Flow, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, involves Optimal Experience, when “a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile“.
In fact, now that I have investigated trance-state, and haveing had experience of Flow, I can affirm that flow is some kind of soft trance state. Flow is “a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter“. It is a state where the sensation of time gets lost.
Those symptoms are typical of a trance state (as well as the intrinsic pleasure associated with it, and the fact that one seems to be on a different level of consciousness): “This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored“
Flow is thus another example of commonly accepted alternate state which is in fact an example of trance-like state, which many of the associated symptoms. Flow is also a state that can become a habit and for which we can consciously traing.
We really underestimate how much and often we can find ourselves in alternate consciousness levels in our activities, in particular those we are really passionate about.
In a series of post I will describe a personal journey into an altered state of consciousness – cognitive trance – that I was privileged to undertake this year. Previous posts in this series:
