Self unbound: ego dissolution in psychedelic experience

This opinion paper (2017) argues that ego-dissolution experiences induced by psychedelic substances offer insight into the nature of the “self.” The authors argue that self-awareness results from hierarchical predictive models tied to an unchanging entity and, ultimately, that the “self” is merely a useful fiction.

Abstract

“Users of psychedelic drugs often report that their sense of being a self or ‘I’ distinct from the rest of the world has diminished or altogether dissolved. Neuroscientific study of such ‘ego dissolution’ experiences offers a window onto the nature of self-awareness. We argue that ego dissolution is best explained by an account that explains self-awareness as resulting from the integrated functioning of hierarchical predictive models which posit the existence of a stable and unchanging entity to which representations are bound. Combining recent work on the ‘integrative self’ and the phenomenon of self-binding with predictive processing principles yields an explanation of ego dissolution according to which self-representation is a useful Cartesian fiction: an ultimately false representation of a simple and enduring substance to which attributes are bound which serves to integrate and unify cognitive processing across levels and domains. The self-model is not a mere narrative posit, as some have suggested; it has a more robust and ubiquitous cognitive function than that. But this does not mean, as others have claimed, that the self-model has the right attributes to qualify as a self. It performs some of the right kinds of functions, but it is not the right kind of entity. Ego dissolution experiences reveal that the self-model plays an important binding function in cognitive processing, but the self does not exist.”

Authors: Chris Letheby & Philip Gerrans

Summary of Self unbound: ego dissolution in psychedelic experience

In this paper, the authors argue that the ‘ego dissolution’ in psychedelic experience is a window into the nature of self-awareness. They argue that the mind models the self as an object whose continued existence explains the co-occurrence of physical and psychological attributes.

The self is represented as an entity that sustains interoception, affection, cognition, and perception. The salience and emotional processing systems coordinate the processing of information relevant to the self.