How Do We Explain and Model Ego Death? (Part 8)
In entry 8 in our series on ego dissolution (pulled from my graduate research on the phenomenon) we begin to explore how modern research has explained and contextualized ego death, focusing on psychedelic studies and research on spiritual, mystical, and religious experience.
Literature on this subject is sparse, but a handful of scholars have attempted to explain and model ego death. For this review, recent findings from psychedelic research and psychological research on religious, spiritual and mystical experiences (RSMEs) will be considered. After an extensive review of peer-reviewed literature on this subject, it is clear that ego death has not been specifically studied outside of these contexts in the field of psychology.
Ego Death in Psychedelic Research
Psychedelic drugs (LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and MDMA appear most often in current research) have long been known to induce an impressive variety of altered states, including ego dissolution. Popular intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Timothy Leary may be credited with bringing this information into common awareness in Western academia, but peer-reviewed research on these drug-induced experiences was almost absent until the 1990s. A large number of psychedelic studies have been done with a variety of methodologies since then, so recent research has begun to synthesize these findings and provide explanations for the unusual effects of these drugs.
Researchers were initially interested in finding a part of the brain that could explain ego death and religious experience, but this hypothesis is unsupported by findings which have failed to identify a unitary psychological event that accounts for them (Nencini & Grant, 2010). In a comprehensive review of psychedelic research synthesized with neurological research on cognitive binding and salience processing systems, Letheby and Gerrans (2017, p. 7) have posited that ego dissolution can be explained as a “disruption [of the] predictive self-binding process.” In short, neuroimaging data shows that the parts of the brain involved in top-down predictive processing are disrupted by psychedelic drugs, and this correlates with a loss in the felt sense of self. The varying degrees to which these processes are interrupted can explain why there seems to be a spectrum of ego dissolution, rather than an all-or-nothing experience (Letheby & Gerrans, 2017). They also note that these ego death experiences often occur in the context of mystical states in which the sense of self is replaced with a sense of unity with existence, often referred to as the “cosmic consciousness” experience (Letheby & Gerrans, 2017, p. 6).
Of all the formal or informal models of ego death posited in research on psychedelic experiences, Letheby’s and Garrens’ is the most complete. It draws a clear, convincing connection between neurological systems, the sense of self, and the impact of these drugs. However, this model and explanation cannot account for every instance of ego death or ego dissolution, simply because ego death also happens outside the influence of drug-induced states. Their work shows us how certain chemicals disrupt functioning of information processing and cognitive self-modeling, but how does one come to experience ego death when they are sober, especially if they have never taken any drugs? What neurological information could explain why ego death occurs without a foreign substance disrupting normal brain function?
Ego Death in Research on RSMEs
There are only a handful of empirical, qualitative psychological studies that make meaningful mentions of ego death. Though ego death is not the primary construct of interest for these authors, mentions of it are included in the findings related to other constructs such as spiritual awakening and no-self. Claims about ego death from these studies will be presented in this section.
In a phenomenological review of the spiritual awakening experiences of 25 participants, Taylor (2013) found that many of them went through lasting positive changes that were often attributed to a significant change in identity. For some, there was a feeling that the sense of self had been stripped away in the early or initial phases of their spiritual transformation, and that this “emptying out” preceded new, better states of being (Taylor, 2013, p. 153). However, these experiences of being emptied out were not always pleasant. In fact, turmoil or trauma preceding the awakening experience was a major theme that emerged in the participants’ descriptions (Taylor, 2013). Taylor (2013) theorized that this turmoil could be ascribed to the psychological experience of losing cherished aspects of one’s identity. The experience that the self was being “emptied out” also related to decreased identification with and volume of passive cognitions (Taylor, 2013). In a similar study, Taylor (2012) theorized that the energy being used up by constant, self-reflective processing could be freed up upon ego dissolution, and thus account for the emergence of the awakening experience. In other words, with this energy now available, thanks to the relaxing (such as meditation) or disruption (such as via psychedelic drugs) of these processing systems, one is able to use that energy for higher-level functions that seem exceptional when compared to common experience.
Taylor’s findings about psychological turmoil and the role of ego dissolution preceding spiritual awakening were mirrored in two similar studies of spiritual teachers. One analysis of the spiritual awakenings of 16 teachers of nondual mysticism showed that factors such as loss, depression, and unhappiness led to egoic disillusionment, which eventually resulted in one or multiple “nondual” spiritual realizations that “dispelled the sense that things and persons exist as discrete entities” (Costeines, 2009, p. 100). In other words, the normal ego-centric sense of self was disrupted by these experiences. Similarly, Tzu, Bannerman, & Griffith (2015) found that a sample of nondual spiritual teachers experienced dissatisfaction with egoic consciousness before they were propelled into experiences of the sense of self falling away and being replaced with feelings of oneness and connection. In a discourse analytic study of those who experienced spiritual emergencies, it was also noted that participants conceptualized their experiences in similar term, such as “cracking dissolving, or shattering of the usual self” (Sinclair, 2016, p. 48). This “usual self” was conceptualized in relationship to the true or essential self, which was revealed in the spiritual emergence (Sinclair, 2016).
The only notable grounded theory research in this domain focused on the spectrum of experiences from normal, everyday consciousness to the experience of spiritual enlightenment. In their research, McCormick (2010) proposed a model in which individuals going through these spiritual awakenings experience an emptying of self, which allows “higher consciousness” to come into their experience. All 12 participants described a process of dis-identification with the personal self and said that they had “no sense of personal, individual self” (McCormick, 2010, p. 263).
The similar findings across these qualitative studies are clear. Seemingly, experiences of spiritual awakening or no-self necessarily entail some form of ego death or dissolution, though McCormick adds that a “functional ego” remains in post-ego states of awareness (2010). This is to say that spiritual development, and thus unusual but desirable states of being, may require ego dissolution. Further similarities seem to indicate that psychological distress may play an essential role in the initial experiences of ego dissolution, though this finding deserves more research. Ultimately, recent research has not provided a satisfying theory or model of ego death, though different components of the experience and its results have been explored.
In the next entry, we will synthesize this review and discuss what mental health professionals need to know about ego death, in order to be competent counselors for clients who have had these experiences.
