Flow

[Bob Dole]

This topic is about the mental state of flow. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

Anyways, flow sounds somewhat similar to the state of gnosis. It's very interesting. It's the feeling I get whenever I'm totally immersed in a ritual I'm performing or I'm really in deep to a sigil. Just total focus on the activity at hand. Very freeing.
Also, if schools somehow structured their lessons around how flow could best be achieved, students would be doing so much better. Of course, it would require everyone to be there voluntarily, but education would be so much better if we somehow structured our learning around achieving flow and using the state to intake more information and better retain it.

[starfish]

its one of the nicest feelings in the world. childhood is full of those moments. Why do you think we experience flows less and less as we age?

[i-am-the-liquor]

i dont remember most of my childhood. now i have no joy in my life, hm

[Freak]

Quote:its one of the nicest feelings in the world. childhood is full of those moments. Why do you think we experience flows less and less as we age?

It's subjective, but not to age, it depends on the person. Some activities allow people to really get into the psychological stage, and some do not. It depends on your interests and how they affect you.

[Bob Dole]

Aye. I've been discovering a whole range of things that interest me lately. So I tend to get into the state of flow a lot more frequently now.

[youvebeenthunderstruck]

Does sex count?

[Freak]

Ummm... yeah, actually. That's probably the one activity that people universally experience Flow. Unless.... you're like... being raped or you're focusing on what your body looks like under the covers or something.
Other activities would include: listening to music, drawing, writing, playing a game (video games and athletics,) and even things like organizing something.

[liq3]

A while ago I got up, turned on the PC, started programming. Next thing I know, it's 10pm. Twas awesome.

[SoulRiser]

I've been getting this Flow thing a lot lately. It's like I never run out of stuff to do, I'm never bored... I wish I didn't have to sleep at all...

But when I was on the farm and had to work every day, I got bored a lot. Interesting, that...

[Darthmat]

I get this in short spurs.

[Hanny]

This is what I get when I meditate. I lose track of time, space, and surroundings; It's like a trance. I remember a lot of what happens there. I once made a mental altar. I remember every detail of that room, down to the decor to the position of the door.

[dreamer...]

So flow was what allowed me to totally focus on schoolwork for 10 years? Why, oh why did I have to lose that ability this year? :( Ugh. Busywork sucks if you can't get in the flow. I wish I knew how to create this mental state for myself at will.

[liq3]

dreamer... Wrote:So flow was what allowed me to totally focus on schoolwork for 10 years?

mmmm I disagree. Flow is the result of total focus.

[Ahab]

Flow is just a feeling, however, and can be onset by intense focus of just about anything, no matter how blatantly anti-intellectual or unwise. If you can learn to focus intensely on math and languages alone, possibilities of acheivement is inane. Such isn't the case with reading childrens novels for fun.

[Mace63]

Hmm...I still don't get what flow is.
Wikipedia only confused me more.
I get lots of weird feelings,so yeah...
Is it something when you get into something you are doing and forget about time & space??

lol.

[The Wadekarl]

Yes, I think so.

[Mace63]

^Hmm...If it's like that,I don't think I experience flow that much.
Surely when I was younger,but I don't know about now.

I think it may be a scary thing to feel,I mean forgetting about time and space is scary for me...

[liq3]

Mace63 Wrote:^Hmm...If it's like that,I don't think I experience flow that much.
Surely when I was younger,but I don't know about now.

I think it may be a scary thing to feel,I mean forgetting about time and space is scary for me...

Thats the thing. You won't be aware you aren't aware of the time.

[Mace63]

Well yeah,probably.
(hmm I never thought about that...xD)

[Stadium]

(06-13-2008 08:19 AM)Hanny Wrote:  This is what I get when I meditate. I lose track of time, space, and surroundings; It's like a trance. I remember a lot of what happens there. I once made a mental altar. I remember every detail of that room, down to the decor to the position of the door.

What medication are you taking??

[Dirtbikemike]

I get that feeling when I play a really immersive video game or watch a movie. Time goes by so quickly when I'm enjoying it.

Ex. Minecraft or Battlefield
Ex2. Any movie I enjoy, which are a lot
Misc. Sleeping.

[UnschoolShqiponjë]

I don't remember feeling anything like that.

[Dirtbikemike]

Intense focus (mentioned by Ahab)

[PAdude]

I love "flow." In fact, it is often the state that I am in when I'm at my happiest. Usually happens when I'm playing a sports or game or am very focused on some kind of project that is of personal interest.

[Heil_Kaiba8921]

without reading about this or anything, here is all i'm gonna offer to tell you about "flow"...it happens when you are doing something the same way forever and eventually your (i wanna say hyptothalamus [because IT CONTROLS YOU] but i'm pretty sure thats wrong...anyways it's the big ball looking thing at the back of your head that contains practiced movements) and when this happens you just start doing something repeatedly, and often will start to drool without realizing it (although from what i've experienced once that drool hits you you stop doing your practiced movements)

[Ahab]

I like flow for when I'm designing the rough draft of something I do creatively. When writing music, or in a physical altercation, flow is absolutely useful. I do believe that flow works best when there is some deliberate practice involved in the madness, though. I believe it works like exercise: if you're benching a hundred and fifty pounds for three sets and ten reps, and that is your limit, it will do deliberate practice for your upper body strength. It will be painful. Eventually, it will become less and less painful, and you'll naturally want to add some more weight. In the meantime, moving larger objects which require upper body strength become a lot more effortless to do.

To put this in musical terms: right now, I'm learning the fundamentals of piano music. When I started out learning the first Bach piece (that I'm still learning), I couldn't play anything in time. I had to slowly, deliberately get the piece going, each note accurate. As I've improved, my sense of timing on the first half of the page has come natural - I can play the first eight bars without really thinking about it - it feels like it just plays itself. It also comes over to when I'm just improvising or composing on the keys (my primary instrument is bass guitar) - my sense of timing is far superior to what it was when I was, and I can get into a deeper flow state which isn't as inhibited.

[zagix]

Flow happens when you pop/snort adderall like a crazy maniac.

Also when I have the occasional bout of mania.

[Ahab]

Hell yeah! I've had some of my most spiritual, creative experiences (writing and otherwise) on adderall, including the most vivid hallucinations I've ever seen (Satan incarnate knocking at my door threatening to rape my family and a Muslim evil twin of me who would call me a faggot.) Later, when I was on my final amp induced paranoid psychosis trip, a guy named Jesus (who told me he was "just a salesman who happens to have the same name as that numbskull") came as a disembodied voice who calmed the other disembodied voices, often saying "dude, shut up, stop be rude to Ahab, you know you're just doing this because you won't exist once he goes to sleep." After that, he told me to go to take some downers, go to sleep, and never take adderall again.

[zagix]

Don't stay up for 3 days idiot

[Ahab]

I haven't touched that shit since that last ill fated tripadoozle, nor will I ever again. The problem is that about 24 hours up, I would start to hallucinate bad-ass, well orchestrated music, and get inspired to transcribe it. By the time would pass, the disembodied voices would come into effect and go from playing back lyrical ideas to having a "mind of their own." Call me an idiot all you want. I had downers available to plunge my ass to sleep both times, but I elected to not do so until it was time to get the fuck out.