Horace Heffner wrote:
I picked the top and bottom
(humans and rocks) to be unambiguous, but everything in the middle is
at least somewhat unclear.
It is becoming clearer with progress in biology & medical science, as I said.
It is even unclear for humans. Is a sleep walking man conscious?
Somewhat. Enough to navigate stairs.
People in a hypnotic trance are very close to ordinary consciousness.
Sometimes they are highly suggestible (that is, they will do what the
hypnotist suggests), but they will never do anything they would not
do fully conscious. Their morality and inhibitions are fully intact.
For example, in the 19th century when hypnotism was first explored
seriously, a young male hypnotist hypnotized a young woman before an
audience. He suggested that she remove her clothes. She slapped him
in the face. It might be possible to persuade her to remove her
clothes but you would first have to persuade her that she was by
herself at home, getting ready for bed.
Is someone conscious in a coma, and if so what kinds of comas?
There are various kinds, with different, measurable levels of
consciousness. (Measurable by detecting brain waves and so on.) It
has recently become clear that some people under deep anesthetic
during operations can hear, understand and remember speech and also
what is done to them. This is rather horrifying to the patients!
Doctors are now trying to find ways to determine whether patients are
aware. They have cleaned up their behavior in the operating room.
nowadays, a properly trained surgeon will not say cruel, unkind,
disrespectful or frightening things about patients. They used to, but
the patients sometimes woke up and quoted them!
There are some forms of coma and brain death which render people as
dead as doornails, but leave part of the brain functioning, giving
the false appearance of life or conscious behavior. This is
horrifying to the observers but it does not bother the patient
because he is dead. Terry Shiavo suffered from this. (Or did not
suffer, thank goodness.)
- Jed
