The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

by Steven Kotler

By day’s end, he was racing around the river, playing in rapids, all of his senses remarkably heightened. “That gave me a lot of confidence,” he says now, “but it also gave me a glimpse of the superpowers, and my first memory of the Voice.” The Voice—the voice of intuition—the center of the zone’s mystery. Everybody who has ever been in a flow state has heard it—a voice very different from the mind’s normal chatter. Neuroscientist David Eagleman likes to quote Pink Floyd when describing this facet: “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me,” while the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti refers to this someone as “the Tyrant.” Certainly, both statements track with Potter’s experience: “Right before I have to make a move, the Voice tells me what to do. And it’s never wrong. When the Voice tells you to do something, you do it: right then, don’t think, no questions asked. Not listening to the Voice is what’ll get you killed. I learned that really early in my climbing career.”