Category: The Ego Complex

There are 5 distinct stages people usually go through when they experience ego death, including:

1. Ego Dissolution
2. The Surrender
3. The Breakthrough
4. The Rebirth
5. The Spiritual Awakening

Let’s break them down.

• Stage 1: Ego dissolution

Usually, you don’t go directly from 1 to 100. Ego death occurs when you pass the threshold into another realm where the body, mind, and self no longer exist. Ego death is preceded by a process called ego dissolution. Ego dissolution is a partial loss of self. This means you’re somewhat disassociated from reality, but you’re still here.

During ego dissolution, you still have a sense of individuality, but the lines between this reality and the next are blurring, meaning it can be difficult to determine who you are, and what reality is. Once your ego is nearly dissolved, you will reach a point where you must surrender to the experience to go deeper into it.

• Stage 2: The surrender

Before losing yourself completely, you need to surrender to the experience. This is arguably the most difficult stage of ego death because the ego wants to survive. In fact, to survive is the ego’s sole purpose. The surrender is often perceived as the true death of the self, meaning the experience is often embroiled in unpleasant emotions such as existential dread or fear as naturally, we want control.

People who are well-trained in spiritual disciplines like meditation may pass this stage gracefully, but for the common person, surrendering is a terrifying stage of ego death. When you surrender to the experience, your consciousness is dismissed from the human construct. You are at the complete mercy of the experience, without the ability to do anything besides experience.

• Stage 3: The breakthrough

The breakthrough marks the point where you pass the threshold between this reality and a deeper level of consciousness where the self no longer exists. This stage of ego death represents the point of no return, as once you break through, you no longer exist, nor does reality.

During this experience, you experience something much more profound than what you’re capable of perceiving during waking consciousness. Your experience is usually consumed by fractals, patterns, and movement. You become an observer with no ability to do anything because you no longer exist, nor does space, time, or any construct of this dimension. You don’t exist, but something certainly does.

• Stage 4: The Rebirth

The rebirth occurs when your consciousness returns to your body, and you ‘wake up’ from the experience of ego death. But it’s not like waking up from a dream, not at all. The rebirth is when you wake into a new self. As a sponge dipped into an ocean of information, you reemerge into reality with a new understanding of yourself, reality, and spirituality.

The experience of ego death is so profound that upon waking up from it, you may feel reborn. People often have new perspectives, mindsets, and views on life. They often feel reset on all levels which creates a stage for a more beautiful, and more wholesome life experience moving forward.

• Stage 5: Spiritual Awakening

After the rebirth experience, you will move on with your life, but through a different frame. The experience of ego death often offsets a spiritual awakening, as people have such a profound encounter with truth that they can’t simply go back to who they were. Their mind has been opened to something much bigger than this reality, and now starts the process of finding themselves.

Ego death doesn’t always offset a spiritual awakening, but it does for most people. Now comes the process of integrating the experience and developing oneself in a way that is in alignment with the soul.