Ego Death | Meaning, Traits, Symptoms, and Stages

What is ego death?

The literal meaning of ego death is when someone experiences a loss of complete self-identity.

In a very basic term, it is a fundamental transformation of the psyche. It is also defined self-loss which means a temporary loss of one’s sense of self due.

Timothy Leary first used this term which described the death of someone’s ego in the first phase.

This also means having a state of mind that makes own perception of having a mind. Here, the ego is something that makes you think differently from others. It separates you from individuals.  

Traits of ego death

• You can often see an increase in traits like empathy and openness.
• It is ought to show us some very unbiased reality.
• This helps us understand where did our ego ‘lies’ to us to help preserve our self-image and self-identity.
• It also helps you in preserving self-esteem too.
• It seems that one has no thoughts running through the mind when they achieve ego death.

What does ego death feel like?

The word death has a lot of gravity and also negative feelings. One can associate death with darkness or also decay along with sadness. It definitely carries a lot of negative connections around.

Many times, human beings live in fear that someday they might lose the self-identity and also worry about the same. Therefore, In some or the other way, self-identity stays in sub-conscious.

Ego death Symptoms

Well, it is certainly not a simple issue. There are legit ways of finding out who is going through it. Therefore, some symptoms of ego death, important in noting are-

• No signs of proper vision
• One cannot feel self. No sense of self at all.
• Pure awareness.
• Ecstatic freedom.
• Have zero thoughts

1. No signs of proper vision

When the person is not able to see anything or also has a clear vision of things, it is a symptom. A person isn’t able to think anything beyond the current scenario or also about the future.

2. No sense of self

This is when a person feels that he has lost the self-identity. It is certainly impossible for them to understand who they are. They are unable to stay true to their original identity.

3. Pure awareness

Soon the person starts getting aware of things that one doesn’t really know about. They become more empathetic to their surroundings and also are aware of what is happening. Earlier someone who didn’t like to care about what is happening in the world, now starts being aware.  

4. Ecstatic freedom

Now when the person doesn’t have to keep up with one identity, they certainly feel very free.  When you have to keep up with one identity always, it gets frustrating.

Therefore, they are bound to experience ecstatic freedom.

5. Have zero thoughts

When you see a person has no new thoughts or no thoughts at all, it is a sign of ego death. They are all together in a different world. All of a sudden the person becomes carefree and also unapologetic

Stages of ego death

1. No social conditioning.

When you feel whatever is around you aren’t the same anymore.
When you realize that the reality of life is way too different than what you thought it is. You stop believing the distinct feature of life is not what you thought.

2. Feeling more about Oneness

This is the time when you start feeling more about the self and not your ego. Now everything is about – How everyone is the same rather than how everyone is different.

3. Finding possibilities-

Now is the time when you start seeing true endless possibilities in life. You accept the current identity of yours and start exploring.
Now you believe you can do anything and everything.

4. Full ego death

This is the last stage where you completely lose your personality.
One may start to panic sometimes and also feel they might die. 

How to achieve Ego death?

Well, this is a very tedious process one has to through. For achieving it, one must learn to drive away from their real self. It is certainly important for that person to associate oneself with spirituality.

Accept a spiritual master as your teacher because he is the one who has achieved ego death. And now, it will help your separate your ego completely.  

Is ego death permanent?

It is a natural phenomenon that can be achieved with spiritual experiences. It is not something that can be altered using chemicals and medicines.

So it is certainly a phenomenon that is not permanent. It is a phase of life one attains for a period of time and then can come out of it.

Is ego death good for you?

The answer to above question can be given in two ways.

Pros

This is partially true that ego death is sometimes good. It increases empathy, brings a new outlook of life in you. It changes your overall well-being and also how to create a new identity for yourself.

Cons

So if you see the symptoms and also the process of attaining ego death, you might notice how people panic like they are about to lose their life. The temporary feeling of you are ‘dying’ can be really dangerous. It might affect the mental well-being of a person.

Unnatural ways of Ego death

So when this concept took pace and came into light, people were fascinated.
Soon a new technology called the psychedelic came into the picture. In this, you are given psychedelic drugs to experience this phenomenon. Another way of giving someone this experience is by meditation and also holotropic breathing.

These psychedelic doses slowly take you into the stage of ego death. You soon start leaving the real sense of self and separate from it. One can certainly see self-centeredness in you. There is a complete change in your understanding of self.

So Ego death is a very difficult stage of life but also very liberating of one’s own self.