Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsCan You Have Too Much Ego?HistorySigns of Ego DeathWhat Triggers Ego Death?Positive BenefitsPotential Pitfalls
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Can You Have Too Much Ego?
History
Signs of Ego Death
What Triggers Ego Death?
Positive Benefits
Potential Pitfalls
Psychedelics that have triggered ego death include LSD, psilocybin, and ketamine. Words that have been used to describe the experience include eye-opening, cathartic, blissful, and scary. Understanding what one means when one refers to ‘“the ego” is crucial to understand ego death better.
Although the ego and the self are defined in a variety of ways across the religious literature and scientific disciplines, one researcher described four main components of the self:
Now that you understand what your ego is, you can view ego death as the realization that the idea of self holds significantly less importance than you had placed on it.
Young children are naturally egocentric and everything is filtered from within their own perspective. Eventually, children mature and realize they arenotthe center of the universe and that other people have diverse perspectives, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
When we say someone isegotistical, we mean they think very highly of themselves and are more concerned with their own needs than the needs of others. In an extreme form, some people developnarcissistic personality disorder, who lack empathy and have grandiose thoughts of their own importance, and obsession with their own success, fame, and fortune.
History of Ego Death
While the premise of ego death may seem terrifying, it may surprise you that people seek out the experience of “ego death.”
Visualize your ego as a deck of cards built into a tower and ego death as the collapse of this tower. Instead of being distinct from the world, you are one with the universe or one with God. In any case, you arrive at ground zero and life begins to take on new meaning.
The history of ego death as an idea can actually be traced to centuries-old religious and spiritual practices, such as Christianity and Zen Buddhism. In more recent decades it has also come to be associated with psychedelic use. People turn to recreational psychedelic use for one of many reasons, one of which is phenomena like ego death.
LSD and Its Therapeutic Effects
Human beings have dabbled in psychedelic use for over a thousand years. However, when Albert Hoffmancreated LSDin 1936, people began to turn to the drug for its potential therapeutic effects. While government restrictions slowed research into the drug, the curiosity of the medical and scientific community never waned.
These daysadministering psychedelic therapyfor conditions such as depression and anxiety isn’t uncommon. The potential for psychedelics to improve the psychological well-being of the average person is also being studied.
Early studies recognize that psychedelics have the potential to benefit the average individual therapeutically. The extent and mechanism of these effects are not entirely understood, however.
Coining the Term ‘Ego Death’
A decade later, in the 1970s, Stanislav Graf, an acclaimed psychologist, suggested that the main aim of psychedelic therapy should be ego death.
One waypsychedelicsseem to be therapeutically beneficial through the phenomenon known as ego death or ego dissolution, particularly in connection with a sensation known as ‘connectedness.’ Both are thought to be closely related. A simple way to think of connectedness is a feeling of connection with oneself, others, and the world at large.
Current scientific theories suggest that both experiences can positively influence yourmental health and well-being.However, more research needs to be done to understand how this may work.
Ego death is a highly personal experience. People who have experienced it share sentiments like feeling they lost themselves or feeling like they wereone with the universe.
Signs You’re Experiencing Ego DeathWhen you experience ego death:Your sense of being will no longer feel distinct from the worldYou may feel as though you are connected to the universeYou might feel you are connected to all human beingsYou may feel one with God.
Signs You’re Experiencing Ego Death
When you experience ego death:Your sense of being will no longer feel distinct from the worldYou may feel as though you are connected to the universeYou might feel you are connected to all human beingsYou may feel one with God.
When you experience ego death:
In a 2020 study into the link between glutamate use and ego death. Glutamate is the most common excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and central nervous system responsible for memory, learning, thinking, and mood. Researchers observed that higher levels of glutamate in the medial prefrontal cortex resulted in a negative experience of ego death, while lower levels of glutamate in the hippocampus were associated with a positive experience of ego death.
At the core of it, ego death is the dissolution of your sense of self as you know it. Ego death results in a significant reduction of self-referential awareness, sparking a disruption in how you view yourself and sometimes encouraging a feeling of unity with others and the world and enhancing your existential sense of spiritual existence.
Positive Benefits of Ego Death
Improved Well-Being
In a 2022 study into psychedelic use and the role ego death and connectedness play on your mental well-being, researchers found that there are potentially beneficial therapeutic effects, including improved psychological well-being. This is especially true across several mental health conditions, includingdepression,anxiety, andsubstance use disorder.
Researchers also suggested that isolation and being overly self-focused, which are at the opposite ends of the scale of ego death and connectedness, may be linked with mental suffering.
Default Mode NetworkResearch shows a link between your ego and sense of self with your default mode network (DMN). The DMN is thought to be responsible for many things, including ego, emotion, morality, and empathy. How you view yourself and how much value you place on your sense of self and self-identity all culminate in forming your ego.
Default Mode Network
Research shows a link between your ego and sense of self with your default mode network (DMN). The DMN is thought to be responsible for many things, including ego, emotion, morality, and empathy. How you view yourself and how much value you place on your sense of self and self-identity all culminate in forming your ego.
Potential Pitfalls of Ego Death
While ego death can be a potentially blissful experience, it can also be a terrifying experience. People react uniquely to psychedelics. Factors such as a history of drug use, gender, age, and other environmental factors all come into play in determining your psychedelic experience.
It’s possible to have negative reactions to psychedelic use. For instance, you might experience the following:
What Are Psychedelic Drugs?
The long-term effect of experiencing ego death from psychedelic use is unknown, and data may one day may reveal unexpected side effects. Also, because modern materialistic science views our perceptions only as biological phenomena, it lacks the capability to consider “un-scientific” but possibly significant religious or spiritual effects that may occur with ego death from psychedelics or spiritual practices.
Final Thoughts
8 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Kałużna A, Schlosser M, Gulliksen Craste E, Stroud J, Cooke J.Being no one, being One: The role of ego-dissolution and connectedness in the therapeutic effects of psychedelic experience.JPS. 2022;6(2):111-136. doi:10.1556/2054.2022.00199
Lattin D.Timothy Leary’s legacy and the rebirth of psychedelic research.Harvard Library Bulletin.2017;28(1):65-74.
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Li W, Mai X, Liu C.The default mode network and social understanding of others: What do brain connectivity studies tell us.Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00074
National Institute on Drug Abuse.Psychedelic and dissociative drugs.
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