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Watts: Psychedelic ego death feels like oneness or physical dying

Dr. Rosalind Watts · Researching Psilocybin's Effects on Depression - Dr. Rosalind Watts · Y Combinator · Mar 15, 2018 · at 13:15

Dr. Rosalind Watts, clinical psychologist at Imperial College London, describes the psychological manifestations of ego deactivation during high-dose psilocybin sessions.

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“When you die on a psychedelic experience, when you have an ego death, that can either feel like, oh, I'm at one with the planet, I am the plants and the trees, I am everything, or it can feel like I'm physically being killed, I'm dying.”

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