Empirically Distinguishing the Annihilational and Relational Components of Self-Transcendent Experiences and their Downstream Effects
2026 Emma Kulish, Ilan Dar-Nimrod
Self-transcendent experiences (STEs) such as those elicited during meditation, psychedelic use, and experiences of awe, have been conceptualised as having two components: (1) annihilation (a diminished or dissolved sense of self) and (2) relation (an increased sense of interpersonal connectedness or embeddedness within a larger whole) (Yaden et al., 2017). While it is believed that STEs may...