Positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is author of the book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”. In his TED talk he describes the state of ecstasy known as the flow state, which is associated with very high creativity, and he explains how to enter it.

Csikszentmihalyi explains that the nervous system is incapable of processing more than 110 bits of information per second. If you’re listening to someone speak, you need to process about 60 bits of information per second in order to understand what they’re saying. This is why if there are two people talking to you at the same time, you can’t listen to both of them and understand what both are saying.

He then goes on to explain that when you’re completely involved in the process of creating something new you don’t have enough attention left over to monitor how your body feels–the fact that you’re hungry or tired, and so on–, or to think about the problems that you’re having at home, or the spat that you had with a colleague earlier that morning.

People who enter the flow state often report that when they enter this state it’s as if they don’t exist. This is due to the fact that they’re so engrossed in the creative endeavor, that they have no attention left over to think about themselves and feel that they exist.

Read more on how to enter the flow state.