Two Paths to Enlightenment: Losing the Self, Finding Connection

What is it about?

What happens when the sense of “self” becomes quieter—and the feeling of connection to the world grows stronger? Some people throughout human history have described such moments as enlightenment, unity, or a sense that the boundary between “me” and the world has dissolved—what researchers often call self-transcendence or nondual awareness. In this study, we explored two very different ways people arrive at these experiences: through mindfulness practices like meditation, and through psychedelic experiences. Drawing on data from over 1,100 people around the world, we found that both pathways are linked to these profound states—but they appear to operate through different psychological processes. Psychedelic experiences are more strongly associated with “ego dissolution,” a temporary loss of the usual sense of self. Mindfulness, in contrast, is more closely related to a gradual deepening of connection—to other people, to nature, and to the present moment. Interestingly, those who had experience with both reported the strongest sense of unity. This suggests that sudden, powerful shifts in self-experience and slower, more integrative changes may work best together—offering two complementary routes toward the same fundamental human capacity: feeling less separate and more connected.

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Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Interest in mindfulness and psychedelics is rapidly growing across psychology, neuroscience, and mental health. At the same time, there is increasing attention to experiences often described as self-transcendence or nondual awareness—states in which the usual boundaries between self and world become less rigid. However, these phenomena are still not well understood, and different approaches are often studied in isolation. Our study contributes to this area by showing that similar self-transcendent experiences may arise through distinct but complementary psychological pathways. Specifically, we highlight the roles of ego dissolution (a reduction in self-boundaries) and relational expansion (a deepening of connection) as two key processes linked to nondual awareness. This provides a more differentiated framework for understanding how profound shifts in self-experience can occur. This distinction is particularly relevant in the context of current developments in mental health, including mindfulness-based interventions and psychedelic-assisted therapies. Rather than treating these approaches as interchangeable, our findings suggest they may offer different but synergistic routes to self-transcendence. A clearer understanding of these pathways may help inform more targeted, safe, and integrative approaches to psychological well-being. More broadly, this work contributes to an emerging effort to study transformative human experiences with greater conceptual precision—bridging research on consciousness, clinical practice, and questions of meaning and connection.

Perspectives