What happens to the soul when one is put under anesthesia?

It’s still there. The heart is still beating.

It goes off to play video games and hopscotch with other souls while their bodies are also put under.

It’s not really dying. It is being dependent on machines to breath for you, but the brain is still maintaining necessary body systems from what I understand, just things like reflexes and memory are not working due to the drugs given. If there is a soul, I think it stays in the body, just like people who are basically in a vegetative state still would have a soul according to religious people I think. Goodness knows they fight and picket to keep people in that state alive and hooked up.

So it’s still there because the body is still alive, but it’s just, what, switched off for a while? Maybe I don’t fully understand this belief system, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but the soul is sort of thought of as the consciousness that inhabits a body, right? So when that consciousness is completely gone for a while, it doesn’t matter so long as the body is still alive and functioning?

@Mariah Where do you believe your soul is when you go to sleep?

@SpatzieLover I’m dont think I believe that the soul is a separate thing. But if I did, I would imagine nothing special happens when you go to sleep. Like I said in the details, anesthesia is very different from sleeping. When you sleep you are still somewhat aware – if something hurts you or makes a loud sound, you wake up, so you’re still sensing to an extent. And you have dreams, so your consciousness is busy doing something.

@Mariah It is my personal belief that the soul exists in the heart of the body. When the heart is beating, the soul remains in the body.

Some cardiologists, including Dr Oz call this area of the heart the soul.

When you go under for anesthesia, you are not dead. Your pain is merely blocked temporarily.

My mother had an out of body experience during surgery. Her heart did stop beating for a period of time. She did see a white light, among other things like viewing the doctors working on her body

@Mariah Hmm…I guess we need someone who has really thought about this before and believes in a soul to answer. I don’t really fit that category. I’ll keep following, curious to see the answers. This might be an argument on the side of thinking there is no such thing as a soul, but that our “soul” is simply our brain.

OK… so what happens during cardiopulmonary bypass when your heart is stopped?

@JLeslie Same here…

@SpatzieLover Okay, cool, thanks for explaining your belief. I can understand where that comes from – I have definitely heard of people having out of body experiences (what they believe to be the soul leaving the body temporarily) when the heart stops, just like your mom’s experience. It’s all very interesting. I don’t believe that you die when you’re under anesthesia – I don’t believe death is an experience you can come back from – but you have to admit that it is very similar, in experience, to being temporarily dead.

@JLeslie Indeed. I don’t know people’s view on this on Fluther, so let’s hope there’s someone who fits the bill. It’s just an odd thing to think about because there are stories of people who believe their body died while their soul stayed alive (out of body experiences like @SpatzieLover described) but being under anesthesia is almost like the soul dying while the body stays alive.

@Lightlyseared Good question. I personally don’t think that death is related at all to the beating of the heart. It seems rather arbitrary to me.

@Lightlyseared Again, the person isn’t dead. Their heart is bypassed. The blood is still keeping the organ alive. Several people in my family have had bypass surgery. None of them have reported any sort of out of body experience.

anesthesia is almost like the sould dying while the body stays alive No. It’s just a pain blocking medication. You wouldn’t consider someone on morphine dead, would you?

@SpatzieLover No I wouldn’t, but being on morphine is different from being under anesthesia. When you’re on morphine you are aware of all your senses except the sense of touch, you can think. When you’re under anesthesia you’re not aware of anything, not even the passage of time. It’s just an empty place in time.

@mazingerz88 Here’s a thought from someone who does not know whether souls exist or not. What if the soul is more than anything your brain’s molecules could project that it is just untouchable by anything concocted by man such as anesthesia-? I went through it for the first time a month ago and the first thought after they woke me up was, now I know exactly why Michael Jackson got addicted.

I guess I should have specified general anesthesia?

It is just like going to sleep.

@Mariah General anesthesia is a combination of drugs…one of which could be morphine. The fact that you are put in a sleep like state with the pain inhibitor is what you are questioning, right?

All that is is a barbiturate. Many people take those to fall asleep or to end seizure activity.

@Mariah I would think it is obvious you are talking about general anesthesia.

@SpatzieLover Actually, under general you are pretty close to dead, but not dead because your necessary systems are being artificially supported. It is not the same as simply taking Morphine, although true Morphine and other opiods are used. General is not just a pain blocker though.

When someone has bypass surgery they are put on lung heart bypass so their heart stopps beating. Although, I will note here that bypass surgery is not called bypass surgery for this reason, it is called bypass because new arteries and/or veins are attached to the heart to bypass the old clogged ones. The heart lung bypass machine is used for valve surgeries and others.

Would we say someone having a heart transplant loses his own soul?

@marinelife I’m starting to wonder if my anesthesia experiences have been abnormal. I really don’t think it is much like sleeping at all! My “soul” doesn’t do anything while I’m under anesthesia – doesn’t concoct dreams, doesn’t sense time passing, doesn’t take in information from any of my senses. It is different from sleeping in those ways.

@SpatzieLover Hmm. It is somewhat similar to a combination of sleep and powerful pain killers (unconscious and unable to be awakened by touch because you can’t feel anything) but it isn’t quite the same as sleeping while on morphine. I’ve done that too. I don’t really know what the point is I’m trying to make. I guess you could say that anesthesia is really just being asleep while also having all of your senses inhibited. Shining a light in your eyes won’t wake you up. Making a loud noise won’t wake you up. Inflicting pain won’t wake you up. But my question then, I guess, is if you can’t sense anything at all, and you’re also not conscious so you can’t even think, to what degree do you really exist during that time period? DesCartes said “I think, therefore I am” – if I don’t think, I don’t know how to prove that I still am.

@JLeslie I am aware of how anesthesia works. I would not consider being under general close to dead, as it is a medically induced state in a controlled environment. It is a state of unconsciousness.

What happens to the soul during transplantation is a mystery. Many recipients report taking on the donors characteristics.

@Mariah I see. This is a philosophical question then. Then you could go right into my son’s favorite question, “How do we know this isn’t all just a dream?”

@Mariah The drugs work kind of separately. It is possible to wake up during anesthesia, and feels pain, if those drugs are not given a lage enough dose, but you cannot move because the paralytic is working just fine. Scary shit.

@SpatzieLover I tend to agree, a state of unconsciousness, which is basically what I said orginally; you aren’t dead, because the machines are keeping you alive.

@JLeslie Oh. God.

”you aren’t dead, because the machines are keeping you alive.”
I agree also. I guess the point I’m trying to make is machines are just keeping your bodily functions working, while the anesthesia sort of “suppresses” your consciousness. So, if you believe consciousness is just a product of bodily functions (which is the way I lean) you might conclude that you’re not dead for the reason you stated. But if you believe the soul is a completely separate thing, then who the hell knows what’s happening to your soul during that time period. If the soul is just consciousness, and your consciousness is just gone, then I don’t know what I’d believe is happening to it. That’s why I asked.

@Mariah Sure, I understand your point. I think it is a good question your original question.

It remains in the same state as always – non-existent.

A person doesn’t HAVE a soul, a person IS a soul. Body + life = soul. Under anaesthesia, you (the soul, that is) are just in a deep sleep. Nothing mysterious about it!

Since a soul can’t be proven, your question really can’t be answered by anything but a guess. It’s kinda like asking “Where does God go on vacation?” Since we have no data to measure or calculate, we can only take shots in the dark.

That being said, my guess would be that it stays in the body wherever it normally would. Anesthesia is nothing more than a bunch of pain meds that keep you unconscious and keep your body from flopping around as you’re being sliced apart. It’s basically like taking a bunch of pain killers and passing out only with less of a chance of dying because you’re hooked up to machines to breath for you. If you’ve ever taken any sort of barbiturate or drank extremely heavily, and got fucked up, you know what I’m talking about. You just lose gaps of time and when you pass out from the substance, it often takes several attempts to get you to respond. Pretty similar to anesthesia if you ask me. It’s all substances being introduced in your body to cut off feelings/conciseness/certain brain activity.

”...you don’t dream…”

I beg to differ. Every time I’ve been put under anaesthetic I’ve had the freakiest , most vivid dreams ever.

Mine floats off into the astral plane to hang out with other souls whose bodies are under the knife. Sometimes we see people that have been drugged and are being kidnapped.

@downtide Ketamine, especially, is known for producing weird dreams and hallucinations.

I’ve no idea what anaesthetic I had, but that might be useful to know, thanks. :)

I think my soul hung around just above the heart area just out of my body.
Yeah its a wierd, heavy feeling that drifts over,count backwards then into massive fit of snoring( i guess) then wake in recovery room I asked my anathestist what it was they were using and he replied “Jackson Juice”. Ive often wondered what “MJ” was really going through in life to over-anaesthetise himself must of been a deep painful addiction.