“Ego Dissolution”

Why a psychedelic is so potentially beneficial is that they have the effect of shaking up rigid thought patterns and behavior which gets fixated. The person makes the same mistake for the rest of their lives.

What happens in a psychedelic state, particularly if they have a good psychotherapist to guide them, is that their wish to overcome their problem (depression/addiction) becomes stronger. Under the psychedelic effect, the “default mode network” (ego) is reduced to the point where maybe people have a complete ego dissolution.

It’s as if you’re restarting a computer. Suddenly it shakes up the whole setting and a new setting can come into place which hopefully is better suited for dealing with the situation in the real world.