“We all go a little mad sometimes”
-Norman Bates, Psycho

You are slowly coming to. After a perturbed sleep characterised by restlessness, periods of deep dreamless repose, then frenetic and hyper-real scenarios in which you (delete as appropriate): flew free as a bird through the night sky/confronted family long deceased/turned up for a French exam inexplicably at your primary school bereft of trousers. You are exhausted. But more importantly, you are flummoxed. Your brain feels like there is a mini electrical storm and thoughts are whirling round untethered as like garments on a washing line captured in a passing maelstrom.

Slowly, gradually, stability restores, your bedroom resolves into its mundane but comforting familiarity. You realise you are not back in University digs. You haven’t lost twenty years. You have to get up or you’ll be late for work!!

What has happened? What did your brain get up to in those darkened hours where the cat wandered off and the mice were let loose in the attic?!

It is possible that your brain functioning has regressed into some kind of entropic state...

Entropy is a term associated with physical systems such as are characterised in the second law of thermodynamics (I.e. involving transfer of energy via heat and ‘work’) and which generally refers to the degree of disorder and ‘randomness’ of the system (uncertainty). An oft touted analogy is the higher probability that a glass tumbling from a table will shatter into a multitude of parts increasing the disorder of that system, than the reverse occurring (a multitude of shards and dissipated beer re-assembling and returning from the floor to a re-constituted pint upon the table). (Also being often mentioned as a convincing argument for why time tends to flow forwards rather than backwards – as in episodes of Red Dwarf.)

The concept of entropy has been mooted with respect to brain activity characterising conscious states (by the likes of Carhart-Harris, 2014; 2018). In the sense that entropic, disordered or aysnchronous brain activity (Muthukumaraswamy et al., 2013) appears to mitigate what may be referred to as ‘primary’ consciousness. Loosely tying in with a previous piece about recapturing the state of ‘wonder’ that captivates an infant’s experience of the world (based on less fixed and stable representations of a world that has not yet been consolidated into a meaningful and functional mental model), this primary state is said to be that which young children exhibit. A state that precedes our more sophisticated and developed ‘normal waking state’. Mainstream thinking in neuroscience views the brain as a ‘prediction engine’, and which perhaps conforms to the ‘free-energy principle’ as espoused by Karl Friston (2010). Everything we do, and perceive, in effect is based upon predictions from our internalised model of the world, and which we match against (confirming/disconfirming this) signals returning up through our sensory pathways. And which consequently either result in rejection (fixed thinking) or adaptation and refinement of the model (flexible thinking).

Of further interest is the contention, from the likes of Carhart-Harris's research into psychedelic compounds impacting upon brain function, that such ‘entropic signatures’ are observed in brain activation under exposure to substances including psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD, DMT (all of which bind to serotonergic receptors throughout key brain structures that are strongly involved in the generation of consciousness). In effect, the concomitant ‘asynchrony’ observed in brain wave activity appears to disrupt or ‘knock out’ ‘ordinary’ consciousness. I like to refer to this (perhaps bastardising the term in it’s true definition, - technically 'stopping' and shocking back ​into regular rhythm - but it feels useful nonetheless) as ‘defibrillating’ cognition. in the sense that by initially shocking the brain into an arrhythmic state, the system must compensate and bring things back ‘online’, I.e. by re-establishing the ‘natural’ rhythm that reconstitutes consciousness to it’s functional, waking state. And by doing so, having shaken things up so that when they fall back down ‘to earth’ something has changed, improved, resettled. Sometimes (frequently) it is very different to shake our fixed ideas, break old habits and patterns of thinking, and a shock is necessary to allow updating of the model.

It is argued that this is what happens when we are asleep and go into the hectic chaotic entropic state experienced when we dream. You might like to interpret groundbreaking significance into your dreams as messages from your unconscious providing insight whilst you slumber. But in some ways, it’s simply indicative of your brain shaking things up in order to allow cognitive structures, the model that helps you make sense of and successfully make your way through the waking day, to reconstitute and update additional information, as well as slew off redundant information gathered haphazardly whilst ‘awake’. As Norman Bates once intoned ‘we all go a little mad sometimes’, and indeed that appears to be what is happening whilst we sleep. Psychosis is experienced, but fortunately not acted out due to biological mechanisms that prevent our motor functions enacting out our fantasies, whims, terrors, in the depths of the night.

All systems require moments of downtime in order to repair, review, be subject to maintenance. It appears to be no coincidence that areas manifesting this ‘entropic’ pattern of brain activation whilst under ‘primary’ consciousness, as experienced in REM sleep, psychedelic states, include the default mode network: that neural basis of ‘selfhood’. Going to sleep, or ‘out of one’s mind’, allows an escape from ‘self’. Perhaps the most blessed holiday one can take. (Even though you may go to Benidorm, you must take that excess baggage of the self with you, and pay for the extra kilos – you can’t escape it that easily.)

But by taking the default mode offline, you can allow it to defibrillate, shock it out of (and back into) rhythm, then let the dust settle, let the self re-integrate, renew. A new you!

As I have previously opined, focusing, absorbing in, goal directed behaviour that activates the ‘task positive’ network, gives rise to a potentially highly productive state. And at the same time deactivates components of the default mode network, and the ‘self-indulgent’ facets of that network. Consequently, one takes a break from the self, so to speak, and when the self reconstitutes thereafter, there is ‘self-improvement’. In the sense that one has learned from the experience, one’s brain topology (DMN) changes and one’s capacity for future performance is enhanced (towards a more optimised functional state). And the potential capacity to be more in control of these networks (towards self mastery!).

I will explore this further, extending the model into the sphere of adventure experiences: how we can utilise the ‘need to accommodate’ perceptual cues from an overwhelming environment to shock us into this ‘defibrillated’, expansive, and progressive state. Refining our models and giving rise to a more motivated and adaptive mindset.
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So welcome entropy, revel in it. When you awake and your brain feels scrambled, rejoice! For you ought to be acknowledging that you have improved during the night! Your server has rebooted, the system upgraded.

And the root of the term entropy?

It comes from the Greek for ‘transformation’....!


References

Carhart-Harris R.L., Leech, R., Hellyer, P.J., Shanahan, M, Fielding, A., Tagliazucchi, E., Chialvo, D.R., Nutt, D. (2014) The entropic brain: A theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs. Front Hum Neurosci 8:20

Carhart-Harris, R (2018). The entropic brain – revisited. Neuropharmacology. 142:167-178

Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory? Nature reviews. Neuroscience 11, 127-38
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Muthukumaraswamy SD, Carhart-Harris R.L., Moran, R.J., Brookes, M.J., Williams, T.M., Errtizoe, D., Sessa, B., Papadopoulos, A., Bolstridge, M., Singh, K.D., Feilding, K.D. , Friston, K.J. , and Nutt., D.J. (2013) Broadbandcortical desynchronization underlies the human psychedelic state. J Neurosci 33(38):15171–15183 ​

Allan, J.F., McKenna, J. and Hind, K (2012). Brain resilience: Shedding light into the black box of adventure processes. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 16(1), 3-14

Andrews-Hanna JR. (2012). The brain's default network and its adaptive role in internal mentation. Neuroscientist.  18(3):251-70.
 
Bressler, S.L. and Menon, V. (2010). Large-scale brain networks in cognition: emerging methods and principles. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14 277–290
 
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Brymer, E., & Houge Mackenzie, S. (2017). Psychology and the extreme sport experience. In F. Feletti (Ed.), Extreme sports medicine. (pp. 3-13). Springer. 

Castella, J., Boned, J.,  Mendez-Ulrich, J.L. and Sanz, A. (2018). Jump and free fall! Memory, attention, and decision-making processes in an extreme sport. Cognition and emotion. May. 1-27.
Craig, A. D. (2002). How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3, 655–666.
 
de Groot, J.H.B., Beetsma, D.J.V.,  van Aerts, T.J.A.,  le Berre, E. , Gallagher, D. , Shaw, E., Aarts, H. and Smeets, M.A.M. (2020).  From Sterile Labs to Rich VR: Immersive Multisensory Context Critical for Odors to Induce Motivated Cleaning Behavior.  Behavior Research Methods (in press)

El-Deredy et al. (2017). Neuroengineering a device to improve the control of worker’s attention in high altitude mines. FONDEF (Chile) research grant 2017-2019 [~£140,000 funding awarded]
 
El-Deredy, W., Weinstein, A, and Gallagher, D (2018). Human cortical responses to stress. University of Valparaiso, Chile. Talk at Chilean Society for Neuroscience
 
Elton, A. and Gao, W. (2015). Task-positive Functional Connectivity of the Default Mode Network Transcends Task Domain.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 27:12, pp. 2369–2381 

Gallagher, D (1995). Cognitive-Induced Analgesia: Attentional Processes and Meditative Chanting. MSc thesis, Lancaster University.
 
Gallagher and El-Deredy (2009, 2010, 2014, 2018). Various field visits to high altitude (3000-5000m) mountain ranges to collect pilot data on cognitive-physiological functioning.
 
Hamilton, J.P., Farmer, M., Fogelman, P. and Gotlib, I.H. (2015). Depressive Rumination, the Default-Mode Network, and the Dark Matter of Clinical Neuroscience. Biol Psychiatry.  78(4): 224–230.

Harrivel, A.R., Weissman, D.H., Noll, D.C. and Peltier, S.J.  (2013).  Monitoring attentional state with fNIRS. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 7, 861, 1-10
 
Hockey, G. R. J. (2011). A motivational control theory of cognitive fatigue. In P.L. Ackerman (Ed.), Cognitive fatigue: multidisciplinary perspectives on current research and future applications (pp. 167-188). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
 
 Lin, P. Yang, Y., Gao,J.,  De Pisapia, N.,  Ge, S.,  Wang, X.,  Zuo, C.S., Levitt, J.J., & Niu C. (2017). Dynamic Default Mode Network across Different Brain States.     Scientific Reports volume 7, Article number: 46088
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Mittner M1, Hawkins GE2, Boekel W2, Forstmann BU (2016). A Neural Model of Mind Wandering.Trends Cogn Sci. 20(8):570-578.
 
Mooneyham, B.W. and Schooler, J.W. (2013).  The Costs and benefits of Mind-Wandering: A Review.  Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
 
Moran, J.M., Kelley, W.M. and Heatherton, T.F. (2013). What can the organization of the brain’s default mode network tell us about self-knowledge?  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 7, 391, 1-6
 
Nann, M., Cohen, G., Deecke, L. & Soekadar, S.R. (2019). To jump or not to jump - the Bereitschaftspotential required to jump into 192-meter abyss. Scientific Reportsvolume 9, Article number: 2243 
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Paulus, M.P., Flagan, T., Simmons, A.N., Gillis, K., Kotturi, S., Thom, N., Johnson, D.C., Van Orden, K.F., Davenport, P.W. and Swain, J.L. (2012). Subjecting Elite Athletes to Inspiratory Breathing Load Reveals Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Optimal Performers in Extreme Environments.  Plos One, 7, 1-11
 
Paulus, M.P., Potterat, E.G., Taylor, M.K., Van Orden, K.F., Davenport, P.W., Bauman, J., Momen, N, Padilla, G.A. and Swain, J.L. (2009). A Neuroscience Approach to Optimizing Brain Resources for Human Performance in Extreme Environments Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 33(7): 1080–1088.

Posner, , J,  Russell, J.A.,c and Peterson, B.S. (2005) The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Dev Psychopathol. 17(3): 715–734 
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Reilly, T., Gallagher, D., El-Deredy, W. and Blanchette, I. (2005).  An ergonomics model of human performance under environmental stressors: Role of executive processes and the pre-frontal cortex.  BBSRC research grant application
 
Spreng, R. N. (2012). The fallacy of a “task-negative” network. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 14
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Taylor, L., Watkins, S.L., Marshall, H., Dascombe, B.J. and Foster, J. (2016).
The Impact of Different Environmental Conditions on Cognitive Function: A Focused Review. Frontiers in Physiology. 6, 372, 1-12
 
Tommerdahl, M., Lensch, R., Francisco, E., Holden, J. and Favorov, O. (2018). The Brain Gauge: a novel tool for assessing brain health.  Journal of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine.  2, 1, 1-52
 
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Vanhaudenhuyse, A, Demertzi, A., Schabus, M. and Noirhomme, Q. (2011). Two Distinct Neuronal Networks Mediate the Awareness of Environment and of Self.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23:3, pp. 570–578
 

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Take a look at small child as you wave a shiny object in front of her face. Or indeed any object really if she’s a baby.  What inference can we make about what she sees, what she experiences? What she thinks? 

It’s distinctly likely that the child is in a perpetual state of wonder! What is this (not dagger) that I see before me (paraphrasing Macbeth for literary kudos)? With underdeveloped cognitive and perceptual faculties the whole wide world is a vastly novel experience. The little brain must be overwhelmed with the intense stimulation of continually seeing new stuff, figuring out what it is in relation to old stuff (not that’s there’s much of that).  But it’s all fresh: a perspective on life is based on an exploratory state of being, uncluttered by preconception. 

At heart this is what we might, with a little imagination and a desire to refresh our own perspective, seek to attain as world-weary adults.  A worldview driven by wonder.  Using new eyes to see richness around us. A consumerist society attempts to delude us into provoking brief spikes of interest at colourful stimuli that momentarily capitalise on a frozen instance where hand is in pocket and reflexively thrusts forth to part with hard earned cash (and thereby obtain the next useless thing that ultimately fails to create longer term satisfaction). 

Art at least taps more genuinely into this aspirational state of being, stimulating the senses, attempting to shift the focus and open up perspective to new ways of looking at the world.  Modern technologies such as Virtual Reality may well offer another avenue to take us out of the routine, mundane mode of operation and present an opportunity to view the world much as a baby does.  Psychedelic drugs or other ‘altered states’ technologies and techniques may defibrillate our cognitive faculties in a more violently immediate fashion and reduce us to a more ‘primary state of consciousness’ (Carhart-Harris, 2018).  But nature is the most readily available resource at our disposal perhaps to evince this capacity for wonder. 

Look upon the Grand Canyon for the first time and can you fail to be seized in near paralysis at the magnitude of it, the resplendent grandeur? A vast palette of colours, shapes, scents, depth, distance, along with a failure to grasp how this has come into being, what it means... 

That is because you are in a state of ‘awe’.  And this is a special state that can be evoked under the right conditions, the right (environmental) context.  Perhaps it is our evolutionary means of predisposition to cast off the shackles of outdated, routinised ways of thinking.  It is a way of shocking the system into taking stock of limitations, and realising that there are new things out there to experience, and which reveal the boundaries we set are illusory.  There is always something else beyond the horizon.  This is something we forget very quickly as we form ever tighter walls around ourselves, building a protective shell in which to hold off the hordes of new ideas that threaten to undermine cherished ‘stability’ of ‘in the box thinking’. 

Awe is an area of research amongst cognitive scientists that has it’s roots in a fundamental cognitive/perceptual ‘need to accommodate' (Guan et al., 2018 - there's that pesky posterior cingulate cortex again!). We form constructs, conceptual hierarchies of ideas about objects, categorising and itemising the world into definable chunks. When we encounter new chunks, new items, we strive to fit these into the boxes we have already labelled upon mental shelves.  If the item doesn’t ‘fit’ it is subsumed into another ‘near fit’ box, or perhaps discarded onto the junk pile. But occasionally we find ourselves in a place where the whole environment so overwhelms that the system cannot cope.  It cannot find any impetus to streamline and categorise what is beholds.  Perhaps this might cause ‘meltdown’ in some, but generally, more hopefully, it provokes a ‘need to accommodate’.  The cognitive and perceptual boundaries stretch, the brain becomes more plastic, knowledge structures bend or break and new concepts, ideas, experiences update the model and ‘reboot’ the server! 

For a moment we perceive as babies do, letting go our firm grip on what we believe reality should be.  Throwing ourselves at the mercy of the vista before us.  Giving over to a more vulnerable state of perception, of being. The brain grows, as do you.  Nature has gifted us this medium to upgrade our perceptual apparatus.  It does us the world of good to occasionally (even regularly!) seek out that state of wonder, the provocation of awe.  It is the panacea for a world embittered by the familiar, insulated from voluntary vulnerability. We all need to see the world through the infant’s eyes once in a while. 

I will continue to develop ideas around awe, principles of which ‘accommodate’ into my wider model of brain function, adventurous experiences, development and ‘mastery of’ the self, and how virtual reality can be used as a tool to facilitate greater understanding of the underlying processes that govern how we may refresh our views of the world. 
For an earlier take on this check out a previous piece I wrote, suggesting, as with the current appetite for personal training regimes, an awe workout. ​

References

Carhart-Harris, R (2018). The entropic brain – revisited. Neuropharmacology. 142:167-178  

Guan, F. Xiang, Y., Chen, O, Wang, Wand Chen, J. (2018). Neural Basis of Dispositional Awe. Front. Behav. Neurosci., (12) 209, 1-7 

"A man's got to know his limitations."
- Inspector Harry Callahan - 'Dirty Harry'


How do we set limits in our world?  We might purport to be free-thinking, expansive in worldview, and capable of achieving goals that stretch our capacities to grandiose ambition... 

But is this wishful thinking? Are we deluding ourselves? 

The answer is most likely yes. One might say well that’s fine, it’s better to have a stretching and unrealistic view of our own capabilities as this can spur us on to achieve things we aspire towards in life.  But actually, thinking about it, are we not then just like the denizens of The Matrix, going about our days in a blithely complacent mode of operation that is content to ‘know’ we have the potential to achieve whatever we want, but actually deluding ourselves about the extent of this capacity. In effect this unfounded belief that we can reach out and extend our actions unbounded in the world may be in itself limiting our actual potential... 

To feel as if one can achieve anything can foster complacency that actually prevents doing anything about it.  And this, one may argue, rests in setting boundaries for ourselves that are actually constrained by a self-satisfied sense that we can do whatever we want, go where we please, achieve our dreams.  By virtue of ‘knowing’ that we can take that step whenever we want. Tomorrow...the next day...at some point. Is it in effect tantamount to 'confined optimism'? (Being overly optimistic may be as deleterious to goal achievement as being pessimistic and negative...so where's the balance, the optimal point where skills and challenges come together to prompt 'flow'?)

Might it be more productive and satisfying to be realistic and look more closely at what our boundaries actually are in order to then define where we can get to and then where we might aspire to go further?  How far does the range of thought extend? I wonder if anyone has tried to quantify this, and relate it to ‘physical terms’? - a useful ‘thought experiment’ in itself!  Much is said of the freedom to think infinitely, and the beauty of having brains that allow us to wander at will in the realms of imagination that has no ‘true’ limitations. To the very edge of the known universe...and beyond! But firstly, perhaps we should consider how far can we actually think in those terms. And secondly to what extent do we exercise that capability? (As an aside, and as I have begun to speculate elsewhere, consider how the evolution towards superintelligent AI may unseat our own place at the head of the table as dominant species, by simple virtue of our incapacity to imagine where the limits of thought may extend to in 'beings' with exponentially greater capacity for thought! There are simply things we cannot think about.  Much as we can't imagine innovations that have yet to take place!)

Are our thoughts bounded by the mundane borders of our own regional concerns? Do we simply rove within stepping distance of our own cognitive domiciles or do we seek to search beyond, to thrust out into the unknown? An interesting experiment would be to devise a protocol for measuring the extent that people think and to equate that through some normalised attribute to distance in ‘real’ terms.  It would be interesting to devise characteristics that categorise different types of thinkers and relate to demographic variables.  Does the ‘professorial’ typology of thinker, as a rule, go beyond ‘typical’ boundaries compared to the blue-collar citizen (being stereotypical for a moment to illustrate an idea)? Would such a metric require homogenisation of data to account for other variables in order to ‘standardise’ a measure relative to different personality/lifestyle characteristics? Does the ‘artist’ head the pack in striding out beyond the known borderlands to map new territories?  

An intriguing idea with the development of ever more capable neuroimaging technologies and theoretical frameworks is the possibility that measures of ‘expansive cognition’ may become more viable.  But as with focus over the years on for instance psychedelic or ‘altered states’ phenonena towards a ‘unified theory of consciousness’ (eg. Kingsland’s recent book tying together various strands of research in this area, 2019), is it possible that ‘expanding the mind’ through various techniques simply throws ‘ordinary’ functional brain status into ‘asynchrony’, reducing the stability and robustness of cognitive functioning and moving the system closer to (and over the edge of) an entropic state (towards chaos and randomness – perhaps unbounded, but largely ‘meaningless’??; Carhart-Harris, 2018).  By ‘expanding the mind’ do we risk simply placing our cogitative capacities into a tighter box that turns off critical capacity and instead revels in a further delusion of being ‘set free’?! 

Another way to think of this is in terms of the perceptual limitations that we inevitably have as a consequence of brain structure, evolutionary development, contextual situation, and habituated tendency to rely  on our sensory-perceptual apparatus as determined through long practice and automated routine.  What are the perceptual boundaries that we are constrained by and to what degree can we, through practice, skill development, broadened mindset, push the boundaries further? 

This is a big and fascinating question and topic and many current books by prominent neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers detail various illusions, and experimental scenarios that show the fallibility of our ‘equipment’.  (See the likes of Eagleman, Hoffman, Lotto, Dennett, Macknik and Martinez-Conde, Chabris and Simons etc. in the references section.) A now famous example concerns a gorilla and a basketball game...As an aside, before the ‘invisible gorilla’ went global, I was sat in an auditorium at a provincial campus in Toronto with perhaps 50 academic types. A chap gave a talk in which he referenced a study from the 80s involving a slightly ethereal lady carrying an umbrella and wandering across a basketball scene (we saw the grainy video of this).  Having just shown this video, he then went on to ask the audience’s indulgence on a subsequent video in which a group of young people amateurishly tossed basketballs to one another in a circle within a fairly tight frame of the scene. At the end of this the speaker asked the audience to recount how many passes of the ball had been effected, and if anyone had noticed anything else in the scene.  I don’t recall anyone saying they had. He replayed the scene.  A gorilla indeed appeared and beat his chest in the midst of the action.  The audience provided a mix of responses from surprise to cynicism that this was a different video. The point is the audience was comprised of some of the most eminent scientists from the fields of visual perception, cognition, consciousness research.  The Invisible Gorilla demonstration was born there and then, launched to the world, and had it’s effect even despite ‘priming’ as to the nature of it beforehand...We believe we see the totality of our environment and that is is ‘there to see’ and we have only to ‘look’. But how deluded we are to the blind spot, not only in the fovea itself, but also in our own view of reality! 

Of course, over the passage of time it’s possible that I have slightly reconstructed the temporal order of this sequence of events erroneously and in fact the ‘Umbrella woman’ came afterwards, to reference the inspiration for the Gorilla! But the point remains, an audience of ‘experts’ in visual perception were taken by surprise by this facet of boundaried perception that is effectively wired into our brains. 

So to return to the original point, do we appreciate the boundaries of our own perceptions, thought-streams and worldviews? Or do we labour under the misapprehension that we have as much capacity (unlimited) as we seek to employ? Perhaps we do have this ‘infinite capacity’ to think beyond any boundaries....And with that perhaps, also, we ALL have the capacity to go beyond our limitations (in a physical sense). Anyone can get off the couch and run a marathon if their mood takes them? Right? Especially if their pants are on fire...Realistically, probably not. Sure you can get up off the couch and implement an incremental programme of exercise that suggests you can get to that finish line eventually.  But you’ll never really be able to predict if you are going to collapse of a coronary or simply give-up when push comes to shove.  But still exercising one’s faculties seems to be as much the point here as the end destination being achieved.  And likewise, in order to think ‘beyond boundaries’ or even towards the boundaries, most probably requires at least putting some exercise in, however incremental, to develop that capacity.  After all it’s distinctly possible that our cognitive functions depend on the regular exercising of the underlying neural mechanisms, management of blood flow and metabolic resources to sustain this infrastructure, and the robustness and flexibility of our mental muscles! 

So with that, have a think about where your boundaries lie – don't just assume they are infinitely capable just because they are ‘there’.  Maybe redefine your boundaries as the basis for pushing them. But importantly exercise your mental faculties, think about grand thoughts but also smaller, more realisable ideas, and from there build them into greater ambitions.  Do this regularly, strengthen your cognitive musculature.  Begin to redraw your world afresh, instead of sitting comfortably back into the confines of your virtual and apparently limitless box!  From this can only grow vision, capability, and enthusiasm to explore the boundaries of the known, and redefine what is the unknown!!! 
 
Sources of reference: 

Carhart-Harris, R (2018). The entropic brain – revisited. Neuropharmacology. 142:167-178  

Chabris, C. and Simons, D. (2010). The Invisible Gorilla. Harper Collins 

Dennett, D. C. (1991).  Consciousness Explained. Penguin Books 

Eagleman, D. (2011). Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. Canongate Canons 
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Hoffman D. (2019). The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes. Allen Lane 

Kinsgland, J. (2019). Am I dreaming? The New Science of Consciousness and How Altered States Reboot the Brain. Atlantic books 

Lotto, B. (2017). Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently. W&N 
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Macknik, S. and Martinez-Conde, S.(2012). Sleights of Mind: What the neuroscience of magic reveals about our brains.  Profile Books ​