Banishing consciousness: the mystery of anaesthesia
Consciousness has long been one of the great mysteries of life, the universe and everything. It is something experienced by every one of us, yet we cannot even agree on how to define it. How does the small sac of jelly that is our brain take raw data about the world and transform it into the wondrous sensation of being alive? Even our increasingly sophisticated technology for peering inside the brain has, disappointingly, failed to reveal a structure that could be the seat of consciousness.
And perhaps not surprisingly, I’ve found the study and practice of religion to be most revealing. Technically, from a Jewish perspective, the correct phrasing is the Practice and Study.