As you gain elevation [on the mountain] your IQ goes down — but your emotional affect goes up, which is great for having a mythic experience, whether you want to or not.

Brand contrasts cognition with feeling under the physical and psychological pressures of altitude. As one climbs, thin air, fatigue, and sensory immersion can blunt analytical thinking (“IQ goes down”) while intensifying mood, awe, and suggestibility (“emotional affect goes up”). The result is a heightened readiness for “mythic experience”: encounters with nature that feel archetypal, spiritual, or narratively meaningful, even if one approaches the mountain with a secular or rational mindset. The line also reflects Brand’s broader interest in how environments and tools shape consciousness—here, the mountain itself functions as a technology that alters perception and meaning-making.