Ego

[ShaMan]

Has anyone here experienced any measure of what is called "Ego Death"?

Has anyone identified their ego, confronted it, and exposed it?

Peace

[Bad Writer]

Myself? No. Ask Enrico though; I'm sure he's either done this or it's on his bucket list.

[Napoléon]

I've had some pretty weird lucid dreams but otherwise, I would say no.

[ShaMan]

I've had some pretty weird lucid dreams but otherwise, I would say no.

Lucid dreaming is kick-ass! It is said that all of the characters in one's dream represent different aspects of the ego. Ego death can occur on multiple layers within a highly active lucid dream.

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Once, while lucid dreaming, I was able to put to death an aspect of my ego that caused me some distress in my daily life. I used to have a light anxiety whenever I left my house, and a sense of worry about leaving my home unattended. While lucid dreaming, I lifted up into the air, taking flight (I often fly in my dreams), and upon observing my house/home, I flew as far away from the area surrounding my house as I could while still maintaining a view of my home. At the furthest reaches of my flight from home, I was able to sever the view I had of my house, and I immediately sensed that what I had identified as my home/house, was nothing more than a construct I had created - one that controlled me on some level. I continued to fly peacefully away from the anxiety, and upon waking, and for three years since that one dream, I have had no anxiety about leaving anywhere I call home, unattended.

[bennyboy]

Has anyone here experienced any measure of what is called "Ego Death"?

Has anyone identified their ego, confronted it, and exposed it?

Peace

I once had a quasi-religious experience alternating between Quantum Physics pop books and Buddhist texts on nothingness. Total conceptual breakdown. Quite the trip, considering no drugs were involved.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Ego death is characterized as the perceived loss of boundaries between self and environment, a sense of the loss of control, personal agents, and cognitive-associations. This re-organization, reidentification, and reinterpretation of boundaries between self and environment experienced through sensations of wholeness or by refutation of the "I".'

I used to accomplish this regularly via the medium of a bottle of Jameson's.

Boru

[LastPoet]

Lsd once provided me with some crazy shit, including becoming a god, you know, a fantasy. Cool though, albeit a strain on your brain.

[Whateverist]

Depending on what is meant by "ego" I suspect that would be difficult. If it feels like an accomplishment, ego's often like those. (Look, look, I'm dead.) What do we imagine carries on in its absence? Pure altruism?

[LostLocke]

Has anyone identified their ego, confronted it, and exposed it?

I exposed myself to my ego once.
He now has a restraining order against me.

[ShaMan]

Depending on what is meant by "ego" I suspect that would be difficult. If it feels like an accomplishment, ego's often like those. (Look, look, I'm dead.) What do we imagine carries on in its absence? Pure altruism?

Great point! The ego is well rehearsed in its ability to play hide and seek. Altruism also must die, since the ego is where the concept is wrought. As far as what carries on in the absence of ego, I'd say that only consciousness remains, as to what that is, or where it resides, I do not claim to know. All I can say for certain is that whenever my mind is freed from the tendency toward the concepts I embrace (self, I, altruism, equality, the world around me, etc.), I am never ashamed of my failures, nor am I ever proud of my accomplishments, and for at least a brief moment, and sometimes for weeks and months afterward, I can escape the asshole that is known as "me". What, or who I am as I observe the death of self must also die. Ego death, as I have experienced it, is best described as an infinite regress, where one’s constructs, both good and bad, can be clearly seen and dealt with on a very deep level.

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I exposed myself to my ego once.
He now has a restraining order against me.

Id appeal that ruling. "Id", get it?