Michael Covel speaks with Steven Kotler. Kotler is an American bestselling author, journalist, and entrepreneur. His articles have appeared in over 70 publications, including The New York Times Magazine, LA Times, Wired, GQ, Discover, Popular Science, Outside, Men’s Journal, Details and National Geographic Adventure. He is best known for his non-fiction books, including the New York Times bestseller Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, and West of Jesus. His new book is The Rise of Superman. Covel starts off with a personal anecdote about his experiences with 'flow', and Kotler goes onto explain the topic based on Covel’s experiences. Covel and Kotler also discuss synonyms for flow; flow in basketball and other sports; group flow; pattern recognition; the neurological explanation for flow; the four stages of flow; why flow is not just a binary state; spiritual experiences compared to flow states; brain activity during flow states; the “deep now”; getting to the flow state with drugs; the flow state and the act of being on stage; why you need to take risks to get into flow; social fear, risk, and pain vs. physical fear, risk, and pain; method acting, screen presence, and flow; the military and flow research; risk and comfort; the balance between challenges and skills; getting comfortable with being uncomfortable; the fight or flight mindset; and future research into flow. For more information on Steven Kotler, visit flowgenomeproject.co. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.