“It’s how you identify and what you identify with—like who you are as a person, whether it’s gender identity, what your beliefs are, your morals,” Nuñez explains. She notes that famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was the first to popularize the idea of ego in the modern world, and in psychoanalytic theory, it’s defined as “the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.” Without getting too caught up in the psychological aspects, you can think of your ego as the image you hold of yourself, which affects everything from how you perceive the world to how you behave around others. In other cases, and especially if your ego resists this “death,” the experience can be very scary and result in a sense of detachment or disassociation, Kaiser says. “Often a complete loss of subjective self-identity occurs, causing depression, anxiety, and fear—but the more in touch one is with their spiritual core, the easier the awakening will be,” she adds. Ultimately, ego deaths are not a casual experience but rather quite the opposite. It changes the course of people’s lives entirely. When one comes through on the other side having released all the things they’ve identified with, with only their true spirit left, Kaiser says, they begin to live from a place of pure love. For some people, though, an ego death could happen somewhat spontaneously, not unlike the initial moment of a spiritual awakening, as you have that first realization that your soul is something different from your ego. From there, ego deaths tend to have a handful of common steps or stages. With all that said, some ways to “induce” ego death involve spiritual practices that help you reach transcendental states, such as meditation or breathwork exercises, Nuñez explains. Certain retreats and workshops may offer specific practices tailored for this, she notes. It is also worth noting that psychedelics are a popular avenue for ego death, with 2016 research1 finding a strong correlation with psychedelics and ego death. The study authors write, “Ego-dissolution is a key phenomenological feature of the psychedelic experience,” adding that participants who reportedly had ego deaths often also reported feeling at one with the universe during a psychedelic experience. And of course, there are other, less instantaneous ways to begin fostering a more enlightened way of being without suddenly shattering your ego, such as studying spiritual texts, learning from healers and spiritual thought leaders, and putting what you learn into practice. But ultimately, as spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, “The greatest miracle is the experiencing of your essential self as prior to any words, thoughts, mental labels and images. For this to happen, you need to disentangle your sense of ‘I,’ of Beingness, from all the things it has become mixed up with.”
