Rapture is a monthly time-based mixtape series created for Subject Athletes in the pursuit of Metaphysical Fitness. Rapture mixtapes are available in four universal training sizes: 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes and 240 minutes. Rapture mixtapes are updated monthly. Rapture is the greatest Training Tool on Earth. Rapture is designed for activation, motivation, meditation, synchronicity, alignment and transcendence. We love music. We love you. We love pushing Physical, Spiritual, Mental and Emotional limits in the pursuit of Transformation. Electronic music is scientifically proven.
In broad terms the brain can be divided into three separate parts—bottom, middle and top—with each part controlling/managing a different-and-specific set of functions and agendas. Which would be fine of course if all three parts were seamlessly integrated and optimized for consensus and harmony when it comes to meeting needs and making decisions. Which it turns out they are for most life-type things except, unfortunately for Subject Athletes, for shit like managing exposure, stress and comfort-with-discomfort in the pursuit of Endurance Excellence and Flow State.
While nobody really knows EXACTLY HOW to achieve Flow State in terms of like, step by step instructions, we can and do assume that Flow State is reached as a result of moving out of DOING and into BEING—the operative word here being “moving” because of course we need to literally and metaphorically MOVE (transition) OUT of our natural everyday super loud, super distracted state and into one that’s free of bullshit noise and distraction like conscious thought, self awareness, fear, hope, the past, the future, etc.
Okay so how do we force movement in times of extreme stress, anxiety and exposure? How do we keep our 3-part brains from FREAKING OUT so hard we get literally and metaphorically stuck thus preventing us from reaching Endurace Excellence and Flow State?
It’s actually not that hard. Just follow this 3-step process to placate and synchronize your 3-part brain thus unlocking movement.
Even though each step is simple in theory the mental fortitude and sustained focus required is actually kinda gnar which is why we turned each step into a mantra. Mantras help you breathe good while you work to incorporate thinking-thoughts into somatic intention.
But how do you absorb and integrate the mantras into your bod, on like, a cellular level?
We commissioned skateboard and heavy metal artist, Funeral French, to draw the mantras into existence because A) WE WANTED TO B) NOW, IF YOU FORGET WHAT YOU’RE DOING BUT LIKE YOU REALLY NEED THAT FLOW STATE STAT YOU CAN JUST LOOK IN THE MIRROR OR ASK A FRIEND TO READ THE BACK OF YOUR SHIRT C) LIZARDS ARE COOL D) SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME PICTURES AND VISUAL AIDS HAVE HELPED COMMUNICATE COMPLEX IDEAS LIKE HOW CAVE PAINTINGS ARE JUST REALLY JUST DECKS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT.
Obviously this is capitalism and capitalism sucks but it’s tough being a self-funded Metaphysical Fitness Guide so please just think of this as supporting me and the work I do on the way to buying a shirt.
Our heavyweight (6oz) t-shirts are expensive because they’re sourced in America, sewn in Los Angeles and silk-screened by hand in Portland, Oregon.
Also these shirts ARE EXTRA CRAZY because each one required 5 screens because they have so many vibrant, compelling colors because they’re about your brain and so we had to tap into the full color spectrum because we knew your brain would want that.
Even though these t-shirts are fashionable for Lifestyle because they artfully radiate state-of-the-art Endurance Culture ideas and concepts, they’re also good at sports.
In the 80’s and early 90’s Big Outdoor perpetrated an anti- cotton propaganda war against Cardogoths and Outdoor enthusiasts like yourself. They tried to brainwash us into wearing higher-margin plastic clothes that smell and feel bad by claiming that “cotton kills.”
Maybe on Everest “cotton kills” but down here at everyday elevations it’s more like COTTON KILLS IT @ keeping you cool when it’s hot and humid and disgusting out, superb hand feel and comfort, durability and longevity, emotional resonance, being a towel, and as a medium for art and culture.
STEP ONE: Quiet The Lizard
The Lizard Brain (the oldest part of our 3-part brain) is in charge of survival instincts and basic primal instinctual shit like fucking and breathing and meeting our needs. It’s called Lizard Brain because dinosaurs invented this part (the brain stem, cerebellum and basal ganglia) and they were big lizards who were super good at survival except for, obviously, in the face of asteroids which tbh doesn’t feel fair to shade them for sleeping on the prospect of intergalactic impact damage on that scale and subsequent nuclear winters. Anyway, survival instincts are great and have a ton of utility but if you’re just LARPing survival in a packraft with an ATB mounted to the bow on a class IV rapid several hundreds miles from cell service FREEZING UP or panicing is not cute and like, actually, kinda counterintuitive to the whole survival thing.
So the next time you wanna drop in on something real big with commitment and no run-out and it’s exciting but you’re also spooked do this…
Part One: Breath—for the last 30 seconds you’ve been holding your breath or hyperventilating. STOP IT.
Part Two: Focus—game face, bro. See what’s immediately in front of you and nothing else. The rest is noise.
part Three: Act—duuuuuuuuuuuuuude DON’T THINK JUST MOVE GO SEND DROP NOW ACT ACT ACT STOP THIIIIINKING!
The mammal brain aka the Limbic System is the second oldest (middle) part of our 3-part brain and controls emotions and feelings which are great when navigating interpersonal relationships and when you need to show up as an empathic caring complete person but not so great when you need to cross a raging chest deep river at night with no lights and your mammal brain is all dude WHAT A BUMMER THIS WHOLE EVENT IS JUST ONE SKETCHY THREAT AFTER ANOTHER which starts to kill your vibe and cockblock your PMA. It’s in those critical moments that you need to reframe the situation for your mammal brain. You need to say bro, it’s not a threat, it’s a challenge and challenges are fun.
The brain brain aka the Cerebrum is all HIGHER thought. If the Lizard Brain is instinct and intuition and the Mammal Brain is feeling and perceiving, the brain brain is THINKING AND STRESSING AND REASONING which are great when strategy, deductive reasoning and rational thought are helpful like maybe when you’re planning your trip but not when you’re on it and in situation calling for you to start downclimbing now or never into the canyon below even if it’s so steep you cant see where you’re putting your feet which means yeah, if you allow yourself to think about it logically, the chances of stepping onto a rattlesnake basking in the late afternoon sun on a ledge several hundred miles from a road is pretty high. Which is exactly why we don’t, in those moments, have time for the BRAIN BRAIN to run feasibility studies. At a certain point thinking is just a bummer. In those moments, we need to TURN OFF THE BRAIN.
ARIES & ARIES RISING Mercury is retrograde in your sign all month, indicating a mindset reset, post-Equinox. Mercury retrogrades can also indicate MENTAL frustration, so patience and a focus on intellectual rigor could be exactly what's needed to move forward with a sharper perspective. Though, it’s not only your mind…
S.O.C.K.S aka (Socks For Outside Comfort and Kinetic Synchronicity)
SOCKS: We discovered the single greatest athletic socks— perfect height, perfect materials, perfect durability, perfect wicking, perfect performance, perfect comfort, and sourced and manufactured in the United States—currently in production* and made them all white with zero branding so you can do Tabula Rasa and Wabi Sabi on them.
OUTSIDE: Math, technology, arts, language, algorithms, money, all of it—It’s all a fiction. But The Outside, that’s real. MSO regularly receives council, inspiration and design insights from The Outside.
COMFORT: Your feet need to PSME perform at their highest level. If they hurt, you hurt. If they’re tired, you’re tired. If they’re struggling, you’re struggling. With dry, well rested, fully functional feet cloaked and compressed by comfort, anything and everything is possible.
KINETIC: Kinetic energy is motion and movement. “Swift dance in the breeze, Nature’s pulse, kinetic grace, Energy unfolds.”
SYNCHRONICITY: The hallmarks of Kinetic energy are immersion, luck, magic-like control, timelessness and a lack of self-consciousness. All of which promote a condition or “zone” conducive to excellence and performance; aka Flow State.
* The socks are 2-3 times better than any sock you have ever worn or used. That is a fact. With these socks you can reach new literal and metaphorical heights and distances so you should buy three pairs immediately to change your game and experience PLAY like you never thought possible.
However, while these socks are not technically PERFECT with your help we can and will make the PERFECT SOCK.
BACKSTORY:
In 2014, Jeremy Dunn, founder and creator and former owner of The Athletic, literally invented the single greatest, most transformative, most efficacious, and most inspired piece of Endurance equipment of all time; the PERFECT sock. Without exception (or hyperbole) these socks were literally the single greatest piece of Endurance equipment of all time.
For reasons I can’t explain the PERFECT sock that Jeremy Dunn envisioned and Defeet manufactured was decommissioned three years later in 2017.
The Army dreams about these socks. NASA has been trying to make these socks but they lack the necessary technology. Nike doesn’t have the vision or moxie to make these socks. Arcteryx is sleeping on these socks. Acronym doesn’t respect Use Case enough to make these socks. Satisfy and District Vision may, this very minute, be making plans to make something approximating these socks. Rayonvert, maybe? An artisanal guy in Kyoto, possibly?
Meanwhile Defeet retains all the necessary patterns, materials, engineering skills and manufacturing machines necessary to reissue these socks.
Mythical State of has been in negotiations with Defeet for three years in an effort to reissue the PERFECT sock but due to what we can only assume is a lack of confidence in MSO’s assertion that these are the PERFECT socks and thusly the finest endurance equipment ever made, lack of concern for the well being of millions of Endurance Rats and Subject Athletes and Cardiogoths around the world, and a lack of Capitalistic motivation in that MSO’s buying power is currently insufficient. Which is why we implore you to purchase 3 pairs of these nearly perfect socks now because 100% of all the proceeds will go to funding our ongoing campaign to convince Defeet to reissue the PERFECT sock in partnership with MYTHICAL STATE OF.
