This topic is intensely interesting to to me. I remember during the Vietnam protest days, "Life" or "Look" magazine published a photo of a Buddhist monk protesting American bombing of villages. He did this by pouring gasoline over himself and striking a match, then sat quietly while he burned to death. This was an astounding demonstration of mental control. Currently, monks in Tibet are also doing this in protest to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. It is clear that such mental control is a skill that is taught and learned.

I believe you are right to think about this because being alert and present, not in the future or the past is a better path in life. In the realm of sports performance, in many sports but my experience is in tennis, the state of hyper alertness is termed, "in the zone", no drugs necessary. The procedure that gets one there is to continually bring our attention back to the present. Over time, we get better at it.