But critics whisper a darker truth: if the self is an illusion, SERO-388 merely reveals that fact. The horror is not the drug. The horror is that it works. That a tiny molecule can unmake the protagonist of your own life, and what remains is not madness, but a quiet, functional, hollow clarity.

And that is the point.

For three hours, Elias existed as pure phenomenal consciousness—sight, sound, proprioception, all streaming without an owner. He reported no fear. Not because he was brave, but because fear requires a self to be threatened. There was no self to protect.

Not thought suppression. Not meditation. Cessation.