Ego Death
/ˈiːɡoʊ dɛθ/noun
A temporary experience in which a person feels that their ordinary sense of individual identity has dissolved.
Did you know?The modern phrase became prominent in psychedelic literature, especially after Timothy Leary and colleagues used it in the 1960s to describe mystical or identity-dissolving experiences.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*eǵh₂
“A reconstructed first-person pronoun meaning “I,” ancestral to forms such as Greek egṓ and Latin ego.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
ἐγώ (egṓ)
““I” or “me”; the source of the philosophical and psychological term ego.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dʰenh₂-
“A reconstructed root associated with dying or departing from life, traditionally connected with later Germanic death-words.”
Old English
Old English
dēaþ
““Death,” the state or event of dying.”
19th Century
English
ego
“A term for the conscious self, adopted into English from Latin through philosophical and psychological usage.”
20th Century
English
ego death
“A phrase for the apparent dissolution of individual identity, later associated especially with psychedelics, mysticism, and transformative spiritual practice.”