What’s in it for me? Discover how new tools can alter your consciousness and boost performance.
Have you ever wondered how extreme athletes stay in the zone during their death-defying feats?
Or how units of Navy SEALs can make collective split-second decisions during a mission without uttering a word?
Whether through the thrill of the game or years of training, high-performing individuals have found ways to achieve a state of mind that the authors refer to as ecstasis – a Greek word which roughly translates to “standing beyond oneself.
” In these blinks, we’ll examine how some people have achieved states of ecstasis in the past, and we’ll encounter new research and technology aimed to make ecstasis accessible to everyone – without the risks of skydiving, hallucinogenic drugs, or long decades spent in a monastery.
The quest for non-ordinary states of consciousness is thousands of years old.
In these blinks, you’ll learn what surfing and MDMA have in common; why a data visualization expert in Jalalabad trades beer for information; and how dolphins get stoned.
Nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Alcibiades, a young Greek politician and army general, threw an unforgettable party at his Athens villa.
To get his guests in the mood, he served up a special drink called kykeon, which was normally reserved for a select few of Greece’s elite.
See, this mind-expanding drink was meant to be part of an exclusive, nine-day ritual held each year called the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Alcibiades wasn’t invited, but he managed to steal some kykeon anyway to ensure his own soirée was memorably wild.
Rumors spread.
Alcibiades fled Athens and was sentenced to death in absentia for blaspheming the secrets of Eleusis.
But just like the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished eternally for stealing fire from the gods of Olympus, Alcibiades’s fate didn’t deter those who came after him from seeking out ways to alter their consciousness.
After all, he did get away with it.
The key message here?
The quest for non-ordinary states of consciousness is thousands of years old.
We don’t know exactly what it was in kykeon that gave its drinkers such spiritual, cathartic experiences.
One theory is that the barley in it was contaminated with the ergot fungus – the same one used to make LSD today.
Regardless, this type of ecstasis clearly wasn’t intended for the plain Janes and average Joes of ancient Greece.
Today, twenty-first-century Prometheans are changing that, but their own versions of kykeon take many forms.
The authors met with all sorts of individuals – from military personnel and elite athletes to tech entrepreneurs and health-care providers.
Their research showed that across the board, people are seeking ways to improve performance by changing their sense of reality and achieving some form of ecstasis.
Trial lawyers have experimented with psychopharmaceutical drugs.
Military officers have spent weeks at meditation retreats.
And stock traders on Wall Street have shocked their brains into ecstasis with electrodes.
When you add up the money we spend trying to get out of our own heads, you end up with an Altered States Economy of about $4 trillion annually.
This includes legal substances like alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine; illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin; and pharmaceuticals, psychiatric counseling, video games, action sports, music, and film.
Throw in pornography and social media, and there you have it.
But how well do we really understand the mechanics of ecstasis?
We know flow when we see it, but training ecstasis is still a bit of a mystery.
In 2004, the US Navy’s SEAL Team Six was in Afghanistan on top secret business.
Their mission?
To capture an Al-Qaeda operative known as Al-Wazu.
Al-Wazu had broken out of an American detention center and was recruiting new members for Osama Bin Laden.
The SEALs needed Al-Wazu alive; he’d be a valuable intelligence source.
They had to act fast, carefully, and silently – all as a team.
They found Al-Wazu in his compound, armed but asleep.
He was captured without anyone firing a single shot.
The mission went perfectly.
But the part that really made it a success was the team’s ability to flip the switch and merge their consciousnesses into one.
They were able to decide, as a group, when not to shoot – and thus avoided causing unnecessary harm.
Here’s the key message: We know flow when we see it, but training ecstasis is still a bit of a mystery.
Navy SEALs are known for relying on quantifiable performance metrics for their screening process, and only the best of the best make it through.
In the long run, it’s very expensive.
To train just one SEAL, it costs $500,000; it takes a further $4 million to make it onto the elite SEAL Team Six.
And then there’s the millions spent training the ultimately unsuccessful candidates.
Now consider the mental aspect: in the Al-Wazu mission, it didn’t come down to the SEALs’ ability to shoot accurately or scale high walls; the operation’s success hinged on their collective split-second decision-making.
So how do you test someone’s ability to flip the switch and merge their thinking with a group?
In the past, it’s been a question of who already had that ability under pressure – not who could be trained to do so.
But at the SEALs’ training center in Virginia, a new facility called the Mind Gym attempts to do just that – with the help of cutting-edge body-brain performance devices.
They track brain activity with EEG monitors, and heart-rate fluctuations with cardiac coherence devices.
And they’re using sensory deprivation tanks to remove distractions, practice switching off the self, and accelerate the process of learning a new language.
All this in the hope of speeding up that shift from individual to group flow.
MDMA, surfing, and meditation can help people with PTSD.
The Navy SEALs are just one example of a group that uses what we currently know about non-ordinary states to explore their practical potential.
To make sense of the various efforts in ecstasis research, the authors have identified four main forces of ecstasis: psychology, neurobiology, pharmacology, and technology.
We’ll look at each of these areas in the next few blinks.
Let’s start with psychology.
As of 2017, nearly 25 million Americans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD – often resulting from child abuse, sexual abuse, or experience of war.
For a long time, PTSD was ignored, misdiagnosed, or ineffectively treated.
And the only two medications currently approved for it are Zoloft and Prozac, both of which need weeks or months before having a noticeable effect.
More recently, however, some unconventional treatments have yielded promising results.
This is the key message: MDMA, surfing, and meditation can help alleviate symptoms of PTSD.
MDMA, also known as ecstasy, is most often associated with club culture.
But scientists are increasingly interested in exploring its potential uses in clinical psychotherapy.
In 2010, psychologist Michael Mithoefer conducted a randomized, controlled study using MDMA; he found that just a single dose could, in some cases, completely alleviate the symptoms associated with PTSD.
And, in contrast to Zoloft and Prozac, the effects persisted years after taking one to three rounds of MDMA under therapeutic supervision.
In 2015, the US government approved studies that explored using MDMA to treat anxiety and depression.
Some researchers, like occupational therapist Carly Rogers, have achieved similar results with other previously unorthodox treatments.
At Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, Rogers tested out the combined effects of surfing and talk therapy with Iraq War veterans suffering from PTSD.
The soldiers surfed their first few waves – and their relief was instant.
Veterans who’d completely stopped speaking were suddenly conversing again.
That was in 2007; soon after, a formal surf therapy program was established, and in the following years over a thousand soldiers volunteered to participate.
Rogers’s final results showed that after a minimum of five weeks, the severity of the soldiers’ PTSD symptoms diminished significantly.
These findings are encouraging, but MDMA and surfing both have their dangers.
Plus, they’re not immediately accessible to everyone.
Meditation, however, is.
In one study by the US military on individuals who have PTSD, a month of daily meditation allowed 84 percent of participants to reduce, or even discontinue, their antidepressant medications.
The control group’s symptoms, on the other hand, got 20 percent worse.
Artificial intelligence can use neurobiological data to detect successful teamwork skills and combat suicide.
The more we learn about the human body, the more complex the relationship between mind and body appears.
We now know that emotions don’t just originate in the brain.
They’re also influenced by the heart, which has 40,000 neurons, and the stomach and intestines, which contain 100 million neurons.
Research in neurobiology, the second of the four forces of ecstasis, indicates that different states of mind produce measurable responses in our bodies.
And with the help of AI technology, we’re now able to use biometrics to predict the success of US Navy submariners – as well as to reduce suicide rates.
So what does this mean for ecstasis?
Well, it shows that our mental state is shaped by more than just our thoughts: it’s also affected by what we physically experience.
The key message?
Artificial intelligence can use neurobiological data to detect successful teamwork skills and combat suicide.
Remember how the Navy SEALs were trying to predict which candidates would be able to flip the switch and think as a team in the field?
In 2014, Chris Berka, CEO of Advanced Brain Monitoring, devised a research project to attempt a similarly tricky forecast.
She wanted to determine which sailors would be alright after six months cooped up in a submarine – and which were likely to snap at their bunkmates.
Berka and her team connected EEG machines to sailors to measure brain waves, and also equipped them with heart-rate variability monitors.
Then, they put sailors through a four-month training program.
After 16 weeks, the biometric data they collected could accurately predict which sailors would stay in the zone on an actual submarine assignment, and which ones might go off the deep end.
In another project, this time at the University of Southern California, a therapist named Ellie has learned to spot the signs of depression, anxiety, and PTSD early on to curb the rise of suicide in the military.
Ellie seems human, but she’s not – she’s the first ever AI therapist.
She talks through a video monitor and listens, but she also has another tool in her arsenal: the technology to read facial expressions, discern tones of sadness in a patient’s voice, and interpret word choice.
Most importantly, she’s nonjudgmental, which may be why patients in a 2014 study were twice as likely to share personal information with her than with a traditional human therapist.
The project’s end goal is to make Ellie’s technology available to anyone with a laptop and an internet connection.
When wildlife photographer John Downer planted cameras underwater to document the behavior of bottlenose dolphins in the wild, he was surprised to see them so relaxed.
Psychedelic drugs can help achieve a state of ecstasis.
Then he took a closer look at the footage.
The dolphins appeared to be playing some kind of game – each would chew on a pufferfish before passing it to one of their dolphin friends.
Desperate, the pufferfish played its last UNO card and released a cloud of lethal nerve toxin.
Too much of this toxin is deadly, but just a little happens to make dolphins pleasantly stoned.
And dolphins aren’t the only ones who enjoy a fix every now and again.
Many other animals have their own mind-altering methods of getting high.
Cats eat catnip, dogs lick toads, and sheep snack on hallucinogenic lichen.
Humans are spoiled for choice, but the most popular substances include ergot-derived LSD and psilocybin – the psychoactive stuff in magic mushrooms.
The key message here is: Psychedelic drugs can help achieve a state of ecstasis.
That brings us to the third force of ecstasis: pharmacology.
According to one theory, intoxication might actually play an evolutionary role.
Animals sometimes get stuck doing the same activity over and over again, and it’s difficult to exit such a repetitive cycle.
Intoxicating substances can yank them out of that endless loop.
For humans, this depatterning means that hallucinations or drunkenness could possibly aid lateral thinking skills – thinking outside the box.
Due to regulations, it’s been difficult to study illegal substances like LSD and psilocybin in a controlled environment.
That’s now changing.
After psychopharmacologist Robin Carhart-Harris became head of psychedelic research at Imperial College London, he started studying the effects of psilocybin on the brain.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, Carhart-Harris was able to gain more insight into an experience that had previously only been studied through a subjective lens.
When we enter an altered state of consciousness, we step beyond ourselves.
We now know that this sense of selflessness occurs by deactivating certain parts of the brain – in neuroscience, it’s known as transient hypofrontality.
The same regions deactivate when we’re on LSD, while we meditate, and during exercise.
The typical chatter in our minds is quieted, and the networks responsible for unfocused daydreaming temporarily go offline.
In their place, new networks make connections between more distant parts of the brain.
And that might explain why psychedelics can help generate creative solutions to difficult problems.
Alan Metni started out his career as a lawyer, but he soon found that he much preferred jumping out of airplanes; his dream was to fly.
New technology is bringing ecstasis to a wider audience – without the usual risks or commitments.
Metni completed thousands of jumps and was so hooked on the thrill of flying that he started looking for other ways to train even more.
For him, flight was an instant ticket to ecstasis.
The thrill of the jump didn’t compare to any other experience.
However, jumping out of a plane can be dangerous.
There are frequent fatal accidents each year, and they happen to some of the most experienced flyers.
Not everyone is prepared to take those risks.
Luckily, Metni and inventors like him are developing technology – the fourth force of ecstasis – to democratize access to such experiences in a safer environment.
Here’s the key message: New technology is bringing ecstasis to a wider audience – without the usual risks or commitments.
Metni started experimenting with very large fans and wind tunnels.
And, eventually, he created iFly – an indoor flying experience that provides the same rush but none of the fatalities.
As of 2017, iFly had 54 locations across 14 different countries and was available to anyone aged three and up.
It allows flying teams to spend hours and hours on test jumps.
Even SEAL Team Six came by to train their group flow; they practiced flipping the switch from individual to group consciousness while flying through the air.
Another example is Mikey Siegel, who left his dream job as a roboticist to embark on an unfruitful soul-searching adventure through India and South America.
Later, a ten-day meditation retreat in California left him with nothing but a backache – until day seven.
He finally caught a taste of that clarity of mind he’d heard so much about.
But here’s the problem: for him, meditating was an inconvenient hassle.
He wanted a way to get that same feeling without living a monastic lifestyle.
Siegel founded his company, Consciousness Hacking, and went about experimenting with different wearable biofeedback devices to see if some combination could create a shortcut to that same altered state.
Prototypes using transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct stimulation can deactivate certain cortical regions of the brain.
Right now, the effects are comparable to a glass of wine – but with further tests, they might be able to alter consciousness even more.
For one week every year, a pilgrimage of ecstasis innovators takes place in the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada.
It’s frequented by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, from Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin to Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Artists, musicians, and performers exhibit their consciousness-altering creations.
And inventors like Mikey Siegel showcase their prototypes.
This event is Burning Man.
It’s a massive exercise in constructing a city from nothing – as one enormous group.
The key message here is: Gatherings like Burning Man are an opportunity to use non-ordinary states to overcome pressing problems.
Gatherings like Burning Man are an opportunity to use non-ordinary states to overcome pressing problems.
Aside from Burning Man’s theatrical appeal, the collection of people in non-ordinary states is a fertile environment for spontaneous collaborations.
Often, these continue long after the festival is over.
One instance came in 2005, minutes before Hurricane Katrina reached the Gulf Coast.
Far from the action, in a corner of Burning Man, some high-ranking Pentagon officials and hackers were trying to get the festival’s live stream and emergency wifi running.
When they heard about Katrina, one guy began nudging a recon satellite, and they watched the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast in real time.
Feeling helpless, they collected $40,000 in relief donations from fellow festival-goers and founded Burners Without Borders.
They left the festival and drove to Mississippi, where they built a distribution center for charities like Oxfam.
They donated over $1 million to clear rubble and help rebuild the area.
They’ve gone on to support other relief efforts, including Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
In 2011, several years after Katrina, Dr.
Dave Warner – the guy who hacked the satellite – was in Afghanistan.
Warner is a defense contractor; he’s also an expert in data visualization and holds a PhD in neuroscience.
And along with some MIT scientists, he’d gone to Jalalabad to promote the Burning Man principles of radical inclusion and open information.
They opened the “Burner Bar” – and offered drinks in exchange for any kind of information.
For a Heineken, someone might tell them about a local farmer’s crops, the location of a health clinic, or movements of troops.
The group collected terabytes of information, and everything was added into Warner’s data visualization program.
He insisted it remain unclassified, but his data ended up being used by the UN, Afghan officials, the Pentagon, and others.
Over time, the radical inclusion efforts saved many lives.
Hedonic Calendaring helps you determine when and how to access ecstasis.
Many of the people we’ve discussed so far are at the forefront of disruptive innovation; they’re pioneering new ways to harness the four forces of ecstasis.
But let’s step back and take a look at which tools have begun to be adopted more broadly.
In psychology, meditation has been rebranded as mindfulness-based stress reduction, and it’s turned into a billion-dollar industry.
In neurobiology, transcranial magnetic stimulation devices sometimes prove more effective than antidepressants.
In pharmacology, medical and recreational cannabis is now legal in many US states, and 32 million Americans use psychedelics regularly.
And in technology, devices now have the ability to monitor your hormone levels, heart rates, and brainwaves.
This is the key message: Hedonic Calendaring helps you determine when and how to access ecstasis.
When it comes to sex, drugs, and extreme sports, some people get addicted to the ecstasis these sometimes risky activities bring.
But we’re learning about other techniques that produce similar altered mind states.
The following five-step guide to the Hedonic Calendaring system can help you explore non-ordinary states yourself.
The first step is to write down all of your favorite activities that take you out of your own head.
For example, your list could include skydiving, travel, or live music.
The next step is to rank the value of these activities using the Ecstasis Equation.
Take the time commitment, and combine it with the risk and reward.
For example, going to see a shaman in Peru would be great, but a 10-minute meditation at home would take less time and effort.
Step three?
Sort each activity by frequency – how often would you like to do them?
It could be daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, or annually.
Research on habit-forming shows that new routines stick better when combined with existing habits.
So in step four, think about ways to merge these ecstasis activities with things you already do.
And finally, beware of becoming what the authors call a “bliss junkie.
” If you’re not careful, you could get addicted to an altered state for the wrong reasons.
Each year, schedule 30 days when you quit everything cold turkey.
No more meditation, kinky sex, or psychedelics.
Let your mind and body recalibrate, and see how you feel.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks The pursuit of non-ordinary states of consciousness is nothing new.
But today, we’re learning more about how it works than ever before.
MDMA, surfing, and meditation might be able to help people with PTSD.
AI therapists can reduce suicide rates.
Psychedelic drugs can allow your brain to make connections it might otherwise never make.
And technology like flight tunnels and transcranial direct stimulation devices have the potential to deliver states of ecstasis without risking your life or spending hours doing meditations.