This is really not the first time in history.

People have come along and said, hey, I think non-ordinary states of consciousness can massively improve performance.

Right? This has happened before. And historically, it's gone horribly wrong.

Welcome to the Art of Charm. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger.

Today we're talking with my friend Stephen Kotler, author of the Rise of Superman and his new book, Stealing Fire.

We're going to talk about, well, altered states and who uses them from Navy SEALS to the elites in Silicon Valley.

We're going to explain a lot of what goes on in the brain, back, of course, by science.

What's going to be able to happen in your brain when some of this stuff becomes legal or more accessible?

There's a lot of human performance in here. It's not just psychedelics, it's not just meditation, it's not just altered states.

There's a fair bit of futurism in here as well from 3D printing custom medication to concepts of why the mind follows the body and the body follows the mind.

There's a whole lot in this episode with Stephen Kotler. So please enjoy.

And by the way, if you're new to the show, I'd love to send you some top episodes as well as the AOC toolbox.

That's where we discuss concepts like reading body language and having charismatic nonverbal communication.

We'll also discuss the science of attraction, negotiation techniques, networking and influence strategies, mentorship, persuasion tactics, and everything else that we teach here at the Art of Charm.

Check that out at the art of charm.com and also at the art of charm.com slash podcast.

You can find the full show notes for this and all previous episodes of the show. All right, here's Stephen Kotler.

Stephen, I did read this whole book. I loved it. I was devouring it. I was a little skeptical at first because it started off as altered states, the deep now, ecstasy and all this stuff.

And I thought like, all right, how does this fit into the AOC? How does this fit into psychology other than drug use or something along those lines, which I have no moral qualms with, but you do go into the science and you talk about how this is ancient.

And so I'd love to kind of start there because objection handling in a topic like this, I think is of paramount importance.

Yeah, of course, it's a great question. So let's start with the science.

100 years ago, Harvard psychologist from the Godfather of America psychology, William James noticed that a whole slew of not ordinary states of consciousness.

And this was everything from meditative and contemplative states to mystical experiences, things like trans states speaking in tongues, out of body experiences, to flow states, right, those in the zone moments of peak performance that I wrote about in the rises of man and psychedelic states.

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