The Cognitive Edge You Were Never Taught to Use

I was 12 years old, falling face-first toward a kitchen knife.

It was camp, and I was part of the crew on cleanup duty doing the dishes. The entire counter space was full, so the drying rack was placed on the ground. Hygiene issues aside, it was a glaring safety hazard, as I was soon to find out.

As we were mucking about, I slipped.

In the half-second between losing my balance and hitting the ground, time stretched out long enough for me to see the blade, calculate where my hands needed to go, and land with the tip grazing my throat instead of entering it.

To everyone watching, it all happened so fast. To me, it felt like five seconds inside one.

I later learned that what I had experienced was a distinct version of consciousness, characterized by complete immersion in an activity, a collapse of the subject-object division, and optimal physical or cognitive execution.

In my case, this happened because I was in a life-or-death situation and my mind naturally “locked in” to get me out o…