tickle fight!

I realize that I am not the first person in the world to go through an existential crisis.  However, trying to learn about and read up on the different components of one is proving to be a crisis of its own.  Particularly challenging and confusing is the concept of ego death.  Online resources are so watered down, biased, and incomplete.  I think I will spend some time looking at real books when I am at the library this weekend.  I miss you, large reference books! 

Here is an over-generalized wiki description:

Ego death is an experience that reveals the illusory aspect of the ego, sometimes undergone by psychonauts, mystics, shamans, monks, psychologists, and others interested in exploring the depths of the mind.

The practice of ego death as a deliberately sought “mystical experience” in some ways overlaps, but is nevertheless distinct from, traditional teachings concerning enlightenment/”Nirvana” (in Buddhism) or “Moksha” (in Hinduism), which might perhaps be better understood as transcendence of the notion that one even has any actual, non-illusory “ego” with which to experience “death” in the first place. Sometimes the ego death is triggered without the subject’s desire. This can be a very traumatic and psychologically damaging event for some, and should be approached with caution.

The most direct means of accomplishing the mystical experience of ego death may be through the use of mind expanding substances, such as psychedelics such as LSD, DMT, DPT, DXM, psilocybin, mescaline, nitrous oxide, Lysergic acid amide, Cannabis and Salvia. Many other methods, practices, or experiences may also induce this state, including prayer, sacred ritual, sleep deprivation, fasting, and meditation practice. Less frequently, it might also come about spontaneously or “of its own accord” (as a symptom of certain mental illnesses, or in response to severe trauma).

I am mostly interested in the way the mind can figuratively split in half, causing an altered perception that really messes with your waking life/reality/sense of self.  I think this is what happens when people develop schizophrenia later in life. 

I should have paid more attention in Abnormal Psychology.  I blame my cute professor.

And what is a psychonaut and how can I be one? 

Should I stop watching Salad Fingers?