Grey Fox said:

The term "ego death" is so problematic.  Sigmund Freud was a coke-head from 100 years ago.  He fantasized about fucking his own mother.  But his ideas about how the mind works determine the language we use to interpret tripping?  He didnt even know anything about how the brain really works.  He lived before brain imaging.  His concepts are crude and inaccurate.  Why are we forced to interpret the psychedelic experience through his lens?  Has your super-ego ever died?  What about your id? Fuck Freud and the concept of the ego.

I see it like this: when you take a high dose of psychedelics the functioning of your brain is affected to the point that normal processes of self-awareness are disrupted. You no longer use words or focus on yourself .  You no longer process anything beyond the immediate, raw experience of "right now".  You just "are".  It is wonderful and healing.  It can also be very shocking and scary, especially if you try to fight it.

Why must we put terms to it or try to understand it via Freud?  There are no words or concepts during that time.  Categorizing it and systematizing what it means... these things do not come from the deep psychedelic state.  They come from the non-psychedelic state and are alien to what they attempt to describe.

So I say, lets abandon the term "ego death" and all the boasting and value judgments that accompany it.  More deep trips; less Freud.  Peace.

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redgreenvines said:

inappropriate waste of ambition.

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i.e. daily, moment by moment efforts at awakening will make your tripping better and vice versa.

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try as you might you cannot acquire the ultimate, by definition, it is merely an hypnotic marketing term, or a sports gambling term.

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SonicTitan said:

I feel like a lot of people don't know what it is, even when/after experiencing it. Ego death is like what assante said itz a progression through layers. You leave behind these "parts of you" in segments. That's at least how it has always seemed upon reflection of it. Aside from a strong mushroom experience  DMT seemed to be the only times it seemed to happen. You leave behind past and experiences and you just "are" but its not a you its just  "it".. You can force ego death with drugs but meditation can invoke those experiences too.
Personally have not experienced a meditation induced "Ego death" but my father has told me about times when he used to meditate he would have outer body experiences or completely lose his sense of self and being human.

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Agreed with you and Asante. I've tripped dozens if not over a hundred times, not including hundreds of dissociative experiences, and the only "ego death" experiences I've had were my first trip on 200ug LSD and a subsequent trip after a couple years not tripping at all on an eighth of mushrooms with DMT smoked during the peak. The first lasted maybe an hour, could've been less but I was with a friend so I had a general time-frame. The second time, not sure how long it lasted, probably an hour before I regained my sense of self and another hour or so before I could actually see the room I was in again

feevers said:

LosTresOjos said:

If want to go to China I don't have to walk...

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But you miss a whole lot along the way and aren't as strong once you get there... just to keep with your metaphor

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redgreenvines said:

when I see a mountain, I do not take it personally. It is a wonderful thing as it is. I do not want to climb it at all.

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Northerner said:

I experienced actual death on a DMT experience once. Saw my body destroyed in front of me, then there was a tunnel and flashing lightning as I zoomed towards a point of light. Then all was light. I didn't think anything, there was no me. I didn't know what I was even. I don't know how long I was in the light as there was no frame of reference. Gold sacred geometry appeared in the light spinning. Then suddenly I started feeling my body again. First my lungs and then it came tumbling back. Opened my eyes and was surprised to see I had hands and could move them, I didn't even know my name. I looked around the room and everything was alien, I didn't know what anything was. Then everything else came tumbling back. I was so thankful to be alive again. Integrating the trip was difficult, I was pretty traumatized. In some ways I am still dealing with it.

That sort of thing is what I think ego death is, I never set out to get it, and to be honest it's really not that great. If shooting high I would much rather a standard OBE type breakthrough that doesn't eliminate every part of me.

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Northerner said:

Gold sacred geometry appeared in the light spinning.

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That sort of thing is what I think ego death is, I never set out to get it...

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...and to be honest it's really not that great.

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Northerner said:

Maybe I'm missing something here?

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MrCraggles said:

Ok we'll you've burnt your fingers, learned a lesson and found your personal preference. That's fine. But your personal experience and preference doesn't detract from the fact that many people, including recently myself, have had profoundly beautiful ego death experiences.

Sharing negative experiences such as yours is as important as sharing the positives, so that those chasing the experience have a better understanding of all potential outcomes.

To each his own.

As long as those chasing it aren't doing so in an ignorant and unsafe way then all is good.

My experience of it was totally beautiful.

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Pandemoon said:

I had one experience which I belive killed my ego.
I smoked 100mg+ of dmt in one big hit and held it in for 25 sec.

While still inhaling the smoke, my vision was overlaid with a colorfull web and started shaking /vibrating heavily.
I exhaled and remember drifting to the side, then bam. I have no recollection of the next 12 minutes.
My friend, who sat next to me, said I had a full body seizure with foam in my mouth. I was gone completly.
When I came back I had no recollection of what happened, who I am, what I did, what "beeing" itself is, what time is, where I was, who the person next to me was.. nothing. I couldn't make anything out.
My vision was entirely filled with colorfull, rotaing diamonds. I couldn't see anything but colors for a few minutes.
I relived my entire life and a lot of unexplainable stuff during those minutes, it felt like a lifetime and beyond. Took me another 5min untill I could make out my buddy next to me.
His face had like 8 or 12 eyes and I only say his face for a few minutes. Still not knwoing what had ahppened and where I was..
Then my body came back into existence. It felt soo damn wired to have a body. 35min after smoking I was almost back to baseline and could make sense out of mainly everything again.

I remember one moment I felt like I or my head was an extraction jar that bubbles over and dissolves into the room. I thought I fucked up the extraction and killed myself. So did it feel.


I never dosed this high again and don't have the urge to. It was pure terror.

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