As I mentioned elsewhere on this site, when racing in 1981 and again in 1983, I had some unusual experiences, which I guess you could categorized as altered states of consciousness. The experiences were far more than just a temporal shift. I had started to experience driving as slow motion some time during my first few races, and as I became a better driver, things slowed even more for me; but these experiences were quite different than just slow motion.
One experience occurred during an emergency situation caused by oil on the track, another occurred when taking a great risk (pushing beyond what was ‘reasonable’) to improve my performance, a third occurred while extricating myself from a very dangerous situation, and two others occurred when just driving (while really pushing the limit). What made them unusual, especially for the ones involving a high level of risk or danger, was that there was just a very calm dialog/negotiation/collaboration (it’s hard to describe) going on in my head between my two selves (intellect and intuition or left and right brains, whatever you want to call it); but together, they got the job done.
Anyway, all of these experiences gave me a ‘glimpse under the hood’ into what was happening in my brain when I pushed myself to the absolute edge. At the time, I knew nothing about the brain, but curiosity about the systems that must be present in the brain and how they must work together in my brain caused me to formulate and research my theories. What I learned became the foundation of Speed Craft.