Annaka Harris

I actually think they can give us, they are reasons and bases for

feeling more connected to each other and to the universe, for spiritual experiences, for even just on a more basic level for increasing our wellbeing, just in terms of our psychology of lowering rates of depression and anxiety.

And I actually think these realizations can be extremely helpful to people.

Well, and people were worried about how that would affect society.

And you're saying... But it can't, but it's also a source of awe.

And I mean, so many people now use that fact to...

inspire a positive response, to inspire creativity and curiosity and awe and all of these things that are so useful for human well-being.

The truth is that for the most part, the sense of self is kind of at the core of human suffering because it feels as if we are separate from the rest of nature.

We're separate from each other.

We're separate from ourselves.

You know, the illusion that I referenced of feeling like, you know, we have these thoughts that are brain-based thoughts, but then the eye swoops in to make a decision.

In some sense, it goes so deep that it's as if the eye is separate from the physical world.

And that separation plays a part in depression, plays a part in anxiety, even plays a part in addiction.

So at the level of the brain, I think, stop me if I'm repeating myself, but we started talking about the default mode network.

And so we actually know that

When the default mode network is quieted down, when people lose a sense of self in meditation and on psychedelic drugs in therapy, there is a feeling that people describe of an extremely positive feeling of being connected to the rest of nature.

And so that's a piece of it that I think if you haven't had the experience, you wouldn't necessarily know that would be a part of it.

But truly having that insight that you're not the self you feel you are, immediately your experiences are embedded in the universe and you are a piece of everything and you see that everything is interconnected.

And so rather than feeling like a lonely I in this bigger universe, there's a sense of

being a part of something larger than yourself.