The Self Is a Lie? How Neuroscience and Psychedelics Shatter Your Identity

We all carry a deep conviction: that there is a single, unified self inside us, continuously experiencing the world. But modern neuroscience and experiences induced by meditation or psychedelics reveal a different story — our sense of self is a mental construct, an elaborate illusion.

The brain’s default mode network (DMN) plays a central role in generating self-referential thoughts and maintaining the feeling of identity. When the DMN’s activity decreases, as during deep meditation or psychedelic experiences, the boundaries of self dissolve. People report feelings of unity, ego loss, and expanded awareness — states where the 'I' seems to vanish.

Split-brain studies provide further evidence. When the corpus callosum connecting brain hemispheres is severed, patients can exhibit two independent streams of consciousness with conflicting desires and actions. This challenges the idea of a singular, unchanging self residing in the brain.

These findings suggest that what we call 'self' is a dynamic, fragmented process constructed by neural activity. Memories, thoughts, and perceptions weave together to create the illusion of continuity and coherence, but this can be disrupted without ending conscious experience.

Understanding the self as an illusion can be liberating. It invites us to question rigid identities, reduce suffering caused by attachment to a fixed self, and explore deeper states of consciousness. This perspective bridges neuroscience, philosophy, and spirituality, offering new ways to understand human experience.

Sources: Five Books on Consciousness 1 , Neuroscience for Everyone 4