Could there be truth in the idea that there are two types of people – those who have done [magic] mushrooms and those who have not? Though often an experience of jollity and merriment, the idea behind this statement is that it makes us somehow more human.
In having a greater connection with one another, those having psychedelic experiences have some sort of experience of ego dissolution where the emphasis is less on ‘me’ and more on ‘we’. The idea would be that humanity can advance in a way certainly not seen here in the 44 years since Margaret Thatcher came to power where quite the reverse of the death of ego has occurred in Maggie’s ‘death of society’. But is there any truth behind this?
I have reported on advances in psychedelic research over the years, and practice a form of mantra meditation that my teachers say reaches a form of ego death. In a particularly intense meditation just yesterday all thought fell away and I hit a oneness that was very refreshing. We believe this state can lead to a form of enlightenment known as Samadhi where we remain in a higher state of consciousness permanently.
I have done a fair bit of LSD and had some crazy experiences on psilocybin mushrooms in my time, but for the last 24 years have had a schizophrenia diagnosis which makes me one of very few who should not touch any substance of this kind. Indeed, my ultimate guru, the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, preached strongly against the use of psychedelics and this suits me to the ground!
However, many years ago I interviewed an LSD assisted psychotherapist in Switzerland who explained that psychedelics are ‘the express train to the same destination that it often takes years for a Transcendental Meditation practitioner to achieve’. She was showing pure consciousness to those facing death due to terminal illnesses and helping them understand something that Buddhists and Vedic meditators conclude after extended periods of practice. That life is an illusion and we appear here for a short time to make this planet better for all, but we will continue even after our bodies fail. That our kin will live on without us when we depart.
Ego Death by Meditation and Drugs?
After two discussions on the subject in as many weeks, I looked online for quality research. In 2018 Oxford University philosophy academic Raphaël Millière alongside leading psychedelic academic Robin Carhart-Harris published an article in Frontiers in Psychiatry called Psychedelics, Meditation and Self Consciousness. This looked to compare the experiences of those who meditate with those who take LSD, psilocybin or DMT.
As a first step they describe what occurs in a mantra meditation like the one I practice:
“The aim of this practice is frequently described as reaching a state of pure consciousness which involves a complete loss of self-consciousness: “attaining Samadhi is to reach the silent state of pure consciousness where there is no phenomenological content and a loss of any sense of individual self or duality”. Miri Albahari has suggested that the state of pure consciousness allegedly reached through Samadhi meditation could provide evidence for the existence of what she calls “witness-consciousness,” which she defines as the neutral common denominator between all conscious experience.”
Could psychedelic drugs achieve a similar state of consciousness? There certainly seem to be some reports, again repeated in the Frontiers in Psychiatry article I refer to above:
“This raises the question of whether psychedelic drugs can induce virtually “contentless” states similar to the descriptions of pure consciousness from mystical and contemplative traditions. While most reports of drug-induced ego dissolution involve a rich sensory phenomenology, including vivid hallucinations, this is not always the case. In particular, there is anecdotal evidence that certain compounds such as 5-MeO-DMT may induce states of radical absorption reminiscent of Samadhi practice. Indeed, users of 5-MeO-DMT frequently describe an experience of “emptiness,” “nothingness” or “void” which is associated with a cessation of thoughts, extreme sensory deprivation and a complete loss of self-consciousness: “my brain was not conveying anything meaningful from what my senses were receiving; I was completely unaware of my body, experiencing profound stillness” (report #99920 from Erowid.org); “I felt that there was nothing to me and there was nothing around me” (#11701); “the reality around me disintegrated into nothing. I fell into a void [that] I can’t even describe””
The classic experience of psychedelics is like those I often reached where everything appeared to physically melt in front of me. Sometimes however, (like sitting in a tree in a storm across Southampton Water from Fawley oil refinery one night) I found intense and somewhat euphoric psychological disturbances where I came to understand life in a new way.
The experiences recounted in the academic research above however show that often, those like me who take an hour out a day to meditate with our minds and bodies can be similar to those who have a bloody good trip on shrooms or acid.
Beyond Ego Death
Could there be a benefit of all of us experiencing some form of ego death? Could spiking the Tory Party and Labour Party Annual Conferences’ water supply with a high dose of LSD change the world for the better?
To my understanding (though I’m not suggesting we should of course) it might lead to some big changes in the way we are governed. We might see Jacob Rees Mogg’s politics move to the left of Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer discovering authenticity for the first time in his life.
Joking (or fantasising) aside, one does wonder if the vain and vacuous, self serving nobodies who run this country could do with a dose of something profound and empty to make them change their ways. To serve as opposed to lead. Those who have experienced ego death tend to think of ‘we’ rather than ‘me’ after all!
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