Memory suppression
Ego suppression, loss and death can be described as an effect which directly subdues one's own ego. The ego can be defined as a person’s concept, understanding and sense of their own identity, self or “I” as a separate agent from the external environment. It is essentially a person’s consciousness or capacity to be self-aware, as enabled by their ability to recall and maintain a general understanding of basic concepts such as their identity, name and the separation between what is considered as part of them and what is considered to be an external system.
With any hallucinogen, one's ability to retain, recall, feel and understand concepts such as a personal sense of self are partially to completely diminished proportional to dosage. This seems to stem not from a direct suppression of ones identity but instead a partial to complete failure of all working memory and therefore the ability to recall or understand basic fundamental notions of human existence. It is a process which is capable of being broken down into 3 basic levels:
- Ego suppression - This is a partial failure of a person's short term memory. It can be described as a general difficulty staying focused and an increase in distractibility.
- Ego loss - This is the complete failure of a person's short term memory. It can be described as a person becoming being completely incapable of remembering any specific details regarding the present situation for more than a second or two. This is capable results in thought loops, disorientation, loss of control and confusion for the inexperienced. Long term memory however remains entirely intact as people are still perfectly capable of recollecting their name, date of birth, childhood school, etc.
- Ego death - This is a complete failure of a person's long term memory. Ego death can be described as a total loss of control in which the person becomes completely incapable of remembering even the most basic fundamental human concepts stored within the long term memory. This includes one's name, identity, home town, that they are on drugs, what drugs even are, what human beings are, what life is, what existence is or what anything is. The most notable of these however is the loss of ones sense of self. This results in the profound experience that there is no longer an “I” experiencing the intensity of the trip any more, there is just the trip as it is and by itself.