[MUSIC]
So I recently watched a TED talk by Jaime Wheal
of the Flow Genome Project.
And the TED talk was called, "from Altered States
to Altered Traits: Hacking the Flow State."
Now you guys watch, "Shots of Awe,"
you know that I'm very passionate about this idea
of the flow state.
This state of virtuosity and enhanced performance
among artists and musicians and writers and elite athletes.
They go into this zone where they experience
this transient, hypofrontality, this temporary moment where
the ego dissolves.
You get sort of hyper-focused in what you're doing.
You drop into Theta states like meditating monks
and you're able to achieve excellence and virtuosity that
exceeds normal human levels and thresholds for what's possible.
We transcend ourselves in these moments of flow.
And Jamie Wheal, who co-founded the Flow Genome Project
with Steven Kotler, talks about it in this TED talk
where he says a lot of us know these flow states,
but our self systems are like these colanders.
We're like this colander full of holes.
And no matter how much flow we pour into it,
we're always bleeding from this bucket full of holes.
And so, we achieve these temporary flow states,
but then Monday, we're back to where were.
As he says, it's easier than ever to get high,
it's as hard as it's always been to stay that way.
But then the idea of hacking flow
means what if we transform this colander into a chalice.
What if we could render ourselves whole.
Or as Jamie says, render ourselves holy.
What becomes possible with just one drop beyond that flow?
What becomes possible with the rest?
I mean it's a wonderful idea.
Most of us, Jamie says, are still
stuck as like, bliss junkies.
You know, we get stuck on the state
without raising the stage.
But now, insights into the neural physiology
of the brain, the neurochemistry of the brain.
We can actually hack flow.
We can hack nirvana.
We can experience design and then
do some design, our cities and our social systems
with positive self reinforcing feedback loop that teach flow
to make flow an innate, natural emergence.
This is what becomes possible.
And then, who knows, right?
As Steven Kotler says in the book, "the Rise of Superman,"
who knows what becomes possible when we become super-humans.
And it's just a-- it's an awesome idea.
And it's up to us to make it happen.