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By Elder Wewo Kotokay, Melanesian Conservation Elders, Inc.
"On seventh heaven is where identity disappears." From my New Guinea perspective, I normally say this same idea with this statement, “When the circle is full, no one knows who is who!” I use my traditional roundhouse and collective Melanesian way of housing and living that create and maintain “the self or I” as the basis for developing our Melanesian understanding on life, particularly human life in relation with each other and with the lives of other communities of beings.
This poetic statement bridges two profound truths: extreme bliss and the dissolution of the separate self. When we experience ultimate joy, peace, or transcendence, our sense of being a detached "I" evaporates. As Elder Satis Kumar, successor to Mahatma Gandhi, calls it: Radical Love, which means non reciprocal loving or loving without expecting reciprocity. This “Radical Love” does kill this “ego” that deserves the “pay-back” for loving or expressing love. In other words, according to Elder Kumar, “Radical Love” follows the Laws of Nature, giving, giving, and giving, without ever expecting or wishing pay-back. This only happens when the “I” evaporates.
"The Seventh Heaven" and "the Death of Ego" are two profound spiritual and psychological concepts that describe the highest stages of human consciousness, spiritual ascension, and the ultimate realization of the true self. When examined together—often linked in mystical traditions like Sufism, Kabbalah, and Western mysticism—they represent the destination of the spiritual journey and the exact psychological mechanism required to get there.
Historically rooted in ancient Mesopotamian cosmology, the concept of seven heavens exists across major religious and mystical traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and early Christianity.
Across mystical traditions worldwide, true liberation is not about fulfilling individual identity—it is about melting into the whole. There is no longer an "I" to experience paradise; there is only the experience itself. This complement the indigenous concepts of “Ap Panggok: We are, therefore, I am” from New Guinea, and “I am because we are!” which emphasize the existence and presence of collective human and living beings as the basis for individual “I”.
Yet here lies the urgent question: What does ego dissolution mean for how we treat each other—and our planet?
Why "Seventh Heaven" Is Not Just Poetry
The phrase "seventh heaven" carries ancient astronomical weight. In antiquity, the universe was imagined as concentric, crystalline spheres surrounding Earth. Seven celestial bodies—the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn—mapped onto seven heavenly levels.
This is not mere metaphor. Four major wisdom traditions converge on the same truth:
Each tradition agrees: reaching the highest reality requires leaving the separate self behind.
The Ultimate Realm: While the lower heavens represent physical space, celestial bodies, or intermediate angelic realms, the Seventh Heaven (known as Araboth in Hebrew or Al-Ahsh in Islamic mysticism) is the absolute highest dimension. It is the immediate presence and Throne of God.
In modern idiom, being "in seventh heaven" means experiencing ultimate happiness or contentment. Mystically, it describes a state of permanent unconditioned love, eternal peace, and complete reunion with the divine source.
The Transformation Required: Ego Death as Gateway
If seventh heaven is the destination, ego dissolution is the transformation required to arrive. To reach the highest tier of reality, the "I" must be abandoned—not as punishment, but as liberation.
Ego death is the complete dissolution of your subjective sense of self-identity or the illusion of being a separate entity from the rest of the universe.
The Global Consensus Against the Isolated Self
Four distinct wisdom systems—from West Papua to Southern Africa to India—reject the Western atomized individual. They declare in unison: true identity is rooted in interconnected unity.
1. Ubuntu and Ap Panggok: Personhood Through Relationship
The African philosophy of Ubuntu—"I am because we are"—teaches that human dignity emerges exclusively through relationships. Without others, there is no self.
The Ap Panggok principle of the Lani (Koteka) tribes in West Papua expands this further. Your existence emerges through an interconnected web of community, ancestral spirits, and land stewardship. You do not exist apart from the soil and the tribe. The term “Ap” literally means “man”, but it implies “life” or “existence”. The term “Panggok” means “depending on”, or “in relation to”. It literally means “life exists dependent on…”, which means dependent on or in relation one another, among humans and with all communities of beings.
These are not soft spiritual ideas. They are survival mechanisms. Both philosophies subordinate individual ego to collective harmony—for example, Ap Panggok values consensus based on ‘non or cease of rejection” over majority agreement and rule. This protects relational bonds.
2. Buddhism (Anatta): The Psychology of No-Self
While Ubuntu and Ap Panggok look outward to build relational selves, Buddhism looks inward to dismantle the self entirely.
The doctrine of Anatta (Non-Self) asserts that the ego is a mental fiction—a false continuity spun from rapidly chained thoughts and perceptions. There is no permanent soul, no standalone "me" inside the human machine.
This is the psychological foundation that makes Ubuntu and Ap Panggok possible. When you realize "I" do not exist in isolation, selfishness and greed dissolve. What fills the void is total interdependence (Pratītyasamutpāda). Ubuntu and Ap Panggok become the social and ecological manifestations of Anatta: recognizing that treating the community and nature as your own body is not morality—it is realism.
3. Hinduism (Moksha): The Cosmic Scale
Hinduism takes a different path but reaches the same shore. In Advaita Vedanta, spiritual bondage comes from Ahamkara (ego)—the lie that separates you from others and the universe.
Liberation (Moksha) arrives when the individual soul (Atman) recognizes it is identical to universal consciousness (Brahman). The drop returns to the ocean.
Unlike Buddhism's deconstruction, Hinduism offers expansion: merging not just into tribe and land, but into the entire cosmos. Both systems agree—the ego is a boundary that must melt for ultimate harmony.
Western Echoes: From Fana to the Dark Night of the Soul
This is not purely Eastern wisdom.
• Sufism (Fana): "Annihilation" or "fading away"—breaking down individual identity until only God remains within the person.
• Christian Mysticism: Saints like Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross described the "Dark Night of the Soul"—dying to self so the divine sprout can grow.
Modern Science Confirms: Neuroscience Meets Ancient Wisdom
Carl Jung framed ego death as a fundamental reordering of the psyche—confronting the unconscious allows a truer, broader "Self" to emerge, better integrated with existence.
Neuroscience now validates this. During deep ego dissolution (meditation, psychedelics), the brain's Default Mode Network (DMN)—the system maintaining your autobiography and self-narrative—drastically quiets. When this network goes offline, the boundary between "me" and "the outside world" vanishes completely.
Ancient mystics and modern scientists converge on the same paradox: the only way to experience everything is to become nothing.
Ap Panggok as Environmental Defense: Why This Philosophy Matters Now
Here is where theory becomes survival.
Under Ap Panggok, the environment is not a collection of passive "resources" to extract. It is an active extension of human personhood.
• Land as Ancestral Body: Rivers, forests, and mountains are alive with ancestral spirits. Polluting a river equals assault against a tribal elder.
• Reciprocal Stewardship: Unlike Western conservation that separates humans from "pristine nature," Ap Panggok demands active, respectful interaction. Humans use the land's bounty only while maintaining spiritual and physical equilibrium through rituals, sustainable hunting, and taboo zones (Sasi).
• Shield Against Exploitation: In modern West Papua, this ontology is the primary defense against corporate deforestation, palm oil expansion, and mining. Indigenous activists protecting ancestral lands are not defending property—they are defending their collective identity and spiritual survival.
This is not romanticism. This is strategic resistance grounded in thousands of years of proven coexistence.
The Great Philosophical Question: Anatta vs. Atman
Two ancient Indian paths, diametrically opposed yet converging:
The Urgent Conclusion: Why Ego Death Is Environmental Salvation
We face extinction-level crises: climate collapse, biodiversity loss, resource wars. The dominant Western paradigm—individual rights over collective responsibility, extraction over reciprocity—is failing catastrophically. Human centred environmentalism is facing greatest challenge: is the environmental protection done in order to save human beings on planet Earth?
What if the solution is not new technology or policy alone—but a fundamental shift in how we understand the self?
When the ego dies:
• Exploitation loses its psychological root
• Interdependence becomes lived reality, not abstract concept
• Protecting nature becomes self-protection
• Radical love replaces calculated interest
Ubuntu, Ap Panggok, Anatta, Moksha, Fana—they are not competing truths. They are convergent paths to the same rescue mission.
The question is not which framework is correct. The question is whether we can afford to ignore them.
Which path resonates with you? Whether through neuroscience, mysticism, or indigenous wisdom, the destination is clear: to save the world, we must first surrender the illusion that we are separate from it.
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