Over-simplified, and after following this subject for some time and still not understanding all of it, my comment was still; "Shutting off the faucet stops the water from flowing, but the faucet is not the water."
The faucet (microtubule) still doesn't tell us where the water comes from, or what the water actually is.
These studies might be showing us that one of the mechanisms involved in being awake and functional has to do with microtubules. Take someone down to the level of NDE, while under anesthesia, and while all microtubules are shut down, and see if you still get an NDE with verification of local data/information that they could not have known while under anesthesia, like in a neighboring room. If this is the case, you are not actually shutting down all consciousness or awareness. And yes, I realize that type of experiment is unethical / immoral. But it surely has happened on accident. Perhaps one of the NDE subject matter experts can chime in with that data? Then, we still don't know exactly when the NDE data/memory is stored, or how that memory is created while you are brain dead.
If and when they figure out if some area of the brain (or elsewhere in the body) is still conscious or aware at some level, even when anesthesia is applied... we may know more about consciousness formats, levels, and altered states.
Until we know, we are just playing with the faucet and trying to make it more than it might actually be.
It is still a fascinating area.
My own personal interest came from being operated on while under anesthesia, but still conscious at some level, while being trapped and not being able to speak or move. I felt no pain, but I was listening to the conversations around the operating table, which I told the surgeon about later.
The faucet (microtubule) still doesn't tell us where the water comes from, or what the water actually is.
These studies might be showing us that one of the mechanisms involved in being awake and functional has to do with microtubules. Take someone down to the level of NDE, while under anesthesia, and while all microtubules are shut down, and see if you still get an NDE with verification of local data/information that they could not have known while under anesthesia, like in a neighboring room. If this is the case, you are not actually shutting down all consciousness or awareness. And yes, I realize that type of experiment is unethical / immoral. But it surely has happened on accident. Perhaps one of the NDE subject matter experts can chime in with that data? Then, we still don't know exactly when the NDE data/memory is stored, or how that memory is created while you are brain dead.
If and when they figure out if some area of the brain (or elsewhere in the body) is still conscious or aware at some level, even when anesthesia is applied... we may know more about consciousness formats, levels, and altered states.
Until we know, we are just playing with the faucet and trying to make it more than it might actually be.
It is still a fascinating area.
My own personal interest came from being operated on while under anesthesia, but still conscious at some level, while being trapped and not being able to speak or move. I felt no pain, but I was listening to the conversations around the operating table, which I told the surgeon about later.
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