Many ancient spiritual beliefs hold that everything we know came from one pure ocean of consciousness. And now scientists studying psilocybin at the University of Liège in Belgium are seeing how the brain responds as people experience “feelings of oceanic boundlessness and unity.” As they enter a blissful state, their brains show a dynamic state of “hyper-connectivity.”
In Egyptian Neterian beliefs, the pathway to enlightenment or ‘Coming Forth By Day’ (usually called the Book Of The Dead by the mainstream) required first overcoming the Ego, represented by Set or Seth. Interestingly, the researchers have described the ‘egotropic effects‘ of ‘magic mushrooms,’ another incredible similarity.
Psilocybin And a Feeling of ‘Oceanic Boundlessness’
It’s remarkable to observe scientists using the term “ego” in relation to how a drug affects people.
Even more amazing, scientific news sources like EurekAlert! and MedicalXPress emphasize that the subjects of this “first of its kind imaging study” had a profoundly blissful spiritual experience.
“The concept of oceanic boundlessness refers to a sense of unity, blissfulness, insightfulness, and spiritual experience often associated with psychedelic sessions,” they reported.
Ego Dissolution By Psychedelic
Investigator Athena Demertzi used the phrase “ego dissolution” to describe participants’ subjective experiences. Perhaps the profound experience of this psychedelic could even be driven by the effects on the user’s sense of ego, she suggests.
In contrast, fellow investigator Johannes G. Ramaekers said in a 2023 seminar that drinking alcohol or taking a drug like cocaine might produce the opposite: “ego-inflation.” Thus, the effects of the psychedelic are the complete opposite, a humbling yet blissful experience.
An Experience of Unified Consciousness
Further, Ramaekers explained that ego dissolution is also called “experience of unity” and “a loosening of the boundaries of the self and what’s not the self.” Taking the drug changes consciousness, he says, adding that there might be additional dimensions of consciousness “that might be taken into account!”
Impressively, they have found that a single use of psilocybin can have long-term positive effects. In some cases, people reported an increase in feelings of inspiration. Some reported having positive “novel ideas” seven weeks later.
Video by the GIGA Consciousness Seminars with Johannes Ramaekers:
A Leap That May Move Too Fast for Some
As described in the video below, writer and Netherlands PhD student Zeus Tipado describes ego dissolution, usually called “ego death,” in relation to psychedelic use. Those who leap into such an experience of ego death may find it overwhelming and stressful.
Of course, the participants in the study received ongoing care and were never attempting it on their own. In the United States, all psychedelics were abruptly banned in the 70’s, which was “partly in response to their embrace by the counterculture,” as Scientific American states. It was only in 2018 that psychedelic research into psilocybin was allowed to progress. But attitudes are slowly changing worldwide as more studies like this one are showing impressive positive results. Still, it remains illegal in most places.
Video by Healing Maps about Ego Death:
Brain Networks Start Communicating
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the scientists identified specific brain wave patterns that suggest the brain becomes “functionally more connected, more fluid, and less modular.” This fluidity was associated with “more frequent state transitions and increased entropy of brain pattern dynamics.”
After taking psilocybin, various networks in the brain stopped acting in the default way and started communicating with each other. As the brain enters an ever-changing state of hyper-connectivity, it correlates with a “lower global signal amplitude.”
Connecting with the Same Ocean of Consciousness
How does such a connected state compare to someone doing advanced Yoga or meditation? Would it match up? It seems likely, and scientists are learning a great deal more about this in recent years thanks to advances in technology.
Note: In Egyptian beliefs, overcoming the ego was aided not by drugs but through Maat, the Goddess who represents truth, justice, and cosmic order. Spiritual aspirants, both male and female, practiced meditation techniques, such as Yoga. They may often have consumed a purified diet, such as vegetarian, but not always.
Through disciplined practices, there’s no indication that one required a drug to achieve a higher state of consciousness. But using medicinal plants likely facilitated the experience of connecting with the spiritual realm for some.
Egyptians were extremely advanced in their knowledge of the chemical properties of plants. It’s known they used plants like the blue lotus, wines, mandrake, and many others during ceremonies.
Video by Parable – Religious History Documentaries:
If taking a medicinal plant helped an individual find a connection to the divine, even for a moment, it could obviously be life-changing, as the psilocybin study indicates, too. Anyone could aspire to achieve a connection to the same ocean of consciousness. One name for that consciousness is Amun Ra, but there are many names for the same concept worldwide.
Below, you can see that Set, or Seth, the ego is always a part of Horus, a spiritual aspirant who is working to overcome what’s holding them back.
5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness
As psilocybin changes the brain’s patterns, people report subjective experiences that often share much in common. To quantify those qualitative experiences, scientists used a questionnaire called the “5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire (5D-ASC) scale.”
The five overarching dimensions in the 5D-ASC scale include:
- Oceanic Boundlessness
- Anxious Ego Dissolution
- Visionary Restructuralization
- Auditory Alterations
- Reduction of Vigilance
Thus, participants also report changes in vision and their hearing as they feel a sense of relaxation. Are they experiencing a connection to the one Absolute source of consciousness in the universe? If so, it’s exactly what ancient people have long known. It looks like psilocybin could be helping researchers verify this through a scientific method, another place where science and spirituality merge.
Featured image: Horus and Seth crowning Ramesses III, Wikimedia Commons