“Stealing Fire” is an exploration of the use of blockchain technology as a tool for personal and social transformation. The authors explore how technological innovation in this cutting-edge area can create new ways to address society’s biggest problems, from poverty to climate change.
“Stealing Fire” is a book that discusses how to achieve the next level of human evolution. The authors discuss how technology will allow us to create and share information in ways never before possible.
Are you seeking for a synopsis of Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal’s book Stealing Fire? You’ve arrived to the correct location.
After reading Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal’s book, I wrote down a few significant takeaways.
If you don’t have time, you don’t have to read the whole book. This book synopsis gives you a quick rundown of all you can take away from it.
Let’s get this party started right now.
I’ll go through the following points in my synopsis of Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work:
What is the story behind Stealing Fire?
The author of Stealing Fire delves into the contentious issue of altered states of consciousness. It follows the travels of aspiring entrepreneurs, BASE jumpers, meditators, and festival-goers who are making a difference in the world.
Who is the Stealing Fire’s Author?
Steven Kotler, a New York Times best-selling book, specializes in human performance. He has been featured in over 100 publications, including the Atlantic and Harvard Business Review. He has also received two Pulitzer Prize nominations. He is the author of numerous books, including The Rise of Superman, Bold, and The Art of Impossible.
Jamie Wheal started the Flow Genome Project, an international organization that researches human performance. In addition to Stanford, the professor has given talks at Imperial College London and the United Nations. She’s also the author of the book Recapture the Rapture.
For Whom is Fire Being Stolen?
The book Stealing Fire is not for everyone. It could be perfect for you if you are one of the following categories of people:
- Burning Man devotees
- Entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to improve their performance
- Alternative therapy enthusiasts who are interested in psychology
Summary of the Book Stealing Fire
Introduction
Have you ever wondered how extreme sportsmen remain in the zone throughout their life-threatening feats? Could you explain how Navy SEALs can make split-second choices while on a mission without speaking?
High-performing people have acquired a state of mind known as ecstasy – a Greek term that roughly translates to “standing above oneself” – via either the excitement of the game or years of preparation.
We’ll look at how some individuals have previously attained states of ecstasy, as well as new technology and research that makes ecstasy available to everyone — without the risks of skydiving or using hallucinogenic drugs.
Lesson 1: People have been looking for states of non-ordinary consciousness for thousands of years.
Alcibiades, a young Greek commander and statesman, gave a party at his mansion in Athens two and a half thousand years ago. His visitors were welcomed with a special drink known as kykeon, which was traditionally reserved for the Greek nobility.
This mind-expanding beverage was created for use during the Eleusinian Mysteries, a nine-day annual rite. Despite the fact that he had not been invited, Alcibiades stole some kykeon to make his own celebration memorable.
Rumors began to circulate. Alcibiades left Athens after blaspheming the mysteries of Eleusis and was condemned to death in his absence. As Prometheus was punished for stealing fire from the gods of Olympus, Alcibiades’ death did not prevent those who followed after him from exploring methods to modify their awareness. He got away with it in the end.
What is the most crucial message in this situation? The hunt for states of consciousness outside of conventional awareness has been going on for thousands of years.
It’s unclear what made kykeon so spiritual and therapeutic. According to one explanation, the barley in it was tainted with the ergot fungus, which is still used to make LSD today. These sorts of ecstasies were clearly not designed for the typical Greek.
Prometheans of the twenty-first century are altering this, although their version of kykeon takes numerous shapes.
The writers spoke with a broad spectrum of people, from professional athletes to health-care workers. People are looking for methods to improve their performance by altering their view of reality in order to reach euphoria, according to researchers.
Trial attorneys have employed psychopharmaceutical substances in the past. Military officers have taken part in meditation camps. Electrodes have been used to shock Wall Street stock traders into ecstasy.
When you add all the money we spend attempting to get out of ourselves, you have a $4 trillion Altered States Economy every year. This includes legal drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine, as well as medications, psychological therapy, video games, action sports, music, and movies. Pornography and social media are also a part of it.
Are we actually acquainted with ecstasy’s mechanics?
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Lesson 2: We don’t understand training bliss, but we recognize flow when we see it.
In 2004, the Navy’s SEAL Team Six deployed to Afghanistan as part of a top-secret operation. What route did they use to get there? The goal is to apprehend Al-Qaeda operative Wazu.
Al-Wazu had escaped from an American jail and was attempting to recruit new recruits for Osama Bin Laden. The SEALs required Al-Wazu to be alive because he was a crucial intelligence source. They needed to operate fast, quietly, and cautiously as a group. They discovered Al-Wazu armed but sleeping in his compound. During his capture, no firearms were fired.
Everything went off without a hitch. The capacity of the team to turn a switch and integrate their consciousnesses was crucial to its success. They were able to determine as a group when not to fire, and therefore avoided inflicting needless injury.
When we see it, we know one thing: flow. However, ecstasy training is still a bit of a mystery.
The Navy SEALs pick only the finest of the best based on quantitative performance indicators. It gets quite pricey over time. It costs $500,000 to train a single SEAL, and another $4 million to form SEAL Team Six. Then there’s the money spent on training individuals who won’t make it into SEAL Team Six.
The Al-Wazu operation was successful not because of the SEALs’ ability to fire accurately or climb steep walls, but because of their collective capacity to make split-second judgments.
So, what’s the greatest approach to find out whether someone can flip between individual and group thinking?
As a consequence, in the past, finding someone who was already capable of doing this under duress – rather than someone who could be taught – was critical. However, at the SEALs’ training headquarters in Virginia, a new facility dubbed the Mind Gym is seeking to achieve precisely that, using cutting-edge body-brain performance gear.
EEG monitors and cardiac coherence devices are used to track heart rate changes and brain activity. They minimize distractions, practice shutting off the self, and speed up the learning process in sensory deprivation chambers. All of this is being done in order to accelerate the transition from individual to collective flow.
Lesson 3: People with PTSD may benefit from MDMA, surfing, and meditation.
The Navy SEALs, for example, use what is now known to investigate the possibility of non-ordinary states.
Psychology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and technology all have a role in ecstasy. To make sense of the multiple efforts in ecstasis research, the authors recognized five factors. We’ll go through each of them in detail in the next chapters. Let’s start with the basics of psychology.
In 2017, approximately 25 million Americans were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is commonly caused by abuse or war experiences. PTSD was diagnosed, treated, and neglected for a long period. The only medications licensed to treat it are Zoloft and Prozac, and these take weeks or months to act.
Nonetheless, several novel therapies have lately demonstrated to be effective.
MDMA, surfing, and meditation are all good PTSD treatments.
MDMA, popularly known as ecstasy, is most commonly linked with club culture. Scientists are currently investigating the use of MDMA in therapeutic psychotherapy.
In a randomized, controlled research published in 2010, Michael Mithoefer revealed that taking MDMA only once might totally eliminate some of the symptoms of PTSD. MDMA’s effects continued for years after one to three doses were taken under medical supervision, unlike Zoloft and Prozac.
In 2015, US regulators allowed research into MDMA’s potential to treat depression and anxiety.
Other unconventional therapies, such as those used by occupational therapist Carly Rogers, have had comparable outcomes. At Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, Rogers investigated the effects of surfing and talk therapy on Iraq War veterans suffering from PTSD.
The warriors found instant comfort after catching their first few waves. A veteran who had been silent for a long time suddenly started speaking again. Following that in 2007, about a thousand troops volunteered to participate in the surf therapy program. The intensity of the troops’ PTSD symptoms considerably decreased after at least five weeks, according to Rogers’ final findings.
Although these results are promising, both MDMA and surfing are dangerous. They aren’t accessible to everyone, either. Meditation, on the other hand, is. After a month of regular meditation, 84 percent of PTSD patients lowered, or even quit, their antidepressant drugs, according to a research done by the US military.
The control group, on the other hand, had a 20 percent rise in symptoms.
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Lesson 4: Artificial intelligence may utilize neurobiological data to determine effective cooperation abilities and prevent suicide.
As we learn more about the human body, our knowledge of it becomes more complicated.
Emotions come from a variety of places, not only the brain. They are also influenced by 40,000 neurons in the heart and 100 million neurons in the stomach and intestines.
The second of the four drivers of ecstasy, neurobiology research, reveals that varied states of mind cause observable reactions in our bodies. With the use of AI technology, we can now utilize biometrics to predict submariner performance as well as lower suicide rates.
What effect does this have on ecstasy? Our mental moods are impacted by more than simply our ideas; they are also influenced by our physical surroundings.
What is the most important message? Artificial intelligence may utilize neurobiological data to determine effective cooperation abilities and prevent suicide.
What criteria did the Navy SEALS use to identify who would be able to move from solo to teamwork in the field? In 2014, Advanced Brain Monitoring’s CEO, Chris Berka, devised a research project to try a similarly tough prediction. She wanted to discover whether seamen would be able to handle six months of solitude after being pent up in a submarine.
They also provided heart rate variability monitors and EEG devices to measure brain waves to the sailors. After that, sailors were put through a four-month training program. The biometric data they gathered after 16 weeks helped them forecast which sailors would remain in the zone during real submarine missions and which would not.
In another research done at the University of Southern California, a therapist called Ellie learnt how to recognize the indicators of melancholy, anxiety, and PTSD early on in order to reduce suicide rates among the troops.
Ellie, the world’s first AI therapist, seems to be human, but she isn’t. She uses video monitors to listen to and speak with patients, but she also has technology that can read facial expressions, identify tones of grief in a patient’s voice, and analyze their words.
Patients are twice as likely to discuss intimate information with her as with a regular human therapist, according to a 2014 research, since she is nonjudgmental. Through the initiative, Ellie’s technology will be available to everyone with a laptop and an internet connection.
Lesson 5: Psychedelic substances may be used to generate ecstasy.
When John Downer placed cameras underwater to observe bottlenose dolphin behavior, he was startled to find them so peaceful. He then took a careful look at the film.
As though they were playing a game, each dolphin chewed on a pufferfish before transferring it to another dolphin companion. Desperate for sustenance, a pufferfish unleashed its final UNO card and a fatal neurotoxic cloud. A little amount of this poison may cause dolphins to get stoned, but too much can be fatal.
It’s not only dolphins that want a fix now and again. Other animals get their highs from mind-altering chemicals as well. For cats, there’s catnip, for dogs, there’s toads, and for sheep, there’s hallucinogenic lichen. Humans have access to a broad range of chemicals, but the most common are ergot-derived LSD and psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms.
The third driving reason behind ecstasy is pharmacology.
According to one view, intoxication may have had a role in evolution. Animals may get trapped in a loop of performing the same thing again and over, making it difficult to break free. Intoxicating chemicals have the potential to break people free from this cycle.
If a person is hallucinating or inebriated, this depatterning may help them. Regulations make it impossible to research illegal drugs like LSD and psilocybin in a controlled context. That is, however, beginning to change.
When Robin Carhart-Harris became the director of psychedelic research at Imperial College London, he started researching psilocybin’s effects on the brain. Carhart-Harris employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to learn more about a subjective experience in her research.
When we attain a condition of altered awareness, we transcend ourselves. This experience of selflessness is now known to be caused by deactivating some areas of the brain, a condition known as temporary hypofrontality in neuroscience. The same areas deactivate when on LSD, meditating, and exercising.
Our thoughts calm down, and the networks that allow for aimless daydreaming go offline for a while. These old networks are being phased out in favor of new ones that link the brain’s furthest reaches. Psychedelics may hold the answer to creatively overcoming complex challenges.
Lesson 6: Ecstasy is more accessible than ever before, with none of the typical hazards or responsibilities.
Alan Metni is a lawyer who quickly discovered that he was much more interested in jumping out of aircraft; flying was one of his ambitions. Metni grew so hooked to flying after accomplishing hundreds of jumps that he started seeking for new methods to practice. He was in ecstasy whenever he took off. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen or felt before.
However, jumping out of an aircraft may be dangerous. Every year, a large number of deaths occur, even expert fliers. Taking those kinds of risks isn’t for everyone.
Technology – the fourth force of ecstasy – can democratize access to such experiences in a safer setting due to creators like Metni.
Ecstasy is now accessible to a wider audience, without the typical hazards or obligations, thanks to new technologies.
Metni began by experimenting with wind tunnels and massive fans. His indoor flying experience, iFly, provides the same adrenaline thrill without the danger of death. iFly has 54 sites globally, according to the company’s website, and is open to anybody aged three and up.
Members of the team might spend hours upon hours testing jumps. SEAL Team Six trained moving from individual to collective awareness while flying through the air as part of their group flow training.
After leaving up his ideal profession as a roboticist, Mikey Siegel went on a fruitless journey across India and South America. He returned from a meditation camp in California with nothing except a backache — until day seven.
After hearing so much about mental clarity, he finally experienced it. Meditation was an uncomfortable weight for him. He wanted to live a basic lifestyle in order to obtain the same sensation.
Siegel started experimenting with wearable biofeedback devices after founding Consciousness Hacking to see whether they might help him attain the same altered experience. To deactivate some cortical areas of the brain, prototypes have used transcranial direct stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
They may be able to modify awareness even more with additional experimentation — right now, the effects are similar to a glass of wine.
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Lesson 7: Gatherings like Burning Man provide a chance for non-ordinary states to be exploited to tackle critical issues.
Every year, for one week, the Black Rock Desert in northeastern Nevada hosts a pilgrimage of ecstasy pioneers. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, as well as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, frequent it. Artists, musicians, and entertainers showcase consciousness-altering artworks. Prototypes from inventors like Mikey Siegel are also on show.
The event in question is Burning Man. They are constructing a metropolis from the ground up as a single entity.
Burning Man offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to use non-ordinary moods to solve critical challenges.
Apart from the collaborative setting generated by individuals in out-of-body experiences, Burning Man has a dramatic attraction. This frequently goes on for a long time after the event has ended.
In 2005, the similar happened as Hurricane Katrina approached. Some high-ranking Pentagon officers and hackers working remote from the festival’s action are working on the festival’s live broadcast and emergency wifi. When one of the men pushed the reconnaissance satellite when they learned about Katrina, they were able to view it in real time.
They formed Burners Without Borders after raising $40,000 from other festival participants as a consequence of their sentiments of powerlessness. After people departed the event, a distribution facility for charity like Oxfam was created in Mississippi.
Their $1 million gift helped remove the debris and rehabilitate the neighborhood. They have since assisted with various disaster relief operations, including the Fukushima tragedy in Japan in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Dr. Dave Warner, the satellite hacker, was in Afghanistan for many years following Katrina. Warner has a PhD in neurology and is a data visualization specialist in addition to being a military contractor. The MIT scientist traveled to Jalalabad with a group of other MIT scientists to advocate Burning Man’s radical inclusivity and open information ideas.
They launched the “Burner Bar,” which gave cocktails in return for any sort of information. Someone may inform the Heineken about a local farmer’s harvests, the location of a health facility, or army movements.
Thousands of gigabytes of data were gathered, and the findings were visualized using Warner’s data visualization tool. Despite his wishes for his data to remain unclassified, it was exploited by the UN, Afghan government, the Pentagon, and others. Many lives were saved as a result of this extreme inclusion campaign.
Hedonic Calendaring may be used to get ecstasy (lesson 8)
Many of the folks we’ve spoken about so far are breaking new ground in terms of harnessing the four forces of ecstasy; they’re at the vanguard of disruptive innovation. Let’s take a step back and look at which tools are more generally used.
Because of mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation has grown into a billion-dollar business.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation has been discovered to be more effective than antidepressants by neurobiologists.
Many states have made cannabis legal for medicinal and recreational use, and 32 million Americans use psychedelic substances on a daily basis.
You can track your hormone levels, heart rate, and brain waves using today’s technology.
You may use hedonic calendaring to plan when and how you will experience pleasure.
Ecstasy addiction may develop when individuals utilize sex, drugs, or extreme sports. Other approaches of altering the brain are being investigated. You may investigate non-ordinary states on your own by following the methods given below.
To begin, make a list of all of the things that get you out of your thoughts. Skydiving, traveling, and listening to live music, for example, may be on your bucket list.
The Ecstasis Equation is then used to rank these activities according to their worth. Time commitment, as well as dangers and benefits, must all be considered. Visiting a shaman in Peru, for example, would be fantastic, but meditating for 10 minutes at home requires less time and effort.
What is the third and last step? How often would you want to participate in each activity? Sort them by how often they occur. It might be done every day, every week, every month, every season, or every year.
According to habit formation studies, new routines stay better when they’re coupled with established habits. Consider mixing ecstasy activities with other things you currently undertake in stage four.
Be wary of being addicted to a psychedelic state for the wrong reasons. You might become a “bliss addict” if you’re not cautious. Make a yearly commitment to giving up everything for 30 days. We won’t be meditating, having kinky sex, or using psychedelics any more. After your mind and body have re-calibrated, see how you feel.
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Final Thoughts
The pursuit of out-of-body experiences is nothing new. As we learn more about it, our knowledge of how it works improves. Meditation, MDMA, and surfing may be beneficial to persons suffering from PTSD. Artificial intelligence-assisted therapy has been shown to cut suicide rates.
When you utilize psychedelic substances, you may build connections in your brain that you wouldn’t normally be able to form. Without putting your life in danger or spending hours meditating, flight tunnels and transcranial direct stimulation devices may give bliss.
Additional Reading
If you like Stealing Fire, you may be interested in the following book summaries:
Stealing Fire is available for purchase.
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