Where does consciousness come from? And how do our brains create it? A look at one of life’s biggest mysteries

Five years ago, for the third time in my life, I ceased to exist.

I was having a small operation, and my brain was filling with anesthetic. I remember sensations of blackness, detachment and falling apart … 

General anesthesia is very different from going to sleep. It has to be; if you were asleep, the surgeon’s knife would quickly wake you up. States of deep anesthesia have more in common with catastrophic conditions like coma and the vegetative state, where consciousness is completely absent.

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