Mapping Cloud Nine: Neuroscience, Flow, and the Upper Possibility Space of Human Experience

by Steven Kotler

What are the upper limits of human potential?
At the intersection of flow states, mystical experiences, peak performance, and psychedelics lies a mysterious space of possibility. In Mapping Cloud Nine, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Steven Kotler takes us on a heady thrill ride through the history of human potential—and how what we’ve learned so far might unlock even greater levels of creativity, performance, and meaning in our lives.
From Nietzsche to now—a tour of human consciousness
In this six-part audio program, Kotler bridges science and spirituality to explore how our understanding of peak experiences has evolved over time—from early inquiries into altered and mystical states; to the birth of positive psychology and research on high performers; to pioneering studies on meditation and near-death experiences; and into current explorations of psychedelics, flow states, and technological breakthroughs.
A brilliant synthesizer and gifted storyteller, Kotler paints a compelling portrait of our greatest human potential, inspiring us to leverage this growing body of research and step into new realms of possibility.


HIGHLIGHTS
- The evolutionary impulse for altered states of mind—psychedelics throughout time
- The neurobiology of flow states, mystical experiences, and hallucinations
- The spiritual path and the high-performance path—are they one and the same?
- Altered states lead to altered traits—the next wave of consciousness hacking
- Why bridging the gap between science and spirituality leads to even greater breakthroughs
- How you can leverage flow states for a more meaningful—and interesting—life

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Meditation, Audiobook

Audio CD

Published November 5, 2019

About the author

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and co-founder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His books include the non-fiction works "The Rise of Superman," "Abundance," "A Small Furry Prayer" "West of Jesus," and the novel "The Angle Quickest for Flight." His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. His articles have appeared in over 60 publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Wired, GQ, Outside, Popular Science, Men's Journal and Discover.

He also writes "Far Frontiers," a blog about technology and innovation for Forbes.com and "The Playing Field," a blog about the science of sport and culture for PsychologyToday.com.

He lives in New Mexico with his wife, the author Joy Nicholson.

Reviews

[Jonathan Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook at 1.5x speed - took about 5hrs to finish. It's actually narrated by Steven Kotler and listens like a long podcast episode - entertaining, education, and insightful based upon research and history. The downside to listening as a podcast was that I found myself constantly pausing and rewinding to take notes. I wasn't sure what I would learn from this book that I have not learned from being a part of the Flow Genome Project community - the answer was quite a lot. While the topics that Kotler covers in this book are the same fundamentally as in his other writings, research, and media, what I really appreciated from this book was learning about this history of flow research - gong back to William James and Nietzsche. My notes below:

Nietzsche believed that suffering was necessary for growth. Would congratulate people for their gout.
- Only 10% capable of high performance.
- 45% last men. Seeking hedonism
- 45% slaves. Holding others down
Requires goals. Suffering is necessary. Flow is not for everybody. If you’re depressed flow will make you worse

William James - make nervous system our ally instead of enemy.
- Loses belief in free will
- Gets back to Harvard, and psyches himself out. How?
- Begins to choose to believe in free will. Believes we are all capable
- It’s a miracle we can walk across a room with all of our senses getting overstimulated. We do so because of habits. We can form them
Power of habits. Make them public. Exercise is critical. Positive psychology and gratitude. Action proceeds emotion

Mystical experiences are
- Ineffable: can not express in words
- Noetic: illuminating. Feel realer than real
- Transient: brief
- Passive: feels effortless

Maslow at Brooklyn college studying psychology for human potential for the first time instead of correction. Studying Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and top performers
- Changes terminology from mystical experiences to peak experiences. Sees that all top performers he studies are atheists. Can by mystical
- Integration, self actualización and empathy
- Peak experiences beat nihilism. They are the reason for living. Anyone can do but not everyone will want to when they see the cost

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Learned flow when in nazi prison camp playing chess
- From peak experiences to flow. Is fundamental to life satisfaction
- It’s auto-telic (addictive), requires full exertion of talent, and all encompassing of environment
- It’s a spectrum: micro and macro

The brain is conservative. No way it would evolve for 10% usage. It’s near 100% all of the time managing involuntary activities. In flow the brain usage actually decreases. Requires focus - transient hypofrontality. Slows down the frontal lobe - logical complex decision making, memory and anxiety - full concentration on the present.
- Studies with improv jazz and freestyle rappers. Front of brain shuts down
- Why time slows down. Our perception changes, sense of self dissolves
- Not always positive. Risk taking increases

Now we have defined flow by biology. From mysticism to science.
- Difference from meditation: shuts down frontal lobe because not needed. Flow shuts down because brain energy is needed elsewhere
- Default mode network: shut down by meditation, in flow state, and shattered by psychadelics

Brainwaves
- Delta (1-3hz): slowest. Deep dreamless state. Needed for consolidation of memory
- Theta (4-7.9hz): correlates with rem sleep and meditation. Needed for insight
- Alpha (8-13.9hz): Brain resting stage. Needed for creativity
- Beta (14-30hz): learning and concentration at lower frequency, anxiety and stress at higher
- Gamma (highest) : shows up in “binding”. When thoughts come together, new neural pathways being formed. The aha! Moment

Flow is between theta and alpha. Gamma can only occur when combining thoughts from theta/alpha

Norepinephrine: anxiety. Internal speed
Dopamine: pleasure / rewards. Internal cocaine
- These 2 are what get triggered in flow
Endorphins: pain killing. Internal opiates
Amandamine: Pain relief & relaxation. Internal thc
Seratonin: calming. MDMA or lsd depending on the pathway
Oxytocin: trust and love, but also tribalism (white supremacy is a result)

High performance triangle
- Motivation: result of neurochemcials:
- Learning
- Creativity: Red Bull creativity study. We try to train creativity where we need to be training the mental state for creativity (flow - taking information more rapidly)
○ Mind clearing vipassana meditation more effective than breath counting for creativity
○ Loving kindness effective for ptsd
- 4th is cooperation: promoted by seratonin and oxytocin

EEG scans while you sleep. On average takes 70min to enter rem.
- Those who enter rem sooner directly correlates with tendency for depression
- Those who enter rem later correlate for tendency for happiness
- Difference between ptsd and near-death experiences - near-death are happier and enlightened. Enter rem at 110min
- Why?

Drive for intoxicating drugs is physiological and consistent across animals: dogs seeking shrooms, cats with catnip, elephants seeking fermented fruit
- These are physically inhibiting. So why do so many animals seek it?
- Must be good for us somehow
- Interrupting behaviors that get us out of habitual ruts
- William James - NO2 helped him to understand his spirituality
- LSD as original use for AA: 45% success rate
- 5/6 from original study stopped using heroin immediately after one ibogaine experience

Visual phenomena during hallucination are all common. 4 patterns
- Grates / lattices / checkerboards
- Cobwebs
- Tunnels and tunnels
- Spirals
Edge recognition by the visual cortex

ESTER- neurobiology
- Ecstatic
- Selfless
- Timeless
- Effortless
- Richness

Flow triggers
- Purpose/passion. We pay attention to those things we believe in
- Risk. We pay more attention to dangers. Social risk is the same neurologically as physical risk. Why fear of public speaking is so rampant
- Novelty / complexity / unpredictability. Why travel causes flow. Night sky causes awe, more than our brain can process
- Deep embodiment. Engage multiple senses

Psychological triggers
- Immediate feedback
- Clear goals
- Challenge skills

Creative triggers
- Pattern recognition - causes dopamine release
- Action sports: moving from speed in racing to new terrains

Group triggers
- Complete concentration in the present moment: 90-120mins
- Shared goals
- Shared risk
- Yes and: most impactful group flow trigger from improv
- Active listening
- Autonomy
- Familiarity: common language

Golden rule: we pay most attention when the challenge is slightly above our skillset. Stretch not snap. 4% higher than our capability
- Borderline of boredom and anxiety. Irks-Dobson curve
- Needs to be chunked smaller
- Pattern: few peaks, then plateau. Then another peak at the end

Toyota Kaizen: autonomy. Everyone can improve the system
Facebook hackathon: challenge skillset. Hired for the job you can get, not that you want. Give the chance to try for 1month any job you want
Sports: immediate feedback
Montessori: self directed challenge, autonomy (children see challenges as threats unless they are self directed)

[Franta · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narration is terrible, repeating "right?" behind almost every sentence, also the guy does not know how to pronounce Carl Jung's name....

Save your time, go to the original sources: Nietzsche, Jung, William James, Maslow, Csíkszentmihályi and others.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried very hard to get into this book. But poignantly, that very desperate effort made my swing to hating it that much more inevitable and intense. But I'll try again. I watched Steven Kotler on Joe Rogan and was thrilled that, given my new year resolution was to radically increase the days I achieve flow, this book had serendipitously dropped into my lap authored by someone ostensibly working on studying and practicing flow his entire life. How lucky. That was a younger stupider me, three days ago, how I pine for those innocent, hopeful times.

This 'book' is 20% annoying stoner dude having the insightful epiphany of all time, 5% name dropping of neuroscientists and psychedelic research that has nothing to do with flow, 5% flow 'science' that is incredibly hokey and relies on things like 'McKinsey reported 50% more flow', and 70% the word 'right' in the most distracting irritating drawl at the end of every two words. Some books are poorly written/produced but have interesting things I didn't know. Some books have nothing I didn't know but are nicely written. Some books are the worst of both worlds. This is worse than those books, because I'm pretty sure I know less than I did before I picked this up. I wouldn't trust anything in this book even remotely, and since it contained some things I already knew, it's incepted a dangerous unraveling thread of doubt in my brain that is going to slowly destroy existing knowledge. Potentially in the temporal parietal junction by thickening the nucleus accumbens. If you think that makes no sense, you will do well to avoid this book.

If this book wasn't written in 2 days, I'll be even more disappointed with Steven Kotler than I am already. It takes exactly 1 day of intense wikipedia-surfing to cut and paste things that confirm my hypothesis that flow is good, flow is productive, flow is spiritual, and flow is neurobiological. Then it takes 1 day to arrange them into any random order and connect sentences with no more logic than the word 'right?'. If we had just 1 day extra, we might have edited it better, but who has time for that, gotsta be flowin my man, them waves isn't goan surf themself. 1 day to go on Joe Rogan and give an interview that is 50% lines verbatim from the book because aint noone got time to be original and synthesize new thoughts, and 50% staring like a blank idiot when Joe asks the most basic question in response, about the research or about potential explanatory factors or what he ate for breakfast. What a disaster. I am so angry right now. On the bright side, I've just discovered pure rage can create a flow state too. So, right, I'm thinking, right, that maybe it's time for me to write a book on flow too. Right?

Things to look up because they sounded marginally interesting:
In 96, 80ft Snowboard jump was considered suicide. Today it is 300ft. Exponential increase in abilities.
Psychology really only got wings after Darwin, who showed that the body can change, and therefore the mind can change as well. Enter Nietzsche, who used evolutionary mindset to say stultified ideas of God ‘was dead’, and we needed to transcend or descend into nihilism. Misunderstood again when in Twilight Of The Idols says doing philosophy with a hammer, not meaning he’s smashing it, but ringing it like a bell to see what breaks and what remains true. First idea of Rausch or flow state (literally, intoxication), by Nietzsche from Goethe. Nietzsche sent postcards to friends congratulating them on their miseries and tragedies. He thought it was the great crucible creating the Ubermensch. Against conformity and comfort and passions.
Wilhelm Wundt meanwhile was first to separate the psychology from the physiology. For a beer manufacturer looking for ideal bitterness, he found a parallel in attention that there was a sweet spot called flow.
Albert Heim, geologist, mountain climber, experienced enhanced state of time dilation, reflexes, clarity, diminished self, during a near-death fall while climbing. He found people experienced such states even while perceived risk to life, thus proving it was not some metaphysical communication from beyond but a bodily process.
William James, widely seen as 4th great Western thinker of all time after Plato, Aristotle, and Leibniz. Went to Harvard when it was a budding school, and convinced them to let him teach psychology as a subject. Writer of first textbook. But suffered huge depression, and convinced it was inescapable biology, like his father had in later years. Lost belief in free will. Then with scientific mind, decided to test these beliefs, first act of free will was deciding to have free will. Did many activities including a lot of sport, and psychedelics (nitrous back then, later mescaline as well), and described human potential as amazing. Coined term ‘second wind’ for the added ability we realize after pushing through difficulty. But whereas Nietzsche believed some of us are just born super-able and rest cannot possible strive for this, James thought all were capable, the fundamental unit of psychology was habit.
So far all these enhanced states of high-performance have gone hand in hand with spiritual experiences. But Freud changes all of that and ushers in a 100yr reich of non-mystical thinking. Pleasure Principle saying we avoid pain and seek pleasure, but most high-performance people report most peak moments when using their skills in challenging environments that are usually painful, like sport. This is still pleasure isn’t it? Higher pleasure sure, but if pleasure is neurochemistry, then this is the same axis.
Maslow taking on the theme of self-actualization as the ultimate ideal. We only get there after taking care of all the base needs. Along with Jung and James, he identifies some core reproducible characteristics of all spiritual experiences, trying to explain them as real evolutionary phenomena. Freud rubbishes all this as neuroses and we remain skeptical of them until..
90s the field of affective neuroscience was developed. Old ideas about altered states are explored through their genetic components. Emotions are defined and identified through genes, spirituality and self-transcendence is identified as one.
The role of neurotransmitters is discovered. Dopamine for risky pleasure. Haldol for Parkinsons increases dopamine and creativity. If this becomes too high, results in schizophrenia.
PFC is disconnected during altered states, here lies both the sense of now/time, and sense of self, that’s why both of these things seem to disappear while tripping.
Happier - later rem. Depression - soon rem. Nde - later rem. Left temporal lobe changed.
Anandomide. Lateral thinking. Problem solving. Survival of the trippiest? Benjamin blood. Nitrous oxide. William James.
Psychomimetic mimicking schizophrenia. No idea what this is. Imagine that paranoia of permanent change by LSD that Hoffman experienced.
Mescaline for truth by Nazis. CIA LSD for mind control mk ultra. 10kg, Enough for half the population.
Good Friday experiment. Archaic means of ecstasy.
Six levels of visual cortex. Edge recognition. Spirals. Filigrees lattices. Funnels. Cobwebs.
Psychedelics way more serotonin than flow. Flow more dopamine than meditation.
Dalai lama pointed out psychology only studies negative. Why not positive. Early 90s experiments on Tibetan monks.
Altered states created altered traits. Loving kindness meditation especially. Less activation in insula, amygdala
Also thinner nucleus accumbens. Surpeising because dopamine pathway? No it decreases desire, Buddha
Cortisol only considered bad and stress, but actually all it does is prepare high energy for dangerous situation.
Seligman created positive psych. Famously grumpy, trying to improve. Literally half baked psychology because only baked the diseases not potential.
At childhood our potential for positive and negative affect is fixed. Not really. Unemployment and death of child reduce the floor.

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing on how Kotler attempts to meld spirituality and neuroscience. I think my biggest problem is that of the skeptic. Don't get me wrong, I am a big believer in "flow" or its different incarnations, I'm also a believer when it comes to figuring out how to improve human performance - we are all our own best laboratory for that one. And it isn't spirituality that I am skeptical of, it is neuroscience, which more aptly should be called "the more you neuro, the less you know you neuro."

To Kotler's credit he acknowledges that most of what passes for neuro-hacking is neuro-hokum with techno-placebos. Probably would have helped if his presentation style was less late night info-commercial, but I was listening at 3.0 speed. (See it is possible to push the upper possibilities of human performance.)

I guess my hope for the future and the crumbs I'm searching for is more insight into how we really work from a neurobiological systems approach. We know that neurotransmitters work in our mind, but they also work in our gut and on our skin. Each neurotransmitter has multiple receptor categories. We have gut biome and skin biome, probably have bacteria in our brain too. This is extraordinarily complex stuff with multiple living organisms co-existing and being impacted by genetics, epigenetics, and environment. Throw in a central nervous system, a peripheral nervous system that includes a somatic and autonomic nervous system, which itself has three parts, a sympathetic, a parasympathetic, and an enteric nervous system all running off the same neurotransmitters in your gut, skin, brain, and spinal chord, and it is a wonder we know what we know. I agree that the changes are going to come from AI analyzing human data. My big concern is the concern of any data experiment -- garbage in, garbage out -- and that even applies for AI.

So for now, the functional approach of pushing performance may in fact be the way forward.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fascinating! All about connecting spirituality and spiritual experiences with science… like biologically something happens to make to feel a certain way. I’d read this next time to help it all sink in next time, but I enjoyed the audiobook (narrated by the author) other than the swearing 🤪

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good journalistic review of the topic. I enjoyed the end the most about flow. Nothing crazy since it is just a review of all the findings.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven Kotler describes his book as, “The science of high performance meets the science of spirituality on a dark and stormy night,” and I feel that that is an apt description of this 7-hour audiobook.

He starts with building on Darwinism where physical biology evolved, and then brings in Nietzsche who started the questioning of whether the human mind had evolved along with it - syncing together the origins of human high performance along with spirituality. It’s a fascinating journey where he takes us along history and the idea that high-performance and spirituality were initially closely knit together, whereby consciousness and a connection with the spiritual was not discounted, until Sigmund Freud came along and began an era where pathologies of the mind became forefront of psychology - and then taking another turn into this current reality where scientists now explore the states of Flow with it’s neurobiological and neuroanatomical involvement, once again coming full circle back to the century of Nietzsche only now with the scientific evidence that both are so very closely similar (brain states in spirituality and in high-performance humans).

Flow is the main theme of the book as it is now what scientists understand as the underlying phenomena behind all that we as a human race have experienced from centuries back till now. He brings in mysticism, psychedelic use, out of body experiences, spiritual beliefs... Along with neuroscience, pharmacology, psychological triggers in flow, and blends in personal anecdotes with proven science.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook as it has always been an interest of mine to understand how our minds change in the influence of religion/spirituality and this book has explained it well without being overly in-your-face about the existence (or lack of) of Divinity. This book isn’t a book that proves or disproves Divinity and he definitely discounts nothing. Instead it allows a much better understanding of what we as humans are actually experiencing when we hold on to our Faith. This was my favourite part of the whole experience of listening to this audiobook. The fact that I now have a better understanding of why people are so into their religions (because flow is literally addicting), and why things like visions/spiritual beings/light at the end of the tunnel happen in religion. It literally validates those experiences without validating OR invalidating Divinity - it just means that if there is a Divinity, then They are using our biology to communicate with us, and if there ISN’T a Divinity, then our biology is the answer.

The only thing I would have liked was for it to be an actual eBook instead of a 7-hour audiobook so I can highlight and take notes as I go!

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fantastic cover-all book on the subject of flow/ human performance/ altered states and especially hte history of psychology as relates to all of the above. Hit all the good stuff for me, including referencing other valuable work. The only real problems for me are that 1) there was absolutely nothing new in this book for me. Nothing. I knew all of it already. I mean, good on him for aggregating the information and it might have saved me time earlier on in my journey but fairly useless now. 2) I can't recommend this to anyone else. It's too rushed, too much all at the same time without clearly indicating why each thing is in the place its in. This could be an even greater book if it was the exact same informational content deployed in a Michael Pollen style-medium. I can't recommend this as a primer, but it's affirming if you already know a little bit about the history of extraordinary human performance, the history of psychedelics (good on Kotler for referencing the mysteries but he missed something in skipping an easy reference to peyote).

[Orico · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, its not a book. Its sold as an audio-book but its a series of lectures or podcasts.
Indeed its interesting, engaging and full of insightful stories, but its fails to deliver its most basic promise. Kotler doesn't teach anything about getting into flow state in this 'book', and that's why it's a 1 star from me. If it was labeled and marketed as "short stories and history of flow-states", it would deserve 4 stars.... but as such, its the equivalent of click bait in audio 'books'.
Another annoying flow, Kotler consistently mispronounces names..... he pronounces Nietzsche, as Nietzscha, and Soduko - Sodako, etc... I might be sensitive but I found it hard to listen to.

[Eric Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would love to have a transcript of this audio CD to more easily look up the many interesting characters and research Mr. Kotler describes. For flow-seekers and fellow humans that are curious about the history, stories and science of states of consciousness this is a super interesting book. I wonder if Steven was micro-dosing during his story telling because he's both relaxed and very "on-point." Obviously an expert in the field. If you enjoyed "Stealing Fire" you'll enjoy this read very much.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally connected with this book especially the parts on surfing and how surfing is especially incredibly potent as a tool for getting into the state of flow.
I totally agree ”a life worth living is a life where you are able to find that flow in whatever you do for a few hours a day, every day.”
Personally, I find it regularly through my work, writing, making music, painting, drawing stupid cartoons, and skateboarding vertical ramps. It's the best drug ever; your sense of time becomes completely distorted, and you are able to focus on a task with immense precision. It's an active form of meditation for me as I'm not able to do traditional forms of meditation.
Flow is where it is at; it doesn't matter how you get there. However, you must try surfing at least once in your life.
This book goes further than anything I've read to help demystify the inarticulateable subject of flow.

[Kelly Storc · Rating 4 out of 5]

The detail and the depth of the research are impressive. Unfortunately, I don't agree with the author's baseline assumptions and underlying opinion on everything, and I can hear how emotionally charged he is when he gets to adding his opinion into explaining the science. I took those sections regarding what he calls "sky dad" with a grain a salt," and reminded myself that it is impossible for human beings to be 100% nonbiased, and this could effect his understanding of the research.

[SCR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted more from this. Not only is it more podcast series than audiobook, but the author has a horrible habit of saying 'right?' repeatedly, reminiscent of listening to my teenagers use 'like' every two words lol. It was interesting, but difficult to keep track of the authors point. I... learned things? Maybe? I wanted to learn more about flow, but felt like the meaning got lost in all the jumping around between history and personal anecdotes.

[Caroline Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and a lot more informed than I expected it to be. Kotler speaks on productivity topics and provides significant data to back up his opinions. The AudioBook was read by the author and was difficult to understand at times, but it did feel like it contained more content than the print version and was really entertaining. A great listen for long car rides!

[Mirek Jasinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject is super interesting but am not too sure about the execution. The audiobook seems to be a roughly edited podcast bundled together as a book substitute. I would've preferred some more careful editing before putting it on the shelves...

[Jeff Wilsbacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

For folks interested in Flow and familiar with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work (I would recommend reading his book Flow before reading this) this is an interesting set of not-super-deep dives into the broader space of flow, where it happens, who it happens to, when it happens.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The audiobook felt like a joe rogan podcast.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary of peak performance book such as flow

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing.

[Irwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new iteration of the materials I read in the Rise of Superman. It adds the background theory by drawing lessons from Nietszche, William James, etc. Now I see the title "Will to Power" in a different way.
I am interested in the subject of the book (Flow) and this book is nowhere near conclusive. It is indeed an effort to map what we know and what can be learned more in the future.

[Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

2020.03.02–2020.03.02

Contents

Kotler S (2019) (06:29) Mapping Cloud Nine - Neuroscience, Flow, and the Upper Possibility Space of Human Experience

1. The Actualization of Self-Actualization
• Introduction to Session One
• The modern story of spirituality and peak performance
• Extraordinary growth in ultimate human potential
• An optimal state of consciousness
• Where I’m coming from
• We ourselves are a kind of chaos
• Nietzsche’s project
• History takes a turn for the weird
• William James and the invention of psychology
• The unconscious, habit, and attention
• Freud and the 100-year detour

2. Where Spirituality and High Performance Split
• Introduction to Session Two
• Maslow and peak experiences
• Csikszentmihalyi, godfather of flow
• Nothing’s too gnarly
• The neurobiology of flow
• What was mysticism becomes biology
• Neurochemistry and cognitive performance

3. Mysticism Decoded
• Introduction to Session Three
• Dreams, memories, hallucinations, and epileptics
• The God gene
• Cosmic consciousness
• Surfing to oneness
• Out-of-body experiences
• Sleep and near-death experiences

4. The Psychedelic Detour
• Introduction to Session Four
• Animals, psychedelics, and intuitive leaps
• Nitrous oxide, LSD, and early experimentation
• From MK Ultra to psychedelic therapy
• Psychedelic states for creativity and mystical experience
• DMT and psilocybin
• Disintegrating the default mode network
• Phenomenology of the ecstatic
• That old selfless timeless effortless richness

5. Hacking the Ecstatic
• Introduction to Session Five
• Altered states, altered traits
• A manifesto for positive psychology
• Baseline positive psychology
• The variety of flow states
• Triggers for flow states
• The challenge/skills balance
• Flow is easy
• Back to the beginning

6. Open Loops and Misunderstandings
• Introduction to Session Six
• Where does the information come from?
• Open questions and spirituality
• Four triggers for ecstasis

[Alexey Efimik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating this 5 stars because the book is structured more like a podcast rather than boring NY times bestseller template type of book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the concepts and idea that we don’t actually find our primary drives in gaining pleasure and avoiding pain as many posit, but in doing something larger than ourselves that allows us to enter flow state - even if it is challenging/painful. That beyond comfort and ease is something more important for many which can lead to contentment and fulfillment.

That said, the conversational style isn’t my favorite - I’d much prefer the dry text.