Help me figure out: is "ego death" just a super strong neural pathway? And, why does it matter?
I’ve been trying to figure out: how do we significantly quiet or alter the voices inside your head, the thought patterns we’ve developed and strengthened over time? And is part of that experience similar to the supposed “ego death”?
The subjective experience of “ego”
The “ego” is supposedly formed around age 5 when the user starts thinking “I”, “me”; and strengthens as the user ages (“I should do this” “I shouldn’t do that”)
“Ego death” is supposedly experienced after sufficient doses of psychedelics, mindfulness, or religion; and the subsequent feeling is “one-ness”
The “ego” is described as the voice(s) inside your head
Jung claims depression is a part of grieving the death of the ego (many claim depression is a natural part of any grieving process)
The subjective experience of depression and anxiety
Depression is characterized by a lack of energy and feeling tired
Anxiety is characterized by patterns of voices (or thoughts) that lead to fear and worry (big, bad ego?)
The relatively objective reality of habits and neural pathways
The brain consumes a lot of energy when taxed (chess grandmasters burn 5,000 calories/day sitting down during tournaments)
Brain activity is just activation of neural pathways, which require energy
Neural pathways that are used more often (call them mental ‘habits’ or patterns), require much less energy to be used, and are preferred pathways (we ‘fall into habits’, it’s a cycle)
Breaking habits and forming new ones requires way more energy than using old habits
The relatively objective reality of the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
The PFC is our most evolved part of the brain, responsible for ‘executive functions’ such as control and strategic thinking
The PFC consumes disproportionately greater energy than other parts of the brain
In conditions that normally invoke anxiety, when the PFC activates more and suppresses the amygdala, people subjectively experience less anxiety
Activities correlated with increased PFC activation and decreased anxiety: mindfulness, sleep
So my thought: is the subjective experience of ‘ego death’ just the development of a new super strong neural pathway (or mental habit) somewhere in the PFC? To develop it required constantly weakening and suppressing old ones; and also intense energy consumption and feelings of depression? And once developed, its just a new neural pathway (or mental habit/muscle) that is extremely efficient at monitoring and suppressing older (ego) ones?
Maybe this ‘ego death’ muscle (or neural pathway) is like a strong “core” muscle group. You might have awkward running, throwing, sitting, or other motor-movement related habits. But most of them may be significantly impacted by a really weak or undeveloped “core.” Once addressed, the other movements start taking care of themselves. Or maybe it’s more like a hand-eye-coordination breakthrough, which if you develop and practice, different “athletic movements” feel easier and look smoother.
What is the biological basis of ego death? And how could we use that information to improve quality of life?
What is the biology of the subjective experience of pain when we become defensive or when we “confront” uncomfortable truths about our selves? What happens biologically when someone says “you’re being mean” or “you’re being aggressive”? When a knife comes toward you, it might lead to injury and pain, or potentially death. So, built by genes aiming to successfully replicate, we evolve to extremely quickly recognize and defend against a knife. The feeling of “fear” activates amygdala pathways. Fear of pain, injury, and death; all of which significantly impact the chances of genetic replication. What about when an insult “you’re being a dick” comes toward? I guess “fear” is one common ingredient. What about the insult is worth being afraid of that impacts our ability to genetically replicate? Maybe some combination of (a) appearing weak or not dominant, (b) the energy expense in changing a learned habit, (c) some other learnèd fear. Idk.
"Anxiety is characterized by patterns of voices (or thoughts) that lead to fear and worry (big, bad ego?)"
It would be very interesting if the same amygdala response is triggered by both threats of physical harm and those of emotional pain. If so, I'd say it makes sense that we evolved our super complex brains into a tendency for feelings of anxiety out of self defense. Just protecting ourselves from other negative stimuli.
But the argument in quotes above makes this discussion more complicated (saying that the mental experience of anxiety is painful and ultimately negative or "bad"). I would argue that social dynamics are a part of our environment that genes can have "positive" and "negative" traits that affect chances of reproductive success. Perhaps in that sense it's a necessary (or rather, a usually helpful) evil. Mentally painful, but socially-reproductively helpful. but now we have time to think! what other species has had the luxury of having the time to complain about our feelings and how it feels to experience life? we have that unique blessing (and in this case curse).
from a non-evolutionary perspective, and instead from an energy conservation perspective: Do we hold onto those thought patterns because it requires more energy to build a new neural pathway "muscle" or because of an evolutionary basis not to? Or Perhaps another fear-of the unknown?
What i'm getting at: What we're calling ego here is behaviors that seem more biologically/evolutionarily catalyzed. If we define things that way, I'd say that we probably have sophisticated, self-aware, philosophical enough minds and language now, to step away from them.. even though It takes more energy, is more scary, and goes against our insticts. Ego death as letting go of our old dogma. To me this is the beauty of self reflection and the consolation of philosophy. and it is worth doing.