Ordinary, Illuminated!

Ordinary, Illuminated!

Questions to Ponder

Is Psychedelic Self-Death a Proxy for Death?

What losing the self can (and can’t) teach us about the end of life

Justin Harnish's avatar
Justin Harnish
Oct 26, 2026

There is a lot of talk by my psychonaut friends about how the psychedelic experience is a proxy for death. While profound beyond words, I do not believe that the psychedelic experience is a proxy for death. Instead, a component often reported in the psychedelic experience literature is the elimination of the self, the death of the self, if you will. And…

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