Dissolution of What? The Self Lost in Self-transcendent Experiences

In-depth interviews with ten people who had self-transcendent experiences—where the usual sense of self is lost—reveal that while all reported losing a sense of separateness and identification with their body and narrative self, other aspects of self varied. Bodily awareness, spatial self-location, sense of agency, perspectival ownership, thoughts, emotions, sensory impressions, metacognition, and personal identity were sometimes lost and sometimes retained. Participants often singled out the absence of one of these optional aspects as key to their feeling of selflessness. The authors conclude that what people experience as lost differs greatly, and recommend avoiding broad terms like 'ego-dissolution' in favor of more precise descriptions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the phenomenology of selftranscendent experiences, in which the usual sense of self is lost. Based on a taxonomy of nine aspects of self and three types of content of consciousness, we compare ten accounts of such experiences acquired through in-depth interviews. Sense of separateness and identification with body and narrative self were reported as lost in all of these. However, bodily awareness, spatial self-location, sense of agency, perspectival ownership of experience, thoughts, emotions, sensory impressions, metacognition, and personal identity were variously reported as lost or retained. Individual participants emphasized the absence of either of these 'optional' aspects as crucial for their judgment that the experience was without self. We conclude that there is a large variety in what is felt as being lost in self-transcendent experiences, and we recommend that research and theory avoid general terms such as 'ego-dissolution' and instead probe more precisely the different aspects of self.