Makes me chuckle. These scientists are morons. I will tell you why. They say they can banish consciousness and experiment on meditators with head gear They have found, interestingly enough, the frontal cortex dissociates with the rest. Many anaesthetics are thought to work by making it harder for neurons to fire, but this can have different effects on brain function, depending on which neurons are being blocked. So, brain-imaging techniques such as functional MRI scanning, which tracks changes in blood flow to different areas of the brain, are being used to see which regions of the brain are affected by anaesthetics. Such studies have been successful in revealing several areas that are deactivated by most anaesthetics. Unfortunately, so many regions have been implicated it is hard to know which, if any, are the root cause of loss of consciousness. Both propofol and the inhaled anaesthetic sevoflurane inhibited the transmission of feedback signals from the frontal cortex in anaesthetised surgical patients. The backwards signals recovered at the same time as consciousness returned The hypothesis is whether the preferential inhibition of feedback connectivity is what initially makes us unconscious. Similar findings are coming in from studies of people in a coma or persistent vegetative state (PVS), who may open their eyes in a sleep-wake cycle, although remain unresponsive. Laureys, for example, has seen a similar breakdown in communication between different cortical areas in people in a coma. Anaesthesia is a pharmacologically induced coma. That same breakdown in global neuronal workspace is occurring. My experience leaves me with a renewed sense of awe for what anaesthetists do as a matter of routine. Without really understanding how, they guide hundreds of millions of people a year as close to the brink of nothingness as it is possible to go without dying. Then they bring them safely back home again Source: New Scientist; Banishing Consciousness. (Writer’s comment: So, did you wake up as a pig, ignoramus? No. So it has nothing to do with Consciousness!)
Consciousness is, for each of us, all there is: the world, the self, everything. But consciousness is also subjective and difficult to define. The closest we have to a consensus definition is that consciousness is “something it is like to be”. There is something it is like to be me or you – but presumably there is nothing it is like to be a table or an iPhone. How do our conscious experiences arise? It’s a longstanding question, one that has perplexed scientists and philosophers for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The orthodox scientific view today is that consciousness is a property of physical matter, an idea we might call physicalism or materialism. But this is by no means a universally held view, and even within physicalism there is little agreement about how consciousness emerges from, or otherwise relates to, physical stuff. Continues: Predictive processing is well suited for explaining why a particular experience is the way it is and not some other way, because we can understand these differences in terms of the different kinds of perceptual predictions the brain is making. In my theory, these differences are particularly significant when it comes to the experience of being a ‘self’, which I argue is not an inner essence that ‘does’ the perceiving, but rather a collection of perceptions itself. The self, in my view, is a special kind of controlled hallucination that has been shaped by evolution to regulate and control the living body. It’s not exactly a theory of consciousness, but you could call it a theory for consciousness. And it’s through ideas like this that I believe we will eventually come up with a satisfying scientific account of consciousness. Instead of solving the hard problem head on, we may end up dissolving it by developing and testing detailed explanations of how the properties of consciousness depend on their underlying mechanisms. In this way, we will have solved what I call the real problem of consciousness. Source: New Scientist; Consciousness.
How unthoughtful is the above article. It is absurd. Look clearly, it means the brain cannot project sensations, no feedback, that is all. Anaesthesia, Coma, Amnesia are in the realm of the mind only, and nothing to do with Consciousness! They cannot separate mind from Consciousness. Trance and or Samadhi states are induced by meditators, it is well known. Some are like Coma or Anaesthesia. In and during Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Amnesia is total, meaning, who is there in this state to say? It resembles Coma or Anaesthesia. As if it might as well have not existed. King Janaka discourses (Tripura Rahasya: XV11, Verse110-111): Nirvikalpa Samadhi is characterised by the experience of the true Self alone, namely, Pure Intelligence. Though eternal and resplendent even ordinarily, this Abstract Intelligence is as if it did not exist. Abstract Intelligence is the background on which the phenomena are displayed, and it must certainly manifest itself in all its purity in their absence, although its appearance may look new at first. It remains unrecognised because it is not distinguished from the phenomena displayed by it. On their being eliminated it becomes apparent. This in short is the method of Self-Realization.
When we read about the attempts made by scientists to grapple with Consciousness, they are made to be seen as mere soiled dirt in front of giants like the Hindu Sages of Yore on the subject at hand. Ulladu Narpadu; Invocation Verse 1: Can there be sense of existence without something that is? Is Real Consciousness a thing other than That? Since that (Reality) dwells, thought-free, in the Heart, how can It—Itself named the Heart—be meditated on? And who is there, distinct from It, to meditate on It, the Self whose nature is Reality Consciousness? Know that to meditate on It is just to be at one with it within the Heart.” You can see clearly through the New Scientist articles above their obsession with the seen and experience, viz, the mind, the I-thought. But they forget who is in coma or in anaesthesia or in Nirvikalpa Samadhi apart from Him? That cannot be banished at all. Consciousness cannot be banished! The Self cannot be Banished. Hindu sastras have been banging at this for centuries. Bhagavad Gita, “He cannot be slain…” Nor banished. But we know scientist are merely five sheaths of toilet paper. They will not find the root of Consciousness either. They only understand the five sheaths, beyond they cannot go, they cannot expand their Consciousness (transcend) beyond the five sheaths. He is the Self. He is Consciousness. Grapple with this all you like. There is no and will never be any instrument to solve the mystery of Consciousness, or God, or the Self. Can an instrument make an observer transcend his observation or mind? But if it can, then, will there be a mind and the instrument to record that transcendental experience? With what? Some App on the mobile perhaps. Makes the writer chuckle. You see, they are looking outside, not within themselves. Perhaps, the monk will say in Samadhi, ‘I am now transcendental, record so forth.” Makes me chuckle. What will the recording show in that state? It will clearly show Consciousness cannot be killed! But we know that for thousands of years now. Who has recorded in any format Consciousness on a piece of paper? As Waves? Sensations? Vibrations? Noise? Emissions? Light? These are only motion. Instruments can only record formats of motion, time and space, so does the mind. These are within the five sheaths. They cannot know nor record motionlessness. Consciousness is motionless, timeless, spaceless! Grapple with that then! However, recognize, realize and know It as the Self and Being It as It is in the Heart. This is Seeing God As He Really Is.
DIPPACK MISTRI 