Focus is focus. There’s little difference between the amount of concentration needed by a meditator to achieve “ecstasy” and the amount required by a BASE jumper leaping into a cave. Danger heightens attention. Thus the big mountains and big waves allow us to cheat this process, a fact Potter openly acknowledges: “I take the easy way,” he says. “I can sit on my ass and meditate for two hours to get a fifteen-second glimpse of this state. Or I can risk my life and get there instantly—and it lasts for hours.”
