questions about LSD and mirrors

I've been thinking about LSD and the world recently.

And a concept that I keep encountering is the ego.

Am I correct to connect the ego with the fear, for many LSD users, of looking into mirrors?

As soon as we're born we're put into society and society starts piling on your identity. Constantly - What's your name? What's your favorite color? Who do you want to be? Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?

And what I think many of us are left with - as far as I'm beginning to understand - is this "ego-junk."

The affects of this are: you look into a mirror and your face is distorted. It's true that LSD may distort all visuals, but I think especially for many people if they look in a mirror they'll see a picture of their surroundings and the MOST distorted area is their face (or their body if they have body-ego-junk too).

Is that the ego? The distorted blob of a face where it resides? Are LSD users looking directly at their ego and witnessing it head on?

This question is even more interesting to me when I look at cartoons. Think about it. When you look at a cartoon, what's the most distorted area? Their face. Cartoonists don't spend as much time on the legs or torso or feet or something. It's the face. More specifically, their identity. Thus, cartoons usually have faces that are more distorted than their bodies just as when someone looks in their mirror.

Does anyone agree with me?

I'm not trying to preach some kind of "truth" I'm just ranting because I want to understand. I want to have a conversation.

And my next question is - is this why "losing one's ego" is described as such a blissful event? Leaving your mental baggage behind that society told you was important? And returning to the world? (or whatever your greater idea of what the world might be.)

Lastly, what's it like to cut away the ego? In moments of spiritual awakening it may be possible to lose your ego completely. But it always comes back to you. The real goal, at least in my opinion, is to begin chipping away at the ego until your baseline state of mind is more free and unweighted by all the mental baggage that you've collected and hung onto your sense of "I".

I really hope I'm making sense and that someone can comment on this (even if all you have to say is that you agree). Understanding these phenomenons are helping me heal, personally. And I would love to hear other opinions or if anyone has this same view on it all.

Maybe I JUST NOW "turned on" and all of you have already know this. If this is the case, please understand that I'm new to this.

Thanks.

 

no one knows friend, this is a mystery which has plauged mankind since the dawn of the first mushroom trip by a lake

 

I'm drawn to the mirror when I trip, I can look into it for hours on end.

 

I actually agree with you about cartoonist not spending much time on the legs or torso but often feet are enhanced dramatically as well as hands. I forget the proper name for this idea but as humans we actually over exaggerate our face and extremities (hands and feet)

case and point



There are actually certain mental disorder where people believe their hands and feet are either too big or small following strokes or prior to some seizures.

 

You can't "see" an ego. The reason why your face looks blurry when you look in the mirror on acid is, well, probably because you are on acid.

Why is "losing one's ego" described as a blissful event?
I've never heard it described as a blissful event to be honest. Ego death is psychological death, your persona dies, and you come face to face with attachment, it isn't fun, almost always horrifying. If there is anything blissful about it, it is the moment when it's over.

You are never going to lose your ego completely. It isn't how it works, it's always going to come back because the Ego is a fundamental and necessary piece of the human condition. It is the attachment to the ego that people seek to sever, not the ego itself.
Look into Advaita Vedanta.

 

i identify with my ego and i love being moi

 

I agree losing the ego is not particularly blissful. There is I guess a sense of freedom in this state though as you are not perceiving yourself as a single entity with biological and psychological constraints yet as a part of the cosmos as a whole. It's almost as if you become transparent and the energy of life and the cosmos is simply flowing through you.

 

The topic of ego death has been gone over many times and rather thoroughly in this forum. Just do a search in the LSD forum for threads with ego death in the title. You'll have a few hours worth of reading and will save some of us a lot of typing.

 

my uncle seen into his past lives when he looked into the mirror. This might be bullshit. It might not. I dont know. I dont care. Just thought id share some information. 0.o lol

 

why would anyone *want* to lose their ego??

 

Your new here, aren't you.

 

friend says he sees the same thing

 

lol

 

I dont get how anyone can describe that feeling of 'ones-ness' - where you are/you become aware of the only thing that exists... you see 'it'... whatever it may be - as anything other than bliss?


Please be aware that ego-death is very different than walking around the room in a daze not knowing your name or who you are...

There is no walking, there is no talking, there is no 'seeing' of anything (through your eyes atleast).

 

It's always been associated with maximum euphoria for me as well. Tremendous openness, a sense of ultimate unshackling.

 

Thank you SO much for this feedback. It's given me a lot to think about.

I have to side with Mr.Writer and Grinners on the topic of ego-death. It was pure liberation and bliss for me as well. Perhaps others find their ego comforting. I find it jailing and naive. This is probably just a matter of opinion and I won't try to argue but it's definitely a very interesting experience either way.

Also,

I agree all visuals may be distorted, but is it not common for the face especially to be distorted? I honestly feel that this experience is at least in some way "seeing" your ego, if only indirectly. Perhaps this doesn't happen for everyone.

 

Faces have a special significance in cognition and basic neurological processes; you actually have a specific region of the brain just for interpreting faces. This region can be damaged or malformed, leading to quirky neurological problems, difficulty seeing faces, etc. LSD triggers this temporarily.

 

yea and its a very early development starting in infancy

 

Same here. I love the way my pupils look dilated.

 

Hmmm I think some of your responses are good but....Something seems quite paradoxical to me about the idea of looking into a mirror to experience ego death.