Thank you Eschaton for starting this thread. This topic is very close to my heart and I think important to our evolution.
If I may, I`d like to add my take on ego death to this conversation. As has been said so many times, how do you put something so ineffable into words? What I have learned I am truly grateful for and give my ultimate respect to the plant teachers, Ayahuasca, Wachuma, Psylocibe`s and Cannabis, and to the people that have facilitated and helped me integrate.
I view the Ego as like a fog that surrounds us energetically as well as mentally. It literally clouds our vision and colours it with our social conditioning. What upholds the Ego? The inner dialogue. We constantly create our personal view of reality by telling ourselves what is. The voice in our heads creates the fog/ego and keeps us from being fully present.
The fog clouds our view of the ultimate reality, that we are all connected to everything. When I have been able to truly quiet the mind chatter, through the use of entheogens, I have been amazed at the connection I found within my self and with everything that surrounded me. From other people present to plants and animals. And what is felt is wonder and what I would call true love, unconditional. A feeling of wow what have I been missing! I also know from my experiences, that when you are in a state of feeling this connection it is palpable to those in your presence. The light inside of us is literally able to shine forth unimpeded. The fog is not dispersing the light. There is no confusion in communication, and we are our true self, totally honest, with nothing to try and defend or make excuses for, nothing to win or lose. We just are what we are. It`s all good.
I understand the felt need to delineate the experience. I think every person on the planet needs to have at least one taste of ego death, or even know that it is possible and maybe what to expect when it happens. It is incredibly healing. The collective ego`s are what is causing all the suffering and destruction in my opinion.
We are our hearts