The Power of Focus and Mental Clarity for Aircrews and Travelers

Rediscovered Insights from Elmer Gates

A century ago, a brilliant American inventor and independent researcher named Elmer Gates developed a rigorous science of self-mastery he called Psychurgy—from the Greek psyche (mind) and ergon (work). It was a system of precise introspective exercises designed for practical use in daily life. His work was sadly lost to the rise of behaviorism, which dismissed the inner world as somewhat unscientific.

I believe his work in this area is worthy of further consideration and study. It offers simple yet effective skills for anyone whose performance depends on the clarity, resilience, and focus of their mind.

I. Tuning the Instrument

Flight crews never take off without a meticulous pre-flight inspection. We check fuel levels, control surfaces, cabin safety systems, and security. Yet, we routinely expect our minds to perform at peak capacity while running on poor fuel, disrupted sleep, and the metabolic strain of high-altitude travel throughout our working lives. Gates’s first principle was what he called Psychophysical Sanity. Simply put, he understood the mind body connection and that consciousness is an emergent property of the entire organism. A clouded body means a clouded mind. For us, this is not a wellness platitude; it is a fundamental law of performance [1].

The implications are direct:

Oxygen & Breath

Controlled, diaphragmatic breathing is the most immediate and effective lever we have that influences the autonomic nervous system. It is the body’s built-in biofeedback mechanism. The stress of operations, the frustration of a delay, the fatigue of red-eye flights all routinely trigger a sympathetic fight-or-flight response in flight crews and air travelers. The simple, volitional act of deepening and slowing the breath stimulates the vagus nerve, shifting the body into a parasympathetic state. This is conscious physiological regulation. It lowers heart rate, clears cortisol, and restores cognitive function. It is, quite literally, a tool to manually override stress [2]. If not already doing so, you need to prioritize nose breathing rather than through your mouth as you dominant intake of oxygen. The nose serves as the body's primary defense for incoming air, warming, moistening, and filtering it before it enters the lungs. This process is far more efficient than mouth breathing, as it allows your lungs to absorb a significantly greater amount of oxygen. In contrast, predominantly breathing through the mouth is often associated with various chronic conditions, including asthma, allergies, and anxiety. Its worth noting too that research indicates that your lung capacity may be a marker for longevity, so try to improve it over time. Slow down your inhales and exhales, which helps calm your nervous system and manage stress. Learn the benefit of conscious breath-holding, as it can help you build a tolerance to carbon dioxide and improve your focus. These simple practices will help you improve your overall health and help you with the issues associated with pressurized cabin environments.

Clear-Headed

What we take into the body directly dictates mental performance. The slump after a heavy, sugary meal invariably results in a state of cognitive impairment to some degree or other. For crew members it potentially represents a degradation of performance capability and alertness. Hydration is even more important for air travelers and air crews. Commercial airline cabins are known for their exceptionally low humidity levels. The air inside a typical passenger jet maintains a relative humidity of only around 10% to 20%, a stark contrast to the comfortable 40% to 50% found in most indoor settings. This dry environment is a result of the aircraft drawing in moisture-deprived air from high altitudes. A 2011 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that mild dehydration—easily reached on a long, dry flight— impairs cognitive performance, vigilance, and mood to a degree comparable to sleep deprivation [3]. Choosing water instead of soda or a protein-rich meal over carbs can boost job performance.

Rest and Recuperation

A good night’s rest must remain a daily priority for all crew members. During deep sleep, the brain’s glymphatic system engages, flushing out the metabolic waste products that accumulate between neurons during waking hours. The circadian disruption inherent to the profession makes prioritizing quality sleep a professional and safety imperative. The research is clear: sleep deprivation impairs performance to a degree similar to alcohol intoxication [4]. Protecting sleep is protecting safety and proficiency.

Moving on from the fundamental physiological aspects, I'd like to focus now on the mental component. In the next two parts of the article I will take you through some key insights that will help you enhance your mental resilience. 

II. The Observer’s Seat, Mental Monitoring

The core skill of Psychurgy or mind work is what Elmer Gates called the Observer’s Stance. This is the learned ability to create a sliver of space between a stimulus and your reaction to it.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom. Stephen Covey attributed this quote to Viktor Frankl and regardless of where it originated it is a wise statement.

I refer here to a deliberate mental pause that allows you to verify a warning before acting.

Normally, we are fused with our thoughts and emotions. You are triggered by an event or stimulus and a thought arises—“This delay will ruin my entire day”—and we may immediately become caught up in that frustration. The Observer’s Stance provides a way to step back. By shifting your perspective to “I notice that I am having the thought that this delay is frustrating,” you move your sense of self from the content of the mind, the thought itself, to the context, more specifically - to the awareness that perceives the thought.

This subtle shift allows you to consciously choose where your attention lands Thereby, you effectively interrupt your automatic emotional reactions, and respond with a greater degree of clarity rather than pure impulse or automatic reflex. It also opens the door sufficiently for you to be able to introduce something more useful, let's say -acceptance and recognizing that delays, disruptions, and frustrations are simply a part of life, and that once acknowledged, you can move forward without unnecessary resistance or at least less internal turmoil.

In the cockpit or cabin, this mental stance can mean the difference between a startle response and the precise execution of a trained procedure—or between snapping at a passenger and responding with composed professionalism and calm composure. It is the mental pause that provides space to verify a warning before acting, maintain composure under pressure, and continue on with purpose and focus. It is drilled in by rehearsal, repetition, practice and training. Easier said than done, well, not quite. Through a serious of simple exercises and practices you can gain more control of your mental processes than you may believe possible. 

The Ten-Second Pause Rule

Here's a practical approach to managing your immediate reactions: the Ten-Second Pause Rule.

When you're faced with an event that triggers a strong emotional response—like frustration, anxiety, or impatience—your immediate instinct is to react. Instead, you consciously and voluntarily inhibit that reaction for ten full seconds. During this brief pause, you deliberately stop yourself from speaking, acting, or even mentally ranting.

This practice retrains your brain, replacing old reactive habits with new, more intentional reflexes. As you pause, simply observe the physical sensations associated with the emotion—such as a tight chest or flushed face—from an impartial perspective. It might be challenging at first, but with consistent practice, this ten-second pause will become an almost automatic response. Ultimately, this simple technique helps you break old behavioral patterns and rewire your brain for a calmer, more measured response. You demonstrate to your nervous system that the feeling does not have to dictate action. This practice strengthens neural pathways between the prefrontal cortex (executive command) and the amygdala (threat center), building what neuroscientists call top-down inhibitory control [5]. This is a key component of staring you on the path to emotional resilience. It is how you build a mind that can withstand pressure without fracturing during intense operations or stressful travel, especially over prolonged periods.

III. Transmuting Emotional Energy into Positive Drive and Performance

In his exhaustive personal research, Gates also discovered that the energy of a reactive emotion doesn’t disappear, it merely remains in the system. The next step in mitigating this fact is what he referred to as Re-functioning. In layman’s terms, this is consciously redirecting that mental energy from a destructive path to a constructive one. It’s like diverting an electrical current from blowing a fuse into powering a light instead.

Instead of letting frustration about a major delay simmer into a bad mood, you channel that energy into heightened focus during a pre-flight inspection for example. The buzzing annoyance of pre-flight anxiety may be re-functioned and channeled into meticulous attention and mindful focus on other useful activities. 

The point is that you are not suppressing the energy—you are transmuting it. This internal alchemy transforms every mental and emotional state into forward momentum, turning what might have been wasted tension or frustration into a more effective and productive positive use of your mental and emotional resources towards better outcomes.

IV. Finding Inner Calm

Advancing further with the skill just discussed, I'd like to share a practical tool and mental skill from Gate's work which may be applied to both aircrews and travelers i- the Cognostic Pause which is a straightforward method for achieving a mental reset, a moment of clarity and stillness. It can be practiced whenever you are off critical duty tasks and it is safe to do so while on crew rest periods.

Step 1 Anchor

The first step is to anchor your attention. Gently focus on something simple and neutral, like the hum of the engines, the view of the horizon, or the soft cabin lights.

Step 2 Remove

Next, engage in deliberate de-familiarization. Intentionally strip away the cognitive labels you automatically assign to your perceptions. This is not engine noise; it is a pattern of vibrating sound waves. This is not your hand; it is a cluster of pressure and temperature sensations. This is not the horizon; it is a play of light and color.

Elmer Gates called this process de-familiarization, a technique to train perception and sharpen mental processes. He distinguished between,

• Interpreted spect. The conventional, labeled, and familiar way we perceive objects and phenomena, shaped by habit and prior learning.

• Raw cept.  Direct, uninterpreted experience—perception before categorization or judgment.

By practicing this shift, you:

• See reality more freshly and precisely, unclouded by assumptions.

• Break habitual patterns of perception, fostering original thought.

• Sharpen attention to raw experience, allowing new insights to emerge.

Gates encouraged returning deliberately from automatic interpretation to raw perception to enhance awareness and creative intelligence.

Step 3: Incline

Now, perform a subtle but powerful action: incline your attention away from the sensation itself. Instead, feel into the space from which the sensation arises—awareness itself. The act of inclining is simply a shift in your attention, moving from the foreground of experience to its background. Imagine you are completely focused on a specific sensation, like a knot of anxiety in your stomach—it feels vivid, solid, and all-consuming. To incline is to gently and effortlessly turn your attention away from the sensation itself, not to ignore it, but to feel back into the vast, open space of awareness from which the sensation is arising. This is not an analytical process of thinking about awareness; it is a direct, intuitive feeling into it, much like tuning a radio dial away from the static of a station to find the silent, clear frequency that exists between them. You are not leaning into the knot to dissect it but are instead leaning back into the aware, conscious presence that is already witnessing it. The sensation may still be present, but by inclining, your primary identity shifts from being the knot itself to being the expansive, neutral awareness that contains it. It is the difference between staring at a single cloud and, without moving your eyes, becoming profoundly aware of the entire calm, open sky in which the cloud merely floats.

One-Minute Incline Practice

Settle (10 seconds)

Close your eyes if possible or soften your gaze. Take a gentle breath in and out. Let your shoulders drop.

Notice a Sensation (15seconds)

Choose one sensation—perhaps a sound, the weight of your body, or a feeling in your hand. Observe it without labeling or judging.

Incline Attention (20 seconds)

Gently shift focus away from the sensation and into the awareness noticing it. Do not think; simply sense the quiet “space” in which it appears.

Rest in Awareness (15 seconds)

Stay in this open, spacious awareness. Let thoughts drift by without engaging.

Return (5 seconds)

Take one deeper breath, open your eyes, and re-engage with your surroundings, carrying clarity with you.

The result is often a moment of expansive, quiet clarity—a mental reset. It is a direct experience of awareness before thought, a still point at the center of a turning world. For a crew member or traveler, the Cognostic Pause helps discharge accumulated fatigue and restore focus. It resembles meditation but emphasizes perception and awareness more than contemplation.

Closing Statement

About one percent of readers may gain the deeper meaning and key insight from this text—or perhaps even glimpse the hidden yet profound truth that lies within what I call the gap.

Each night as we fall asleep, and each morning as we awaken, we cross a subtle threshold between two states of mind. It is a liminal space—neither fully conscious nor unconscious—where we briefly pass into the world of hidden realities within. In a very real sense, that world is just as real as the physical one, though it exists on a different level. It is an inner portal, a place where information can be taken in and insights drawn out. This is the world of imagination—literally, your power to “image-in.” It is where energy in motion flows through your emotions.

Understanding this process begins with a simple truth, interest governs attention, attention governs energy, and energy shapes your emotional states. Together with the body, these elements combine to create your sensations and your experience of the world. For the purposes of this article, that outline is enough. But for the rare individual who feels drawn to it, I extend an invitation to look deeper.

This is where the work of Elmer Gates becomes especially relevant. What first drew me to his writings was his authenticity. He seemed beholden to no one, pursuing truth for its own sake without any detectable agenda. That kind of sincerity is rare, which is why I felt compelled to revisit his work. His research was thorough, careful, and, I believe, undertaken for the right reasons. Evidence of this spirit lives on in the way his family has freely shared his writings and experiments online, making them available to all.

I encourage curious minds to explore Gates’s work. In my view, it belongs to the class of timeless contributions that touch something universal and enduring, regardless of how much our technologies and systems shift our perception of reality. History shows that the truly authentic—like Gates and countless others—are often under-recognized and under-compensated in their lifetimes. Too often, this is because our systems lack the values, principles, and ethics needed to honor such efforts.

And that is why I believe his work still matters today.

Fly safe. Fly smart. Fly aware.

References

1.    Gates, Donald Edson. (1971). Elmer Gates and the Art of Mind-Using. Exposition Press.

2.    Brown, R. P., & Gerbarg, P. L. (2012). The Healing Power of the Breath: Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions. Shambhala.

3.    Ganio, M. S., Armstrong, L. E., Casa, D. J., McDermott, B. P., Lee, E. C., Yamamoto, L. M., & Marzano, S. (2011). Mild dehydration impairs cognitive performance and mood of men. British Journal of Nutrition, 106(10), 1535–1543. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114511002005

4.    Walker, M. P. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner.

5.    Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2648