Story Yesterday I got a first hand taste of what death feels like when they sedated me with too much anesthesia.

[wereqryan]

Death is nothing but loss of consciousness and bodily functions. When we are conscious, we feel alive because of all the sensations we take in not just from the external world but also the internal system of our body. All the sensations of stomach gurgling, air intake/outflow and chest expansion/depression from breathing, heart beats, and all the minor sophisticated movements we make with our joints all contribute to this overall feeling of being alive.

However, as I had just begun to wake up from the heavy anesthetic they put me under, I could feel my entire body frozen and my respiration had become very shallow. My senses were barely there by a thread. As time passed, I could start to feel my bodily sensations again, thread by thread. That's when I realized and experienced what death is like. Death is nothing more than loss of consciousness and the freezing up of the systems of the body.

Note that this is different from being asleep. When asleep or half-asleep, your breathing doesn't become shallow and depressed. Your joints don't become frozen which means you can still toss and turn in your bed. Your brain still works. However, when you're under anesthesia, there's risk of dying due to hypoxia or circulatory failure. This is why they give you oxygen and even ventilation support, and they also make you sign consent forms so that there's no legal liability on their part.

Having experienced this, I don't feel scared of dying anymore, because its nothing but total loss of consciousness and bodily functions.

 

[Polyxo]

Thank you for sharing. Did you feel fear or survival instinct in those moments?

 

[starboy2k]

Gawd dammit. I thought that when I die, I would wake up in an alternate reality where I get to be Beyonce for once lol. Meh Ig I can deal with my body and consciousness freezing forever. Congrats on getting that sample size taste of death though.

 

[wereqryan]

Did you feel fear or survival instinct in those moments?

I didn't. It was interesting to observe from my end.

 

[FuneralCry]

I wish for that, it's all I hope for, to be unconscious for all eternity and never suffer ever again is all I see a desirable, for me non-existence really is the only peace in this existence where there's all this cruelty and suffering with no limit as to how much one can suffer, to be conscious in this existence is such a futile, torturous burden to me, I'd just never wish to be conscious of anything at all.

 

[GMOpNsOTW9J]

I have been under general anesthesia a bunch of times. It always felt like complete blackout.
For me the main difference compared to sleep was the lack of dreams and no track of time. It felt like no time passed.

Next time (early next year) I will pretend that Im being euthanized and see how I feel.

 

[wiggy]

I don't think that we can know, as a matter of epistemology, whether or not the experience of sedation is in any way comparable to death. I suspect the analogy isn't really as close as we might intuitively think.

 

[wereqryan]

I don't think that we can know, as a matter of epistemology, whether or not the experience of sedation is in any way comparable to death. I suspect the analogy isn't really as close as we might intuitively think.

Its pretty close because anesthesia is to be put in a medically induced coma. Only difference between being comatose and being dead is that one has potential to be reversed while the other one does not.

I have been under general anesthesia a bunch of times. It always felt like complete blackout.
For me the main difference compared to sleep was the lack of dreams and no track of time. It felt like no time passed.

Yeah you're totally out when under anesthesia because they put you in coma. We are much more alive when we're asleep than when we're in a coma. In a coma, there's much much less body activity.

 

[wiggy]

Its pretty close because anesthesia is to be put in a medically induced coma. Only difference between being comatose and being dead is that one has potential to be reversed while the other one does not.


Yeah you're totally out when under anesthesia because they put you in coma. We are much more alive when we're asleep than when we're in a coma. In a coma, there's much much less body activity.

We don't know - and really, can't know - what kind of consciousness is experienced under anesthesia. We don't even really know for a fact whether a sedated or comatose state really suppresses awareness(which is a separate state downstream from consciousness). The only thing that can be verified is a comatose state typically, though not always, impede the formation of memory. Equating a coma or sedation to non-existence is plausible, but still conjecture.

 

[wereqryan]

We don't know - and really, can't know - what kind of consciousness is experienced under anesthesia.

There is no consciousness under anesthesia because if there was, we would have some knowledge.

We don't even really know for a fact whether a sedated or comatose state really suppresses awareness(which is a separate state downstream from consciousness).

Anesthesia is designed to take away awareness so that the patient doesn't feel any pain.

 

[oxydd]

Death is nothing but loss of consciousness and bodily functions. When we are conscious, we feel alive because of all the sensations we take in not just from the external world but also the internal system of our body. All the sensations of stomach gurgling, air intake/outflow and chest expansion/depression from breathing, heart beats, and all the minor sophisticated movements we make with our joints all contribute to this overall feeling of being alive.

However, as I had just begun to wake up from the heavy anesthetic they put me under, I could feel my entire body frozen and my respiration had become very shallow. My senses were barely there by a thread. As time passed, I could start to feel my bodily sensations again, thread by thread. That's when I realized and experienced what death is like. Death is nothing more than loss of consciousness and the freezing up of the systems of the body.

Note that this is different from being asleep. When asleep or half-asleep, your breathing doesn't become shallow and depressed. Your joints don't become frozen which means you can still toss and turn in your bed. Your brain still works. However, when you're under anesthesia, there's risk of dying due to hypoxia or circulatory failure. This is why they give you oxygen and even ventilation support, and they also make you sign consent forms so that there's no legal liability on their part.

Having experienced this, I don't feel scared of dying anymore, because its nothing but total loss of consciousness and bodily functions.

View attachment 170212

So is this what would basically happen if you were to OD on opiates and successfully perish

 

[zengiraffe]

I've had a few medical operations where I was sedated and they were the best experiences of my life. When sedated I had no depression or anxiety or consciousness. Upon waking up from the sedation I felt complete calm and serenity for like 15-20 mins, and then the depression and anxiety returns, but those 15-20 mins were absolutely magical.

I view sedation and anesthesia as free trials of death, and they're glorious.

 

[wereqryan]

I view sedation and anesthesia as free trials of death, and they're glorious.

100%. Living in this world subjects us to constant torture. Death frees us from all of this. Death is the ultimate peacemaker.

 

[Intoxicated]

There is no consciousness under anesthesia because if there was, we would have some knowledge.

Strictly speaking, such a knowledge may be absent due to amnesia. Similarly to how conscious drunk people sometimes can't recall some events later.

Anesthesia is designed to take away awareness so that the patient doesn't feel any pain.

Suppression of the experience of surgery is a primary aim of anesthesia; this may be achieved by suppressing consciousness or ensuring disconnection. Consciousness itself may not be a clinical problem if it is merely associated with dreaming (the rare "bad trip" may be an example of when this could be deleterious) provided that the patient's consciousness is truly disconnected from the external world – i.e. in a state analogous to rapid-eye-movement sleep. In addition to suppressing connected consciousness, analgesia or nociceptive blockade is also necessary to prevent central nervous system arousal, and cardiovascular and neurohumoral responses to surgery. Finally gross patient immobility is required to facilitate surgery. We argue that, in most cases, the triad of general anesthesia we should aim for is: lack of experience of surgery (unconsciousness or disconnected consciousness), nociceptive blockade and immobility for surgery.
...
Strikingly, dreaming also occurs in at least 27% of patients anesthetized with propofol and 28% of patients undergoing desflurane anesthesia. Given the amnesic effects of anesthetic agents, these data likely underestimate the true prevalence of dreaming since the reports required the recall of dreams. Importantly in our recent 300 patient study of anesthetic-related dreaming, experience of surgery was not described by any patient who reported dreams. We ascribe this to a state of disconnected consciousness, similar to REM sleep, where experience is insulated from the environment.

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3311716/

 

[skybox]

Very interesting thread, I've only been under once, last year. Only things I remember is going on the metal table and chatting with the nurses as they help put on the mask. I woke up being spoon fed ice chips. Was a very short surgery though, I'm sure the effects are a lot more clear when you've been under for a few hours

 

[wiggy]

There is no consciousness under anesthesia because if there was, we would have some knowledge.

Anesthesia is designed to take away awareness so that the patient doesn't feel any pain.

In addition to the points raised by Intoxicated, I reiterate that consciousness is a separate phenomenon from awareness or memory. It is not possible to assert someone did not have an experience of consciousness based on a later lack of recollection. Even if it were possible to assert that not even internal awareness(e.g. dreaming) had occurred under anaesthesia, that would not, strictly speaking, be the same as saying that no conscious experience had ocurred.