When one’s ego is lost through ego death, one loses his sense of present existence and connects with primal nature. Being in a space with no time or space bounds is ego death, or ego loss. It only lives for a brief period, yet it is a wonderful moment with lifelong consequences.
Psychedelics like LSD, DMT, and Ketamine are shown to be effective in treating certain treatment-resistant depression and also drug addiction. Many researchers were curious as to how psychedelics might have such positive effects in mental therapy. Now, it is becoming clear that psychedelic-induced ego death plays an important role in this psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
So, what happens during any psychedelic experience, and how it might be used for therapy? To answer this question, you must dismantle your entire psychedelic trip down to its bare necessities. This article will explain what happens at each level and how it all will build up to your ego death and recovery.
Many people believe that what can happen after the ego dies is more essential than the death of your ego itself. Do not try to put the wagon before the horse, but rather start with the fundamentals.
What is ego death?
When you take large enough amounts of psychedelics, ego death is a common side effect. The boundaries between the feeling of self or the external world are frequently blurred during a severe psychedelic trip, which is the reason some prefer less serious term ‘ego disintegration.’
At the end of one’s journey, the subjective ‘I’ that existed for the majority of one’s life may vanish. Suddenly, the egocentric prism through which the majority of us perceive the world is replaced with an overpowering sensation of interconnection. The self-centered worldview is temporarily replaced with joy, unity, and depersonalization.
While ego death can be not an all-or-nothing event, it is normal to feel a sense of connectivity and a self-loss. This sense of connectivity was described as a transformative experience by one patient in psilocybin research for end-of-life anxiety.
“It seemed like I was inside nature, and I could have lived there indefinitely—it was fantastic.” Other feelings of remaining connected to everything, what I mean, everything present in nature, began to emerge as well.
The subject writes, “Everything—even pebbles, or a single drop of water present in the sea… it was like enchantment.” “It was fantastic, and it was not like just talking about it that turns it into a notion; it was more like an experience.” It seemed like I was within a water drop, inside a wing of a butterfly. And looking through the eyes of a cheetah.”
So what may happen during ego death?
A psychedelic trip occurs when a person drinks large amounts of psychedelics like ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, or Ketamine. This journey takes you through magical encounters that make you rethink what is and is not real.
The user will initially feel sensory changes. Then they may turn more sensitive to sensory stimuli including light, sound, and scent. Colors and textures during ego death may come to life for them, and they may turn more sensitive to all tactile sensations.
