Hello David!

I wrote recently an article about another talk from the same conference I mention in this story and there they say that one big way that psychedelics can treat depression is by offering these ego-death experiences.

Then they made images of the brain during the Ego-death and noticed what you said - and thanks for the volume knob analogy! - the DMN seems to be less active.

https://medium.com/cabbanis/how-a-psychedelic-trip-can-treat-depression-8b37cfe25eac

The fact is clear, experiences of ego-less can be useful, but you are right, they can also be extremely terrifying.

I believe that part of the psychonaut journey is to deal with this deeply settled fear to be alone without ourselves.

I do also think that it becomes easier to get to that psychedelic place. It seems like at a certain point we don't even require a sacred plant or fungi to get to these experiential states.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it!