Mystical Experience, Key #5: Self-transcendence

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Mystical Experience: Transpersonal Psychology ?2023 ]

In this: we let go of our selfhood.

“The ego belongs to the relative world, is a stream of experience, a fluent mass of life, a center around which our experiences of sense and mind gather. At the back of this whole structure is the Universal Consciousness, Atman, which is our true being.” (Radhakrishnan, 1953, p. 91.)

One of the primary mystical phenomena associated with psychedelics is that of ego dissolution or death. It can bring intense anxiety, though usually short in duration, as it replicates death or insanity – the disappearance of the self. And as such, it’s one of the most powerful mystical experiences, often serving as a ‘reboot’ of one’s mind (Yaden et al., 2017).

Alongside ego death are those two related phenomena, often measured separately but arguably aspects of ego dissolution itself (Taves, 2020): oceanic boundlessness, and universal interconnectedness. The latter is viewed as a subdimension of the former on some measurement tools, though I would argue that they are distinct experiences. One is a vast spider web; the other, a vast ocean. In ego dissolution, our sense of identity, of self, disintegrates and disappears; the “I” expands outward, connected to every sentient being and at the same time, infinite. Close cousins, typically experienced in parallel.

In psychological terms this is viewed, perhaps unimaginatively, as ‘oneness’: a sense of profound unity, typically with nature or all of existence, an expansion of selfhood, an interdependence, and a fundamental truth (Coomber and Harré, 2022), or oneness self-perception and non-dual awareness that engenders alterations in perceptions of space, time, and identity, a sense of wholeness, and a flow state (Van Lente & Hogan, 2020) – or, the absence of egoic identity boundaries. Sound familiar?

Psychedelics are one method to ego dissolution, a common phenomenon; meditation, as mentioned in our previous key, is another, with its very goal of self-transcendence. We can also use guided imagery or visualization, hypnosis or trance, and other methods that we’ll soon explore.

But does the self truly, fully disappear?

It can certainly feel as if the self is swiftly disappearing, in (what, in reality, we can only imagine to be) a replication of death or insanity, often with intense if short-term anxiety as previously mentioned. But, as we can report on the experience at a later time, logically some aspect of selfhood as observer must remain, a fiber of memory-bearing consciousness (Hick, 2010).

In Buddhist meditation, there is a structure known as second, or dual, attention; the mind quiets, brain activity measurably slows, and one’s state of consciousness lowers, minimally aware of one’s surroundings if at all. Yet, should the house catch on fire, there is no question but that some part of our consciousness will be aware of it. This is the observer self, the one watching us have the experience and able to report on it after – an ability that, as far as we know, we are the only species to contain. This is autonoetic cognition as noted in our introduction – observation of the workings of our mind.

And so – a preview of death with its parallel momentary dread, a moment’s awareness of our boundlessness when the ego is suppressed, a touch of the collective unconscious and thus of our universal interconnectedness, a profound bliss, transcendence – with long-term memory of the experience and long-lasting effects.

Many years ago, relatively early in my engagement with transcendent practices, I endured a period of several months in which, every night as I lay down to sleep, I felt my selfhood descending into a bottomless pit and an overwhelming sadness that I was entering death and would not wake again. Sadness, I might add, for my loved ones, who I presumed would mourn me, but no perceivable sense of sadness for myself or my demise. Naturally, each subsequent morning I awoke, not with any noted relief but almost as if I’d forgotten the experience, to be repeated that night. I neither dreaded nightfall and sleep, nor felt in any way depressed or suicidal; I was engaging in ego death each night as part of my shift in consciousness from waking state to sleep, as I passed through the liminality that is hypnagogia. Spontaneously begun, spontaneously ended some months later, never to return in that form, despite decades now of further and far more advanced work of self-transcendence. [Full disclosure: I have always attributed my experience to the fact of residing at relatively high altitude at the time, despite an apparent absence of relevant research.]

The near-death experience itself has been identified as a form of ego dissolution, and is also related to the out-of-body experience (Martial et al., 2021). It could be posited that both of these phenomena are simply ego dissolution coupled with visionary restructuralization or visual hallucinations, a known subdimension of altered consciousness and mystical experience.

The neurobiology of ego dissolution is measurable; activity is noted especially in the prefrontal (cognitive) region in the presence of intense anxiety or dread of ego dissolution, but in the hippocampus (emotions, memory) when pure bliss or oceanic boundlessness is experienced instead, in each case mediating amygdala function, the structure most closely associated with both anger and fear (Mason et al., 2020). Stoliker et al. (2022) identify ego dissolution as a neurobiologically powerful effect on both sentience and consciousness, while psychologically it disarms ego resistance and allows for a widening of perception as well as alternate thinking and behavior. The sense of self is inverted or fades into the background – becomes part of the matrix, if you will; on fMRI, the brains of both experienced meditators and nuns (as engaging in prayer for multiple hours a day is akin to intense meditation) exhibit decreased activity in the insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex, those regions associated with selfhood (Yaden & Newberg, 2022).

So, how can we achieve a state of self-transcendence?

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Exercises:

For self-transcendence, we can use our previous method of meditation – and as we’ve already explored there, we can prime our experience by writing, brainstorming, or contemplating on letting go of ego, of the self – and maintaining that focus as we meditate. Lucid dreaming can be similarly used for this purpose.

But perhaps gaining clarity first is our best approach. A consideration, in journal-writing or deep contemplation, of what ‘ego death’ means to you, of how you already sense your interconnectedness to all sentient beings or your infinite expansiveness, is in order. Best to explore this topic beforehand, as it applies uniquely to each of us. This also begins to prime your unconscious for the experience itself, and the more you contemplate the topic, the more prepared your brain will be.

In psychedelic-induced mystical experience, and also that of those who regularly meditate, the principle of ‘letting go’ or of surrender to the experience greatly helps to facilitate it – and, helps to minimize the anxiety or fear that can come with ego dissolution. You can practice this skill in advance, by letting go of control on a regular basis in life; in any given situation, ask yourself: can I do anything about this? If so, do that; but if not, let go of any need for control, as it’s out of your hands. We can also meditate regularly on this concept of ‘letting go’, in advance of our attempts at mystical experience, preparing our ‘mental muscles’ in this way.

Mindfulness training is also useful, as it fine-tunes our capacity for sustained focus and attention, and our filters to minimize distraction; this is helpful in gaining and sustaining altered states of consciousness.

Use visualization (internally directed imagination) or guided imagery (imagination led by another person or recording) to explore both the near-death and out-of-body experiences. Be forewarned, this can be emotionally intense, as we willingly contemplate our own death and may feel as if we’re actually experiencing it. This prepares us for ego dissolution, however, as they’ve both been associated with the latter.

It bears repeating: if using guided imagery, write your own script or find one you like, but especially, pre-record it in your own voice for a much stronger effect than if spoken by another.

One such visualization is of the self as a balloon, ever-expanding (it cannot break); another, self as a cloud of gases spiraling ever outward, akin to the universe itself.

With deep, slow breathing and visualization of a waterfall, imagine yourself descending, descending with the water, and flowing out to the sea.

Visualize yourself shapeshifting into the form of another human, then another, and another, letting your ego morph into many others one by one, until your sense of your own identity has become flexible, changeable, less well defined.

Visualize your inner sage, a wise ancient woman or man, who holds you and tells you in a reassuring voice that it’s okay to let go, okay to let the self just float away – that this wise entity will ensure your safety and you’ll be fine, if you just let go, plug in, and expand outward.

9 Keys to Mystical Experience: Transpersonal Psychology, by Anne Hilty, ?2023

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References:

Coomber T and Harré N (2022). Psychological Oneness: A Typology. Review of General Psychology 26:1, 49-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680211034457

Hick J (2010). The New Frontier of Religion and Science: Religious Experience, Neuroscience and the Transcendent. Palgrave MacMillan, London.

Martial C, Fontaine G, Gosseries O et al. (2021). Losing the Self in Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of Ego-Dissolution.?Brain Sciences 11:7:929. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070929

Mason NL, Kuypers KPC, Müller F et al. (2020).?Me, myself, bye: Regional alterations in glutamate and the experience of ego dissolution with psilocybin.?Neuropsychopharmacology?45, 2003-2011. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-020-0718-8

Radhakrishnan S (1953). The Principal Upanishads. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Stoliker D, Egan GF, Friston KJ et al. (2022). Neural Mechanisms and Psychology of Psychedelic Ego Dissolution. Pharmacological Reviews 74:4, 876-917. https://doi.org/10.1124/pharmrev.121.000508

Taves A (2020). Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences. Perspectives on Psychological Science 15:3, 669-690. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619895047

Van Lente E and Hogan MJ (2020). Understanding the Nature of Oneness Experience in Meditators Using Collective Intelligence Methods. Frontiers in Psychology 11:2092. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02092

Yaden DB, Haidt J, Hood RW et al. (2017). The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience. Review of General Psychology 21:2, 143-160. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000102

Yaden DB and Newberg AB (2022). 'Mystical Experiences: Unity and Ego-Dissolution'. In: The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190665678.003.0012