Experience Details:
Experiencer: Christof Kock, a world-famous Neuroscientist, who’s the co-developer of Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness, and pioneer of the search for the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCCs) (the parts of brain correlated with conscious experience).
Psychedelic: 5-Meo-DMT (5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), likely the most potent psychedelic in the world. It’s a natural psychedelic found in certain plants and most famously, the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius). Often called the "God molecule", it causes almost instantaneous ego-death and profound mystical experiences.
Report Sources:
Experience Report:
The world famous neuroscientist Christof Koch, co-developer of Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness, and pioneer of the search for the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCCs) (the parts of brain correlated with consciousness), doesn’t just study the brain and mind from the outside. He also studied it from within—by exploring altered states of consciousness through psychedelics.
In his fascinating book, “Then I Am Myself the World,” and on the Essentia Foundation podcast, he describes an experience of ego-death after taking the most potent psychedelic in the world—5-Meo-DMT. His experience is similar to the other psychedelic and near death experiences we’ve heard. Now it’s time for you to hear it, and what better than to have Christof himself tell you about it.
Smoking the DMT
“My own psychic death came about with the help of a mighty molecule, 5-MeO-DMT . . . this experience exceeds anything else in my life. I was sitting cross-legged on a carpet in the presence of a guide. She started the music I had selected, Arvo Pärt’s minimalist “Spiegel im Spiegel,” with a lone violin accompanying a piano. I deeply inhaled a vaporized dose of 5-MeO-DMT: once, twice, and thrice…” (Koch, 2024, p. 143.)
Passes Through The Nothing (“Black Hole”)
“At which point my entire field of view became obscured by dark, densely swirling smoke; space fractured into a thousand black hexagons and shattered. As I was sucked into a black hole…” (Koch, 2024, p. 144.) “Within seconds, my entire field of view became engulfed by dark, swirling smoke. The space around me fractured into a thousand hexagons and shattered. The speed with which this happened left no time to regret the situation I had gotten myself into.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10.)
Experiences Ego-Death (No Self, No World)
“As I was sucked into a black hole, my last thought was that with the dying of the light, I too would die. And I did. I ceased to exist in any recognizable way, shape, or form. No more Christof, no more ego, no more self; no memories, dreams, desires, hopes, fears—everything personal was stripped away.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10) “There was no self, and there was no world.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:43:15)
“Nothing was left but a nonself: this remaining essence wasn’t man, woman, child, animal, spirit, or anything else; it didn’t want anything, expect anything, think anything, remember anything, dread anything. But it experienced. Did it ever.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10)
Becomes A Point of 
Bright White Light Made of 
️
Consciousness & Energy
“There was only Consciousness . . a point of unbearable lightness.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:43:20) It “was this bright light. It was sort of this singularity.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:41:51) “A point of cold white light of unbearable intensity . . What there was, was a timeless universe convulsed to a blazing, icy light . . convulsed to a point of radiant energy.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10, 144)
“Unable even to conceive of looking away, as there was no “away from.” There was no left or right, up or down, front or back, far away or close by. There wasn’t a black canvas upon which the light existed, as there was no space. There were no other attributes: no color, no motion, no texture, no sound or silence, no smell, no body, no pleasure, no pain…” (Koch, 2024, p. 10)
🪷 Feels Both Ecstasy/Bliss and Terror
There was also “a profound feeling of both terror and ecstasy.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10) “It was terror and bliss—a weird combination.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:41:48) Indeed “it was a terrifying experience, I’m never ever going to do it again.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:40:54)
Experiences Timelesness + 
Sense of Just Being
And “the awfulness of pure experience lasting indefinitely—for there was no perception of time.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10) “There were . . no future, no past.” (Essentia Foundation, 2025, 1:42:05) “The experience wasn’t brief or long. It simply was. The remnant of my shattered mind perceived the sublime, the burning furnace of being.” (Koch, 2024, p. 10)
Consciousness Returning to Body
“During the previous nine minutes, I had been sitting upright and immobile, silent, blind, with eyes wide open, staring dead ahead. I screamed and heard but a faint voice emanating from my chest. My mind gradually returned to my body. I stripped off my clothes as they felt restrictive, instinctually curled into a protective fetal position, and cried. It took about an hour for me to return to my self. I slept soundly that night.” (Koch, 2024, p. 144)