The power of the mental can be demonstrated through something as simple as adrenaline. This is something that is mentally produced and can enable feats that see

The power of the mental can be demonstrated through something as simple as adrenaline. This is something that is mentally produced and can enable feats that seem superhuman, enormous strength and speed in particular. If somebody could consciously control this, they'd effectively be a superman, though I'd expect not for long. I think it's reasonable to assume that the reason we cannot manually control things such as adrenaline is because of the wear and tear on our bodies. It's almost like overclocking. You can generally lift, without adrenaline, an amount that you can safely lift (though not necessarily control). But factor in adrenaline and you can lift far more than you can safely lift and very likely injure yourself in the process. A more controversial example (since it includes foreign substances) would be PCP, but it's a similar story. A single man suddenly seeming to gain the strength and endurance is not because the drug is somehow physically changing him - it's just shutting off various critical systems like pain detection. A similar story to the above in that we are physically capable of vastly more than our bodies consciously enable, but the consequences usually involve pushing your body past its physical limits which can result in self injury. But yeah I've also noticed the exact same thing you mention with visualization and lifting. It'd be interesting if visualization somehow helps us, even if slightly, consciously override our subconsciously enforced performance limits.