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The ego is like a helmet. It blocks off and filters everything that comes to a person. And the tougher and stronger the Ego, the more insensitive (“with a closed heart”) and unhappy its bearer becomes.
Using various methods, including modern brain imaging technologies, scientists discover that Ayahuasca produces changes in brain activity that may be associated with a weakened grip of the Ego over the rest of the mind.
In a separate study at Sant Pau, scientists used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain waves of people under the influence of Ayahuasca and found a decrease in a certain frequency known as “alpha waves.”
Interestingly, thoughts related to “I” are always associated with increased alpha activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (the main structure of the passive work network). Now there is a theory that brain waves of this frequency greatly contribute to the Ego’s control over consciousness. Ayahuasca interrupts the rhythm of the Ego, reduces its control and allows you to react more spontaneously to the processing of incoming sensory information.
In addition, there are confirmed MRI data on the suppression of blood flow and electrical activity of the brain after meeting with Ayahuasca in the area of the passive work network, that is, in the area of the physical substrate of the Ego. Under the influence of the drink, the intensity of processes in this zone drops sharply and this explains the feeling of losing one’s Self and dissolving the Ego.
After getting out from under the yoke of the Ego, other parts of the brain begin to interact with each other. In the usual state, such “corporate events” are immediately suppressed by the center. Ayahuasca also allows them to literally “break off the leash”, releasing canned emotions, desires, memories, fears.
Moreover, Ayahuasca removes from these fears, first shows them, but then takes them aside and lets them look at them from the side. And it turns out that besides the usual ones, there are other reactions and solutions.
Visual centers remove censorship from themselves and begin to see what is hidden in the usual state. Consciousness is the editor of reality. The mind is a pressure relief valve, it cuts off the abundance of real information. Ayahuasca helps to see everything as it really is. At the same time, there is a lot of information, but it will save from its overabundance. It will only show what a person is ready for and prepare for more.
While the Ego is inactive, the boundary between the world and the “personality” is erased. This is called decentering in scientific language. At the same time, your own thoughts and feelings are separated from you, which, in turn, allows you to be less judgmental and less reactive towards them.
Scientists have found that the ability of Ayahuasca to decenter increases up to 24 hours after ingestion and persists up to 2 months after dieting. This leads to the acceptance of mental experiences, less “internal reactivity” and an increase in the ability to look at your thoughts and emotions with detachment. This allows you to get out of depression and reduces the risk of mental illness.
Ayahuasca triggers vivid and emotional memories and can provide a safe contact with the past in which you can explore these experiences. Inner detachment allows you to stay one step away from an unpleasant emotional experience, but at the same time the ability to change it remains.
Improving these skills is the goal of mindfulness therapy, an increasingly popular therapy for those suffering from conditions such as depression, drug addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and eating disorders. Many researchers consider these disorders to be “Ego diseases”.
Decentering plays an important role in various psychotherapeutic methods of treatment, including systematic desensitization (DM), used to treat post-traumatic disorders and phobias. In DM, patients are exposed to a “trigger” for their stress or phobic reactions in a progressive and controlled way.
Methods of decentering help a person to control his reaction to “his own horror story” by removing himself from it. This impact is just a visualization of their trigger, but, over time, the stress response can be reduced or removed even in the presence of a real situation. This process is long and painstaking. The same effect is carried out by Ayahuasca, but unlike conventional psychotherapy, she does it in several approaches.
Rigid patterns of thinking do not allow a person to experience everything he is capable of. Working with Ayahuasca creates plasticity in thinking, changes stereotypes, improves creativity.
It seems to shake everything inside, disrupting the usual arrangement of neurons. Perhaps, the researchers believe, some people’s brains can get a huge advantage from some disorder.
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