Memory suppression: Difference between revisions

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===Ego death===

At level 4, the most profound aspect of all-encompassing long-term memory suppression is the way in which it obliterates one's ability to recall or even feel a general sense of their own name, identity, me-ness or selfhood. The experience of this is colloquially known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death ego death] and is well documented throughout the modern [[psychonaut]]ic subculture. It results in the profound experience that although one is not unconscious, there is no longer an “I” experiencing current sensory input; there is just the input as it is and by itself. This allows one to experience concepts from a perspective which is completely untainted by prior experience and memories due to the accompanying presence of simultaneous [[personal bias suppression]].</onlyinclude>

Since the ego is a functional necessity of experience, complete ego death is not possible to experience. Experiences must be experienced <u>by something</u>; namely, the ego. What is experienced as "ego death" during psychedelic drug use is a complete transformation of the way one conceptualizes their self to the point of being vanishingly small or feeling as though one no longer exists and is "nothing." However, in order to feel that one no longer has an ego requires an ego because a <i>subjective experience</i> requires subjectivity (i.e. a model of one's self, or an ego).

The term "ego death" is also used to describe experiences where one's sense of self has changed so radically that they feel as though the 'old' self has died and they have been reborn into this new, very different self (e.g. feeling like a dot in one's head).

===Psychoactive substances===

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 ===Ego death===
 At level 4, the most profound aspect of all-encompassing long-term memory suppression is the way in which it obliterates one's ability to recall or even feel a general sense of their own name, identity, me-ness or selfhood. The experience of this is colloquially known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death ego death] and is well documented throughout the modern [[psychonaut]]ic subculture. It results in the profound experience that although one is not unconscious, there is no longer an “I” experiencing current sensory input; there is just the input as it is and by itself. This allows one to experience concepts from a perspective which is completely untainted by prior experience and memories due to the accompanying presence of simultaneous [[personal bias suppression]].</onlyinclude>
-Since the ego is a functional necessity of experience, complete ego death is not possible to experience.  Experiences must be experienced <u>by something</u>; namely, the ego.  What is experienced as "ego death" during psychedelic drug use is a complete transformation of the way one conceptualizes their self to the point of being vanishingly small or feeling as though one no longer exists and is "nothing."  However, in order to feel that one no longer has an ego requires an ego because a <i>subjective experience</i> requires subjectivity (i.e. a model of one's self, or an ego).
-The term "ego death" is also used to describe experiences where one's sense of self has changed so radically that they feel as though the 'old' self has died and they have been reborn into this new, very different self (e.g. feeling like a dot in one's head).
 ===Psychoactive substances===