To Oblivion & Back: Exploring The Benefits of Psychedelic-Induced Ego Death
How psychedelics offer a glimpse beyond our ego-imposed delusions, revealing a more objective, empathetic, & connected sense of reality.
Everyone knows that one day, sooner or later, they’re going to die — but the ego attempts to hide this fact from us.
The problem is that life without death is a delusional picture of reality — and deep down, we all know it.
This paradox embeds itself in our unconscious mind. We lock it away in a box and pretend it doesn’t exist — but little bits leak out and bubble up into our conscious mind in the form of anxiety and depression.
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung
Our ego is implicated in other detrimental things, too — like our obsession with social status and our unhealthy emphasis on the accumulation of material wealth. These distractions harm our ability to experience true happiness.
But despite all these things, the ego is not the enemy.
In fact, it’s absolutely essential for us as physical beings. The ego is essentially the software our brains use to extract sense from the nonsensical nature of existence.
Without it, we would live in chaos.
But what if psychedelics offered a healthy way to confront the issues imposed by the ego while maintaining its essential function?
This is where the concept of psychedelic-induced ego death comes in (or “ego-dissolution,” as many prefer to call it).
During ego dissolution, its influence is suppressed, and we become removed from the biased view our ego creates of the world. Our sense of self dissolves, and we lose our point of reference to the rest of existence. We feel empathetic and connected to other people and the environment.
Ego dissolution allows us to get a glimpse of the delusional world our ego creates for us.
One of the many benefits of the ego-death experience (psychedelic-induced or otherwise) is that it can show us that death isn’t something to worry about.
When we undergo an ego-death experience, our identity dissolves, and everything we hold dear in life disappears — yet something remains. Even during an ego-death experience, something continues to exist.
Ego death teaches us that, while life is impermanent, consciousness is immortal.
It also shows us that the things we believe are important (social status, accomplishment, and material wealth) are misguided and antithetical to the pursuit of happiness.
These realizations can be life-changing.
The biggest ego trip is getting rid of your ego. And, of course, the joke of it all is that your ego does not exist. — Alan Watts
Psychedelics As A Tool For Ego Death
Psychedelics are a reliable way of inducing an ego-death experience.
There’s a lot going on from a spiritual perspective, but let’s focus on the scientific explanation to help describe what’s happening below the surface.
Psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and DMT actively suppress the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is one of seven higher brain networks and is believed to play a key role in the function of the ego.
Dr. Carhart-Harris, a leading researcher at Imperial College London, has put forward the entropic brain theory — which, in simple terms, suggests that psychedelics suppress the DMN, leading to a temporary increase in entropy (a measure of chaos and randomness in the brain).
This reduces rigidity of thought (a key element of ego), providing a unique opportunity to access and integrate new information and update our beliefs and assumptions in a positive and life-affirming way.
The best analogy for this is that psychedelic-induced ego death is like defragmenting a computer.
With that said, psychedelic-induced ego death is not a casual undertaking.
Our ego is so integrated into our conscious experience that separating from it, even momentarily, makes us literally feel like we’re dying.
This is especially terrifying if you’re not prepared to let go and give in to the experience.
Trying to hold on to your sense of control only creates more panic and chaos, and many people consider it the most uncomfortable or frightening experience of their lives. It can make you feel like you’re going insane or experiencing a psychotic break.
You may feel intense sadness or a deep sense of loss.
The best thing you can do if you’re experiencing psychedelic-induced ego death is to submit and allow it to happen. Stop resisting and allow the psychedelics to tear you into pieces.
When this process is complete, we feel intimately connected to our existence. We feel as though we’re truly in the present moment, and time feels like it’s standing still. There is a ton of insight to be gained from this state of being, which we’ll explore shortly.
While psychedelics are reliable for inducing ego death, it’s only temporary. As soon as the effects wear off, the ego comes back, and we return to normal. The difference is that we’ve now gotten a glimpse of something we couldn’t see before.
The experience shows us that it’s possible to separate from one’s sense of self and helps us become aware of the way the ego deludes our perspective of ourselves and the world.
Maintaining long-term ego dissolution is possible and is likely the state many Eastern religions refer to as “enlightenment,” “satori,” or “nirvana.”
What, Exactly, Is The Ego?
Ego is a term used to describe one’s sense of self. It allows you to determine what’s you and what’s other.
In the most basic sense, you includes everything that’s “behind your skin,” and other includes everything that’s outside your skin.
Our ego is responsible for maintaining a grasp on this identity and acts as an interface with reality. It’s what allows us to quantify existence and our relationship to it.
There are three components to the ego:
Self-Image — the view a person holds of themselves (who we are, what we do for work, what we like or don’t like)
Self-Esteem — a sense of self-worth and value an individual has
Self-Identity — the beliefs, opinions, and ideologies an individual holds
The ego is tasked with maintaining these three components by filtering out information that contradicts or conflicts with what we hold to be true about ourselves.
Humans have been trying to understand what the “ego” is for centuries. Many of the world’s greatest philosophers have spent the better part of their careers trying to understand where the focal point of our existence comes from.
Sigmund Freud was the pioneer of the current scientific understanding of the ego. He coined three terms:
Id — our instinctual drives and desires
Ego — the interface between instinctual desires and moral guidelines
Super Ego — our moral guidelines, adopted from society and our parents
A common analogy used to describe how these three components interface together is to look at a man traveling on horseback.
The horse is id — It represents the underlying, instinctual part of the brain that’s responsible for the bodys’ urges and desires.
The ego is the rider — They represents the rational part of our brain. They’re able to guide the superior but uncoordinated force of the horse as though it were their own. The rider uses borrowed force, transferring the horse’s will into action. But the rider never has full control. Should the horse decide to go in another direction, the rider is ultimately powerless to stop it.
Superego is the map — The map represents the moral principles and guidelines given to us by our parents, mentors, and society as a whole. It’s what we use to determine what’s right and what’s wrong. The rider applies his will through the action of the horse based on the instructions given to him on the map.
The Problems With Ego
We need our ego to understand and quantify our existence so that we can participate in a shared reality.
The fact that we exist in the first place makes no sense whatsoever — so the ego serves as a point of reference to allow us to put our existence into context.
But this is also where the problems arise…
To maintain our understanding of self, the ego must filter information that contradicts or conflicts with this understanding. This can lead to problems with cognitive bias and creates a dualistic perspective of the world (black/white, right/wrong, good/bad, etc.).
The ego can also form a boundary that separates us from other people and the world around us. It can make us selfish, isolated, and close-minded. It prevents us from living in the moment and enjoying existence for what it is. We ruminate about events to come and live in the memories of the past.
Here are just a few of the issues that arise from the function of the ego:
1. The Ego Creates A Delusional View Of The World
Our ego is responsible for preserving the three aspects of our sense of self — self-worth, self-esteem, and self-identity.
As we focus on preserving what we believe to be true, we can become engaged in activities centered around catering to the desires of the ego.
We become obsessed with improving our titles and the way others perceive us. We focus on increasing our self-worth by becoming richer or more popular.
We feel constant pressure to maintain what we perceive as our self-identity — such as being someone who acts or behaves a certain way, has access to certain things, or is received by others a certain way. We become focused on social status and material wealth.
We feel stressed, anxious, and depressed when we’re unable to maintain what we believe is an essential part of our identity.
2. The Ego Can Perpetuate Personal Biases
Our ego tries to shelter our self-esteem from getting hurt by avoiding anything that challenges it. This can make us biased in the way we think.
Biases cause us to disregard anything that conflicts with our current set of opinions and beliefs and makes us take offense at ideas that don’t mesh with our current understanding of the world.
Biases interfere with our objective views and can hinder our ability to empathize and make logical decisions.
List of biases that arise from ego:
The sunk cost fallacy — You irrationally cling to things that have already cost you something.
The spotlight effect — You overestimate how much people notice how you look and act.
Reactance — You’d rather do the opposite of what someone is trying to make you do.
In-group bias — You unfairly favor those who belong to your group.
Just-world hypothesis — Your preference for justice makes you presume it exists.
Fundamental attribution error — You judge others on their character, but yourself on the situation.
Declinism — You remember the past as better than it was and expect the future to be worse than it will likely be.
Negativity bias — You allow negative things to disproportionately influence your thinking.
Groupthink — You let the social dynamics of a group situation override the best outcomes.
The backfire effect — When some aspect of your core beliefs is challenged, it can cause you to believe even more strongly.
Self-serving bias — You believe your failures are due to external factors, yet you’re responsible for your successes.
The curse of knowledge — Once you understand something, you presume it to be obvious to everyone.
Belief bias — If a conclusion supports your existing beliefs, you’ll rationalize anything that supports it.
Confirmation bias — You favor things that confirm your existing beliefs.
Why Seek Ego Dissolution?
The goal of taking psychedelics isn’t to permanently eliminate the ego. The goal is simply to get a glimpse beyond the things we believe to be true about ourselves and our place in the world. To help dismantle unconscious beliefs or habits that are preventing us from being able to truly live in the moment and experience happiness as we are.
These benefits come from things like recognizing unconscious patterns, an expanded sense of empathy and compassion towards others, awareness and reduction of cognitive biases, reduced fear of death, improvements in mindfulness, and alleviation of suffering brought on by unconscious fears and anxieties.
Psychedelics X Shadow Work
Shadow work is a concept developed by psychologist Carl Jung — but much of this concept overlaps with the principles of psychedelic-induced ego death too.
The shadow, as Jung describes it, encompasses all the parts of ourselves we suppress and reject, but that remain a part of who we are nonetheless. This includes aspects related to ego — selfishness, lust, envy, greed, etc.
The more we suppress our shadow, the denser and darker it becomes. As our shadow becomes stronger it gains more influence over our thoughts and decisions. But this influence happens completely outside of our awareness somewhere in the back of our minds.
Psychedelics are considered invaluable in the process of integrating the shadow because of how effectively they’re able to dissolve ego (albeit temporarily). During this period of ego dissolution, all the unconscious elements that make up our shadow become visible to us.
Only after noticing the unconscious influence these thought patterns have on our awareness can we begin the long and arduous journey of integrating them into our conscious awareness.
The goal isn’t to eliminate things like greed, anger, lust, etc. — this is impossible (and frankly, not as helpful as it might sound). The goal is instead to bring these feelings into conscious awareness. Here, we eliminate the influence they have on how we think and act.
By being aware of these aspects of ourselves we can learn to turn these weaknesses into strengths.
Here are some of the changes that can happen when we learn to integrate our shadow:
Fear becomes a source of courage
Aggression becomes a source of passion
Pain becomes a lesson in perseverance & grit
Selfishness becomes a lesson in empathy
Lust facilitates passion, connection, & love
Grief facilitates connection with the self & others
Related: 100 Shadow Work Prompts
The Ego In Action 👇
A Zen Story On Egotism
This Zen koan illustrates the unconscious control the ego has. We can intellectualize it and “understand it,” but it still commands control over the way we react to insults or failure:
A successful politician was considered a national hero for his success as both a statesman and military leader. Despite his fame, power, and wealth, he considered himself a humble and devout Buddhist. He often visited his favorite Zen master to study under him, and they seemed to get along very well.
The fact that he was such a prominent figure apparently had no effect on their relationship, which seemed to be simply one of a revered master and respectful student. One day, during his usual visit, the politician asked the master — “master, what is the ego according to Buddhism?”
The master’s face turned red. In a very condescending and insulting tone, he shot back — “What kind of stupid question is that!?” This unexpected response shocked the politician, who instantly became sullen and angry. The Zen master then smiled and said — “this, your excellency, is egotism.”
Nothing Tastes Sweeter In The Face Of Death
Here’s another short story illustrating the changes in perspective that take place when one eliminates the control of the ego and lives in the present moment. In this case, ego dissolution was induced by acceptance of imminent death:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He ran, but the tiger chased after him. Coming to a cliff face, he grabbed onto a nearby root and swung himself over the edge.
The tiger sniffed and growled at the man from above. Trembling, he looked down. The valley floor was hundreds of feet below. Here, the man dangled far above the valley floor with only the vine to support him. A mouse appeared on the vine and began to gnaw at it.
The man noticed a strawberry was growing nearby. Holding the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry and took a bite. As he stared into the face of death, he realized this was the sweetest strawberry he ever tasted.
Further Reading
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Credits & Shoutouts:
Article by Justin Cooke
Artwork by Dikigiyat