Understanding Ego Dissolution and its Impact | 3min snip from Huberman Lab

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Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: The Science of Psychedelics for Mental Health

Huberman Lab

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Understanding Ego Dissolution and its Impact

Ego dissolution is the temporary elimination of the idea that things stop and start between oneself and everything else./nIt involves feeling interconnected with other people and the world at large./nEgo dissolution challenges the notion of self-importance and highlights the molecular continuity of life./nThis experience can be facilitated by serotonin activation.

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In this episode, my guest is Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, distinguished professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He is one of leading researchers in the study of how psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT can change the human brain and in doing so, be used to successfully treat various mental health challenges such as major depression, anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction. He explains how psilocybin induces sustained changes in adaptive brain wiring and cognition. We discuss the key components of safe and effective psychedelic journeys, the role of hallucinations, the use of eye-masks to encourage people to “go internal,” and music, as well as what effective therapist support consists of before, during and after the session (also known as integration). We discuss micodosing vs. macrodosing and how researchers control for placebo effects in psychedelic research. We also discuss the current legal landscape around psychedelic therapies. Psychedelic therapies are fast emerging as powerful and soon-to-be mainstream treatments for medical health disorders, but they are not without their risks. As such, this episode ought to be of use to anyone interested in brain plasticity, mental health, psychology or neuroscience.

For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.